MSNBC "Hardball With Chris Matthews" - Transcript

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MSNBC "Hardball With Chris Matthews" - Transcript

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But first, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas, who was shouted down at his own town hall meeting in Austin, Texas. Austin is apparently, from what I've always been told, the most sophisticated political town in Texas, sir. Why the zaniness over the weekend at your town hall meeting? Let's, by the way, look at the pictures while you speak of what was going on there.

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D), TEXAS: Well, Chris, what better slogan for the party of no, no way, never, than "Just say no"? One of the reasons is because many of these people were summoned in by the local Republican and Libertarian parties. They didn't even live in the neighborhood. They were there not just to be heard but to ensure other people weren't heard on this. A real desperation tactic.

MATTHEWS: What are they up to? Why do they want to shut down any talk of reform in health care?

DOGGETT: I think these folks are really desperate to stop health reform. They see that for the first time in 60 years, we really have, with President Obama and a Democratic Congress, a chance to enact meaningful reform and deal with these policies of health insurance giants that hurt small business, that deny choice to so many people, and deny them coverage at a time they need it the most.

So "Just say no," a mob scene, is just one way of trying to intimidate members into weakening their position. In my case, it really just reaffirmed my resolve to go back and get a strong public plan, force more competition, provide more choice to people, get the reform I know my constituents want.

MATTHEWS: Well, let's go through some of their attacks. One of them lately is this cultural front, where they're saying that the new reform bill coming out of Energy and Commerce in the House would be a requirement that health practitioners come to older people and tell them, Well, you better make plans now for living wills, et cetera, you're going to die some day and you're going to be in bad health, so you better make some decisions now. Is that the case? Is that in the bill?

DOGGETT: Yes, that was one of the cries of this Republican mob Saturday that also was nice enough to have a beautiful marble picture-a beautiful picture of a marble tombstone with my name on it. But they did express this concern about euthanasia. That's a real slur about this bill.

I worked with my colleagues on that section of the bill. All that it does is to provide that a physician under Medicare can be paid for talking with a senior who wants to talk with the physician. If they want to express the desire to be tied to a machine indefinitely, or as in my case, they want to sign a living will to provide some instructions instead of letting someone else decide for them, they have that right.

This has nothing to do with euthanasia, which is outlawed in this country, and we do not deal with euthanasia whatsoever in this bill.

MATTHEWS: Well, Mr. Doggett, as one of the people writing the bill, just to clear it up as you just did, make it clear-no one will be approached to have to make end-of-life decisions. That would be entirely up to the patient, the citizen, to bring up the topic, right?

DOGGETT: It's up to the patient to take it up with their doctor, if they so choose to, and euthanasia is not one of the options.

MATTHEWS: OK. OK, let me ask you about your state. You've got a half a dozen members of Congress, all Republicans, out there talking up this "birther" thing. There is absolutely no evidence the president was born anywhere but the United States. We've got a birth certificate. We've got an announcement of his birth at the time, all kinds of contemporary information, including the testimony of his mother, his grandparents, everybody who knew him, the governor of the state, who's a Republican, all the department heads, all the information anybody could want that he was born in America. They knew it at the time. We know it now. What is it in the water down in Texas that leads your Republican colleagues to join the "birther" movement?

DOGGETT: Well, Chris, I'm not sure it's the water. I think it's just a certain fanaticism that they cannot accept the fact that Barack Obama is our president, that he's working for change. It's the same fanaticism I saw on Saturday of people talking about a government takeover in health care, when all the independent studies have shown that 96 percent of the people that would turn to an insurance exchange would go into a private plan with new standards and 4 percent would choose something like Medicare.

MATTHEWS: Wow. And you also have a governor that was talking up secession lately. What's that about? I thought you guys joined the union back in the 19th century and were quite happy here.

DOGGETT: Yes, Chris, that's like this crowd on Saturday, too, holding up the 10th Amendment and saying that the 10th Amendment prevents our getting health care bill through. And when I asked them about that-because all your video shows is the end of the meeting, not the hour that I spent with them responding to their taunts and questions-they admitted that they're not only against health care reform, but they'd like to see the repeal of Medicare and Social Security. This is about whether our country goes backwards or provides the coverage people so much want.

MATTHEWS: Go forward with Austin, sir. Thank you. U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas. Thank you.

DOGGETT: Thanks, Chris.

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