MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia.

Senator Warner, you just heard Jonathan Alter predict that no one is going to like this bill, that it's going to be a big kind of compromised mess with something that everyone can find to dislike in it.

How do you pass a bill like that?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Well, we also, I think, got to acknowledge that we're probably not going to get it totally right the first time. You don't change 17 percent of our GDP and our whole health care system and do it perfectly right the first time. This is going to be an ongoing process.

But I want to build on what Jonathan said. Jonathan pointed out what happens, the consequences of doing nothing, if you happen to lose your health insurance or lose your job. But even if you maintain your health insurance, the status quo is a disastrous result.

If you maintain your health insurance, you're going to see your health costs double over the next decade with the existing-the current system in place. About $25,000 for an average family of four to pay for their health care costs. If you feel as I do that we've got to be concerned about the federal deficit, the federal deficit is going to go way over the top and explode the nation if we can't drive our costs down around Medicare and Medicaid.

So, whether the concern is around coverage, as Jonathan pointed out, or my concern around making sure that we've got a financially stable system, the status quo is a disaster. So, we've got to make sure that we get a reform.

It's not going to be pretty. It's not going to be perfect. Chances are we're going to have to come back and fix it again next year, and the year after, and the year after. That's what it takes when you're actually trying to re-shift the whole financial incentives around our health care system.

O'DONNELL: Senator Warner, you've seen how rough it is out there already trying to sell this reform in town halls. We saw what happened to Arlen Specter appearing with Kathleen Sebelius in Pennsylvania, getting shouted down, all that sort of thing.

During your recess, you're going to go down to southwest Virginia, which is not necessarily a friendly place for a Democrat. You're going to be walking down Main Street in Tazewell and people are going to be asking you, "What's in this thing for me?"

How are you going to sell it down there?

WARNER: Well, Lawrence, I was just down in southwest Virginia this past weekend. I had a town hall, a telephone town hall with 4,000 folks.

There's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of misinformation about taking away your health care, or some government bureaucrat in between you and your doctor, as if there's not some kind of insurance bureaucrat in between you and your doctor already.

One of the most egregios things I've seen in my whole political life, though, was what took place in the last week or 10 days. I, for example, have got a bill around the issue of end of life discussions. How do we make sure that seniors and their families got a chance to have that kind of discussion, have all their choices available to them, have that chance to sit down with their minister or priest or rabbi and talk through these issues?

And then to see some of the outrageous scare tactics played by some of the anti-reform folks out there, saying that somehow health care reform is going to limit seniors and their choices or lead to euthanasia, that is beyond the pale. I've never seen any kind of tactic like that in my 20 years around politics.

So, we've just got to steal ourselves to the fact that this is one of the reasons why we've not had health care reform for close to 50 years. It's why we've got to make sure that we show that the status quo is not a successful outcome, and that we've got to recognize it's going to take a little bit of compromise from everybody to get the job done.

O'DONNELL: But isn't something like that end of life care exactly the kind of thing that you could predict would provoke a kind of reaction that you won't necessarily be able to win the argument over? Isn't that the kind of thing you might want to comb out of the bill at this stage to smooth its way through the Congress?

WARNER: Lawrence, I think the American people are way ahead, except for a few folks on the right who are trying to scare this issue. I think it is disrespectful to those families who are trying to sort through these issues right now, that want to have that kind of counseling, that want to understand what their options are as you go through this stage of aging. I've been meeting with religious leaders all over Virginia. They're supportive of this.

I've got a bill in that is supported by the AARP, by Alzheimer's Foundation, by the caregiver groups all across America. And I think it's actually disrespectful to say that this part of the conversation shouldn't be part of health care reform.

O'DONNELL: Thanks for joining us today, Senator Warner. We appreciate it.

Coming up, some Democratic senators want to up the mileage standards on Cash for Clunkers. But will that kill the bill? I'll ask the chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee, Barbara Boxer, next on THE ED SHOW.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source