MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

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Joining me now for all of that on this breaking story is House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Steny, great to have you with us tonight.

REP. STENY HOYER (D), MAJORITY LEADER: Ed, always good to be with you.

SCHULTZ: What do you make of these numbers? Are you losing the PR war on health care reform in this country? Where are you at right now?

HOYER: I think clearly the American public has been watching a part of the debate, both in the Senate and the House, as we go through the committees, and they see a lot of different opinions, as you would expect in a Democratic debate. But I think they understand, and that poll reflects it, that A, they want a health care reform bill; 94 percent of them, you say, are concerned that we won‘t get the job done. I want to assure them we‘re going to get the job done.

And as you said, a little earlier, we made significant progress last night. The Energy and Commerce Committee is back at the table, marking up their bill. They‘re the third committee, the final committee to mark up the bill in the House. We expect them to pass that out some time later this week. Then we expect to take the month of August, do a lot of hard work, looking at this, have the American public look at this, give us their input.

We expect to come back here after halftime, as you point out, and we‘re going to score a touchdown for the American, and give them health care they can count on.

SCHULTZ: I tell you what, congressman, this is going to be a brutal halftime. I mean, the grassroots of this country are going to have to get together and get after it, and let the Congress know what they think. Now, under President Obama‘s plan—this was one of the questions—my health care plan would be same or better? Fifty percent are scoring it that way;

39 percent of the American people think under the president‘s plan it would be worse. What‘s your response to that? That‘s a high negative number, isn‘t it?

HOYER: It is a high negative number, which means we have some education to do, because the right answer is it‘s going to be the same or better. And if you don‘t have it now, you‘re going to have an option. If you lose your job and lose your insurance, you‘re going to have an option. You‘re going to have a guaranteed health care insurance option available to you at a cost you can afford.

So those aspects are obviously very important to all the people who have insurance. By the way, one of the things that‘s important to those of us who have insurance, we‘re paying a lot of our premium dollars for those that aren‘t included in the system and aren‘t paying into the system. This bill is going to provide for everybody to be in the system, and to pay up just like automobile insurance. We think that‘s a step forward for the American people.

SCHULTZ: Steny, here‘s another number that I think really jumps out at the American people. President Obama‘s health care plan is -- 42 percent say bad idea, 36 percent say it‘s a good idea. But this 22 percent not sure and no opinion. Aren‘t these the folks you have to win over to make this thing work? And how are you going to do that? It sounds to me like you‘re going to have to go on a major PR campaign. We just talked with Wendell Potter about, you know, the insurance industry is ruthless. They are win at all costs. They‘re fighting back on any kind of reform.

What about that high number of 22 percent of the people not sure where you stand?

HOYER: Ed, under the current system, insurance profits have gone up 426 percent. Salaries of executives—as a result, of course they‘re going to defend the status quo. But the American public in that 56 percent and 94 percent number know that the status quo is not good for them. They‘re worried about losing their job, losing their insurance, costs going up, having the insurance company, when they get sick, not let them sign up for another year of insurance. Their child or their wife has a pre-existing condition and they can‘t get insurance. They want us to do it and we‘re going to do it. They want us to do it and we‘re going to do it.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, how much of a loss is it that there‘s not going to be a vote in the House before the recess?

HOYER: I don‘t think that‘s a loss. I think we‘re going to get it out of committee. We‘ll have all three committees. And then people can take a breath, look at what we‘ve done, look at where we are. The Senate is not going to move its bill. It‘s clear that this bill, the conference report is going to occur in the fall. So I don‘t think we‘ve lost anything. The fact that we moved ahead was a tremendous step forward by getting it out of committee this week. So I think we‘re making progress. We‘re creating consensus. The American public is with us. We‘re going to get this thing done.

SCHULTZ: You‘ve got to get this thing done. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, great to have you with us tonight, Steny.

HOYER: Thanks, Ed. Thanks for all you do.

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