MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

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We‘re joined tonight by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Great thanks for your time tonight, Senator, and our condolences on the loss of your colleague.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Thank you, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Meals on wheels, AIDS research, other medical research, cancer research, nutrition programs for pregnant women and children, expanded insurance for the unemployed, occupational safety regulations—that‘s just the first few items on the list of things brought to this nation by Senator Kennedy. It is so long. It is hard to imagine that there is an American living today whose body—literally body—is not in better shape than it would have been were it not for this man. Correct?

SANDERS: That is exactly right. I mean, among so many other things, pushing Medicare, pushing Medicaid, pushing children‘s health insurance. There are 18 million Americans today who have access to primary health care through community health centers. That program was developed by Senator Ted Kennedy.

OLBERMANN: Tell us about the bill the Kennedy committee passed and about his concept of health care reform and where it stands now in his absence.

SANDERS: Well, as you know and I think all of the viewers know Kennedy‘s passion was that every single American has health care as a right of citizenship. He understood that there was something lacking in our country today when we remained the only nation in the industrialized world that does not provide health care to all people, and yet we end up spending twice as much as any other country.

Where we are right now is Senator Kennedy‘s committee—which was led by Chris Dodd in his absence—has passed a pretty strong health care bill, which among other things has a strong public option, which would substantially increase the number of community health centers in America so that all Americans in fact would have access to a doctor, to dental care, to low cost prescription drugs, a greater emphasis, much greater emphasis on disease prevention and on quality care and, of course, access for all Americans. That was passed by the Senate Health Committee, but as you also know, the Senate Finance Committee seems to be going nowhere in a hurry.

My view—and I think many other people in the Senate think—enough is enough. Let‘s take the Senate Health Committee bill. If no Republicans are prepared to support it—and I certainly hope that some of them will have a change of heart with Senator Kennedy‘s death, then we go it alone. We have 60 votes within the Senate and we can defeat a Republican filibuster. We negotiate with the House and we finally pass health care reform that this country has been waiting for for decades.

OLBERMANN: To the point you just raised, Senator Kennedy wrote that incremental measures won‘t suffice anymore. Is there any chance that his passing will at least inspire wavering Democrats in the Senate and the so-called blue dogs in the House to stand fast for the kind of reform he was dedicated to?

SANDERS: Well, I certainly hope so. You know, with a Democratic president, with 60 votes in the Senate, and a strong vote in the House, it really is embarrassing if the Democrats can‘t pass strong health care reform.

What my view has been from the very beginning—if for whatever reason in the Senate, there are some senators who don‘t want to support a public option, don‘t want strong health care reform, that‘s fine. At least vote to stop the Republican filibusters which over and over again are holding up any kind of progress. And if they choose, the Democrats choose to vote some of them against final passage, that‘s fine. We will have 50 votes in any case to pass strong legislation.

OLBERMANN: I apologize if the last question seems at all indelicate, but Mr. Obama‘s reply, “I promised Teddy.” Will the president be able to deliver on that promise or are we going to end up with some sort of obscene bill—even if it‘s named after Senator Kennedy—that just funnels more money to the insurance companies?

SANDERS: Well, I think we have—all of us—those of us in Congress and the American people have got to stand tall right now. We need strong grassroots effort. We need to put steel into the backs of many members of Congress to have the guts to stand up to the insurance companies, the drug companies, the people who make billions off of health care, and finally say—finally say—to every person in this country is going to receive quality health care and we can, in the process, save billions of billions of dollars. We can do it if we have the courage, and now is the time.

OLBERMANN: And now there is unintentionally inspiration. The independent senator, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, great thanks as ever, sir.

SANDERS: Thank you, Keith.

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