MSNBC "The ED Show" Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The ED Show" Interview - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Now joining me now tonight is the great senator from Oregon, Ron Wyden.

I say great because you had something on the table, we‘re not going to talk about that tonight, but you‘ve been working on this for a long time. This speech, Ron, what did you think?

SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Powerful and persuasive. The fact is on issues like insurance, I mean, the president is talking about changing the inhumane model of private health insurance, in effect turning it on its head. It‘s a complicated issue. He put it in very personal terms.

This industry will no longer be able to cherry-pick, just go take healthy people, send sick people over to government programs, more fragile than they are.

SCHULTZ: He had—did I sense a little bit of anger tonight, a little bit of frustration? I mean, this is a president that isn‘t known for showing a lot of emotion, OK? Tonight he did. Would you agree with me on that?

WYDEN: He certainly did, and he said he was going to be on the public‘s side. He understood...

SCHULTZ: He said he wasn‘t going to back down.

WYDEN: He said, we‘re going to have to take on some very powerful interest groups. We‘re going to have to take on some of the most entrenched lobbies in the country. He was going to spend his political capital, his time, he was going to be out on the road fighting for these issues that are so important to our people.

SCHULTZ: Will he get what he wants? Does this change the landscape at all with Senate Democrats? Because there are a few that are hedging.

WYDEN: He is going to get his priorities. And the fact is, I mean, he talked, for example, about consumer choice tonight and competition. I think we can build on that. You and I have talked about that.

I want to see everybody in this country get choices. That‘s how we hold insurance companies accountable. But certainly tonight he laid out on an extremely complicated issue what the basics are and he‘s going to get most of it.

SCHUTLZ: OK. Chuck Grassley, who was the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, which you serve, he said this tonight: “The speech could have been pi pivotal for bipartisanship if it had been clear cut in ruling out the prospect of a new government-run plan. By leaving it up to the Congress, where key leaders in both the House and the Senate support a government-run plan and control the ultimate outcome, the president passed up a big opportunity.”

How do you take that? Does that mean they don‘t want it? They don‘t want to work? It‘s over for bipartisanship?

WYDEN: Ed, the president didn‘t draw any lines in the sand tonight. And I hope everybody on Capitol Hill won‘t either. Let‘s get out the big issue. Certainly, there are details. I just said, I want to make sure a lot more people have choices so we can hold these insurance companies accountable.

That‘s the kind of issue we can work on in a bipartisan way. The question of choice, the question of accountability, the question of a competition. These are issues that can bring people together all across the political spectrum. Let‘s not draw lines in the sand.

SCHULTZ: Will the Republicans, in your opinion, go on board with the pre-existing condition being erased? This is huge, Ron. Senator, this means that everybody in America is going to be able to get coverage no matter what your medical condition is.

Do you really think the Republicans are going to go on board with that?

WYDEN: I don‘t see how a member of the United States Senate can go home and defend discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions. And the fact is, if—when those folks are protected, and they go into a big group so that they have a lot of bargaining power, will hold down their administrative costs, then we‘re going to change the insurance business and we‘re going to hold costs down.

SCHULTZ: Senator Wyden, good to have you on tonight.

WYDEN: Look forward to doing it again.

SCHULTZ: Thanks so very much. Absolutely.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source