MSNBC "The ED Show" Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The ED Show" Interview - Transcript

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Maxine Waters joins us tonight.

Congresswoman, thanks for your time.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA), PROGRESSIVE CAUCUS: Delighted to be here.

SCHULTZ: Are you satisfied? Did the president do what you wanted him to do? Did he go far enough?

WATERS: The president hit a home run. He was forceful. He was Barack Obama the educator. He laid out the facts. He talked directly to the senior citizens to try to help allay their fears about the lies that had been told to them about death panels.

He confronted it head on, and he laid out what it was, what the bill is and what it is not. He did a great job, and he talked about this business about government takeover. He dealt with that and he dealt with the cost and let people know that it would not be deficit spending. He did a complete and thorough and forceful job.

SCHULTZ: He covered all bases?

WATERS: He covered all bases.

SCHULTZ: It seemed to me, Congresswoman Waters, that he set the table for a public option to be passed in the House.

WATERS: I think so.

SCHULTZ: I mean, what do you think the Blue Dog response to this is going to be?

WATERS: You know, I don‘t know, but he made a special appeal to them as he talked to the progressives also, and I think they‘re going to have a hard time just ignoring the president. They don‘t have a good reason for not wanting competition. Why would they not want competition? What is wrong with competition?

SCHULTZ: Special interests, they got a wake-up call tonight.

WATERS: Yes, I think so.

SCHULTZ: The special—and I mean, now it‘s really—it‘s either going to go one way or the other. It‘s not going to stay the same. It‘s either going to get nastier and a lot tougher, or the president is going to get had some things that he wants and he‘s going to get some people working with him. Which way do you think it‘s going to go?

WATERS: I don‘t know, but the fact that he showed that he‘s willing to get tough, I think may back some people down. I think some people were taking him for granted.

SCHULTZ: Might motivate some folks, too.

WATERS: I think so. So I think we‘re going to get it.

SCHULTZ: OK. Where do you think the progressive movement is going to be? I mean, you‘re, you know, in the Progressive Caucus...

WATERS: Yes.

SCHULTZ: ... would you go back to your constituents and say, we‘re not going to get everything but we‘re going to get a lot, and he went far enough tonight? Would that be your message?

WATER: What I‘m going to go back and say is the president made a commitment to public option. He said, I‘m going to stand up for public option. He said, I‘m also going to leave the door open. I will entertain others who want to come talk to me, who may have good ideas.

And so what he did was, he said, my preference is, this is what I‘d like to do. But he also said, I‘m not closing off any ideas, I want to hear them. I don‘t think there‘s anything better than public option. When you talk about trigger, that‘s just about played itself out.

SCHULTZ: Sure, sure.

WATER: When you talk about co-ops, that—nobody can tell you what a co-op is. They can‘t adequately describe what it would do.

SCHULTZ: You‘re going to have to go public option now because if you‘re going to force—have a bill that says pre-existing conditions...

WATERS: That‘s right.

SCHULTZ: ... there‘s not an insurance company on the face of the earth that‘s going to go along with that.

WATERS: That‘s right. That‘s right.

SCHULTZ: And am I overplaying that? I mean, what—I‘m waiting for the press release from the insurance companies to say, hey, we love this bit about pre-existing conditions being gone. We can‘t wait to get into that market. It isn‘t going to happen.

WATERS: It‘s not going to happen. And if we don‘t have cost containment, they‘re going to charge, the premiums are going to go up. They‘re going to say, oh, these pre-existing conditions, we have to pay a lot more money to cover all of these sick people with cancer and all of these diseases.

So, I mean, if we don‘t have public option to keep the costs down, people can forget it. They won‘t be able to afford it.

SCHULTZ: Well, let‘s see, it‘s just a reminder now, the Republicans were against the stimulus package.

WATERS: Yes.

SCHULTZ: They didn‘t want to help the bailout.

WATERS: Yes.

SCHULTZ: They fought the Wall Street thing.

WATERS: Yes.

SCHULTZ: They‘ve been against everything this president has wanted to do.

WATERS: They‘re not going to support the health care reform either.

SCHULTZ: Yes, even when the market went to 10,000, that wasn‘t good enough for them.

WATERS: No.

SCHULTZ: They‘re obstructionists.

WATERS: Yes.

SCHULTZ: Do you expect them to be that way throughout?

WATERS: Absolutely. I don‘t expect them to come around at all, Ed.

SCHULTZ: OK. So tonight was solidifying the base and moving forward.

WATERS: Yes, that‘s right.

SCHULTZ: Congresswoman, thanks for your time.

WATERS: You‘re so welcome. Thank you.

SCHULTZ: Maxine Waters with us here on a special edition of THE ED SHOW tonight.

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