MSNBC "The ED Show" Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The ED Show" Interview - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SCHULTZ: Linda Douglass from the White House here on THE ED SHOW.

For more on this, let me turn to Congressman Jim Clyburn, House majority whip.

Congressman, great to have you with us tonight.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D), MAJORITY WHIP: Thank you for having me.

SCHULTZ: Jim, I‘ve talked to a few people on the House side today, and they were telling me that, heck, you guys had a great caucus meeting today. I mean, the Democrats came back, went behind closed doors, and everybody‘s roaring about a public option.

Tell us what was in that meeting today.

CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me, Ed.

You‘re right, we had a great meeting this morning. I was very pleased, a little bit surprised, with how positive so many of our members were, some of whom left here back in August not sure about this public option, coming back very strong for a public option.

I think we‘re going to get a piece of legislation passed very soon that will have a public option in it. I think it will have all of those things that you just talked about, making it illegal to discriminate against people because of pre-existing conditions, to make it illegal for insurance companies to drop people when they get sick or have some potential of getting sick, making sure that we get—make it a little bit of an incentive for people to participate in prevention.

So, I think it‘s going to be a good bill that we are going to come up with, and it will be (INAUDIBLE) from what the president will say tonight.

SCHULTZ: Now, what is this pilot program that you, Congressman Clyburn, have been talking about that you would almost like to incrementally get to a public option if you can‘t get it in the House. I mean, that sounds to me like major league wiggle room to me.

What about that?

CLYBURN: No it‘s not. Let me explain it to you.

SCHULTZ: OK.

CLYBURN: The bill, as currently constituted, said that the exchanges will be put in place in 2013. And the part of the exchanges will be what we want, a public option.

What I‘m saying is, in the three-year period while we are waiting for 2013 to get here, let‘s put in place some pilot programs, some pilot exchange programs with the public option, and let‘s work out the kinks during this period of time. I think that if you do it the way I‘m proposing, when you get to the state of making it a permanent part of the bill, you‘ll have some best practices, you‘ll have some procedures in—some data upon which you can make a good, solid decision.

So, what I‘m saying to people, what are we going to do in this three-year interim while we wait on the exchange program to take place? I‘m saying let‘s have some pilot programs in that interim.

SCHULTZ: OK. Well, I‘m all for that. I think the American people would be for that, too, because then we could see if it would work.

CLYBURN: I think so. Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: I mean, basically, we‘d see if it would work, we‘d see some return. And I don‘t think the American people can wait another three years to have some type of legislation kick in to fix our biggest problem in this country.

Jim, there‘s one other thing I want to ask you. You said—you characterized this meeting as very positive. Where were the Blue Dogs? Were they aggressive in the caucus meeting today, or were the Blue Dogs just sitting back taking this whole thing in?

CLYBURN: The second person that went to the mike was Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, the leader of the Blue Dogs. She had a very positive statement to make.

She talked about us reforming health care. She talked about us doing what was necessary to get rid of all those issues that you just talked about. And she was very, very positive. And I was very pleased with what she had to say.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, great to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time.

CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me.

SCHULTZ: You bet.

Jim Clyburn with us tonight here on THE ED SHOW.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source