MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

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O‘DONNELL: Lots to talk about tonight with the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, who is also a member of the all-powerful finance committee. He joins us now from the Capitol.

Thanks for your time tonight, Senator.

First of all, what went on in that meeting? What are the basics of the Reid bill? Is there an opt-out.

SCHUMER: OK. Well.

O‘DONNELL: . public option?

SCHUMER: Yes.

O‘DONNELL: And does it--have on taxes, Senator--does it have the finance committee tax on union health insurance or the House income tax increase?

SCHUMER: OK. First, it does have the public option opt-out level playing field that we proposed earlier. It‘s a strong public option. It‘s been supported by so many people who are fighting for public option.

It does have the tax on the high-end health care plans, but there are some good exceptions for some of the union folks and we‘re fighting to get them better. Instead of starting at 21 in the finance committee, it starts at 23. If you‘re in a dangerous profession, police, fire, construction work, that‘s a lot of the union member, it goes up to 26. Seventeen states get another $2,000, high-end states. That brings you up to 28, and that will leave out most union people.

So, that‘s pretty good. The good news here.

O‘DONNELL: Senator, what does the floor schedule--what does the floor schedule look like, Senator? How soon do you think this can get to the floor?

SCHUMER: Well, we‘re hopeful that we can bring the cloture motion that Republicans are trying to block us every step of the way and they‘re not giving us an inch. They may make us actually read the bill, you know, on Sunday and Monday, just all 1,000 pages, even though it‘s going to be online tonight. Everyone can look at the bill tonight. It‘s going to be online and out there for a while.

But the schedule would be to file for cloture tomorrow and then we probably couldn‘t vote until Saturday morning on cloture, which means, you know, the blocking of a filibuster to move to the bill. And then they get another 30 hours if they want to debate moving to the bill, although we‘d only need 51 votes for that. That‘s almost never done. We‘ll see if they do it. And then, any senator can get to read the bill, which will take two days.

But we don‘t intend to start debating and amending this bill until the Monday after Thanksgiving. So, whether they want to read it or not is their business. We‘re happy to have them read it.

The bill--I just have to say this, Lawrence--it is one strong bill. It covers many more Americans. If you include Medicare, 98 percent of all Americans will be covered with health care. It actually cuts the waste and fraud and abuse that many of the suppliers have been doing. Cost cuts are $503 billion. It reduces the deficit by $170 billion.

At the same time, it provides lots of protection against the insurance companies, such as, you know, putting limits on how much they can spend on you, not insuring you because you have, you know, say, a child with diabetes, and early condition. And it does all that and still reduces the deficit. Plus, public option, which, you know, is something that will bring cost down greatly and provide competition.

So, you put all of that together, it‘s a darn good bill. I thought the finance bill was good. I thought the health bill was even a little better. This bill is better than either one from a progressive perspective.

O‘DONNELL: Senator, the biggest difference between this bill and the House bill, as I think, on the tax side. We talked about that already.

SCHUMER: Right.

O‘DONNELL: Have you had a chance to talk to your New York colleague, Charlie Rangel, who is author of the income tax increase in the House bill? Have you talked to him about how you might reconcile that with the taxes that are in the Senate bill?

SCHUMER: Well, the problem we have in the Senate bill, we do increase the Medicare tax on the very wealthy by 0.5 percent. In other words, if you‘re above $250,000 in your family, your Medicare tax will go up from 1.45 to 1.95. But other than that, there‘s not many other tax increases except as on the "Cadillac" health care plans that I mentioned earlier.

The House bill, of course, has the millionaire‘s tax. It‘s something that I could very easily support. But I don‘t know if we can get our 10 or 12 moderate Senate Democrats to support it. That‘s what we‘re going to have to test.

O‘DONNELL: Now, speaking of your moderate Democrats, Senator, obviously, they have their own meeting, the three who everyone is worried about in the Democratic Caucus, had their own meeting with Harry Reid today. But despite that meeting, Senator Nelson has said that he is perfectly comfortable being the lone holdout, stopping the movement of this bill.

SCHUMER: Well, look.

O‘DONNELL: What do you have to say to Senator Nelson at this point?

SCHUMER: Well, look, I‘m not going to say anything to Senator Nelson

he‘s my friend--or anything publicly over your airwaves, as much as I like your show. Bottom line is, I think, every Democrat, from the most conservative to the most liberal, knows that we need a bill and that means no one is going to get their way completely. I am very hopeful. I am very optimistic we can get the 60 votes on Saturday on the motion to proceed, but you‘ll have to talk to each of the three to get their own personal views, the three who haven‘t committed to voting on the motion to proceed yet.

O‘DONNELL: Senator, you watched from the House of Representatives in 1994 when the health care reform bill died on the Senate floor after about five days of debate. That was masterminded by George Mitchell, one of the great Senate strategists of all time.

SCHUMER: Yes.

O‘DONNELL: What have--what have you learned in the Senate since then to prevent that from happening again this year.

SCHUMER: What we‘ve learned is basically that we‘re all going to have to come together in a room and put together a bill that stays true to our principles and passes with 60 votes. And I think we‘re on the road to doing it.

George Mitchell was a great strategist.

Harry Reid is about the best vote-counter--the best vote-counter I have ever met, and I‘d bet on us getting the 60. I‘d bet on the conference committee, which is difficult because of the tax issues, as you say. And I‘d bet on the bill being on the president‘s desk pretty soon.

I‘m pretty hopeful after tonight. The mood in the caucus was positive. I don‘t think there was not a single real complaint.

O‘DONNELL: The optimistic senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, thank you.

SCHUMER: Right. We didn‘t get into all of the substance but we will get there. We are going to do it.

O‘DONNELL: Thank you very--thank you very much for your time tonight, Senator.

SCHUMER: Thanks, Larry. Good to talk to you.

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