CBS "Face The Nation" - Transcript
Interview
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BOB SCHIEFFER: So if this bill does pass the House it goes back to the Senate, of course. And
now we're going to talk to two key Senate leaders, Democrat Richard Durbin, the number two
Democrat in the Democratic leadership in the Senate. He's in Springfield this morning. But we
begin with the Senate's top Republican Mitch McConnell. Well--
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (Republican Leader/R-Kentucky): Good morning.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --good morning to you, Senator. Thank you for coming. It looks like you have
your work cut out for you. The Democratic vote counters there just said they believe they're
going to have the votes to pass this in the House, so that means this bill and the corrections that
the House is going to make go to the Senate. What happens then?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, they'll have a tough sell first in the House. They'll have
to get their members to vote for the Senate bill which has the Nebraska deal, the Louisiana
deal, the Florida deal, and then they'll have to get them to vote for a second bill, which has even
bigger Medicare cuts than the first bill even more tax increases than the first bill and its own set
of special deals. For example, the Rocky Top vote swap. The deal made to get the vote of a
congressman from Tennessee, who voted against the bill the first time and is apparently going
to vote for it this time, special deal for a hospital in his district. So the second measure that'll
come back to the Senate is not exactly free of special deals. And that is the proposal if the
House can pass both these measures that the Senate will take up next week.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So what will be your tactic? What will be your strategy? Will you just offer a
series of amendments to-- to try to just drag this out? Well, what-- what will Republicans do?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, it's not a question of dragging it out. It's a question of
making sure the American people know what's in it. We'll have all kinds of amendments on the
substance. And then, of course, there're special rules that apply to one of these so-called
reconciliation bills that will be tested in the Senate. It will be various rulings by the
parliamentarian as to whether things meet the so-called Byrd rule. And those will be tested in
votes as well.
BOB SCHIEFFER: And the Byrd rule, of course, is that it must be germane to reducing the
deficit in order to be considered under this reconciliation plan, which we should underline the
reason that Democrats are trying to do it that way is they can pass this with a simple majority of
fifty-one.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: That's cor-- that's correct. And it-- and it's been used before
by-- by both sides. Interestingly enough though the only time it's been narrowly partisan when it
was used each party lost the Senate the next year. In '93, we had narrowly partisan use of
reconciliation for the biggest tax increase in history at that time. And the next year my party took
the House and Senate. In 2005, we used it for a deficit reduction package. It was narrowly
passed on a partisan basis and we lost the Senate the next year. Most of the time we've used
this device in the past, it's-- the-- the measure has passed by a-- a large bipartisan majority.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So just-- just walk us through this.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Mm-Hm.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What-- what happens when it gets to the Senate? Will you-- what-- what's
the first thing you will do?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: (LAUGHING) Well, I'm not going to announce it today, but
we will have a series of amendments on the substance of the bill and that will highlight the-- the
massive Medicare cuts, the massive tax increases, and other deficiencies that we think are the
reason the American people are against this bill. I mean what was going on here, Bob, is the--
the Democrats in the House and Senate are trying to convince their members to basically ignore
their own constituents and do something that's highly unpopular even though the public opinion
is pretty darn clear that Americans don't want this.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think at this point you can stop this bill from passing?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, I'm not going to make a prediction as to what may
happen. But it could end up going back to the House of Representatives for a second vote.
They may not be through with it after today. They may get it back if it doesn't succeed in the
Senate.
BOB SCHIEFFER: We-- we hear that, you know, that President Obama's put it all on the line--
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Mm-Hm.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --for this. He put his whole presidency--
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (overlapping): Yeah.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --on the line to get this passed. It's his signature thing. But aren't
Republicans, in a way, putting it all on the line by being totally opposed to this?
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL Well, look, Bob, this-- this is not about the President and it's
not about the Republicans. It's about the nation's health care and we have a-- a significant
difference of opinion about the direction in which to go. And interestingly enough, the American
people agree with us that this bill ought to be put on the shelf and that we ought to start over
and go step by step to fix the problems of cost, which is the big problem in the U.S. health care
system.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So, you, today-- and this will be my final question to you-- you are making no
predictions on whether you can stop this bill or not. Obviously, you're going to try but you can't
say, at this point that you think you can-- you can solve it.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Well, we know the American people want us to. And we're--
we owe it to the American people to do the very best we can to keep this bill from passing, so
that we can start over and get it right.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Mitch McConnell, thank you--
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (overlapping): Thank you, Bob.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --for being with us this morning.
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