MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

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The interview tonight is with the freshman senator who

wrote that letter about the public option. Sen. Michael Bennet of

Colorado.

Sen. Bennet, thank you very much for coming on the show.

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): Thanks for having me, Rachel.

MADDOW: What was your goal when you decided to write this letter?

Was the goal to get 50 senators to sign on?

BENNET: I think that would be great and that is one of the goals.

But the other thing was, it was happening at a time when I think there was

a view from some of the special interests in Washington that health care

was dead.

That view being reflected, by the way, and notices to

policyholders in California and other places raising rates by 40 percent

and 25 and 30 percent. But I just thought it was important to remind

people that we"re not dead yet.

MADDOW: There"s also a public option revival letter that"s

circulating on the House side, that effort being led by Chellie Pingree and

Jared Polis who is also from Colorado. How important was Jared Polis in

your decision to take charge of the effort in the Senate?

BENNET: Well, I think Jared is a great guy. He called me and told me

he had done the letter. It sounded like a great idea to me, and we started

circulating it.

MADDOW: In August of last year, Senator, you told the Colorado paper

"The Durango Herald" I think it was - that health reform shouldn"t hinge

on the public option even though you said you supported it.

I know you told "The Denver Post" that you didn"t think the

public option could pass. You told "The Durango Paper" that you didn"t

want to use it to draw a line in the sand on health reform. Do you feel

more strongly about it now than you did then?

BENNET: Well, I feel very strongly about it. I felt strongly about

then, and I feel strongly about it now. I don"t think anybody has got a

monopoly on wisdom on any of this stuff.

But I think the American people are looking for us. And

certainly the people in Colorado are looking for us to stop playing these

ridiculous political games, and actually start to solve the problems that

they"re facing every single day of their lives.

One of the great ironies, Rachel, to me about this debate is that

the people that are defending the current system and saying that somehow

this is a Bolshevik takeover of our health care system are defending a

system that every day is throwing thousands of people off private

insurance.

And they"re ending up in one of two places. If they"re poor

enough, they"re ending up on Medicaid, a public plan. If they"re not poor

enough, they"re ending up in the emergency room, getting uncompensated care

that all of us that are taxpayers are paying for and policyholders are

paying for.

They"re the ones that are defending a government takeover of

health care. It"s just the most expensive, least intentional version

imaginable. And I think we"ve got to keep fighting it to tell a story on

behalf of the American people that says, you know, it"s time to do

something different.

MADDOW: How does the public option fit into that, in terms of the big

picture of the - what you describe as the unwarranted criticism from the

right that this is some sort of Bolshevik takeover, the commitment on the

Democratic side to get something done. Where does the public option fit

into that in terms of importance and in terms of the basics of what

government is trying to do here?

BENNET: I think it is important for two particular reasons. One is

it injects competition into the system where, in too many parts of our

country, there is none.

And then, there"s the more practical reason, which is people are

saying to me - in my state, they"re saying, "Michael, if you"re going to

require us to have health insurance, then I"d like to have the broadest

array of options to choose from for my family. Let me decide what the

right thing for my family is."

As the father of three little girls, I certainly would like the

ability to make that decision myself. And fortunately, I don"t need to,

because I"m on a public option, just like all the people sitting around the

table the other day at the White House.

But for our families, you know, if you"re going to require them

to have insurance, they want to have all the choices. So I think it is

very important. I also think there are other components of health care

reform that are enormously important when it comes to costs and when it

comes to coverage.

And if there"s a combination of things that can help cover more

Americans, drive down our costs, increase our quality, I"m all ears to

everybody"s ideas. But I think the public option is one of the best ideas

that we"ve had so far.

MADDOW: Sen. Bennet, I should also ask you about something we"ve just

learned about - it"s just happened in the last few minutes. The bill that

was held up by Sen. Bunning all week to dramatic and strange effect has

finally passed, overwhelmingly, 78 to 19. What do you make of Sen.

Bunning"s actions here? What happened?

BENNET: Well, that"s a real nail biter, isn"t it? After a week

of holding up the work of the Senate, I can"t explain what he was doing.

It"s not the first time, by the way, this has happened. We had another

vote to extend unemployment insurance in the worst recession since the

Great Depression, 10 percent unemployment rate.

And people on average have been unemployed longer than ever. We

tried to extend unemployment insurance. It could have taken an afternoon.

Instead it took five weeks and the vote was something like 97 to zero or 98

to zero.

And we"ve been through another week like this, and all I can say

is that, you know, this place - I"ve been here for a year, and it does feel

a lot like "Alice in Wonderland." It doesn"t make any sense.

MADDOW: Sen. Bennet, I understand you"re going to announce a wide

ranging plan for some Congressional reforms, including some filibuster

reforms. You want a sneak preview of any of those for us?

BENNET: Well, I"ll just give you a little bit of it. I think, first

of all, that having things like the ability to do holds anonymously, where

senators don"t even need to step up in front of the American people and

say, "I"m the person that"s holding up a nomination or a piece of

legislation" - I think we should get rid of that.

I think we should think very seriously about how to reduce the

thresholds that are required when it"s clear that delay is the only thing

that"s happening. And I think, finally, that there"s some interesting

ideas about how to try - try to create some bipartisan effort around here,

around the filibuster.

So tomorrow, I"ll be talking about that and some other reforms,

including trying to make sure that members of Congress are banned from ever

being lobbyists in Washington.

MADDOW: Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, a Democrat of Colorado, we

look forward very much to that announcement tomorrow. And I thank you for

joining us tonight. I appreciate your time.

BENNET: Thanks for having me, Rachel.

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