MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript
Interview
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SEN. RON WYDEN (D), OREGON: Thank you, Ed.
SCHULTZ: And you may not be on the other side.
Is Howard Dean and the progressives going too far and being too tough on the White House?
WYDEN: I think you always have to push for the consumer. But here"s the bottom line, Ed. I worked very hard for a different bill. If you look at the record, or say do you a Google search, people can see that I wanted, for example, a robust public option...
SCHULTZ: Not there.
WYDEN: ... that was available to everybody, not just 10 percent on day one. That"s not in there. But at the same time, I am not going to hand the far right a big victory.
SCHULTZ: But don"t you think--Senator, don"t you think the White House should have to explain, where"s the competition? Because I don"t see it.
WYDEN: Of course. And clearly, we are going to try to improve this at every step of the way.
We want to have tougher loss ratios. That means that when these insurance companies take in a dollar for a premium, they have to pay it back to folks in terms of actual services.
I"m trying to get an amendment through that would say that insurance companies that hold down their premiums, they would pay less tax, but if insurance companies don"t hold their premiums down, they would pay more tax. So, you bet. We ought to try it at every step of this process to make it better, but we shouldn"t hand a win to the far right.
And if they win on this, Ed, make no mistake about it, they are going to bring hyperpartisanship to every issue. They will do this on climate change, they"ll do it on energy, they"ll do it on taxes.
We have got to make sure as progressives that at every step, we do our best to make this better. But when you talk about an emergency--and you and the governor were talking about it--an emergency, it seems to me, is what you have when 30 million people don"t have health care. And this bill gets it to them.
SCHULTZ: Yes. Senator, good to have you on tonight. I appreciate you being in the fight.
WYDEN: Thank you.
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