MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Independent senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, joining us tonight.

Senator Sanders, on numerous occasions, has told us that on record, that he would accept nothing less than a public option. So what happened to Senator Sanders that he went forward and voted for this legislation to move it forward? And we"re going to get word from him.

He did push for $10 billion in funding for community health centers and we want to ask him about that.

Senator Bernie Sanders with us tonight from the Capitol, here on that particular issue.

Senator Sanders, are you with us tonight?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: I"m right here. How are you, Ed?

SCHULTZ: OK. All right. Good. Good to have you with us. I appreciate your time.

You"ve told us on this show and also have been quoted elsewhere that it was a public option or nothing. And you voted for it. What happened?

SANDERS: What I said is I would be very, very reluctant to vote for legislation without a public option, and that"s true. What happened is, at my request, Senator Reid put $10 billion into community health centers, which means that 25 million more Americans are going to have access to affordable health care, dental care, the lowest cost prescription drugs in America and mental health counseling.

It also means that we"re going to have 20,000 additional primary health care doctors and dentists and nurses in this country. It means, basically, there"s going to be a revolution in primary health care, something this country absolutely and desperately needs. And at the end of the day, by keeping people out of emergency rooms and out of the hospital, because they can get to a doctor when they need it, we are going to actually save money.

So those were one of the factors that made me reconsider.

SCHULTZ: All right. You"re going to be targeted, along with some other liberal senators like Senator Brown from the progressive groups to not be there in the end because there is not competition, there"s not the public option.

How do you feel about that?

SANDERS: Well, this is how I feel. If anyone wants to tell me this is not a particularly strong piece of legislation, you know what? I agree with them. And if anyone wants to tell me that we should have had a private option to provide competition to the private insurance companies, we"re going to laugh all the way to the bank, I agree with them.

And if anyone wants to tell me that the Senate bill is inferior to the House bill because it taxes health care benefits rather than progressive taxation, I agree with them. And if anybody wants to tell me we should pass prescription drug reimportation to lower the cost of prescription drugs for everybody in American, I agree with them. But the reality is...

SCHULTZ: So why would you support it?

SANDERS: All right, that"s the question. Because what is the alternative?

The alternative is to defeat health care legislation, all of the community health centers, 31 million more people with insurance, insurance reform, and many other important factors, and do what? For five years, 10 years, we don"t revisit this issue?

Forty-five thousand people a year die because they don"t get to a doctor when they should. We can improve that situation with this legislation. As Tom Harkin just said, the day after this bill is passed we can go back to it and try to improve it.

Look, I"m not going to argue with you about the public option. I fought for it has hard as I can.

Here"s the reality. You"ve got no Republican support. You"ve got 60 Democrats, including some conservative Democrats.

If the choice is to kill this bill completely, not see health care reform come up again for five years, 10 years, I think weighing the pluses and the minuses is better to go with what we have. The day after this bill is passed we improve it.

Look, I brought on the floor a Medicare for all singer-payer system. At the end of the day, you know what, Ed? That"s the way this country is going to go. But I don"t want to see 45,000 people a year continuing to die.

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

SANDERS: Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source