MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript
Interview
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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, thank you, Ed.
SCHULTZ: You know, the discussion that I"ve had on my show today and the discussion that we"ve had all week long on this show is that there"s a lot of frustrated Democrats out there thinking that the president has done everything he can do to get Republicans on board.
Is bipartisanship gone? Is it gone? Is it time to move on?
You know, there"s a time to fish or cut bait. Are we at that moment, in your opinion?
CLYBURN: I think so. I think that what we have to do now is to say to the American people that we tried hard to get a bill that a super majority of the Senate would accept, 60 votes. Now we have to go with what the American people understand, a simple majority, 50 percent, plus one.
Let"s get a bill that simple majority will vote for and let"s go with it. Bipartisanship requires that you buy in to filibuster rules. Most people that I know don"t particularly like these filibuster rules. And so let"s jettison the idea of passing something, trying to accommodate the filibusters, and let"s go forward with a simple majority resolution to this health care problem.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, I think the president needs to really talk to the base tonight, solidify the base, because there"s a lot of folks out there in the middle class that have seen a lot of things go to Wall Street. Now, with that in mind, to present to the American people that the Republicans have been obstructionists, they"re getting their backup when they hear that.
Earlier today, on Dylan Ratigan"s show, I made a comment about just that, and it drew this response from Congressman Pence...
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REP. MIKE PENCE ®, INDIANA: I"ve got to tell you, that was the one thing--and THE ED SHOW is popular. It"s not my cup of TV, but he"s good radio and good TV. But look, Ed just said the president ought to consider shutting Republicans out.
Ed, news flash. House Democrats in this administration have shut Republicans out of the entire process in the House and in the Senate for the last year.
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SCHULTZ: I tell you, those Republicans are amazing. I didn"t say they should shut out the Republicans. I just said that you should move on without them. If they want to get in the process, that"s fine.
But Congressman Clyburn, he said that, "House Democrats in this administration have shut Republicans out of the entire process in the House."
Is that true?
CLYBURN: That is absolutely not true. We had these bills on the House side go through three committees, and Republicans are on all of those committees. They participated. They put up amendments.
Many of those amendments were adopted. And we came out with a bill that had a lot of their amendments in it.
Then we put it out on the Internet for 72 hours before we ever started voting on it. How many hours did we debate it in these committees?
It is amazing how these people can go to the floor, after going through all of that, and because they decide not to vote for it, then they say they were not consulted. They did not have an opportunity to participate. It is the most ridiculous thing that you could possibly say.
Now, that"s just the House side. The Senate did two committees. And you know how long they were working there.
If you look at a big part of this bill, this high-risk pool that the Senate came forward with, go back and look at John McCain"s campaign ad. He campaigned on creating the high-risk pool. That was his philosophy that we brought into this bill, and they still would not vote for it.
But we ought not be surprised. You just saw Republicans, seven of whom co-sponsored legislation to do something about the deficit commission (ph) on yesterday. Then when it came time to vote, seven of the people who co-sponsored voted against the bill. I guess they are not consulted.
SCHULTZ: Yes. That"s just how the Republicans play the game.
Congressman Clyburn, good to have you with us tonight. Thank you so much.
CLYBURN: Well, thank you so much for having me.
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