MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: The president getting after it with his own party today, the Senate Democrats. And his message was firm, very simple and to the point:

Democrats need to prove that they can get things done or the American people are going to lose in this whole deal.

Joining me now is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator, good to have you on tonight. Did the president rally the troops today? How do you feel about what he had to say?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: I think he made a number of important points. And I think one of the most important points that he made is that we have got to stop playing defense and we have got to go on the offense. Ed, the idea that we are being lectured to by right wing Republicans about the deficit crisis is totally incomprehensible, because these are exactly the guys who, by and large, caused this crisis. They are the people who went to a war in Iraq which will eventually cost between two and three trillion dollars. They aren"t paying for that war. They didn"t put one penny into paying for that war.

They are the people who gave hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the richest one percent. They didn"t pay for that. They passed the prescription drug bill, written by the insurance companies and the drug companies, 400 billion over ten years, they didn"t pay for that. They are the ones who did the Tarp bailout, 700 billion. They didn"t pay.

I don"t want to be lectured by these guys about the deficit crisis.

They caused it.

SCHULTZ: Senator, I know you"ve got everything together when it comes to the priorities of the American people. Somehow, it just seems that the Democrats have lost focus, that they are still the majority party. The president today, when he was speaking to the Senate Dems, he brought that up and pointed it out. Here it is.

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OBAMA: All that"s changed in the last two weeks is that our party"s gone from having the largest Senate majority in a generation to the second largest Senate majority in a generation. We"ve got to remember that.

There was apparently a headline after the Massachusetts election; the "Village Voice" announced that Republicans win a 41/59 majority.

It"s what we"re thinking about. We still have to lead.

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SCHULTZ: So, senator, do you believe that the Republicans will work with this president and your side of the aisle on anything?

SANDERS: No, I don"t. I think they have a strategy, which is working very, very well for them. It"s called obstructionism. It"s called filibustering. It"s called doing everything you possibly can to make sure that Obama doesn"t score any successes.

And I think the time is long overdue for the Democratic leadership to understand that. Furthermore, the truth is we never really had 60 votes. You don"t even have 59 votes. You"re going to have to look at reconciliation, 50 votes, which we do have, to go forward on health care, to go forward on bank reform, to go forward on a jobs program, to go forward on those issues which are meaningful to the middle class and working families of this country. Forget the 60 vote nonsense.

SCHULTZ: Senator, I want to be very clear, what is your position on the Tarp money being used, the 30 billion dollars that would go for job creation? Are you for the Obama plan to do that or are you against it?

SANDERS: No, I"m absolutely for it. Look, we are looking at--Ed, 17 million of our people today are either unemployed or underemployed. We"ve got to rebuild this economy. We have got to provide jobs for the American people. One way you do it is get credit out to small business. You"ve been talking about this. A lot of people have been talking about this.

I know in Vermont and around this country you have small business people ready to expand, ready to create new jobs. They can"t get the loans from the banks they need. We should, in fact, provide those loans.

SCHULTZ: Senator, good to have you with us tonight. I appreciate your time. Thanks so much. Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont with us here on THE ED SHOW.

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