MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

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SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Thanks, Ed. It"s great to be with

you.

SCHULTZ: Is this the most heartless thing you"ve seen the

Republicans do in the last year? How would you characterize this?

MERKLEY: It"s unbelievable. It"s shocking from every perspective.

To take and say, tough luck--that"s the polite version--to the American

working families when they are down and out, when we are sitting here with

record unemployment--I was back home this weekend. I was in a county

with over 14 percent unemployment. It"s next to a county with nearly 17

percent unemployment. I went down to southern Oregon, in Klamath (ph)

county, nearly 13 percent unemployment. And here we have a Republican

filibuster aimed at our workers, aimed at our seniors, aimed at even our

small businesses.

SCHULTZ: Well, where is the outcry from other Republicans? This is

their guy. They picked one guy to step up and be an obstructionist. This

is a hell of a way to say to the rest of the folks in this country that

we"re spending too much money. This is the job"s bill. It"s not the jobs

bill. But we"ve been talking about jobs all along and now look what he"s

done to over half a million Americans.

MERKLEY: Well, and believe you me, we shouldn"t view this as one

Republican. This is a coordinated Republican attack on the American

working family.

SCHULTZ: You think it"s a coordinated attack by Republicans?

MERKLEY: Absolutely. Here"s the thing, others have to keep coming

to the floor so Bunning can leave the floor. They did that last Thursday

night, and they did it just a few minutes ago when I was on the floor. And

I"ll tell you, this--I challenged Senator Thune to come to the floor and

end this filibuster now, because he had just given a speech about small

businesses. Yet this filibuster is cutting off small business lending to

small businesses. If you believe that, come to the floor. If you believe

in support for working family, come to the floor, Republican leadership,

and end this Republican filibuster, this Republican attack on our workers

right now.

SCHULTZ: Money to small business, this is exactly what this

administration has been trying to do, been talking about, and trying to put

in place. And now we"re getting cut off at the knees by one senator who is

a Republican.

MERKLEY: Yes.

SCHULTZ: By the way, with all of the filibusters, we"re at a record

level, an unbelievable pace for this year. It"s three times what it was in

the last session of the Congress. How do you combat that, senator?

MERKLEY: I"ll tell you, the small businesses are going to create

jobs. We have a lot of help that we can send their way. We are trying to

get the bill through the House now that we passed last week. We"re trying

to get a fund to recapitalize our community banks, so they can do more

lending.

We are trying to get the filibuster out of the way, this blockade, so

we can continue small business lending through the Small Business

Administration. We need to do all of this, because our small businesses

will then be able to hire and put people back to work and seize

opportunities to grow this economy.

SCHULTZ: Senator Merkley, good to have you with us tonight.

Appreciate your time. Thanks for keeping up fight.

MERKLEY: It"s great to be with you, Ed.

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