MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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REP. STENY HOYER (D-OH), MAJORITY LEADER: Always good to be with you,

Ed.

SCHULTZ: You bet, my man. We"re not very far away, are we? What is

the count at this hour? What"s your instinct at this point?

HOYER: My instinct is we will get 216 votes on Sunday. We"re going

to give 72 hours notice to people, so that they can read the amendments.

This is like a conference report, as you well know. The Senate bill has

been online for almost three months, so people have had ample opportunity

to see what this bill is about.

We made some changes to it, so we saved more. That rarely happens

when you have a conference on two different bills. Usually, you end up

costing more. But we"re saving more money. We"re spending less.

As you pointed out, we"re saving 1.3 trillion dollars over the next 20

years. That"s a significant cut in the deficit. We"re expanding coverage.

That expanding coverage is not only good for the 32 million Americans that

will have insurance, Ed. But now, every American who has insurance today

is paying 1,100 bucks on their premium for those who don"t have insurance.

So we"re going to get them in the system, and we"re going to bring

prices down for small business and families across the country.

SCHULTZ: Is there any reason for Americans not to believe the CBO

numbers?

HOYER: Absolutely not. In my view, the CBO is conservative in its

estimates. It"s very conservative how much it says we"re going to spend

and how much we"re going to cut the deficit by.

SCHULTZ: Who stands in the way, congressman?

HOYER: My view is we"re going to save more than they estimate.

SCHULTZ: Who stands in the way right now? Give us some names. Who

do you need to change their vote? Who do you think is on the fence? I

know the pressure on Capitol Hill has been very intense. I"d like to have

some names tonight. Our audience would, too.

HOYER: Ed, I"m sure that"s the case. I"m sure they know which

members we don"t have. But I"m not going to be here spotting members.

We"re talking to all the members. We believe we"re going to get to 216.

Clearly, we believe the public is moving our way. As you know, the

polls have now--the last two polls, "Wall Street Journal" poll, a

majority, 46 to 45 for health care reform. The "Economist," 54 to 46 for

health care reform. We believe that we"ve turned the public around 14 or

15 points since President Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress.

We believe, as the American people look at the internals on these--

by that I mean the provisions in this bill, preventing insurance companies

from not giving them insurance because of a preexisting condition,

preventing insurance companies from essentially putting them in bankruptcy

by capping their annual coverage, or by preventing insurance companies from

kicking people off their insurance --

SCHULTZ: No doubt.

HOYER: -- waste of fraud and abuse, and having a more transparent

process, so the public can compare price and product of insurance

companies.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, what about the pro-life Democrats? Are they

the ones that you"ve got to win over right now?

HOYER: They still--a number of them have real concerns, although I

will tell you some of the strongest pro-life Democrats, like Jim Oberstar

from Minnesota, Dale Kildee from Michigan, very strong pro-life, have

looked at this bill, looked at the Senate language and said, there is no

spending of public funds for abortion services or for insuring abortion

services. I think that"s the case. The Nelson language, which was offered

by Ben Nelson, a strong pro-life member of the Senate, and Bob Casey, whose

dad, Governor Casey, was probably one of the strongest pro-life people in

our country, have said they have an amendment which precludes public funds

being spent on abortion.

SCHULTZ: I want to hear you say this tonight, that deem and pass has

been used before?

HOYER: It"s been used about 200 times by the--either Speaker

Hastert or Speaker Gingrich. But what this is not so much deem and pass.

This is voting as if it were a conference report. You vote on the Senate

bill in the rule, and then you say, as you would in a conference, but we"re

amending it and that is the final product.

Unfortunately, the Republicans would not allow us to go to conference

in the Senate. They wouldn"t vote to go to conference. So we need use

this procedure. It"s been used many times before. The public will have an

absolute view of who votes for or against the Senate bill. They will have

an absolute view, transparently, of who votes for the amendments to the

Senate bill.

SCHULTZ: Those votes will be one after another, right?

HOYER: They will be one after another. There will be nothing hidden.

SCHULTZ: OK. So what"s the magic number, three?

HOYER: The magic number, we think, is 216. As a matter of fact, if

everybody is here, the magic number will be 216. We"re confident we will

get there.

SCHULTZ: How many do you need?

HOYER: Good try, Ed. We"re working towards that 216. We"re going to

get there.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Hoyer, you are a fighter. I appreciate it so

much. In your gut, it"s going to be Sunday at high noon?

HOYER: No, it"s going to be Sunday. We will come back in. We want

everybody to have the opportunity to go to church. Then we"ll come in at

1:00 and the vote will be sometime later that afternoon.

SCHULTZ: All right. Congressman, thanks so much. Appreciate it very

much. You bet.

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