MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: One year ago today, the House of Representatives passed a piece of legislation designed to get back the taxpayer bailout money that was used to pay massive bonuses to AIG executives. But at this hour, this bill is not law because it"s one of the 290 bills that were passed in the House that the Senate has ignored.

If taxpayers are going to get their money back, the Senate is going to have to, I guess you could say, get with the program. And it"s not even a partisan bill. This is what"s so amazing. It passed the house by a vote of 328 to 93. One of the sponsors of the bill, Congressman Gary Peters of Michigan, with us tonight.

Congressman, good to have you with us. Why isn"t the Senate moving on this? When you ask questions about this, why aren"t they moving on it?

REP. GARY PETERS (D), MICHIGAN: It"s outrageous, Ed, why they"re not moving on it. As you mentioned, a year ago, we passed this bill. We had this outrageous situation where AIG was paying millions of dollars of bonuses to the very individuals that brought that company down, and in the process, contributed to the whole economy coming down. It"s now gone over to the Senate. Nothing is being done. And now we have AIG issuing even more bonuses to these same individuals, 100 million dollars last month.

SCHULTZ: What answer do you get when you ask, why can"t you guys move on this?

PETERS: I don"t get a good answer. It"s just part of what is, right now, a dysfunctional Senate, where things don"t get done. I was on your program, as you recall, about the unemployment, where we had just one senator standing in the way of unemployment checks to hundreds of thousands of people.

There is no good answer. We need to see action out of the Senate. That"s what the American people want. They want to see action, particularly on this Wall Street greed, where you"ve got people who have abused the system, and are taking millions of dollars. It"s got to stop. The Senate needs to step up to the plate and do it now.

SCHULTZ: So what does the bill actually do, besides get money back. Does it regulate bonuses? Does it really get into their business. What does it do?

PETERS: Well, this bill brings back that money. It says those companies that have substantial taxpayer investments, five billion dollars, or more cannot pay out any bonuses. If they do, it will be--

SCHULTZ: It"s a guaranteed pay-back then?

PETERS: That"s right, it will be paid back. And bonuses can be paid to employees only after the taxpayers have been paid back first. Certainly, that"s what I hear all the time. Taxpayers are saying, wait a minute, we floated money to keep these companies alive? We need to be paid back first, before these executives, and the very ones that actually caused the problem get huge bonuses. It"s absolutely unacceptable.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, appreciate you coming on. But I can"t let you go without asking you about the issue of the hour, which is health care. We"re so close to a vote. Have you decided what you"re going to do? And since we"re friends, I can just say, you"re not leaving the camera until you give me an answer. What are you going to do?

PETERS: I"m going to vote yes. To me, this is an important bill, particularly dealing with small businesses. I"ve been hearing from small business owners in my state of Michigan that are finding it increasingly difficult to provide health insurance for themselves, for their families. This bill gives an immediate tax cut to those small businesses, and allows them to have affordable health care, where right now they can"t provide it for their families and employees.

To me, this is a competitiveness issue, particularly for small businesses, which are the engine of growth. That"s where the economy"s going to grow. That"s where most of the jobs are created. They now face a significant disadvantage when it comes to providing a critical benefit to their employees.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, great move. Appreciate you telling us straight up tonight you"re going to vote yes on the health care bill on Sunday.

PETERS: Great to be with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: You bet. Congressman Gary Peters from Michigan telling us tonight yes. There"s another vote. I think that"s eight now. Good day for the Democrats.

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