MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), DCCC CHAIRMAN: Good to be with you, Chris.

HAYES: Congressman, I wonder what - if there"s a message that"s taking shape across platforms for Democratic candidates this fall that has to do with the economy and the Republican obstruction in trying to - trying to repair it.

VAN HOLLEN: Why, yes, Chris, because there"s a clear pattern here and the evidence is mounting every day. Beginning with Joe Barton"s comments where he apologized to BP, revealing once again that the Republican energy policy is one where they"re always on the side of big oil.
John Boehner saying that the Wall Street reform bill, which is designed to make sure that never again do millions of Americans lose their job because of bad bets and bad decisions made on Wall Street. He compared that to an ant. And there have been numerous stories about how the Wall Street lobbyists were crawling all over the Republican leadership to work with them to try and derail the Wall Street accountability bill. So what"s very clear is that time and time again, when the choice is between helping tax payers and consumers and small businesses or helping the big special interests, whether they"re big oil or the big banks on Wall Street, these guys are running as fast as they can to help the big special interests. And it"s harder and harder for them to run away from the evidence because they keep casting these votes and they keep making these comments.

HAYES: Let me - let me ask you a question. There - there is a poll out, I think yesterday. It showed that - that health care reform has - has been getting more popular in - in the months since its passage. I"m wondering if your - if the members of - of the House on the Democratic side are going back to their districts and campaigning on health care reform or is that something they"re not really talking about?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, it"s the Republicans that had made this an issue, and John Boehner just signed the legislation to repeal the health care reform. And, in doing so, they"re clearly siding in this case with the big insurance companies.

We know that the big insurance companies spent millions and millions of dollars on the airwaves trying to defeat health care reform, and they did it for a reason, because we"re giving more power to patients and consumers at the expense of the insurance industry. And so they"re fighting back. They"re using the Republican in Washington, the Congressional leadership in Washington, to really lead this repeal effort. And I think most Americans, when given the choice between repealing and starting to scratch and going back, you know, to the whole debate again on health care or trying to make this work and making corrections as they arise, they don"t want to turn back the clock.

And--and see, this is what the debate and this election is going to be all about, because what"s been very clear is that the Republican platform for the future is simply a rehash of the same Republican economic agenda that got this country into such a big mess to begin with, and why in the world would we want to send back the same guys or put the same guys back in power that got us into this mess to begin with? Whether it"s Joe Barton who would be the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee or whether it"s John Boehner who just compared the effort to hold Wall Street accountable to using a nuclear weapon against an ant.

HAYES: Let me ask -

VAN HOLLEN: Yes. Go ahead.

HAYES: Let me ask you this question before we get out of here. The House has taken a lot of tough votes and it"s - it"s passed a remarkable amount of legislation. You passed a clean energy bill, you passed financial reform, you passed a - you passed a recovery act, you passed a health care bill before the Senate did.

Does the United States Senate drive you as crazy as it drives all of us watching this? I mean, what do you say to your colleagues over there? What are thinking in the House when you watch legislation that are tough votes for members - your - your caucus to take, go over to the Senate and die?

VAN HOLLEN: Look, there"s a saying around here, Chris, that in the House the Republicans and the Democrats, they"re the opposition, but the Senate"s the enemy, and the fact of the matter - the fact of the matter is you don"t know what - you don"t want to hear what we say behind closed doors with
our Senate colleagues.

What I would say is that Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, is as frustrated with what"s happening in the Senate as - as those of us in the House are. And the American people need to watch this every day because we saw the most recent terrible case of it with unemployment insurance, trying to make sure that folks who are out of work, through no fault of their own, get a little relief, Republicans in the - in the Senate said no as if this was some kind of a fake recession, right? As if people who were looking for work were faking it and really wanted to somehow to stay on unemployment insurance rather than get a job when we all know that in order to qualify for unemployment insurance, you have to demonstrate you"re looking for a job.
But for the Republicans, this seems to be a - a fake recession, just like for John Boehner the consequences of the meltdown on Wall Street were just an ant.

HAYES: Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the D-Triple C, thanks so much for joining us and have a good weekend.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you. Thank you. You too.

HAYES: Coming up, newspapers caught red handed aiding and abetting the torture apologists. With the help of a shocking study, I"m exposing them, next.

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