MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

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SEN.-ELECT RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: Thank you. Thank you very much. A very decisive victory, and I"m very glad to have won after being outspent 7 to 1. But I"m here because people of Connecticut know me. They know my record. And that may not have always been as apparent to folks who didn"t live here and perhaps the national press, as well.

SMERCONISH: Earmarks. Senators McCaskill and Udall say ban them.
What do you say?

BLUMENTHAL: I say at a minimum--at a very minimum--we should end the secret earmarks that have so bedeviled the process and undermined confidence. And there ought to be a rational process if there are designated spending for any state or any district. But you know, earmarks are really only a tiny part of the deficit and debt problem, less than a fraction of 1 percent. And I"m much more concerned about the major opportunities for cutting spending and getting serious about reducing our national debt. And I made some very specific proposals about how to do it.

SMERCONISH: How would you treat those upper 2 percent income earners who are getting so much attention in this conversation?

BLUMENTHAL: I believe there ought to be an extensions of tax cuts for the middle class. I have opposed extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent. The idea that somehow those tax breaks benefit small businesses I think is a complete ruse.

But I would--and I stress I am very strongly in support of tax relief for small businesses. Priority number one has to be aid for those small businesses in the form of more capital, more and--and more secure deductions, R&D tax credits for small businesses that are the major source of job creation in this country, more than 70 percent of all new jobs.

And we need more infrastructure investment. So getting America back to work, putting America become on track, in Connecticut, fighting for those people who are out of work and small businesses that need that kind of tax relief and capital, because the banks aren"t making loans, has to be priority number one.

SMERCONISH: Speaking of your home state of Connecticut, where you remain the attorney general, I"d be remiss if I didn"t ask you for a comment on that horrific set of circumstances presented in the home invasion case that has captivated much of the nation. You"d agree with me, I hope, that the death penalty is warranted in that case, for he who"s already been convicted and for number two, should he be convicted, as well?

BLUMENTHAL: Absolutely. If the death penalty is warranted in any case--and I support the death penalty in cases of heinous and horrific crime--certainly, this one is absolutely a poster person for it. Both Hayes and his co-defendant certainly deserve the death penalty.

SMERCONISH: And that Dr. Petit, a rock, a--a steel-willed individual, un--unlike any I have ever paid attention to in the past.

BLUMENTHAL: You know, I think he has provided inspiration, not only for his immediate family and for people who know him, but really for the entire state, maybe for others outside the state of Connecticut, not only in his courage and dedication and his perseverance, coming to court every day, staying with the process that, unfortunately, as some criminal justice cases illustrate--and I say this as a former United States attorney, as well as now attorney general--sometimes fails to move as quickly as it should.

SMERCONISH: Another issue that"s been on your agenda as attorney general that you will deal with now in the United States Senate, health insurance, and I know, if not today, perhaps it was yesterday, Anthem.

Can you give us the Cliffs Notes version of what is going on?

BLUMENTHAL: I was in the Insurance Commission hearings literally today opposing a 20 percent rate increase request, completely unjustified. I have fought Anthem and other insurance companies in their rate increase requests year after year.

Last year, Anthem received a 20-plus percent increase, recently, a 30 percent to 50 percent increase. Now it wants a 20 percent increase on some of its plans. And I have also fought, by the way, insurance companies when they fail to cover people under policies, using excuses like preexisting conditions, and the doctor"s out of network, the treatment is experimental.

My experience leads me to believe we can"t go back to a time when insurance companies made the rules and ran the show, which is why I want these protections for consumers, improve the health care bill by cutting costs, but not repeal it.

SMERCONISH: I wouldn"t want to be on the receiving end of a 20 percent increase, but why can"t the market solve that problem? Why does it require government intervention?

BLUMENTHAL: Because the market is not as competitive as it should be, very simply.

As you know, the antitrust laws fail to provide the kind of protection in this industry that they might in others, and the free market fails to operate in a way that it should, which is why there has to be stronger regulation or scrutiny, at least, oversight and scrutiny. This health care bill fails to provide it. I see it firsthand in Connecticut, where there"s no right to a hearing, no right to appeal. And consumers deserve better protection.

SMERCONISH: Senator, I"m just a fill-in guy. Help me make some news tonight. Are you for Lieberman in 2012?

BLUMENTHAL: You know, I"m not going to make news for you there.

We have just finished literally a little more than two weeks ago an election. And I think folks are pretty well tired of elections, campaigning. And I"m going to let that one go.

SMERCONISH: All right, thank you, Attorney--I had to try.

(LAUGHTER)

SMERCONISH: Thank you, Attorney General Blumenthal, the incoming senator from Connecticut. We appreciate your time.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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