MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript
Interview
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SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Well, I don"t know if there"s been a sea change, but we"re almost 10 years from 9/11, and I guess people tend to forget.
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Those of us who were there at the towers can never forget the brave firefighters, construction workers who just rushed in. And, remember, in the first few days, we thought there might still be people that would be alive in the rubble.
And, so, people are forgetting. People come up with excuses. Some say this is the New York bill. This is not. First, there are victims in every state. And, second, we don"t ask where our veterans come from. Are they from Texas? Are they from Iowa? We say, you served America and we"re going to remember that, at a time of war, you risked your life for us. We"re going to be there to help you.
We should be doing the same for these people.
MATTHEWS: Well, tell the country now, if you have a minute or two, what about the unique health hazards that arose from those who went in, those 100,000 people, if you count them all, who had gotten involved one way or another in trying to deal with that horror?
SCHUMER: Well, the--they are coming down with cancers that are rare types of cancers. This is not typical. Some people said, well, someone who smokes will say they got lung cancer. These cancers are different.
They are unique. They come about when you get glass and other particulates in your lungs and your gastrointestinal tract. The average age of the person who has died here is 46. And they don"t occur for any other reason.
So the idea that there are all kinds of illnesses that might not have been related to rushing to the tower and the horrible stuff that was in the air then is just wrong. Secondly, we have been very careful.
We know who was there at the towers. There was strict security the days after. Nobody is going to be able to dupe the system. And, in fact, there"s been a year-to-year system of health care. It"s not been as comprehensive or as thorough. There"s been virtually no fraud.
So, anyone who thinks the money is being wasted is wrong. They haven"t looked at the facts.
MATTHEWS: Let"s take a look at Chris Wallace talking here, interviewing, rather, Jon Kyl, the number-two Republican leader, as he opposes your measure yesterday. Let"s listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY")
CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": Will you vote this week for the 9/11 bill that would guarantee health care for the first responders who went to Ground Zero?
SEN. JON KYL (R-AZ), MINORITY WHIP: I don"t know if that bill is going to come before us, but Dick tells me just a moment ago that he thinks that it will. First question is, is it amendable, or is it a take it or leave it proposition? The bill hasn"t been through committee. There are problems with it.
And I think the first thing Republicans will ask is do we have a chance to fix any problems that may exist with it. And it"s a lot of money, and so I--my early response is that I am skeptical about that bill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHUMER: Let me answer a couple of things.
MATTHEWS: Sure. Go ahead.
SCHUMER: It will come for a vote. Leader Reid has promised us that.
Second, we have worked with Republicans. That"s why the bill is modified. There will be an amendment on the floor, because we went to many of the Republicans. We had every Democrat supporting the original bill that the House sent us. But some Republicans said they didn"t like the way it was paid for. We gave them six or seven options. They chose the ones they like. And that"s what"s here.
I believe that we have 60 votes for the bill so we can block cloture and our plea to Senator Kyl, we can"t ask him to vote for it if he thinks it"s the right thing to do, although I think if he read the bill thoroughly and studied it, he would come to the same conclusions we did, but not to filibuster needlessly.
This is now a bipartisan bill. It passed for votes in the House and we should not--Christmas Eve in particular--turn our backs on these people who served us in a time of war, are no different than veterans. America has always honored veterans who risked their lives in a time of war voluntarily. We said, if you get injured on the battlefield, we"re going to take care of you. It is not different with these firemen, cops, construction workers who did the same thing.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Take a minute for the advantage of the people who are skeptical to tell me the fundraising or rather the financing plan for offsetting the cost of this measure.
SCHUMER: The financing plans don"t--first, the bill does not cost any money. In fact, the pay-fors exceed the cost of the bill by $57 million. So, it actual reduces the deficit.
Who do we--what are--who pays for it? First, there are companies from a group of countries that bid on United States products and they don"t allow the U.S. companies to bid on products from their government and contracts from their government. We put a 2 percent surcharge on those. It"s not the major countries of the world. They have treaties with us where our companies can bid for their government"s contracts and vice versa.
Second, there are certain companies that abuse the H-1B process by taking foreign workers and bringing them here and training them and sending them home. We increase the surcharge on those companies. They are foreign almost exclusively; 50 percent of their workers have to be H-1B.
And third, there was a noncontroversial increase on visas for foreigners that for several years paid for travel promotion. We increased that by a couple of years.
Every one of these is noncontroversial. None of them affect American citizens and the health, of course, goes to American citizens who helped us in a time of need.
MATTHEWS: OK. It"s great to have you one. Chuck--
SCHUMER: Anyone who says--Chris, anyone who says they"re opposed to this bill, they"re not looking at the bill, they"re not looking at the facts and they ought to look at it again because the only way this bill will fail is if it"s filibustered, otherwise, we have the votes.
MATTHEWS: OK. Happy holidays to you, Senator. Chuck Schumer of New York, the senior--thank you, sir.
SCHUMER: Thank you. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.
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