MSNBC "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

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REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: Thank you, Chris. Sure.

HAYES: So, the government will shut down by midnight tomorrow if there is no new spending bill passed. The House today sent the Senate a three-day extension up through Tuesday.

What is it you want to see the Senate do by Tuesday?

SCHULTZ: Well, I would like to at least--

(LAUGHTER)

SCHULTZ: Gosh!

HAYES: It"s a burning question, isn"t it?

SCHULTZ: We"re going to be here a long time if I go through the list of things I want the Senate to do by Tuesday.

But for starters, we should at least make sure that the government doesn"t shut down. You know, what is an absolute travesty is that hypocrisy and the Tea Party have such a stranglehold over the Republicans in the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

I mean, for them to have killed the omnibus that they helped craft to try to suggest that somehow they were doing--they had an opportunity to do a victory lap over a bill that they actually put together and supported and then hit the panic button when they realized that their right wing overseers are essentially driving the train that they count on to succeed politically, means that you"re going to have cancer patients who are going to get the short end of the stick. You"re going to have seniors and children and the most vulnerable in America really in trouble as a result of not having an omnibus pass and having a stopgap measure like the C.R. will be to hold this over until when we actually can get it passed. It"s a huge disappointment.

HAYES: Since the president signed the tax cut bill today and you voted for it, I wanted to ask you what your feelings on that bill in its final forms were. Al Franken wrote something for "The Huffington Post," saying it was his hardest vote as a member of Congress.

Was this a hard vote? Was it an easy vote? How did you approach this vote?

SCHULTZ: No, it was--it was a hard vote especially--you know, any time you have a choice between competing principles, which isn"t all that often, actually, it makes it very tough. I mean, I absolutely, in principle, opposed both the estate tax limits that were in this bill and the extension of tax cuts to the wealthy. But, on the other hand, making sure that right before the holidays, we weren"t yanking unemployment benefits from 7 million Americans, that we were going to make sure--and that we had an opportunity, Chris, to extend the earned income tax credit, the child care tax credit, the employment opportunity tax credit which gives education tax credits for students who want to go to college.

I mean, any time you have an opportunity to extend those and get twice as much in this bill for Americans in need and give more Americans an opportunity than we"re trading off in tax cuts for the health wealthy, then to me that was a deal that I thought was worth casting my vote for.

HAYES: You mentioned the unemployed. I think a lot of concern is two fold, right? There"s a concern about the actual contours of this deal and the money towards the top 2 percent, but there"s also a concern about the precedent, right? There"s this hostage-taking metaphor that"s being thrown around a lot.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

HAYES: And what -- 13 months from now--I mean, what are we going
to go through this? And isn"t it going to be even worse? I mean, Lord
knows what they"re going to demand from Democrats and the White House to re-up unemployment 13 months from now, right?

SCHULTZ: Well, look, one of the things that was critical about this bill passing was that we need to make sure that we can continue to inject resources into the economy, put money into people"s hands through these tax cuts, through the payroll tax cut that went into this bill that was new for employees, that puts another $1,000 next year into the hands of families that they didn"t have before. So, that will hopefully serve as an additional bridge to get people who are getting their unemployment benefits extended, get them a bridge to when they actually can get their next job.

And because we"re continuing to focus on job creation and turning the economy around, Chris, getting that $231 billion in tax cuts that are stimulative in nature and that will help us jump-start the economy, that was critical. You know, it really--it pains me to have to hold my nose and I watched the president at the bill signing, you know, noticing it pained him to have that stuff for the wealthy on the other side of the ledger.

But politics is the art of the possible. And one thing that we proved today is we"re not the party of no. We won"t hold the American people hostage.

They are--the Republicans continue to have a stranglehold on the needs of Americans, they talk tough about the deficit, yet they support tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, which explodes the deficit even further.

They are willing to hold the safety of the world through the nuclear arms -
installing of a nuclear arms treaty hostage to hold out for tax cuts for the wealthy. Their irresponsibility is shocking.

And we need to continue to talk to the American people about where our priorities are and how Democrats are focused on creating jobs and turning this economy around. We did that by fighting for and getting twice as much in this tax cut compromise as they got for holding out for tax cuts for the wealthy, which we know does little to nothing to stimulate the economy.

HAYES: Their irresponsibility is shocking--I agree be that very much.

Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida--thanks so much for your time tonight. I really appreciate it.

SCHULTZ: Thank you. Thanks, Chris.

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