MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining me now are three folks who know something about charts. Jeffrey Sachs, economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and a couple congressional members from New York: Yvette Clarke and also Congressman Jerrold Nadler.

Great to have you with us tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good to be here.

SCHULTZ: I want you to know--I didn"t make that chart up, Jerry. I didn"t make that chart up. What do you think of that chart?

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: Well, we"ve seen that chart before. It is actually completely true. It shows the job losses under the Bush administration month by month. We were losing 750,000 to 800,000 jobs a month when the Obama administration took office. It took a little time to turn it around, but every month we lost fewer jobs until eventually we went into the positive jobs and we"re gaining jobs. Now, we"re not gaining jobs nearly fast enough.

SCHULTZ: We"re never gaining jobs fast enough.

NADLER: But we"re gaining jobs as opposed to the other thing.

SCHULTZ: Is it safe to say we"re never gaining jobs fast enough? I mean, the culture of the media, the culture of the political divide in the country, you could be adding 200,000 jobs a month, and they"d say, well, you didn"t do a quarter million, you didn"t do a half million.

NADLER: It is true that during the Clinton administration when we added 22 million jobs, which was a heck of a job, the Bush people--the Republicans are saying not good enough.

SCHULTZ: Congresswoman Clarke, you are on a hunger strike because of this radical Ryan budget that"s out there. Why are you doing this?

REP. YVETTE CLARKE (D), NEW YORK: Well, actually it"s a fast, and it"s because I believe that we have to get some clarity here. That we have to get the American people focused on what"s real and what is being proposed by the Republicans, the reckless Republicans in Washington right now is fictitious. Their agenda is one of destruction. It"s clear to me.

And I know those terms sound a bit drastic but when you look at the cuts that have been done to the budget, the continuing resolution, and what is being proposed and the Ryan budget, that"s our families. That"s our communities. That"s destruction as we know it.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Sachs, take a look at the Ryan budget from what you know of it. He says he wants to save Medicare and Medicaid. Will it do that?

JEFFREY SACHS, ECONOMIST. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Well, it goes right out to destroy Medicaid within the next few years, slashing it drastically. And then on Medicare, he delays for 10 years, and then he goes out to destroy it, to make sure that elderly people will not have a guaranteed access to health care. They will be getting some premium under his plan but they"re going to have to put a lot of money out of pocket.

I think the problem though is that we have actually, in both parties and in the White House, we got a serious problem. We"re already cutting some programs that people absolutely depend on though we don"t even hear what they are right now. Everything is kept secret three days after a so-called historic agreement was reached. We don"t even know what"s in it.

And, unfortunately, the president just keeps on caving to these pressures from the Republican side. So I don"t know exactly where we are. It"s not one side versus the other. It"s a mess in Washington.

SCHULTZ: Is the president caving, Congresswoman?

CLARKE: I think he is trying to do the best he can under the circumstances. You know, the pressure has to come I believe from the American people, who recognize just how critical it is for us to keep our social compact.

SCHULTZ: Well, American people are saying, shared sacrifice? There is no shared sacrifice in what Ryan is doing.

CLARKE: There"s no shared sacrifice.

SCHULTZ: And, Congressman, the president is now--the word is he"s going to put some tax increases on the table with his budget. I think it"s long overdue.

NADLER: I agree.

SCHULTZ: I don"t think the Bush tax cuts should have been extended.

They haven"t created any jobs.

NADLER: The basic problem right now is that the Republicans keep saying, their mantra is, the country is broke. We have to cut services. We have to cut Medicare and eliminate Medicare programs. We have to cut Medicaid, cut everything.

We don"t hear anybody saying and the president has not been saying what he should have been saying, which is the country is not broke. We"re simply not taxing big corporations enough. G.E. paid no taxes on $14 billion in profits. We"re not taxing the millionaires and billionaires enough.

The total revenue going to the government as a percentage of the GDP is lower than any time since 1930.

SCHULTZ: Mr. Sachs, if we do reinstate the Bush tax--or wipe them out and go back to the top 2 percent, go back to the old rate from 35 percent to 39.5 percent, what would that do? Would that turn it around?

SACHS: That wouldn"t turn around everything but it"s absolutely vital that we do that. That"s why it was unforgivable for the White House and the Republicans at Congress to agree to that disastrous deal last December. And, unfortunately, that put us a trillion dollars into the hole for this year and next year, and now, we"re responding to that deeper hole by cutting programs for the poor. This made absolutely no sense.

NADLER: We"re forgetting history here. Under Bill Clinton, he took office when there was a big deficit. We increased taxes and cut some expenditures, but basically increased taxes with not a single Republican vote back in 1993. The Republicans said the economy will collapse. Joblessness will go up. We gained 22 million jobs.

SCHULTZ: Everything is in theory. Every--there"s this big theory out there by the Republicans that, you know what? If we give the richest people in the country more money, they"re going to go out and create jobs as if they know how the social engineering is going to be taking place in this country.

NADLER: Theory is well and good, but now we have history.

CLARKE: That"s right.

NADLER: When Bush was elected, if you remember the campaign debate in 2000, it was what should we do with the $5.6 trillion surplus we"re going to have in the next 10 years?

SCHULTZ: Yes. And, Yvette, I want to ask you--the comment from Paul Ryan is that they"re going to save Medicare and Medicaid. Your response to that?

CLARKE: They are obliterating it. Clearly, you know, they"re going after it. They want to privatize health care in America. That has been their ongoing mission, is to privatize. And they want to make sure that our grandparents are the ones who suffer the consequences.

SCHULTZ: So, it sounds to me like they want to put the government or the private insurance company in between the doctor and the patient for the elderly people. It sounds to me like this could be the new version of their death panels.

NADLER: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: I mean, this is --

NADLER: And what"s ironic in particular is you look at Mr. Ryan"s budget, which the Republicans are going to vote through the House this week, he cuts $4.2 trillion in expenditures and cuts $4.3 trillion in taxes. It doesn"t even reduce the deficit really. He simply takes all that money from low and middle income people and elderly people and gives it to the rich people and the corporations.

CLARKE: It"s a wealth transfer program.

SCHULTZ: Quickly, Congresswoman, what do you need the president to do on Wednesday? Does he have to stand tall against--for these entitlements?

CLARKE: And he needs to put revenues on the table.

SCHULTZ: He does. I agree with that.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs and also Representatives Yvette Clarke and Jerry Nadler, great to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much for coming in.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source