MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Let"s go to the Senator from New York Chuck Schumer.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Hi, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Senator, thank you for joining us.
SCHUMER: Sure.
MATTHEWS: This--it seems like the 2012 election has begun, your party, the Democrats, looking out for people who depend on good government like Medicare. They depend on these programs that were created in the "60s.
The Republicans are out there defending people that make a lot more than the members of Congress do. They"re out there defending people that make a lot of money. Is that going to be the fight, that tradeoff between Medicare and rich people?
SCHUMER: I think it"s going to be a big part of the fight.
The basic ideas, we"re focused on the middle class and what they need. We know we have to reduce the deficit. We"re not denying that. But we also know we have to grow this economy to create jobs and protect our middle-class folks in their older age, after they have worked hard.
And I think the contrast couldn"t have been drawn better by the president. I think, for the first time in a while on these budget fights, we have the high ground. And their idea that they should reduce Medicare and other services, college loans, road building, and things that help middle-class people, so they can give greater tax cuts to people who make over $1 million a year, it"s just not going to fly.
And as long as we stick with that, we"re going to win this fight, because we have the high ground.
MATTHEWS: You"re from New York, and proudly so. What about the folks out there, like Claire McCaskill, facing reelection in Missouri--
SCHUMER: Let me tell you--
MATTHEWS: -- and Montana? How are they responding to this thing, this fight?
SCHUMER: They"re responding very well. And that"s because we do, Democrats, have to show that we"re willing to cut the budget. We did.
But, as the House vote shows, you can never go far enough for the Tea Party. Speaker Boehner depended on Democrats to get the vote through, and it ought to be a lesson to him. If he"s going to rely on the Tea Party on this big budget debate, he is not going to get anywhere.
If he"s going to rely on mainstream Republicans and Democrats, and come together somewhere in the middle, we can accomplish a great deal for the country. And I think the vote today was kind of a lesson. If Speaker Boehner hadn"t kept trying to please the Tea Party to no end in the hard right, we would have had a deal much earlier. And with the debt ceiling, we can"t wait that long. It"s too dangerous.
MATTHEWS: Are the Republicans in the Senate going to ask the Democrats to pass the debt ceiling by not using the filibuster, saying, you guys have got over 50 votes; use them?
SCHUMER: Well, look, I think neither side should play games with the debt ceiling, because it"s so vital. We ought to come together like grownups and come somewhere in the middle.
We Democrats believe that we have met them part of the way. We have heard the message that we need to cut waste, inefficiency, and even some programs that are good, but maybe have outlived their usefulness.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
SCHUMER: But we also say that you have to grow the economy and help the middle class, not decimate Medicare, not just cut to smithereens things like cancer research and food inspection and things like that.
And we"re on the road now to winning this fight for the first time in a while. When we did the C.R., it was uphill terrain. Now I think we have evened the playing field. And I think you could see in the president"s speech yesterday he almost relishes this kind of discussion about what kind of America we want.
MATTHEWS: OK.
Senator Chuck Schumer, thanks for coming on HARDBALL tonight.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source