MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Congressman John Garamendi from California joins me now.

Congressman, great to have you with us.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Excuse me, I"ve got to text this number in.

SCHULTZ: Text that number in and what is it, my friend?

GARAMENDI: It"s no and hell no. There is no way. There is absolutely no way we should allow this to happen.

And there"s a very, very strong group of the Democratic Caucus that are saying, no, we are not going to do this. This is wrong, wrong to cut Medicare, wrong to go after Social Security.

Social Security is not the problem. Social Security actually is the cash cow for the budget. It"s running a surplus and will for the next decade and beyond that. No way should we ever touch Social Security.

And Medicare--no. Not in this process. We"re being held hostage. There"s a simple way of doing that. Put a clean, clean, lift the debt limit and let"s get on with dealing with the problems of America, which you said very well, Ed. It"s jobs, it"s jobs, and we"ve got to create jobs in this country if we are ever going to solve this deficit program.

SCHULTZ: All right. Congressman, let"s play out the scenario that I was just talking about. Let"s say Mr. Boehner and the Republicans say you can have some revenue. That"s going to bring as I see it you and the rest of the Democrats to a crossroads. You"re going to have to make a decision.
If there are tax cuts or--excuse me, if there are tax increases on the table for the wealthy, will you still say no cuts to Social Security?

GARAMENDI: I thought I just said no and hell no. I mean it. I mean it. We have no right at this time or anytime in the future to harm those who are in Social Security. Period, ended it, no.

SCHULTZ: That"s perfect. And I wish that all Democrats would say exactly what you"re saying with such clarity.

Why can"t the president say that? Why does he have such an insatiable appetite to do a deal with the Republicans?

GARAMENDI: I don"t know. I don"t get it. I mean, we--frankly, we"ve ruined the message here. This is about jobs. It"s been about jobs since 2008. It"s about putting people back to work and somehow we"ve gotten into this deficit issue which can only be solved when people go back to work.
We need a job agenda. We"ve been work on that with our "make it in America" agenda. And, frankly, we"ve got to get the president onboard.

Get this deficit thing, get this default crisis behind us. Put a clean one out. It"s been hundreds of times over the last three decades. We have moved the debt limit up. We"ve gone on.

We need to solve the deficit with a long term program that is based on tax increases on the wealthy. There is no way the Wall Street barons who have managed to rip this country off and put in the most harm way are getting off with a 15 percent income tax. It"s just not right.

So, shared sacrifice, you bet. They"re the ones that need to sacrifice.

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