MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Joining me now is Vermont senator, independent Senator Bernie Senator.

Senator, good to have you with us tonight. You have been undoubtedly a force when it comes for working families, and sticking up for what they`ve got to hold onto in this country. Are you a little nervous about
the president tonight talking about Americans having to serve it up and reform Medicare and Medicaid? What do you make of it?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Well, the devil is going to be in the details.

The question is what kind of reforms the president is talking about. If, for example, in terms of Medicare, we begin negotiating prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry, we can save billions and
billions of dollars. Ed, that`s a good reform.

If he means by that raising the eligibility age to get Medicare from 65 to 67 -- that`s a bad reform. When you talk about healthcare, we can never forget that our nation spends almost twice as much per person on
healthcare as any other nation does.

So, we can make a lot of reforms to make our system more cost effective. It shouldn`t mean throwing people off of Medicare or raising the eligibility age for Medicare.

SCHULTZ: Senator, it`s all about the money, isn`t it? I mean, $447 billion that`s going to be paid for, that means more cuts are on the way. But yet I didn`t hear the president tonight say anything about Iraq and
Afghanistan.

SANDERS: Right.

SCHULTZ: You want to get to the budget? Go to the wars and end them. What about that?

SANDERS: Well, I think you`re absolutely right. We have tripled military spending since 1997. We`re spending $160 billion a year on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I think it is time to bring the troops home as quickly as possible. It`s the right thing to do. We can save substantial sums of money.

Ed, the other issue out there is the president touched on a number of enormously important themes -- infrastructure, rehiring teachers, summer jobs for kids, extending unemployment. All of those are good things.

One of the concerns that I have is most of his effort is going into tax breaks. And I`m not quite sure that the tax breaks route is as effective as direct investment in terms of creating jobs.

SCHULTZ: He gave the Republicans tonight what they`ve been asking for for months, and that`s corporate tax breaks, reducing the rate from 35 to 25, although he did not throw out a specific number, but he talked about reduction, on the hope he can close some loopholes which Republicans have been against all along.

So which is it? What can he get? What will Congress go along with?

SANDERS: Well, I`ll tell you, nobody knows the answer now, but this is what I did like. He said he was going to get out and talk to the American people. Demand the American people to pressure Congress to address the horrendous jobs crisis that we currently face. And if he does that and does it well, we can turn this thing around, put the Republicans for a change on the defensive.

We got 16 percent of our people are unemployed, underemployed. We need a major jobs program and need it now.

SCHULTZ: All right. Do you think he will get any help quickly? I mean, Mr. Boehner tonight said it has some merit. It was not the hostile response in which we are used to from Republicans.

Is there a ray of hope here?

SANDERS: I think there is. If the American people stand up and say no more tax breaks for the rich, let`s rebuild America, let`s create the jobs we need, we can pin this thing.

SCHULTZ: All right. Senator Sanders, thanks for your time tonight.

SANDERS: Thank you.

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