MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

It seems like President Obama today has totally bought your idea of going after people who make more than a million dollars a year and don`t pay their fair share of taxes.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), FINANCE CMTE.: Well, I think it`s a good thing. Most Americans believe that, at least on the highest-income people, people who make over million dollars, that those taxes should not go down with the Bush tax cuts, and maybe should even be a little bit higher. This is the one part of our economic spectrum that`s done extremely well over the last 10 years.

The middle class income is down. Poverty is up. Even upper middle class people have stayed flat. But the very, very wealthy have done extremely well, and they should do their share. They don`t care about
Medicare or Medicaid or student loans. This is the way they can help.

MATTHEWS: The Buffett rule, making sure that people in the very high income brackets pay the same percentage as people in the middle classes pay -- how do you do that? How do you bring that fight to the country and win?

SCHUMER: Oh, I think if the president should bring it to the country, and I believe he will, he will win. And that`s something that I`ve believed for a long time. I believed it back in December.

The bottom line is, 59 percent of Republicans think very well-to-do people should pay more in taxes. And you just have a small group that dominates the Republican Party apparatus that`s against this, but the
American people, liberal, moderate, and conservative are not against it. They`re for it.

So if you go to the country -- you will never get this done by simply asking Republicans to do it. But if you go to the country and change people`s minds, you can get it done. And I think that`s what the president
will relish doing over the next month.

MATTHEWS: Do you think the public knows that the top 1 percent of the country made 20 percent of the income?

SCHUMER: I don`t...

MATTHEWS: The top 20 percent makes 60 percent of the income. Those numbers, do they resound with the public? Are they aware that there`s kind of economic inequality in the country?

SCHUMER: I think the public realizes that economic inequality is on the rise. And most of all, what the public realizes is that the middle class is struggling. I think they might not put it in these terms, but they know that median income has gone down, that it`s harder in 2010 for a middle class family to pay the bills than in 2000.

But they do know that the people at the highest end have done very, very well. And I think they feel -- I don`t think people feel resentment towards the rich, they just want them to do their fair share.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you about this whole debt reduction effort coming up in November. Obviously, it`s going to be...

SCHUMER: Oh, one other -- Chris...

MATTHEWS: Yes. Go ahead.

SCHUMER: Yes, one other thing. And when Eric -- when Tim (SIC) Ryan calls this class warfare, to say that wealthy people should pay their fair share, that`s outrageous. That`s like saying when he calls for a middle
class tax cut that that`s class warfare. Simply to say that income tax should be redistributed in ways differently than it is today, whether you want to have more taxes on some groups or less on others, is not class warfare, and that`s cheap.

MATTHEWS: Can you hold to this position going into the debt reductions in November? Will the Democratic Party say, This is our offer, half this debt reduction has to come in taxes, a lot of it`s got to come from the rich, we`re going to hold the line on this through the fight, even if it means you go into the automatic alternative?

SCHUMER: I believe that the president was really much stronger. I thought the speech he gave today was his best yet. I think he went home. This is my own speculation, of course, but I think he thought about things in August and said he has to draw more differences between who`s stopping things and who`s for things. And that speech today was like (ph) it.

And I think that the president`s saying that we will not cut Medicare and Medicaid, which he took a lot of flak for from his own party when he was agreed to come to the table with Boehner on those things -- but we will not cut those unless we get an increase in revenues -- has now made it possible to actually come to a big deal in the super-committee...

MATTHEWS: Yes.

SCHUMER: ... because before that, if Republicans just say, If you don`t raise taxes, we`re not for any increase in revenues, then their view was, We`ll get this all out of cutting Medicare and Medicaid. Let`s take
that idea off the table because Democrats won`t be for it, and the president did early on, which may allow the super-committee to get more done, rather than less.

MATTHEWS: Is it smart for the president, or is it just simply necessary, he has to focus on debt reduction now, including higher taxes for the wealthy, fair taxes for the wealthy, at a time when the public, in
all the polls, say Democrats should be focusing on jobs, not debt reduction?

SCHUMER: I think...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: ... from that.

CHUMER: Yes. The main focus has to be on jobs, absolutely. But I think the president sees this in a very -- in a continuous way, that our first few years, we should focus on jobs. But over 10 years, we should
reduce the debt and reduce the deficit. And I think that`s where most Americans are.

And I think, actually, it will be easier to create some jobs programs, particularly the kind we really need, such as building infrastructure and making sure that teachers aren`t fired -- it`ll be easier to do that if the
public believes that in the long run, we Democrats are for getting a handle on our debt and our deficit.

MATTHEWS: OK. Thank you so much for coming on HARDBALL, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York.

SCHUMER: Chris, great to be here.

MATTHEWS: Thank you, sir.

SCHUMER: Today`s a good day.

MATTHEWS: Well, a big day for the president. Here`s Howard Fineman, MSNBC political analyst and editorial director for the Huffington Post Media Group. First, let`s take a look at this. Republicans jumped on the
president`s plan today as class warfare. Let`s listen.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source