MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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But at this hour, Congress is nearing a deal on all of it. A potential deal would include up to 75 weeks of unemployment benefits for the hardest hit states -- an extension of 63 weeks for the other states.

House Republicans had wanted to cut benefits to 59 weeks.

Joining me tonight is Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.

Congresswoman, great to have you with us. What can you tell us about a pending deal where the numbers sound pretty good?

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D), ILLINOIS: Well, so far, so good, Ed. We`re waiting to hear that the deal gets signed, sealed and delivered, because just extending the payroll tax is not enough. We obviously need to help
those people that if we don`t act by the end of the month, they will have no visible means of support -- people who lost their job, mainly no fault of their own.

SCHULTZ: So, what about the Medicare issue that needs to be taken care of? Where are we on that? Is this part of this potential deal tonight?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I`m hoping when they say the whole deal is being worked on, they mean also paying the doctors reimbursement for their Medicare patients up to the amount that they need in order to keep
accepting Medicare patients. We cannot have lots and lots of seniors going to their doctors and finding out, nope, sorry, we`re not going to take you anymore. This is very important.

So, those are the three pieces -- the payroll tax extension of unemployment, and what we call the "doc fix" -- making sure doctors get sufficiently paid.

SCHULTZ: And pretty much, the rank-and-file, the Republican leadership shocked the rank-and-file by going this distance should we say. As the election nears, are Republican leaders trying to move more to the
center? I mean, this is really a totally different attitude than what we saw at the end of last year.

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, don`t you think, Ed? It`s partly because they are getting the message that the American people want something to happen, that they want to get these things done and they don`t want to see any more obstruction on the part of the Republicans?

That`s what I`m thinking that they must be reading some polls or actually hearing from their own constituents that these -- you know, get going here.

SCHULTZ: Sure.

SCHAKOWSKY: Stop stopping things.

SCHULTZ: Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky -- always great to have you with us. Thank you so much.

SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you, Ed.

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