CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript

CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcritpt

WOODRUFF: With America's governors' meeting here in Washington today, let's talk with the chairman of the National Governors Association. He is Mark Warner of Virginia, he's been mentioned, by the way, as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2008.

Governor, I am going to get to the governors' meeting, but I have to ask you first, how much time are you spending thinking about running for president?

GOV. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Well, I have more than a full- time job as governor of Virginia. This is my last year. I'm really proud of what we've been able to accomplish. But I'm only focused on fulfilling that obligation.

WOODRUFF: Somebody-the man who ran your '01 campaign, Steve Jarding (ph), was quoted over the weekend saying you are the hottest-one of the hottest, if not the hottest star, in the Democratic Party.

WARNER: Well, that's kind of Steve to say, but I-there's an awful lot of good potential candidates out there. But I think what we have got to do as Democrats is, you know, keep bringing the party back to the center and be able to reach across an awful lot of party lines in the way we have in Virginia in terms of getting tax reform through, in terms of making Virginia now the second fastest-growing state in the country.

WOODRUFF: You would leave office this year. You can only serve one term. There's a lot of speculation about whether you would run for the Senate.

A poll came out the other day showing you would beat the incumbent Republican, George Allen. Is that a possibility?

WARNER: Judy, again, if I want to have options after I finish, options in politics after I finish this job, I don't want to mess up this last year as governor. So the people of Virginia hired he me for four years. I'm going to stay focused on that. The future will take care of itself.

WOODRUFF: No answers right now anyway.

WARNER: Right.

WOODRUFF: All right. Governor, let's talk about what the meeting, the governors' meeting today was all about.

A lot of focus on Medicaid. We know the president, the administration's proposing to cut something like $60 billion out of Medicaid over the next 10 years or so. The administration argues this is-this is money that absolutely should come out, it's waste, fraud and abuse.

WARNER: We categorically disagree with that. The fact of the matter is, Medicaid now provides health care for 53 million Americans, more Americans than are on Social Security. And if Social Security may or may not go bankrupt in 2042, let me assure you, unless we can fix Medicaid, it's going to bankrupt the states long before that, probably within the next decade.

So what we've got to do is we understand that Medicaid as it's currently structured has to be-has to be changed. We can no longer allow the kind of cost shifts, the way the president is proposing, moving $60 billion down to the cost of the states, or the way that employers continue to cut off health insurance for their employees, pushing them onto Medicaid, or the fact that seniors-and Medicaid is not about poor people anymore -- 60 percent of seniors who are in nursing homes are on Medicaid, continue to divest of their assets to go on Medicaid. So we've got to make those changes.

WOODRUFF: Well, that's an example of abuse, isn't it? And, I mean, isn't it right to look at that and say let's end it and save money that way?

WARNER: Well, I think looking at how we can avoid seniors divesting of their assets before they go into long-term care absolutely ought to be discussed. But is it discussed in a way where we've got to-we get back into a budget number, or can we engage with the administration?

And let me say, Mike Leavitt, the new secretary of Health and Human Services, is the best news possible in terms of getting Medicaid reform because he understands the problem. But can we back into an issue like divestiture of assets in a way that says can we provide tax credits for people to buy long-term care insurance? Can we look at look-backs? Yes, but can we also perhaps allow seniors to keep something to pass on to their kids and grandkids?

So the devil's in the details on all of these issues.

WOODRUFF: But frankly, if you're a citizen sitting out there and you're not personally receiving Medicaid, and you can be a little bit objective, you say, what difference does it make whether you back in because of a number or whether you plan it some other way? I mean, they just-the argument is, let's get the money's worth here.

WARNER: Because what we're talking about is 53 million Americans and a growing number who receive their basic health care from Medicaid. What we've got to do is we're willing to engage with the administration on Medicaid reform. And I think for the first time in a long time governors in both parties absolutely realize the system's got to change.

But what it shouldn't be driven by is a budget number that's in a congressional reconciliation process that has to happen within a couple weeks. What we want to do is work with the administration on their ideas for reform, some of the ideas that we as governors are going to put forward.

Part of those are our greater flexibility, part of those may be tax credits. But that discussion is going to take place over the coming weeks.

WOODRUFF: But meanwhile, you've got the president doing most of his public speaking these days on Social Security.

WARNER: Again, one of the concerns that a lot of us have that says we wish-we think the president maybe has picked the wrong crisis. The immediacy of the crisis in Medicaid, the fact of the matter is in Medicaid right now nationally, Medicaid costs outdistance education costs at the state level. So what we've done now is we've put governors in the position where they've got to pick between grandma and the grandkids in terms of state priorities. So we do need Medicaid reform, but it ought to be driven through a reform process, not by a budget number.

WOODRUFF: OK. We're going to leave it there. Governor Mark Warner, who's the chairman of the National Governors Association.

WARNER: Thank you, Judy.

WOODRUFF: Right next door from Virginia. Thank you very much, Governor. It's good to see you.

WARNER: Thank you.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0502/28/ip.01.html