MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews - Transcript

MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews - Transcript

MATTHEWS: The National Governors Association kicked off its winter meeting in Washington this weekend. And the chairman of the NGA, the National Governors Association, is one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party, Virginia Governor Mark Warner.
Governor, how was President Bush this morning in addressing the governors?

GOV. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Well, he was very engaging. He spent about 45 minutes with us.

But there's still a big divide between where the governors are at and where the president is at on the issue of Medicaid. And a lot of governors feel that the president has picked the wrong crisis to focus on. Social Security doesn't go broke until, even on his own terms, 2042, when Medicaid is going to drive most states into bankruptcy over the next decade.

MATTHEWS: He is asking to you pick up, what, $40 billion that the federal government has been asked to pick up before?

WARNER: It's actually worse than that. It's $60 billion over 10 years. And it's part of a triple whammy. It's a cost shift from the federal government to the states, combined with a cost shift as employers, get rid of health insurance for their employees, shifting it to the states, and as increasing number of seniors decide to disinvest of their assets before they go into a nursing home, and, again, cost shift to the states.

We can absorb one or two of those. All three of those have combined to make Medicaid now costs more on the average in a state than education.

MATTHEWS: So, when the president cuts the federal contribution to Medicaid, which is health care for people who are worse off in this country, that means the states have to pick it up. That means the states have to do what? And they have to balance their budgets. They have to, what, raise property taxes?

WARNER: Well, what you have got is, you have got now 53 million Americans on Medicaid. That's more than people on Social Security, why I think he's picked the wrong crisis to focus on. When the feds shift the cost to the states, you end up with Medicaid costs now higher than education, you're pitting the needs of grandma against the needs of the grandkids. And that's not a choice any governor wants to make.

We think Medicaid has got to change, and we're willing to work with Mike Leavitt, let me tell you, the secretary of health and human services, best thing going in the Bush administration, because we can do business with him. But we have got to work it out in a Medicaid reform package, not simply to hit a budget deficit number in the president's proposal.

MATTHEWS: Don't-Governor, don't a lot of people who have someone in the family who is an Alzheimer's person, the spouse of-the caregiver will impoverish himself or herself to go on Medicaid to be able to afford that kind of care?

WARNER: Absolutely.

But it's not just people who have got Alzheimer's; 60 percent of the seniors who are in nursing homes are there on Medicaid. And with the changing demographics, aging of our population, that problem is just going to explode. So, we have got to find ways to encourage people not to dispose of their assets. We have got to find ways to encourage people to buy long-term care. Perhaps tax credits is one way.

We ought to find a way to allow people to pass on certain assets perhaps to their kids and grandkids, particular if they've worked hard all their life. This is an issue we have got to take on. But it ought to be done in the context of a reform package, not simply let's plug a budget deficit number in and try to work a policy to get to that number. Let's do meaningful Medicaid reform this year.

MATTHEWS: Let me talk politics with you, Governor. You are a Democrat elected in a Republican state, which just elected you, obviously, but also just voted for President Bush by about a 10-point spread. How does a Democrat get elected in a Republican state?

WARNER: Well, one of the things you do is, you have got to get some Republicans and independents to vote for you. One of the things we pride ourselves on is trying to run a government in Virginia that's bipartisan.

And it's worked. We took on last year the question of tax reform. Now Virginia is the second-fastest growing state in the country. As a matter of fact, we were very proud of the fact we were just named the best-managed state in the country. So, in Virginia, it's actually the Democrats, or at least this Democratic governor, that has been more an advocate of fiscal responsibility than perhaps some of the Republicans in Washington.

MATTHEWS: This may be a bad metaphor, but between you and the presidency, Governor, is an 800-pound gorilla named Hillary Clinton. Can you get past her?

WARNER: Listen, Chris, all I know is, I have got one year left of being governor of Virginia. The people hired me for four years. If I want to try to do something else in politics after I'm done being governor, the best thing I can do is not mess up this last year as governor of Virginia. That means stay focused on the job I'm doing.
MATTHEWS: What do you think of my theory that whoever beats Hillary Clinton, if somebody does, in the Democratic primary, that the conservative Democrats who are men or women or the moderates or the-some Republicans will like that person because they knocked off somebody they didn't want to see as president?

WARNER: Well, I think there-the key to becoming elected Democrat on a national basis, you have got to show some level of breaking with Democratic orthodoxy. Too often, people have to show that they're somehow not a national Democrat. But who knows what 2008 will hold.

MATTHEWS: Thank you, Governor Warner.

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