CNN "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" - Transcript: ACA and Government Shutdown

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL), CHAIRWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thank you for having me.

CROWLEY: Be a pundit for a moment and tell me how this ends.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, I can tell you how I hope it ends, as a member of Congress who represents hundreds of thousands of people in South Florida, I hope it ends with cooler heads prevailing on the Republican side of the aisle, where they finally understand that they should not hold the economy hostage, that they should not play chicken with our economic stability by tying a completely unrelated issue, Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, to whether we are, A, going to keep the government running or, B, pay the nation's bills. That's totally and wholly irresponsible.

CROWLEY: Well, and Republicans will say and have said, first of all, Obamacare will affect the budget, does affect the budget, we are spending on the budget. But more than that, they hope Democrats will come to their senses and that they will do some negotiating.

If it is so important, if it's going to be so terrible when the government shuts down, shouldn't some Democrat somewhere and some Republican somewhere say, why don't we have a meeting, why don't we figure our way out of this?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, if you look at the polling, Candy, even people who oppose the Affordable Care Act, they overwhelmingly oppose using the strategy of defunding Obamacare and they oppose shutting the government down and tying it to Obamacare.

So what should happen? And I sit on the Appropriations Committee. And we used to do this all the time, sit down today, hammer out the negotiations over what we are going to fund in the budget. Are we going to make sure -- what level are we funding education and health care and our troops and defense?

CROWLEY: But some of those budgets -- I mean, that's the normal budget process which hasn't happened in six years.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You're right. And that process needs to be fixed. But last night you have Republican tea party extremists actually celebrating on the House Floor, publicly celebrating that they got -- Michele Bachmann said she got everything she wanted.

You have other Republicans who have said they're delighted over shutting the government down. What we need to do is come together. And let me just give you an analogy here. This is -- there's clear evidence that the tail is wagging the dog and you have got Republicans on the other side who are irrational and not playing with a full deck.

Would you -- if you didn't like the redesign of your kitchen, would you burn the whole house down or would you try to make modifications to the kitchen? These people have come unhinged.

CROWLEY: So, I mean, that's fairly rough. You are talking about people who come from districts who have constituents who don't want Obamacare. I mean, that's what they would say. Let's say it may be irrational, but this is our chance to make some difference here.

I wanted to play for you something that Senator Rand Paul, who is opposed to Obamacare, but didn't think that this was going to work, and he had a suggestion here. And it's about a conference committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Why don't we have a conference committee on this? You could appoint one today that could meet tomorrow and hash out the differences. That's the way it's supposed to work. Republicans and Democrats are supposed to find a middle ground. But right now it's the president saying my way or the highway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CROWLEY: And, in fact, can you not look at this through the other looking glass and say, here is Senator Reid saying I want a clean CR, that's all I want. Because, you know, Republicans are saying, why are we the ones shutting down the government when Harry Reid is over there refusing to negotiate and the president won't pick up the phone?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Look, we could absolutely have a conference committee. In conference committees, there is give and take over an appropriations bill on the funding for the government. We are not...

(CROSSTALK)

CROWLEY: But not for the CR.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The CR is...

CROWLEY: How about for this -- I mean, you know, not a budget, but...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The other issue is, I mean, not to get too technical, if we don't have conference committees over the CR...

CROWLEY: Hey, if the government is going to shut down, why not?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: If the government shuts down, it is wholly the Republicans' fault because we have voted 43 times now to delay or defund the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which has been settled for years now.

What the Republicans are doing, let's understand what they're doing. They're willing to shut the government down and deny further health care research. They're willing to close national parks. They're willing to close some Head Start programs all over whether or not we are going to make sure that everyone in America has access to quality, affordable health care.

Their amendment last night to delay Obamacare by a year, what it does is, it would prevent people like me, who have a pre-existing condition as a breast cancer survivor, from knowing that we have the comfort of never being dropped or denied coverage for a pre-existing condition. That is what they're willing to shut the government down over.

CROWLEY: So if you look at what they proposed before, which was, let's defund it entirely, they say, we came back and said, OK, delay it for a year.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: No, no...

CROWLEY: So they are compromising, they believe, on their side. Would you look at the medical device tax, which is also there?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: We are not going to allow the Republicans to hold the economy hostage over whether or not we are going to make sure that people have access to quality, affordable health care.

They -- the Congress passed this, and the president signed it into law. The Supreme Court upheld it as constitutional. And we had an election in which President Obama was re-elected over the central question of Obamacare. And the Republicans won't let it go.

Enough, already. Let's move on.

CROWLEY: How about the medical device tax, which a lot of Democrats don't like the tax on medical devices? They would like it repealed. How about -- and the idea that, no, we're not going to delay Obamacare but how about... WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: How about we not shut the government down? And then, as President Obama has said, as so many of us have said, because we know, look, the implementation of anything significant like the Affordable Care Act, is not going to be completely smooth.

So let's work together to iron out the kinks as they come up. But let's not allow extremists in the Republican Party to hold our economy hostage and stall what is already a fragile recovery and prevent people from affordable health care. That's not negotiation, that's hostage-taking.

CROWLEY: Let's pretend that the speaker -- Speaker Boehner says, fine, I'll put a clean CR on the floor, I'll take the CR and put it on the floor. He is going to lose Republican votes...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Sure, right.

CROWLEY: ... as you know. He may lose more than half his caucus. We don't know. Are there enough Republicans, quickly, if you can tell me -- I mean, enough Democrats, sorry, to fill in that gap? Will they vote for it?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: We'll pass a clean CR. Absolutely. And then down the road as we implement Obamacare, make sure everybody has access to health care, let's work together to iron out the kinks as they come up.

CROWLEY: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, it's always nice to see you.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you, Candy.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPSt

Source