MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Unemployment Benefits

Interview

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REP. STENY HOYER, (D) MARYLAND: Hi, Ed, good to be with you as always.

SCHULTZ: You bet. OK. It doesn`t seem like it`s going to come all down to Boehner. It seems like there these six senators who are starting to balk. They want cuts too. Where are we at this hour as you see it?

HOYER: Well, look Senator Reid has said, they wanted to do a 90-day extension while we talk about what can be done on a longer term. Ninety days to make sure that these 1.4 million people of which 20,000 are veterans who are without their unemployment check.

Ninety days unpaid for as it`s historically been the case. Why? Because it`s an emergency. Why? Because stimulating on the one hand and depressing on the other. The economy doesn`t make sense but we`ll talk about that.

But right now, we need to pass immediately an extension where we`ll get these 1.4 million people with some sustenance so they can support themselves and their family.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, does .

HOYER: It`s a huge emergency.

SCHULTZ: . does the number of 63 percent of people in John Boehner`s district, is that just -- is he tone deaf to this?

HOYER: I can`t speak for what he`s thoughts are on that but it`s not surprising. And frankly, that`s lower than I think it is naturally but never the less a majority of people in his district, the majority of people in America, the majority of people in my state and district believe that this unemployment insurance ought to be extended. They know how hard it is to find a job. They know that there are three people looking for a job when there`s only one job available for them. And so they know the adverse consequences to real people that this has caused .

SCHULTZ: OK.

HOYER: . and the agony and pain that`s causing. So they want to see how to get this done. I hope the Republicans will listen.

And by the way, you know, just talking nicely, empathizing with people is not enough.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: You got to do something.

SCHULTZ: Well .

HOYER: Talk is not enough.

SCHULTZ: Are the Democrats willing to do something budgetarily to make this happen? Where would you find cuts? Are you looking at any cuts to play ball with Boehner on this?

HOYER: Look, what we`ve said if the Republicans want cuts, they ought to come up with some cuts and tell us what they are.

SCHULTZ: Yeah

HOYER: And we will consider them.

But the fact to the matter is, what Reid is saying and I absolutely agree with the Majority Leader when he says, "Look. We`ve got to get this done now." You saw Murray and Ryan during the budget process talking about offsets and how difficult it was to find offsets. It`s tough to find offsets. And particularly when we`ve already reduced by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years, expenditures, we`ve cut the budget.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: So what we really need to do now is have a -- an immediate action to stop the hemorrhaging, stop this emergency that is occurring just days after Christmas .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: . and days after a celebration of giving and caring. We cut off unemployment insurance. So I`m very supportive of what Reid is suggesting. Do it now. Do it for 90 days. And then, yes, let`s talk about a permanent way that we can get this done.

Historically, as you know, Ed, we`ve almost always done this out on an emergency basis .

SCHULTZ: Without offsets?

HOYER: . under Republican presidents .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: . and Democratic presidents without offsets.

SCHULTZ: All right. I want to play a clip from Senator Marco Rubio talking about the minimum wage today.

Now, this is something that the Democrats -- I know that you want to bring this forward to make it a big issue addressed income inequality, we got half the wage earners in this country making under $11 an hour. That`s according to Alan Grayson, what he has told me.

So if minimum wage is going to be a big issue for the Democrats, this is what you`re up against. This is Senator Marco Rubio.

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) FLORIDA: Really? This is their solution? To what the president has called the defining issue of our time? Raising the minimum wage may poll well but having a job that pays $10 an hour is not the American Dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: The fact is workers don`t make $10 an hour right now. I don`t even know if Mr. Rubio knows what the federal minimum wage is but that`s the mindset you`re facing right now.

HOYER: You know, it`s really sad. Of course, that`s not the American dream. The American dream is to do much better than that, to have a good life not just as survival life. That`s not what America is about.

But the minimum wage ought to be the absolute minimum that we expect people to pay, to have people work for a living to make sure that we give them incentives but much more importantly than that we give them the opportunity to earn a wage that they can survive on in the richest country on the face of the earth.

That`s the issue and apparently Senator Rubio doesn`t get that. 10 is a minimum. It`s not a ceiling. It`s not the maximum. It`s not what we want people to aspire to but it is what we ought to do as a country to make sure that there`s a minimum.

Ed, as you may know in 1968, in 2013 dollars the minimum wage today would be $10.60 cents.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

HOYER: If you ever take a couple of cents.

SCHULTZ: Although the wage earners are way behind. But I find, Senator -- I find Senator Rubio`s comment very interesting.

He admits that the people what they think doesn`t matter. I mean if poll is well that means that`s what the people want. But what the people want doesn`t matter to the Republican Party.

I mean he indicts his philosophy in his operational process right there in front of the microphone. I just think that it polls well because that`s what the people want, OK?

And they`re not willing to give what the people want just like the unemployment insurance is exactly what the people want. But the final point here, Congressman, do you believe that if it were brought to the floor in the House that the unemployment insurance would pass?

HOYER: Yes. I do.

SCHULTZ: OK.

HOYER: I don`t think there`d be a Democrat that would vote against it. And I think that there would be certainly enough Republicans, we only need another 18 Republicans to pass it. Certainly there are 18 Republicans who have the kind of .

SCHULTZ: Sure.

HOYER: . compassion that is necessary to backup the talk that they`re instructed to be and the empathy that they`re ask to display they ought to vote that .

SCHULTZ: OK.

HOYER: . empathy and that talk.

SCHULTZ: Steny Hoyer, great to have you with us, Congressman. Thank you
so much.

HOYER: Thanks, Ed.

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