MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Economy

Interview

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REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, D-CALIFORNIA: Always good to be with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Why is it so difficult for Republicans to talk about homelessness, poverty and income inequality?

GARAMENDI: I really don`t know. It would seen to me that any human .being that has compassion for their fellow human being would be addressing this very, very set of issues, homelessness, poverty in America, children, education, all of those things are out there. And we need to deal with them and we can. We`ve done it in the past when Johnson started in 1964, 50 years ago.

On this day, he declared a war on poverty. And we`ve been at it all this time, we`ve made a lot of progress but boy we have more to do right now.

SCHULTZ: There`s no doubt but there are fewer poor people in America today than they were back when this war started in this focus on poverty back in the 60`s. No question about.

But in contemporary time, we`ve had wars that we haven`t paid for, we`ve had Medicare party (ph) which we didn`t pay for, we`ve had tax cuts for the wealthiest that didn`t increase the tax pays. I mean there`s been a few things that have happened that have hurt the war on the poor.

Conservatives never seem to explain how they would help the poor. Are we doing the right things, Congressman?

GARAMENDI: No. No, we`re clearly not there. The minimum wage issue, we just discussed that with Mr. Hoyer and clearly the minimum wage needs to be increased when Reagan was governor in the state of California. It was like $7 and today is -- that was equal to $10.25 today. We`re not even close to that. We`re $7.25 here at the national level. That`s one issue. But we can go beyond that.

The President two year ago, proposed a jobs program for America and it had many different pieces to it. It had a very powerful infrastructure piece that would -- which we need. We need to build that foundation, the roads, the squatter systems and the like.

Nothing has happened here in the .

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: . Congress on that because the House of Representatives controlled by the Republicans refused to deal with it. He talked about education, talked about research.

The only thing that`s happened is the Republicans have downsized all of those critical ingredients of economic growth and of jobs.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Garamendi, what does it say that the Republicans have put together somewhat of what a coaching playbook for their members to go out and explain how they view unemployment that is it called "personal crisis" for that worker and the family. What is that signal? Are they on the defensive? Is the worm turning?

GARAMENDI: Well clearly they`re on the defensive here. The American public, those men and women that are unemployed and those mothers and fathers whose children cannot get a job, they`re concern and they want action. They want action at the federal level. And they are not getting it from the Republican Congress.

You cannot fake empathy. You either have it and you show it in what you do. It`s not what you say. It`s what you do. And in this case, Republican Congress is not doing the things that will deal with the problems of unemployment. It`s a very serious issue.

But, Ed, keep in mind that in the previous 10 years before 2008, 2009 when the new administration came in, nearly 3 million jobs were lost.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: In the last years, we have seen nearly eight million jobs created. We`ve done a lot, but we need to more.

SCHULTZ: With no Republican help.

GARAMENDI: None at all.

SCHULTZ: Congressman John Garamendi, good to have you with us tonight. Thank you, John.

GARAMENDI: Always good to be with you, Ed.

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