MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Kathleen Sebelius Resignation
Interview
SCHULTZ: Joining me tonight Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Congressman good to have you with us tonight. All right what`s behind this resignation, what`s the scuttlebutt on capital hill? I mean cabinet member come and go all the time don`t they? I mean if she had left back in November they would have called her a failure, now that there`s 7.5 million people who signed up for Obamacare she`s still failure and that she can`t win what do you make all of this?
REP. MARK POCAN (D), WISCONSIN: Well you spend five years in a position like that and roll out the largest expansion of healthcare in most people`s adult lifetimes, I would be exhausted. I think anyone would be exhausted. And I think that she`s stayed through he end delivered exactly what we said the law would afford. 7.5 million people access to the federal exchange. 3 million people getting expanded healthcare through keeping your children on policies. Millions getting access through expanded Medicaid. She did a tremendous job in making sure that the goals were met. And all but for a little blip on the website I think she has done a tremendous job.
SCHULTZ: Was this -- what`s the rumor mill on the hill. I mean did everybody know this was going to happen. I think a lot of us were surprised by it, there wasn`t any real rumor about it was there?
POCAN: No, I just think that she had made a commitment to stay through this process. But, you know, I`ve known other people who`d been in cabinets and it`s an exhausting process. And people who spent half as much time as she had needed a break after working 14-16 hour daily. So, I think the fact that she shepherd this program through -- got it to the exact results what we had hope for. I just think it says a tremendous amount about what she`s able to do and I hope she gets a good rest now because he deserves it.
SCHULTZ: Your reaction to the right wing, talk about this, she`s a failure, this was in the works all along. All because of the rocky roll out. What about all that?
POCAN: You know, I think there`s a role if you`re Republican you have to trash the ACA or something related to the ACA everyday or else they`ll take away your pin. So, you know, I think is just more and more of what, you know, they do all the time, we voted 50 3 times I think to repeal the affordable care act, now they`re trashing the person who successfully brought it to us. They want to rewrite history, they don`t want you to know that when they passed the law this is what we said would happen and now it happened and million of people have access to affordable healthcare and they want to rewrite the story.
So now it means trashing the person who brought to us. I think its sad state of affairs but it`s kind of what we got or used to out here.
SCHULTZ: All right the Ryan Budget passed the house yesterday which of course includes a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. How much longer can these jokers deny that the law is helping people, millions of people, how is this -- is this just what they`re going to do all the way through the midterms and beyond?
POCAN: Yeah I think they had one of their main polsters said you just keep talking about it. This is before they knew the successes were there and they just can`t stop. So, you know, the Paul Ryan budget repeals the benefits of the Affordable Care Act but it keeps the revenue and savings from it. So it`s an intellectually dishonest document. That`s $2 trillion Ed. That whole balancing the budget in 10 years stuff if completely broken down, it`s like a piece of fiction. And the fact they`re repealing the law but keeping the benefits and the savings, that`s a $2 trillion mistake just on top of all the other things in that fantasy.
SCHULTZ: Well it is going to be interesting. Great to have you with us Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin here on the Ed Show tonight, thanks a lot. Still ahead, the Sioux Native Americans get ready to set up camp in Washington DC. What`s at stake on the front lines of the fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline. And later John Boehner passes the buck on extending unemployment benefits. Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers, coming up on that. But next I`m taking your questions. Ask Ed Live next here on the Ed Show on MSNBC we`ll be right back.
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