MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript: What the Democratic Party is Doing

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MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.

With the exception of the presidential race, of course, perhaps no election was followed as closely in 2012 as the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race that brought progressive hero Elizabeth Warren to Washington.

In her book, "A Fighting Chance," Warren tracks her incredible journey to the Senate. She writes of her family`s financial struggles as a kid. Her father went from being a salesman to a maintenance man. After he suffered a heart attack, the family almost lost the family house.

Her mother got a job answering phones at Sears to make ends meet. Warren argues the system is rigged against working families like the one she grew up -- quote -- "Over the past generation, America`s determination to give every kid access to affordable college or technical training has faded. The basic infrastructure that helps us build thriving businesses and jobs, the roads, the bridges, the power grids, has crumbled. The optimism that defines us as a people has been beaten and bruised. It doesn`t have to be this way" -- close quote.

She tells the story of one woman she met at a campaign event when she was running who had walked two miles -- walked -- just to see her. The woman was unemployed and wondered if she would ever work again. She told Warren -- quote -- "I`m here because I`m running out of hope."

So, what hope is there for Elizabeth Warren and the Democratic Party? What are they offering that woman and many others?

Senator Elizabeth Warren joins us right now.

Senator Warren, thank you. Senator Warren, thank you so much.

Congratulations on your book.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Thank you.

MATTHEWS: "A Fighting Chance" is a wonderful title and a wonderful sentiment.

And my questions to you come down to the most kitchen table economics you could imagine, not the big questions of Wall Street or the macroeconomics, but the simple question.

What can and could or will the Democratic Party do, since it is the party that wants to do it, to create real jobs for people, so that the families up in Scranton in Pennsylvania don`t see their kids all running away hopelessly trying to find a job somewhere, that the black kid growing up in North Philly in the old Irish neighborhood where I grew up has a job prospect he can see coming when he`s in his early teens, he has an uncle who is working, so he knows what kind of a job he would like to get?

To restore the hope of a meaningful family-building employment that seems to be gone in so much of the country, how do you bring it back?

WARREN: Well, you know, this isn`t magic. We actually know how to do this.

We did this for nearly half-a-century, coming out of the Great Depression, until about 1980. We made the investments together that helped build opportunity for all of us.

You know, I will start with education. We made those investments in education, one of the things I talk about in the book. I went to a commuter college that cost $50 a semester. And, you know, it opened a million doors for me. How could I go to a school that cost $50 a semester? Because I grew up in an America that said we collectively, all of us, are going to make those investments in education, so that any kid who works hard, who`s playing by the rules, who tries to get out there and make something of herself is going to have a fighting chance to make that happen.

And we did something else. We made the investments together that helped build a robust economy. You know, every time we talk about roads and bridges, when we talk about power grids, it`s really about setting the table, so that small businesses can start, so that business can grow, so they can flourish, so they can create jobs here at home.

There is a reason we make those investments. It makes it easier. It makes it -- it makes more profitable to invest in having those jobs here in America.

And one more part. We, for more than half-a-century, had an idea -- this is what separated us as a people -- that we would invest in research, in medical research, in scientific research. Why did we invest in those things? We invested in them because we believed that, if we built a big pipeline of ideas, that our children would be able to create things and build things that we could only dream of.

And, together, that built a robust economy for America, an economy that expanded, that created more jobs, that meant that, as a country, we got richer, and, family by family, we got richer. Those things work together.

We know how to do this. It changed in the 1980s, when the Republicans came up with a different vision. They said, eh, that`s not how you build an economy. The way you build an economy is you let those at the very top, the richest and the most powerful, keep more of their money and more of their power, and, somehow, it`s going to trickle down for everybody else.

Well, we tried that for more than 30 years, and it really hasn`t worked. It has cut the legs out from underneath America`s middle class.

MATTHEWS: So, what are the Democrats going to do then? What are -- look, look, let me just tell you the picture I`m drawing right now....

WARREN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: ... in graphic terms.

David Garth, the great political guy in New York, once said, remove the smell of -- get rid of the smell of decay and bring in the smell of construction. And we know what construction smells like. It`s dirt being moved. It`s the smell of cement.

WARREN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: And yet, when I go to Penn Station in New York, it`s a rat hole. I look at JFK, the airport, it`s an embarrassment.

We have got so much in this country falling apart under our cities. It`s going to be underwater some day, thanks to climate change. We have got nobody working. I don`t understand the union movement in this country. Why aren`t they bitching and moaning and complaining every day, we want big construction projects?

And the president of the United States isn`t doing it. I don`t hear him talking about it. He talks about one thing one day, something else the next day. But I`m telling you, I don`t hear you getting it done. The Democrats control the U.S. Senate. The Democrats control the White House. When are you going to do what you just said you would like to do? Just when? Give me a date. Is it 2017?

(CROSSTALK)

WARREN: No. It`s now.

MATTHEWS: 2023? When is it?

WARREN: It`s now.

MATTHEWS: It isn`t now.

WARREN: Stop...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: When is it happening?

WARREN: We just voted -- we just voted on this last week.

You stop and think about it, because all of the things you have talked about, every time we get up and talk about helping education, whether it`s preschool or whether it`s college, we talk about roads and bridges and power grids. We talk about NIH research.

Every time, the Republicans say exactly the same thing. They say, oh, there`s just not enough money. There`s just not enough money. There`s just not enough money. And then they say, we are -- they are going to fight to protect every tax loophole that currently exists that permits billionaires to pay at a lower tax rate than their secretaries.

They fight to protect every subsidy to big oil, to big agriculture. They say they are going to continue to fight for all of those things. And that`s what the fight is about in Washington. We just saw it last week.

MATTHEWS: You`re blaming it on the Republicans, but you control the Senate and you control the White House.

WARREN: Remember what the vote was last week in the United States Senate. We put forward a bill to say, look, we want our young people to get an education that we shouldn`t be crushing them with student loan debt. Right now in America, there is $1.2 trillion outstanding in student loan debt, 40 million people who are dealing with student loans.

And here`s the trick -- the United States government is charging interest rates that are producing tens of billions of dollars in profits for the government. So, what we proposed is to bring those interest rates down, to wring some of the profits out of the system. The problem, of course, is those profits are baked into the budget.

So, we said, we`re going to pay for it by sewing up some of the tax loopholes available only for millionaires and billionaires. I want to be clear on this -- the Republicans filibustered it. We got within two votes. We got every single Democrat. We got both independents and we picked up three Republicans.

We are at 58 votes in the choice between billionaires on the one hand and students on the other. That`s about as direct as you can make the choices. And that`s what we are going to do. We`re going to keep making it clear what the choices are. We are going to be out there talking to the grassroots, to people, to push back -- to push back on the Republicans who say it is more important to protect billionaires, people who have already made it, than it is people who are just trying to get a start.

That`s what this is all about. Are we going to be there for people who just want a fighting chance to build something for themselves?

MATTHEWS: Well, everything you`re doing is good. I just don`t see the main hope coming back to the American people when it comes to real jobs.

And I still talk about the examples I grew up with, whether it`s the middle class families getting old and seeing kids move away because there are no jobs, the factories are closed, Boeing closed, Berthal (ph) closed, Buds closed. All the places where we used to be able to take a subway ride to a job are closed, they`re either replaced by nothing or tennis courts and nice restaurants. But there aren`t job creating businesses left.

And I still don`t hear from you and the Democrats, real construction jobs. I was just in China with my wife who works for a big hotel company. And I have to tell you, they are building on Friday night over there. The bulldozers are moving.

We don`t do it because we are afraid to borrow the money or tax the money. But we`re not doing it.

WARREN: No!

MATTHEWS: And I`m afraid, five years from now, we were having the same conversation with you. And you are a fine senator, but it isn`t happening. It just isn`t.

WARREN: But, look, you`ve got to talk about why it`s not happening. This is exactly what I talk about, the fact that China is investing 9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure. Over here in the United States, we are down at 2.4 percent and the Republicans want to cut it even further. The fundamental question, we have a huge fight going on here in Washington.

MATTHEWS: Why don`t you call the president right now and say, why don`t you do something really big on infrastructure? It will grab the public imagination. He`s not doing it.

WARREN: You`ve got to have the money to do it. The Republicans are filibustering in the Senate.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

WARREN: They won`t bring bills to the floor in the House.

But, look, that doesn`t mean you give up. You don`t just wash your hands and say nobody is doing this. At least you`ve got one side that`s trying to fight for it.

We`ve got to get out there and fight, and our only chance is if we can engage enough people at the grassroots level, enough people who say, what do you mean you`re choosing billionaires over students? What do you mean? You`re saying you`re going to continue to do subsidies for big oil but there`s no money for roads and bridges?

Those are the choices right now that the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting in Congress. Which way are we going to go?

Look, we are fighting back. We are fighting for what we believe in. We are fighting to build a future for America.

We can`t do it by ourselves. We need people across the country to help push on the Republicans. Like I said, on student loans in the Senate, we need two more votes.

MATTHEWS: Well, good luck.

WARREN: It`s time to push.

MATTHEWS: The name of the book is "The Fighting Chance." I see you in action. I`m glad I got you aroused a bit.

WARREN: You bet.

MATTHEWS: But good cause, good work, I still got my focus, a little bit different than yours, more blue collar. But keep at it.

Thank you, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

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