MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Veterans Affairs
Interview
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Senator Sanders, thank you for being here.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: My pleasure.
MADDOW: Are you now optimistic, when you took to the Senate floor on Wednesday, you sounded like you were worried that this would not pass. The headlines since then have not been good.What`s the status?
SANDERS: I got to tell you, Rachel, that in the last few weeks, my moods go up and they go down and they go up and they go down. Yesterday was a very rough day, and I thought we were not going to make it.But I have to tell you that Chairman Miller and I had a productive discussion last night. I believe that Jeff Miller is a serious guy. I think he wants to do something. He knows, as I do, just as you said, that we will look abysmal if we cannot produce legislation to address the very, very serious needs of our veterans and the V.A.
So what I can tell you is that today, his staff and my staff have been working nonstop. We plan on working tomorrow. They plan on working Sunday. And I hope, despite all of the huge ideological differences that exist between the House and the Senate, that, in fact, we can come together and provide a significant piece of legislation to help the veterans of this country who put their lives on the line to defend us.
MADDOW: Congressman Miller is not a member of Congress who veterans groups complain about. A lot of them are very supportive of him. They`re supportive of both the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, your committee, and the House Veterans Affairs Committee. They feel like they get a good hearing from the leadership of your committees. It doesn`t seem like there`s personal issues here either between you and chairman or between veterans groups and either of you.
Given that, given that it doesn`t seem like it`s something petty or personal, can you tell us what the hang-up is?
SANDERS: Well, the hang-up is a couple of major issues. It is my view that when you have abysmally and unacceptably long waiting periods in many facilities around the country. It is clear to me that the V.A. needs more doctors, more nurses, more medical personnel. In fact, in many facilities, they need more space.
The new acting secretary, Sloan Gibson, came forward and said, look, that is what we need. If we don`t want to have this crisis recur every two years, every three years, we need to make sure we have the personnel that can deal with the fact that a million and a half more veterans have come into the system in the last four years. Many of them are dealing with very difficult issues, PTSD and TB.
Rachel, today, close to 50,000 veterans got mental health outpatient treatment today and every day. So, we have to deal with that, in my view, 16 major veterans organizations said that we should help the V.A. get the funding that they need. And that is one of the controversial issues. And the second issue out there is how do you pay for all this stuff? This is expensive stuff.
In my view, and what the Senate did, and John McCain was very, very strong on this. John and I disagree on almost everything. But when he was on the floor, what he said, if this is not an emergency, if not taking care of people who are hurt in war is not an emergency, what is an emergency? And I agree.
So if it is an emergency, we pay for it as a cost of war. You know, we are spending trillions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nobody offset any of that. That`s a cost of war. Taking care of the men and women who fought in these wars should also be a cost of war. That is my view. That`s the Senate view. The House has a different point of view.
So, what I hope very much is that Chairman Miller, as you indicated, he`s a serious man, he`s an honorable man. I like him. We are working as hard as we can so that, in fact, we can give a little bit of comfort, not only to the veterans community, but to the people of this country who recognize, as you`ve just said, how dysfunctional the United States Congress is. At least we should be able to take care of veterans and that`s what I hope and I think what chairman miller hopes will happen.
MADDOW: Your comments that the work is continuing between you and the congressman and with your staffs through the weekend is very heartening, Senator.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, chairman of the V.A. -- chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, excuse me, thank you for your time tonight. Please keep us apprised. I think a lot of people across the country, whether or not it`s getting headlines, a lot of people across the country want to make sure this is done before you guys head home. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
SANDERS: Thank you.
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