MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Chris Murphy

Interview

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MENENDEZ: Joining me now, Democratic Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Senator, MAGA world trying to torpedo Biden`s plan. Your response. What do you think`s motivating them?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, it`s not surprising.

I mean, what Biden`s plan is seeking to do is to take power from corporations and billionaires and millionaires and deliver it to the Middle America, to middle-class families and poor families who have been struggling to make ends meet.

That means that corporations are going to pay more taxes. That means that billionaires are going to have to pay their fair share. That means that the pharmaceutical companies aren`t going to make $2 billion in profits next year.

So, of course, the MAGA crowd, which has been funded by those billionaire and corporate interests for a while, are going to be busy trying to undermine this agenda. But we have seen it before. I just think that the American people are on our side here. They want to see us deliver for them.

They are sick and tired of those elites getting everything they asked for and want from Washington. And while it`ll be a fight, it`s a fight worth having.

MENENDEZ: Of course, there are a lot of eyes on Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema.

Have you spoken with either of them, with both of them? What specifically do they need in order to get on board?

MURPHY: Well, listen, I guess I do agree with Senator Manchin when he says we shouldn`t be guided by some arbitrary number. And we spent a lot of time talking about whether the overall size of this package should be $3.5 trillion or $6 trillion or $1 trillion.

Let`s just decide what the American people need in order to survive. And I think we can find consensus if we sort of build the agenda from the bottom up. And so I think we can find consensus on universal pre-K. I think we can find consensus on expanding Medicare benefits for seniors.

In the end, if we sort of look at it through that lens, and not be wedded to one number that we`re reaching for, I think we can ultimately get the support of 50 Democrats.

MENENDEZ: But what is it then that you think you can not find consensus on?

MURPHY: I mean, again, I have not had detailed negotiations with those senators to know which parts of the agenda that they might not be willing to support. I named a few that I think we can find consensus on.

Of course, for me, the elements of this bill, which attack climate change are most important. And I guess what worries me is listening to Senator Manchin in particular express reservations about the pieces of this agenda that are going to save our climate and our planet from death and destruction.

So that part is maybe the hardest to find consensus on, but, in some ways, it`s the most important. So we had conversations this week between all 50 of us. Senator Manchin was in the room trying to find that common ground on the social spending and the climate provisions.

And I still have faith that we will get there.

MENENDEZ: OK, Senator Murphy, three House Dems voted against lower drug prices.

How important is it to get this specific piece right?

MURPHY: So, this is just absolutely crazy that we allow the drug industry to continue to make billions of dollars of profit off of us, right?

The drug companies are subsidized by taxpayer programs like Medicare and Medicaid. And Medicare is prohibited from using its bulk purchasing power to negotiate lower prices with the drug industry.

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It was written into the law by a Republican Congress two decades ago in order to guarantee huge profits for the drug industry. I do not understand why there are a handful of House Democrats that are more interested in drug company profits than they are in saving the taxpayers money, money that we will use to expand benefits for Medicare.

We`re going to use those savings in order to add dental benefits, vision benefits and hearing benefits to Medicare. So I did a press conference on this in Connecticut today. I`m encouraging all of my constituents to get activated here. And I would hope that people all across the country are going to start calling into every single House Democrat`s office and demanding that they stand up for seniors, health care consumers, instead of the drug industry.

MENENDEZ: Just to that point, a new study shows big pharma makes more profit than any other industry, strikingly so.

The author of the study telling "Newsweek": "The pharmaceutical companies` profits are really indistinguishable, statistically, from those of technology companies. The difference is that people need drugs to live," which, of course, underscores the exact point that you were making.

So what then specifically needs to happen to rein in big pharma?

MURPHY: So, you have got to give Medicare the power to use its huge purchasing power to negotiate directly with drug companies.

Right now, each individual insurance company negotiates prices with the drug industry. Walmart doesn`t have each individual store negotiating the price it pays to buy goods that it puts on shelves. It uses its entire purchasing power of all of its retail establishments. The United States government should be negotiating on behalf of all Medicare beneficiaries.

This would lower the price. And the result would be that the profits of the drug industry would get smaller. But while the drug industry makes up, I don`t know, only 10 or 20 percent of overall Medicare spending, there`s somewhere around 50 percent of the profit.

So the drug industry can still make profit, even if Medicare is negotiating in both, but we can take those savings and use it to increase benefits for regular Americans. That`s just a win-win, a win for taxpayers, a win for seniors. And we got to start putting the pressure on Democrats and Republicans in order to support something of that the American people are absolutely behind.

MENENDEZ: Senator Chris Murphy, thank you so much for your time.

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