MSNBC - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH REP. JAMES CLYBURN
SUBJECT: THE STIMULUS PACKAGE AND HEALTH CARE

MS. MITCHELL: Let's bring in House Majority Whip Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina. Thanks so much for joining us.

REP. CLYBURN: Thank you.

MS. MITCHELL: How does it look now? You wanted -- I think the plan was to bring it up on Wednesday. Do you think that you'll be able to have some show of support from Republicans, or is this going to be a party line vote?

REP. CLYBURN: Well, I hope it's not a party line vote, Andrea. Thank you so much for having me.

I believe this a very well-constructed bipartisan piece of legislation. And we've been listening to economists on both sides of the aisle. Mark Zandi, who advised Senator McCain in his campaign, has been consulting on this. He agrees it'll create 3 (million) to 4 million jobs. He tends to agree with the entire House package. That in and of itself makes the construction and the development of this bipartisan.

I would hope that we will set aside the campaigning for a while and we can get more of the members of the Congress to really take a serious look at what we are doing, even to honor their own work. They worked on this in both committees.

We've had mark-ups in Appropriations and in the Ways and Means Committee. And, quite frankly, four or five of the amendments they offered have been accepted by our side. And so they ought to honor that when we go to the floor for a vote.

MS. MITCHELL: Congressman, there has been -- I mean, Mark Zandi had been a player on this, but you've got John McCain this weekend saying that he would vote against it as it is now constructed. You had Susan Collins just now on this program saying that it includes things like money for the flu pandemic, which she doesn't think is job creation. So she doesn't see how that is stimulus.

And here's what John Boehner had to say about it last week. Let's listen.

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH): (From videotape.) I'm concerned about the size of the package, and I'm concerned about some of the spending that's in there. How you can spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives -- how does that stimulate the economy?

MS. MITCHELL: So is he just choosing this because it's a sexy soundbite, or is he making a good point, that this kind of spending is not really stimulative?

REP. CLYBURN: Well, I think that when you look at the totality of what we're trying to do in a very comprehensive way, you're going to have to say that healthcare is a part of what we're trying to do here.

Please, I would say to them, look at the other things that we're doing in conjuction with this. We just passed the State Children's Health Insurance Program that will expand healthcare for children by 4 million, taking us to a total of 11 million children. We are in this legislation looking at the other aspects of health, FMAP, Medicaid.

We are looking electonically storing health records so that in five years all of that can be apart of the ordinary course of events with health care. That saves million of dollars in money.

So I think that Mr. Boehner is looking for one little soundbite rather than looking at the total package here and seeing what it will do for the American people. And if you do what we're trying to do with healthcare, it will in fact stimulate the economy by creating additional jobs. One of the biggest shortages we got in the country are shortages of nurses and other healthcare employees.

MS. MITCHELL: And before I let you go, do you still think it's going to come up on Wednesday? Is that the game plan right now?

REP. CLYBURN: The game plan right now is to bring this up on Wednesday. I hope we can get a good bipartisan vote for it. I think that's what the American people want. They seem to be demonstrating that in all the surveys that they support President Obama, and they would like to see us in the Congress set aside the partisan politics and work on setting this economy right, getting them back to work, getting them more healthy between now and the end of the year. And we have plenty enough time next year to do politics.

MS. MITCHELL: All right. (Chuckles.) Well, we're going to suspend politics for a while. I guess is that the -- that's the plan.

REP. CLYBURN: (Chuckles.)

MS. MITCHELL: James Clyburn, it's great to see you --

REP. CLYBURN: Thank you so much.

MS. MITCHELL: -- Majority Leader, thanks a lot.

REP. CLYBURN: And congratulations on your new show. I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time with you.

MS. MITCHELL: Hey, thank you.

REP. CLYBRN: Thank you.

MS. MITCHELL: Well, I hope you will.

REP. CLYBURN: Thank you. Thank you.

MS. MITCHELL: An open invitation. Thanks.

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