MSNBC Interview with Rep. James Clyburn

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MSNBC Interview with Rep. James Clyburn

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC)
SUBJECT: HAVING A SUPERMAJORITY IN THE SENATE INTERVIEWER: CHUCK TODD

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MR. TODD: With me now live, House Majority Whip, South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn.

Congressman Clyburn, explain to folks what it means if Democrats have 60 Senate seats. They don't quite have it yet. We know that Al Franken of Minnesota --

REP. CLYBURN: Right.

MR. TODD: -- assuming he survives these court battles, would be the 60th seat. But what does this mean -- as you guys are able to race leglislation through the House, what does this mean as far as the U.S. Senate is concerned?

REP. CLYBURN: Well, I think it's very, very important for us. As you know, we are doing this budget today, which I think may be as big a gift to President Obama as you get Senator Specter in the Democratic fold. And we're going to do sort of a backstop to that with reconciliation language so that we -- if we don't get Franken in place in time, we'll be able to use 51 votes rather than 60.

But it's important to have the understanding or even the feeling that you can pass things in the House and they will get a fair hearing in the Senate without having to be subjected to this 60-vote rule. Filibustering cost us SCHIP, Children's Health Insurance Program, for over a year that young children needed. And so it's good to have Senator Specter.

I might say this. Nobody will expect him to change his positions. His positions are the things that got him sort of rejected by the Republican Party. And by and large, these positions are the same positions we will embrace on the Democratic side.

MR. TODD: Okay. Congressman --

REP. CLYBURN: Yes.

MR. TODD: -- is it fair to say no more excuses --

REP. CLYBURN: (Laughs.)

MR. TODD: -- the Obama White House, the Democratic Party -- if you can't get things done, if you can't get major health care reform, you can't get major energy reform done in the next couple of years, what do you tell the American people? They have given you everything you could want. Now, Arlen Specter gives you that one more piece of power that was missing.

REP. CLYBURN: Right.

MR. TODD: There's no more excuses, correct?

REP. CLYBURN: Absolutely. Nobody is looking for excuses. President Obama has laid out a tremendous vision for this country. I think that's why you see his numbers so high, 68 percent, higher than Ronald Reagan's were at this point. Those numbers are great numbers.

And so I think that he has laid out a vision. This Congress, House and Senate, have bought into that vision. The American people believe in it, and we're going to work with him to deliver for the American people. We aren't looking for excuses. We don't want excuses. We are going to give the American people that which they voted for.

MR. TODD: All right. Congressman Clyburn, I apologize for cutting you short. We've got to go to Houston. There's a --

REP. CLYBURN: Very good.

MR. TODD: -- news conference right now about the first death in the United States from swine flu.

END.

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