MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

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OLBERMANN: We are joined now by the House majority whip, James Clyburn of South Carolina.

Great thanks for your time tonight, sir.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: Well, thank you so much for having me, Keith.

OLBERMANN: Speaker Pelosi has said she's close to the 218 votes that she'd need for the public plan tied to Medicare rates, Medicare for Everybody. As the member who counts the votes for the speaker, where do things stand? Do you have enough?

CLYBURN: Well, I think we're very close. We're getting there. That's been my standard response to anybody. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. I feel pretty good about this.

Our caucus is in a very good mood. And I think that the country is

demonstrating by all the surveys I've seen that the so-called "public

option" is, in fact, gaining support. And I think that it all depends on

how you cut it. And now, there are 56 percent in favor, or 65 percent, or

even under some circumstances, 71 percent

So, I think we're in a good place, and I think our caucus is in a very good mood.

OLBERMANN: And if we add in this slight bit of salesmanship of calling this "Medicare for Everybody," to explain to the people who don't just get it on the face of it. Is that-is that-could that conceivably actually make a difference in how this passes if it passes?

CLYBURN: Well, Keith, you and my good friend Jim Oberstar sold me on that branding sometime ago. And I do believe that will be a good way to brand this. Whatever this public option is, it should be called-in my opinion and yours and Jim Oberstar and a few others-Medicare Part E, "E" being for everybody.

I think that's a good way to do it because the American public has been living with this brand for a long time. They understand it. They like it. They accept it. And I think that's all we're trying to do here is expand Medicare.

OLBERMANN: I'm honored to be any part of it, sir.

About the Senate Finance Committee and it argued against and it voted against a public plan, saying it couldn't be done cost effectively. But the CBO says the House plan-your House plan-is cost effective. It's deficit neutral over the decade.

What-what does that tell us about the process that you really do need to run the numbers first to make sure everything scopes out the way it should?

CLYBURN: Yes, we should. I think we want the American people to look in on this. We have been as transparent as anything has been since I've been here. We want our fellow Congress people, on both sides of the aisle, to take a hard look at what we're doing, because we really feel that what we're doing is in the best interests of the American people, and we want to do it in such a way that not just Democrats would be voting for it. But we ought to have Republicans voting for it as well.

And when you are reducing the deficit-as we are doing in this deal

you are doing the whole thing under $900 billion and you're expanding coverage to 97 percent of the American people and you've got this significant expansion in community health centers to take care of whoever may fall through the cracks. That is what the American people would like to have, and that's what we ought to deliver to them in a bipartisan way.

OLBERMANN: So, sum that up for me, Congressman, in light of events of the last 24 hours-once everything's merged, once that final legislation gets agreed to by the House and the Senate, gets to the president's desk, do you believe that "Medicare for Everybody," public plan, will it be part of the health care bill that the president signs into law?

CLYBURN: I do believe that. I think that what we will have is a plan that the president will be pleased with, the American people will be happy to have. And I do believe it will bring tremendous honor to us in the United States Congress and we need all the help we can get right now.

OLBERMANN: If salesmanship works at this point, go for it.

Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, the majority whip-it's always a pleasure and an honor to talk with you, sir. Thank you.

CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me.

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