MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript
Interview
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Joining me now is Independent Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders.
The 10 senators are locked behind closed doors tonight trying to hammer out this public option. And Senator Sanders is kind enough to join us tonight.
Senator, first I want to talk about this Nelson/Hatch amendment that went down in defeat and it"s been tabled. Explain to our audience tonight just what that means.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Well, it means it"s dead. And it means that we have done the right thing by millions of women in this country who have fought off right-wing Republican attempts to limit their freedom of choice with regard to abortion, and we said that with Democrats controlling the White House, the House and the Senate, we"re not going to let that happen to them. It is a good step forward.
SCHULTZ: Is this public option still a public option, ,in your opinion? What they"re talking about that"s going to be run by the Office of Personnel Management would be somewhat of a co-op that would work into the private sector...
SANDERS: Ed, Ed, Ed--Ed, it"s more complicated than that. That"s only one small part of what people are talking about. And what people are talking about is still in flux.
Let me be very clear.
SCHULTZ: OK.
SANDERS: I have said, and let me repeat, my vote on this overall legislation is not yet certain. This is not a particularly strong bill.
I believe that the only way you"re going to provide universal, comprehensive, cost-effective care to all Americans is through a single-payer Medicare for all. This is far from that. This is not a great bill.
Now, if we do not have a strong public option giving people the choice to choose a public plan, versus a private plan, if we don"t have competition with the private plans to control escalating premiums in this country, that ain"t a strong bill. That"s a pretty weak bill.
So what"s going on right now is they"re looking at a number of different options. One of them, which does make sense to me, is a Medicare opt-in.
If you"re 55 years of age or older, you will be able to get a Medicare premium-based plan. That"s pretty good.
There are other provisions that we"re looking at, giving states options to rate stronger pieces of overall health care legislation. So you"ve got a situation in flux.
SCHULTZ: So would you go along with that? Would you go along with--would you go along with the Medicare opt-in, 55-plus, and then also go ahead and take the co-op for younger people in this country to get health care insurance? Would you go along with that?
SANDERS: Can"t give you that answer because you don"t have anything firmly in front of us. But what I have said and repeat again, I am not going to be voting for this bill unless we have in one way or another a strong public option that represents the needs of working Americans.
SCHULTZ: Where do you think this leaves Ben Nelson"s vote? He has threatened to not vote for it now that his amendment has gone down.
SANDERS: Well, that"s fine. And I"m threatening not to vote for it if it"s a weak bill. So that"s what Harry Reid is paid to figure out.
Look, at the end of the day, I believe that the United States has got to join the rest of the industrialized world and not be the only country guaranteeing health care to all of our people. On the other hand, if this bill simply becomes a bonanza to private insurance companies and drug companies, who now have the mandate forcing people to get health insurance with no cost containment, you know what? That may not be in the best interest of the American people.
So you"ve got a situation which is really in flux right now. And some of us are fighting to make sure that this bill is worth supporting.
SCHULTZ: Senator Sanders, thanks for the update tonight on Capitol Hill. I really appreciate it. Keep fighting for us.
SANDERS: Thank you, Ed. Thank you.
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