CBS "Face The Nation" - Transcript
Interview
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JOHN DICKERSON: Congressman James Clyburn, the number three
Democrat in the House, joins us now from Hilton Head, South
Carolina. Congressman, welcome. I wanted to ask you about what
Congressman King said.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN (D-South Carolina/D-Majority Whip)
(overlapping): Yeah.
JOHN DICKERSON: He suggested the President and-- and the
administration was not fast enough in responding to this. What's
your reaction to that?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: Well, first of all, thank you so
much for having me. You know Peter King is a good buddy. He has
given to a little bit of hyperbole sometimes.
I think that the President in his response is doing exactly as
he should do. I think that in so many instances these terrorists
get more benefit from the reaction they cause than from the
action they take. And so I believe that for the President to be
very measured in reactions-- in his reactions not elevating this
thing to the point that it would be satisfactory to terrorists
is exactly the way to do it. I think Secretary Napolitano is out
there today talking about this issue. I have been in touch with
the Situation Room of the White House. I've been briefed. I've
talked with sen-- Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi who
cheers the Homeland Security Committee. And I am very satisfied
that everybody is doing what they ought to do with this
instance.
JOHN DICKERSON: Based on your briefings, Congressman, how big of
a-- of a deal is this? I mean was this a narrow incident? Or do
you think this represents a much bigger problem?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: Well, from all that I have heard,
I think that this is a-- a very narrow incident. Now, the fact
of the matter is we see something taking place here that
disturbs me a little bit. I remember the incident of the Shoe
Bomber. I think Mister Reid, if I might call him mister, the
same flammable material, explosive, that he used seems to have
been used in this instance. So it would seem to me that some
kind of secondary screening may need to be take place in certain
instances, and, hopefully, in order to detect that kind of
substance.
JOHN DICKERSON (overlapping): Quickly, Congressman--
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: That to me--
JOHN DICKERSON: Does-- does that mean for you a full-body pat
down, just quickly?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: Well, I'm saying secondary. How
you describe that secondary, I think, would base-- be based upon
where the airplane is originating from and-- and what kind of
security measures they have on site.
JOHN DICKERSON: All right. Let me now switch to the topic of
health care which was the other big story we were going to talk
about until this breaking news. The Senate has passed its bill.
Can you sign on to what the Senate has passed?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: I think that our process calls for
us to now meet in conference. I believe both the House and
Senate bills make tremendous contributions toward bending the
cost curve. I think they-- they do a great deal to bring more
people into the system. I think though that the House bringing
the thirty-six million additional people, the Senate bringing
thirty-one million additional people, I think that the more the
merrier in this instance.
So, I do believe that the Senate has done a very good bill, but
I think that the House has done a very good bill as well.
JOHN DICKERSON (overlapping): Congressman, you were a big--
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: We need to look--
JOHN DICKERSON: --you were a strong advocate for the public
option, sent a letter to the President--
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN (overlapping): Sure.
JOHN DICKERSON: --and said don't-- don't waiver on this. It
does-- it's not included in the Senate bill. Can you vote for a
final health care bill that does not include a public option?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: Yes, sir, I can. Because why did
we do-- why do we want a public option? We want a public option
to do basically three ten-- things: create more choice for
insurers, create more competition for insurance companies, and
to contain costs.
So, if we can come up with a process by which three-- these
three things can be done, then I'm all for it; whether or not we
label it a public option or not is of no consequence. What we
want to do is get good, effective results from whatever we put
in place.
JOHN DICKERSON: A number of other public option supporters who
shared your passion for the issue feel that the President let
them down a little bit on this. That he didn't fight very hard
for it. That he was kind of stringing them along through the
process. Did he let you down?
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: No, he did not. If you may recall,
I said way back before we went out on our August break that we
ought to take a hard look at this so-called robust public option
that a lot of people had bought into. I never quite bought into
that. I was one of those people saying we ought to come up with
a hybrid, part of which was to bring more people into Medicaid,
and that's what we did on the House side. We did a blended plan.
We didn't do what you might call a robust public option plan on
the House side. What we're saying is on the House side let's
increase eligibility for Medicare--
JOHN DICKERSON (overlapping): All right, Congressman--
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN: --from hundred and thirty-three
percent-- Yeah.
JOHN DICKERSON: I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there
on the details. We'll be back in just a minute--
REPRESENTATIVE JAMES CLYBURN (overlapping): Thank you.
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