MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript
Interview
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REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC), HOUSE WHIP: Thank you so much for having me.
SCHULTZ: The abortion language is not going to change, is that
correct?
CLYBURN: I don"t think so. I think the Senate language is being
scrubbed by those members in Mr. Stupak"s group, and they are making
decisions as to whether or not that language meets their test. I think it
does. Dale Kildee, who is a reliable member of that group, thinks it does.
I think there will be other members who come to that same conclusion.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, why can"t the House Democrats met the deadline
of March 18th? What is the hold-up here? Is it just going to be that
tough of a fight?
CLYBURN: Well, I"m not saying that we can"t meet that deadline. We
started reading the bill today in our full caucus. We will meet again at
9:00 in the morning. And the staffs will continue to read. We plan to be
finished with that by noon tomorrow. Then we"ll settle down to start
whipping.
We don"t want to start whipping until all the members get an
opportunity to hear what the changes are, and to ask the questions about
them, and get the answers that they will like to receive. And then we"ll
start whipping. I think we"ll start that early tomorrow afternoon.
SCHULTZ: And what"s your instinct? Of the 39 that did not vote yes,
the 39 Democrats that did not vote yes, do you think you can get some of
those?
CLYBURN: Yes, I do. I"ve talked to a few of those who tell me that
they voted the way they did because they did not like the public option.
The public option is not gone. There are some other things about bending
the cost curve, which I don"t like to use, bringing costs down. They think
that the Senate bill was better at that than the House bill.
So there are some members who voted no to the House bill, who feel
much more comfortable about the Senate bill. So I think we"ll pick up some
of those people.
SCHULTZ: And we learned tonight that the CBO has scored the Senate
bill, and it"s under 900 billion dollars. It saves 188 billion over ten
years. Is that good news tonight?
CLYBURN: That"s great news. Deficit reduction is what this bill is
all about, keeping the costs down, as the president wanted us to do, to
stay under 960, or whatever that number may have been. I think we will do
that.
So I think that, when you look at everything we were trying to
accomplish, everything that the president wanted to see done--I think we
are getting close to that. By noon tomorrow, I do believe we will be in a
very good place with this bill. And who knows, we may get it done before
he takes off on his trip.
SCHULTZ: Gosh, that would be fantastic. I hope that the House
Democrats understand that we are on the verge of doing something fantastic
for this country.
CLYBURN: I think they do. I really think they do. And people want
this done sooner, rather than later. Because they want us to turn our
attention to jobs, to energy, education, getting people back to work. So
all of that, I think the members feel good about getting this behind them.
SCHULTZ: I"d love to have it noon tomorrow. I know everybody would.
Jim, thanks for joining us tonight. Thanks so much, Congressman.
CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me.
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