MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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REP. KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA: Good to be here, Ed.
SCHULTZ: The president--did he do anything that you wanted him to do tonight? Or did he do anything that you didn"t want him to do?

ELLISON: I thought the president did a good job in laying out what the contrast was. The president talked about what we care about in the Progressive Caucus, which is working Americans--people who work hard every day to put food on the table. He showed empathy for them, which is what I think is important to do right now.

John Boehner, on the other hand, seemed to be on some other world. I mean, he"s talking about a blank check. He"s trying to blame President Obama, saying he won"t take yes for an answer. He"s trying to foist blame on President Obama, who has bent over backwards to try to work with them.
I found his remarks rather shocking.

SCHULTZ: So, does the Reid plan, in your opinion, have a chance with the Progressive Caucus? Because all along, the liberals in the Congress, and you"re the co-chair of the Progressive Caucus, have said, the big three, off the table. The Reid plan gives you that nugget that you"ve been trying to protect all along.

Where does that leave you tonight?

ELLISON: Well, it certainly does give us a chance. We do believe it has our basic requirement, which is to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Of course, it does lean heavily on defense cuts, which is a good thing.

But we still want to parse through it to make sure we know what we"re getting in for. We know there were going to be some cuts, we are realistic, we are here to work constructively, but it does meet our basic requirements.
But what our position was that we won"t vote for anything that does undermine Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but we didn"t say we"d automatically vote for anything that didn"t. So, we got to look at it, but it looks promising, but we"re not ready to bite just yet. We"re still reviewing the Reid plan. But it is within the eligible range of things we would consider.

SCHULTZ: Is there anything that Boehner put out in his plan that you could embrace? Would it have a chance with Democrats?

ELLISON: I don"t see anything--I mean, as a matter of fact--I mean, the Boehner plan is absolutely ridiculous. It would probably result in a downgrade of our credit rating, even if it did pass, because the credit rating agencies aren"t satisfied with just some short-term six-month plan. They want to see this thing solved for some reasonably reliable period of time.

So, I think the Boehner plan is DOA and doesn"t make any sense.

SCHULTZ: How does it sit with you that there are no tax increases in either one of these plans? That there"s no new revenue that"s going to be coming in the door and that there"s a chunk of change that"s going to be cut?

ELLISON: Disgusting. I mean, I think that"s a very unfortunate feature of the Reid plan. I mean, at least, you know, the fact is, we do recognize--we are realistic.

But the fact is, we have always believed, Progressive Caucus has always believed that the way we get out of this crisis is that we get more people back to work. We put American infrastructure, American manufacturing, we get Americans building bridges, roads, light rail, all these things that need to be done, all across America, and that is the way we get ourselves out of this deficit situation, is we put Americans back to work.

SCHULZ: Well, for the Reid plan, that really is the devil in the details. How far does $2.7 trillion go and how would that affect job creation? Because that has been the real problem right now.

ELLISON: That"s the question. I mean, that"s why when you ask me, are we ready to sign up for it, I say, we"ll see. It meets our basic criteria, but it doesn"t necessarily mean that it"s what with we think is need to build this economy.

We"re going to look at it. But job creation and infrastructure and investment is what is needed to get America back on track right now.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

ELLISON: Thank you.

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