Guests: Heather Mroz, Leslie Boyd, Sen. Bryon Dorgan, Howard Dean, Joe
Madison, John Feehery, Roy Sekoff, Alan Grayson.
HOST: Good evening Americans and welcome to the ED SHOW,
tonight from the nation‘s capital, Washington D.C., these stories are
hitting my hot button tonight.
The for -profit health care system is flat out destroying this nation.
Does anybody care? I heard some absolutely appalling stories of insurance
company abuses, in that building on Capitol Hill today, more on that in
just a moment.
The Beckster says that the census will lead us to slavery and that
lands him in the zone.
And Alan Grayson may be the game changer on healthcare, we‘ll see,
he‘s introduced a bill, did that today that should win over progressives,
blue-dogs and republicans. It‘s pretty interesting; he will join us in the
back half of the show.
But first, I was in that building today and I heard some testimony
that was pretty gut wrenching, OK. And you watch this show, I mean you know
that I cover healthcare reform, I have a passion for it, I believe in it, I
think we‘ve got to do some things pretty fast here or we‘re going to lose
this. I want all of you to, if you may for just a moment, realize that
Barrack Obama the President of the United States campaigned on change,
campaigned on reform and is at 53 percent approval rating in the last poll.
And we all know that politicians they‘re not polling very well right now,
but he‘s a, you know a pretty popular guy in the midst of all of the things
he handed and trying to deal with all the things that are on the table
right now. In that building on one side you have the Senate on the other
side you have the House. And of course the democrats, you know, they‘re a
big, big majority.
I can tell you from day of being on the hill and being around this
atmosphere folks that there is such a lack of trust between the Senate
Democrats and the House Democrats. They‘re going to have to take a, I‘m
going to tell you how healthcare is going to get done. They are going to
have to take a major leap of faith in the House that the Senate Democrats
will do what they say they are going to do. I know we‘ve heard all these
terms about reconciliation and procedure and process, but this really is
what it‘s down to. It‘s down to the House Democrats saying OK we‘re going
to take your bill over here in the House and we‘re going to pass the Senate
bill. And we‘re going to take a leap of faith because we know you‘re going
to go down the road of reconciliation and you‘re going to fix all the
concerns that we have and all the concerns the American people have, by the
way there are now forty-one senators who are on this letter for the public
option and it‘s gaining steam.
You know when you go to Washington everybody has information in their
hands and they‘ve got charts. Now last night on this program, Dennis
Kucinich who I have tremendous admiration for, he‘s a fighter for the
people and he is such a staunch believer that is a bad bill. He went so far
last night as to say that he couldn‘t think of one good reason why he
should vote for this bill over on the House side to keep the process going;
and remember every vote counts. Well I could make a chart, but I‘ve got you
a real authentic chart, Congressman Kucinich, I‘m not picking on you, we‘re
still friends, but these are a list of 7 things, I got this a, you know all
the Senators, they go around with charts and there was a chart over there
today that says, I saw this, I said gosh, the cost of doing nothing.
Every single day fourteen thousand Americans will continue to lose
their health insurance, that‘s one, insurance rates will almost double from
thirteen thousand to over twenty four thousand by 2016, that‘s two,
businesses will see their costs double to $858 billion in ten years,
increased premiums, I mean we could just go on and on and on and on and on.
Right? House members you have to take this deal, this is Ed talking tonight
to you again. President Obama deserves your support, his presidency rides
on this technicality of everybody passing this, passing that, re-massaging,
fixing, reconciliation, boom- we got a bill. But if we can‘t get the
democrats to get along with the democrats on just some major issues, of say
covering 30 million Americans, getting rid of the preexisting condition;
and those are just a couple.
Jim the left and the right of the Democratic party, can you come
together on this one issue, just one time, because this is what the
president campaigned on, it‘s not a perfect bill, I, in fact the bill sucks
in a lot of areas, but for the most part, it isn‘t all that bad. And we
have fought the good fight on this show, I‘m a single payer guy, didn‘t get
it, public option we‘re still in the mix. I know the insurance industry is
going to get 30 million new customers, but you know what you can‘t wipe
them out of the game right away.
What would Ted Kennedy do, would he take this deal? I think he would.
And House members are going to have to take this deal if we‘re going to
move this process along. Another big reason, democrats why would you want
to hurt people who are in debt, because they got sick? Why can‘t we prevent
that right now? We can with this bill. We can with this bill. There‘s
enough good in it that got to, I guess you could say, this is Eddy selling
out now, we got to take this deal. We got to take a leap of faith in the
House, we have to encourage House of Representatives on the democratic side
to gather and take a leap of faith that they will do this in the Senate.
This isn‘t about jobs or who‘s going to get re-elected, this about
real people, Now, I‘ve shown you the building, I‘ve told you what‘s going
on in there and I‘ve shown you a chart. But first before we do anything
else I want you to get your cell phones out, because I want to know what
you think of this issue.
Should liberals just suck it up and vote yes for the current
healthcare bill that‘s coming over from the senate? Text A for ‘yes‘ and B
for ‘no‘ to 622639, I bring in the results later on in the show.
Now, I want to ask you another question, I‘ve told you what‘s going on
in the building, I‘ve given you the chart, hey I‘ve got a neat prop
tonight, I‘ve given Dennis Kucinich 7 reasons, because of this chart, but
I‘m going to the audience tonight 2 reasons of why I believe that you
should call your representatives, if they‘re democrats, because republicans
aren‘t in this game anymore, they‘re not for reform, they don‘t want it,
it‘s done, this is the democrats being democrats. But I heard testimony
today from a couple of ladies who I think are fabulous Americans. And they
are two walking, talking, humans, Americans, law abiding, taxpaying, momma
loving citizens that got sick. And one of them is strapped with a $480
thousand bill.
Leslie Boyd and Heather Mroz with us tonight; I want to tell you about
this lady and I‘m not going to take all of her time, because you see, what
story could I lead with tonight , well we could talk about the budget, we
could talk about jobs, no I want Americans to hear the story of these two
ladies. Heather is 24 years old and she has three beautiful children and
her husband, you said this today in testimony, you‘re going to get a
divorce. What happened?
HEATHER MROZ: From the beginning?
SCHULTZ: From the beginning, what happened?
MROZ: Well, we had decided to get married. Like any normal married
couple, tried to have children, found out we were pregnant, we were excited
you know, greatest joy in the world to have another life. He had a great
job, I also had worked at the time too, we found out we were having twins.
SCHULTZ: Exciting.
MROZ: Exciting and scary and everything else. Throughout the whole
pregnancy it was really rough, it was really hard. Come to find out, you
know in the beginning part of our pregnancy, my husband lost his job. And
at that point we were panicked; we were scared, figuring out what to do
from there. We had called, you know the HR department in his company and
everything and they assured us that everything will be fine; COBRA will
take over, but for the time being direct pay United Health Care and they
would cover us all the way through the pregnancy. Well we thought
everything was OK, you know time past a little bit further then I went into
the hospital at 22 weeks pregnant and full blown out labor. I had to stay
in the hospital as long as I can and hold those babies and as long as I
can. In the mean time I‘m sitting there thinking in the back of my mind,
what‘s next?
Ok, I don‘t know, you know, if my husband is going to be able to pay
our next insurance premium of $1260. I don‘t know if-
SCHULTZ: $1260 a month and then you lost that. You lost your
insurance.
MROZ: After we had the birth of the twins I walked into the doctor‘s
office and they told me my insurance policy was cancelled and I didn‘t
understand why.
SCHULTZ: Ok and the bills came in, how do they get to $480 thousand?
MROZ: They actually retroacted our policy back two months before I
ever had the babies.
SCHULTZ: OK and where are you today?
MROZ: Right now I‘m living with my family in Cincinnati. I don‘t have
a job. My children were able to qualify for Medicaid. I currently don‘t
have Medicaid, because children cover -
SCHULTZ: But you have a $400, you‘re 24 years old and you have a $480
thousand bill. And we had universal healthcare coverage, you wouldn‘t have
this problem. You‘d have peace of mind, security, your babies would be
covered and all that stuff.
OK now folks, this is a reason why we should take this bill, because
if we took this bill, this 24 year old lady would not be in this situation
right now, would not be in this situation, This is in the United States of
America. All right, now another story.
Leslie Boyd
LESLIE BOYD: Hi Ed.
SCHULTZ: I‘ve talked to you on my radio show. Your son died -
BOYD: My son Mike was 30 years old, he had been, he had insurance
briefly with the job he had in upstate New York and he and his wife decided
to go back to school and he lost his insurance of course when he left his
job. And he was told he needed to have, he needed to have a colonoscopy at
least once a year. And in his medical record in Savannah, Georgia is a, it
says patient needs a colonoscopy, but can‘t afford it. It was about $3000.
They wouldn‘t finance it, he had to have it upfront, so he didn‘t get the
colonoscopy and he got sick and they still didn‘t do anything and he got
sicker and they still didn‘t do anything and when he was down to about 112
pounds and vomiting fecal matter and in renal failure, they finally took
him into the hospital and by then his cancer was stage 3. And he was sick
for a long time.
He had chemo, he had radiation, he had a second surgery, they gave up
on him in Savannah, I did not, I called every cancer care center on the
east coast and they all said we can‘t take any more patients, we just,
we‘re so over whelmed with people with stories like yours, we can‘t take
any more. Well finally Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Herb Herwitz
took him on and what Memorial Health Center and Savannah would not do, Duke
University Medical Center did do. They gave him more chemo they did
everything to fight for his life; in the end it was too late.
SCHULTZ: If he had had a colonoscopy, do you think he would be alive
and with you today?
BOYD: I think he would be a living, breathing taxpayer right now.
SCHULTZ: OK, so let me, you‘re very brave women for coming on here
talking about this very, very brave Americans, moms who are basically
telling the American people, this is their story, this is what happened to
them. It could happen to your family, could happen to your grandkids, it
could happen to your children, but I want you to consume this and call your
representatives and call Dennis Kucinich, his office and tell him that you
know that he‘s not going to get everything that he wants in this bill and
neither is Ed, that fat red headed taxpaying citizen.
But there‘s enough evidence and there‘s enough material in this bill
that convinces me that these two stories would be greatly affected and
someone would not have died; if we‘d had this legislation in place. So I
not only came forward tonight with one example, but two and 7 bullet
points. And when Alan Grayson says that Americans are dying, he‘s not lying
to the American people. We have evidence that‘s, that‘s one of millions of
stories that‘s out there across America. I am begging the liberal left
tonight. I am begging the blog sphere. I am begging everybody who supported
Barrack Obama to take this deal. It‘s not perfect, there‘s not going to be
every perfect deal, this president wants this bill.
This president deserves our support. Let‘s put the hoses away, let‘s
put the billy clubs away, let‘s put the night sticks away, let‘s put taser
guns away, you know all that stuff they used back in the civil rights
march; that we just had an anniversary for, not long ago. Let‘s stop doing
this democrats, it‘s time to move forward. Barrack Obama won the election,
he deserves our support at this point and these mothers deserve a better
outcome. This is why this legislation has to pass. And I don‘t care about
senate procedure. Somehow you have to figure this out in this building,
because I‘ve proven it on this show tonight, there are Americans who are
dying. I don‘t care if you‘re left, right, blue, green, center, whatever;
it‘s time to move democrats.
It‘s time to put your ego in your pocket, put you differences aside
and pass the damn bill.
I will be back with more on the ED SHOW in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to the ED SHOW, Senator Byron Dorgan, a friend
and a wise man. One year ago he gave the president some advice, to start
with jobs before you do healthcare; Obama should have listened. Senator
Dorgan, he is, been a very wise man over the years and he has been a guy
who has been faithful, very much so to the working folk of America. And
despite the republican obstruction he‘s getting somewhere. Unemployment
numbers are slowly improving, $15 billion jobs bill, make it to the
president‘s desk this week. Today the Labor Department reported that the
job openings in January hit an eleven month high with the road to recovery
is just starting to get paved. A new survey shows that 73 percent of
employers, they don‘t plan to hire anybody until June, which is tough.
Joining me now is the senator from North Dakota who has decided to
retire out of the senate and I don‘t like that story either, but he‘s done
so much for the American people. I guess 40 years of public service; we can
let a guy go do something else, can‘t we?
Senator Dorgan great to have you with us tonight. What do these job
numbers mean at this point and does it mean when you hear that people are a
little nervous about hiring?
SEN. BYRON DORGAN (D), NORTH DAKOTA: Well, I mean we‘re starting to
crawl in the right direction. We need to get up and run in the right
direction to create a lot of new jobs. We need millions of new jobs and we
need them as quickly as possible. Now the government can create some jobs
with things like summer youth programs, put a lot of kids to work in the
summer, build highways, which means contractors will hire people, so we
have some influence, but what we need to do is incentivize small and medium
size businesses to begin hiring and have some confidence in the future.
Future jobs is so important.
SCHULTZ: It really is. Senator how do you read that six republicans
voted for this bill? What are we seeing here?
DORGAN: Well it‘s, you know there‘s some leakage here I guess and in
the right direction. You know I think everybody understands what‘s job one,
that is to create jobs. There‘s no social program in Congress that Congress
creates that‘s as important as a good job that pays well. That makes
everything else possible. And one of the things I talked to a group about
today is, even as we try to turn the faucet on to create new jobs, let‘s
also plug the drain and stop these jobs moving overseas. Every single day
we got companies closing their American plants, firing their workers and
moving jobs overseas, we‘ve got to stop that as well.
SCHULTZ: One democrat voted against it, that was my good friend Ben
Nelson from Nebraska. What‘s the logic of voting against a jobs bill?
What‘s happening here?
DORGAN: You know, you‘d have to ask Ben, I don‘t know. I would hope
that everybody would decide that jobs are of critical importance here as
you try to restart the economic engine and put people back to work, you
know, we‘ll view this as successful when we don‘t have 17 million people
getting up in the morning without a job; looking all day and not getting a
job at the end of the day. We‘ve got people in that situation all across
this country and I‘ve always felt that the Congress has to tell the
American people, this is our first and most important priority, to help put
you back to work.
SCHULTZ: Senator you have been a real fighter for American jobs,
American workers and the jobs keep going overseas, even during the Obama
administration, we are still seeing the outsourcing take place. What has to
change, what do we have to do, where do we go?
DORGAN: Well, you know we have stop being ignorant about these trade
agreements that set us up for losing jobs, in search of $.50 labor by
people that will work 7 days a week, twelve hours a day. I mean we have to
stand up for the economic interest of this country and not be bashful about
it. You know, the president during the State of the Union Address, Ed, said
let‘s close the tax loophole that exists for companies that move overseas,
you know I‘ve tried that for 4 years and have been unsuccessful. Think of
this, we actually say, if you get rid of your American workers, close you
plant and ship your jobs overseas, you get a big fat tax break. That‘s one
of the most ignorant things you can think about for a country that wants to
put Americans to work.
SCHULTZ: Senator Dorgan great to have you with us.
DORGAN: Good to be with you.
SCHULTZ: We‘ll do it again for sure.
Coming up, the Beckster owes us another apology for wasting our time,
he‘s been sipping Michelle Bachman‘s cool aid. And he says the census is
going to get us in big time trouble, that‘s next on the ED SHOW. Stay with
us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And in Psycho talk tonight the Beckster has taken the right
wing fear mongering about the census to a whole new level of crazy. On his
radio show he decided that the census question that asks for your race was
particularly offensive, because it somehow causes slavery. Here‘s his
argument-
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GLEN BECK: Why were they asking the race question, you said what in
1790, they want to know, do you count as three fifths; now reverse it, why
are they asking this question today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because minorities are worth more than whites.
Beck: Exactly right. So you will get more dollars if you are a
minority. So you are worth more as a minority. Well there is no difference,
today they‘re asking the race question to try to increase slavery; your
dependence on the master in Washington. No way, don‘t answer that question.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: That was a lot of psycho talk wasn‘t it? Let me break it down
for you. When Glen says minorities are worth more he must be referring to
the federal programs that give funding to minority communities. The census
helps determine where some of that money goes. He is comparing that to an
old racist law that counted slaves as three fifths of a person. Then he
argues that by giving out that aid the government is enslaving people.
Glen, congratulations you win the prize for inventing the most ridiculous
argument against the census; I think all of us have ever heard. It‘s
convoluted, it is completely inaccurate and it is the Psycho talk.
Coming up, so much for a—for profiling. A blond-haired, blue eyed,
suburban woman, just got busted for plotting a terror attack. Home grown
terrorism is a real threat; more on that in the play book.
And Congressman Dennis Kucinich and I are fighting to the finish over
healthcare reform; it‘s time for the House liberals to hold their feet to
the fire and just get after it and do what‘s right.
Dr. Howard Dean is here to mix it up with me.
You‘re watching the ED SHOW on MSNBC.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: The insurance industry‘s not starting over. They just
announced a 39 percent rate increase in California, and a rate increase up
to 60 percent right across the border in my home state of Illinois. Sixty
percent in one year, that is the future. That‘s the future if we fail to
act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: That was President Obama in Missouri, just a short time ago,
urging Congress to act. Dr. Howard Dean says he will fight for a public
option until we get one. Progressive Change Campaign Committee isn‘t
giving up either. They just added centrist Florida Senator Bill Nelson,
who will vote yes for a public option if it comes up through
reconciliation. They‘ve now got a total of 41 votes. That‘s just nine shy
of what is needed.
Dr. Howard Dean joins me now here on THE ED SHOW.
HOWARD DEAN, FORMER GOVERNOR OF VERMONT: Thanks, ed.
SCHULTZ: Great to have you with us.
DEAN: Good.
SCHULTZ: I guess I‘m caving in. I guess I‘m surrendering. But I‘m
asking all liberals, all Democrats tonight to take this deal. You may
disagree with me.
DEAN: No, actually—
SCHULTZ: You and I are on the same page on a lot of stuff.
DEAN: I think that what we ought to do is keep pushing to make it
better, and it‘s getting better every day. So the Senate bill is not a
great bill, in and of itself, because it‘s got a lot of very pro-insurance
company stuff in it.
But there‘s some good stuff in the Senate bill, some Medicaid
expansion, a lot of very good stuff for small businesses. It gets them out
of the health insurance business, so they can actually create jobs again.
And there‘s going to be a lot of good stuff in the House bill, in the
reconciliation. So what‘s not to like? I think we deserve an up or down
vote on this. The people have waited long enough.
SCHULTZ: It‘s a leap of faith at this point.
DEAN: It‘s a leap of faith.
SCHULTZ: The House members, they are just going to say, all right,
let‘s pass this Senate bill. Then the Senate is going to—
DEAN: There‘s a little breaking news on that that I just got. Our
people that follow this believe that they‘ve struck a deal where they can
vote on the bills at the same time, so you don‘t even have to have a leap
of faith.
SCHULTZ: Well, I have to say that, being over at the Capital today,
and walking around and talking to a lot of people, there are a lot of House
members and senators that don‘t know the rules.
DEAN: I don‘t blame them. They are arcane.
SCHULTZ: I don‘t know all of the rules, but I don‘t work over there.
But the point here is that there‘s a trust issue amongst the Democrats.
DEAN: Sure. Sure.
SCHULTZ: And there‘s a consternation amongst the House Democrats; I
don‘t know if I can do this because I don‘t believe that they are really
going to go through with this reconciliation; I don‘t believe that they‘re
going to fix it the way we have to, and then I have to go home. Isn‘t
there enough good stuff in this bill right now to just take the deal?
DEAN: It‘s a close call and I‘ll tell you why. There is. The two
ladies that you just had on here, their husbands would be alive today if
that bill was in action. But there are other folks who are 50 years old,
55 years old, that are going to be charged 20,000 dollars a year for their
health insurance under the Senate bill, Because there‘s a 300 percent rate
band, it‘s called. They can charge somebody three times as much.
Now, you can‘t do, theoretically, do it for a pre-existing condition.
But if they have a pre-existing condition and they‘re 55, you can. So,
look, I think the most reasonable thing to do here is to take this bill
that passed the Senate, which has some good things in it, and push it as
hard as we can right up to the very edge. But we need this. We need a
bill. We need a bill.
SCHULTZ: We‘re there now, aren‘t we? We are there. The House has to
move on this.
DEAN: That‘s right. That‘s right. They have to do it quickly.
SCHULTZ: They are going to have to go first.
DEAN: That‘s right.
SCHULTZ: Whether they like it or not, they‘ve got to go first. We‘ve
beaten each other up, and done everything we can to ourselves throughout
this whole --
DEAN: We‘re not done yet. Nine more votes in the Senate for a public
option.
SCHULTZ: I know for a fact that they are—they might get a few
more, but I talked to Harkin‘s people today. He‘s not going to sign it.
He doesn‘t sign letters. He‘s not going to do it. And if -
DEAN: Tom won‘t sign it, but I bet you he will vote for it.
SCHULTZ: That‘s true. That‘s true. But do the House members believe
that and are they ready to put it over to the senate‘s side?
DEAN: Your point is well taken. We have to have a little faith among
the Democrats.
SCHULTZ: Absolutely. We have to have some faith.
DEAN: Let‘s not just blame the Democrats. We wouldn‘t be in this
position if we had a single republican that would support the American
people, instead of the insurance industry.
SCHULTZ: Howard, they can a take that on the campaign trail and say,
do you want to save 30 million people or do you not want to save any, when
it comes to health care coverage? If Nancy Pelosi can stand up in front of
her caucus and say, I have a letter here with 50 senators who have signed
it, is this enough ammunition to get all of the votes she needs because of
that leap of faith?
DEAN: I think it‘s going to pass. I think it‘s going to pass. I‘ll
just say that right now. I don‘t know what is in reconciliation. I hope
there is some stuff in it that take it back towards the House direction,
because we need that. But I do think this is going to pass. And Nancy
Pelosi is a great speaker. She really is. I know she gets a lot of flack,
but she does what every speaker has to do who is a good speaker. She gets
the votes when they need them.
SCHULTZ: Democrats need to take this deal. We need to - the
president deserves this. He has 53 percent approval rating.
DEAN: On the way to the White House, we‘re going to make this a
better deal.
SCHULTZ: We can do that. It‘s a work in progress. But it just can‘t
stall anymore.
DEAN: I agree. I think that‘s right.
SCHULTZ: All right, let‘s bring in our panel tonight. Joe Madison is
an XM satellite radio talk show host and great friend. John Feehery is a
Republican strategist, and I think he‘s a friend, too. How‘s that for an
olive branch?
John, if the democrats take this deal in the House and this passes,
what are the Republican candidates out on the campaign trail say that,
well, actually, I was against covering 30 million people?
JOHN FEEHERY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, actually, I don‘t think
that‘s what they are going to say. I think what they are going to say is,
we‘re going to vote to repeal this bill, and we‘re going to do a better
bill that‘s actually going to fix the problem, and make lower costs, make
sure that those folks who you were talking about earlier—
I am as angry at the insurance companies as you are. And I think we
have to have a program that fixes the problems. And I fundamentally don‘t
believe that this bill does that. And I think a lot of Republican will go
out on the campaign trail and run against this bill.
Now, this will be a big ideological fight. But right now the bill has
about a 35 percent approval rating. And my own analysis, I believe that
the Republican would do better in the debate.
Now, you might not believe me and you might disagree with me, but I do
think they‘re going to run against this bill.
SCHULTZ: Joe Madison?
JOE MADISON, XM RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I think they‘re going to run
against this bill, and they‘ll lose in running against it. Thirty million
versus three million, I think they said they were willing to work with to
try to help who were uninsured.
Let me say something here. I just found out I have prostate cancer.
And I just came back from Loma Linda Hospital in Loma Linda, California.
When they told me how much it would take to cure me of the prostate cancer,
I‘m here to tell you, I would be bankrupt. And it‘s—thank god that I‘ve
got insurance to be able to cover it.
This is what the American people want. And I think that‘s what the
Democrats need to run on. We‘re losing lives as we sit here and talk,
because people are uninsured. If I were running as a Democrat, that‘s what
I would hammer home. How many lives did we save with this bill?
SCHULTZ: John Feehery, let me ask you—I‘m not trying to ding you
here at all. we‘re good enough friends here. We‘re on different sides of
things. What do you say to these two ladies that were here earlier
tonight? What do the Republicans say when there‘s something out there, in
that building, that could pass right now that would change the lives of
these two ladies that I had on tonight, mothers? How can you deny that? I
don‘t get your party.
FEEHERY: What I would say is I want to help you, and I want to fix
this problem. I want to make sure that the insurance problems—and there
are fundamental problems in the marketplace. There‘s no doubt about it.
But we have a plan to fix these problems. And we need to make sure that we
deal with pre-existing conditions.
We can regulate in a way that the insurance companies can‘t kick
people off when they‘ve been paying their fair share. And I think that‘s
completely outrageous.
You know, people need pre-screening colon cancer. I think that‘s a
very, very important issue. Some of this is plain incompetence by some of
the doctors. They need to fight for the—the doctors need to fight when
they see a problem like this. I think we have some fundamental problems in
the health care marketplace. I think they need to be fixed. And I think
they can be fixed.
MADISON: Well, the problem is that the Republican parties—and we
saw this during the summit that they had—is that it was just, no, let‘s
start over. You don‘t start over when you‘re 80 percent of the way there.
You just don‘t do it.
SCHULTZ: Dr. Dean, what do you think?
DEAN: I‘m a little offended by John talking about blaming the
doctors. My wife is still a practicing internist and she fights with the
insurance companies every day. They just wear you down. She spent five
hours a weekend on a weekend day, just fighting insurance companies on
behalf of her patients.
This is the insurance companies. They care about money. They don‘t
really care about their patients. I don‘t mean to be—sound like some
kind of a Bolshevik here, but the fact of the matter is they actually kick
people off the rolls when they get sick, so they can maximize their
quarterly returns. This is a broken system.
SCHULTZ: The president has admitted they‘re going to get 30 million
new customers.
DEAN: That‘s the problem.
(CROSS TALK)
DEAN: That‘s one of the many things wrong with this bill.
SCHULTZ: It is a problem. But the fact is they‘re the big gorilla in
the room that you have to dance with if you want reform. If you‘re going
to start down this road—
(CROSS TALK)
MADISON: Let me also point out, if something happened today—let‘s
say I got an offer to go to another company and they had insurance, they
wouldn‘t take me.
SCHULTZ: God bless you, Joe. Fight it. Fight it.
MADISON: It‘s going to be fought.
SCHULTZ: We‘re praying for you. Gentlemen, thanks so much.
Coming up, want to put the Massa story in the past? I‘d love to do
that. This train wreck is just not over. Someone asked him if he‘s gay
and you won‘t believe how he handled it. That‘s next in the playbook.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: And in my playbook tonight, former Congressman Eric Massa
needs to just put us all out of our misery by shutting his trap and just
going away. After self-destructing in front of the Beckster, and then he
brought this three-ring circus over to Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: This may be silly, but I guess we have to ask
it, are you gay?
ERIC MASSA, FORMER CONGRESSMAN: Well, here‘s that answer: I‘m not
going to answer that. In the year 2010, why don‘t you ask my wife? Ask my
friends. Ask the 10,00 sailors I served with in the Navy. Why would
anybody even ask that question.
KING: Because you said you groped someone.
MASSA: And here you go back to that.
KING: Who was a male.
MASSA: Larry, I explained what that was three times. Come on, now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Let‘s see if my next guest can make some sense of all of
this, and about the possible ethics investigation continuing. Founding
editor of the “Huffington Post,” Roy Sekoff. Roy, we‘re almost into double
digits as far as how many reasons why he left the Congress, and how many
times the story has changed.
ROY SEKOFF, “THE HUFFINGTON POST”: Yeah.
SCHULTZ: Do you—we‘re hearing late tonight that the Ethics
Committee is not going to continue the investigation, although the
Republicans are pushing for it. What do you think?
SEKOFF: Well, yeah. I mean, this is where it‘s become a political
football now. And we‘re seeing the classic hypocrisy. Today, John Boehner
came out and said that we can‘t let this die; we have to keep investigating
it. That‘s the same John Boehner who did not do anything when he was told
about Mark Foley sending inappropriate sexual messages over email to a
page.
So when we get into that realm, you know we‘re crossing the Rubicon
into just pure political football now.
SCHULTZ: Massa surprised me on his answer to Larry King, when he was
talking about reconciliation and health care, after being such a tremendous
advocate for getting something done. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MASSA: I am leaving because I have to fight, simultaneously, a
potential recurrence of cancer, the Democratic leadership, a health care
bill that is going to destroy this country, my opposition to it, and a
belief that my party has become what it campaigned against. It‘s a very,
very clear situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Roy Sekoff, do you think the Democrats should respond to
that or just let him go? What do you think?
SEKOFF: Let it go. Yesterday, it was a problem for the Democrats.
Last night, it was a problem for Glenn Beck. Today, it‘s a bigger problem
for the Navy. You know, when he gave that answer to Larry about 10,000
sailors that he served with, well, we heard from a few of them today and
they gave a whole new meaning to snorkeling and all of these kind of
bizarre little tickle fight things, worse that Caligula. I think the Navy
is the one that has the biggest problem.
SCHULTZ: I want to ask you a health care question, since that last
sound-bite was dealing with that. What do you think they should do in this
House behind me here? Should they take the deal? Because there‘s a lot of
consternation out in the blogosphere. Liberals think it doesn‘t go far
enough. They are not happy with what is happening. They think it‘s caving
in.
Roy, aren‘t we at a point right now where the president deserves the
victory and we got to take what we can get? You may disagree with me.
What do you think?
SEKOFF: I think he needs the victory. And I think the time has come
to push as hard as we can. I mean, as Governor Dean said, there‘s still 41
people now talking about a public option. Keep pushing, try to make it as
good as you can. But let‘s get the deal done.
SCHULTZ: Roy Sekoff, always a pleasure. Great to have you on.
SEKOFF: Ed, great talking to you.
SCHULTZ: One programming note tonight; Bill Maher will be giving his
take on the former Congressman Massa‘s downfall on “COUNTDOWN” with Keith
Olbermann, tonight at 8:00, right here on MSNBC.
One final page in my playbook, federal prosecutors have just revealed
a Pennsylvania woman has been indicted on charges of recruiting and
assisting Muslim terrorist operations in Europe and Asia. She did most of
her work online under the name Jihad Jane. That name tipped off
authorities and led to an investigation, ending with her arrest. Last
October, she was allegedly plotting to—plotting with Islamic radicals to
kill a Swedish cartoonist who drew the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a
dog.
Coming up, Congressman Alan Grayson has a genius new plan you‘ve got
to hear about. It may be the solution to everything on health care. He‘ll
join me in a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW. Yes, we‘re all sick of hearing
that the single payer system is a radical system. Look, we‘ve already got
single payer in health care in this country. It‘s called Medicare. Today,
Congressman Alan Grayson introduced a bill that would let any American buy
into Medicare. It‘s public option for everyone. It wouldn‘t create any
new government bureaucracies, and it wouldn‘t add one dime to the deficit.
Both parties should be able to support this, correct?
Congressman Grayson joins us. Great to have you with us.
REP. ALAN GRAYSON (D), FLORIDA: Ed, it‘s great to be here.
SCHULTZ: Why did you introduce this at this stage in the game?
GRAYSON: Because it‘s what people want and it‘s what they need. We
have a petition online, WeWantMedicare.com. We‘ve already got a lot of
signatures. In 24 hours, I‘ve got 35 co-sponsors on this bill already.
It‘s the obvious solution to our problem. We‘ve got the Medicare system.
We limit it to one-eighth of the population. It‘s there. Why don‘t we use
it?
SCHULTZ: Is this a monkey wrench at the 11th hour?
GRAYSON: No. What this is going to do is this is going to make it
possible for the Senate to vote on the public option and give people what
they really want.
SCHULTZ: Do you think the House will have the votes to pass the
Senate bill?
GRAYSON: Yes?
SCHULTZ: You do?
GRAYSON: Yes.
SCHULTZ: You think Nancy Pelosi will round up the votes, and the
Democrats will put their differences aside in the House and move it forward
for the good of the order?
GRAYSON: Yes. Look, with the reconciliation, it‘s closer to where
the House bill was than where the Senate bill is. It‘s not that different
from what we voted on before. It had 222 votes before. I think it will
win again.
SCHULTZ: Thirty nine no votes on the Democratic side the last time.
Any going to go to tip to the right?
GRAYSON: Yes, I think some of the people regret that vote. I have
talked to some of the members who voted against it last time, and they
realize now that their constituents, the people that voted for them, felt
betrayed by that vote.
SCHULTZ: I respect the heck out of you. You‘re a charger and you‘re
a populist and you‘re for the people and you‘ve been on this issue. But
doesn‘t this kind of gum it up when we‘re so close? It makes sense. But
we‘re going to hear, well, we don‘t have the votes.
GRAYSON: Doesn‘t what gum it up? The fact that we want to open up
Medicare to anybody who will pay for it? No. We‘ve got 41 senators on the
record saying that they will support the public option. In the House, we
voted for a huge bill, 2,000 pages, that had the public option in it. Now
by voting on a separate bill, at the same time as the reconciliation in the
Senate bill, that says that we support the public option, we‘re actually
making it easier for those 41 senators to get nine more to join them, and
get the job done for America.
SCHULTZ: What does it mean that there‘s 41 senators and maybe a few
more coming on? What does that letter mean? Does it have any political
prowess about it?
GRAYSON: Yes. And I heard that Charles Schumer, the senator from New
York, is actually going and trying to get nine more signatures on the
letter. If we get 50 signatures on the letter, that means 50 senators are
committed to a vote on the public option, and passing it in the Senate.
SCHULTZ: And where does the president come into all of this? He‘s
said all of a long that he wants a public option, but says we don‘t have
the votes. There‘s 41 one of them and maybe some more coming now. Do you
think the president should maybe push a little bit on the final nine?
GRAYSON: I‘d love to see that.
SCHULTZ: Do you think he‘ll do it?
GRAYSON: I don‘t know. I don‘t speak for him. But I would love to
see the president step in on the public option the way he‘s stepped in on
the entire bill and say, this is what America needs and this is what
America deserves.
We don‘t want to relegate everyone to private insurance when we have a
mandate in the bill, because people understand that private insurers have a
conflict of interest. They make money when they cheat you. They make
money when they deny you care. And they make money when you‘re sick if you
die. Everybody understands that in America now. That‘s why we need a
public option.
SCHULTZ: What do you think of the Republicans at this stage of the
game? Still no one on board; still not flexible at all, whining,
complaining, some of their proposals are in this Senate bill that I think
the House should vote for. Do you think Democrats will be able to win on
passing health care and be able to go back and say, we‘re on the correct
side of history?
GRAYSON: Well, sure, because we‘re offering solutions to people‘s
problems and the other side is not. What‘s the Republican‘s answer to
unemployment? Get a job. What‘s their answer to homelessness? Move in
with your parents. People understand that the Republicans are never going
to help. The Republicans don‘t care about them.
What they want to see is a Democratic party that can get things done
for them. That‘s what the Democratic party needs to do, get things done
for America.
SCHULTZ: Congressman, great to have you with us. You make it very
interesting in this town, very interesting. You go after it. A lot of
people respect that. I appreciate your time.
Tonight, our text question survey, I asked, should liberals suck it up
and vote yes for the current health care bill. Eighty eight percent of you
said yes; 12 percent said no.
That‘s THE ED SHOW. I‘m Ed Schultz. A special edition of “HARDBALL”
with Chris Matthews is next. it‘s part two of his exclusive interview with
Vice President Joe Biden in Israel. That starts right now on the place for
politics, MSNBC. We‘ll see you here tomorrow night.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY
BE UPDATED.
END
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