Andrea Mitchell spoke with Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" earlier today. Barbour discussed President Obama's healthcare plan and addressed rumors that he may run for the presidency in 2012.
An excerpt, followed by the full transcript, is below. If used, please credit MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports."
Excerpt:
Andrea: Governor, it sounds to me like you've got a whole platform put together. I know you said during the governors' conference to some reporters that if we all saw you lose 40 pounds it either meant you were sick-I’m paraphrasing here-- or you were running for president. Have you made any decisions looking forward to 2012?
Barbour: I made fun of that question with reporters because you get tired of being asked the same question over and over and over again. I'm familiar with these issues because we governors have to deal with these issues. We have to have balanced budgets and cut spending and live within our means. But this year, to the degree I’ve got political time and energy, I’m going to spend it with elected republican governors because I’m chairman of the republican governors' association. If after November it seems there's something we need to think about, we'll think about it then. Until then I’m focused on November, like every good republican needs to be.
Andrea: leaving the door wide open. Haley Barbour, thank you very much. Good to see you.
Barbour: Thank you, Andrea.
Full transcript:
Andrea: While Washington lawmakers try to figure out a way forward on health care, the nation's governors are the ones on the front lines, battling, among other things, increasing Medicare costs. Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, chairman of the republican governor's association, also former national chairman and served as president Reagan’s white house political director. So, you know politics. You know Washington. You know what’s going on around the country. You actually have to face, as do all governors, the real crunch when it comes to Medicaid costs. What do you think should have been done with this health care summit, governor?
Barbour: well, first of all, you know, Andrea, they're going to add in the president's bill, they want to add 15 million people to Medicaid. That's half of the increase in the people who would be covered where everybody knows that Medicaid budgets are already terribly stressful, that many states have had to cut other spending. We're cutting Medicaid because of so much financial pressure on us, yet the president's bill would add 150, 175 million dollars a year to Mississippi’s Medicaid bill. That's money we don’t have.
We've already cut our budget nearly $500 million dollars this year. That is effectively a tax increase, because once we have to start paying that, we've got nowhere to go for it except raise taxes. Medicaid is not the right vehicle. And besides that, if the federal government wants to have a big federal health care reform, why should the states have to pay for it? The federal government ought to pay for all of it.
Andrea: but the federal government would i mean, their whole proposal does include new subsidies for people, to help expand insurance. So, there are ways where this would be paid for under their proposal, they claim.
Barbour: No, ma’am. Under their proposal, the number of people on Medicaid would increase by 15 million. In Mississippi, under their proposal, the number of people on Medicaid would go up by 50%, by half. And the states, while we would
Not have to pay as large a share as under the regular Medicaid program, we would still have to pay for part of it. And that's money that my taxpayers are going to have to Pay in extra taxes. That's before you ever consider how it will clobbers small businesses, how its going to make health insurance more expensive. That's not what Haley says. That's what the Obama administration's experts say. Health insurance premiums would go up under these proposals.
Andrea: well, what they say is that health insurance premiums would go up for some people who have very expensive care, but for others it would come down. That being said, let me share with you an op-ed from Ross Duthout in the New York Times on Sunday, because he is generally viewed as a conservative writer and he does say that 'the democrats have a health care plan that may turn out very, very badly and that the republicans, for all their protestations don’t really have a plan at all. The forum exemplified why Americans have every reason to hate Washington right now. The first five hours revealed a majority party whose health care bill probably deserves to be defeated but the sixth one exposed a minority party that deserves to lose as well.' His point is that the Republicans offered nothing at that summit, he says Republicans said lets start over, do a couple of things on tort reform and antitrust exemption.
Barbour: This is a very serious question. The Obama administration says all or nothing. All or nothing.
Andrea: and the republicans say nothing.
Barbour: I’m sorry?
Andrea: don't the republicans basically say nothing they say start over. Which is tantamount to nothing.
Barbour: no, ma'am. That's what I was about to say to you.
Republicans say what the bipartisan national governors
Association says. There are a number of things we can agree on. Let's do those. But you don’t have to have all or nothing. All or nothing is a dead dog loser, Andrea. Despite what somebody has told you, the congressional budget office says that health insurance premiums will go up under the Obama plan. The department of Health and Human Services offices of the actuary, Obama administrations own people, say health insurance premiums will go up. That's before you ever figure into the fact that every insurance policy within a few
Years would have to be approved by the United States federal Health care commission. And I will guarantee you, they will load those policies down with mandates so that health insurance premiums will go out of the ceiling.
Andrea: how do you compare the 3 million people who would be getting health care, people who didn't have it before, under the republican plans, versus the 30 million who would get it under the democratic plans?
Barbour: well, i would say this to you. We're going to have some number of people in the united states who are uninsured. And if you can knock 3 million off that total to start with on your way up, great. 30 million people knocked off that all at once still leaves about 16 million people who are not covered. So, there are going to be people not covered either way. The question is, do you think it has to be all or nothing now and forever more, no turning back, most Americans do not like many of the things that are in this Bill. They don't like the way it's going to cut Medicare spending. In fact, a lot of them believe that's phony. They dont believe Medicare spending will actually get cut
That much. But the idea that president Obama says if you like what you've got, you can keep it, we know right off the top Medicare advantage, the democrats are going to cut federal support of that by $150, $175 billion dollars. And those people that have Medicare advantage, about 10 million people in the United States, are not going to be able to keep what they got. They’re going to see a huge increase in their premiums and they’re going to get less coverage. The American people saw through that to start with, before somebody ever had to explain the details.
Andrea: now, how do you explain Jim Bunning going up against Mitch McConnell, his fellow Kentucky leader, his republican leader-- one man standing against the entire senate, in fact the entire congress when it comes to extending unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed you have people being furloughed. How do you justify that?
Barbour: well, I don’t. But let me just say that not the
Only time a senator has stopped something from happening.
Andrea: no, democrats do it as well as republicans.
Barbour: i can remember when Trent Lott was the majority leader and a democrat would stop something from happening. Good news is that for people who are long-term unemployed, in a matter of days, the senate will pass a bill to extend unemployment benefits for those who are long-term unemployed, as Republican Senate Whip John Kyl was quoted as saying on your network a while ago.
Andrea: the last time i had the good fortune to sit down with you, John McCain had briefly suspended his campaign, came to Mississippi finally and did do the debate. He did seem at the time to understand that T.A.R.P. was going to go to the banks. Now he says he was misled.
Barbour: Well, I have no idea of any of the details, but I can tell you here in real America, on Main Street, the T.A.R.P. Program was great for Wall Street. It was great for the big financial institutions. But none of that money ever came down to the regionals or particularly the smaller banks. So, small businesses and medium-sized businesses in the United States, not just Mississippi, we can't get credit. This is one of the things the President and Governors talked about last Monday when we were together at the White House. I was pleased to hear the president say that he recognizes that. But if that's what Senator McCain said about T.A.R.P., that he didn't see it coming, I will confess, I didn't see that coming either. I assumed if trillions of dollars or hundreds of billions of dollars got given to these financial institutions, there was some sort of assurance that that money would be loaned out. It would go down into the economy. Instead, these big, big New York financial institutions traded assets, bought and sold. If you look at their profit and loss since statements right after the T.A.R.P., all of them made all of their profits buying and selling, virtually nothing lending. And of course, we just saw last week that in 2009, we had the largest drop in commercial lending by banks since 1942, the year World War II started. That's incredible, when we know in 1942, months after Pearl Harbor, all the liquidity in the country went to the Defense Industry. And yet we had the biggest drop since then last year, despite all this T.A.R.P. money being handed out.
Andrea: Governor, it sounds to me like you've got a whole platform put together. I know you said during the governors' conference to some reporters that if we all saw you lose 40 pounds it either meant you were sick-I'm paraphrasing here-- or you were running for president. Have you made any decisions looking forward to 2012?
Barbour: I made fun of that question with reporters because you get tired of being asked the same question over and over and over again. I'm familiar with these issues because we governors have to deal with these issues. We have to have balanced budgets and cut spending and live within our means. But this year, to the degree I've got political time and energy, I'm going to spend it with elected Republican Governors because I'm Chairman of the Republican Governors' Association. If after November it seems there's something we need to think about, we'll think about it then. Until then I'm focused on November, like every good Republican needs to be.
Andrea: Leaving The Door Wide Open. Haley Barbour, Thank You Very Much. Good To See You.
Barbour: Thank you, Andrea.
END