CNN "Inside Politics" - Transcript: Medicaid

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

JOHNS: More than 30 of the nation's governors are gathering in Iowa this weekend for the National Governors Association summer meeting. The group includes quite a few potential presidential candidates, including Iowa's own governor, Tom Vilsack. Governor Vilsack joins me now from Des Moines.

Thanks for coming in, Governor. Just a couple questions, probably straight off the top. What do you plan to get accomplished at the NGA meeting?

GOV. TOM VILSACK (D), IOWA: Well, we're going to have a great conversation about the importance of making high school experience for America's high school students more rigorous and more relevant. We're going to find out that this is a very competitive circumstance we find ourselves in economically, and our youngsters have to be better prepared for that challenge.

We're also going to have very serious conversations about Medicaid budgets and the stress that that's putting on state budgets, as well as a very comprehensive conversation about homeland security issues.

JOHNS: Now, the DLC, you're going to be there for two years. A lot of people have said the DLC in some ways has clashed, particularly, with the liberals in the party. Are you charting a new course here or are you going to pretty much keep on the same course?

VILSACK: I think it's really important for Democrats not to be fractured. I think we need to be united, and I think we need to be united in promoting a positive agenda for Americans centered around the values of responsibility, opportunity and security.

And I think since we're the party out of power in Washington, we need to be focused on reforming and changing, not being part of the status quo.

So I think the DLC has an extraordinary opportunity to help unite the party and to create that positive agenda.

JOHNS: Now Howard Dean, of course, the chairman of the DNC, has really had a lot of rhetoric out there that's been criticized before. What's your relationship with Howard Dean? How do you work with him? And do you think there's any room to agree there with the kind of rhetoric he sometimes puts out?

VILSACK: Well, I served with Governor Dean and the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association for a number of years. We know each other very, very well.

I know that he's got an interesting challenge, trying to maintain excitement and enthusiasm among the grassroots in the party. And we certainly support efforts to build the party from the grassroots up.

But this isn't about Washington. It's really not about the partisanship that's taken hold in Washington. This is really about developing a positive agenda that is really responding to the concerns of Americans all across this country.

You know, they are tired of the bickering. They're tired of the Washington style of politics. They really would like to see answers. They would like to see their anxieties about jobs and education and health care and homeland security calmed.

And I think that the Democrats have an opportunity and I think, frankly, a responsibility. We have to be held accountable to put together a positive agenda. We can't just be angry. We just can't be anti-. We have to be positive. We have to be optimistic. We have to be hopeful.

JOHNS: Now it's no secret here in town that you have presidential ambitions. Do you think the DLC is going to help?

VILSACK: Well, my focus, frankly, is on my job as governor of the state of Iowa, doing the very best I can do to make sure our schools are as good as they can be, our health care is accessible and affordable as it can be and that we continue to have the strongest growing economy of any state in the country, which is what is true today.

I'm going to focus my energies in making sure that Democratic governor candidates and folks who are running for office provide bold new innovative ideas. So the focus is on 2005 and 2006. I think it's a long way off to talk about 2008. And there are an awful lot of folks who could have this conversation with you. JOHNS: One of the big complaints has been that Democrats don't have new ideas. Is there some big new idea out there that you hope to put before the public before we get to the next election?

VILSACK: Let me just say the Democratic governors have a whole host of new ideas. We're working with health care reform in our state. Janet Napolitano in Arizona is focused on early childhood. Mark Warner has been a reformer in the structure and the operations of government.

Throughout the country, regardless of where you want to look, you're going to see Democratic governors with progressive ideas solving problems. Brad Henry in Oklahoma with anti-meth legislation. Jim Doyle with economic development in Wisconsin. Jennifer Granholm with a new economic opportunity for Michigan to transform its economy. There are a million new ideas out there.

Ed Rendell with his early childhood initiative. Mike Easley with his work in improving education.

The bottom line is that Democratic governors are innovators. We are, in fact, coming up with bold new ideas, and we're making things happen. And I think that's got to be part of our party's message to the people all across this country. And I think the DLC, with its progressive centrist views, can certainly be a voice and a unifying voice in that effort.

JOHNS: All right. Thank you so much, Governor Vilsack. Really appreciate you spending a little time with us.

VILSACK: Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source