MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

Interviwer: Ed Schultz

Congressman, how contentious was it behind closed doors with the Democrats today when this subject about working through the recess came up?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D), MAJORITY WHIP: Well, you know, it‘s a lot of passion in our caucus, wanting to do health care reform. And there are people who do believe that if we were to leave here without doing this, the headline is not going to be that we‘re going home to listen to voters. The headline is going to be that we took a vacation while 14,000 people a day lost their health insurance, while three million seniors fell through the doughnut hole. We‘ve got to stay here so the American people will not view us as vacationing while they continue to suffer.

SCHULTZ: Now, do you think that the House has the votes to get this health care package out? On your side, Nancy Pelosi says she‘s got the votes to get a progressive plan out.

Do you agree with her on that?

CLYBURN: Well, I haven‘t started trying to count votes yet. Nancy Pelosi is a former whip, she and Steny Hoyer both. They are pretty good vote counters.

But I, for one, have not started counting yet, simply because I want to wait until the Energy and Commerce Committee finishes its work, then we square these three different bills and blend them into one, and then we‘ll start whipping on the final product. There‘s going to be some changes made even tonight.

SCHULTZ: Changes made tonight. I mean, it‘s the—the process is very fluid right now.

CLYBURN: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: I want to know what your take is, Congressman. Last night, President Obama did not use the term "public option." Today, in his statement at the town hall meeting, he did not use the term "public option."

I mean, this is what we‘ve got talking about, the whole country has been focused on. All of a sudden, the president just conveniently stops using that term?

Why is that happening, in your opinion?

CLYBURN: Well, I don‘t know, but I do believe that a public option is very strongly supported by a majority of the House of Representatives.

Now, there are some issues as to whether or not the public option—what will trigger a public option. Should it be there automatically, or should we give the insurance companies a fair opportunity to do the controls we think that need to be done in order to hold the costs down? And if they don‘t do it, trigger a public option? There is some sentiment for that, but I do believe the vast majority of the House of Representatives is in favor of a public option.

SCHULTZ: If scale one to 100, 50 percent, 80 percent? What do you think the chances are of the House staying in and working until they get conclusion?

CLYBURN: It‘s better than a 50/50 chance that we‘ll do that.

SCHULTZ: Interesting.

Congressman Clyburn, good to have you with us tonight.

CLYBURN: Thank you so much for having me.

SCHULTZ: Thank you.

CLYBURN: OK. Bye-bye.

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