NBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: HealthCare.gov and Kathleen Sebelius

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Joining me tonight is Congressman Xavier Becerra of
California who is on the Democratic leadership team in the House.
Congressman, good to have you with us tonight, I guess the witch hunt
continues this week against the secretary.

But of course, you said last week that someone should be held
accountable for these website issues. Should it be Kathleen Sebelius?

REP. XAVIER BECERRA (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, Ed, I think we have long
ways to go before we can say it goes all the way to the top. We certainly
want to get the website fixed but we shouldn`t fixate on the website. And
that`s unfortunately, I think my Republican colleagues have begun to do is
just fixate on the website.

We all have to work together to make it work well because we want
Americans to get covered.

The most important thing about the Affordable Care Act isn`t a
website, it`s that millions of Americans will finally have an opportunity
to get quality healthcare, and that`s what we should really focus on.

So, absolutely, we should hold people accountable. But right now,
we`re trying to determine who should be accountable. Anytime, you take tax
to your money and taxpayers have paid for this, you should be held
accountable. So those private contractors who took taxpayer money to do
the work, those health personnel who are working on this for the driven
government agencies, we have to figure out who should be held accountable.
And by the way, Congress which is supposed to do a job of oversight
should be held accountable as well.

SCHULTZ: But she`s going to be testifying before the House, Energy
and Commerce Committee this week. Is this anything more than a Republican
which on comparing as president -- former President Clinton was talking
about down in Newport (ph) News yesterday about the parallels between
Medicare, Part D in the Bush Administration, their issues, and of course,
the issues with the website right now and its lack of functionality in many
parts.

BECERRA: Well, it doesn`t take a rocket scientist to understand that
when you got someone that has put up more than 40 votes trying to eliminate
a program, and all of a sudden, they`re going to come see Jesus and say
that they want to make it work well.

At the same time, many of these Republicans who are talking about
their concerns about the website were not raising any concerns back in 2006
when the Bush Administration tried to launch that Medicare, Part D program.
They never once called for Secretary Lovett to resign when he was the
secretary of HHS under George Bush. They never asked anyone to resign.
And so, it does begin to smell a bit -- but let`s do this, Ed. Let`s
just focus on making this work .

SCHULTZ: Well, can we make it work? I mean are you confident, by the
end of November, as predicted, that all of these problems are going to be
worked out?

BECERRA: I know the President who said that, by the end of November,
they`ll have these problems worked out. I trust the President would not
say it unless he felt very confident that they would. They have to.
We didn`t do this major reform, pass this historic health law --
health security law so that it wouldn`t work.

There`s a guy in Los Angeles who`s imported (ph) up and down the
press. He`s 34 years of age, Andrew Stryker (ph). He saves $6,000. He
waited three hours to get on the website and finally be able to apply. But
once he did apply, he saved $6,000. You don`t want to wait three hours but
you do want to save $6,000.

SCHULTZ: So, let`s say the website is all fixed at the end of
November and we go into the first part of the year, would you still go
along with the possibility of any kind of delay? I know that there`s
Senator Manchin from West Virginia over in the senate side is saying that
he wasn`t delayed a year, your thoughts on any delay or any part of the
program.

BECERRA: I don`t want to delay Andrew Stryker getting his health
insurance policy that lets him save $6,000. I don`t want to delay it for
any of the constituents I have in my district. And in my district, I have
more uninsured Americans than any other congressional district, except one.
And so, I don`t want to delay any of this because we need to move
forward. What we want to do is make sure everything is working right so
people can quickly find out what they can qualify for and start taking
advantage of having the same kind of healthcare that you and I have.

SCHULTZ: Yeah, Congress, what about the money to get this right? You
know, Tom Harkin told me last week that the proper resources were not there
from appropriations, from the get go on desk, that this wasn`t resourced
properly. So how is it going to get resourced properly between now and
fixed at time?

BECERRA: Well, Ed, think of it this way, most Americans wouldn`t
understand what`s gone into the website. Most of us didn`t have to work
all the details out. It`s pretty complicated but they could understand
this.

When on October 1st, Republican shutdown the government for 16 days,
and on the same October 1st, the health marketplace is launched. It sure
makes it tough for these health marketplaces to move forward efficiently
when the government is intentionally shutdown.

800,000 Americans who go to work everyday for the federal government
couldn`t go to work. And so, all of a sudden, you`re trying to launch your
very sophisticated, very expensive marketplaces and the websites at a time
when the federal government is saying, "We can`t go to work today."

So that`s make it tough. We have to make sure the resources are
there. Republicans who continue to want to have this autopilot cutting
across the board without knowing if it`s a good program or bad program they
are cutting. So it doesn`t make it very, very difficult. And that`s like
you`ve said, "We should be working together to make this work right."
SCHULTZ: So I guess .

BECERRA: (inaudible) fix it.

SCHULTZ: I guess in street terms, democratic credibility on the
healthcare law right now is in the hands of the computer geeks.

BECERRA: Well, no, we`re going to -- no, Ed, we all have a
responsibility to make this thing work. And so, I think we all have to
work with those who are on the ground day to day making the website work.
Remember, there`s more than a website. You could phone call, you can go in
and talk to some of these navigators who help you - they`re (inaudible) .
SCHULTZ: Correct.

BECERRA: . help you go to the process.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

BECERRA: It`s not just a website. But the website obviously is the
easiest route. It should be the easiest route. We have to make it work
right.

SCHULTZ: All right, Congressman Xavier Becerra, great to have you
with us tonight. I appreciate your time. I believe it`s nothing but a
witch hunt on the secretary. Not one person is being responsible for this.
I appreciate it so much.
Still ahead .

BECERRA: It`s Halloween.

SCHULTZ: Yes, very close to it.

Still ahead, conservative Utopia, new developments in the Detroit
bankruptcy case. Plus, Chris Christie Shaqing it up.

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