MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

MSNBC "The Ed Show" Interview With Senator Sherrod Brown

Interviewer: Ed Schultz

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MR. SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who is a member of the HELP Committee, which is Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

All right, Senator, I know you're not going to let us down on this issue. That exchange I just had with Dylan Ratigan, that's the kind of action I want behind closed doors. I want you senators going at it and fighting for this public option. But I need you to define at this moment what this public option is.

SEN. BROWN: Well, public option is pretty much a Medicare look- alike. It won't exactly be that, but a public plan that competes with the insurance industry. You know, the insurance industry is always sort of one step ahead of the sheriff. They want you in their plan if they can make money on you. They don't if you've got a pre-existing condition.

We're going to change the rules for insurance companies, but we also want this public plan option so they can keep the insurance companies behaving better. And so a customer or a patient can say, "I want to go in the private plan or I can go in the public plan." It's their choice. We're just providing an additional choice. But it's a public choice. It's a government-run choice that will welcome many people, and others will choose otherwise.

MR. SCHULTZ: Okay, this is what the president had to say today when it comes to drawing the lines. Here it is.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From videotape.) We have not drawn lines in the sand other than that reform has to control costs and that it has to provide relief to people who don't have health insurance or are underinsured. Those are the broad parameters that we've discussed.

MR. SCHULTZ: Senator Brown, when do we draw lines in the sand to Republicans that have said it's a non-starter? That's their verbiage -- it's a non-starter when it comes to public option.

SEN. BROWN: Well, unfortunately, one committee seems to be -- the Finance Committee seems to be looking -- working -- in my mind, there seems to be -- the chairman has said his goal is to have a bipartisan plan. The HELP Committee, my committee -- Senator Dodd, Senator Kennedy's committee -- is frankly more focused on we want a really good plan. And a really good plan's got to include a public option.

It will save dollars, as the president says, because it will keep the insurance companies more honest. And it also -- it will mean that in places there might not be a decent private insurance plan, the public option is there. And it gives much better choice. It'll help the single parent who's not been able to get insurance because it costs too much or because she might have a disabled child. It will help the small business owner that can't get this kind of quality of insurance that she wants for her business; whatever.

MR. SCHULTZ: Sure.

SEN. BROWN: And so, all across the board, it will make sense. And we're working on it in the HELP Committee. We had a markup today. We're about halfway there in terms of the legislation we're putting together. We've got more to do. And we're going to get to public option.

MR. SCHULTZ: All right, Senator, I want to switch gears with you here, if I can, because the other big story today that the president addressed was the events that are unfolding in Iran.

Are you comfortable with the action this president has taken? Has he been aggressive enough? And do you think he should do more? Where do you stand on it?

SEN. BROWN: I think he's been about right. And I don't agree with everything the president's done on everything, but on this one I do. You know, I think that what people that want to talk tougher, like John McCain, have said the president has got to talk tougher and talk about the democracy movement and kind of identify himself with certain leaders in Iran -- what we have to understand is when an American leader identifies with a certain group of people in a Middle East country, it doesn't necessarily help that group of people go in the direction they want to take the country, because, you know, we're not necessarily the most popular kid on the block there. And we always want to stand for democracy and freedom, but oftentimes we need to stand a little bit back, let it play out --

MR. SCHULTZ: Sure.

SEN. BROWN: -- and move forward at the right time.

MR. SCHULTZ: Senator, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.

SEN. BROWN: Thanks, Ed, always. Thanks.

MR. SCHULTZ: You bet.

END.

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