MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRNASCRIPT

SCHULTZ: Joining me now is a special assistant to Speaker Pelosi, Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He"s also the chairman of the DCCC. Congressman, great to have you on. I think it speaks volumes that the president went to Dennis Kucinich"s district today, spoke with him personally before the event. I mean, he"s asking for the order. If Dennis Kucinich does vote for this bill, this is really going to disappoint a lot of progressives, but it also might turn the tide for the Democrats in many ways. How do you se his vote? Is it symbolic? Is it important? What do you think?

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Well, it is important. The president was absolutely right. This is an opportunity for us to make a major step forward in our country on comprehensive health care reform. None of us got everything we wanted in this bill. As you know, in the House, we worked very hard to get the public option as part of the bill. You know, we didn"t get it.

Does that mean we don"t vote for it? I don"t think so. This is a major advance. It will cover 31 million Americans who don"t have coverage today.

SCHULTZ: Who"s holding out?

VAN HOLLEN: All those people being denied health insurance because of preexisting conditions. I really hope Dennis will reconsider. The president was right to ask him one more time. The crowd was right to ask him to do it. But let"s not just focus on Dennis. Obviously, there are other members that continue to, you know, look at this. We want to make sure they"re on board.

SCHULTZ: Who"s holding out? Do you have the votes tonight? Jim Clyburn said yesterday on "Meet the Press," didn"t have them. Where are you today? I would imagine this meeting tonight is pretty crucial. Where do you stand right now? Do you have the votes? Who"s holding out?

VAN HOLLEN: I think the momentum continues to build, Ed. But there are many members that are waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to make its final--release its final results.

SCHULTZ: I thought they already did that. Score 118 billion to save that much over the next ten years.

VAN HOLLEN: No, they have not yet come up with their score for the bill as amended by the president. His proposal says it would be a change through reconciliation.

SCHULTZ: OK. That"s the second score.

VAN HOLLEN: That"s right. So that"s what many members are waiting for.

SCHULTZ: All right. Now, the Stupak crowd, how confident are you that you"ll peel a few of those votes off, those who have been so tough on abortion language?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, again, most of those members want to support comprehensive health care reform. At the end of the day, I hope they"ll look at the Senate provisions and understand that the Senate provisions do not allow taxpayer dollars to go for abortion. It"s pretty clear that you have to write a check with your own money if you want to buy a health care policy that includes those reproductive health services that cover abortion.

So when it comes down to it, we really hope those members will see what the Senate bill does and make their decisions going forward.

SCHULTZ: Robert Gibbs said over the weekend that it will be the law of the land by next weekend. You agree with that?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, by the coming weekend is when we hope to have a vote in the House. Of course, that would send a Senate bill to the president"s desk. At the same time, we"re amending the Senate bill. We"re getting rid of some of the provisions in the Senate bill that nobody likes, and rightfully so, like the Nebraska deal. And so that"s what we"re working on right now, is to try to make those changes to the Senate bill that make sense and still provide the kind of coverage that we want.

That"s where we are right now, and we need to get from the Congressional Budget Office their analysis of the out-year deficit reduction impact of that combined bill. As you know, they looked at both the House and the Senate bill and said that they reduced the deficit over a 10-year period and a 20-year period. We need to make sure that the combined bill does just the same.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, good to have you on tonight.

VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source