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REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: My pleasure. Thanks.
HAYES: I"m tempted to make a "this congressman will be interviewed" joke, but I"m guessing you get a lot of that, huh?
WEINER: I"m relieved. Look, you were right. There was a lot of cynicism throughout this process. It took nine years for really crummy reasons. First, we had the Bush administration that refused to do anything to help these people. Then the last two years, just about every obstacle was thrown in the way.
All that being said, this really is remarkable that we got this done, because if you think about it, the very idea that Senator Coburn could stop this entire program dead in its tracks, despite what is really a national consensus around it, shows you the dysfunction of the Senate.
But this got done. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, that guy, John Feal, who brought busloads of people down, again and again. We had 20-some-odd hearings. I"m glad it"s getting done.
It doesn"t change the fact that all around our city, all around the country are people with that distinctive hacking cough because they"re dying slowly by degrees. Hopefully now at least they"re going to get some health care they deserve.
HAYES: I wanted to get your take on the actual final package that was approved. There were a few things that changed from the original bill that you championed in the House. The time horizon, there was--it was a smaller amount, a cap on lawyer"s fees, and some sort of additional regulations to make sure there wasn"t double dipping, in the words of Senator Coburn. What"s your general sense about this?
WEINER: Look, the biggest change was the one that took a ten-year program and made it a five-year program. We"re going to start almost immediately making sure that it gets expanded.
The bottom line is this: if someone discovers six years from now that their heroism is leading them to have these problems, we should take care of them. The irony is, when we passed the Victims Compensation Fund after September 11, to take care of the families of those that were lost on September 11th--if any of us knew that people would be steadily dying by degrees with the after-effects of this, we would have included it. I think, by bipartisan measure, we would have included it.
So the only question is how are we going to deal with people who are steadily getting sick? The fact that it went from ten to five--Chuck Schumer is right. It doesn"t deny anyone who has these problems today. Hopefully in years four, five and six and seven, we"re going to stop seeing people coming down with these symptoms.
But unfortunately, the tragic truth is this is the worst type of entitlement program, in that the group is getting smaller and smaller every day, because people are getting sick and dying. This was not a moment too soon. It"s a very good thing that"s happened. And a lot of people deserve credit.
HAYES: Finally, I want to ask you--because I"m always looking to take away happy lessons of legislative progress.
WEINER: That"s never been your M.O., but I"ll go with it.
HAYES: Well, no, I mean, because when you have a successful battle like this, you want to know what worked. It seems to me like there was a number of things here. You had--but one of the things was the voices of the people that were speaking out on behalf of this.
WEINER: Right.
HAYES: We had one on the ho show last night. They were on. How important do you think that was to the ultimate passage of this?
WEINER: Sometimes, legislation happens because of really hard work and elbow grease and a brilliant idea of members of Congress or in the legislature. More often than not, it happens because just an unstoppable pressure comes from without. Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, you know, the bus loads of people from the Feel-Good Foundation. That guy, John Feal, coming down.
It was hard for my colleagues, at the end of the day, looking out at a hearing or at a markup of people who were literally their embodiment of this problem. And also, at the end, people like Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Harry Reid, to his eternal credit, said, you know what, we"re not going to leave town until we get this done.
So I think people like Senator Coburn said, you know what, if my
objective was to stall until this thing died, the House of Representatives
we literally stayed around, to the credit of Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer and a lot of my colleagues. We stayed in session with nothing to do but wait for the Senate to act. Usually, that"s a fool"s errand. It turned out to be just right this time.
HAYES: Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is a fellow product of New York City"s outer boroughs, it"s a pleasure. Have a great holiday.
WEINER: Nice to see you. Thanks.
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