MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: The Ed Show for Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Interview

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Let"s bring in Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

Congressman, great to have you with us tonight.

You heard what I thought. I thought the president"s speech laid out a pretty strong vision to counterpunch the Republicans on the budget.

But I"m curious--what did you think of the president"s speech tonight? Did he hit the right notes and draw that line in the sand to protect those great progressive programs that have helped this country over these--over these decades? What do you think?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), OHIO: Well, first of all, I think that you"ve accurately characterized his assessment of what the Republicans" plan represents, which is nothing more than an acceleration of the wealth upwards under the cover of reducing the deficit. However, I think that we need more details before we can, you know, actually give a more thorough assessment of where the president stands on Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

I know what he said, Ed. But he also said everything is on the table. And he didn"t say Social Security is off the table. Medicare/Medicaid is off the table. He said everything is on the table. I want to know what that means.

I also want to point out that he said nothing about the trillions of dollars we"re spending on war and about the hundreds of billions we continue to spend on war. He didn"t say anything about the trade deficit and the role that plays in causing American jobs to be lost and our national deficit increasing.

So, you know, we--it sounds as though, at least with respect to the Bush tax cuts, he"s correcting the course. That"s really good. But we have a lot more details before I"m going to be satisfied that this direction that we"re about to take again is going to be a direction that"s going to work for all Americans.

SCHULTZ: Congressman, I took his comment that everything is on the table that he is willing to rework the finances in the long term but the fundamental quarry says "I will not allow Medicare to become a voucher program." Isn"t that a definitive statement? Isn"t that good enough?

KUCINICH: Well, you know, we don"t want Medicare to be a voucher program. I agree with that. But it doesn"t follow that there"s not going to be any reductions. That"s what we have to work on.

I mean, you know, I want to join you in saying thanks to President Obama for being able to draw the differences between what the Republican stance--Republicans stand for and what the president says he wants to do. That"s fine.

But as far as I"m concerned, I didn"t hear anything that caused me to believe that we"re going to take a new direction with respect to national security, which is a major factor of our budget crisis. That we"re going to take a new direction with respect to trade--major factor in our budget crisis. That we"re going to create millions of new jobs and put Americans back to work. We have a jobless recovery.

So, we want to take some note of satisfaction that we can all participate in this upbeat feeling for the moment. I want to see the details and what"s going to happen down the road before I sign on.

SCHULTZ: OK. And what do you make of his comment talking about the trillion dollars worth of tax cuts that the Republicans are looking at for every millionaire or billionaire and he says, "And I refuse to renew them again." That"s a line in the sand, isn"t it?

KUCINICH: Well, let"s look at that statement. "Refuse to renew them again." The president admitted that he went along with the renewal before. We all know the Bush tax cuts drove us into a fiscal crisis. They were renewed.

Now, he"s not going to renew them. Great. I agree with him.

But we have to understand, there"s a political process here of going back-and-forth that causes some confusion among the American people about, you know, where people stand on these issues. I"m glad the president is committing to put an end to the Bush tax cuts. That"s good news.

It"s also good news that he"s committing to challenge the Ryan tax cuts which would lower the corporate tax rate and the highest bracket to about 25 percent. There"s a lot of money that will be saved for the taxpayers by taking that approach.

But the ultimate challenge to our economy is not in the issue of tax cuts. It"s what are the priorities we have to get the economy moving it and to put America back to work, to end these rotten wars based on lies, based on misunderstanding of history, based on God knows what, and to take America in a direction where we can reclaim our country, not just fiscally but morally as well.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Dennis Kucinich, appreciate your time tonight.

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