MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript
Interview
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My next guest is, too. Congressman Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, member of the House Progressive Caucus.
Am I understating this?
REP. PETER WELCH (D), VERMONT: You"re not the master of understatement, but your, Ed, style is appropriate for the situation. This could be the most serious vote that we take on domestic policy for all of those who serve in Congress. What"s happening here is we have this debt crisis. We"ve got the debt ceiling coming up, we"ve got to pay our bills.
And the majority of the Democratic Caucus, by the way, voted for the debt ceiling so that we"d pay our bills. And that included, by the way, many of us who voted for it who were against the Iraq war, who were against credit card funding of the Afghanistan war, who were against the Bush tax cuts, who were against prescription drug part D, but Congress voted for it, Americans voted for it and we have to pay our bills. We did that.
SCHULTZ: I have a few congressional members tell me tonight that they met with the president a month ago, and they asked him, are you going to throw us under the bus? And they"re telling me tonight they were thrown under the bus. Do you feel that way?
WELCH: Well, you know what, what I"m hoping is this. When the president is talking about Medicare and Social Security, it"s about making Medicare and Social Security strong, survivable and sustainable. And when President Reagan and Speaker O"Neal, Democrat and Republican, joined hands on Social Security, it was about making it stronger. It wasn"t about raiding Social Security to cover tax cuts for the rich.
So that"s the real question. There is enormous anxiety.
(CROSSTALK)
SCHULTZ: Listen, to what we"re talking about here. Why are we even talking about this when you"ve got 80 percent of the American people who don"t want to go down this road?
WELCH: There"s two interpretations. Number one, we shouldn"t be doing it, because Medicare should be discussed on its own terms. We"ve got to bring down the cost of health care and that"s important not only for Medicare but it"s important for the rest of the health care economy.
But it"s not about using Medicare as a way to maintain tax cuts for the top 2 percent of Americans. Social Security is the absolute bedrock of middle class security, and we cannot be using that as a piggy bank to pay for taxing the wealthy.
SCHULTZ: Will the president have support if he comes out with a plan that cuts the big three in any way, shape or form? Will he get the votes?
WELCH: No, he won"t. And this is where I have some optimism. In the Republican Caucus, they won"t take yes for an answer. They basically want to drive government into the ground.
SCHULTZ: No doubt about that.
Yesterday, the president had this to say about using the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to get around this debt situation. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I don"t think we should even get to the constitutional issue.
Congress has a responsibility to make sure we pay our bills.
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SCHULTZ: Today, Chuck Grassley, senator from Iowa, actually admitted the president could use the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Should he do it, in your opinion?
WELCH: You know what? I don"t think he should.
I think Congress should hold firm. I think the Democrats should hold firm. We should defend Social Security, we should defend Medicare. We shouldn"t use a legalistic argument.
This is about basic Democratic values. Do we believe the middle class is entitled, when they get to be 65, to access to health care that they can afford? Do we believe that if you"ve worked hard all your life, you should have some help in your retirement when you"ve paid into Social Security?
SCHULTZ: But you would not advise the president to use his constitutional powers in the 14th Amendment to do this?
WELCH: I would advise Congress to hold firm. I would advise the Democrats to hold firm.
SCHULTZ: Democratic Congressman Peter Welch, great to have you with us tonight from Vermont.
The fact we"re just a couple weeks away from America defaulting on its obligations for the first time ever rested squarely on the back of the Republicans. The president and the Democratic Senate no doubt would sign up right away for a clean up and down vote on rages the debt ceiling. I think they would do it in a heartbeat. But Republicans are using the deadline as a weapon to roll back the progress of the 21st century.
Today on CNBC, one of the smartest men in America, Warren Buffett, called out Republicans for what they"re doing.
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