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SCHULTZ:...And joining me now is Congressman John Larson of Connecticut. He is a
House Democratic Caucus Chair, also with us tonight for some insight former
North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan. Gentlemen, great to have you with us.
REP. JOHN LARSON, (D) CONNECTICUT: Good to be with you, Ed.
Senator -- Congressman Larson, let`s go to the House, first.
LARSON: Sure.
SCHULTZ: What`s going to be different this week from last week?
LARSON: Well hopefully, Ed, as you were saying in the led up to this.
Hopefully the Tea Party Republicans put this in perspective. I know it`s a
rage but they`ve got to love their country more than they despise the
President of the United States. And let`s hope that Speaker Boehner is
able to find a way forward this week and do what the Senate has responsibly
done, and put together a clean bill that comes to the floor that extends
and make sure that these employees of the Department of Homeland Security
aren`t impacted and they got off away that they would.
Look, we`re up in New England and we`re suffering through disastrous
snowfalls that are record in the epic. And to shut FEMA down, to shut this
government down again because of this position that they box themselves
into a corner, something that`s being adjudicated currently is just wrong-
headed. There`s many...
SCHULTZ: Well, Congressman...
LARSON: ... (inaudible) follow Peter King`s advice.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
LARSON: ... They should follow Michael Deans (ph) advice and put it
forward.
SCHULTZ: Well, Congressman, is it they are so concerned about the
constitution or they just don`t want to see the President move forward on
immigration, and they really don`t think we need the Department of Homeland
Security. What is it?
LARSON: They`ve been blinded by their -- how they dislike this President.
They`ve been blinded by this immigration policy that`s following a natural
course and procedure. And you can argue over this as the courts are
currently adjudicating this. But the fact of the matter is, you shouldn`t
and this is time and again, this is a pattern that they continue to repeat
of taking hostages...
SCHULTZ: Well.
LARSON: ... holding innocent people in the nation hostage over a policy
concern to demonstrate that somehow they are going to show this President.
SCHULTZ: All right. And...
LARSON: ... and it`s just simply wrong-headed.
SCHULTZ: That was the next point I wanted to make with you, Senator
Dorgan.
I don`t think that hostage taking of issues was really too popular in this
country or a method of getting things done until the Tea Party showed up
several years ago back in 2010.
Senator Dorgan, give us a remedy here. What fix is this?
FRM. SEN. BYRON DORGAN, (D) NORTH DAKOTA: Well, you know, those Tea Party
folks got elected by saying we will never compromise, whereas you`ll never
catch us compromising on anything.
You know, if there is somebody just now tuning into this controversy, I`ll
bet they think this is some complicated, complex, very difficult issue with
which to deal, it`s not at all. This issue is very simple. Do you pass
appropriations for the agency called Homeland Security at a time when this
country is beset with all kinds of terrorist threats? Do you pass that
appropriation?
Now, these folks in the House of Representatives, you know, the Congressman
is right. I mean, Speaker Boehner doesn`t control and can`t seem to
control his caucus and so, they`ve tried to make this about some other
subject but it`s not.
You know, as I said in the pass, Ed, there`s one thing that shoot yourself
in the foot is quite another thing to take aim and that`s exactly what they
are doing at the expense of the country.
SCHULTZ: No doubt. People are questioning Speaker Boehner`s ability to
control his caucus. Here is what he had to say on "Face the Nation". Here
it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN DICKERSON, FACE THE NATION`S HOST: Do they have a plan that could
have succeeded and passed and signed by the President that would have
gotten them what they wanted this small group, you say, that basically
undermined your efforts?
BOEHNER: Not that I know of.
DICKERSON: So, was it fruitless?
BOEHNER: It`s the House of Representatives as it said in the opener, the
House is a rambunctious place. We have 435 members. A lot of members have
a lot of different ideas about what we should and shouldn`t be doing.
DICKERSON: Can you lead those members?
BOEHNER: I think so. I think so. I`m not going to just this easy because
it`s not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHULTZ: Senator Dorgan, he will not bring a clean bill to the floor, what
is that say?
DORGAN: Well, he`s going to have to do that. I mean, they`ve ridden
themselves into a box canyon (ph) like in the old Western movies. He has
to, you know, what they have is the Hastert Rule in the majority party and
that rule was, we want to bring something to the floor that doesn`t have
the majority of the majority.
But, you know, I went to the House when I started this career under Tip
O`Neill. That wasn`t Tip`s approach. The county needed to do something if
it was in that national interest. You bring a bill to the floor and work
both sides and get as many votes as you can from each side. That`s what
the speaker`s going to have to do.
Now, he`s worried that this going to cause him his speakership. It could,
maybe, but the national interest is probably worth it.
SCHULTZ: OK. In five or seven months we reach debt ceiling again. And on
October, Congress must pass spending bills to keep our government open. I
mean, as a taxpayer red-blooded American, what we have to look forward to?
I mean after this fight, what can we expect Congressman Larson? I mean,
this is the way...
LARSON: Well, this is a...
SCHULTZ: ... this is the world the Tea Party has brought America, correct?
LARSON: You`re absolutely right, Ed. And this is a pattern. You know,
since 2011, I think this will be the 12th time we`ve witnessed yet another
hostage taking and another incident of bringing us to the pacifist (ph) of
defaulting on the nation`s full faith in credit or shutting down government
or some other manufactured crisis.
I hope that Speaker Boehner and I think he realizes increasingly as was
demonstrated last Friday evening that, if you put a bill on the floor and
whether that bill be immigration, whether that bill be an infrastructure
bill, whether that bill be above the funding of the Department of Homeland
Security. You put a bill on the floor, it will gather...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
LARSON: ... bipartisan support and that is the way to govern. He is the
Speaker of the House.
I believe Boehner is an honorable person. I think he is seeking a way to
try to get away this done as of yet he is not. I hope he listens to the
Peter Kings and the Mike Dean`s (ph) and the reasonable people than the
Republican caucus who want to see the nation to continue to move forward
and don`t delight in this crisis to crisis situation that is self-
imposed...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
LARSON: ... by the Republican Tea Party.
SCHULTZ: Well, I`ve missed one other deadline and that`s May 31st and
that, of course, is when the highway funding bill runs out.
LARSON: Exactly.
SCHULTZ: So I`m sure we`ll have a nice sort of visit about that well
before we get into the five or seven months from now, but we run it to some
other debt ceiling issues.
Gentlemen, good to have you with us tonight. Congressman John Larson...
DORGAN: Thanks, Ed.
LARSON: It`s always a pleasure.
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