MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Debbie Dingell
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
CAPEHART: So Congresswoman Dingell, how confident are you feeling about votes in the House?
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): So, Jonathan, it`s good to see you, I miss you. It`s been a long August. I`m going to tell you, you know, there`s an old will Roger statement that people with weak stomachs should not watch sausage or laws being made. And we are clearly in the sausage-making process right now. But the fact of the matter is, we can`t afford to fail.
So I don`t think it`s going to be pretty for the next two weeks. I think there`s going to be a lot of discussions, a lot of negotiations, a lot of back and forth, a lot of intensity, a lot of passion. But we can`t fail. Chuck Schumer is right, we have to be united, because the American people are expecting us to deliver on roads and bridges and broadband and a lot of other programs that really matter to people every day. So in the end, we`re Democrats, we will come together and we`ll get this done.
CAPEHART: Congresswoman Dingell, I have a question, because you are from Michigan, and you are someone who is like, when you speak, especially when it comes to things dealing with policy, but how it plays in Michigan, folks listen. And so when someone like Senator Joe Manchin says $3.5 trillion is too much and I can`t see supporting anything bigger than a trillion dollars, does that play for your constituents in Michigan? Is that rationale something Democrats should be -- actually should be listening to?
DINGELL: So I want to say a lot of different things here. First of all, there are a lot of people who think that there`s more than one Senator from West Virginia that represents the country and there are a lot of other voices (inaudible). And I love Joe Manchin, he`s a good friend, but, you know, the 435 members of the House that also have a right to have a voice, so West Virginia is not the only state in the country.
So I`m going to start there. The fact of the matter is, we`ve also -- we care about -- we`ve had seven storms. What happened in Louisiana, what happened in New Jersey and New York, was terrible. But 20,000 homes were damaged in a storm at the end of June and we`ve had six more with floods that are going over people`s first floor windows.
And I have people say, I`m sorry about what happened in other states, but who cares about us? We need to build up resiliency. We keep having these once in a lifetime storms what seems like every week. So people want something done on those issues.
And there are a lot of other -- electric vehicles, the president has set a voluntary standard for 2030 of 50 percent sales. They want to know who are going to invest in the infrastructure that`s going to convince people, give people the truth to buy those EVs.
There are ton of issues that I can go through on this, but people care about and that they need and they want to (inaudible) Congress (inaudible). We`ll have a lot of discussion but they want to see results. They want broadband.
They can`t -- I mean, the kids, they want their kids back in school, they are trying to get it there, but broadband is so unequal. It`s not here in the urban areas, it`s not out in the rural areas. I`ve been trying to do virtual hearings in the car this week with markups, the votes, and it`s a nightmare. People want results.
CAPEHART: Congresswoman, you sit on the House Energy Committee which released details of its portion of the bill this week, which includes $190 billion for an expansion of Medicaid to help the elderly and the disabled stay in their homes. It`s far less than the $400 billion that the president wanted and still below the $250 billion that Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania requested. Talk about that change. Do you think the overall size of the bill will come down significantly?
DINGELL: I don`t know what`s ultimately going to happen. I think 3.5 is where we`re looking right now. You know that bill is also my bill, it is the Dingell bill in the House, and it`s not enough money. President Biden put $400 billion in when he initially talked about it.
We have almost a million people, we have over 800,000 people that are on a waiting list right now for home-based community care. Seniors. We`re the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn`t take care of its seniors, that we impoverish them. We need to do something about this. I have stated I don`t think it`s enough money. I`m working with Bob Casey. You know me, you know how intense I am when I`m working it.
[22:25:30]
CAPEHART: Oh, yeah.
DINGELL: I`m not leaving anybody alone (inaudible). But you know, we`ll see where this all comes out. We`ve got to do a lot of discussing and seeing where we`re going to get on these totals. But that bill is very important, and I think we need -- it`s time for us to take care of our seniors. People should -- we put them in institutions, they`re desperate, they have nobody to take care of them. I know, I was lucky enough to have my husband be able to stay at home.
But the days I took my head and just put it against the wall, trying to make a broken system work, you know, that`s what the dictionary says, that infrastructure, the system and processes that let a country operate smoothly, a company operate smoothly. Shouldn`t people be able to go to work and not have to worry about feeding their children or their parents or relatives that they care about?
CAPEHART: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, that should be a rhetorical question. The answer is yes. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Great to see you, Congresswoman Dingell.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source