MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. SCHULTZ: Today the Senate Finance Committee held its second hearing on health care reform. Five people calling for single-payer health care were arrested -- same old story -- at the hearing. Now, Democratic Chairman Max Baucus again said single payer is not on the table.

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT): (From videotape.) We've got health care reform in front of us right now, and we have to, in my judgment, work with what we've got and make what we have work better. We cannot go to a totally new system. Some want to go single pay. I don't think that's going to work in this country.

MR. SCHULTZ: Folks, don't think for a second that single payer is dead. There are a lot of Democrats who believe single payer is the only way to get true health care reform in this country.

Congressman Eric Massa of New York -- he's only been in the Congress 126 days -- he is leading the single-payer job in the House and is co-chair of the Congressional Universal Health Care Reform Caucus.

You're my new hero, my man, the way you're speaking up on this. What do you think you can get done?

REP. MASSA: Well, right back at you. And let me just say, it's not just Democrats. It's the entire American business community, who understand that we are absolutely hang-tying our international corporate small and medium-size businesses by trying to do what Senator Baucus is saying -- live with what we have. It's a failure. It has not worked. If it did work, we wouldn't be here with, frankly, now more than 50 million uninsured Americans.

MR. SCHULTZ: Now, you're a guy who's going to day number 127 tomorrow. You're acting as if you've got everything to gain and nothing to lose, which I really respect. But do you trust the president? We're in the early stages here. Do you trust him that he's going to put single payer into this equation?

REP. MASSA: Here's what I want to do. I want to tell the president we've got his back. You know, I'm an old military guy. I spent 24 years in the United States Navy, and a little over a decade ago I was given a terminal diagnosis of cancer. I was told I had four months to live.

Now, with that life's history, what are you going to do to me? I mean, you can't intimidate me politically. It just doesn't work. And I want to make the president know that tens of millions of Americans, we've got his back. We will cover him to make the tough decisions, both in the House and in the Senate. And that's a central message we want to give to the administration.

MR. SCHULTZ: Congressman Eric Massa, I have to ask you, are you willing to take on the corporate interests if it costs you your seat? I mean, they're going to target you, guy.

REP. MASSA: Some would say, especially when you read the local press in Washington, that I am the most targeted member of Congress. I worry about what happens in the break room, Ed. That's where my heart is, not in the boardroom. For eight years we focused on the boardroom. Look where it got us. Greed, unlike what the TV show said, is not necessarily good. And frankly, it's killing people. So let's have an honest conversation in this country about true medical reform that includes the single-payer option, Medicare for all Americans.

MR. SCHULTZ: I got an e-mail. The CBS station in San Francisco ran a story last night about a lady whose coverage was denied. She's got cancer. She's dying. Americans, who are we? We're better than this as a country. Can't we do something, or are we that selfish?

And finally, Congressman, I want to ask you, do you trust the insurance companies and all these corporate guys --

REP. MASSA: (Laughs.)

MR. SCHULTZ: -- that were in the room yesterday?

REP. MASSA: Sure, I trust --

MR. SCHULTZ: I mean, all of a sudden they're going to say, "Hey, we're really going to reduce our costs over the next 10 years and save $2 trillion."

REP. MASSA: Ed, I'm not the most athletic a guy, and I trust them as far as I can throw them. Come on, they are in this business to make hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in profit. And profit is great -- not when it's at the expense of the lives of my fellow Americans and the ability of American businesses to compete all over the globe. No, I don't trust them --

MR. SCHULTZ: Congressman --

REP. MASSA: -- not when it comes to this.

MR. SCHULTZ: You're my new hero. I said that earlier; I'll say it again. Keep up the fight, my friend. We've got to be heard at the table.

REP. MASSA: We will not be quiet and we will not go away.

MR. SCHULTZ: Thank you.

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