MSNBC "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

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REP. ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: It is wrong.

OLBERMANN: Is anybody going to like this plan? Anybody?

WEINER: Well, what"s infuriating, putting aside the content, (INAUDIBLE) plan to reduce the deficit so much, a plan to reduce seniors and reduce the middle class and reduce everyone else.

OLBERMANN: Yes.

WEINER: What is truly going to me, and I saw this about six months ago, is this is now President Obama"s commission that is going to propose, essentially, eliminating Social Security COLAs, cutting Medicaid, cutting the home mortgage deduction, which for middle class families is really the only big one that they get any break on, and instead of waiting and seeing what Republicans is going to offer, which is to privatize Social Security, slash Medicare, and the like.

So, this is very bad. I mean, look, I don"t mind a discussion about how we"re going to cut deficits, but, you know, that Alan Simpson came up with a plan to reduce Social Security--well, that should shock anybody.

OLBERMANN: His point that this is a good place--a starting point for discussion. It sounds more like it"s a good starting point for revolution.

What does he expect to have happen as a result of this?

WEINER: Well, I don"t--I don"t quite understand either. I mean, one thing is for sure, is that we know, for example, we know certain things about the deficit. And you pointed out, two-thirds of the deficit are in two places. The wars and the big Bush tax cut.

So, we"re in a conversation now about how we"re going to deal with that latter thing. And for one, I think we should extend the tax cuts for the middle class. But the problem that we have here is no one seems is to be standing up for these fundamental Democratic principles, Social Security, Medicare and the like.

The president--the Democratic president of the United States appoints a commission that came up with this very predictable thing. Someone should be standing up, and I think the president should do it, and say, leave the Democratic principles that are improving the lives of the middle class families, we"re not going to eliminate them.

OLBERMANN: I"m going to talk to Howard Fineman in a moment about what the White House felt about this, which is apparently a big surprise to them, too.

But explain--just summarize the problem that may not be as obvious to people about the idea of cutting Social Security as a function of bringing down the debt.

WEINER: Well, first of all, Social Security ultimately is a safety net program that worked. It"s worked every month. And frankly, the problems that it faces, it"s true. In about 21 years from now, we are going to start having a problem about more money coming in--going out than coming in. A modest change will be able to deal with that.

This notion that Social Security COLAs, cost of living adjustment should be slashed--well, that is the one hedge we have against seniors falling into poverty--below the poverty line. The problem is--and then with Medicare, Medicare, the changes they"re making in the V.A., co-payments for veterans, it"s just about all of these programs that are the last remaining programs to help people stay in the middle class--

OLBERMANN: Right.

WEINER: -- they want to slash them.

OLBERMANN: Do you have an overall solution that can stand up against something like this, as it"s proposed?

WEINER: Well, you know, the thing about this is that a lot of this is not dissimilar from the plan that Paul Ryan put out, and the Republicans ran alternately from and towards.

I mean, I think that the Republicans now are in a position of having to make a proposal here. Let"s see what they come up with.

So far, we know that their original opening is $1 trillion additional in the deficit for the Bush tax cuts. That"s their opening. We know that they believe in privatizing Social Security and turning Medicare into a voucher system.

So, a lot of these proposals are actually the Republican proposals.

But now, they can wear it in the cloak of a bipartisan commission instead.

Uh-huh, Democrats don"t support this plan.

OLBERMANN: Does the president need to make that clear?

WEINER: I think he should quickly. Frankly, I don"t know why he appointed this commission. He"s the president of the United States.

We you know, we"re Democrats, we believe in certain things. We believe of protecting Social Security, protecting Medicare. The home interest deduction is a middle class tax cut, we support that. I don"t know why you propose a commission that you knew is going to come out with stuff like this. I think someone is going to stand up for these programs and the president should do it.

OLBERMANN: Is it possible that this is the crazy plan and whatever he then comes up will look much more sane by contrast?

WEINER: Yes.

OLBERMANN: Is that the premise?

WEINER: I don"t--I don"t know. I mean, if you look at what the Republicans are talking about doing when they take power, a lot of it is to do these things. And now, it"s almost like we"re giving some air cover to do it.

You know, the more that this stuff gets talked about, this notion of eliminating the Social Security cost of living adjustment, making kids pay back their college loans, if you just think about, they all fall into the same category. It"s the few government programs that the middle class really catches a break from. Those are the targets today.

OLBERMANN: Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York, great thanks for coming in.

WEINER: Thanks.

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