MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D), OREGON: Thanks, Ed.

SCHULTZ: I congratulate you for the fight. I don"t believe these polls, and I think, generationally, we"re on the verge of doing something very damaging to this country.

Where are we at this hour, Congressman?

DEFAZIO: Well, we ground them to a halt. It seems that they"re trying to just make a procedural change, and they think they can capture enough votes to adopt the rule, move forward with the bill. I hope not.

This is bigger than a procedural change. It"s bigger than the change in the estate tax.

You"re going to hear from Anthony Weiner, from New York, who was leading the charge today on the floor. We confronted the Speaker and said we need a much better package. We need something that represents Democratic values.

We have something more fiscally responsible that is more targeted, that"ll put more people to work. And we were told we"d have a caucus tonight, go back into caucus, discuss it, just like last week, when I got a near-unanimous vote in the caucus.

Apparently, they"re back to trying to roll us. We"ll see.

But you"re absolutely right. I had a very conservative, truly conservative Republican call me today who heard me speak on the floor. He said, "You"re absolutely right about Social Security," just like you said, Ed. He said, "A year from today, my party is not going to let the Social Security tax go up, and if Obama insists on that, they will just kill him with it, and they"ll kill you guys with it." And then he said, "We"re probably not going to be able to afford to subsidize Social Security anymore."

SCHULTZ: Congressman, you said last night that the White House--the president is making phone calls to your colleagues in the Senate--in the House, saying that, hey, this is my presidency. The White House is saying that the president hasn"t said anything remotely like that and has never spoken with Mr. DeFazio about the issue.

Tommy Vietor said that.

DEFAZIO: That"s right.

SCHULTZ: Where are we on this? I mean, did the president make those calls?

DEFAZIO: Oh, he"s making calls. I don"t know exactly what he said because he hasn"t called me.

I was in a meeting with a group of members where one member said that. We didn"t quiz him. We didn"t say, "Did he exactly say that?"

But I can tell you from what Vice President Biden, during the "take it or leave it" speech told us last week, they were talking about catastrophes if we don"t pass this. All the polls, all the pollsters agrees, catastrophe for the Democrats, catastrophe for the president if we don"t pass this.

So, the president may have said more along the lines of what Vice President Biden said last week. But that was the way that member characterized it.

The point is they"ve pulled out all the stops on the McConnell tax package here, the Republicans" priorities, in a way I"ve never seen before, and never on anything that I care about or anything that you know would had been better for the people I represent and better for the country.

SCHULTZ: OK. Congressman Peter DeFazio, thanks for working so hard on this, and keep up the fight, my friend. You"re doing the right thing. Nice to have you with us tonight.

DEFAZIO: Thanks, Ed. Thanks for the help.

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