‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Sept. 23, 2007

SEN. CLINTON:  Well, when I voted for Senator Boxer’s resolution, that was certainly clear.  I do not condone, and I do condemn any effort to impugn the patriotism and the service of anyone who’s worn the uniform of our country.  I think it should be across the board because, as you certainly know well, many people who have served with distinction, like Senator Kerry or Senator Cleland, have been the subject of extraordinary attacks.  Let’s end this, and let’s focus on what we do to support our troops.  I believe the best way to support our troops is to begin to bring them home.

MR. RUSSERT:  And MoveOn.org should refrain from similar ads in the future?

SEN. CLINTON:  Everyone should, Tim.  Everyone should.

MR. RUSSERT:  Yeah.

SEN. CLINTON:  This is not the way that we should conduct ourselves in the country.  We should stay focused on what we need to do to support our troops and to extricate us from Iraq.  But I don’t want to see the debate about where we go in Iraq turned into a debate about any ad.  Instead, let’s stay focused on what we should be doing in the Congress to fulfill our responsibility to bring our troops home and to give them the support they need in a very difficult situation for which there is no military solution.

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me turn to healthcare.  You introduced a bill, obviously, in 1993 when you were first lady working with President Clinton, on this big issue of universal healthcare.  It was—got nowhere.  It was considered too big, too expensive.  You now have introduced a much more scaled down program focusing on use of insurance companies to bring the 40-plus million uninsured under coverage.  Chris Dodd, one of your Democratic opponents, has said this: “While she talks about the personal scars she bears, the personal scars borne by the American people are far greater.  The mismanagement of the effort in,” ‘93 and ‘94, “has set back our ability to move toward universal healthcare immeasurably.” Do you believe, in all candor, that your mismanagement of healthcare in ‘93 has created a situation where, for 13 years, 47 million Americans have not had healthcare and they are paying the price for your mismanagement and intransigence in 1993?

SEN. CLINTON:  Well, Tim, I’m proud that we tried in ‘93 and ‘94.  We were trying to do the right thing.  Obviously, we made a lot of mistakes.  But I am proud that we set a goal of trying to provide healthcare to every American. And I didn’t quit.  You know, I kept working.  I was very involved in passing the Children’s Health Insurance Program and getting vaccines for kids to be immunized and making sure that the drugs that they took were appropriately tested for children.  And I continued to try to get healthcare for our Gulf War veterans and, in the Senate, to make sure that our Guard and Reserve members and their families have healthcare.  So this has remained a passion of mine.

But I’ve also learned a lot of lessons, and I’m bringing those lessons with me into this campaign.  The goal remains the same:  How do we provide quality, affordable healthcare for every American?  But this is a much different plan than what was proposed back in ‘93, ‘94.  This is not government-run healthcare; it does not create any new bureaucracy.  In fact, it is very clear in saying that if you are satisfied with the healthcare you have, then you keep it.  It is absolutely part of my plan.

But if you’re one of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, or one of the many millions that have health insurance except when it comes time to get the care that your doctor says you need, and the insurance company refuses payment, then you are going to have access to the same health choices menu that members of Congress do.  I proposed that back in ‘93, ‘94, and ran into a firestorm of opposition from the Congress.  But I think a lot has changed in the last 14 years.  A consensus has developed about what we need to do to try to reach quality, affordable healthcare.  So among the many choices that will now be available to Americans, similar to what are available to members of Congress, we will have a public plan option for people who wish to choose that.  If it is outside the reach of people—because remember, Medicaid will still take care of the very poor, we will still have the Children’s Health Insurance Program for children.  But if it is out of the reach of affordability, we’re going to have healthcare tax credits for individuals, and we’re going to try to provide some healthcare tax credits as well to small businesses.

You know, I believe strongly that a consensus has developed, because people, you know, who didn’t approve of what we were trying to do or who were on the sidelines have seen what has happened.  It is not only a moral imperative that we try to cover everyone, it is now an economic necessity.  The employer-based system has lost coverage for many people in the last years.  We have jobs being lost in our country because we are not competitive economically.  We certainly see that most clearly in industries like the auto manufacturing industry, but there are others that are affected as well.  We have a lot of inefficiencies in the system.  You know, we spend more money than anybody in the world, but we don’t get the best outcomes for all that money we spend.  So I think that business, labor, doctors, nurses, hospitals and, most importantly, families understand we’ve got to come together and try to solve this problem.  And it will require the drug companies and the insurance companies changing the way they do business, because the way they do business now is not sustainable.

So I’m very confident that we can put together the kind of bipartisan coalition that you know so well is needed, particularly in the Senate, to get anything done, because this plan builds on what works in America, but takes aim at what doesn’t and comes up with some very commonsense ways of trying to fix out problems.  And I’ve been very pleased by the positive response that I have received from independent experts and people who have evaluated it.  So I think we’re off to a good start and I look forward to debating healthcare with my Republican opponent, whoever that might be, starting in the spring.

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me turn to campaign fund-raising, because it’s been—politics and money has been an issue that is of grave concern to the American people.  As you well know, this gentleman, Norman Hsu, was a big fund-raiser for you.  This is how the Wall Street Journal reported on it. “Senator Hillary Clinton will return $850,000 in campaign contributions raised by a major fund-raiser who has come under federal investigation on multiple fronts.  Clinton said she would refund contributions to about 260 donors who were recruited by Norman Hsu, a businessman and Democratic fund-raiser.  The $850,000 is the largest ever returned by a candidate because of questionable fund-raising methods.” Also, Mr. Hsu gave free trips to Las Vegas for several of your campaign aides, all expenses paid.  You talk about the politics of change.  Is this changing the way Washington does business?

SEN. CLINTON:  Well, I’m very much in favor of public financing, which is the only way to really change a lot of the problems that we have in our campaign finance system.  You know, as soon as my campaign found out what I and dozens of other campaigns did not know, that he was a fugitive from justice, we took action.  And out of an abundance of caution, we did return any contribution that we could in any way, no matter how indirect, link to him.  And I believe that we’ve done what we needed to do based on the information as soon as it came to our attention.  But we’ve gone even further, Tim, and we’re installing even additional kinds of checks because, you know, it was something that my campaign and other campaigns going back to 2003 did not uncover in all the vetting that we do.  But the real answer here is public financing, and I’m going to work very hard in my time in the Senate and then in the White House to try to get to a public financing system that we can support under the constitution, because, as you know, we’ve got some constitutional issues we have to address, because that is the answer to all of these issues that have arisen.

MR. RUSSERT:  But, Senator, as you well know, back in 1996 campaign, this man, Johnny Chung, a—very similar circumstances and he plead guilty to illegally funding of money, and he was quoted as saying, “I see the White House is like a subway.  You have to put in coins to open the gates.” How do you convince the American people that you have changed, that you are not going to be the recipient of this tainted money?

SEN. CLINTON:  Well, this is a problem for every campaign, Tim, and, you know, you have donors—I have more than 100,000 donors, the vast majority of whom have given me less than $100.  And every campaign does the best job it can.  But whether it’s campaigns or any other aspect of American life, you try to be as vigilant as possible, but sometimes things get through the net and then you act as quickly as you possibly can, which my campaign has.  I am very much aware of how difficult it is to find out everything, but we’re taking extra steps to see if we can’t make sure that any information anywhere is available to us.  But, remember, every campaign missed this.  Law enforcement authorities in California obviously did not catch this.  So we’re going to do what we can to make sure it doesn’t happen.  But, again, the real answer is we’re spending an enormous amount of time, money and effort raising money, mostly to be, you know, clear to go on television.  And we have got to solve this.  It is not good for our political system.  It is certainly not the way that most people I know who run for office and want to try to do something good for their constituents and their country want to be spending all of their time.  And we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to address it, and there has to be a way that public financing becomes the law of the land.

MR. RUSSERT:  Senator, before you go, answer a question I’ve heard from Democrats as I travel around the country, and that is they like Senator Clinton, they respect Senator Clinton, but they’re afraid that she’s too polarizing, that her negatives in the national polls are in the high 40s, the highest of any Democratic candidate.  And that she would be incapable of uniting the country behind healthcare, behind withdrawal from Iraq, because she just is too divisive.

SEN. CLINTON:  Well, Tim, those are the things that were said about me in New York, as I’m sure you remember.  And I worked very hard to give people accurate information about who I am, what I stand for, what I will do, and I was extremely gratified to win in 2000 and even more so to be re-elected with nearly 67 percent of the vote.  And I was very pleased that a lot of that vote came from Republicans and independents.  You know, I carried a lot of those counties that George Bush had carried just two years before, carried 58 of New York’s 62 counties and, as you know, there’re a lot of red parts of New York.

Because I think it’s important that you look at how I have sought common ground and found it in the Senate.  I also have stood my ground against things that I did not approve of, like privatizing Social Security.  As I’ve traveled around the country, my support has grown.  Anyone who gets the Democratic nomination is going to be subjected to the withering attacks that come from the other side.  I think I’ve proven that I not only can survive them but surpass them.

So I believe that, both from the experience that I’ve had in political campaigns and what I have done over the years to, you know, keep coming back and fighting back, I’m the best positioned to win, but more importantly, I think I am in the best position to lead starting January 2009.  I’m doing well around the country, and I’m very pleased that people are really making up their own minds about me and not, you know, by being swayed by what second- or third-hand somebody said to them, and I believe that’s what will happen in this campaign.  And as I go forward in it every day, I’m even more encouraged that I’m putting together a winning campaign not only for the nomination, but for the White House, because that’s when the hard work starts.  We have a lot ahead of us to restore our position in the world, to rebuild our economy and our American middle class and to reform our government and to reclaim the future for our children.  And that’s what I’m committed to doing.

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