ICYMI: Senators Collins and King on NBC’s Meet the Press

Washington, D.C. - Maine’s U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King appeared in a joint interview on NBC’s Meet the Press today with host Chuck Todd. The Senators discussed their work to build consensus and facilitate bipartisanship in Washington, D.C.

Click HERE to watch the interview.  A transcript of the interview follows:

“MEET THE PRESS”
APRIL 30, 2017

TODD: We have joining us this morning two Senators who could theoretically buck that trend: Republican Susan Collins, who is among the most bipartisan members of the Senate, and Angus King, just one of two Senate independents. He does caucus with the Democrats. Both happen to be from Maine, and they join me now to discuss if both sides can ever get along. Welcome to both of you.

COLLINS: Thank you.

TODD: Look it’s going to be Pollyannaish, and you guys are going to say the right things about bipartisanship, but let me ask you this: What are the hurdles to bringing common ground back to a case where a politician might see it as a reward, not as a duty that the voters will punish? Senator Collins, you first.

COLLINS: There are two big hurdles: One is the rise of ideological driven groups, on both the left and the right, who are requiring 100 percent compliance with 100 percent of their views 100 percent of the time. And the threat for members is that if they don’t comply, they will face a well-funded primary opponent. The second factor is that the polarization in Washington, in many ways, reflects the divisions in our country. More and more, people are living with people who have the same views that they do. They are accessing news outlets that reinforce what they already think. We are seeing a growing intolerance on campuses for alterative viewpoints. All of that combines to produce the divisions in our country that I think Washington reflects.

TODD: That was a pretty good answer, Senator King, what would you add?

KING: Those are on my list, but here’s one that is sort of odd: the Senate schedule. We leave on Thursday night, come back Monday morning. No one lives here anymore. When I worked here 40 years ago in the Senate, everyone lived here, their family was here. People literally don’t get to know each other, and that’s the problem. You don’t have relationships. Here’s another piece that I think might surprise you: Over 65 of the current senators have been there 10 years or less, and that means they don’t know how to win. We are like a football time that’s lost every game for five years. There’s not a culture of success. Something doesn’t work, you don’t get the votes, you move on and you don’t go back and try to make it work.

TODD: You know, in fact, Senator Collins you were asked about the idea that you might run for governor and you thought about it, but you even said you know if you do that you actually are vacating an important role here, is it because of that lack of experience that’s here that Senator King is referring to?

COLLINS: It is, and if you looked at the way the Senate used to be, bipartisanship was always difficult –

TODD: Right, let’s not pretend it happened all the time-

COLLINS: Right, it wasn’t easy, but people were much more willing to sit down, negotiate and try to find common ground. I’ve been part of several of those issues over the years, and I worry that the shrinking center in the Senate is making that more and more difficult. We saw that just recently that there is a profound lack of trust between the two parties that makes those negotiations hard.

TODD: Here’s what I don’t get here, Senator King, with all due respect to essentially, I’ll say, 95 percent of the U.S. Senate, which is if I talk to any of them individually, they all lament this issue. Is this a leadership-driven problem? Is it that the leadership, because they’re being held to an electoral and political standard they cannot even allow bipartisanship to happen?

KING: I don’t think it’s the personalities of the leaders, but I think you’re on to something in the sense that the pressures on the leaders to be partisans first is very intense. Chuck Schumer is in a difficult place, any time he makes a move--in fact, at the beginning of this session, he talked about, you know, we are going to work with the president when it’s necessary and when we believe he’s right. Huge reaction from the Democratic base [saying] you can’t, you gotta resist, you can’t compromise. As Senator Collins said, there are these outside groups that are constantly putting pressure on you to be purer than the driven snow.

TODD: By the way, the State of Maine was brought up by the Vice President today. I’m sure your ears perked up. And I thanked the Vice President for the great segue on health care. We were talking about this issue of preexisting conditions, I want to get into the details. You have your own bill in the Senate that may be the vehicle here for repealing or repairing, whatever you want to call the health care bill. But is he right in his description of these Maine risk pools that they somehow do protect those with preexisting conditions and keep costs down?

COLLINS: Maine, for two years, had what was known as an invisible high-risk pool, and people with preexisting conditions did not even realize that they were part of it. It was financed by an assessment on all the health care policies that were sold in the state-

KING: Which was an important part of how it worked.

COLLINS: It is. But what was important was that after an individual’s expenses reached a certain amount the high-risk pool picked that up, and it did work well for 2 years and had a 5 million dollar surplus when it ended. But the Affordable Care Act ended it.

TODD: Would you be able to support something like that?

KING: It’s all in the details, because what is being proposed doesn’t have the subsidy, for example, to make the Maine high risk pool successful. And there are a lot of people in Maine who argue that there were limitations, that a lot of the coverages were dropped, and that expenses for older people, over 60 for example, went way up. We got to look for what happened in the states; it’s worth looking at, but I don’t think it’s a panacea, and I don’t think it necessarily is an easy answer to the dilemma of preexisting conditions.

TODD: I can’t let you go without asking about your governor, Paul LePage, and the similarities, he called himself Trump before Trump. What have the two of you learned from the fact that Paul LePage found success in the same state that elected an independent and a very moderate Republican, and what have you learned from Trump that you both need to get better at?

COLLINS: Well President Trump spoke very clearly to those people in Maine, particularly in the northern part of the state, who had lost their jobs; in part due to poorly negotiated trade agreements, and he’s right about that. And if you are a displaced mill worker in Maine, you feel pretty left out. And he spoke to that group, he spoke compellingly to them, and I think that’s something that we all need to do better on. Trade agreements often result in lower prices for consumers overall, but if you are without a paycheck, you don’t really care about that.

TODD: Senator King what have you learned from the success of a LePage and a Trump?

KING: What you learn is to listen. I remember everybody thought Hilary was going to win, and the day before, and I remember saying, if and when she wins, she has got to do some serious listening to the people who voted for Donald Trump. The same thing goes in Maine; it goes across the country. Now, turning that around, I was disappointed in the president’s speech last night because he is still in campaign mode talking strictly to his people. There are a lot of people who are disappointed or angry or whatever—they have reason to. I think we need a little quiet what I call “eloquent listening” in order to understand. The people, who voted for Trump and Paul LePage have absolutely legitimate concerns, and they need to be responded to. By the same token, the people who are concerned about the Trump policies, they need to be listened to. too. They have legitimate concerns. The country is divided in half.

TODD: Senators King and Collins, this was great. Hopefully your other colleagues will say, “Hey, maybe folks from both sides of the aisle should appear together.” Thank you.