CENK UYGUR: Congresswoman Donna Edwards from Maryland's fourth district who has been kind enough to join us. Congresswoman, welcome back to The Young Turks.

DONNA EDWARDS: Hi, it's great to be with you.

CENK UYGUR: It's great to have you here. Today Kathleen Sebelius came out and said we had a bad week in healthcare reform. Why do you think that is? What went wrong this week?

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I think the White House is still trying to figure out its message in terms of communicating with the American people, and to those of us in Congress about what they want to see when this finally comes out. And I think there's still a lot of negotiating to do. And I think we're certainly doing that in Congress. And many of us have tried to make it very clear, both to the White House and our colleagues in the Congress, of both the House and Senate side, that we believe that, at the very minimum, a strong robust public option has to be part of an ultimate plan..

CENK UYGUR: Rep. Donna Edwards, if the public option is a must-have for people like you and Congress, what's the room to negotiate? How do you negotiate?

DONNA EDWARDS: Well it's interesting because I think what I heard when the president went directly into the American Medical Association, which I thought was very smart, and said very directly that he believes that a public option, where we have a standard of care that the same, and there's a level playing field, and private insurance can compete with the public option, he believes that that would lower costs. I believe that it will lower costs too. And so the room to negotiate is over things like...um... I mean, many of us believe that it must...what we learn out of Medicare Part D. was, if we have a public option, it certainly has to start at the same time as the private insurance, because otherwise there's no opportunity for a public plan to kind of catch up to the system. And we've also learned that unless it's really competitive with the same standard of care, and continuity of care, that it won't lower costs.

CENK UYGUR: Well, we all agree on that front. My question, Rep. Edwards, is, you know, we like to keep it real on the Young Turks.

DONNA EDWARDS: Uh huh.

CENK UYGUR: The reality is the Republicans are in the back pocket of the private insurance. So what are you going to negotiate with them? They're not going to negotiate. They are always going to be against the public option. If they agree to a plan, then you know you have a bad plan. And the real negotiation is with your Democratic colleagues in the Senate who are also sellouts to the corporations from time to time, and possibly on this one.  So..

DONNA EDWARDS: Well I have to tell you, I mean, there is no question about it that the real work, the heavy lifting here, has to be over on the Senate side, and I'm on the House side, and I know that what we're going to do in the house is we're going to come out with the strongest bill possible, and I think that there is from our leadership on down, there is a real commitment to a robust public option. I hope that what they do on the Senate side is that the majority leader, you know says to the Democrats, let's step up for the American people. And I think it's really important for people across the country, and especially in some of those problematic states, to make sure that they let their senators know that just letting the private insurers control the game is really not acceptable.

CENK UYGUR: What I'm curious about representative Edwards, is how does it work? When you go to talk to the Evan Bayhs, and Ben Nelsons, and Mary Landrieus of the world, whether you're coming from the House side, or you're a Democrat in the Senate, and I know, obviously you're coming from the House side. I mean, do you talk to them as if they actually care about the policy? I mean, do we do this charade where we say, "oh no, really, co-ops or not co-ops, etc. etc." When you know they're getting paid by the other guys. And that that's why they're not in favor of the public option.

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I think that to the extent that those relationships are exposed by those who sit outside of Congress. You know, there was a time I wasn't in Congress, and I believe in exposing relationships that show... have that as impacting public policy. But I have to tell you, I think from some of those states, you know, and this is in organizing, from some of those states, it really is going to take their public, their voters, the people that they care about, stepping up and saying, "your relationship, whatever it is, with the private insurers, and those special-interest that want to stop us from having any kind of reform, is not acceptable." And I think that those public voices actually have to, you know, the public has to raise its voice. I mean, it's really clear from the polls that the people want reform. And so I'm going to start from the standpoint that at a bare minimum, even despite the relationships, when these Senators actually hear from their voters, that could be a game-changer.

CENK UYGUR: And are you satisfied so far with how Obama has been on this? Has he been clear enough? Because, you know, a lot of people are saying he hasn't really put his foot down and if he appears to be willing to negotiate away the public option, then you can guarantee it, you can bet your bottom dollar, that they will negotiate away the public option.

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I don't want to prejudge that, because I think that there is absolutely a strong sentiment in the House of Representatives, frankly, that we will not get a bill through there if we don't have a strong robust public option that truly is competitive, that isn't just a dumping ground for the sickest patients, and that really will compete in lower costs, and invest in things like prevention, and getting more doctors trained who are doing primary care, and pediatric care, and all the things that we've driven out of the system. And when I heard the president's remarks in front of the American Medical Association, he did say, I thought, pretty clearly that he believed that a public option would result in more choice for consumers, more competition, and lower costs. And so, I'm going to take the president at his word, and I think that many of us in the House of Representatives, and I hope in the Senate too, are going to belly up to the bar and make sure that if the president is out there saying that he believes that a public option would lower costs, that we're going to give him one.

CENK UYGUR: We're talking to representative Donna Edwards from Maryland's fourth District. So can I take that as a bottom line, redline, for the house, saying we will not sign a bill that doesn't have a public option in it?

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, you know, I can't speak for the entire House of Representatives. What I can tell you is that this past weekend I held a healthcare forum out in my congressional district, and my congressional district is one of these where we have a lot of federal employees and a lot of people who have insurance. But their premiums and the deductibles are skyrocketing. Their co-pays are going up and families are getting squeezed. And we have an awful lot of seniors, who are concerned about their prescription drugs costs, which up until now, hadn't actually even been part of the conversation. And now, even prescription drugs are part of the conversation. And I heard from hundreds of people in my congressional district saying, and understanding clearly that we must have a public option, that that has to be a choice, and that when there's that kind of choice, they believe that cost will be lowered. So I've heard it from my constituents, and I voting my constituents. I'm not voting for the insurance industry. I'm not voting for hospital association. I'm voting for my constituents.

CENK UYGUR: Representative Edwards, of course you don't speak for the entire house, but you are inside the Democratic caucus. And what is your sense of the caucus? Will they insist on the house signing on the public option, or is that still negotiable?

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, I have, we've had a number of conversations in a variety of caucuses, you know that the tri-caucus, which is the Black caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, I mean, Asian Pacific Islander caucus, actually came up with a set of ideas and principles for healthcare reform, as did the progressive Caucus and a strong public option was part of that. Well if you add the numbers together, those caucuses, if you don't have those in the fold, then you don't have a bill.

CENK UYGUR: All right, that's pretty clear. And let me ask you one last thing, if somehow the bill does pass through without a public option and Barack Obama declares victory. "Hey, we got healthcare reform. Yeah we didn't get the public option, but we got healthcare reform overall." Is it a sham?

DONNA EDWARDS: Well I think it will be doggone near impossible to define reform as real reform, lasting reform for the American people if it doesn't have a public option. And I'm coming from a standpoint where I actually believe that we ought to have a single-payer healthcare system and I think that it's been very unfortunate that in some ways that has been taken out of the game, and off of the table. As a result, we are here scratching and clawing for a strong and robust public option. And I'm willing to do that, but it must be strong, it must be robust, it must cover everybody, and it must cover prevention, and it's got to be competitive.

CENK UYGUR: And so bottom line, given the caucuses you're in, if it doesn't have a public option, it's not making it out of the house?

DONNA EDWARDS: Well, you know, again, this member of Congress understands really clearly from her constituency, and I do understand that from my constituents that a public option, a robust, and not just any public option that just catches a bunch of sick people, but a robust public option that is really competitive has to be in the bill in order for me to be able to support it.

CENK UYGUR: All right. Congresswoman Donna Edwards from Maryland's fourth District. We really appreciate you joining us on The Young Turks.

DONNA EDWARDS: Thank you too, stay in touch.