House members to vote on Ryan budget this week

>>> paul ryan 's budget is expected to hold sway after a series of votes, but it won't be for lack of trying by the democratic minority. to talk about the contrasting policies, jim clyburn . mr. leader, thank you for being with us.

>> thank you so much for having me.

>> first of all, the budget fights ahead, it's clear that the house votes are all going to go the republicans' way, but right now the senate is even talking about voting in favor of paul ryan 's budget , even though they don't want it to pass. so what -- what are the competing tactics right now on the ryan budget ?

>> well, i don't know exactly what the senate's plans might be, but i do know this. the ryan budget will inflict so much pain on middle income americans until it will absolutely wreak havoc in their families. so what i am hopeful, is that we can get the votes to pass the democratic alternative to the ryan budget . we don't believe that we ought to be raising taxes on middle income americans, which is exactly what the ryan budget will do. if you are going to sort the voucherize medicare , and then say to them with this voucher, you shop around, but then i've got to make up the difference with the insurance, then that's raising taxes on people who are on medicare . at the same time, you cutting taxes to people in the upper income categories. then we want a block grant , medicaid. that means that there are seniors who will find themselves being shopped around from state to state to find which nursing home will be able to take them. that is the kind of stuff that we ought not have. we ought to have a national medicaid program, a national medicare program, and it should be a guarantee. it should not be a voucher to shop around to insurance companies .

>>> but congressman, there's going to have to be compromise before anything gets done. from the president's vision, if there is to be another grand bargain, it would require changes on entitlements. are you and the other members of the democratic caucus willing to have some give there in exchange for the revenues that you expect from the other side?

>> absolutely. we have demonstrated that before. look, we just had -- mr. ryan and -- because of that 716 billion that he took out of medicare and extended the life of medicare . we demonstrated that we didn't take it out -- we took it out of the -- we demonstrated that we want to do what is necessary to extent the life of medicare . we want to make sure that social security is there, though it's not a part of this budget argument. we have demonstrated time and time again we are willing to do that. we need the republicans well to demonstrate to put revenue on the table, close the tax loop holes and let's begin to have a fair and balanced approach to the question going forward.

>> congressman, let me quickly asking about the primaries in south carolina . in advance of the special election to fill the seat, mark sanford looks like he will win the runoff when it's held. does elizabeth colbert bush have a good chance of winning?

>> well, i think so. in the republican primary , you had a lot of talk, but no contrasting in the approaches to governors the i think we will find, between mark sanford , who i think will win the runoff, and elizabeth colbert , a sharp contrast. the people of south carolina are a forgiving people. we don't mind forgiving mark sanford for the personal indiscretions. that's great. but for his political rhetoric, it leaves a lot to be desired. there are a lot of people, middle income people, schoolteachers, others whose jobs were lost, because mark sanford 's governorship cost him that job. we'll remind people of that in this campaign going forward. i think that elizabeth colbert has a tremendous opportunity to win in the first week in may.

>> thank you so much. thanks a lot. good to see you, congressman jim clyburn .