MSNBC Interview - Transcript
Interview
MS. O'DONNELL: And now, for the other side, we are joined by the majority leader in Congress, Congressman Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland.
Congressman, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.
REP. HOYER: Hi, Norah.
Norah, let me make a point, I've been listening --
MS. O'DONNELL: Please do.
REP. HOYER: -- I've listening to Mike Pence, and his comments about negotiating with Democrats. This is a plan put forward by President Bush, through Secretary Paulson, with Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve's imprimatur. This is not our plan.
What is really happening is you have a sincere -- sincere, I hope -- disagreement, but a disagreement between the Republican White House and the House Republicans. Thinking that this is a fight between Democrats and Republicans -- the Republicans in the Senate supported an alternative, the White House supported an alternative, and Democrats in the Senate and the House supported an alternative -- four of those five people. It was the House Republicans who undermined moving ahead with consensus.
Now, we've kept it on the track. We think it's important to do. And we're continuing to do it. But, for Mike Pence to make some sort of representation that somehow this is a disagreement between the Republican House members and the Democrats is simply not the facts.
MS. O'DONNELL: Well then, Congressman, let me challenge you on that. Why then are Democrats walking the plank for an administration- backed plan led by President Bush?
REP. HOYER: Actually, we're not walking the plank at all. That plan was sent down to us. We have made very substantial modifications to that plan, which the administration has agreed to. One, is to have very significant oversight. This is an extraordinary effort that is being proposed. We think there needs to be very careful oversight to protect the taxpayers.
Secondly, we want to protect the taxpayer, in terms of not just being in a position to lose but also to gain, in terms of equity or warrants being paid back.
MS. O'DONNELL: Congressman?
REP. HOYER: Yes?
MS. O'DONNELL: Congressman, on the conservatives in the House, we see Kay Granger is speaking over in the gallery, along with -- a Press conference that's led by Jeb Hensarling, a Republican of Texas, they're actually saying right now that they're not the problem, that they're not the ones blocking this deal. Can you react to that?
REP. HOYER: Sure. There was a Press conference yesterday. They want to say yesterday didn't happen, it was just all a facade.
Essentially, the American public understands what happened yesterday. You had a Press conference with Chairman Frank, a Democrat; Chairman Dodd, a Democrat; Senator Bennett, Senator Corker, and others, Republicans, saying -- and Secretary Paulson saying, essentially, those four actors, representing House Republicans -- excuse me, House Democrats, Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House were, essentially, very close to an agreement and consensus on a plan that Secretary Paulson said was critical to move forward very quickly.
Then what happened is the House Republicans, as you just heard Mr. Pence say, put a new plan on the table, after six or seven days of very, very vigorous work, around the clock, trying to meet this critical crisis. They put a new plan on.
We were down at the White House, Norah --
MS. O'DONNELL: Yeah.
REP. HOYER: -- and it was clear that Secretary Paulson did not believe their proposal was a workable proposal. So, this is not a question of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans, this is a disagreement between House Republicans and their president.
MS. O'DONNELL: Can I ask you, then, about that --
REP. HOYER: Sure.
MS. O'DONNELL: -- since you were at the White House? How much did John McCain say inside that meeting with all of you?
REP. HOYER: He didn't speak for more than one minute. There was no substantive contribution he made to the effort, very frankly -- beyond observing what had already been done. And his sole contribution was, he said, well, the Republicans in the House are certainly able to take their own position. Of course, all of us knew that.
Very frankly, there's a -- there's a big suspicion that this was a political opportunity, they felt, to bring John McCain somehow into this process. He's not here. He's not part of the negotiation. Has not been part of the negotiation. And, very frankly, with or without John McCain, hopefully, we're going to make progress, but he's not going to be the one who is responsible for it.
Senator Obama was there. He made a very substantive contribution. I think if you ask the Republican members, they would say the same.
MS. O'DONNELL: Let me ask you, on this substance. What many of you House Democrats are getting behind, which is this administration proposal. So, let me ask you about the substance of why these House Republicans disagree with it.
They say that the government is, essentially -- these are, Eric Cantor, the Republican of Virginia, has said that, essentially, us taxpayers are going to be buying up these exotic, sliced and diced, mortgage-backed securities that are really worth almost nothing, and that we shouldn't be doing that with taxpayer money.
And then, instead, he said, is that essentially what we should be doing is setting up an insurance program for other mortgages, charging premiums to the firms, holding securities tied to those mortgages. Why isn't that better for the Main Street, average homeowner who says, '$700 billion, that's not helping me, that's just going to people on Wall Street.'?
REP. HOYER: Because Secretary Paulson doesn't think it will work. That's -- that's the main thing. But, second --
MS. O'DONNELL: But what about these hundreds of economists that Senator Shelby says also disagree with this plan?
REP. HOYER: Well, I --
MS. O'DONNELL: There's an onus on Congress to make the case here.
REP. HOYER: Almost all of the economists that we've talked to, both on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, have agreed on the fact that, a) there's a crisis -- every Republican I've talked to understands that; b) that we need to act quickly -- almost everybody agrees on that.
Yes, are there differences on what ought to be done? But, most of the economists I've talked to say it's important to do it; do it quickly. And the reason Secretary Paulson is very skeptical about his own 'Republican proposal' from the House of Representatives is that their "hoist on the petard" of their ideology, not thinking seriously about how quickly we can act, and on their proposal to solve the problem.
Why? Because the problem is value, and that's what's locked up credit. And what Paulson is saying is, their proposal will not deal with that particular problem. And until you do --
MS. O'DONNELL: Okay.
REP. HOYER: -- you're going to lock up money for local banks, local consumers and local businesses, and we're going to lose jobs. So, this is not a question of Wall Street. We're not worried about Wall Street. What we're worried about is Main Street, and average working men and women in this country who, if Wall Street goes down, are going to suffer badly.
MS. O'DONNELL: Congressman Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland.
Thank you so much for joining us --
REP. HOYER: Thank you, Norah.
MS. O'DONNELL: -- great to see you. We appreciate it.
REP. HOYER: Okay.
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