NBC "Today" - Transcript

Interview

NBC "Today" - Transcript

MS. CURRY: I'm here with two men who wanted the House bailout bill to pass and will be watching tonight's Senate vote very closely. They are Democratic Congressman Steny Hoyer. He's the House majority leader. And also we are joined by Congressman Roy Blunt, who is the House Republican whip.

Gentlemen, good morning.

REP. HOYER: Good to be with you, Ann.

MS. CURRY: What is clear is this nation is in a crisis, and the longer we wait, the worse it's going to get. So the first question is, any doubt that this revised bill will pass the Senate tonight, Congressman?

REP. HOYER: Well, I think the Senate thinks it has the votes, and people are coming back for it. And I think it probably will pass.

MS. CURRY: If it passes -- there is expectation, as you say, that it will -- how quickly could it be before the House?

REP. HOYER: Well, the House and Senate have been in discussions, but the House has been in discussions. Congressman Blunt and I have been talking. I've been talking to the speaker. We had a conference call yesterday. I'm sure --

MS. CURRY: Before tonight, tomorrow morning?

REP. HOYER: No, no, no. Yesterday we had discussions. We're going to be in town. I'm in town, obviously. Mr. Blunt and I are going to be meeting again today to see what we can put together that will enjoy the majority support in the House of Representatives.

MS. CURRY: Well, let me ask you, then, Congressman Blunt, how quickly could this be before the House?

REP. BLUNT: Well, it should be before the House as quickly as we can get it done. You know, it's --

MS. CURRY: You don't think you can get it before the House before the end of the week?

REP. BLUNT: I do think we can. But we shouldn't set any artificial time line here. That was one of our problems even on Monday. Ann, I think three things have happened since Monday that help us. One is that calls to members' offices have changed from being 90 percent "Don't do this" -- they're at least 50-50, and in some offices they're 90 percent, "You have to do something; this may be the best thing out there."

The FDIC change, I think, is helpful for many of our members on both sides of the aisle. And frankly, this accounting rule that we've been urging for weeks now that the SEC chairman moved forward on yesterday, all three of those things make a difference, and make a difference in a helpful way --

MS. CURRY: So you're saying --

REP. BLUNT: -- to members.

MS. CURRY: So you're saying --

REP. HOYER: Ann, let me --

MS. CURRY: -- that while two-thirds of Republicans were against the bill on Monday, you're saying that more and more Republicans are probably going to support this bill now.

REP. BLUNT: Well, that's what I'm going to be checking on today, now that we have these three things done. And then we're also going to have to evaluate -- Mr. Hoyer and I both are going to have to evaluate the impact of this tax package that's always been out there. This is not a new package, but certainly our members haven't looked at it as part of this agreement before.

MS. CURRY: Congressman Hoyer, let me ask you about that, because the tax breaks are going to be an issue, because I know you've got --

REP. HOYER: The tax package is very controversial.

MS. CURRY: -- some conservative Democrats who are against it.

REP. HOYER: There's no doubt the tax package is very controversial. The Senate, in my opinion, is adding that on because they think that's the only way they can get it passed.

MS. CURRY: But is it going to cause you to lose Democrats?

REP. HOYER: It may. It may. We're going to have to be talking to them. I'm not particularly pleased with that addition myself, very frankly. But let me say, the other thing that's happened is that the American public, I think, in the last 48 hours has come to view this as something that affects them personally. They saw their 401(K) plan, for instance, very substantially reduced in value on Monday.

Now, it came back a little bit yesterday, and I think the reason it came back is because we have all indicated this crisis is not going away and we're not going to go away. We're going to work on this until we address it. We share the view that there is a crisis. We need to act, and we need to act in a very substantive way to stabilize our markets.

MS. CURRY: There is a view this morning, and it's all over the editorial pages of our newspapers in this country, that there has been -- this was an opportunity for this nation to come together and resolve a national crisis, and that Washington failed miserably.

REP. HOYER: Well, I don't --

MS. CURRY: What do you say to those who are writing this morning or are thinking this morning that what we have seen so far in Washington has been a failure in leadership?

REP. HOYER: Well, first --

REP. BLUNT: You know, in the agreement we negotiated, I think actually that was a time when Washington did come together. Unfortunately we got started off talking about this in a terrible way, when you're talking bailout, illiquid assets, Wall Street, and people get focused on that; that's what this is all about. We didn't have time to turn this around to what the final product really was -- guarantees for taxpayers, a workout.

There's no reason for taxpayers to lose a dime here at the federal level. And certainly, as Steny said, they lost a lot Monday and stand a chance of losing a lot more of their own personal resources.

MS. CURRY: I'm out of time.

REP. BLUNT: And they're beginning to understand that.

MS. CURRY: I'm just going to give you a couple of seconds.

REP. HOYER: And there is deep division on the economic policies of the administration. But Washington did come together. Leaders in both houses said to the American public, "We need to do this to stabilize the economy."

MS. CURRY: Well, let's see what happens by the end of the week.

REP. HOYER: And we're still working on that.

MS. CURRY: Congressman Blunt and Congressman Hoyer, thank you so much for joining us at this early hour.

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