FOX "Fox And Friends" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. KILMEADE: Senator Mitch McConnell is the U.S. Senate Minority Leader.

Senator McConnell, what bothers you about the biggest stimulus package in the history of this country?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, the way it's looking in the House, at least, a number of things bother me about it. I think it's probably going to fall well short of the mark, but the speaker just said a year ago the principle that ought to apply to stimulus: temporary, timely, targeted.

A lot of this is going to spend out over a very lengthy period of time, not have much of an impact in the short term. And most of my members -- including myself -- believe if you want to have a stimulative -- (audio break) -- taxpayers, rather than have the government spend it. And the taxes are not tilted -- you know, there's not a very significant portion of it in taxes.

MR. DOOCY: Do you -- and in fact, you kind of touched on the Congressional Budget Office saying that less than 40 percent of the discretionary amount of money would be spent in the first 18 months. We want it all spent immediately -- I think a lot of people would say -- to get things going.

But are you confident, Senator, that this is going to work?

SEN. MCCONNELL: No, I'm not. But I want to be -- you know, I want to be opened minded about it, because we haven't actually drafted it in the Senate.

MR. DOOCY: This isn't the final deal.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Yeah. We haven't actually drafted it in the Senate yet. I think the House package looks pretty bad. I mean, I don't --

MR. KILMEADE: What do you hate the most?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, you know, everybody agrees, oddly enough -- this is unusual -- everybody agrees we need to do something big and we need to do it now. Conservative economists, liberal economists all say --

MR. DOOCY: Kitchen sink -- throw it all at it!

SEN. MCCONNELL: The question is: What do you do? And I think most of our members believe if you put money straight in the hands of individuals and businesses, it will have a quicker stimulative effect --

MR. DOOCY: Tax cuts.

SEN. MCCONNELL: -- than having the government spend it on projects, particularly ones that are likely to spend out, you know, in year three and year four.

MR. KILMEADE: And you're talking about $100 billion for states, special education; you're talking about projects where they're talking about setting up a brand new grid -- the way this country is given energy.

So overall, to tell you the truth, Barack Obama doesn't need you; Speaker Pelosi doesn't need you; and Senator Harry Reid doesn't need you. Just two Republicans needed in the Senate -- why is the president so focused, supposedly, on getting Republican support?

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I think the president would like to govern from the center. The question is whether the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate will let him. They have majorities in both the House and Senate. They're going to pull him to the left.

We've been offering suggestions. If you want a quick answer to the question, what would I do? I'd have a payroll tax holiday for a year or two that would put taxes in the hands of everybody who has a job -- whether they pay income taxes or not -- and of course, businesses pay the payroll tax too so it would be both a business tax cut and an individual tax cut immediately.

Number two: I would make the grants -- the money to states alone rather than a grant. Otherwise, you're going to see a lot of mob museums and waters slides and Lord only knows what! If you just send the money down to the states and say, "Have a nice day", everybody at the state level has been making their list and checking it twice and we're going to end up with some very embarrassing expenditures.

MR. DOOCY: What do you think about the President of the United States -- apparently when he was talking to some of the congressional leadership, Eric Cantor, where he said -- Eric Cantor was being critical of the stimulus plan and Barack Obama said, "I won. I'm the president." And then he also said, you know, you can't listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I was sitting there as well. I think probably I wouldn't have said that if I were him. But look, the president enjoys great popularity.

MR. KILMEADE: Sixty-eight percent approval.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Yeah. People want him to succeed. I'm not prepared to sort of nitpick over every comment here in the beginning. We're looking at the substance of this. And at least the substance, as defined by the congressional Democrats at the moment, seems to fall well short of what a stimulus package ought to be.

MR. KILMEADE: Banks going to need more money?

SEN. MCCONNELL: That's what I keep hearing. We haven't had a specific proposal yet, but that's what I keep hearing.

MR. DOOCY: What about the fact that when George Bush was the president of the United States and times were tough, some -- I don't remember anybody ever accusing him of talking down the economy.

Right now when you listen to some of the messages coming from Democrats, it sounds like they're talking about -- you want things to be helpful -- but it sounds like they're saying, things are bad; they'll probably get worse before they're better.

MR. KILMEADE: Well, here's the quote: "There's no good news" -- this is from Joe Biden; according to Speaker Pelosi: "Things are dark, darker and darkest."

SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I think there's a political goal there, which is to make any kind of improvement, no matter how marginal, appreciated.

MR. KILMEADE: Get credit for it.

SEN. MCCONNELL: And make it look like the new administration, you know, got it done. It's a little bit like the rooster taking credit for the dawn. At some point, you know, this is going to get over with. And the issue in the short term is: Can we as a government do something effective to help make that shorter?

MR. KILMEADE: Sounds childish. I thought we were getting past the childish part.

SEN. MCCONNELL: (Laughs.) Well, I don't think we've repealed all the laws of politics here.

MR. DOOCY: Right -- otherwise we wouldn't have anything to talk about.

SEN. MCCONNELL: No.

MR. KILMEADE: Senator Mitch McConnell, thank you very much.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Good to see you, Brian.

MR. KILMEADE: Thank you.

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