MSNBC "Interview With Senator John Barrasso" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. BREWER: Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso is a member of the Senate GOP's whip team and joins me now.

Senator, good to see you today.

SEN. BARRASSO: Great to be with you. Great to be with you.

MS. BREWER: I know that Senator McConnell is going to speak again in about 90 minutes. How does it help the two parties reach consensus if the Republican leader is saying the president should be embarrassed about this bill?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, Contessa, I think there's great concern about this bill all across America, you know, we want to stimulate the economy. We want to make things start moving again and that's not what's happening with this. This looks like a lot of pent up projects, things people have wanted to spend money on for years. The president has asked for shovel-ready projects and all this thing does is shovel the money out the door.

There's more money in this bill right now for welfare and for unemployment benefits than there is for the things that we're supposed to be dealing with, highways, roads and also bridges.

MS. BREWER: When you're talking to your Democratic colleagues, are you looking in particular at them and saying, why are you putting in these other non-related, non-stimulus items? I mean, do they have a ready answer for you?

SEN. BARRASSO: They don't have a ready answer for me, and that's exactly what I'm asking them. I'm saying, if you want to do some of these projects, bring them up as part of the regular budget process. There may be some value in some of these, but not as an emergency package, a stimulus package to try to deal with this economy.

People across the country know that there are needs, know that we need to do something in a timely way, in a targeted way and then temporary, not what they're doing here.

MS. BREWER: Senator, we're looking at the opening bell this morning on Wall Street, already the market is starting this Monday down about 30 points. I know that families are struggling, their home prices are declining and then on the other hand, they drive every day if they still have a job across bridges that are crumbling, roads that are caving in and you can't get light rail in many communities across this nation to go from the suburbs into the cities.

Is there any chance that in the Senate, we're going to see Republicans and Democrats put their heads together and figure out a common sense approach to fixing the problems we're facing?

SEN. BARRASSO: And that's exactly what question we put to President Obama on Tuesday when he had lunch with us. We said we need to do more with the infrastructure; you need to do less with some of these spending projects, insurance for honeybees, money going to the Philippines for Filipino World War II veterans. How is that going to help stimulate the American economy?

MS. BREWER: It appears that President Obama is poised to nominate your colleague, New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg as the new Commerce Secretary and here's a guy who helped devise the $700 billion TARP bailout bill last year, it was a bill that has received a lot of criticism for the lack of transparency, for the lack of constrictions placed on the companies that take this taxpayer bailout.

If he's the new Commerce Secretary, how does it change the way the Senate now approaches a new stimulus bill?

SEN. BARRASSO: I'll tell you, Judd Gregg is very bright, works very hard and is one of the leaders of our party. He would be good in any position. I would hate to lose him in the Senate, but I voted against that stimulus package, the bailout package last year.

MS. BREWER: The TARP.

SEN. BARRASSO: Yeah. I thought there wasn't the oversight, there wasn't the accountability. I think they rushed to make that decision and that's why I voted against it.

MS. BREWER: Senator Barrasso, it's so good to see you on this Monday. Thank you for your time today.

SEN. BARRASSO: Thanks, Contessa.

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