CNBC " CNBC Reports" - Transcript
Interview
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MR. SHACTMAN: Washington, of course, in standby mode. We're told now no vote on the plan to jump-start the economy tonight. We'll speak with Republican Senator Jeff Sessions in just a minute but first Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon.
Senator, thanks for coming on. Just confirm a few things for us. To your understanding, there will be no vote tonight, correct?
SEN. MERKLEY: That is my understanding, yes.
MR. SHACTMAN: And there is a deal.
SEN. MERKLEY: Yes, I believe so.
MR. SHACTMAN: Okay. What can you tell us in terms of details or things we might not already know about what's in place? The biggest number? What the changes are? How much has been reduced? What can you tell us?
SEN. MERKLEY: We're going to see a deal of about $800 billion. Many programs have been trimmed. It's a large number of programs. The underlying core is this. We are working right now on a plan to fight for working Americans who are losing their jobs. Now, there are a lot of senators who were all over a plan to help out Wall Street, who aren't getting involved in this plan to help working Americans. But we need to come together in the next few days, close this plan because the economy is going off a cliff.
Out in Oregon, we have lost 3 percent in employment the last three months, and it may be 4 percent in four months. This is happening all over the country. The time to act is now.
MS. BURNETT: Senator Merkley, I've got to ask you, though. There is a fair question here about the extent to which we really need this. You've got to look at the Fed has 10 programs in place. Their buying mortgage-backed securities has just started. They're not even going to start until the end of this month buying all those asset- backed securities, which would help auto loans, credit card loans and student loans. Is it possible we're just going to borrow a lot of money and we're going to end up with too much in the pot?
SEN. MERKLEY: We have three crises in America. One is the lending cycle that has gotten lots of attention. The second is jobs that we're working on right now. And the third is mortgages. We have not seen three cycles reinforce each other like this since the Great Depression. So we need to take on each piece. And for those who say, well, let's just do it through Wall Street and help restore lending but we're not going to help working Americans who are losing jobs, say big mistake. It didn't work in the Great Depression. That was Hooverism. It's not going to work now. We need to intervene and help restore jobs in America.
MR. EISINGER: Senator Merkley, you're right about Hooverism. But you are also talking a lot about bipartisanship. You're hearing this from the Democrats. Bipartisanship is not a suicide pact. At some point, the Democrats are just going to have to start acting like a majority party. When are you guys going to start really doing that, being aggressive?
SEN. MERKLEY: Well, you know, I think we're being pretty aggressive. I think an $800 billion package is aggressive. We're saying we're not setting aside this plan because it's difficult to get the votes. We're determined to get the votes. We're determined to help working families. And we're going to go on and carry on the fight on mortgages in the very near future because we also need to address the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes. They have 228 mortgages that have exploding interest rates. Their loans are under water because the value of their house is dropping. We need to reinforce the work that's been done on Wall Street with help directly on jobs and on mortgages.
MS. BURNETT: All right, Senator Merkley, thank you very much. We appreciate your being with us.
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