Fox News Channel Interview - Transcript
Interview
Fox News Channel Interview - Transcript
FOX NEWS CHANNEL INTERVIEW WITH GOVERNOR TIM KAINE (D-VA), CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: ECONOMIC STIMULUS INTERVIEWER: JON SCOTT
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MR. SCOTT: Well, President Obama this morning talking about the release of stimulus money for the states. Today, he stopped by the Transportation Department where he said his new road building initiative will create or save 150,000 jobs by the end of next year.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA (From videotape.): I want to begin with some plain talk. The economy's performance in the last quarter of 2008 was the worst in over 25 years, and frankly, the first quarter of this year holds out little promise for better returns.
From Wall Street to Main Street to kitchen tables all across America, our economic challenge is clear and now it is up to us to meet it.
Joining us now, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee and with a bit of a vested interest in getting some of this stimulus money to the states because he runs one, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.
Governor, good to have you on.
GOV. KAINE: Jon, good to be on as always.
MR. SCOTT: The president is saying, what, 150,000 jobs by the end of 2009 as a result of stimulus money?
GOV. KAINE: Jon, I think it's just the infrastructure portion on highways. It will be 150,000 jobs by the end of 2010 and that's just, again, the highway infrastructure portion.
MR. SCOTT: Right. But he's promising, what, 3 (million), 3-and- a-half million jobs as a result of the stimulus overall. By when? I mean, absolutely -- how do we hold him accountable for that number?
GOV. KAINE: Well, let me tell you. In Virginia, we were the first state to pass a budget after the stimulus bill was signed by the president, that my legislature passed the budget and sent it to my desk last Saturday. That budget because of the stimulus means 7,100 layoffs that would have happened without the stimulus in state government that we were able to save because of the stimulus dollars.
So just within the last week in Virginia in the state budget, much less local budgets, we were able to save 7,100 jobs.
So I think each of the governors are going to be able to track their own economic conditions, but in a very real way, we've already seen the impact in Virginia and it's huge because those state employees are needed to serve citizens who, in many instances, are very needy of state services right now.
MR. SCOTT: I can think of a couple of shopkeepers in the little town that I live in north of New York City who have just, you know, packed it in, for whatever reason, economic situation these days, they've said, okay, we're done.
Where is their stimulus? Where is their bailout?
GOV. KAINE: Well, I'll tell you, first, you know, if they're making less than $150,000 a year, they're going to get a tax cut. There are also some tax cuts for small businesses in the Recovery Act that might not apply if they've gone ahead and shut their doors, although some of them deal with how small businesses calculate their taxes looking backward and there will be benefits for small businesses. But Jon, I think, one of the hopes with the tax cut portion of the bill, which was sizable is that reducing taxes to everyday American families will increase spending in some way, they spend for paying bills or taking care of necessities and that, in and of itself, will generate some economic activity that should benefit business owners out in the communities across the United States.
MR. SCOTT: Is that not counterbalanced by the tax increases on the wealthy?
GOV. KAINE: Well, we're going to have to work that through, you know, obviously with the president's budget proposal, but the president has laid out a budget plan that is very consistent with what he ran as he tried to become president, letting tax cuts for the biggest businesses and wealthiest expire as they do currently and then finding tax relief for 95 percent of working families and it's a question of balance and the president has said that tax relief for the majority of working families is the more important priority.
MR. SCOTT: I know there's been a bit of a battle in the Republican Party or at least among conservatives. Michael Steele, the new Chairman of the Republican Party in a bit of a verbal battle with Rush Limbaugh. Democrats are sort of enjoying this, aren't they?
GOV. KAINE: Well, you know, yeah, in a way, yes, but it's a lot at stake when somebody who is in a leadership role as Rush Limbaugh clearly is states that he wants for the president to fail and he is followed in that by members of Congress voting against the Recovery Act, that's pretty dire given our situation right now.
I thought it was kind of courageous for Chairman Steele to call comments like that ugly and incendiary and say that was not the path that the party should be pursuing, but as then he apologized and kind of took that back yesterday, you know, left us a lot of wandering, well, who is really in charge? It seems like Rush Limbaugh is the kind of he who must be obeyed these days in the Republican Party.
We've got to tune out the high volume shouters and start to reward the problem solvers if we're going to get out of the economic mess that we're in.
MR. SCOTT: Well, Limbaugh followed it up by saying, essentially, if President Obama wants to turn the country more toward a nationalistic kind of thing, he wants that to fail.
GOV. KAINE: Well, I think he's clarified, but you know, you've got to wonder, I mean, he clarified in one sense, but even went further in his speech this weekend about all the reasons that he hopes President Obama does not succeed, you know, saying hyperbolic statements that he's going to take away individual liberties that really aren't supported by anything that happening.
Again, we're in a time of national crisis and, you know, the shouters aren't going to get us through it; it's going to be problem solvers who will and that's what we need from both parties right now.
MR. SCOTT: All right. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia --
GOV. KAINE: Thanks, Jon.
MR. SCOTT: Thanks.
END.
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