Fox News Interview - Transcript

Interview

Fox News Interview - Transcript

FOX NEWS CHANNEL INTERVIEW WITH REP. BRAD SHERMAN (D-CA) AND REP. TOM PRICE (R-GA)

SUBJECT: CURBING BONUSES INTERVIEWER: JON SCOTT

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MR. SCOTT: The House is debating a bill to curb bonuses at firms like AIG. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says he expects it'll pass, but in this political climate, anything is possible.

Listen to what his Republican counterpart had to say about it earlier.

HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH) (From video): The bill that's on the floor today to try to correct this problem with AIG bonuses is nothing more than a sham. It's nothing more than an effort to cover somebody's rear end.

MR. SCOTT: No big surprise, Americans have strong opinions about the economic situation according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll. Sixty-eight percent say most bailout money goes to people who created the crisis; more than three-fourths believe AIG execs should give their bonuses back.

Joining us now, California Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat and Georgia Congressman Tom Price, a Republican, both members of the House Financial Services Committee.

Welcome to both of you.

REP. SHERMAN: Thanks, Jon.

REP. PRICE: Thanks, Jon.

MR. SCOTT: Congressman Sherman, there's obviously the appetite in Congress and among the American taxpayers to get that bonus money back, but do you think you can do so legally?

REP. SHERMAN: I think as a tax lawyer, that this bill is legal. I think it needs to be changed a bit. I'm most concerned with the fact that while it deals with bonuses, it doesn't deal with million dollar a month salaries. So we're promising the American people that we're using the tax code to force the elimination and the return of executive compensation that's wildly in excess of what it ought to be, but in fact, we may just be pushing Wall Street to start calling its salary instead of calling it bonus.

MR. SCOTT: Congressman Price, what about the accusation that, you know, these bonuses were scheduled a long time ago? It wasn't until they were paid that everybody got so upset.

REP. PRICE: It wasn't until they were paid until we found out who put the language in the bill. I'll tell you, the outrage of the American people is about the $170 billion that's gone to AIG, not just this $170 million.

I believe this bill is unconstitutional and it violates the Constitution, the bill of attainder, which means that it's targeting just a few individuals. That's wrong. It's not the American way. What the American people want is the government to get out of the business of private enterprise.

MR. SCOTT: Well, yeah, when you talk about it, Congressman Sherman, I mean, recovering those bonuses is less than a tenth of one percent of that bailout money. Is it worth all of this exercise?

REP. SHERMAN: Look, it's certainly worth the effort. The American people care about this, and you know, Congress deals with less important matters all the time. But we should never have passed TARP, that's why I voted against it twice. When we did pass TARP, there was language in there to limit executive compensation, but it was just a grant of authority to Treasury and Paulson chose not to use that authority.

If we had put AIG into receivership, we would have saved America $170 billion and voided all these outrageous executive compensation contracts.

REP. PRICE: That's where Brad and I agree. We both agree that it should have gone through a reorganization. Where we disagree is the stimulus bill, the 1,000-page plus bill that was passed in February had this language in it. It was given to us at 11:30 the night before; we voted at 2 PM, nobody had a chance to read it. The Democrats voted for it and rushed it through. The Republicans voted against it and would not have allowed this amendment had we been able to have the opportunity to review it.

REP. SHERMAN: This amendment didn't allow these bonuses. This amendment was simply a step in the right direction and it was included in a bill that wasn't even a TARP bill. So when we passed the TARP bill, that bill did pretend to contain, should have contained, it was relevant to contain limits on the executive compensation of those who took the money and that bill was flawed and I voted against it twice. I don't know how you -- but the stimulus bill was a step in the right direction, in a bill that was supposed to deal with taxing and spending, we put in a little provision, an inadequate provision, but a step in the right direction.

If that provision hadn't been in the bill at all and Republicans weren't suggesting that it be in the bill, if that provision hadn't been in the bill at all, we'd be exactly where we are now.

To say that a cure was insufficient, at least ignores the fact that the Republicans want didn't cure at all.

REP. PRICE: Jon, this is exactly why you don't want to be in a political economy because you've got politicians picking winners and losers and politicians deciding who decides and when it's politicians doing it and not the market, that's a very dangerous place to be. That's where we are right now. That's what the Democrats put in place and that's where we need to get away from.

REP. SHERMAN: The TARP bill was written by Secretary Paulson. I voted against it twice and I think the vast majority of Americans across the country wish it never had been passed.

REP. PRICE: Geithner orchestrated AIG in a political economy and it's the last place we need to be. Freedom in the marketplace is where we need to be. The American people know that.

REP. SHERMAN: Geithner was not in the administration and it was the administration of George Bush that gave us TARP and created the panic that got it passed through Congress.

MR. SCOTT: All right.

REP. PRICE: Geithner was the Federal Reserve chair at the New York Fed --

MR. SCOTT: Gentlemen, we're going to let you take this one to the House floor, I guess, and finish the argument.

REP. PRICE: Thank you, Jon.

MR. SCOTT: Congressman Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, on the left of your screen there and Congressman Brad Sherman, Democrat of California on the right.

Thank you.

END.

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