MSNBC "Moring Joe" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. BRZEZINSKI: Here with us now, Republican senator from Iowa and ranking member of the Finance Committee, Senator Charles Grassley.

Senator, thank you very much for being with us.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Glad to be with you.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Are you for taxing these bonuses 90 percent? Is this your bill?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Yeah. Don't you know that last Wednesday, while the House of Representatives' leadership was against doing that -- and, of course, they ended up passing a bill by an overwhelming margin -- two days before that, Senator Baucus and I put out a similar bill.

You know, the $165 million, as big of a figure that is, that is not the main point, as far as I'm concerned.

The main point is we've got to change the corporate culture of America, particularly where they're sucking on the taxpayer, that they need to realize that they shouldn't be making these stupid judgments about giving bonuses for companies that are belly up.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, although I'm a little confused. Because it seems like this information about this bonus situation was in the stimulus package that was passed by folks like you in Congress and -- on Capitol Hill.

And I just wonder if it really is just pandering to the constituents out there and truly isn't a very good idea, ultimately, as the White House seems to be backing off on it as well.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, I wish that you would be with me on weekends in Iowa. And I go home every weekend.

I went to a church supper Friday night, a farm group on Saturday morning, a 4-H group on Sunday morning, and the outrage of the public -- and I'm talking about meetings where there were 500, 100, and another 100 -- meetings where there was outrage expressed.

So I think that you've got to realize that we're in a representative government and people respond. And people are fed up with bailing out these companies going back to October, and seeing no benefit from it.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: I'm with you on that. I'm just also concerned that perhaps you and other senators should have known about these bonuses.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, listen. Let's say Senators Snowe and Wyden knew about it, and they were taxing it just like we're taxing it, and it was taken out in conference.

And do you know -- I was a member of the conference committee. Do you know that the four Republicans out of the 10 that were on the conference committee weren't even invited to the meeting?

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Wow.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Well, tell me, in the remaining seconds that we have, your concerns, questions about the Geithner plan, the bank plan out there.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, that it works. Because what the people need now is some confidence that things are finally working.

As I said, back on October, since then nobody's seen anything that the government's doing is doing any good. And if this works, it might turn us around.

What the president needs to do is spend all of his time building confidence. You know, you can be for all these other things that the president's for, and it's okay to be for them. But these first 100 days he ought to be talking about nothing but the economy and turning it around.

And health care reform and all those other things, education, we can take care of those in the Congress of the United States. There's one president, but there's 535 members of Congress.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: I hear you on that. And I certainly would love to go to Iowa for the weekend and hear from the people and go to the -- ah, it's beautiful out there. Remember Iowa?

SEN. GRASSLEY: It is beautiful.

MS. BRZEZINSKI: Senator Chuck Grassley, thank you very much for coming on the show.

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Thank you, Senator.

SEN. GRASSLEY: Thank you. Glad to be with you, Joe.

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