CNBC "The Kudlow Report" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. FRANCIS: All right. You saw today Wall Street threw its initial support behind the White House by staging an impressive rally, but in Washington the debate continues to rage on the economy, executive compensation, of course, and the budget. For the view from the Hill, we come to Senator John Barrasso, a Republican from Wyoming.

Thank you so much for joining us. Let's get right to it. Do you like this plan? And if not, what would you like to do instead?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, I'll tell you, Melissa, I think that this is just a repeat of the first bailout that we had and really not a lot different. They call it a private-public partnership, but only about 7 percent to 8 percent of the money, according to Ms. Romer, is actually going to be coming from private equity. So it looks to me that if the assets get purchased and go up then everyone wins. And if they go down, then the private equity doesn't lose, and the American taxpayers do lose.

MS. FRANCIS: What would you want to do instead?

SEN. BARRASSO: I want to make sure that the president focuses 100 percent on the economy and forgets about this incredible budget that, to me, is absolutely a threat to this nation. This is a budget that spends too much, it taxes too much, it borrows too much. And the president has a couple of jobs. One is to make sure that the economy goes well, and the second is to make sure that our borders are secure and we're safe at home. But I am very concerned that the budget that we're debating these weeks in Congress is one that is excessive and puts it all at risk.

MR. LEISMAN: Senator, let me just preface my question by saying I'm a big fan of your state, its people and especially its trout. (Laughs.) So let me just start there. But let me ask you this question. You may forgive the American people for thinking that the Republican party is not necessarily against deficits but more against Democratic deficits. Talk to me about how the Republican Party gets its kind of mojo back when it comes to being financially prudent.

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, you know, you just take a look at The Wall Street Journal's editorial about the sticker shock of this budget. The president says he wants to cut the deficit in half, but he wants to grow the deficit by a factor of four before cutting it in half. So I think that's completely irresponsible. The Chinese don't even want to lend us any money anymore, we've melted down our credit cards, we've maxed them out completely. You know, I go and talk to high school kids and they get it.

MR. LEISMAN: Are you opposed to the bailout or the stimulus plan entirely? Should we not have spent any of this money, this $800 billion?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, it was the first -- no, I thought that the stimulus package was really spent over too long of a period of time. Only 22 percent of the money is spent this year. I thought there were a lot of pet projects that people wanted, long-term projects that they've kind of been waiting to spend money on. I think it was a lot of wasted money in there. All spending, to me, is not stimulus money. Some of it can be, but not all of it. Not all of this stimulus package was.

MS. FRANCIS: Senator, we only have about 30 seconds left. What would you do to fix the economy right now?

SEN. BARRASSO: I would, one, say just forget this idea about this massive borrowing and massive taxing that the president wants to do.

MS. FRANCIS: Okay. And then?

SEN. BARRASSO: Economies will come around over time. That's the free market system, and they will do that. I want targeted spending on what the president talked about in the beginning, which was shovel- ready projects, things that we can do today to stimulate the economy, not 78 percent of the money in this going too far. The American people believe that we're spending too much not too little on trying to stimulate the economy. And most Americans are more concerned that the future world will not be as good for their kids as it is for us right now.

MS. FRANCIS: Senator Barrasso, thank you so much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate it.

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