FOX "Interview With Senator John Barrasso" - Transcript
Interview
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MR. HEMMER: Republican Senator John Barrasso out of Wyoming is my guest now from Capitol Hill.
Sir, good morning to you, and thank you for your time. What's your take on this possible idea here?
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, thanks, Bill, and it's great to be with you in your new studio.
I will tell you, I am fascinated by this new proposal. I just got back from Wyoming where I attended on Saturday a health fair in Torrington, Wyoming, and a big gun show in Casper, Wyoming. And they were handing out tea bags. And the story that you just did about these -- the taxpayers' revolt, I'll tell you, it is real in Wyoming. There we have farmers and ranchers who take risks every day, just like people that invest and business leaders do, and they realize that you may be able to win and you may be able to lose, but there are costs involved.
There is -- continue to be outrage over the fact that the government has paid all of these bonuses to people. And The Wall Street Journal today, Bill, said that these bonuses, they've been working on that with Geithner for months. So there is outrage. And people understand it when they say there are million -- there was a million-dollar bonuses to over 73 executives for retention and for performance, and a lot of those people aren't there any more.
MR. HEMMER: Senator, well, let me just focus you --
SEN. BARRASSO: Yeah, then you get to the next question --
MR. HEMMER: Let me focus you on this particular topic, though. Do you believe it's the American thing to do, to tell companies how much they can pay their people?
SEN. BARRASSO: No, I think there are two different things in play here. One is when people -- when a company comes to the government and says, "Bail me out" -- you know, kind of in case of emergency, break the glass? When they break the glass, the rules change. But if they don't, I don't think that the government ought to be involved in those major decisions.
Warren Buffett has written for years about employee -- compensation for executives and why it's gotten out of -- out of whack, and you want to make sure that the executives have the same incentives for the taxpayers. I think we saw that with Nardelli at Home Depot, where he was getting big bonuses and the stock was going down. So you want to marry those two together. But Washington can't run its own place, let alone tell all of business how to work.
MR. HEMMER: Well, help me understand and help our viewers understand the incentive for the White House proposing such a plan. What do they think we get out of it?
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, I don't know. It seems that they want to just distract people from looking at their huge budget that the president was talking about in his radio message on Saturday. And to me, that budget still spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. It's really taking the eye off of the ball that we ought to be looking at.
The president has two responsibilities, Bill. One is to really help save this economy, and the second is to keep us safe at home. And I think he ought to be focused 100 percent on this economy, not at these outlandish spending plans to redo energy and redo education and redo health care.
MR. HEMMER: Well, you mentioned that the government helped set up a lot of these rules anyway that helped fuel some of the outrage we saw last week. But that argument to the side, is this possible for a way to reestablish the public trust in the financial institutions of this country that's obviously been broken? Is this the way to do it?
SEN. BARRASSO: Well, I -- I'm not convinced that it is. The president can do some of these things by regulation. You're also talking about legislation. But I think taxpayers all around this country want value for their money. And when we pass these huge stimulus plans and the bailout plans -- and I voted against both of those -- the taxpayers say, "Am I getting value? Where's the oversight? Where's the transparency? Where is the accountability?" And I see the outrage when I go home to Wyoming every week, because people are just absolutely disturbed at how poorly the government is doing.
MR. HEMMER: Well, you mentioned legislation or regulation. Could the White House go ahead and do this without passing laws in Congress?
SEN. BARRASSO: There -- it seems to me what I've been reading, that they have some ability to get in there with regulations. But I think they always make a mistake when they go with regulation instead of going with Congress taking a look at some of these things.
Look at this -- this big stimulus package. You know, they had a 1,200-page bill; no time to read it. They slip something in in the conference committee that says, yeah, it's okay for AIG to get all of these bonuses. And now the White House is pointing fingers at the Senate, and back and forth, of who slipped this in at the last minute. It's why we need to get these bills with plenty of time for people to read them on the Internet, so your viewers can take a look at these things and maybe notice something that folks in Washington didn't notice.
MR. HEMMER: Well, that was the idea.
SEN. BARRASSO: Because you have great viewers who are going to follow this. And that's the idea. That's what the president promised, but it's not what the American people have gotten, Bill.
MR. HEMMER: Senator, thank you for your time. John Barrasso, out of Wyoming, back from his home state, on Capitol Hill. Thank you, sir.
SEN. BARRASSO: Thanks, Bill.
MR. HEMMER: Sure.
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