FOX "Interview With Senator Charles Grassley" - Transcript
Interview
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MS. KELLY: Senator Charles Grassley is the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. He's my guest this morning.
Senator, good morning to you.
SEN. GRASSLEY: Good morning. Glad to be with you.
MS. KELLY: It's a pleasure to have you.
So now we hear that they -- that Republicans and Democrats may be a lot closer than expected to getting a deal done. President Obama has said he wants one on his desk by August for health-care coverage for everyone in the United States -- except there is still the question of how to pay for this multi-billion-dollar program. Do I have my facts right?
SEN. GRASSLEY: The second fact is very accurate, that that's a very difficult issue. The first fact, that there's an agreement -- if it's supposed to be a bipartisan agreement, there is no agreement, because it's just within the last 10 days that, at the staff level, with less significant things to deal with, that there's been any discussion.
But for members to sit down, I can tell you there's a long process, that if there's going to be a bipartisan agreement, I have to consult with Republican members of the Finance Committee. There's consultation going back between Senator Baucus and me. And I'm sure he's got to consult with a lot of Democrats on his side. So if you're talking about a bipartisan deal, not yet.
MS. KELLY: All right. So you -- so this is from Politico. They -- that -- they are reporting that there's a surprising level of agreement between Democrats and Republicans --
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well --
MS. KELLY: -- so much so that the broad outlines of a consensus plan are already taking shape.
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well --
MS. KELLY: Are they too optimistic in their reporting?
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, let's put it this way. Let's just take a number -- 20 or 25 issues, subsets that have to be compromised. Fifteen of those are relatively non-controversial, have been on the agenda of the Finance Committee over years of discussing a lot of things dealing with health care. Those things would be easily solved.
But whether or not you're going to have a public option -- in other words, a government-run competition to the private insurance companies; how you're going to fund it; whether you're going to have issues like mandates, individual mandate, employer mandate, mandates at all -- these things are still issues that have not been decided. And those are big issues, and I would have to say that those need to be some confirmation of agreement before I can say that there's any deal.
MS. KELLY: Now, let me ask you about paying for it, because President Obama also realizes that this money's going to have to come from somewhere. And there are various proposals being kicked about.
And the latest one we heard last week, and the one we heard again this morning as perhaps the most favored, is that they would now -- you, lawmakers, would now start taxing our health-care benefits. So for those of us who are now paying for health care either through our employer supplemented by us, or individually, that's -- that hasn't been something that we paid taxes on. Now, we're going to have to, perhaps?
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, this is one of the things that the president has to come out in favor of, for this reason: that -- you know how he made such a big deal with John McCain wanting to do that, that now, if the president and the Democrats are leading in that direction, it seems to me, for it to be bipartisan, it's going to have to have a lot of presidential leadership to accomplish that.
But I doubt if it would ever be a compromise of where all of those benefits would be taxed. I would say there would be more using the term "capping" the exclusion at some point, maybe the national average. And above that would be taxable, below that would not be -- the point being not necessarily to raise money, but, at higher levels of health care -- like, we'll say, the gold-plated ones that are more expensive than the common ones --
MS. KELLY: Right.
SEN. GRASSLEY: -- you know, they tend to bring about overutilization of health care and drive up health-care costs needlessly.
MS. KELLY: But, Senator, let me ask -- you know, your Senate Banking Committee, you're the guy. We get e-mails from our viewers all the time. They don't want any --
SEN. GRASSLEY: Are we going to what?
MS. KELLY: -- more taxes. They don't want any more.
SEN. GRASSLEY: Okay. Well --
MS. KELLY: They don't want you to tax their health-care benefits. They don't want a value-added tax, a sales tax on their goods. The -- universal health care may sound good in theory, but they don't want to have to be taxed even more --
SEN. GRASSLEY: I think --
MS. KELLY: -- than they already are.
SEN. GRASSLEY: I think we -- I think we Republicans get that message because John McCain was partly defeated on that issue. Because, you know, the Obama campaign run -- just numerous ads, sometimes four every half-hour of news, about what was wrong with the McCain health plan, because it was going to raise taxes. If you look closer at it, it would reduce taxes for some people. It would give people more discretion on buying health insurance. If they wanted to buy something different than what their employer; if they wanted more disposable income -- there's all advantages to it.
But you're right: It was sold as a tax increase, and that's why it's going to take the president's leadership if that's going to be accomplished. And I think it's a very difficult thing for Republicans.
MS. KELLY: Well, we'll be watching. And I know the viewers and your voters will be watching as well. Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Banking Committee, we appreciate you being here, sir.
SEN. GRASSLEY: Thank you.
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