CBS "Face The Nation" - Transcript

Interview

BOB SCHIEFFER: Today on FACE THE NATION, the President and Congress. Can they ever
work together to get something done for the country?
We'll go outside the beltway and bring in Mississippi's Republican governor Haley Barbour,
Democratic governors Jennifer Granholm of Michigan and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, South
Dakota's Republican Senator John Thune.
And we'll bring in Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post and Jim VandeHei of Politico for
analysis.
Then I'll have a final thought on the age of miracles or maybe it's not.
ANNOUNCER: FACE THE NATION with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob
Schieffer, and now from Washington, Bob Schieffer.
BOB SCHIEFFER: And good morning again from snowy Washington. Governor Granholm is in
her home state of Michigan, Senator Thune is in South Dakota. With us inside the beltway--
inside the studio--Governor Barbour and Governor Rendell, in a place where they're not often--
here. Welcome to both of you.
I want to start this morning with something the President said on Friday. When he visited a
conference of House Republicans and told them that all the tough talk and the partisan rhetoric
is making it harder for the two sides to work together. Listen to what he said.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I mean, we have got to be careful about what we say about
each other sometimes. Because it boxes us in, in ways that makes it difficult for us to work
together because our constituents start believing us. They don't know sometimes this is just
politics what you guys, you know, or folks on my side do sometimes. So just a tone of civility
instead of slash-and-burn would be helpful.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, Governor Barbour, what do you say to that?
GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR (R-Mississippi/Chairman, Republican Governors Association):
Of course, that's right. We should be civil. Ed and I disagree a lot. But always civilly and try to do
it productively. But it is often the President who is the person that says the people on the other
side are bad. Anybody who is not for what I'm for, they've got bad motives. They're representing
bad people.
The truth is this is about policy. And the American people and the Republicans think most of the
policy that the Obama administration, the Democrat majorities have pushed are way too far to
the left and are bad policy for the country. But should we disagree agreeably? Yes, sir. But that
doesn't mean we ought to take bad policy that's bad for the future.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well Governor Rendell, how would you respond?
GOV. ED RENDELL (D-Pennsylvania): Well I-- I think Haley is right about the tone. But it-- it's
more than just the tone. It is a-- a- about policy and if you look at President Bush when he took
over in 2001, his major domestic initiatives, Bob, no child left behind, tax cuts, the senior pharm-
- pharmacy program got significant Democratic support. I mean, a ton of Democratic votes.
We've seen stonewalling by the Republicans. President in his State of the Union and on Friday
carved out on jobs, on energy, and on holding down federal spending, carved out basic
Republican principles. The ball is in their court now on policy. Let's see what they do.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well for sure the President made it clear in both the State of the Union and
in his presentation to the Republicans on Friday that the number one priority now is jobs. And
the reason why is certainly obvious to everybody at-- here at this table and out there outside the
beltway. The latest figures, unemployment nationally is still over or at ten percent and a lot
worse in some places. In Governor Granholm's state of Michigan, for example, it's now 14.6
percent.
So Governor Granholm, I want to ask you, were you glad to see the President put the focus on
jobs rather than on health care?
GOVERNOR JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D-Michigan): Well, health care is a jobs issue too. But
for us I can tell you if you sit around the coffee tables of Michigan, jobs are the alpha and the
omega. It is the beginning and the end. And so the real focus on direct-- direct emp-- emphasis
on job creation is critical.
And let me just say quickly, you know, this issue of policy and all of that, if you ask people
whether they're in Pennsylvania or Mississippi or South Dakota what their priority is. If you have
to ask them is it jobs or the deficit? I think they'd say both are important. The deficit's important
but jobs are urgent. And that's the way we feel in Michigan. The number one thing must be job
creation. Of course, the deficit has to be handled. But if you have to triage, put your first effort in
creating jobs.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you agree with that, Senator Thune?
SENATOR JOHN THUNE (R-South Dakota): I do, Bob. I think that the problem that we have
run into and I-- I credit the President for going up and visiting with the House Republicans and
the House Republicans for inviting him. I think that both benefited from that exchange.
The question is will there be meaningful cooperation on an agenda going forward? And I think
that what we've seen with regard to jobs, everybody talks about jobs, but the best thing that we
can do with respect to jobs is put that massive health care expansion on the shelf, work on
measures that actually do reduce health care costs for small businesses, make it clear to small
businesses that we're not going to raise their taxes in the middle-- middle of the recession.
Many of the proposals the administration has put forward are jobs killers. They have taken an
agenda to the left. And I think what you saw in Massachusetts and-- and Virginia and New
Jersey was the American people saying we don't like this hard shift to the left. We want to see
the two sides work together but in a way on an agenda that it ac-- actually does help create jobs
and doesn't create all this economic uncertainty--
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Let me--
SENATOR JOHN THUNE: --for small businesses.
BOB SCHIEFFER: --let me just ask you this, Senator Thune. Do you think the election of a
Republican Scott Brown, does that make it harder to reach compromise now? Because, after
all, people are saying he is the forty-first senator now. He can, you know, Republicans now have
the ability to block anything. Do you think they will be more likely to block things?
SENATOR JOHN THUNE: I think a lot of it has to do, Bob, with-- with what things they put
forward. If they come again to the middle and their agenda is one that you can get bipartisan
support for, I don't care whether it's forty or forty-one. What we were reacting to, a lot of
Republicans in Congress, is to an agenda that took the country way to the left.
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL (overlapping): Hey, Bob, I--
SENATOR JOHN THUNE (overlapping): And, in fact-- in fact, small businesses will tell you that.
They want an agenda that is conducive to job creation, not one that creates the kind of
economic uncertainty that kills jobs. And that's what we've seen from the administration.
BOB SCHIEFFER: All right, let me get Governor Rendell.
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL (overlapping): I--
BOB SCHIEFFER: He wants to respond.
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: --I-- I'd like to ask Senator Thune a question, specifically on the
jobs bill that President Obama has proposed, which has tax credits and small-- capital gains
exemptions for small businesses, money for infrastructure, money for community banks to loan
out to small businesses. Are you ready to support those basic principles? I mean, those sound
like Republican principles to me, John.
SENATOR JOHN THUNE: Those are the things, Governor, that are. We'd like to see broad-
based tax relief on income rates and cap gains and dividends and those sorts of things. And we
would have liked to have seen that in the first stimulus bill. I think there would be--
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL (overlapping): So, you think--
SENATOR JOHN THUNE: --I think there would be Republican support if you were to redirect
some of the stimulus bill, much of which hasn't been spent, towards small business tax relief. I
think it will be hard to get small-- Republican support for some of those initiatives if they propose
using the TARP fund to pay for it. That is not what TARP was intended to do. And that is what
we understand to be their proposal.
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: See, John, I think that's the weakness of your position. Everyone
is for a jobs bill but nobody wants to pay for it. Governor Granholm is right. Right now we need a
jobs bill. And you guys in Washington should pass it in the next four weeks.
GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: You know it's interesting. While the American people have
been saying from the day Barack Obama got sworn in, jobs are the biggest issue in the country,
getting our economy back is one of the biggest issues of the country. But for the last eight
months all I've heard about is the Democratic Party trying to ram health care down the country's
throat. Now I am glad for this epiphany that Scott Brown calls about jobs. I mean, we should
have been focused on jobs in June, not health care, in September, not health care, Christmas
Eve, not health care.
GOVERNOR JENNIFER GRANHOLM (overlapping): Bob, can I--
GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: As a wise person told me the other day, the only Democrat
who took any time off before Christmas was Martha Coakley. And what-- what happened they
were trying to drive health care reform down the country's throat that the country didn't want.
Now the question is--is this bill left-wing playbook, a fake up the middle and run far left? I hope
not. But, if it's moderate stuff, I know Republican governors will support it and support it publicly.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, let's see what Jennifer Granholm is saying out there, because I see
her shaking her head way out there in Michigan.
GOVERNOR JENNIFER GRANHOLM: Well, the reason I'm shaking my head is obviously the
first thing the Obama administration did was to put a huge stimulus package which was focused
on jobs on the table, a third of that was tax cuts. And in Michigan, I can just tell you, just in the
past two quarters it's meant forty-two thousand jobs. I think you got to give this thing a chance
to work. But we know when he came into office they were losing seven hundred thousand jobs
per month. As he said on Friday before the Republican caucus, he can't be blamed for what had
happened before. His wasn't the TARP agenda. That wasn't his bill. But, give it a chance to
work. And now we see over three million jobs being created by the stimulus.
And just quickly, one of the things that's unique to Michigan, and maybe to some other states
who have our problem with the loss of manufacturing jobs, what he has done is given us hope
to transform and diversify. We're getting the ability now to have an auto industry that produces
electric vehicles with batteries that will product-- propel those. Well, those batteries instead of
being made in Asia are going to be made in the United States by U.S. workers. For us that's a
huge opportunity. Not just to put people back to work but to transform our economy as well.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me-- let me just shift slightly here and go back to something that all of
you have mentioned, and that was this election of Scott Brown. What do you think that means
for Republicans, Senator Barbour? After all, this is not Re-- Mississippi-style Republican they've
got elected. He's fairly liberal on some issues.
GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: Well, he's a very-- very much a moderate Republican. And I
think it's a reminder to Republicans that-- that we don't need purity. We need to elect the best
people we can elect, and Scott Brown is-- is the best senator for Massachusetts. But you're
right. He-- he's certainly is not as conservative as I am. And that's healthy and good. What does
it mean? I think-- I hope what it means is since the Democrats can't get sixty votes on a partisan
basis in the Senate, they will quit trying to ram stuff down the country's throat on a sixty-vote
partisan vote. I hope that's what it means. If it does, it really will not only have been a volcano in
terms of politics, it would have been really good for public policy in America.
BOB SCHIEFFER: What do you think, Governor Rendell?
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: Well, we'll see. I-- I think the President did a real good job, both in
the State of the Union on Friday in saying to the Republican Party, okay, here are core
Republican principles on jobs, on energy, on fiscal restraint, now let's see if we're going to work
together or are we going to make this year, just an election year of political fiasco.
And Bob, what was most discouraging about Friday, is after the invitation, after the President
laid out these olive branches on nuclear power, offshore drilling. In thirty minutes, the
Republicans put out a press release ripping the President--the House Republican Caucus, that's
not the way to get things done.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Let me ask all of you and I'll start with you Senator Thune, this whole
business of anger out in the country of-- that we see the tea party business and all of that. Are
those of us here in Washington, have we overestimated that? It-- are we making more of it than
it is? What-- what do you make of it? And I'd like to hear from senator-- I mean Governor
Granholm as well.
SENATOR JOHN THUNE: I think, Bob, that listening-- if-- if you're listening to the people in New
Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, that angst out there is real. And coming back to what
Massachusetts was about, I think there are different interpretations of that. The administration
says, well, we just need to retool our message. I think the message was we want to change
directions. This thing is moving too fast toward more government. It wasn't a referendum on
health care. It was about debt. And-- you know Governor Rendell mentioned the jobs bill that's
paid for out of TARP. TARP is what it is. It's just more borrowing authority. People in this country
are uncomfortable with the borrowing, the spending, and the taxing and the growth of
government in Washington. And that's being reflected in the tea party movement and it's-- it was
reflected, I think, in those elections in those three states.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you have any tea party people out in your state, Governor Granholm?
GOVERNOR JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D-Michigan): Oh, sure. I'm going to give my State of the
State on Wednesday. They've already got a permit for their protest, but honestly there-- there's
no doubt that the anger is real and it's white hot, and it's especially hot in places that have a
hugely high unemployment rate but it's hot because of the jobs issue. It's not so much hot
because of deficits.
Again if you ask people to rank what's most important to their lives it's having a job. Yes, the
deficit is important, but having a job is much more important.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Governor Barbour.
GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR (R-Mississippi): Well, I do think that jobs, it is the most
important thing. And as I say, I think a lot of people got angrier and angrier because they felt like
Washington was focused on other things.
BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): But while you're talking about too much emphasis on purity, it--
I take it, you're not too happy about these tea party folks.
GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR: No actually, I am. They remind me of the Perot people in the
early '90s who were disgusted with both parties. And our party has given people some things to
be disgusted with, particularly in the areas of spending and deficits. I see these people as a
catalyst for Republicans to get settled where they need to be. And I also see them as our allies.
I think we as Republicans need to make sure they understand that we see them as our allies,
that they're welcome in our party. And that's what the Republicans are doing and certainly
should be doing everywhere in the United States with these tea party folks who are good folks.
BOB SCHIEFFER: I'll give Governor Rendell the last word here. What do you think--is this
anger overstated?
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: No, I don't think it's overstated but I agree with Governor
Granholm. I think any time you've got an economy like ours and it may be the worst since the
Great Depression, people are going to be angry. And that anger is going to be targeted to
people who are in. So, I would say respectfully to Senator Thune, the guy who is sitting there
and has been unemployed for eight months, he thanks President Obama for extending the
unemployment benefits and stimulus. That's something you don't hear so much about stimulus,
but he wants to know where his job is coming from, not what the deficit is going to be.
BOB SCHIEFFER: We could talk all afternoon and I'd love to, but we have to call a halt here.
Thanks to all of you for being with us this morning.

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