CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

GRIFFIN: A CNN/Research Opinion poll released early this morning confirms it. It shows Republicans pulling easily ahead of Democrats with voters on the issues of terrorism, immigration. And while gaining a slight advantage on the economy and taxes, the deficit, the war in Afghanistan, voters now barely favoring Democrats in just two categories, and that is health care and social security.

CHETRY: And Congressman Chris Van Hollen is the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee which essentially means it's his job to make sure things don't turn out as badly as some of the polls are predicting and he joins us this morning from Washington.

Congressional Van Hollen, thanks for being with us.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, DEM. CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN CMTE. CHAIRMAN: It's good to be with you this morning.

CHETRY: Well, this poll and it mirrors many others. Certainly not good news for Democrats, obviously. They have eight issues. Some of them are within the margin of error. But Republicans are ranking higher in all but two, health care as we said and social security. And poll after poll shows Republicans possibly making some major gains and the real possibility that they can regain the majority. What is your strategy for making sure that things don't turn out as badly as many in Washington are predicting for the Democrats?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, they're not going to turn as badly. You know, we're just past Labor Day now. This is the period where the American people traditionally begin to focus on elections. I mean, most normal people have been going about their daily lives. They've been getting their kids back to school. And tomorrow in Ohio, you'll hear the president lay out the clear choices that people have. And when they go into that voting booth and they have to choose between two, sometimes more candidates, the question is going to be, what are you going to do on the economy? And right now, we have a fragile economy. We're a lot better off than we were 18 months ago, but we're not where we want to be.

CHETRY: If you mentioned Ohio, we just got a report from T.J. There's a lot of angst, 16,600 people still without jobs and a lot of people are saying how did the stimulus that we spent so much money on really helped us.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, of course, there's a lot of angst because the economy is still soft and weak. But the fact of the matter is the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group, said that the recovery added as many as three million jobs to the economy.

Look, when you are sinking very fast, it is hard. First, you have to stabilize the situation then you try and improve it. The fact of the matter is it's in a dramatically better place than it was 18 months ago, but still not nearly where we want it to be.

So, do you want to go back to the set of policies, the economic policies that created the mess in the first place? Do you want to repeal Wall Street reform, which is what the Republican leader said in Ohio not long ago? Or do you want to continue to accelerate a job growth by passing the small business lending bill that the president is urging the Senate to pass? Right now, it's been blocked by a Republican colleague. So, ultimately, people are going to have a choice on where to go on the economy.

GRIFFIN: Congressman, I've got to ask you, if the president seriously asked that question tomorrow in Ohio, are you better off than you were 18 months ago? We've already had a report this morning that the unemployment has just steadily increased since the president took the White House, and you know, the House and the Senate have been in control of the Democrats now. I think the answer might be no for a lot of people even those who voted for the president.

VAN HOLLEN: Look, there is no doubt that the economy remains weak. When you're going down fast, you have to triage. You have to stabilize the situation. You have to slowly build back. But the question in elections is always about the future. What are you going to do next? And if you listen to what the Republican leader said in Ohio not long ago, he proposed a plan that would effectively cancel about 60,000 contracts out of the recovery bill, Vitter just getting going. I mean, that's a sure recipe for killing some of the jobs that are beginning to grow in Ohio. And I think the president is going to point that out. So elections are about where do we go in the future. And I believe that the American people when they go in the voting booth, they are going to want to ask themselves what the Democratic candidates have been doing but also what the Republican candidate proposes for the future. And I think people are fair minded. I think they recognize that when the economy is going down really fast, you can't buy miracle, turn it around quickly. You have to stabilize the situation, and then move forward. And it would be a huge mistake to go back to the same policies.

CHETRY: You know --

VAN HOLLEN: And listen to what -- what are our Republican colleagues proposing for the economy? That I would -- I would pose that question because they begun to give us the answer and the answer is -- canceling some of those contracts, growing the deficits. It's not a recipe for progress.

CHETRY: You know, there had been exactly some very, very liberal commentators and, of course, Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist, who have actually been quite critical of the president's policies lately, especially as it relates to the economy. I think everyone pretty much agrees that we're in trouble. There is disagreement on what the answer is.

But one of the things that Tom Friedman, Krugman and others have pointed to is we may be in triage mode, as you referred to, but we haven't done anything that would actually change the economy so that the country can grow jobs. So instead -- I mean, some of them liken it to just sort of throwing money down a hole instead of making changes in green technology and other things so that moving forward, we are going to grow rather than just sort of try to plug holes, which is a situation we seem to be in now.

Are you going to support the stimulus (INAUDIBLE) is now talking about rebuilding roads, talking about possibly, you know, rebuilding airport runways as a long-term solution to unemployment?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, the first priority is to pass the small business lending bill that I talked about. And that has passed the House. It's sitting in the Senate. I will support the president's plan. We need to see more details before I know exactly what the lay of the land is. He said he was going to pay for it by closing a lot of these loopholes in the tax law that actually reward corporations that ship jobs overseas.

Now, we have used some of those. We've closed some of those loopholes already. But there are other loopholes out there. And I think everybody would agree, that it doesn't make sense to subsidize, have the American taxpayer subsidize companies that are shifting American jobs, not American goods but American jobs overseas.

And so the president indicated yesterday he was going to look for those kind of savings to pay for investments right here at home. And it makes sense to say let's invest our money here at home, rather than giving tax breaks to companies that are essentially shifting American jobs overseas. That seems to me to be the right choice.

GRIFFIN: OK, real quick, though, yes or no. Should the Democrats in Congress who want to be reelected vote for the next stimulus package whether you call it that or not? Yes or no?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, we're not going to have the next stimulus package before us, before the election. The election --

GRIFFIN: The one that the president is proposing, you guys are not going to vote on before the election?

VAN HOLLEN: What we're voting on for sure, we hope, if the Republicans in the Senate will allow it to be voted upon is going to be the small business lending bill and that would create a pool of about $30 billion that combined with private capital would be able to get to small businesses who are right now, as you heard, are hurting.

GRIFFIN: OK.

VAN HOLLEN: A lot of the folks in Ohio are saying we got to make the next payroll. The banks aren't lending the money. That is the top priority as soon as Congress --

CHETRY: What about after? After? I mean, obviously, when this bill comes out or when you guys put it to the floor for a vote, are you going to vote yes? Are you encouraging other members to vote yes on this proposal by the president for this new stimulus?

VAN HOLLEN: As you know, we have to see the details. I mean, look, the president announced this yesterday. He's going to make some more proposals tomorrow in Ohio. We're looking forward to working with the president on his proposals. But obviously, we have to see some of the details. But the thrust of this is in the right direction. It's to continue to get people back to work, to accelerate job creation, and not go back to the policies that got us to this mess.

Again, elections are about choices. And we're all talking about what the president wants to do and that's good because I think it will help propel things in the right direction. But what are our colleagues on the other side proposing? I urge people to go look at what they're telling us they would do.

CHETRY: Well, we'll certainly ask them about it as well.

VAN HOLLEN: Because they don't -- well, because they want to repeal the Wall Street reform bill. They're telling us that.

GRIFFIN: Chris, we've got to go.

VAN HOLLEN: OK.

GRIFFIN: I'm sorry, man. Thanks a lot.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you. No problem.

GRIFFIN: We gave you more time than we should have, according to my producers but I enjoyed it. I hope you did, too.

CHETRY: Thanks for joining us, Congressman.

VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you this morning. Thank you.

GRIFFIN: And coming up, candidates backed by the Tea Party may have a lot to say about the outcome of the midterm elections. One Utah Republican may be as close as the Tea Party Movement will get to a shoo-in in the Senate. It is now 23 minutes after the hour.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source