CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: And we are back now with Congressman Jerrold Nadler who is in New York with former Vermont Governor Howard Dean who joins us this morning from Burlington. Well, Congressman Nadler, you are an Eastern Liberal, and proud of it. You didn't like this very much. You heard what Mister Axelrod said. He looks like he thinks what's going to be voted on is about what they've put forward. He doesn't see any changes coming. Are House Democrats going to go for this?

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER (D-New York): Well, we passed the resolution in our caucus the other day saying that we would not permit this deal to come to the floor without some changes. Major of those changes would be to-- would have to be to for-- for members of our caucus to let it come to the floor, I don't know. I certainly hope that there are very major
changes in this.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, what's wrong with this? What's wrong with this?

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: If we-- if-- and-- and looking at it from the long term, there are really three major problems that I see with this. Firstly, the-- the Republican blackmail here. They're really saying like a bunch of gangster that it's a nice middle class tax cut you got over there, pity if something would happen to it and unless you give the millionaires and
billionaires a long term tax cut, we're not going to permit the middle class to get it's-- to continue its tax cut. But that millionaires and billionaires tax cut will cost seven hundred billion dollars added to the deficit over the next ten years which we can't afford. Now I know that this is a-- a two-year extension but if we succumb to that blackmail now when both the middle class and the upper end tax cuts expire in two years in the middle of a presidential election why would I expect that the President and the Congress would then have the political gumption not to submit again to the Republican blackmail and in effect permanentize this? So I believe that voting for this now may be to permanentize these upper end tax cuts at seven hundred billion dollars a decade which would be the culmination of a thirty-year Republican plan to starve the beast to--to-- to create deliberately such massive tax cuts that we're going to have to-- to what they really want which is to cut social security and cut Medicare, cut AIDS education--

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): All right.

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: --housing and everything else.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Let me-- let me--

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: Second--

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): --let me just stop you right there because that's going to be a very long answer and we'll get back to the rest of it but what I'm asking you is, would you be willing to let everyone's taxes go up in order to stop that extending those tax rates for the upper income people?

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: I don't think that's the alternative. I think the alternative is to say we're not going to submit to that blackmail and let the President and the Democrats go to the people that who the polls show want the upper end tax cuts not to continue but want the middle class tax cuts and say don't submit to the blackmail. I-- I believe that if we conducted a campaign like that for a couple of weeks or few weeks or some time period, we'd win that and that's got to be done.

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REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: I don't think it's going to be more easy. I think it'll be probably somewhat more difficult, but the fight hasn't been made. We haven't gone to the country and said, "Do you want to submit to the Republican blackmail in order to keep the middle class tax cuts by increasing the deficit by seven hundred billion dollars to give the
millionaires and the billionaires their-- let them keep a-- their tax cut" and that issue has to be made and go to the country and I think we win on that. I think--

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well--

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: --Republicans have to back that--

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BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, we-- clearly, Congressman Nadler, we're in the land of poor options here. There's no-- there's no question about that. But how can you prevent people's taxes from going up next year if you don't come to some compromise with Republicans on this?

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: Well, I think you're going to have to come to a compromise but this is a bad compromise because as Governor Dean said, it really sacrifices the welfare of the country long term. I would say that the second largest problem we face long term is the long term deficit. The more immediate problem we face is to create more jobs right
now and we have to do that, but you can't do it at the expense of permanentizing these upper end tax cuts and the estate tax cut and jeopardizing social security down the road.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you feel that the President has betrayed his party? Congressman.

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: No. I-- I'm not going to say that President betrayed his party, I think that he probably should've stood a-- a little stronger and in-- and-- and-- and not um-- um-- gone along with the-- with what is-- what is the Republican blackmail attempt--

BOB SCHIEFFER: Oh--

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: --and now he thinks that he-- we can fix this in two years, I'm most skeptical of that.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. Well, I'm going to thank both of you for giving--

REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: Thanks.

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