FOX News "Your World with Cavuto" - Transcript

Interview

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "YOUR WORLD": Now, investors may be reading the prospect of a government shutting down and saying no big deal if you do, because you can't spend any more money if you are closed.

To Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso.

Senator, I guess they have a point in that regard, but where does this thing stand?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO-WYO.: Well, Neil, at this point, the government is going to stay open. We have a two-year -- a two-week extension.

The vice president's coming to Capitol Hill to talk about the ways to continue to reduce the spending. That's the message that we heard from the American people on Election Day. The $4 billion that was cut by the vote yesterday in the Senate is just a start.

If we can't eat the whole loaf at once, we have to go a slice at a time. And that's what we're prepared to do.

CAVUTO: All right, you're looking next to the senator in the shot there, I know you can't see it, Senator, but where the vice president might be arriving, remember, in his capacity as president of the Senate.

He has an instrumental role here. And he is of course the administration's liaison in trying to get this thing settled. The White House, senator, was indicating that it would meet you Republicans halfway on these spending cuts, not with exact numbers, but with something like $6 billion worth of additional cuts that would total $44.8 billion of total cuts.

I don't how they arrived at that math, sir, but is that a step in the right direction and a way to avoid a shutdown period?

BARRASSO: A very baby step in the right direction, Neil. We're at a point in this country...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: By the way, the vice president is -- the vice president is there meeting with some of the leadership. And I see the chief of staff, Daley, is there as well.

But go ahead, sir.

BARRASSO: Well, this country's going to spend $3.7 trillion this year, only take in $2.2 trillion. Neil, the interest alone, the interest alone on the so-called stimulus package is $100 million a day.

So these amounts that the White House is talking about are so insignificant in terms of the bigger problem. And as Warren Buffett talked about just this past weekend, we're going to be looking at inflation. That's going to increase the cost of the interest on the debt, and it's going to make it that much harder for us to create jobs in this country.

And that's what the focus ought to be, jobs and the economy. And by the president offering so little, so late, that's going to make it harder and more expensive to create private sector jobs in the country. I want to find ways to make it easier and cheaper for the private sector to create jobs.

CAVUTO: Nevertheless, if he's making those kind of overtures now, and you still have two weeks to go, not that that's a lot of time, as you said, and you are making progress on moving those numbers, would you be open to I guess this idea of another two-week extension to keep the government limping along a little longer to dot the I's and cross the T's?

BARRASSO: I would be willing to do that as long as it's the similar number that is about $2 billion every week. These discussions should have happened two years ago, Neil.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: I'm sorry, Senator. What does the $2 billion every week mean? Explain.

BARRASSO: Well, we just did a two-week extension to keep the government open by cutting $4 billion.

CAVUTO: Right, $4 billion. OK, OK.

BARRASSO: So, if they go another two weeks by cutting another $4 billion, if I am finding $2 billion in cuts each and every week, then that gets to the $61 billion that the House has come up with. But I think we need to get to that number.

CAVUTO: OK. But you'd be open to that two weeks from now, if that is the kind of direction you're going in, because some of your more conservative members -- I was talking to your colleague Rand Paul of Kentucky yesterday, who voted against this two-week extension, he would be not at all predisposed to voting for anything like this until the numbers were starkly bigger.

BARRASSO: Well, I want to get to those bigger numbers because our problem in this country is we spend too much. We've continued to spend too much. And 41 cents of every dollar we're spending, Neil, is now borrowed from other folks, much of it from overseas.

That is a real concern for our future security. And whether we eat this one loaf slice at a time or the whole loaf at once, we need to consume the entire loaf.

CAVUTO: All right. I do appreciate the food analogy, Senator. Thank you very much, John Barrasso. Good seeing you again.

BARRASSO: Good to see you. Thanks, Neil.

CAVUTO: All right.

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