MSNBC "NewsNation" - Transcript

Interview

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, today appeared on MSNBC's "NewsNation" to discuss the work of Vice President Biden's deficit reduction group.

TAMRON HALL: New developments right now regarding the debt ceiling debate in this country, just two weeks until the unofficial goal if you will, for an agreement. White House spokesman Jay Carney announced moments ago, just moments ago we got this in, that Vice President Joe Biden will now hold meetings with lawmakers tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday. And with me now to discuss where things stand, Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen, who is part of this bipartisan group. Looks like you're going to be in a lot of meetings again, sir. What do you make of this decision to hold a series of meetings tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Yes, Tamron. It's going to be a very busy week, we've also held open Friday for a number of hours of meetings if we're not able to get some kind of agreement in principle by the end of the week, certainly by the end of this month. This requires going back-and-forth among the principals and then getting some of the committee staff to try to take the concepts and principles that have been agreed to and translate them into the fine print. But we're working hard and we made progress in finding common ground, but we are now trying to tackle some very difficult issues. The good news is that we are still around the table talking.

HALL: But, I don't want to be negative here, but we've been hearing that for weeks, that there might be a glimmer of hope, that there might be some progress made and now you've got Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell saying that there's a possibility that he would be willing to agree to some kind of short term increase in the nation's borrowing limit, a deal that would include changes to big entitlement programs. But again, this is a short term increase in the borrowing limit there. Is that a part of the positive outlook that you're looking at?

VAN HOLLEN: That has not been part of our conversation. I mean we have been focused on trying to get a deal that would allow us to extend the debt limit to prevent us from defaulting, through the end of next year. That's been the goal, that's plan A. Obviously if we're not able to reach agreement in time for the debt ceiling August 2nd, then you have to look for plan B, but we're focused on plan A right now.

HALL: And you know, it's interesting timing and as you well know many people looking at what is happening in Greece and their crisis, certainly, and wondering why is it that perhaps this conversation on the debt ceiling and where we stand with our debt is not resonating more, quite honestly, with the American people. I know you've heard the criticism that we all talked more about Congressman Anthony Weiner and we're able to wrap our minds around his scandal than the debt crisis and the long-term implications it could have, certainly not perhaps to the degree of Greece hopefully, and thankfully, we're not in that situation, but we see what this can turn into for at least that country.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Tamron, you're absolutely right. And this is something that would affect everybody in this country. Three are two things here. Number one, we cannot allow the United States to default on its debts. We have never done that in our history, it would be economically catastrophic. That's not me saying it, that's the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke. So, nobody should be playing this game of chicken with default. We also need to get together, and this is what we are trying to do as part of the Biden group, to come up with a plan to reduce our deficit in a steady, predictable way, to send a signal of confidence to the markets that the United States recognizes it's got to get its deficit under control. How we do that is very important. You don't want to do that in a way that shocks the very fragile economy and you want to do it in a way that's fair and balanced.

HALL: Alright, well you're going to be a very busy man. We hope to talk with you after this latest series of meetings just announced by the White House that will be held by the Vice President. Thank you very much Congressman Van Hollen, it's always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you.

VAN HOLLEN: Good to be with you.

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