Fox on the Record with Greta Van Susteren - Transcript

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SHOW: FOX ON THE RECORD WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN

HEADLINE: Day Three of the RNC

GUESTS: Sen. Olympia Snowe, Sen. Susan Collins

BYLINE: Greta Van Susteren, Jim Angle, Martha MacCallum, Major Garrett, David Lee Miller,

BODY:
VAN SUSTEREN: David, thank you.

Joining us here at Madison Square Garden are the Republican senators from the great state of Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Nice to see both of you.

SEN. OLYMPIA SNOWE ®, MAINE: Nice to see you, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Senator Snowe, what's the biggest difference between these two tickets in a domestic policy area?

SNOWE: I think it is the question of the role of government and how we're going to approach the problems facing this country, whether it's on jobs or in healthcare. And you know, I think the question is, as President Bush has put it, is whether or not government's going to dictate the choices or going to empower individuals to be able to make those choices and to create the opportunities and the conditions for people to have choices in our economy or in their healthcare. And so, I think that's the real question.

VAN SUSTEREN: Senator Collins, why, though, hasn't that been done in the last four years? These are very important things to Americans. We've had a Republican Senate, sort of, off and on, at least, in the last four years, a Republican Congress and a Republican president.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS ®, MAINE: Well, I think we have done that on a lot of issues. Education's a perfect example where we passed an empowering education bill that encourages standards and accountability. I think that the Republican record has been one, with a couple notable exceptions, of trusting people to make their own decisions rather than government imposing decisions.

VAN SUSTEREN: In terms of the education, the no children left behind, has that been adequately and completely funded? Because I know that some people-I've heard that some have said it hasn't been funded. Has that been adequately funded?

COLLINS: You know, President Bush has increased education funding faster than any other president.

VAN SUSTEREN: But has that program been funded?

COLLINS: Title I, which is part of that program, has been funded by billions of dollars more than was the case in the Clinton administration. We're not up to the authorization level that was included in the bill, but rarely does Congress get to the highest level that is authorized in a five- year bill right in the first year.

We could do better, and, indeed, I support additional funding for education. But if you compared the federal investment in education under President Bush compared to President Clinton, it is an enormous increase.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, Senator Snowe, let's talk about money, finances, deficit, jobs. Where are we going to go with those issues?

SNOWE: Well, again, I think it's creating the circumstances under which we can, you know, create jobs, and I think the president has taken that approach consistently, beginning in 2001, obviously, with the major tax cut with Americans facing the highest tax burden since World War II.

And he promised to lower taxes, in fact, did that in the first six months, you know, after he took office. And you know, incredibly, not only, as Susan said, addressed education but he addressed also the issue of tax cuts, you know, prior to 9/11, as it turned out, which obviously he couldn't predict.

And he also created the stimulus package. And you know, that ultimately will bring to bear, I think, in the job market. That's going to be critical for the future, and the question is whether or not you're going to have the Democratic approach that ultimately is going to create a government approach that's going to hinder our ability to have lower interest rates and lower inflation.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. How many women senators do we have? Is it 13 right now? Thirteen. After November, how many will we have? What's the estimate? Any idea? What's your guess?

SNOWE: Well, I can't say. Well, we hope at least the same.

(LAUGHTER)

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Thank you both very much. Up next, live from the Republican National Convention, our panel is standing by with their scorecards to rate Vice President Dick Cheney's speech tonight. And later, a major shake-up within the Kerry campaign. We're going to find out what that's all about. We're live from Madison Square Garden.