CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: Joining us now are two leaders of the so-called Gang of Six--Senators Mark Warner and Saxby Chambliss. They started in early on trying to resolve this problem. Senator Chambliss, it looks to me like that the Speaker has decided to call the President's bluff. It looks to me like he's going out today with some sort of a plan, whether he gets any kind of an agreement with the-- with the Democrats or not. Where do you see this going?

SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS (R-Georgia): Well, I think that's probably a good move on Speaker Boehner's part because here-- here's where we are, Bob. In my opinion, the President came in late in the game, even though this scenario has been very predictable for months and months now. And it's time for the real leadership in a bipartisan way in the House and Senate to get together and come up with some proposal that can pass the House and the Senate. And they go to the President and say, Mister President, this is it.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Well, do you think Senator Warner--

SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS (overlapping): --and put the ball in his court.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): --that what Speaker Boehner is talking about here, is there a way this could pass the Senate.

SENATOR MARK WARNER (D-Virginia): Well, my feeling has been we're still the only bipartisan effort in this town. Over a third of the Senate has agreed to try to move forward with our 3.7 trillion-dollar-deficit-reduction plan.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR MARK WARNER: One way out might be if this so-called new commission come-- doesn't come up with a solution, let's have a vote on our plan. We built upon the Simpson-Bowles approach. We've got over a third of the Senate saying this is a way forward. Why should we turn away from-- again, the only effort that says let's have a comprehensive bipartisan approach which is what the Gang of Six has proposed.

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Well, would you all agree with the statements today that you need to get-- basically, get something done before dark around here--

SENATOR MARK WARNER (overlapping): You've got to get some--

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): --or the Asian markets are going to be in--

SENATOR MARK WARNER (overlapping): You've got to get something done or what we will have is indirectly a tax increase on every American family with increased interest rates.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator.

SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS: And frankly, we don't know what's going to happen for sure. But one thing will be guaranteed. That's exactly what Mark just said. We know that every household in America is be-- going to be affected in a negative way just by virtue of the fact that credit card interest, interest on commercial loans is going to increase. And this is not the time to see an increase like that, whether you consider interest increase or tax increase, which is right, indirectly it is.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Why is the President so against a two-step plan, Senator Warner?

SENATOR MARK WARNER: Well, I think we all don't want to see a repeat of this kind of political posturing and back-and-forth with this kind of deadline. I agree with the President. We ought to move this out as far as we possibly can. And it looks like the leaders have come together on some process. What we're saying is if this new commission and Lord knows we've had plenty of commissions.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Mm-Hm.

SENATOR MARK WARNER: They all end up basically within the same twenty percent of each other. If this commission can't come up with a solution, why don't we turn back to something that actually has got some bipartisan support? We've taken some arrows from both the left and the right now. My fear is any new commission will try to wall off that kind of choices we've already made. Our plan at 3.7 trillion is actually relatively meager. If this is going to come under assault, how we're going to really get to the fourteen and half trillion dollars that our-- our nation faces in debt.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator Chambliss, let me ask you this. I mean this is a question that I think a child might ask. Why has it come to this? What has happened to our Congress here? I mean it appears to be totally dysfunctional. It can't seem to address any serious issue head-on anymore. What happened?

SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS: You know the atmosphere has gotten worse and worse. It seems like, Bob, every year that I've been here. And today is just very, very difficult to get Republicans and Democrats to sit down together and have serious conversations about these complex problems. But it's absolutely necessary now, particularly. We got to divided government and-- and previous administrations like Reagan administration where Reagan and O'Neill got together, reformed Social Security, cut taxes, instantly, exactly like we're proposing to do. In the Clinton administration, we reformed welfare, we-- we balanced the budget in a bipartisan way with a divided government. And we do have an opportunity right now but there's simply in my opinion, there's a lack of leadership at the top. And a President can't come out and show anger towards the people he's negotiating with in the hope--

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): Ten seconds left.

SENATOR SAXBY CHAMBLISS (overlapping): --to get something accomplished.

SENATOR MARK WARNER: Bob, I would agree there's a lot of dysfunction. But something remarkable happened this week. Tuesday morning, we had half the Senate in, we laid out our plan, and as opposed to people saying no we want to punt some more, they said sign me up, including Republican and Democratic leaders.

BOB SCHIEFFER: All right, we'll see what happens today. I'll be back in a moment with final thoughts.

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