Bloomberg "In The Loop" - Transcript

Interview

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, today appeared on Bloomberg's "In The Loop" to discuss the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations. Video of the interview is available here and the transcript is below.

PETER COOK, BLOOMBERG: I'm with the House Budget Committee Ranking Member for the Democrats, Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, thanks for the time, it's always appreciated. What's the status of the negotiations? You've had top Congressional Democrats meeting with the President, House GOP leaders meeting with the President as well, where are we?

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well Peter, I think there is still an effort to try and get the grand bargain, to get a significant piece of deficit reduction legislation through the House sometime between now and August 2nd, maybe a little wiggle room on that date. At the same time, people recognize that if that if that doesn't gel, if that doesn't come together, there needs to be a Plan B. Even if we don't like some of the ideas in the Plan B, at the end of the day we cannot allow the United States to default. We have to pay our nation's bills.

COOK: What's your own assessment of this wiggle room the White House is talking about in the short term debt ceiling extension to give lawmakers the chance to perhaps draft a Gang of Six compromise? Your own assessment of that and your own level of support for something like the Gang of Six.

VAN HOLLEN: Well my assessment of the wiggle room is that the White House was very nervous that that might be interpreted as saying, "OK, let's just be leisurely about this." So they very quickly said they meant a very short term thing. You've got to keep the pressure on to try and get the larger deal. With respect to the Gang of Six proposal, I support the overall concept. It's a balanced approach just like the plan the President put on the table and was trying to reach with Speaker Boehner. That does not mean I endorse every detail. In fact, there is a lot of detail that is yet unknown. We have not seen a legislative version of it. CBO hasn't scored it. So that information has got to get out really quickly because you can't go to a Caucus -- whether it's a Republican caucus or Democratic caucus -- and say, "Are you going to support this?" if you haven't seen all the details.

COOK: You've got some Democratic constituents not too happy about it, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, basically slamming the Gang of Six plan so far.

VAN HOLLEN: Well again, there are the details and then there's the overall architecture. And what we need to do as a Caucus is to look at all of the provisions. Again, some elements of it may be very, very difficult and then the question is whether there's going to be any give and take. It is hard to present people with something and just say you've got to take it exactly as it is. But we are not even at that point. We haven't seen exactly what it is.

COOK: What about this Plan B? The McConnell-Reid plan taking shape. I know you don't represent the House Republicans, but you count heads here, you know where the battle lines lie here. What's the assessment from the Democrats standpoint about whether or not House Republicans are willing to support something like McConnell-Reid as a stopgap?

VAN HOLLEN: Well the McConnell plan is of course -- it's a political solution to the problem, not a real solution to the deficit problem. It does have one virtue, and it's an important virtue, which is that it recognizes that the United States cannot default on its debt. It allows us to extend the debt ceiling to January 2013. But we've got to have something coupled with that that creates a mechanism at the very least that will drive greater deficit reduction, which will put in place a process for putting that plan together. And that is why we are still trying to get a larger grand bargain now. This is a moment that we do not want to lose. Unfortunately, the clock is ticking. That makes it hard.

COOK: We get to August 2nd, no deal?

VAN HOLLEN: We are going to get a deal. We are going to get a deal, even if it was something temporary. But let's not let the pressure off. We have got to try and address both these issues.

COOK: Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland offering some perspective on where we stand, Carol, on this debt ceiling impasse. No deal yet. The talks continue.

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