WTTG "Fox 5 Morning News" - Transcript

Interview

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, today appeared on WTTG Fox 5 Morning News to discuss the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations.

STEVE CHENEVEY, WTTG: Chris Van Hollen another busy day for you and your colleagues. First of all, the leadership has agreed to this do you think rank and file will support it?

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Well I think everybody is going to be taking a look at this, taking a look at the fine print in this deal. But look, I agree with that last comment which was we should never have gotten to this point. We should never have gotten to the point where one group was literally threatening to bring down the economy unless they got the budget their way in ending the Medicare guarantee, slashing education. So in many ways this is a bit about damage control. And I think people will be looking through this agreement, to see if we've met that test.

CHENEVEY: We have talked with a number of people this morning, and different lawmakers, and others, who give analysis of these things. One concern seems to be for the Democratic side whether they gave too much to Republicans here. Do you feel that way?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, the issue is whether at the end of the day we get to a balanced approach, an approach that reduces deficit through a combination of cuts, but also closing a lot of the tax loopholes and that whole question has been deferred to this committee. Here is the good news, the Republican proposal would have put the economy right back in the same position six months from now. That's not going to happen; you will have a year and a half extension of the debt ceiling. We protected Social Security, we protected Medicare beneficiaries, and we prevented these deep cuts to education, so there are some good things in here in the sense of damage control. But again I get back to the point that we should never have put the country -- some people never should have put the country in this position to begin with.

CHENEVEY: The President had been pretty adamant about not wanting to do the short term deal like you said, you don't want to have to come back six months from now and do this again. This is obviously going to have to be looked at again at some point. You said 2013, is that good enough for now?

VAN HOLLEN: Well in the meantime you're going to have this group of 12 members of Congress, 6 from the House and 6 from the Senate -- a bipartisan group - looking for ways the try and reduce the deficit by another $1.5 trillion. We are hoping that that group will take the balanced approach the President called for. Yes, you will need to make additional cuts, but you got to start ending these loopholes. I mean there is no reason that you and I, and everyone watching, should be paying tax payer subsidies to oil and gas industry. That kind of thing is unconscionable. Let's use some of that to reduce the deficit.

CHENEVEY: How do you feel how the process went -- I know there is a lot of frustration in the part of the American people and halls of Congress. How do you describe what happened over the past couple of months.

VAN HOLLEN: Well the President is absolutely right; it's been a messy process. Look, this is the first time in history really that one group -- the reality is it was a tea party group in the House, has used this debt ceiling to threaten to bring the economy down unless their demands are met. That is why people say "Ronald Regan raised the debt ceiling 18 times.' Has there been some debate about it before? Of course. But never has it been used to threaten the economy in this way in order to exact certain demands. So the whole premise of this argument is wrong, which is why I think the test of whether this is a good agreement or not is: are we getting through by limiting the damage so we can get on and start talking about jobs and the economy, and really getting people back to work. That's what we should be focusing on.

CHENEVEY: All right let's talk about talking, first of all, because it's going to be a busy day for you and colleagues in the House. You will get a chance at some point to vote on this, but discussion comes first. Nancy Pelosi has not exactly gone on to endorse this so far, what do you expect will happen when you meet in session later today?

VAN HOLLEN: The Democratic caucus will meet at 12:00 p.m. to talk about what is in this package so we will have a better sense then. Again, I think most people are measuring this by the test of: what is the alternative? And does this limit the damage? And as I said, some very important priorities from the Democrats were protected here. Again: no cuts to Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries are protected, we are not going to put the economy and the American people through this just six months from now, which is what Speaker Boehner's proposal would have done, and it leaves open the opportunity that this 12 person group can come up with a balanced approach. The bad news is Speaker Boehner and others are already saying that they would not accept any tax reform proposal out of this group that would help reduce the deficit. Meaning you can't close any of these tax loopholes for the purpose of reducing the deficit - I hope the American people will weigh in on this issue because between now and the end of November is when this group of 12 is going to be meeting and then making recommendations to the full Congress. I hope our Republican colleagues will reconsider this position, their position has been you can't close one tax loophole for the purpose of deficit reduction, I hope they will reconsider that so that we can have a balanced approach.

CHENEVEY: So far from over, it has been quite the battle so far though. I hope you get things done today I know you have a long day - you look quite refreshed for having had no sleep.

VAN HOLLEN: Once you get to this it is like adrenal kicks in.

CHENEVEY: Try to make it through one more day. Congressman, it's always good to see you.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you, it's good to see you.

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