CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript

Interview

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REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Martin, good to be with you.

SAVIDGE: You know, you voted yes for the bill, but this is hardly a deal that you wanted. So tell us specifically what the negative consequences are your vote will have by going for this bill on your constituents. And what did you have to sacrifice?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Martin, this was an exercise in damage control. We had a situation where the first time in history, the history of the republic, you had a group within the House of Representatives, some of the Tea Party Republicans, who were manufacturing a crisis over the debt ceiling to try and get 100 percent of what they wanted on the budget. They wanted to end the Medicare guarantee, they wanted to slash Medicaid and the social safety net, they wanted to cut education.

SAVIDGE: You know what? I got this. We've been over this part. But let's go to why you went for it and how you feel your constituents are going to suffer as a result.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I was in fact telling you that, because they were not successful at the end of the day in doing that. They were not successful in trying to do that again in six months.

I thought it was important to put this behind us so that we could get on with talking about jobs and the economy, and have a conversation about how you have a balanced approach to reducing the deficit, which will be what this super committee is charged to look at. And if they don't succeed, that will be the debate going into the next election.

SAVIDGE: So we get the bill passed -- we presume it's going to get by the Senate -- but only in the nick of time. And did it have to it take this long? What do you say to the majority of Americans who are ticked off, as we've seen in the polls, they are very unhappy with the way the House does business these days?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, they should be ticked off, because we've never had to go through this before. Again, this is the first time in history that somebody has sort of taken this whole issue hostage, taken the creditworthiness of the United States hostage.

I know we've heard it before, but that's the reality. That's why we pointed out that when Ronald Reagan was president, he lifted the debt ceiling 18 times.

Look, there's always been some debate, a little controversy about this, but nobody has ever tried to use it to threaten the creditworthiness of the United States in order to get a particular budget agenda through. And the sad thing about this is, I think they have done lasting damage to the creditworthiness of the United States, and they didn't get what they want in the end because we know that the American people do not want to end the Medicare guarantee and all those things.

So it is an unfortunate episode. I think that the president and everyone was successful at containing the damage here.

SAVIDGE: Do you think that the anger is really going to be focused on Tea Party members, as you would like to see it, or do you think that the American public is just angry at all members of Congress?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, they may well be angry at all members of Congress. I would just encourage the American people to really follow closely the debate. Look at this in the historical perspective, recognize that never before in American history has anybody sort of taken the entire economy, threatened the entire economy and the creditworthiness of the United States, in order to get what I think most Americans view as a fairly extreme agenda. And at the end of the day, they did not get the agenda through. There were some things that they got through, but for the most part, they didn't.

Unfortunately, we do not have in the budget portion of this an elimination of a lot of the special interest tax breaks that are adding to our deficit. But that will have to be a part of the conversation going forward.

As I said, first, that will be part of the discussion in the so- called super committee. And if it doesn't resolved there, I'm sure President Obama will make that a discussion about our values and priorities going forward into the next election.

SAVIDGE: All right. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Thanks very much for joining us today.

VAN HOLLEN: Thanks.

SAVIDGE: We'll see how the Senate votes.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

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