CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

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I'll tell you something, these aren't exactly groundbreaking. Some would call them the low-hanging fruit. Is this what it takes? We've got take it piece by piece and find the things you can agree on first? Senator Rubio, I'll let you start.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: That's exactly right. I mean, the point is, there are things we disagree on, you know, tax policy, spending policies. These are big issues and those are decided in elections. We're going to have one next year.

But we can't just sit around here for 12 months and do nothing while people are out of work. And there are things we do agree on and so our point is let's pass the things we agree on.

And then let's have an election about the things we don't agree and so what this bill tried to is identify things that were in the president's jobs plan, the Republican jobs plan that we had in common and let's get those done.

ROMANS: And Senator Coons, that's the point here. This is the common denominator between the two. The president had been pushing for these things as well.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE), MEMBER, BUDGET COMMITTEE: That's right. Some of these ideas were borrowed from the president's jobs plan, some from Republicans in the House, some from Democrats in the Senate.

Senator Casey, for example, of Pennsylvania was the origin of the idea to encourage veterans through a tax break to become franchise owners and entrepreneurs.

He recognize along with several others that the skills it takes to be a platoon leader overseas to get a group of 18 and 19-year-olds to do difficult and unpleasant things over and over may be the same skills that takes to be a successful franchise operator.

These are common sense ideas from a broad range of backgrounds, but we're putting them out as a billing to because the American people want to see us work together to make progress in growing our economy.

ROMANS: And growing the economy is the key here, Senator Rubio. I mean, some would say this is tinkering around the edges. I mean, you've got a real problem in the job market that needs addressed and you've got sort of inaction in Washington.

People frustrated with Congress, 69 percent say you guys have done nothing to address the Congress' problems and when you break it down by party, 28 percent are blaming Republicans, 18 percent are blaming Democrats.

Unemployment is 10.6 percent in Florida. You've got nearly a million people out of work there, obviously a swing state. Are you worried as we close in on these elections that more Americans are going to blame Republicans here, Senator Rubio?

RUBIO: Well, it's not really a political calculation for me. I mean, I go back home and I know people that have been out of work a year, and they're hurting.

And they're looking at us and saying, can you guys do anything? They pay us every two weeks up here to do this job. We're not volunteers. I mean, this is our job. We need to deliver.

Now these are the things we can get done and I think three things will happen. Number one, these are meaningful policies especially for the small businesses that will be helped by some of these measures that we're talking about.

Number two is that it will actually, hopefully people will look around and say that didn't hurt too much. What else can we work on together?

And number three, as we hope it will send a message back home that finally some good news is coming out of Washington. Because I think this gridlock and this bickering as much as anything else is having a deep psychological impact on our economy and on people's willingness to invest in our economy.

ROMANS: Senator Coons, you just have the payroll tax holiday in there still because there are some economists, Diane Swonk is one of them from Mesereau Financial, who told me many times she's very concerned that there could be an effective tax increase coming to a lot of people's paychecks that could really be a jolt in the wrong direction?

COONS: The payroll tax holiday is not one of the proposals in this bill. It does have a couple proposals like modifying the RND tax credit to make it permanent and to encourage companies that invent things here to make things here.

That by some estimates could create hundreds of thousands of jobs. There are also three tax proposals targeted at small business. Things that will help them with expensing capital investments with accelerated depreciation and with attracting capital through a capital gains tax relief for five-year holding of small stocks.

The point here is that access to capital, access to qualified employee, access to innovation and invention are several of the elements that are holding back small businesses that have high growth potential.

We pull together a combination ever proposals from lots of different sources that we think could really make a difference.

ROMANS: Yes. COONS: And frankly, I also think a lack of confidence that Congress is able and willing to tackle the real challenges facing our country is one of the big drags on our country. We've lost our confidence. In this bill, we're showing confidence in small business owners, in veterans, in inventors and in entrepreneurs and I think that's important for all of our country.

ROMANS: I'll give you another thing that were lacking -- there's a lack of demand. You know, the overall company just isn't growing well enough and that allows sort of these riffs between Democrats and Republicans with different views on how to get it jump it started.

That allows those riffs to really grow and become quite troublesome. I want to ask you about the "Super Committee," guys, they have a week to cut a deal, seven days. Talk about bipartisanship. That's going to be the real show of whether we can get some bipartisanship.

I want to -- draw a set of numbers for you. 78 percent of people don't think the committee will have a deal done by Wednesday.

Senator Rubio, do you think they'll get it done?

RUBIO: How do we know?

(LAUGHTER)

RUBIO: I mean, that's why I voted against it. I'm not apart of it. Neither are you, neither is Senator Coons. We don't -- there's no public forum going on. We don't have public information. The public's not engaged. We, as members of Congress, have no role to play in it. We're going to get an up-and-down vote. We can vote yes or no but we can't amend whatever they come up with.

I wish them the best. I know they're working hard. I want them to succeed because it's good for our country. And let's just be hopeful that they can.

ROMANS: Senator Coons --

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COONS: Dealing with our deficit and debt is one of the biggest problems facing our country. The super committee has an expedited process. That means they're able to get anything that they come up with by a majority that meets this goal, they can get to the floor for a vote, past what has frankly been a very dysfunctional Senate this year. We've had way too many filibusters and fights over amendments. We aren't able to move forward common sense proposals.

I do think the super committee will, in the end, come up with a deal. I've noticed, in my one year here, that we always seem to pull together a deal in the very last hours. I frankly think the American people can't afford for us to fail to come together with a big, bold and bipartisan deal. So I'm optimistic that the super committee will ultimately deliver on their mandate. ROMANS: I'll tell you, the rest of the world is starting to get a little nervous. So are America's investment bankers quite frankly. And by bankers, I mean the people who lend us money when we come up at the last second all the time to solving our near-term problems. But we'll see how they do on this one.

Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much, a Democrat from Delaware.

Also, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator from Florida.

Nice to see you today. Thanks.

RUBIO: Thank you.

COONS: Thank you.

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