CNN "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" - Transcript
Interview
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SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D), WASHINGTON: I think all 12 members of this committee have really committed to doing that. We're working hard.
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CROWLEY: Still, it's hard to figure how they can in the hours left agree on a deal that has eluded them for months.
Joining me now for her first Sunday interview as the Democratic co-chair of the super committee, Senator Patty Murray of Washington.
Thanks for being here in a tough time. There are multiple stories out there that it is over.
MURRAY: Look, I took on this task of co-chair with a real sense of the urgency of this country, the challenge that was in front of us, and so many people saying to me, please, find a solution, find a way out of this. I'm worried about my country.
You know all Americans, all sides, no matter who they are, share some real common ground. They care about our country. They're worried about our future. They want us to find a shared sacrifice way of solving this. But there are some real divides, too. And I came into this really trying to find that common ground and that bridge that could bring us together. And in some ways, we found some of that ground.
You know, I have put things on the table and learned a lot about what we can and need to do in ways I never thought before.
CROWLEY: And are you going to come up with a deal?
MURRAY: I'm sure my Republican counterparts did the same, but there is one sticking divide, and that is the issue of what I call shared sacrifice, where everybody contributes in a very challenging time for our country.
CROWLEY: Tax increases.
MURRAY: And that's the Bush tax cuts and making sure that any kind of package includes everybody coming to the table. And the wealthiest of Americans, those who earn over $1 million every year, have to share, too. And that line in the sand, we haven't seen any Republicans willing to cross yet.
CROWLEY: And so that says to me that, yes, the debt committee is not going to be able to come to an agreement to put to an up or down vote.
MURRAY: Well, look. I'm going to be waiting all day. I'll be at the table, as I've been, willing to talk to any Republican who says, look, my country is more important, this pile of bills is not going to go away, the challenges that we have is not going to disappear, we need to cross that divide. I'm ready. I'm waiting.
Today I'll be at the table, all night long. We have a few hours left.
CROWLEY: Is any talking going on?
MURRAY: And if anybody's willing to be there--
CROWLEY: Doesn't sound like anything is scheduled? Just kind of a "call me if you have got an idea"?
MURRAY: Well, I know people talk about whether we're all in a room. Well, look, a lot of discussions go on. We've had many, many discussions. A few people, the whole group, all of us, all trying to find that common ground. I mean, that's how I approach a problem. What is the best way to bring different kinds of people together to find that.
But the truth is at this point today, Democrats have made some really tough decisions and come to some pretty tough choices that we're willing to put on the line on entitlements, on spending cuts, but only if the Republicans are willing to cross the line on the Bush tax cuts and be willing to say revenues have to be a part of this solution. CROWLEY: So how does this end? Does it end at midnight? Do you put out a press release? Do you vote on the separate plans? Do you have a final meeting and go, we can't do it? How are you going to end this?
MURRAY: If there is a Republican who gets up today and says I can't let the country see a failure out of this committee and comes to us and says, I'm willing to say that there is revenue on the table, I will work all night long to get that put together and we can have a committee vote on it.
CROWLEY: Now they will tell you that they have put revenue on the table. So I don't want -- and I know--
MURRAY: Well, let's talk about that. I think that's important to talk about.
CROWLEY: Well let me -- I want to play -- we had your fellow co- chair Jeb Hensarling, a Republican, on last week. And I want to play you a little bit of what he said and ask you about it.
MURRAY: Sure.
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HENSARLING: We will fail unless we fundamentally do structural reform to what President Obama himself has called the main drivers of our debt -- Medicare, Medicaid, and health care.
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CROWLEY: So the Republicans say, as you know, for the problem here isn't about making people pay more, it's about tax reform, Medicare reform, Social Security reform, that you all are totally unwilling to do that.
MURRAY: Well that, everybody knows -- everybody in the country knows there's three main things we need to put on the table -- revenue, entitlements and spending cuts. Part of this deal that everybody's forgotten about is we enacted a little over $1 trillion in spending cuts already as part of this deal. The committee has to look at spending cuts, if we do more, entitlements, and revenue. Democrats have come to the table to meet dollar for dollar what the Republicans are asking for in terms of spending cuts and entitlements. Not policy for policy but dollar for dollar.
CROWLEY: So not the structural reform they are talking about.
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CROWLEY: Change the way these--
MURRAY: We have said we are willing to put on the table changes to the entitlement programs that reduce the deficit in the long run. But what we will not put on the table is the end to the guarantee to those entitlements.
I don't want to say to my granddaughter, you're not going to be able to have health care when you retire. I want that guarantee there. And you can do that, but it is long term, and we've been willing to do that. And it is a big sacrifice to put that on the table.
But we can't do it alone. We can't say this whole problem is going to be solved by taking something away from people in terms of Social Security and entitlements. We have to have on the table the revenue, and again, that is the sticking point today as we sit here.
CROWLEY: You don't think you're going to get that call from a Republican, do you?
MURRAY: Well, you know--
CROWLEY: I know hope springs eternal. And you don't want to drive a stake into this, but--
MURRAY: Well, let's be clear. This is a challenge that is still going to be on the table at the end of the day, and the question will be not if we are going to solve this, but how we are going to solve it. Is it going to be fair? Is it going to be shared sacrifice or just working men and women going to carry the ball on this? I just can't support that.
CROWLEY: Let me -- I want to play you -- for you something that you said on the 1st of November about these triggers. In other words, if you all don't come to a deal -- looks very much like you're not going to -- $1.2 trillion in cuts in discretionary spending and at the Pentagon will take place in 2013.
I want to play something you said.
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MURRAY: The consequences of failure are unacceptable. The triggers that have been put in place would be devastating for our national defense and for middle-class families and the most vulnerable Americans that depend on this country for things like education and housing and even nutrition assistance for women and infants. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: And among other things, Leon Panetta, the Defense secretary, said you do these cuts in the Pentagon, it will cripple the military. So it is impossible for me to believe that 12 people looking at what you just said will happen are going to allow this -- allow the debt committee to fail.
MURRAY: And I have told you, I'm at the table. I am ready to work with anybody who can say that last divide is that they're willing to cross that. Democrats have said shared sacrifice. The country understands shared sacrifice. The people I talk to say, you know, I know I'm going to have to bear some of this burden. I know that this is -- that our country's in trouble.
But look, any family understands this. If a family's in trouble and somebody is seriously injured or sick and the family has to come around the table and say how are we going to deal with this? Everybody says what can I do. They don't say, well, we're going to let our older brother off who's done really well. He's not going to contribute. The rest of us who are working really hard and have had a tougher time, we're going to contribute?
Our country gets that philosophy. That big brother has to be at the table, too. That's what's missing today. That's what America wants.
CROWLEY: But we are still at the place where all of these cuts may happen if the committee fails, where people are talking about shaking the world markets if you fail, they're talking about perhaps again undercutting U.S. creditworthiness because people have no faith in Congress.
Why not take what the Republicans have offered and said, look, there's some spending cuts we can agree to, $640 billion -- I think $640 billion or something that was put on the table by Republicans recently.
MURRAY: You are talking about a couple days ago.
CROWLEY: Right.
MURRAY: That was cuts that fell right on the working class families.
CROWLEY: But the cuts themselves were not mutually agreed to?
MURRAY: No, they were not mutually agreed to. No.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: So where does the country go from here? Because what you're going to see at the end of the year -- extension of unemployment benefits may expire, so people who are -- have been unemployed for 99 weeks or more will lose their benefits That payroll tax cut that people are getting out of paying about 2 percent of their Social Security taxes, some relief they got, that's going to go off the table. What happens now?
MURRAY: Well, look, I believe strongly that we still have the capability to come together to solve this problem. If the supercommittee can't do it, then I hope that Congress will. In fact, I'm committed to solving this. You can't just ignore this crisis. It's been building for years. And Congress hasn't stepped up to the plate and faced it, and the country's demanding that, and we have to keep working on it, and I'm going to keep working on it.
But I'll tell you one of the problems has been a pledge that too many Republicans took to a Republican wealthy lobbyist by the name of Grover Norquist, whose name has come up in meetings time and time again, and as long as we have some Republican lawmakers who feel more enthralled with a pledge they took to a Republican lobbyist than they do to a pledge to the country to solve the problems, this is going to be hard to do.
CROWLEY: I need kind of a one-word answer because I'm told I'm running over here. And that is, when do you decide we're done? At midnight?
MURRAY: Well, we have until the day before Thanksgiving. We have to file a bill by tomorrow. And so again, I'm at the table. I want to solve this. I care about my country. I know Americans want us to solve this. We have an opportunity. I remain hopeful that someone on the other side will say, this is too important to fail.
CROWLEY: Pretty optimistic, Senator Patty Murray, thanks for joining us today.
MURRAY: You bet.
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