CNN "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" - Transcript

Interview

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Joining me now from Chicago, Senate majority whip Dick Durbin. Thank you so much senator for joining us this morning.

I want to put some GDP figures, that the gross domestic product over the last couple of years for our audience just so they can see that it has been -- it has been up, but it has not been to the point where it can bring down unemployment. That's a 3 percent growth rate. We've got about a 1.5 in the last quarter.

No president in modern history has been re-elected with these kind of numbers. What is your level of concern?

DURBIN: Well, I say this, we've had more than 26 straight months of private sector job creation. And the jobs -- many that we've lost in the public sector the president has appealed to congress to help him to make sure that there are firefighters and policeman and teachers and we have no cooperation from the Republicans. They are determined.

CROWLEY: But doesn't the buck stop with the president?

DURBIN: To keep the employment numbers low.

CROWLEY: I understand, but you know how this works...

DURBIN: Well, of course it does. He's the president.

The president accepts responsibility, but he also believes that we are on the right track. returning to the economic policies of the bush administration, which Mitt Romney endorses, would just plunge us back again into a recession situation where we are giving tax breaks to the wealthiest in America, seeing a deficit out of control and not creating strength in the middle-class, the working families of America, that is really our future and that's where we ought to pin our economic policies.

CROWLEY: So you are not concerned about the president's re- election prospects?

DURBIN: Oh, no. Let me tell you, this is going to be a very close election. We take it very seriously. And it's going to have its ups and downs in the next 100 days that are left.

But the bottom line is the American people know we are moving in the right direction. They want to keep us moving forward. And that, I think, is the key to it.

Look at just what happened this week, the president's tax cuts in the United States Senate passed with a 51/48 vote to make sure that families making less than $250,000 a year have no increase in taxes at the end of the year and every single Republican senator voted against it. They said if you won't give tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent in America, then the middle income families won't receive any tax cuts at all.

That is a policy which Mitt Romney may think is wise, but from our point of view is not sensible when we know so many working families are struggling paycheck to paycheck.

CROWLEY: Let me ask you about this fiscal cliff of which part of it is what to do about these Bush era tax cuts. Everyone in Washington right now is talking as though they had nothing to do with the deal the so-called sequestration by which there is across the boards huge cuts in the defense -- $500 billion in defense, a $500 billion in non-discretionary domestic budget. Everybody acts as though this was not their doing, and yet the fact of the matter is that this deal passed 74-26 to put the sequestration in place, 46 of those were Democrats, including yourself. So there is responsibility here, is there not, to fix this since you all voted for it?

DURBIN: Absolutely. And let me tell you, there is a case of Republican amnesia on the floor of the senate. We have the Republican senate leaders coming to the floor blasting sequestration that they voted for. They said that the super committee failed...

CROWLEY: But you did as well, right?

DURBIN: Of course I did, because here was the alternative, the Tea Party of the House of Representatives and their followers in the senate said we're prepared to shutdown the economy of America, default on our debt for the first time. Instead we came up with a bipartisan approach that was brokered with Republican leaders and the president that said we will put together a super committee, give them the responsibility to cut the deficit by over $10 trillion in ten years. And if they fail, then automatic spending cuts.

We voted for it to avoid an economic shutdown. Now we face it.

But here is the good news. With the president's leadership, we can come together. There is a bipartisan answer here that will reduce the deficit and still create an environment for economic growth.

CROWLEY: Well -- there hasn't been much public indication of that, but let me ask you, given that, 74 Republicans and Democrats voted for this bill which now puts the country at this fiscal cliff that Republicans and Democrats for different reasons say will be disastrous, isn't that incumbent on those who voted for this to stay in town and to fix it? You know what the schedule, senator, you guys are gone all of August, barely working. You are out campaigning in September and October. Don't you guys have a responsibility to stay here in town and fix it?

DURBIN: I can tell you Candy, meetings are taking place this last week and before. Our gang of eight equally divided Democrats and Republicans sitting around a table working on that solution. We are going to continue to. We believe there is a responsible, reasonable way to move forward. And we are going to try to put something on the table to be considered.

Now let me be honest with you as well, in the next 100 days before the election, the political environment is not one for compromise and negotiation, but if we are prepared the day after the election to move forward with a plan that restores confidence in the economy and the able of congress to react to it, it is going to be a positive thing for us. I think that we can do it.

CROWLEY: And the truth is both sides see this as a pretty good campaign issue, correct? DURBIN: Well, maybe. I'm not sure I view it as a campaign issue so much as a desperation that we have not successfully addressed the deficit and economic growth. And many of of us, Democrats and Republicans, about 46 of us as a matter of fact in the senate have come together and said there has got to be a way out of it.

I voted for the Bowles-Simpson approach, puts everything on the table, balanced approach which includes revenue which is an important part, which keeps programs like Medicare strong, but takes an honest look at how to make them stronger. These are the things that we need to do and I think we can do.

CROWLEY: Let me turn you to foreign policy and the role of commander-in-chief. As you know Mitt Romney is overseas today in Israel. And in advance of that trip, one of his advisers, Dan Senor, had this to say about -- the subject was Iran and the development of nuclear weapons. And Dan said this, "if Israel has to take action on its own in order to stop Iran from developing that capability," meaning nuclear weapons capability, "the governor would respect that decision."

Do you have it now -- now they emphasized diplomacy, that this is a last resort, but do you have any problem with that statement?

DURBIN: Well of course, the object of the Romney trip was to show how sure-footed he was when it came to foreign policy. He came stumbling out of London after the statements on the Olympics, now he is headed to Israel for a political fund-raising event which he has closed to the public.

In the meantime, the statement that was made that you just quoted really I think puts in perspective what President Obama has achieved. He has put together the strongest coalition of countries around the world to put pressure on Iran not to develop a nuclear weapon, it includes China and Russia. He has invested American resources in the iron dome to protect the Israeli people. And he has worked closely with them to make sure our unshakeable alliance is going to be there for Israel for years to come.

So I think that our position from the president's point of view has been a solid one.

CROWLEY: But do you think in the end that if diplomacy is, as Iran moves closer and closer and there is a window after which Israel can't do anything about it, should the U.S. stand with Israel if Israel makes that decision that they can no longer wait? DURBIN: The United States will stand with Israel. But this president has understood that the two choices between all-out war and Iran having a nuclear weapon are choices we don't want to face. And that is why he has put the strongest economic sanctions in the history on Iran. And they are working. We believe they are putting pressure on them to move toward eliminating this threat in the Middle East and working toward peace this that region. And it is the president's leadership in this that has really made the difference. I understand Mitt Romney is on this political tour doing this fund-raiser in Israel, but the point is the president has had to sit down as he has over and over again with Prime Minister Netanyahu and work out a sound policy to avoid the prospect of war.

CROWLEY: Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

DURBIN: Thank you.

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