CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Paul Ryan

Interview

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Joining me now from Tampa is Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.

Welcome, Congressman.

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Carol, great to be with you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being with us. If you talk to Republicans, Paul Ryan was a hit. One of our analysts, David Gergen, called Ryan the new Reagan. Are Democrats worried?

VAN HOLLEN: No, we're not worried. This was a very disappointing speech, because Republicans have claimed that they want to have a serious conversation about the issues. And last night proved that they're not serious at all.

That speech that Paul Ryan delivered contained so much misinformation in distortion that it's kept the fact checkers up all night. And I'd be happy to go through some of them, because they go to the core of these issues.

COSTELLO: I know the most glaring one was probably the General Motors plant in Wisconsin closing. It actually closed under the bush administration, not the Obama administration. But still, Paul Ryan's theme of people wanting a change in the White House, and Mr. Obama's policies not working, and the economy still moving at a sluggish pace. That resonated with the audience.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, the reality is that Paul Ryan and these Republicans voted for all of the policies that got us into the mess to begin with, and that when the president took office, he immediately took action. He took an economy that was in freefall. We are now in 29 months of positive private sector job growth. We need to do more.

And the Republicans in the House of Representatives are sitting on the president's jobs bill. They haven't voted on it since last September.

Then they say they want to talk seriously about budget issues. Paul Ryan last night criticized the president for not adopting the recommendations of the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission. Problem is, Paul Ryan was on the commission. He voted no. He didn't like their recommendations.

But then it gets worse, Carol. Because the president then submitted a budget that does adopt the framework of Simpson-Bowles. You don't have to take my word for it. One of the co-chairmen, Erskine Bowles, said that three weeks ago. He said that the president's budget plan is much closer to the bipartisan principles of Simpson-Bowles than the Romney-Ryan plan.

And the whole reason that Romney and Ryan oppose the president's plan is because it contains this balanced approach, rather than their approach, which provides another round of big tax cuts for people like Mitt Romney.

COSTELLO: Republicans say that Paul Ryan is actually pushing Romney's policies, not his own. So that really doesn't matter.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, both of them are opposed to the Simpson-Bowles approach, which is a balanced approach, that says we need to tackle our long-term deficit through a combination of cuts, and the president has put forward many deep cuts. But also through more revenue from the folks at the very top of the income ladder, because if you don't ask one more penny from them, then you have to hit everybody else harder, the seniors on Medicare and the students.

And Romney and Ryan have been very clear -- they do not support one more penny of revenue from the very wealthy.

Romney was asked that question during the debates whether he'd take $10 of cuts to $1 of revenue. No deal. He takes a very inflexible approach. It's all about this trickledown economics theory that more tax cuts for the wealthy people like Mitt Romney will somehow lift us all up.

But we know that that theory crashed at the end of the Bush administration. I mean the facts are in.

COSTELLO: Well, I wanted to ask you about something else. Congressman Ryan and a host of others portrayed Mr. Obama as divisive, how can you argue that when just yesterday the President accused Governor Romney of not caring about young people and their health care?

VAN HOLLEN: You have to look at the impact of the policies on people. So Mitt Romney is proposing to repeal Obamacare. One of the things Obamacare does is make sure that young people --

COSTELLO: But that doesn't mean -- that doesn't mean, Congressman, that Mitt Romney doesn't care about young people and their health care.

VAN HOLLEN: Well the -- well he is taking away a very important health benefit and protection for young people. You can decide to characterize what that means in terms of his feelings. But the impact on young people is that they're not going to get health insurance coverage.

So if they're stuck in a car accident now, since they are not covered under their family's policy, it could bankrupt the family. So I think that that tells a lot about what Mitt Romney cares about and what he doesn't. And -- and that's what these budgets are about. There are a lot of numbers. But at their core, they tell you what your priorities are. What you care about, what you don't.

COSTELLO: Chris Van Hollen, Congressman from Maryland.

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