CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Debt Ceiling

Interview

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REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), RANKING MEMBER, BUDGET COMMITTEE: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. So what's your reaction to the latest proposal from the Republicans in the House, Speaker Boehner and the others, to go ahead and extend, to raise the debt ceiling for six weeks until November 22nd? What's your reaction to that proposal?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Wolf, I should stress at the outset that we have seen nothing in writing. And the way things have been going around here in the House of Representatives, things change minute to minute. So I need to stress that.

But number one, we believe we should immediately reopen the government. I think Republicans have forgotten why they shut down the government to begin with. The speaker has in his power to have the vote and get that done today. Number two, we believe we should commit to paying our bills on time for another year, as Harry Reid and the Democrats and the Senate have proposed. Number three, we have been trying to sit down to negotiation on budget issues since last March. We also welcome that opportunity for a Republican -- if Republicans want to do that.

BLITZER: Two conditions I heard -- as you say, nothing in writing yet. We heard the press conference from the Republican leadership in the House. But Dana Bash, chief congressional correspondent, is saying, one of the conditions for a six-week extension until November 22nd of the debt ceiling would be the Department of the Treasury, the secretary of the treasury, would have too promise or commit that there wow be no, quote, "extraordinary measures" that would be taken after November 22nd, to play around with the debt, if you will. Does that sound acceptable to you, as the ranking member of the Budget Committee?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Wolf, I really have to talk to the secretary of the treasury to determine exactly what impact that would have in terms of our obligations and our ability to pay. So again, that would be one thing that we would want to take a very close look at.

But I should also stress the fact that simply by extending the debt ceiling for a short period of time, you're really guaranteeing that you have a continued crisis mentality not just in Washington, but the spillover from that uncertainty throughout the economy. So the president has said that obviously we want to eliminate that uncertainty. He's also said we will do everything we can to prevent a default.

But I should be really clear that the position that we think is right for the country and to eliminate the uncertainty is to make sure we pay our bills on time for at least a year.

BLITZER: The other thing we heard from the Republicans, Kevin McCarthy, majority whip of the House of Representatives, a man you know, suggesting that, go ahead, pass the six-week extension, raise the debt ceiling, get that out of the way, but during the next six weeks, even while government remains partially shutdown, because it would presumably, you launch the House/Senate conference committee discussions to deal with the budget issues that you, as the ranking member of the Budget Committee, have been dealing with, that Paul Ryan, chairman of your committee, have been dealing with, go ahead and start. What the Republicans earlier were refusing to do, but at least begin right now during the next six weeks, see if you can work this out. What do you think about that?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Wolf, what we don't understand and what Republicans have not been able to make clear is, why in the world you have to keep the entire government shut down while you're having a conversation? Again, we've been trying to have that conversation since last March. As you well know, Republicans in both the House and the Senate repeatedly blocked the appointment of budget negotiators throughout the year, drove us up to this point of the government shutdown and the debt ceiling crisis. And we don't know why we shouldn't open the government. And they have not stated a very clear reason. Everything we are reading is that they've sort of said we'll give up trying to kill Obamacare, which was their original reason for shutting down the government. So why don't we vote today to open the government, Wolf? We always have wanted to talk. But why wouldn't we also open the government today? They just haven't answered that question.

Again, I haven't seen that proposal yet. But as I understand, they are still unwilling to have the speaker to have democracy work its will and Democrats and Republicans vote today to open the entire government.

BLITZER: Are you still adamantly opposed to what they've been trying to do, Republicans on the House side, pass piecemeal pieces of legislation to reopen the Veterans Department, National Institutes of Health, make sure that those troops killed in action in Afghanistan families get the gratuity to pay for a funeral, come to Dover Air Force Base? Are you adamantly opposed to supporting that piecemeal legislation, even while the government, as a whole, remains partially shutdown?

VAN HOLLEN: Wolf, we voted unanimously just yesterday in the House to make sure those death benefits were provided. As you know, the administration was able to deal with that separately.

But the answer to your question is, if you care about the NIH -- and I happen to represent the district home to NIH -- if you care about the Food and Drug Administration or the other federal agencies, the best way to help them and the rest of the government is to vote to open it all today. This has been government by press release, right? The Republicans seem shocked day by day to find out shutting down the government has bad consequences. And they read something in the paper and say, oh, let's reopen this or that. It will never end until we reopen the entire government.

And again, I can't stress more strongly, I'm hearing from Republicans, Independents and Democrats, why won't the speaker of the House allow democracy to work its will? Why won't he allow the simple act of a vote to open the government, make sure we pay our bills on time and, yes, let's try to get to those negotiations that we've been trying to have since last March?

BLITZER: One final question before I let you go. The chairman of the Budget Committee, Paul Ryan, had that important article in the "Wall Street Journal" yesterday, no mention of Obamacare in his various solutions. But is he someone that you're encouraged that you like working with? Is he someone that you trust, someone that could perhaps help Democrats and Republicans work together to resolve this mess?

VAN HOLLEN: Wolf, I have a very good personal relationship with Paul. We have very deep differences. We've been trying to get to the negotiating table through the budget conference to negotiate those differences between the House Republican budget and the president's budget, and find a midpoint between those two things. What worried me about Paul Ryan's article in the "Wall Street Journal" was he wanted to set up the negotiation this way. He was saying that, in order for Republicans to do the right thing, the thing we should all do together, which is pay the country's bills on time, in order to do that, we have to accept major portions of the Republican budget. That's not the way it works. We should have a negotiation between the Republican budget and the Democratic budget and we should all do our job in making sure we pay bills on time, which this entire Congress has voted for in the past.

Let me ask you this. If the president of the United States were to say, Wolf, that he was going to veto the debt ceiling, he was going to prevent the country from paying its bills on time, unless the Republicans in Congress voted for the president's budget proposal and the president's jobs proposal, you know that Republicans would say the president had absolutely lost his mind. But that's the way they want to shape this negotiation, that in exchange for them agreeing to do what they should do anyway, pay our bills on time, we have to somehow adopt their budget. That's not going to happen.

What we are absolutely prepared to do and have wanted to do is negotiate between the Republican budget and their priorities for the country and the Democratic budget and its priorities. Let's absolutely not just find common ground but make some tough compromises to get that done for the good of the country. That's the way we should move forward.

BLITZER: Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, thanks very much for coming in.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you, Wolf.

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