FOX News "FOX News Sunday" - Transcript: Immigration

Interview

Joining us now, a key new member of the Republican leadership, Louisiana congressman and Tea Party favorite, Steve Scalise, in his first national interview since being elected House majority whip.

Congressman, congratulations, and welcome to "Fox News Sunday."

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA), HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP: Thanks. Good to be with you, Chris.

WALLACE: For all the talk of the immigration crisis, there are three different plans on how to deal with it. The president wants $3.7 billion to help the children and also beef up enforcement, but no change to the 2008 law to make it easier to send children home to Central America. Senate Democrats want $2.7 billion to do roughly the same. And House Republicans want less than $1 billion focusing on enforcement and also changing that 2008 law.

Congressman Scalise, will Congress and the president make a deal before you guys go home for this five-week recess?

SCALISE: Well, Chris, we're going to keep working until we get this problem solves. The bottom line is you've got a crisis going on. The president refuses to acknowledge that it's even exiting. He's been AWOL on this from the very beginning. We want to actually fix the law, and wouldn't it be good to allow the governors of those border states to be able to call the national guard and to help security the border?

This all has to start with securing the border, not writing the president a blank check, to keep doing what he's doing that's not working, but actually solve the problem. Even his own Homeland Security secretary said the 2008 law needs to be changed. We've got to go make those changes.

And ultimately, this is the president's responsibility. He could fix the problem today. He's chosen not to, but the House is going to lead.

WALLACE: Well, you say you're going to stay and work until you solve the problem. This August recess is not set in stone, this five- week recess. You could delay it, and in fact, that's what the president called for this week.

Take a look.

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WALLACE: Question: will House Republicans postpone your vacation as the president put it, to deal with this problem, to make a deal if you don't settle it by Friday?

SCALISE: It's ironic, we're here in Congress right now, and the president doesn't want to work with us while we're in town. He wants to wait until we're gone.

The president has a lot of time on his schedule to secure fund- raisers. He has no time to secure the border. He has not taken his job seriously in this regard.

The House is willing to lead. The House has laid out what we'll do to solve this problem. The president wants to sit back and play politics. He's flying around doing fundraisers. He doesn't have time to come and sit down and work with Congress. We're going to get this problem solved.

WALLACE: But, sir, you're not answering my question, which is -- and there are still big differences and I think there's every chance you will pass a bill this week, but if you don't have a deal, if the problem hasn't been solved or at least a plan to deal with it hasn't been addressed, will Congress delay its recess?

SCALISE: Well, Congress is here working right now.

WALLACE: But I'm asking a question, sir. Will you delay your recess?

SCALISE: Look, whatever we pass, if the president doesn't want to do his job, whatever Congress passes, is going to sit over in the Senate or ultimately go to the White House, the president still has to take leadership. He's the president of the United States.

Like I said, he's got a lot of time to do a lot of other things and play politics. They're trying to fundraise off this. At some point, the president should sit down and say, do we really want to solve the problem?

I want to solve this problem. I'm going to stay working until we get it done. The House is going to take leadership.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Last time I'm going to ask, though, you're not willing to commit to postpone your recess if need be to deal with the Senate, Senate Democrats, I'm not saying who's right or wrong, but you're not willing to commit to delay your recess?

SCALISE: We're not even on recess, Chris. We're here right now and we're ready to work. We're going to do our job this week.

And if the president wants to sit back and just continue to point fingers at other people, he's the president of the United States. He could solve this problem today.

He's been AWOL on it. He doesn't want to solve this problem.

But we do. So, we're going to stay and we're going to work and we're going to get our job done. I'd like the Senate takes something up and do their job. I'd like to see the president do his job.

We're not going to wait for that. We're going to actually do our job. Let's see what the president is willing to do.

WALLACE: All right. Meanwhile, White House officials say that the president intends to take executive action by the end of the month, perhaps, to defer deportation for millions more immigrants.

You're already suing the president for overreach. The question I have is, if he does this, if he takes executive action, which I know you all believe is illegal, will you do nothing, will you do something such as cut off funding for the administration, will you consider impeaching the president?

SCALISE: You know, this might be the first White House in history that's trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president. Ultimately, what we want to do is see the president follow his own laws. But the president took an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this land and he's not. In fact, the Supreme Court unanimously more than 12 times, unanimously said the president overreached and actually did things he doesn't have the legal authority to do.

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Again, on executive action to defer more deportations, what will the House do?

SCALISE: We've made it clear. We're going to put options on the table to allow -- to allow the House to take legal action against the president when he overreaches his authority. Others have already done that. Cases are going to the Supreme Court. Like I said, more than a dozen times the Supreme Court unanimously -- I'm not talking about a 5-4 decision -- 9-0, unanimously said the president overreached.

So, we're going to continue to be a check and a balance against this administration.

WALLACE: But impeachment is off the table?

SCALISE: Well, the White House wants to talk about impeachment, and, ironically, they're going out and trying to fundraise off that, too.

WALLACE: I'm asking you, sir.

SCALISE: Look, the White House will do anything they can to change the topic away from the president's failed agenda -- people paying higher costs for food, for health care, for gas at the pump. The president isn't solving those problems. So, he wants to try to change the subject.

We're going to continue to focus on getting the economy moving again, solve problems for everyday people. I would like to see the president engaged in that, too. That's his job.

But for whatever, he wants to change the topic, talk about things like this.

WALLACE: All right. There is --we talked about the fact you are the first Tea Party member to be part of the top House Republican leadership. I think you would agree there is a split in the GOP caucus between the Tea Party members and the so-called Republican establishment. In fact, dozens of Tea Party members in the House may not vote even for the $1 billion that you guys are talking about to deal with the immigration crisis.

How do you intend on this issue and others to bridge the gap inside the GOP caucus? And where do you come down on the issue of purity on the one hand, ideological purity versus unity on the other?

SCALISE: Well, first of all, Chris, I think what we need to do is focus on those things that unite us, not only as Republicans but as Americans. There are lot of issues we passed out of the House that have gotten not only a lot of Republican support, Tea Party and every group within the Republican conference, but even Democrats. There are over 300 bills sitting in the Senate that passed, including a number that are exclusively focused on creating jobs, many of which have broad bipartisan support.

Look at the Keystone pipeline, broad bipartisan support for that across the country. It unites Republicans, but unites other people that don't consider themselves part of the Republican Party. And yet, the Senate refuses to act, the president doesn't want to act.

So, there are a lot of things that unite us that revolve around solving the problems facing this country. That's what I'm going to bring to the leadership table, is a way to move those conservative values forward in a way that unites us and solves problems for hard working taxpayers.

WALLACE: Let's do a lightning round, quick questions and answers about some of the issues you're going to have to deal with in the House before the November midterms. Excuse me.

The government runs out of money on October 1st. Will you support a continuing resolution to keep funding and keep the government going at current levels or are you willing in an effort to cut spending to risk another government shutdown?

SCALISE: We're going to keep the government running at current levels. In fact, we have passed a majority of the spending bills out of the House already. Not one has been taken up by the Senate.

Look, shouldn't the Senate at least be able to agree on the bill to fund our troops? That's a bill that got over 100 Democrats when it passed out of the House.

WALLACE: But no government shutdown?

SCALISE: No.

WALLACE: OK. Another question, I'm enacting the lightning round rules on you, sir.

SCALISE: Let's go.

WALLACE: You called for passing a conservative health care plan and let's put up some of the aspects of that, repealing Obamacare, expanding health savings accounts and letting people buy health insurance across state lines. Will you push to have the House pass that and to give voters a clear Republican alternative before the November

SCALISE: I'm passionate about that. Let's lower costs for health care. Let's put patients in charge of their solutions. So, I absolutely want to see that get done.

WALLACE: So, not just oppose Obamacare but present a Republican alternative.

SCALISE: Not only repeal but replace it with reforms that lower health care costs and put patients back in charge.

WALLACE: In the past, you have called for raising the eligibility age for Medicare over the next 10 years from 65 to 67, and for Social Security from 67 to 70.

Question, should that be part of the Republican platform?

SCALISE: We ought to have a platform to plan to save Medicare from bankruptcy. Under current law, Medicare goes bust. I don't think that's responsible. We have laid out a plan to save it from bankruptcy not only for current seniors but for future generations. I'd like to see the president and the Senate put some plan on the table other than letting it go bust, which is it will do right now.

WALLACE: Are you happy for voters to vote on that idea, Republican idea of raising the eligibility age?

SCALISE: Well, they have seen the proposal for the last two election cycles and Democrats actually tried to make it a campaign issue, and when seniors look at it, they said, wait a minute, Republicans have a plan to save it from going bankrupt and it actually makes sense. Democrats have no answer. They want to let it go bust.

WALLACE: Congressman Scalise, thank you. Thanks for talking with us today. And please come back, sir.

SCALISE: Great being with you. Go Tigers.

WALLACE: OK. LSU, yes, I get that.

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