ABC "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" - Transcript: Economy
Interview
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KARL: But can we acknowledge that this excuse that the speaker used that it's the president and you know Republicans can't trust him, can we acknowledge that that was a pretty lame excuse? This was really about -- this was about opposition within the Republican conference.
COLE: No, look. I was at the conference where this was discussed. And I will tell you there is a great deal of skepticism and concern. The president changed on immigration before. He said something -- what he wanted to do was unconstitutional, a year later he did it.
We've seen him change the health care act repeatedly in ways we think are outside the pale.
So I -- no, I think they're real.
KARL: ...the last two weeks, though.
COLE: Well, no, it's not. But you remember that's a draft statement, not a statement of principles from the conference.
REP. KEITH ELLISON, (D) MINNESOTA: The president has led a government has been deporting people 1,100 a day. It's -- I mean, there's no doubt the president was told if he works on the border the Republican caucus will work with him on passing a bill. He's done his part. They've failed to do their part. And it's obvious the speaker got a lot of pushback from somebody within his caucus who has to listen to. And so he changed course.
I don't think it's political courage. And I was really disappointed.
KARL: Jeff, you think it's -- you think it's dead?
ZELENY: I think it is for now. It's certainly on the back burner.
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KARL: And this CBO report --
ELLISON: But they don't want to focus on health care.
KARL: Yes. Well, but the CBO report, which showed that the equivalent of 2 million-plus workers coming out of the economy was a gift to you guys.
But did you overplay it? I mean, this was --
COLE: Oh, I don't think so. Look, ObamaCare has been an issue from day one that has hurt Democrats and helped Republicans, costing the House; I think it ate into the president's reelection totals. It's hurting them now. Not going to go away because it's fundamentally a flawed, bad policy. And anything that discourages work -- and that's essentially what the CBO found, that this discourages some people from working, not a good thing at a time when the economy's still struggling.
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ELLISON: What the Congressional Budget Office is saying is that we're going to discouraged kids having to have latchkeys. We're going to have parents being able to come home, working reasonable hours; people are going to be able to retire. People might be able to actually cook dinner rather than have to order out and get some takeout.
I mean, the fact is, is that if Americans can have more choices to open up a new business they've been wanting to start, this is a good thing. You know, if you look at international comparisons country by country, Americans work way more than an average of industrialized countries around the world.
And you know, we might want to look at our work -- our work-life balance and this is something that gives us a great opportunity --
COLE: One of the reasons why Americans live better than people around the world because they do on balance --
ELLISON: Well, what about Germany and what about Denmark, what about -- I mean, the fact of the matter is we need a better work-life balance. Ask a working mother, OK, if she could use a few more hours in a day to take care of her family.
That's what's really going on.
COLE: Great spin. I don't think it is going to work --
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