MSNBC "Interview With Senator Ron Wyden" - Transcript

Interview

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TAMRON HALL: Now let's go over to Contessa, who's at the politics desk, with more fallout from the stimulus vote yesterday. Contessa?

MS. BREWER: Tamron, Wall Street is getting hit today with more tough news about the economy. Meantime, in Washington, Republicans and Democrats are squabbling over how to fix it. The two parties remain split over the economic stimulus bill, despite its passage in the House last night. Next stop: Senate.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is a Democrat who serves on the Senate Finance Committee. Are we going to see more willingness on the part of your colleagues on the Republican side in the Senate, do you think? Can you work things out so that you encourage Republican senators to vote for this thing?

SEN. WYDEN: I believe we are going to do significantly better in the United States Senate. You look, for example, at the role of Senator Olympia Snowe, who's been very constructive. She's a Republican senator from Maine.

I think also the fact that the Senate is including the effort to protect the middle class from the Alternative Minimum Tax -- that is a crushing tax on middle-class folks. Changing that has been a priority for Republicans. We have it in the Senate bill. It wasn't in the House bill. And I think the fact that President Obama continues to reach out to Republicans means that we can do better in the Senate.

MS. BREWER: Let me play what House Minority Leader John Boehner said in terms of criticizing this plan and why Republicans in the House didn't want to vote for it.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (House minority leader, R-OH): (From video.) A lot of wasteful spending that won't create jobs and won't help preserve jobs in America. We think there's a better way. Our proposal will create 6.2 million new jobs in America. That's twice as many as the bill that's on the floor now, at about half the price.

MS. BREWER: Senator Wyden, are you surprised at the amount of non-related stimulus programs -- were added into the House bill?

SEN. WYDEN: I'm certainly concerned about reaching out to Republicans, but I will tell you, as far as the Senate, we're spending most of the money in 2009 and 2010. We're looking at creating good- paying jobs in the green energy field. My state has 9 percent unemployment. This bill will clearly help.

Then there are investments, for example, in health information technology. As far as I'm concerned, we ought to send these paper medical records off to the National History Museum with the typewriter and telegraph. That's going to reduce medical costs. That's going to be good for working people when we have these electronic medical records.

MS. BREWER: And --

SEN. WYDEN: So what we're doing in terms of roads and bridges and these kinds of investments is going to pay off.

MS. BREWER: And what about the big green plan that Barack Obama had in terms of infrastructure? I mean, do you see more room to add money to light rail systems around the country, to windmill farms, to solar and to alternative energy sources?

SEN. WYDEN: I do, and I believe we can do that in a bipartisan way as well. John Thune, the Republican senator from the Dakotas, he's going to help me. He feels very strongly about what it means for South Dakota. We're going to use a build America bond program. We're going to work closely with the private sector. It's bipartisan. It'll bring us additional money for roads, bridges, transportation systems, the kind of infrastructure we're talking about, and it's bipartisan.

MS. BREWER: Senator Wyden, awfully good of you to join us this morning. Thank you for your time.

SEN. WYDEN: Thanks so much.

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