MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR ROGER WICKER (R-MS)

SUBJECT: AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT PLAN

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NORAH O'DONNELL: Joining us now, live from Capitol Hill, is Republican Senator Roger Wicker.

Senator, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. WICKER: Thank you, Norah. Glad to be on the program.

MS. O'DONNELL: I've heard you say that a trillion dollars is a terrible thing to waste.

SEN. WICKER: Right.

MS. O'DONNELL: Well, where can you find compromise with the Democrats?

SEN. WICKER: Well, I think, there's a way to compromise on the figure. A trillion dollars is an awful lot of money. It's going to have to be paid for over generations. And if we're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars, which I'm willing to do -- I'm willing to spend over 500 billion -- we need to make sure it works and gets to the stimulus.

We need to target housing, target the credit crisis, get people back in jobs and get them borrowing money in the real estate market. So I'd rather spend half of what we're spending and do it to target the problem that got us there to start with.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator, let me read to you what Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times today. He writes, there's more at stake here than fairness, although that matters too. Saving the economy is going to be very expensive. That $800 billion stimulus plan is probably just a down payment. And rescuing the financial system, even if it's done right, is going to cost hundreds of billions more. We can't afford to squander money, giving huge windfalls to banks and their executives, merely to preserve the illusion of private ownership.

I know it sounds weird to ask you this, as a Republican, but do you agree with Paul Krugman?

SEN. WICKER: Well, I do. And that's why I voted against the bailout last September. Of course, only half of that has been allocated. We were told at the time if we didn't do it in a hurry, over the weekend really, that the world was going to come to an end. It turns out it wasn't spent the way we were told it was going to be spent. And it didn't work the way we were told it would work.

So I'm hoping that what we do this week is decide to take a step back, listen to leading economists and listen to people like Kent Conrad, the guy who was just on your program. There are ways to make this economic stimulus bill work to stimulate the economy, to get people back in houses, to get people back to work.

MS. O'DONNELL: David Broder wrote in his column, over the weekend, quote, "This vote will set a pattern for Obama, one way or the other. He needs a bipartisan majority, because tough as this issue is, harder ones await when he turns to energy, health care and entitlement reform."

Senator, we saw that in the House not one single Republican voted for this stimulus package. How much is at stake for the future, in terms of dealing with this president, that Republicans try and make this bill right?

SEN. WICKER: Well, you know, we all want the country to succeed. We all want the economy to come back. The job loss that we've had is intolerable. But in order for us to step forward and say we have confidence in the plan, it's important for us to really mean it.

So yes, it's very important that it be bipartisan. But in order for it to be bipartisan, we need to get to the root of the problem. Let's start with housing. Let's give some tax credits to boost homeownership. And then let's start targeting job creation, give some tax credits to the people who actually create the jobs. And that's small business in the United States of America; over half the jobs created by small business.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator Roger Wicker, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. WICKER: Thank you very much.

END.

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