FOX "Interview With Senator Lindsey Graham" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. SCOTT: Senate Republicans are pushing a less expensive alternative to the president's economic stimulus package. Their plan includes a payroll tax cut and spending on projects aimed at creating jobs.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina wants to get the economy moving as much as anyone. He says the GOP plan would cost less, but actually do more to stimulate the economy.

He's here to explain why from the Capitol building.

Senator Graham, welcome.

SEN. GRAHAM: Thank you for having me, Jon.

MR. SCOTT: Some of the key proponents of what you're pushing, first of all, is this separate from the plan that's being discussed right now by the plan being pushed forward by Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska and your fellow Republican, Susan Collins of Maine?

SEN. GRAHAM: Yes. This is about $415 billion of spending. It has money for unemployment benefits, extension of food stamp program. It has corporate tax rate cuts for a year, cuts to payroll tax in half for a year, allows small businesses tax breaks. It is a good balance of tax cuts and spending. It's half the size of the Senate Democratic bill. It will do more in terms of creating jobs. I don't know where Susan Collins and Ben Nelson, what they're going to come out with, but I can tell the American people this, this process stinks. We're in different camps; nobody is talking to each other. You've got 12 Democratic senators and five Republican senators trying to save $100 billion. We're making this up as we go and it is a waste of money. It is a broken process and the president, as far as I'm concerned, has been AWOL in providing leadership on something as important as this.

MR. SCOTT: Well, let's talk about what's been cut out of this bill that you've put together, I mean, you're talking about half the size of the bill that came through the House, half the size of what the president wants --

SEN. GRAHAM: It took about 30 minutes to do it. $75 billion to go to states unmarked spending; they can spend it any way they want to. What's that got to do with creating a job? COBRA benefits -- if you lose your job under this bill, 65 percent of your COBRA premium would be paid by the federal government even though you're a CEO that made $20 million. There is no means test for helping people who are unemployed. Some people need to be helped and some people, quite frankly, can afford to help themselves.

This is a monstrosity of a bill, but the process is what I'm talking about, Jon. Not one Republican voted for the House version because they had absolutely no input. The markup of the Senate bill of $880 billion took an hour and 40 minutes in committee. We're making this up as we go and we need money for housing and we need money for banking and it's not in the bill. We've done nothing for housing and banking and we've yet to do that.

So I hope the president will call a timeout and we will come together and be smart about how we spend the American peoples' money. This process is not smart.

MR. SCOTT: Talking about housing. You've got in your bill that $15,000 credit for the purchase of a new home.

SEN. GRAHAM: Yes.

MR. SCOTT: How much would that cost, first of all, if lots of Americans run out and buy houses? And secondly, what would it accomplish?

SEN. GRAHAM: It would be $20 billion and it would, I think, reduce excess inventory. The one reason the housing prices are so low now is because we have a lot of houses on the market that are not moving. In the 1970s, we gave a $2,000 refundable tax credit to go toward a down payment if you bought a house. In inflationary terms, it would be $15,000 today, it is the Isakson Amendment. I think it will do more to clear excess inventory than anything else in the bill, but I've got an amendment for $26 billion to the FDIC with Senator Conrad to negotiate mortgages that are under water, to keep people in their homes and we take it out of the bill, we reduce the overall cost.

There's a million ways to improve housing and we're doing very little in this bill.

MR. SCOTT: You said that the president has been AWOL.

SEN. GRAHAM: Yes. Yes.

MR. SCOTT: You don't think that his approach, I mean, he's been writing editorials. He's been all over the media.

SEN. GRAHAM: Yeah.

MR. SCOTT: You don't think that's an approach that's working?

SEN. GRAHAM: No. No. No. No. Scaring people is not leadership. Writing an editorial that if you don't pass this bad bill we're going to have disaster. We've had enough presidents trying to scare people to make bad decisions.

So I like President Obama, but he is not leading. Having lunch is not leading. Getting people in a room like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did to solve Social Security has not happened here and doing TV interviews is not leading.

We need a bunch of Republicans and Democrats in a room with the White House to figure out how to smartly spend money to create jobs, and if it doesn't create a job in the near-term, we shouldn't spend the money.

MR. SCOTT: Do you fear the risk of being labeled a partisan with that kind of talk? I mean, you know, this president ran on --

SEN. GRAHAM: If this is bipartisanship, count me out. I think I have a record of bipartisanship. I want to help this president with Guantanamo Bay, with Social Security, jumpstarting the economy, helping banks lend money. I want to be a partner in trying to create momentum to solve America's problems. This process stinks.

We've had no bipartisanship here. It has been a partisan exercise in the House. It's a partisan exercise in the Senate. We're making this up as we go. Senators are running scared because of polling numbers, and quite frankly, the president is giving TV interviews rather than getting people together and I am very disappointed.

MR. SCOTT: And it sounds like you're also not too happy with those 16 senators who are locked behind closed doors wrangling with this thing right now.

SEN. GRAHAM: I'm happy that they're trying to do something, but that's not the way you spend $800 billion. Having 16 senators behind closed doors that would spend $800 billion -- can I tell you how much money, that's $1 trillion with interest. We're going to spend $1 trillion and 16 people are behind closed doors trying to figure out how to do it by tonight. That's crazy.

MR. SCOTT: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Republican. Thank you.

SEN. GRAHAM: Thank you.

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