NPR Tavis Smiley - Transcript

SHOW: Tavis Smiley (9:00 AM ET) - NPR

March 10, 2004 Wednesday

HEADLINE: Walter Jones and Jerrold Nadler discuss some of the key issues on Capitol Hill

ANCHORS: TONY COX

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

COX: And now we go to the Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York. Representative Nadler is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Congressman, welcome to you.

Representative JERROLD NADLER (Democrat, New York): Good morning.

COX: Let's begin the same way that we did with Representative Jones, talking about what issues before Congress you see as the bread-and-butter issues of this year.

Rep. NADLER: Well, I agree with Congressman Jones in some respects. From my point of view, the fight against making the tax cuts on the rich permanent so that we have money for Medicare and Social Security and education and housing, jobs and the economy-and this recovery from this recession, we're creating no new jobs; last month, the private sector actually lost jobs-after we've cut taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars, trillions of dollars on the rich, supposedly to create new jobs, we're, in fact, still losing jobs.

The failure of this administration to be willing to spend the money because of their infatuation with tax cuts on the rich for homeland security, the fact that 98 percent of the six million shipping containers a year that come into this country are uninspected, could have atomic bombs or biological weapons or anything in them and we have no idea, the fact that we're not adequately funding our first responders, the fact that there's no urgency in this administration in protecting us or realizing that we're fighting a major war against terrorism around the world and they won't spend the money on it, the fact that the Taliban are taking over in Afghanistan again because we only have 12,000 troops there because we're infatuated with Iraq, and where the real terrorist threat is, we're ignoring; the high cost of drugs, the fact the Republicans just passed a prescription drug bill, so-called, that actually prohibits the federal government from using bargaining power as a major purchaser of drugs for getting the prices lower, the fact that they prohibit the reimportation of drugs from Canada or other countries where they're much cheaper...

COX: Well, let me jump in here.

Rep. NADLER: ...all of these are major issues.

COX: Let me jump in to ask you, tactically speaking, Congressman Nadler, tactically speaking, can the Democrats effectively push for a reversal of tax cuts during an election year, one that will be very close, by all accounts?

Rep. NADLER: Yes, I think we can. We're not urging a reversal of the few tax cuts, the $1,000 child-care tax credit that goes to middle-class and low-income people. We support those. But the 95 percent or something like that of the tax cuts that go to basically very rich and well-to-do people who are having a much larger share of national income to start with than previously, that we have to get rid of. And I think people also know-you know, we talk about the huge deficit we have. We have a $521 billion deficit this year. You could eliminate the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation; in fact, eliminate every discretionary program of government other than Defense, and you'd still have a $200 billion deficit this year.

COX: Let's...

Rep. NADLER: So the deficit is really on the income side, not the expenditure side.

COX: There are other issues that are also front-burner this year. I wanted to ask you about one, because you are a member of the House Judiciary Committee. And one of the biggest issues coming before the committee will be gay marriage, to which, I understand, you are opposed. How do you see this...

Rep. NADLER: No, I'm not opposed.

COX: That is-oh, I beg your pardon. You are not opposed to it.

Rep. NADLER: Our presidential candidate's opposed. I'm not.

COX: How do you see this debate panning out in Congress? And, like I asked your colleague, do you think that it's realistic to expect that a two-thirds majority may support it?

Rep. NADLER: I don't think a two-thirds majority is going to support it in either house, in either the Senate or the House. There are many Democrats who oppose it; many Republicans will oppose it. We should not be amending the Constitution every time-number one, for fear. I mean, rightly, we don't have a Supreme Court decision that says gay marriages are OK. We don't have a Supreme Court decision that says the Defense of Marriage Act that Congress passed in 1996 that says one state doesn't have to recognize a gay marriage of another. We don't have a Supreme Court decision saying that that statute isn't the complete bar to the spread of gay marriage. We don't have a decision that says that that's unconstitutional.

This is all-maybe the courts will declare such laws unconstitutional, number one. Number two, gay marriage-if people want to get married and if they're not hurting anybody else by it, why shouldn't they? It is not a threat to anybody's marriage. I don't think your wife is going to go out and divorce you because two gay people get married. And finally, if we want to defend marriage, if we're serious about defending marriage, then let's abolish divorce. Let's make adultery a federal felony. Those are the things that have gotten the divorce rate up to one out of two in this country...

COX: So it's your view...

Rep. NADLER: ...not gay marriage.

COX: ...then that this doesn't have a chance this year?

Rep. NADLER: I wouldn't say it doesn't have a chance, but I'd say it's highly unlikely it's going to pass this year. And I'll say one other thing: I don't think the president is sincere about it. I don't think he means it for a minute. This is entirely a political wedge issue for the election.

COX: I appreciate it, Congressman. Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York. Thank you, sir, for being with us today.

Rep. NADLER: You're quite welcome.

COX: It's 19 minutes past the hour.