CNN "Lou Dobbs Tonight" - Transcript

Interview

DOBBS: All right. Thank you very much, Bill Tucker. Appreciate it.

Well, joining me now for more on the president's health care plan and these new developments, the new compromise reached by a few Blue Dog Democrats and Democratic leaders, one of the leading Republicans in the U.S. Senate Senator, Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming.

Senator, great to have you with us. Let me ask you, first of all, what do you think of what appears to be -- you know, I'm not sure what -- how to describe it, but at least it's a compromise that I think you have to put a checkmark and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's column. Don't you?

REP. JOHN BARRASSO (R), WYOMING: Well, I think it is a good checkmark for the people of America that they're going to get a chance to talk to their elected representatives at home in August before they come and vote on the bill.

Here you look at it, over a thousand cases, very complicated. One of the members of the house has said, are you going to encourage the members to read it? He said there's no really reason to because it would take two days and you need two lawyers to explain it to you.

Well, I think the people all across this country in August ought to go to town meetings, demand that their legislatures show up, explain the bill, because I think there are a lot of things that the president has promised that are really not going to be covered in that bill.

And there are a lot of things he said we would never lose as Americans that will be stripped from us in this government take-over of medicine, which is the way I read this bill that the House is going to have to vote on when they return in September.

DOBBS: Senator, I want to ask you about these things. Let me just inquire of the control room. Do we have -- because the senator is referring to a statement by Congressman John Conyers, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

He is the one who said it'd be absurd to spend two days and reading it, the legislation. Do we have that -- that we can share with our audience? And I'm going to assume that we could get that rather quickly? Could we? All right.

Let's listen to Congressman John Conyers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN CONYERS (D), MICHIGAN: I love these members that get up and say, "Read the bill." What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: I mean that's quite a statement to come from any one of our elected officials, but the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, my god. I mean, as you raised what he said there, Senator, the statistics in the Senate are just about 95 percent of the legislation there goes unread.

And the American people are supposed to have confidence in a thousand pages as you just demonstrated, that, you know, I mean this is just a peculiar time to be moving forward legislation that apparently no one has read, many of the top congressional leaders both in the Senate and house have no intention of reading. That's befuddling.

BARRASSO: And look what happened with the stimulus package and a lot of extra amendments that came in late. The cap and tax bill, 300 pages dropped in at 3:00 in the morning and they had to vote that day. I'll be interested to see what kind of amendments they throw on to this.

But if members of Congress don't read it and people can't understand it without two lawyers, is this something that we really want with a decision, Lou, that is so personal? I mean someone's health care is the most personal thing.

I just got back from the weekend overseas in Kuwait visiting the National Guard, the Wyoming National Guard. 900 deployed. The number one question they ask is not about the war, it's about health care. What the impact of these bills are going to be on them and their families and their kids. And what this -- what's going to happen with these huge expenses when we're looking at, you know, an economy that is still having issues, when we -- they want to focus on the economy.

They want to focus on jobs, they want to focus on the growing deficit, this -- the budget with the debt that's doubling in five years, tripling in 10 years. People are very concerned. And even though they may have in the House gotten this number down to a little lower than a trillion, that's still $1 trillion, Lou, that we don't have and can't afford to spend.

What the president promised and what's being delivered are two very different things.

DOBBS: And as you say, an agreement based on a 10 percent reduction in the cost, which, by the way, is not as you well know, finite at all and subject to immense change once it were to go to conference, should it be passed. We feel a certain amount of gamesmanship in Washington.

BARRASSO: Lots...

DOBBS: I'm sure that's an misimpression on my part.

BARRASSO: A lot of games, a lot of gimmicks. And you know who else is really concerned about this, Lou, are the governors. Republican and Democratic alike. They're concerned about the unfunded mandates that are going to be shifted to the states. And as the governor of Tennessee called this, the mother of all unfunded mandates. A big shift to the states. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in many states.

DOBBS: Senator John Barrasso, as always, good to have you with us. We thank very much.

BARRASSO: Thanks, Lou.

DOBBS: And I want to point out. We did extend an invitation to of the Senate Democrats to join us here tonight on the issue of health care. None accepted. But of course that invitation remains open for any of them to join us here at any time.

Up next, Governor Schwarzenegger signs a budget for California. He says it's like the good, the bad and the ugly. But somebody else paid for that movie, I believe. There are apparently a lot more ugly than good in this bill. We'll have a report for you.

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