CNN The Situation Room - Transcript
CNN The Situation Room - Transcript
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's get some more now on the very tense Senate race unfolding in Ohio. Among the issues in that campaign, the economy, the war in Iraq among many others. Moments ago as you saw here in THE SITUATION ROOM, I spoke with the Republican candidate, the incumbent Senator Mike DeWine.
Joining us now, his Democratic challenger Congressman Sherrod Brown. Congressman thanks very much for coming in. He paints you as a member of the fringe left wing of the Democratic Party that you are not even mainstream Democrat. What do you say to that?
REP. SHERROD BROWN, (D) OHIO: I say I make the contrast on issue after issue. I'm for the minimum wage. Mike DeWine has voted against it nine times. I'm for embryonic stem cell research, he's against it. I fought the Medicare bill written by the drug industry, he supported it strongly. I voted against the war in Iraq. He voted for the war in Iraq. On every major issue I'm mainstream --
BLITZER: He says though and throughout the 90's after the attack on the first World Trade Center, he says in the years since the first attack on the World Trade Center, Sherrod Brown has voted at least 10 times for stand alone amendments to slash funding for intelligence. That's a serious charge since good intelligence is the front line in the war against terrorism.
BROWN: Well the issue on intelligence has never been do they have enough money. It's the focus of the intelligence community. The oversight committee that Mike DeWine sits on clearly had lost its way and lost its focus. They were more concerned with fighting the cold war than they were the war on terrorism and that's why I joined Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican author of the patriot act. And I joined Porter Goss who later became President Bush's, second President Bush's CIA director, in voting for those amendments to change the focus of the intelligence community from the war on terror, from the cold war to the war on terror.
BLITZER: But he says you are more concerned about the rights of terrorists than protecting the American people.
BROWN: He's wrong. He's wrong. Of course I'm not. The fact is that Mike DeWine is just trying to change the subject because he has failed on the economic situation in Ohio. And more than that, he's failed as a member, 12-year member of the intelligence committee. He never asked the tough questions in the war on Iraq. He brought faulty intelligence. He never demanded of the president a plan to win. A plan to provide body armor for our troops. He never demanded a plan to rebuild Iraq from the president and he's never demanded an exit strategy.
BLITZER: How would you get out of Iraq right now? What is your strategy?
BROWN: Well the first thing you do is you push the Iraqi government to build the security, military and police security forces.
BLITZER: They've been pushing them -- but this Iraqi government is very weak.
BROWN: They push them, but they also say that we're staying for years and years, so there's not the incentive for the Iraqis to do it.
BLITZER: You want a deadline, you want a timeline?
BROWN: I think that we instruct our general, again, we push the Iraqis to do the security forces, military and police. And we push the Iraqis, the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds to come up with a political settlement. Including distribution of oil revenues.
BLITZER: How much time would you give them?
BROWN: And then I would instruct the generals, not Rumsfeld not the president. Not the political people at the White House, but the generals to come up with a redeployment strategy over the next two, to redeploy out of the country over the next year and a half to two years. And do it in the safest way in the most orderly way possible.
BLITZER: That sounds like what General Casey said a year, 12 to 18 months. He thinks that right now, the Iraqi military and police force could take charge.
BROWN: Well, General Casey, I don't think the administration's listening to the generals enough. I mean, the president's comments and Mike DeWine's comments consistently are stay the course, stay the course, stay the course. And if people want to stay the course in Iraq, they should vote for Mike DeWine, but I don't think they do.
BLITZER: What about -- on an issue close to the hearts of a lot of people in Ohio who are suffering economically right now, on employment and other problems. He says, and a lot of Republicans say that if you are elected, you'll vote to raise the taxes of the average people in Ohio. Are you ready to make a pledge now that you are not going to vote for any tax increases for the middle income, the average people in Ohio? BROWN: Absolutely, I'm willing to go further. I want to see tax cuts, elder tax cuts for elder care. Tuition tax credits continued instead of stopped by this crowd when they left Washington to go campaign. They didn't take care of extending tuition tax credits.
BLITZER: Who's going to get their taxes raised?
BROWN: Well the people that are going to get their taxes raised are people who are making over $300,000 a year. As we cancel, as we should not renew or cancel those tax breaks for the wealthiest people. But the fundamental issue in this campaign is Mike DeWine wants to give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in this country. I want to focus tax cuts on the middle class. People in Ohio want a senator who will stand up for the middle class, stand up to the special interest and not betray the middle class.
BLITZER: On the estate tax, what is your position in terms of how much of an estate you can leave without getting it heavily taxed?
BROWN: I think we can bipartisanly work out at what level we do it. I have voted to give it a healthy exemption, $1.5 million, $2 million to protect family farms. My family has a family farm and to protect small businesses. But Mike DeWine, his focus is so much on giving tax breaks to the wealthiest people, the 1 percent wealthiest people, that he turned his back on one vote on 130,000 middle class families on tuition tax credits.
BLITZER: The argument the president makes and a lot of Republicans, the argument they make is if you start eliminating those tax cuts that were enacted during the first six years of the Bush administration, the economy, which has been generally robust, jobs have been created.
BROWN: Wait, wait, the economy has been generally robust for people like us.
BLITZER: In terms of economic growth.
BROWN: Yeah, but it's not been generally robust for 80 percent of Ohioans. It's been generally robust if you're in the top 1 or 2 or 5 percent. Wages are stagnant for college graduates, Wolf, not just workers that have less education or less skills. Prices are up, gas prices, drug prices, health care costs, housing costs, yet, wages have been flat.
BLITZER: Are you scared though that eliminating some of those tax cuts that were enacted over the past six years is going to have an impact on the overall economy?
BROWN: I think first of all, they betrayed conservative principals by busting a hole in this budget. We had a much bigger surplus. A much stronger economy in an economy where the middle class was doing much better when we gave tax cuts more aimed at the middle class. It's the middle class that drives, it's the engine of driving this economy, not the wealthiest 1 percent. Republicans or at least this crowd of Republicans who have betrayed conservative principals by blowing a hole in this budget, Republicans, this crowd of Republicans really thinks the economy is driven by the wealthiest 1 percent.
BLITZER: We have to go.
BROWN: Most people think it's the middle class.
BLITZER: Congressman, we have to go. The president said today a lot of Democrats reading these polls are already dancing in the end zone. Are you among those?
BROWN: I'm not dancing in the end zone, I'm fighting for middle class Ohioans and see what happens.
BLITZER: We'll see what happens. Congressman Sherrod Brown, thanks very much for coming in.
BROWN: Nice to be with you. Thanks.
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