MSNBC "Interview With Senator John Barrasso" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. O'DONNELL: In just about half an hour from now, we're going to see President Obama emerge from the snowy White House to make a trip up Pennsylvania Avenue to meet with congressional Republicans, fulfilling his pledge to reach across the aisle on his economic stimulus plan, but Republicans already saying the $825 billion plan costs too much and doesn't cut taxes enough.

So will there be some sort of compromise? With me now from Capitol Hill is Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, and he will be meeting with President Obama later today.

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

SEN. BARRASSO: Thanks, Norah.

MS. O'DONNELL: What's your message to President Obama today?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, we want a program that is timely, that is targeted and that is temporary. We want to make sure it's actually going to stimulate the economy in the right way and the taxpayers are going to get value for their money and then we want to know how you say, well, it's over, we have saved and solved the problem and how do you know when it's over and then the spending stops.

MS. O'DONNELL: The House Republicans are offering an alternative stimulus package, which includes more tax cuts. Democrats say the problem with the tax cuts on at that level is that with consumer confidence now at all-time low, households are likely to save most of their money, questioning how that will stimulate the economy.

Your response.

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, what we really need to do is fix housing, that's how we got into the problem in the first place and you can do that by guaranteeing low interest rates for a 30-year mortgage where people that qualify for their mortgages and fix housing and then also save jobs, I mean, that's what you really need to do and we know that in America, the jobs, the driver of jobs are small businesses.

So you can do some tax cuts for small businesses and in that way help them hire more people.

MS. O'DONNELL: Do you think there are any Democratic senators that are willing to go along with that? Some of those original tax cuts for small businesses that were originally in this plan have already been wiped out.

SEN. BARRASSO: You know, we need to work together. We had a bipartisan breakfast this morning to talk about the need for our parties to work together, to find solutions. I'm looking forward to hearing what President Obama has to say at lunch and I want to ask him those questions that we've talked about, but I think people are looking to work together to find a solution, but it can't be on the backs of our children or our grandchildren with very expensive spending, I mean, we can't spend big money on small ideas. We need to make sure we have good ideas that are going to stimulate the economy in the right way, get things going and doing it in targeted way, a temporary way and in a timely manner.

MS. O'DONNELL: Let me ask you though about the sign and the tone. Obama is coming up there to reach across the aisle, this is almost unprecedented for him to be meeting with the House Republicans, coming up to meet with Senate Republicans like you and then last night, there's a vote, 60 to 34 against Tim Geithner as the Treasury Secretary.

Is that really extending the hand back from Republicans? Are you doing all you can to compromise and work with the new president to try and turn this economy around?

SEN. BARRASSO: I want to do all I can to help turn around the economy. I was at home this weekend in Thermopolis, in Worland, in Casper, Wyoming, every person I talked to knew about the Treasury Secretary and the issues of paying or not paying taxes. Our phone lines had been absolutely loaded yesterday with calls saying, vote against that nominee and I heard that from Republican senators all around the country.

MS. O'DONNELL: Why?

SEN. BARRASSO: This had to do about the tax issue more than anything else, the unpaid taxes, if the person who is in charge of the Internal Revenue Service hasn't figured out and properly paid his taxes, how can we expect him to run that for the country? And that was the message I heard all around the State of Wyoming and all of the calls coming into my office were saying the same thing, Norah.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, who is going to meet with Obama later.

Senator, good to talk to you.

SEN. BARRASSO: Thanks, Norah.

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