CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: ACA and Government Shutdown

Interview

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Congressman Raul Labrador, he's standing by live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Let's get to a House Republican now who's joining us to talk about this government shutdown and some very strong words earlier today from President Obama.

Congressman Raul Labrador of Idaho is joining us from Capitol Hill.

Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.

REP. RAUL LABRADOR (R), IDAHO: It's a pleasure to be on your show, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you.

We spoke earlier with Dick Durbin, the senator from Illinois, the Democratic whip.

He said he expects -- thinks it's very likely the president will call the Republican and Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate, invite them to come over to the White House, go into some sort of room and try to work this out. Have you heard anything along those lines?

LABRADOR: I have not heard anything about that, but I think that's a great idea.

That's what we have been asking the president. That's what we have been asking the senators to actually come and negotiate with us. So I think that would be a terrific idea.

BLITZER: I know you want to negotiate as far as keeping the government open or shutting it down, but what about on the debt ceiling? Are you ready to see that go up without any strings attached, as the president demands?

LABRADOR: I am not.

If you think about the debt ceiling, the debt ceiling, we need to make sure that we have something dealing with the debt, that we have something dealing with spending. We have a $17 trillion debt. We thankfully have been reducing the deficit over the last two years, since Republicans have been in power in the House.

But I still think that we need to do more. And if we don't do anything to change the trajectory of our debt and our deficit, it's going to be unsustainable for the United States.

BLITZER: Will you link Obamacare to the raising of the debt ceiling?

LABRADOR: I have never been in favor of linking. And this is just me. I'm just speaking for myself.

I have never been in favor of linking Obamacare to the debt ceiling fight necessarily or to having the fight over Obamacare with the debt ceiling, because I think that should be mostly about the debt, about the deficit, about mandatory spending. As you know, the biggest drivers of our debt are mandatory spending, all the issues that we're dealing with there. And I think it's necessary that we deal with entitlement reform when we deal with the debt ceiling.

BLITZER: Some of your Republican colleagues, like Peter King, Charlie Dent, and a few others, they're now saying they want to forget about, at least for now, as part of the government shutdown, because it's so painful to hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been furloughed -- they just want a continuing resolution, a clean piece of legislation to get the government working once again.

Are you increasingly moving toward that position?

LABRADOR: I'm not.

And, in fact, the entire conference is not moving towards that decision. If you saw what happened yesterday, Peter King and Charlie Dent tried to vote against the rule. And they tried to thwart the plan that we had here in the House of Representatives,and they got maybe three or four people to follow them.

The reality is that the majority of the Republican Conference is with me, that we need to have the fight here on the C.R., that we need to make sure that we have this discussion about Obamacare. But it's greater than Obamacare, Wolf. It's the failure of the Democrats to come to the negotiating table and negotiate with us.

Think about the last -- we have had four appropriations bills actually go to the Senate. And the Senate refuses to take them up. That's never happened in our history, where you have one house of the -- of Congress that refuses to take up proper appropriations bills that have been passed by the House of Representatives.

BLITZER: We asked our Twitter followers to send us some suggested questions. We got this one in for you, Congressman. "Do you feel that a government shutdown will harm the credibility and integrity of the Republican Party in the long run?"

What's your answer?

LABRADOR: I do not. I think, when the American people see that we're asking -- we are trying to be reasonable. We have been asking to keep the government open.

We haven't been talking about a government shutdown. It's actually been the Democrats who have been talking about the government shutdown. And I suspect that they looked at the polls and they believe in their mind that a government shutdown actually hurts the Republican Party. And I think that's why they have been so unwilling to negotiate with us.

BLITZER: Some of your colleagues have said they're going to forego their salaries while hundreds of thousands of other American federal employees forego -- lose their salaries. They have been furloughed.

Where do you stand on that?

LABRADOR: I have asked the administration, the administrative office here in Congress to hold my salary until we are done with this government shutdown.

BLITZER: No salary for you. What is it, like $170,000, $180,000 a year? Is that what you make?

LABRADOR: Correct.

BLITZER: All right, so we will see what happens on that front.

Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.

LABRADOR: It's a pleasure to be on your show.

BLITZER: Raul Labrador, Republican of Idaho, joining us.

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