CNNFN The Flipside Transcript

September 25, 2003 Thursday

HEADLINE: Democratic Candidate Braun: 'Range of Experiences' Qualifies Her For Oval Office, CNNfn

GUESTS: Carol Moseley Braun

BYLINE: Kathleen Hays, Valerie Morris, Gerri Willis

BODY:
KATHLEEN HAYS, CNNfn CO-ANCHOR, THE FLIPSIDE: I think we have someone you might want to phone into today. Back to our big story, the 2004 presidential election. Tonight, the Democratic candidates will gather in New York for their latest presidential primary debate hosted by CNBC and "The Wall Street Journal". The debate is expected to focus on the economy. Joining us ahead of tonight's event is Democratic Presidential Candidate Carol Moseley Braun.

Carol, we welcome you, heartily, to THE FLIPSIDE.

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm delighted to be with you all.

HAYS: So as you prepare for tonight's debate, what's on your mind? What are you thinking that when that debate is finished, what is the message that Carol Moseley Braun really wants to be ringing in people's ears?

BRAUN: I want the message to be that I have practical solutions—you know women are practical—Practical solutions that are innovative to get our country on a track for prosperity.

Again, I mean that really is the bottom line issue in terms of the economy and making sure that the recovery touches everybody because if it's just effects the wealthy, and people are still jobless and insecure about their jobs, then you won't have the kind of confidence-building that will help stimulate the economy in ways to create good paying jobs that people can have some optimism about.

And so I really think that we have to achieve balance and we have to make certain that the economy and our policymaking moves the economy in the direction—or helps the private sector move the economy in the direction of job creation and prosperity for everybody.

VALERIE MORRIS, CNNfn CO-ANCHOR, THE FLIPSIDE: At the beginning of the program, I was saying you've done a lot of firsts. You were, in fact, the first female African-American senator, the first female senator from Illinois, the first African-American Democratic senator.

Those are qualifications for aspiring to a higher office, but when you announced your candidacy at Howard University in Washington, D.C., you said I am uniquely qualified to do the job. What makes you, as the only woman running, more uniquely qualified than your fellow candidates?

BRAUN: The range of my credentials and qualifications. I'm a former ambassador. You might say - and also the first envoy to New Zealand to be made an honorary member of the Titiwo (ph) tribe.

But I am a former ambassador. I served at state and local level as well. I'm a former assistant United States attorney and so I bring—and a mom. And so all of those experiences, being a homemaker, balancing a budget to being a senator—on the Senate Finance Committee, I was the first woman in history to serve on the Senate Finance Committee.

And so all of those things put together give me a range of experience and a set of perspectives and experiences that to bring to bear on policy that I don't—that I believe transcends and excels that of any of the guys.

GERRI WILLIS, CNNfn CO-ANCHOR, THE FLIPSIDE: Let's get to some of the issues that I'm eager to talk to you about. One of the issues, of course, the economy that you'll be exploring later today. Republicans always saying Democrats are tax and spend, tax and spend and now we've got a president who has cut taxes and spends.

Tell me whether you think that the president's tax program is working for the economy, does it have any chance of improving the economy in the long run?

BRAUN: See, I don't think trickle-down economics such as been practiced by this administration works. If anything, we've given tax—we've now seen tax cuts, three of them for the top 1 percent of the taxpayers. That has not leeched down or trickled down to create jobs.

And so we are still suffering job hemorrhage and it's leaving Americans feeling very insecure and I think that when that happens, it creates a drag down effect on the whole of the economy. And so, has it worked? I don't think so. We've seen recovery in terms of the stock market numbers, but not in terms of job creation numbers. We're still hemorrhaging jobs and to fix that, I think, we have to look at some systemic issues and the way our economy is directed.

HAYS: OK. I want to quickly remind our viewers, please feel free to call Carol Moseley Braun. She's going to be on that debate podium tonight. 1- 800-304-3638.

You know I'm particularly also want to ask about some of these systemic issues because my point of view is that politicians often can't do much to fix the economy. That there are big issues that you really can't change and right now one of them, ironically, is we're so productive and we've invested in so much new technology but particularly in the factory sector, we just don't need as many workers. You can talk about China but the biggest problem is probably just that. We're almost too good at what we're doing. How would you address something like that?

BRAUN: Well if anything, I think what politicians can do is provide leadership for—and policies that nurture private sector decision-making in one way or another. And in regards to manufacturing specifically, we—our business sector needs to, I think, step up to the plate and make the case that without environmental protections in our trading arrangements, without protections for laborers in our trading arrangements, what we do is give firms in countries that can exploit child labor or exploit workers or the environment, they get to put the benefit of that exploitation in their pricing.

So it puts our American firms at a competitive disadvantage, internationally. So fixing the trade imbalances I think will require having our private sector step up and say we want to have balance in the way the environment is handled. We want to have some balance in the way that conditions of work for workers are handled.

That's something the private sector needs to—government can't impose it really but we can provide leadership with the kind of trade of agreements that we execute and the kind of administration of those trade agreements that we pursue.

MORRIS: I know there's another huge issue that we all want to get to and that is the geopolitical issues that we are facing. It's a large topic. But I'd like to give you an opportunity to tell us an effective way that you would choose to deal with the issues that we're facing. We're looking at Iraq. We're looking at the world in general looking at the United States oftentimes as the aggressor and the occupier. How do you support our issues? What would you change with these policies going forward?

BRAUN: Well, where do I start? I think the issue is to pursue, if you will, our enlightened self-interest as Americans. And what that means, in my opinion, is that we seek balance in our trading arrangements. We seek balance in terms of our relations with the world community. That if we pursue running a nasty dictator out that we do it with this collaboration and the support of the world community.

It is that balance that I think is lacking. And that's one of the reasons I'm running for president of the United States, because I believe that a practical approach would mean that you take the steps to do it step by step, incrementally in the right way. So that you don't wind up hurting our own, the interests, if you will, of the American people. I want to put Americans first in the decision-making that comes out of Washington.

WILLIS: And we're going to put a viewer first here. We have Trisha from Texas.

What's your question or comment?

CALLER: Good morning. I have not voted since Jimmy Carter. And I sure do want to vote again. Now I'm very interested in you Ms. Moseley Braun. I'm very happy that you're running. I would like to ask you what you feel about everything being changed, and even in some places destroyed about church and state. So many things have been done now, changing—taking the 10 commandments, taking Under God out of The Pledge. What do you feel on that? And what changes will you be willing to make if you are elected president?

BRAUN: Well, to begin with I think the change, if anything, that we ought to pursue is getting back to the Constitution. I mean the Constitution gives us a framework that I think every American can embrace. And in that regard, the separation of church and state that the Constitution calls for is one that serves the interests of religion, and the people of religion, people of faith as much as it does the government.

And so I think, if anything, that people of faith really need to consider whether or not we really want to have politicians and bureaucrats with their fingers in the conduct of religion. I don't think so. And so I think we have to be very careful as we handle those issues.

Another place where I think the Constitution ought to give us guidance has to do with the First Amendment and the whole protection of our privacy and our right to privacy. I don't think Americans want to have librarians having—you know forced to turn them in for taking the wrong books out of the library, or their phones and their e-mails tapped.

The right to privacy is something I think we cherish and I think it's something that if we rediscover the Constitution, we will move in that direction.

A third way, and this gets to the geopolitical question that you asked. In the Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, calls on the Congress to issue declarations of war. Now that did not happen in this case, and in fact, it hasn't happened, frankly, since World War II.

We've had these resolutions passed. I think we need to get back to the constitutional prescription because what the framers thought about was that in a democracy, the people will be—there'll be some accountability to the people about those kind of decision, about putting young men and women in harm's way.

And so, again, to answer the question, I think if we look to the guidance of the Constitution and the framers and use that as a starting point for going forward, we'll be better off.

MORRIS: Another caller, Jim from New York, your question or comment, please.

CALLER: Hi. I think you're a great candidate. I might vote for you. But I wanted to ask if you had any ideas about getting rid of electoral college since that seems to screw up every election that we've had for some time?

BRAUN: Well, you know—you know I was actually in—I was in New Zealand when the last election happened. And you can imagine trying to explain the electoral college to Kiwis. It was a little difficult. It was like, well, we thought you had a democracy.

Frankly, I think we should get rid of it. And I'll tell you why. The United States Senate was elected by the state legislatures up until 1918. And the people saw that it made sense to have direct elections of senators and change the system. And now people elect their senators. I think we need to move in that same direction that we're better able to make those choices, and the people ought to elect the president directly.

HAYS: OK. And, again, we're going to let the people speak.

Mel in New York, what's your question or comment?

CALLER: Yeah. Speaking of letting the people determine their choices, I find that politicians want to control my retirement by forcing me, through the Social Security system, which is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme. Are you for getting rid of this Ponzi scheme and letting the people determine how they will run their retirement?

BRAUN: You know, I hate to say it, caller and I don't know which camera to look at.

HAYS: You can just look at us.

BRAUN: Look at you. OK, good. I got to tell you. I couldn't disagree with this caller more. Social Security is there to be a safety net. It's not all of your retirement. In fact, you're supposed to have savings.

They talk about three-legged stool. You're supposed to have savings. You're supposed to have investments but this is the safety net when all else fails and if you want to have some conversation about whether or not this Ponzi scheme, as you call it, is important to save, talk to people from Enron.

I mean, when you have a situation that all people have, the private system, if the market goes down—and you know markets go up and markets go down again—if something happens to the market, you could well wind up 87 years old, too old to support yourself in a job, with nothing to support you but a poorhouse. And that's why Social Security was created in the first place, to provide that bottom below which no one should go and that's why it's important to protect.

WILLIS: And this is sort of the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. You don't hear a lot of candidates saying, well, we got to fix Social Security. What do we need to do to Social Security to make sure people like the caller and other generations will be able to tap into it?

BRAUN: Well, that is our generation's challenge, to make certain that we give the next generation of Americans no less than we inherited from the last one. And preserving and protecting Social Security, I think the first thing we can do is stop taking money out of the trust fund.

I mean our budgetary practices, our fiscal—our budgetary policies ought to be disciplined enough that we stop taking money from Social Security so that we can build up the surpluses that will be sufficient for my generation when my generation retires. After the baby boomers, there's kind of a bust in the demographics.

That's to say there are fewer people and so we can recover by then. But we really do have to get over this hump. And getting over this hump, I think, means that if we are fiscally responsible, don't spend the money now, we can build up the surpluses and it will be able to stay in good fiscal health for the long haul.

MORRIS: We have a caller from Atlanta, Ron, thank you. Please go ahead.

CALLER: Thank you. I just have a question. Why is it after an election, be it Republican or Democrat, neither the Republicans or Democrats can rally behind the president that we elect? Why is that such a problem?

BRAUN: I'm sorry, I didn't hear.

MORRIS: Why is it such a problem that after an election the other candidate doesn't rally behind the person who was elected?

HAYS: He's saying Republicans and Democrats don't rally behind the newly elected president is this caller's question and view, I guess.

BRAUN: I don't think that's - I mean I don't know. That's not been my experience. I have tell you. I was—again, I was not here for the last election so—I was in New Zealand. I came back home after traveling a little bit in Asia. I came back home and I found—I was actually pleasantly surprised that everybody I talked to said you know this is the president.

We had had a very difficult testing of our Constitution, of our institutions. In some other country, there might have been revolution because of what happened in Florida, or whatever. There might have been bloodshed. But there wasn't. And all the American people came together and said this is our president for the next four years. I might not have voted for him. I might not like him. But the fact is he is the president of the United States.

HAYS: I just want to ask because—healthcare. This is such a big deal. It's a big deal for us. We're having to pay more for it. For companies who feel they're being burdened, maybe one reason they're sending jobs overseas. Do you have a plan to fix healthcare so we can afford it and everybody gets it?

BRAUN: Absolutely. And I think that there is another place where I think some vision and leadership on the private side would be helpful. Right now, our private sector is bearing the costs, the burdens of this dysfunctional healthcare system in which we have the private system, lots of them and a number of public systems. We are right now spending 15 percent, almost 15 percent of our GDP on healthcare, more than any other industrialized country in the world. Nobody else in double digits but us.

So what I propose is that we move to a single-payer system, but we decouple it from employment. Take it off the payroll tax. If you take it off payroll tax and shift it, what that will do is give an immediate boost to the wage earners, because they'll get the money in—their checks will be bigger.

It gives an immediate boost to small businesses because they won't be burdened with the cost of providing healthcare. It's give an immediate boost to our export sector, that right now, again, it's competing with companies from countries that provide healthcare. And so their pricing will be more balanced and fair.

And at the same time, we'll achieve universal coverage. I think it can be done. I've seen it done in New Zealand. I've seen a single-payer system work. And frankly, at the core of it, is preserving the physician or the provider and the patient relationship. Letting that drive our healthcare system so that you cover people, keep them from getting sick in the first place, and going to emergency rooms and using the most expensive care.

And then you provide at that level of rational payment system that saves money and gives universal coverage in the process. I think we can do it. I think the business community, I think, is ready to move in that direction.

HAYS: OK. You know we're speaking to Carol Moseley Braun, I'm thinking we could call her Senator. We could call her ambassador. And I guess we'll see. She's going to add maybe another title, maybe madam president. We shall see.

BRAUN: Thank you.

HAYS: Thank you so much for joining us.

BRAUN: Delighted. Thank you.

Content and programming Copyright 2003 Cable News Network Transcribed under license by FDCH e-Media, Inc.