Larry King Live - Transcript
Larry King Live - Transcript
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KING: Welcome back to this special Sunday night edition of LARRY KIND LIVE. Joining us now from Topeka, Kansas is Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, not up for election until 2010.
And here in New York, is Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, he's also up for re- election in 2010. He's chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
How does it look in the Senate -- Senator Schumer.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), CHAIR DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN CMTE: Well, it's looking pretty good. When we started out two years ago, the goal Harry Reid and I set was to keep 45 seats. Now, we're on the edge of taking back the Senate, it's not a done deal, don't give the high-fives yet, but we're real close.
KING: Senator Brownback, how does it look from your standpoint? I understand the president's coming to Kansas today, right?
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: He is, and I've been on the ground in a number of these key election states, as well, I've been in Montana, I've been in Tennessee, I've been in Ohio. We're seeing a surge take place on the Republican part. It has been a tough election cycle for the Republicans. But we're seeing, particularly in the Senate, we're seeing a surge taking place for a number of candidates, and I think that has to do with a number of factors, particularly judges that have to be confirmed by the Senate, that really causes a lot of people to get out because they want to see a bench that is full of judges and not legislators, people that want to not to rewrite the constitution, but to enforce it.
KING: Is it close? If it is close, in all cases, Senator Schumer, because of Iraq?
SCHUMER: It's in part because of Iraq, it's in part because the average middle class persons, the macro numbers are good, but most of the benefit is going to the people at the top. The average person's wages, in actual terms, haven't gone up, tuition's gone up, health care cost have gone up, energy costs have gone up and Sam is right, that you know, out there to get the base going, which they've been unable to get, the people who care about the judges and all these other, sort of, fairly -- more peripheral issues to the average American are there. But you talk to, not just Democrats, but independent voters and moderate Republicans, they're fed up with George Bush.
KING: What races worry you the most, Senator Brownback?
BROWNBACK: I think if you look on the Senate side, the ones that are most concerning, right next door, Missouri is a key one, Montana has been a key one for us for some period of time. Conrad Burns is surging, but, still it's been a tough race. Rhode Island is close, our guy is up a little bit, Linc Chafee is up a little bit there, it looks like. But, really Larry, at this point in time, it's all about turnout. Mid-term elections are about turnout anyway and right now it's about who shows up at the polls.
KING: True, Senator Schumer? We don't know.
SCHUMER: We don't know, of course. A lot of races are close, we feel we have the edge in them, but Sam is right, turnout will make a big determination. The one big difference is, we learned our lesson -- 2004, Republicans cleaned our clock with turnout. Since the day we took over the DFCC (ph) we've been working on turnout, spent 25 million in Montana and Missouri, we've created a Democratic voter file. We never had one. And we think our turnout operation is going to be every bit as the Republican.
KING: Senator Brownback, the conviction of Saddam Hussein, what factor, do you think in the election?
BROWNBACK: Yeah, I think it's a slight positive for our side. It shows an Iraqi government that's taking charge, that's able to do something difficult, which this is, and a country that's divided between Sunni and Shiites and the Kurds in the north, in particular. But, I don't think it's a major factor overall, but I think it's a slight positive in our favor.
KING: The Evangelical vote, how affected by Mr. Haggerty (ph)?
SCHUMER: I think it's affected by the Haggerty (ph), by the Foley scandal, where the Republicans talked one way, but did another. It's not going to have the strength it had in 2004. It may not be quite as depressed as it was two weeks ago, but it's not going to be like it was in 2004.
KING: Senator Brownback, if the Democrats get the House, what does that do over the next two years?
BROWNBACK: I think you're going to see a lot of gridlock taking place. I think you're going to see taxes likely to go up, because they are -- there's an automatic factor in place here, that if Congress does not act, the taxes automatically go up, these tax cuts, they're off unless something happens. And we've seen Charles Rangel that would head the Tax Writing Committee in the House say he doesn't see any of these tax cuts that he would support. So, I think you're likely to see that and don't think you're likely to see a whole lot of activity taking place.
I do think you're going to see different strategies mover, overall, in Iraq, regardless how the election goes because the message has been sent by the people and received. Everybody's upset, we're upset about what's taking place in Iraq, we need to see new strategies move forward.
SCHUMER: Dick Cheney -- I want to just dispute Sam on two things. Dick Cheney just got up and said, just this week, he's not changing the strategy no matter who wins the election. The president has said he's keeping Donald Rumsfeld. The only group who thinks Iraq is going well is the president and his small coterie.
As for taxes, Sam, we're not going to raise taxes and we will be more fiscally responsible than you have been with raging budget deficits. The way we're going to deal with some of these issues, is to make sure that we are fiscally responsible, we don't spend money on every place up and down the board. And, we are going to make the very wealthy, how don't pay the taxes that are on the books now, pay. You -- right now, under -- over the last few years under Bush's IRS, if you made less than $25,000 you were more likely to be audited than if you made a million dollars. There's $300 billion there of uncollected taxes, we'll collect some of them, and bring that deficit down without raising taxes a nickel.
KING: Lots more to go. Thanks Senator Brownback.
BROWNBACK: Translated, tax increase. Translated, that's a tax increase.
SCHUMER: To you Sam, there's an automatic feature that happens on this.
KING: Wait. We're out of time.
BROWNBACK: (INAUDIBLE)
SCHUMER: Sam, if you think by getting away with paying your taxes, it's a tax increase, if you're a wealthy person, who pays no taxes and you're not paying them and you should pay the same share a middle class person, that's a tax increase.
KING: Senators...
SCHUMER: That's why the Republicans are in trouble.
KING: Thanks Senator Brownback, and thanks Senator Schumer. Lots more to go when we come back, don't go away.
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