FOX "On The Record" - Transcript

Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Senators from both sides of the aisle are here to go "On the Record." First, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Of course, he's not particularly happy with this. He was here with us last night joining us, and he wasn't happy last night.

And I don't think, Senator Graham, in reading your comments that you're particularly happy tonight. In fact, you were just on the floor talking about President Obama and the concept of change. Senator, do we have change?

SEN. GRAHAM: I think we've got the worst of the old system. And we've blown it. We had a chance to really change the culture in Washington when it comes to spending. Not one penny is going to be saved by this so-called compromise. It's probably going to cost us more money. There's a lot of money that has nothing to do with creating a job. This has been an appropriator's wish list come true. The president, I think, has missed a great opportunity to bring the country together. There are at least 15 Republicans I know of that would have met somewhere in the middle. There are 178 Republicans in the House, 40 in the Senate, and we got two. These are my friends, but that's not bipartisanship.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: What difference does it make to the president that it's not bipartisan? I mean, he peeled off three Republicans, at least that's the way it looks. I mean, he won. He wanted a bill, and he got it. It may not have sort of the title of being bipartisan, but what difference to him?

SEN. GRAHAM: I think he's lost a lot. Number one, the American people don't like this bill. Forget about me, forget about the Republicans. Why do 60 percent of the people, why are they upset with this bill? Because it's not directed, it's not timely, it's not focused. And we've got to spend money on housing and banking. We've got a lot more money to be spent. I think we've wasted a lot of money. So I think the way he's conducted himself, the speech last night, this is not change we can believe in. He promised something new. Nancy Pelosi started this process with, we won, we write the bill. The president never jumped in to change that dynamic at all. And there were some Republicans that could really have made this thing a strong bipartisan vote if we tried to save some money and be more focused. So if the president thinks he's won, then I'm very disappointed because this is not winning for the American people, having a bill this big and you can only get two Republicans.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: All right, give me the behind the scenes. I know it's very collegial in the U.S. Senate. But what happens now with the three Republicans? Are they sort of bad vibed a little bit? I know that they're your friends and everything, but I know you're very disappointed. Senator McCain is disappointed, Mitch McConnell, I mean, a lot of disappointed Republicans. What do you do? Bad vibe the three?

SEN. GRAHAM: No. I've been the odd guy out. I respect my colleagues very much, but here's what I've been disappointed in. Senator Specter said, well, we have to act. I know we've got to act, but we've got to be smart when we act, and this is the best we could do. It's basically the two Republican colleagues telling the rest of us, we never had any belief that you wanted to act and that you could have not done better than us. That's really a slam on us. I wanted to act, and I think we could have done better if we had acted together. But it's behind us now, and I am very disappointed. And the American people should not celebrate anything tonight because they didn't win anything.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Well, so next it goes -- you've got to reconcile it with the House. In your mind, is it going to or likely to get, quote, "worse," according to your viewpoint?

SEN. GRAHAM: We've got to sit down with Nancy Pelosi and make this bill better. Good luck.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Good luck. I take it you're not going to be one of the people sitting down on this one.

SEN. GRAHAM: (Laughs.) I'm not going to be in the room but the people who are reconciling will, the ones who started this mess. And it's not a stimulus package. This is an appropriation package. It's a spending bill, not a job-creation bill. So no, I don't think it's going to get better. I think our Democratic friends own this one, and that's a shame because America needs us to do better, be smart, work together, and we didn't do it tonight. You know, blame who you'd like, but we spent 1.1 trillion (dollars) of your money, and we're going to have a lot of money spent that doesn't create jobs. And we haven't done anything about housing, substantively, or banking, and I think a big loss for the taxpayer tonight.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Well, I know that you're immensely unhappy with it, as are many-minus-three Republicans on it. Senator, thank you very much for joining us.

SEN. GRAHAM: Thank you.

Source