BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
MADDOW: Joining us now is Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
Senator Merkley, thanks very much for your time tonight.
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Oh, it"s great to be with you, Rachel.
MADDOW: So, Senator, the new Democratic senator from West Virginia is expected to finally be sworn in tomorrow. Should we expect that that will mean the Senate will finally be able to extend unemployment benefits?
MERKLEY: You should be able to expect that. And it"s none too soon because we"re having a situation in states like mine, in Oregon, we have 40,000 people who have lost their unemployment benefits. If you put that across the country, that"s 4 million people. So, we really have a contrast here with programs to help the wealthiest or programs to help working Americans bridge through this deep recession to a better time.
MADDOW: Republicans are arguing now that the reason to help the wealthiest Americans is because doing so is free. Extending the top tier of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans is just--is something that wouldn"t add to the deficit. What"s your--what"s your reaction to that?
MERKLEY: Well, may reaction--this is like a summer sequel of a horror film. We"ve been there. We"ve seen exactly what happened under the Bush administration.
We saw the national debt double. We saw none of these giveaways to the wealthiest produced income. And we saw that in--it worked in tandem with shipping jobs overseas.
So, if this is the idea of a national Republican economic policy, well, let"s have that debate and we"ll bring to bear the statistics on just how it worked out the last time.
MADDOW: In terms of specific policies to try to--not only grow the economy but to try to alleviate some of the pain that"s being felt in specific parts of the economy, I know that, right now, you"re trying to push through a small business lending fund. Republicans, as I understand it, are currently blocking that. What"s the source of their opposition?
MERKLEY: You know, this is really strange. This is a program to help out banks on Main Street make loans to small businesses. We hear from small businesses in every single state that they are constrained by their access to credit. They need that credit to seize opportunities, to grow, to take us out of this recession. Most importantly, to create jobs.
So, here, we have a program that CBO has scored as making the treasury $1 billion over the next 10 years. And yet it could create credit equal to about $300 billion of credit to small businesses.
But the Republicans are opposing it. And why is that? There"s no rational reason unless the goal is to drive the American economy into a double dip recession.
MADDOW: You feel like, honestly, that Republicans are opposing the policies they"re opposing, and promoting the policies they"re promoting because they want a bad economic outcome?
MERKLEY: Well, you know, I didn"t come to D.C. as cynical as I feel here a year and a half later as a senator. What I have seen is everything politicized by the primary elections and the general election plan for this year. And it certainly appears that all sense has lost all sorts of partnership to make American economy work for working Americans is gone. So, if a program is going to restore credit to small businesses, then the Republican leadership is against it.
And we can"t let that happen. We need to have this conversation. We have to have this national debate, and I think the American people will say that program is not for us.
MADDOW: Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, it"s a real pleasure to have you on the show tonight, sir. Thanks for your time.
MERKLEY: Great to be with you. Thank you.
MADDOW: Appreciate it.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT