CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: National Debt

Interview

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HILL: Let's get Senator Rand Paul in here. He's a Republican from Kentucky, so frustrated with the way things have been going on the debt crisis talks, that he's threatening to filibuster.

Thanks for being with us.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Good to be with you, E.D.

HILL: So, would you filibuster?

PAUL: Well, actually, we already are. We have been filibustering since last Friday. Sometimes you don't know it because it's not like Jimmy Stewart, where we're always talking and monopolizing the floor.

But when we came back this week, they threatened to go and they had planned on going to talk about Libya. And so we said we wouldn't. So yesterday they scheduled a vote to force it, to go to Libya and away from the debt ceiling, and we got enough votes yesterday to actually win a victory and they canceled the vote.

Now we want them to talk about the debt ceiling. So tomorrow we will be releasing our solution for the debt ceiling. We, some of the most conservative members of the Senate and House, will raise the debt ceiling, contingent on three items. We want significant cuts, statutory caps, like Gramm-Rudman was, pay as you go. And then we also want a balanced amendment. If we get these, we will agree to a balanced -- we will agree to raise the debt ceiling.

HILL: OK, I know that both sides are pretty far apart. There's just a basic disagreement on how you fix the problems of the country, how do you stimulate the economy, how do you do things, which comes first.

Would you accept piecemeal? So, if you had -- say the president comes out and he says, I will -- I will agree to a balanced budget amendment if you get rid of this first and then let's sit down and talk about it? Would you believe him?

PAUL: Well, I think the message of the election last time was that the American people are tired of politics as usual up here -- 14 percent of the American people think that Congress is doing a good job.

And it's because 75 percent of the people want a balanced budget amendment, and yet we won't act on it. So I think this is a time to draw a line in the sand and say, look, you aren't trusted to be spending our money wisely, so we shouldn't give you anymore. And that's why we should draw a line in the sand and we should say, look, the only way we will ever fix our fiscal problems is by having a balanced budget amendment. But I do think there is one room for compromise.

The Democrats say, oh, the rich have to share more of the burden in fixing the debt. Well, one way to allow the rich to share more of the burden is, have them pay more or pay the full coast of their Medicare benefits, and have them receive less in their Social Security.

So, if you want the rich to pay more of the burden or share more of the burden, that's a compromise Republicans could live with. But if you just want to raise taxes by taking away business deductions, look, we're all businesses. Anybody that has saved any money owns a part of a corporation. We own all parts of oil companies. They're not some obscure rich person we don't know; it's us.

So just to raise taxes on business isn't a good idea. But if they want the rich to share more of the burden, let's means test the entitlement programs.

HILL: When you say, this is something we can agree on, are the leaders -- is the entire Senate, is the House in agreement? Because I get the sense that there are groups of people that are sort of going out there and they're saying, well, I'll do it if you do this, and another group says, I'll do it if you do that.

Is everyone together on this?

PAUL: Well, we're going to find out. I think we may get the entire Republican Caucus behind the idea that we should have cuts, caps and a balanced budget amendment. We already have 47 Republicans behind a balanced budget amendment and we have 75 percent of the American people. Several of us have been talking to House members, and we're trying to talk to leadership in the House as well. And so, I think we have a chance.

But I think the new people here are closest to the electorate. I mean, we just all finished an election, and I feel like the American people were tired of what they've been getting. They want something new and they want somebody who will actually fix the problems up here.

HILL: Well, I get the sense that especially in the House, a lot of the freshmen are saying we were sent in here to not be like the regular politicians in Washington, and they really are willing to go rogue on this.

If you were to -- if you were to cap this thing, you know, handicap it, what do you think is going to happen? Are we going to get to August 2cd and still be talking?

PAUL: I hope we are. I think the pressure mounts as we get closer to the date, but those of us who believe that government shouldn't spend what it doesn't have, and shouldn't spend money that we borrow from China, we need to hold firm. The other thing we need to tell the American people is there's no reason to ever default. We bring in $200 billion a month in revenue. Our interest payment is $20 billion. The president should take that off the table and he should tell the American people that he won't default.

If we default, it's because the president is not doing his job. The president has the revenue and the money to pay interest on the debt. There's not a problem. Some things would have to shut down. We might have a partial shutdown of government, but he has enough money to pay interest, Social Security, soldier salaries. There's plenty of money for about 70 percent of government. But we have to decide why 30 percent of government, we don't have enough money for. That's the imbalance, and we have to do something about it.

HILL: All right, Senator Rand Paul, thank you for joining us.

PAUL: Thank you.

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