CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Debt Limit

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OUTFRONT tonight, Virginia's Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Good to see you, Senator. Really appreciate it.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VIRGINIA: You bet, Erin.

BURNETT: Now, the White House has repeatedly said, look, they don't want to do this in a piecemeal fashion. But, obviously, that is what's happening on some level. Is the president talking out of both sides of his mouth?

KAINE: You know, I don't think so, Erin. Look, I think when we acted earlier, and I can't remember, my days are running together, whether it was last week or over the weekend, to do the military pay. A lot of us thought this had been taken care of.

And when it became clear that it was at least ambiguous or that it wasn't clear, I'm really glad Secretary Hagel stepped in. I'm glad the House did what they did. These benefits are benefits that should be paid.

But the bigger picture is this, that I do think the White House is right that you can't let people shut down the whole government and then selectively decide what they want to reopen, because if you do that, you're going to have a shutdown every year. People who cannot get what they want, who refuse a budget negotiation, will shut the entire government down and then they'll decide who they want to let up off the mat and that's just no way to run the government of the greatest nation on earth.

BURNETT: And what about this deal reported on tonight? Our Dana Bash was just saying, one of the Democratic lawmakers, who just met with the president this afternoon, left and said, they fell the president was more willing to give in terms of a temporary deal.

Now, temporary deal would be in the debt ceiling, unclear if the shutdown is involved. Six weeks.

I hear this and I have to say, I don't know. I get frustrated, right? Because every time, I'm sure you do, too, right?

KAINE: Yes.

BURNETT: Every time there is a little stall, whether it is six weeks or 18 months, we end up right where we are right. So --

KAINE: Well --

BURNETT: Yes, go ahead.

KAINE: Yes, I'll say this to you, Erin. I think we all know that at a minimum, this is going to be a two-step process. If you do a debt ceiling in C.R., as we want to do, we acknowledge there's still -- we're still going to have to come back to do the budget deal for 2014 at a minimum, maybe even a broader one to deal with the sequester. So, there's going to be two steps.

BURNETT: Right.

KAINE: So that the first might be six or might be eight weeks. That's understood. What we need to do is reopen government and affirm that America will honor its debts. But then we need to get into a budget negotiation that the Senate has been trying to do since the 26th of March.

BURNETT: And let me ask but what Paul Ryan wrote today. I'm sure you saw his "Wall Street Journal" op-ed.

KAINE: I did.

BURNETT: You know, saying, look, the stalemate can end because both parties can agree on the need for entitlement and tax reform. You know, he noted a stunning statistic that you know well, right? Entitlement spending is expected to go 79 percent over the next 10 years. He suggested that could be changed with things like increasing the retirement age. And I know plenty of Democrats who agree with that.

Are you open to making a deal that would include those kinds of things? So, we're dealing with the big problems.

KAINE: Erin, when I saw that article by Paul Ryan, I just was -- you've got to be kidding me. We pass ad budget in the Senate in March that basically put a number in for entitlement reform that we want to find savings with entitlement reforms, and we've been trying to go to a conference with the House since the 26th of March and they've been blocking it.

Every time we've tried, we don't want a conference because we don't want to compromise. What they wanted was a confrontation. Not a compromise. And, as you know, less than three hours after they shut government down, they then sent across. OK, now, we're ready to sit down and have a conference, but not about the budget. We want to have a conference over what are the conditions under which we will allow the government of the United States to reopen.

But look, at any point, a compromise and a conference is a good idea. If they finally come to it after six and a half months, of course, we want to sit down and do it.

But there is no reason to keep all these people laid off, private contractors. I met with a bunch of employees and private contractors in my office today, they're all laid off, furloughed. They're all worried about their paychecks.

BURNETT: Right.

KAINE: Why would we keep them laid off? They can come back and we can negotiate.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Senator Kaine. Appreciate your time.

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