MSNBC "MSNBC Interview With Senator John Tester" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. O'DONNELL: Joining us live from Capitol Hill is Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana. And he serves on the Senate Banking Committee.

Senator, good to see you.

SEN. TESTER: Good to see you, Norah.

MS. O'DONNELL: How likely is it that there will be a deal today?

SEN. TESTER: Well, I don't know that there will be one today. I think that, you know, after the work that we've done over the last two, three weeks that Chairman Dodd is working with the White House and probably with folks from the House too, as far that goes, to try to get a proposal worked out. But I have yet to see anything at this point in time.

MS. O'DONNELL: What kind of conditions should automakers agree to, in order to get this $15 billion in taxpayer money?

SEN. TESTER: Well, I think, they already agreed to one condition that, I think, was good. And that's the $1 CEO pay a year. Puts some skin in the game, for them, and really gives them some impetus to really move these countries -- these companies into a profitable situation.

But over and above that, I will tell you that there's a lot of important things they need to agree with. Number one, there needs to be a board or a czar, either way you want to do it, for oversight, that has real oversight of these companies when it comes to potential restructuring. I don't care if we're talking about GM singularly or if we're talking about a blanket loan for all of them.

There also -- the taxpayers need to be protected. So the first money out goes to the taxpayers, when these loans are paid off. And then finally I think that the money needs to be -- any money that's available, U.S. taxpayer dollars, should be spent in this country to help increase our manufacturing base here.

I think one of the things that would disturb me, with any of the auto makers going down, is that we would lose some more of our manufacturing base. Well, if the taxpayers put up $15 billion for GM, for example, and they spend that money somewhere else, other than this country, we really haven't gotten where we need to be.

MS. O'DONNELL: Senator, are you satisfied that the automakers have put forward a detailed plan about how they plan to be viable in the long term?

SEN. TESTER: Not entirely satisfied. I will tell you that I would have felt a lot more comfortable if they'd have talked about improving their mileage significantly, being on the cutting edge of miles per gallon in this world.

MS. O'DONNELL: So why are we going to give them $15 billion?

SEN. TESTER: Well, I don't know that I am yet. I've got to see the proposal. And the devils are in the detail, Norah.

We're talking about a bunch of workers that -- I don't care if it's before or after Christmas -- would have some significant impacts on us if they went out of business. But that doesn't mean you just give them $15 billion.

What it means is, you make sure that they have every opportunity to succeed, if we give them the money, over the long term. If they're back here in six years or a month, we haven't really done the job we need to do.

MS. O'DONNELL: Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana.

Great to see you, Senator.

SEN. TESTER: Thank you very much.

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