Fox News - Transcript

Interview

Fox News - Transcript

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MS. KELLY: Republicans are rallying opposition to the bill, particularly in the House, still demanding more tax cuts and less spending, but the Democrats are now not budging.

Congressman Stephen Lynch is a member of the House Government Reform Committee. He is a Democrat and he joins us live.

Good morning, congressman.

REP. LYNCH: Good morning, Megyn. How are you?

MS. KELLY: I'm doing great, thanks. I want to talk to you about some of these controversial provisions. I know a couple of them have been taken out. I know that contraception is now out, the money for the contraception.

REP. LYNCH: Right.

MS. KELLY: The money for the National Mall to be --

REP. LYNCH: Correct.

MS. KELLY: The sod on the National Mall, that's out, but the Republicans -- we had Mike Pence on last hour. We've had some others on who are complaining still that the thing is full of what they consider to be pork, and yesterday, we talked about this $4.1 billion that is in there for neighborhood stabilization activities, which could be funneled to groups like ACORN, this left wing group that was accused of voter registration fraud in the course of the elections.

Is that particular provision, the $4.1 billion for neighborhood stabilization activities that could go to ACORN still in there?

REP. LYNCH: It could go to ACORN. It could go to a lot of other people as well. What we tried to do in meeting with the governors and the mayors across the country was to give them some discretion on how to spend that money, you know, that's simply the way things work. They will know best what needs their individual cities and states have.

So there has to be some discretion on the part of the local government. It doesn't mean that ACORN is going to get the money. There's nothing in there. They're not mentioned in the bill. If someone, you know, is going to give them money, they're going to pay for it, I guess.

MS. KELLY: Do you want money going to ACORN? You saw all the federal investigation of that group and more than a dozen states investigating allegations of voter registration fraud.

REP. LYNCH: Right. Right.

MS. KELLY: You don't want money going to ACORN, do you?

REP. LYNCH: In certain areas, I think there's been indications of fraud. I've also seen in my district that they have been the most active group in terms of trying to help people with foreclosure prevention. So there may be certain officers of that investigation that have been found to handle money poorly and they should be shut out, but there are other organizations within that umbrella that have been doing a good job.

So I think you have to make a case-by-case judgment and that will be the part of the mayors and the governors in spending that money.

MS. KELLY: I know the controversy over that continues, we've gotten a lot of e-mails from our viewers on it, but I want to move on to some other things. There's $600 million for new cars for the federal government. This is a spending item that the government already gets $3 billion a year for new cars. Why do we have to give them another $600 million for cars in the name of stimulus?

REP. LYNCH: Well, these are usual purchases. What they're going to do now is to try to front end them and get rid of some of the big gas guzzlers and try to go to more fuel-efficient models.

This is government expenditures that would have been made down the line anyway, three to five years and what they're doing now is front ending them to try to help the auto industry, obviously.

MS. KELLY: All right. So it's one thing to front end them, I mean, I understand your point, but why not if it's not immediate stimulus, if it's more something that's going to happen down the line, a normal spending thing that you would consider in Congress, why not treat it as such? Why rush it through in the name of stimulus? Put that towards a later time when it can be fully debated and get to it then, but don't crush it down the throats of the American people now in the name of stimulus.

REP. LYNCH: I think you've raised a great point, Megyn, and like you, I reject the idea of the big bang theory that we're going to just jam all this money in a hurry. I think there may be some significant waste in the way we spend that money and I think you're exactly right. I think if we took a little bit more time -- we saw this happen with the TARP program. I voted against the $700 billion in the TARP because I thought it was front-ended too quickly and spent recklessly in some cases without the necessary accountability and I think if we're not careful, we could do the same thing here with this larger package, the $825 billion.

MS. KELLY: So you were prescient on that one, congressman, as it turns out, unfortunately. But let me ask you about that. So if you think that it should be slowed down in part, or at least parts of it, how do you do that? Because it seems like particularly in your chamber, in the House, it's kind of a done deal, your fellow Democrats are going to vote yes, maybe you'll vote yes to the bill as is and that will be it like there's no real compromise coming or is there?

REP. LYNCH: Well, to be honest with you, this is a whole lot of money, $825 billion. Just physically, structurally, it is impossible to have a quick injection within 90 days. I think we are looking at 18 months and I think it would serve us well and the taxpayer to take some time with some of the tranches that may be further out for purchases, to make sure that we have the right safeguards in place.

This is the appropriations and authorization process, but I still think the Congress has the obligation to do oversight on the expenditure of these monies and, you know, this is not going to happen overnight. This is going to happen, you know, 18 months out, two years out, just because of the physical impossibility of spending all this money at once.

So I think we could use that time going forward.

MS. KELLY: Well, Congressman Stephen Lynch, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate your insights.

REP. LYNCH: Thank you, Megyn.

MS. KELLY: All the best.

END.

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