FOX "Interview With Senator Ben Nelson" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. GALLAGHER: Let's bring in Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. He's a Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. Sir, thank you for joining us.

SEN. NELSON: Thank you.

MR. GALLAGHER: It seems like hour by hour, day by day this thing is losing popularity, not only in the public but in Congress as well.

SEN. NELSON: Well, I don't know if it's losing popularity. I think what's happening is we're focusing on -- on several tiers of spending. There is that tier of spending that is basically robust in the creation of new jobs and -- and retaining jobs that are in existence. That is the tier one. But you have some other tiers where it's a little less stimulative and some that don't seem to be very stimulative at all.

MR. GALLAGHER: So why not separate them, Senator? Why not take the stuff --

SEN. NELSON: I think both Republicans and Democrats want to improve it.

MR. GALLAGHER: Pardon me, sir. Why not take the stuff that's not stimulative out of the bill and then pass the stuff that is stimulative and get the rest of this stuff out of there? It's all kind of lumped together in an $819 billion bill.

SEN. NELSON: That's the plan. That's the plan. That that is not stimulative and only marginally stimulative we're looking to take out, so that you leave in it -- in this package -- that which will in fact be robust in job stimulation, creation and retention.

MR. GALLAGHER: But I think therein lies the problem, is that you've got a lot of debate now saying that some of these shovel-ready projects are in fact -- shovel-ready means 12 to 18 months. And so when you say "marginally stimulative," you could be talking years down the road. Why not take the money that we know will get into the bloodstream tomorrow, next month and five months and vote on that, and the rest of the money that we think might take a couple or three years, let's wait on that and make prudent decisions and then take it as it comes?

SEN. NELSON: Well, I think there's a lot of discussion about something that's going to take two to three years. But for the most part -- at least, I think, 70 percent of what we're talking about in infrastructure is shovel-ready and will be nearly immediate. You've got -- you've got the weather to deal with and you've got other things to be concerned about, but the plan is to get that into the ground with jobs as quickly as possible. I don't think that the majority of it or even a significant minority of it is going to take two or three years out there, although some of it will be spread out over some period of time because the projects are going to take that -- that length of time.

MS. MACCALLUM: Senator Nelson, Martha MacCallum here. I just wanted to ask you one quick question.

SEN. NELSON: Sure.

MS. MACCALLUM: Can you tell me specifically what you would like to see taken out of this bill, and what also what you think is likely to be trimmed out of the bill in the Senate?

SEN. NELSON: Well, just a few examples.

There's $350 million in the bill for computers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; another $100 million for a certain kind of research; $1.1 billion for medical research to determine which medical procedures are more effective than others. Now, those may be important things to do, and they can be done in the regular budget process. Or, as in the case of the smoking cessation, which they already have taken out, $75 million has already been taken out. But it was in there as well.

So really there are --

MS. MACCALLUM: Right.

SEN. NELSON: -- a myriad of those kinds of programs, all of which are basically good, that don't belong in the stimulus package.

MR. GALLAGHER: And it seems to me that even Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, was just saying, well, the media is focusing on some $770 million, as if 770 million (dollars) is just throwaway money these days.

SEN. NELSON: Oh, it's more money than that. We're talking in the billions and tens of billions that we're looking to exclude from this -- this particular program because they will be primarily spending -- largely spending not as stimulative as some of the other programs, which we -- which we are certainly going to fight to keep in.

MR. GALLAGHER: Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska. Sir, thank you.

SEN. NELSON: Thank you.

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