MSNBC "Interview With Senator Ben Nelson" - Transcript
Copyright ©2009 by Federal News Service, Inc., Ste. 500, 1000 Vermont Ave, Washington, DC 20005 USA. Federal News Service is a private firm not affiliated with the federal government. No portion of this transcript may be copied, sold or retransmitted without the written authority of Federal News Service, Inc. Copyright is not claimed as to any part of the original work prepared by a United States government officer or employee as a part of that person's official duties. For information on subscribing to the FNS Internet Service at www.fednews.com, please email Carina Nyberg at cnyberg@fednews.com or call 1-202-216-2706.
MS. O'DONNELL: Joining us now live from Capitol Hill is Democratic Senator Ben Nelson. He's been working with Republican Susan Collins to cut down the cost of the bill.
Senator, good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.
SEN. NELSON: Nice to see you, Norah. Thank you.
MS O'DONNELL: Absolutely. You know, the first test, of course, of this compromise proposal comes this evening when the Senate begins this procedural vote on your proposal. So far, only three Republicans have signed on. Can we expect any more?
SEN. NELSON: Well, I don't know. When we actually take the vote, we'll find out. But there were more Republicans involved in putting this package together. We had six at almost every drafting or negotiationg session, as well as with a dozen Democratic senators. So it had a lot more bipartisan input than might meet the eye when perhaps there were only three who are committed to vote for it.
MS. O'DONNELL: No doubt you have been working hard on some of the cuts to this plan. But they've been criticized, including by the president today. I want to play what the president said about those education cuts. Take a listen.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: (From videotape.) The Senate version cut a lot of these education dollars. I would like to see some of it restored. And over the next few days as we're having these conversations, we should talk about how we can make sure that we're investing in education.
MS. O'DONNELL: Well, what about that, Senator? You've been working hard on making all these cuts, and now the president says he doesn't really like what you guys did. Maybe he's closer to the House version.
SEN. NELSON: Well, I think it's important to point out that we left in the $13 billion-plus for the special education. Actually, when it comes to educational spending within this bill and investment in the future, it's about $60 billion. And when you realize that the U.S. Department of Education's total budget for the year is $40 billion, this is one-and-a-half times more than their regular budget plus the omnibus bill will be passed in the very near future. And that's on top of the 60 billion (dollars).
So when you look at 100 billion (dollars) for education in the short run in the days ahead, that's a sizable commitement to education, nothing that I feel uncomfortable with. We'd like to do more. We'd like to do a lot of things. But you have to balance the cost versus what you are able to do.
MS. O'DONNELL: Well, Senator, Paul Krugman of The New York Times, of course, who won a Nobel Prize in economics, was pretty tough on centrists like yourself. I'm sure you read it today in the New York Times. Let me read it to you and to our viewers.
He writes, quote, "Mr. Obama was reduced to bargaining for the votes of those centrists. And the centrists predictably extracted a pound of flesh, not, as far as anyone can tell, based on any coherent economic argument, but simply to demonstrate their centrist mojo. They probably would've demanded that 100 billion (dollars) or so be cut from anything Mr. Obama proposed. By coming in with such a low initial bid, the president guaranteed that the final deal would be much too small."
What about that, Senator? They said that centrists like yourself -- Paul Krugman says you've ruined this bill.
SEN. NELSON: Well, you know, I don't know where he's from, but I'll tell you, in Nebraska, $60 billion for education on top of $40 billion, that's 100 billion (dollars). That's a pretty big commitment to education nationwide. Now, this is on top of what the states are able to do. The governors have the opportunity within their special fund that they can put more money into school construction and in other areas of education.
So I don't -- I'm not going to take a backseat to anybody on what we've done here. The president said he wanted something in the $80 billion dollar or $800 billion dollar. We gave him 780 (billion dollars); we want to hold to that. I think, at some point, we have to be able to put together bipartisanship. And there was a lot of effort to put into hold the line on the top line part of this package.
MS. O'DONNELL: And just a small point here, if I could. I'm reading a story in the L.A. Times today. The closer that this stimulus package gets to the House version, adding in some of these education cuts and other things, maybe scaling back on those tax cuts, all these changes that you've made, do you end up losing Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter?
SEN. NELSON: Yes. (Chuckles.)
MS. O'DONNELL: All right.
SEN. NELSON: In a word, yes.
And that's why it's important to recognize this is a concensus. And I didn't get everything that I wanted. They didn't get everything that they wanted. We never do.
If there's give-and-take, you can put things together. That's why it's truly a bipartisan effort. There's -- there are commitments in here that are very strong for job creation.
MS. O'DONNELL: Mm-hmm.
SEN. NELSON: We can't walk away and forget the fact that this is about jobs, not just investing in education, but about jobs. It's about keeping people working and putting people to work.
MS. O'DONNELL: Yeah.
SEN. NELSON: That's what stimulus is all about.
MS. O'DONNELL: Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat, thank you so much for joining us.
SEN. NELSON: Thank you, Norah.
Source