NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript

Interview

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MR. GREGORY: Congressman Schilling, with fresh eyes on this, you're new to Congress, you're new to the foreign policy establishment debates. Here was a stalwart ally for 30 years in the Middle East and, poof, he is gone. And it's not really clear where things go now. What concerns you?

REP. BOBBY SCHILLING (R-IL): You know, my big concern is that however this gets resolved, it's in a peaceful fashion and that we still stand with Israel. I think that's the key.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

REP. SCHILLING: Keeping strong.

MR. GREGORY: And, and, and you hear the, the Egyptian military saying today that all those international agreements will be kept. But this will certainly be a big issue in Congress, is making sure that whatever leadership takes over, we'll honor that peace treaty.

REP. SCHILLING: That's exactly right.

MR. GREGORY: I also want to turn to spending for both you and Mayor Reed, because that's the other big story, of course, this week, and will be next week as well.

It was interesting, Congressman Schilling, this was the, the quote in the State Journal Register as you were bound for Washington, you promised, "Schilling: Not Boehner's clone." And you and other tea party folks certainly lived up to that in the last couple of weeks, because you came in and said, "Hey, wait a minute. We made a promise about how much spending we were actually going to cut. We haven't lived up to it." Are you satisfied now or still upset about how the leadership handled it?

REP. SCHILLING: You know, I'm, I'm actually quite satisfied with them. I, I mean, the thing that's nice about the leadership is that they, they are giving us a voice. You know, they could say, you know, "Hey, look it," you know, "you guys don't count. We're just going to run the way we want." And that's the thing I have noticed with the leadership. You know, here's the thing we've got to remember is that we've got 87 new freshmen here and there are some major growing pains, so it's not going to be perfect, but we will strive towards perfection. So I'm pretty happy with it.

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MR. GREGORY: Right. Congressman, what, what do you say to that?

REP. SCHILLING: You know, I, I think that, you know, this is going to be done in phases. And I think that every American out there pretty much realizes that we have to go after the entitlement programs. I, I believe, truly, that everything is on the table, across the board.

MR. GREGORY: Spell out what you mean. Are you for raising the retirement age on Social Security?

REP. SCHILLING: You know, I don't know if that's going to be part of it. I--you know...

MR. GREGORY: Means testing benefits?

REP. SCHILLING: You--here's the thing, is, I mean, I'm a small business owner that got into this because I was sick and tired of watching the direction the country was going. It wasn't going the right way. And, I mean, November the second, there was a mandate across this great nation saying, "We've had enough of this. What's going on?" So, you know, do I know exactly where the cuts--I know as a small business owner, what I do is I trouble shoot in, I find the problem, I go in and I...

MR. GREGORY: I know, but Congressman, this is, this is the real problem. If you want to--if you're a tea party guy, you come in here and you say, "We've got to lower--we've got to really reduce government." I mean, we know what the issues are.

REP. SCHILLING: Correct.

MR. GREGORY: We know what the choices are that have to be made. So on Social Security, you're either for raising the retirement age or cutting benefits or some combination of raising taxes. So what are you prepared to do? And if you're not prepared to do something, then how can you really claim leadership when it comes to reducing the scope of government?

REP. SCHILLING: You know, like I said, I think we need to have everything on the table. Whether it's, it's raising a lot--I'm not going to say--commit to raising the, the age of Social Security. But here's the thing is, if we do nothing, we know it's broke, so we've got to put everything on the table and make good decisions. You know, if we do--if we continue the path we're going, we're going bankrupt.

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MR. GREGORY: And, Congressman Schilling, talk about the impact of the tea party on a primary process. Because these, these folks who are looking at the presidency are, are understanding that part of these debates that play out in Congress will have an impact on how the primary process goes.

REP. SCHILLING: Yeah, you know, that's very true. And I think that, I, I, I personally believe that we've seen phase one of phase two coming. I think 2012 is going to show another phase. But I, I--the thing that, that's really interesting about the Taxed Enough Already Party, because we kind--tend to kind of label them tea party, is that, you know, they're going to hold people accountable either side. And I was told, "Hey, you know what, if you, if you go against the things we've sent you there for, we're going to work just as hard to get you out." So I, I think we're going to see another phase come through. But it's just a matter of time, so.

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