CNN "State of the Union with Candy Crowley" - Transcript

Interview

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Let's just say his event will be well attended and closely watched. Republican Senator Jim DeMint joins me now from Clemson, South Carolina.

Senator, thank you so much for taking some time out. I wanted to start off talking about jobs. And what you think has to be in a presidential jobs plan that you will hear about on Thursday night and what cannot be in it.

DEMINT: Well, Candy, I have spent the month of August visiting a lot of businesses, manufacturing plants. I have been on shop floors. I have talked to a lot of the companies that create jobs in South Carolina and across the country. And what they want is less regulation. They just keep talking about the EPA, FCC, all these different agencies, National Labor Relations Board that seem to be harassing companies. They want to know what their health care costs are going to be, what the unemployment costs are going to be. They are actually afraid to hire people because of what they're afraid of what the government will do to them.

I think what I've the president is going to talk about Thursday night is more of the same -- extending unemployment benefits, payroll tax cuts, tax credits for hiring people...

CROWLEY: Can I just interrupt you real quickly and ask you if you are opposed to extending unemployment benefits? Are you opposed to expending the payroll tax cut? Are you opposed to those two things?

DEMINT: I just don't think those things are going to create jobs, Candy. What we're trying -- the president appears to be doing, and frankly I am so tired of his speeches, it's going to be hard for me to watch. We need a plan in writing, he needs to send it to us and tell us what it is going to cost so not only congress and the American people can read it, businesses can read it, but without sending something in writing the president makes all of these grand gestures and then it doesn't appear in any legislation and then he will blame congress for not passing something he never sends over.

So it's pretty clear what we need to do to improve our economy. We need to lower the risk of being in business and we need to make sure there is ample reward for creating those risks.

The president has it backwards. He's creating more risk and he's threatening to raise taxes on small businesses. This is not a good formula. In the short-term things that he does, the temporary things that are designed to create more consumption by giving people a little more to spend is not going to help create jobs. It costs an employer, Candy, about $65,000 to create a $40,000 a year job. If he creates a $5,000 a year tax credit, people are not going to hire for that reason. They may take the $5,000 tax credit if they were going to hire anyway, but this is the kind of thing we're hearing from the president, I hope he will do better than that.

CROWLEY: Let me try to zero in on a couple of things just on that. I don't want to argue economics with you, because there are obviously a lot of people out there with varying ideas, but as far as extending unemployment benefits, in your state alone there was over a 10% unemployment rate right now, people who are hurting. So extending kind of the long-term, that is for 99 weeks of unemployment would no doubt help folks in your state, and there are study after studies showing that people on unemployment do spend that cash, sometimes people who have a job and they get a little cash in their check will save it, but those who are unemployed do spend it. Spending money helps the businesses, and as the businesses earn more money they hire people.

So first of all just on a purely sort of helping people basis, isn't extending unemployment something that you would support?

DEMINT: We have to have unemployment. But the longer you make it the more perverse incentives you create. Candy, I have talked to a lot of businesses in South Carolina who can't get employees to come back to work because they are getting unemployment and they're getting food stamps and they say call me when unemployment runs out. CROWLEY: That can't be the bulk of people who are unemployed -- you don't think the bulk of people, the 14 million Americans who are out of work, actually just prefer to stay on unemployment benefits?

DEMINT: No. There are a lot of people who desperately need it and we need to make sure that we have that safety net in place, but we also have to realize there are a lot of people gaming the system right now. And we need to do better than we have done with just extending benefits, there have to be incentives for people to get back to work. These have to phase out in a way that we haven't done it before.

I am looking forward to hearing what our presidential candidates say on Monday, the Republican candidates, about what to do with jobs, what to do with unemployment, but certainly we have to help those who are in need. But we do have to realize every time we create a government program like this, people game the system just like they do with food stamps and other things. And we need to make sure our incentives move people back into the workforce, rather than keep them at home.

CROWLEY: Let me move you to a discussion on the Tea Party. As you know, we often refer to you as a Tea Party king maker, Tea party favorite, and you are on to the...

DEMINT: Don't.

CROWLEY: Certainly people are coming to your forum, a good many of them accepted your invitation simply because you are seen as somewhat of a power broker. And I want to show you a Quinnipiac poll from mid-August which talks about whether people have a favorable or unfavorable view of the Tea Party. 57 percent of Republicans have a favorable impression of the Tea Party, but when you look at independents, only 26 percent of independents have a favorable view of the Tea Party.

So what would you rather have in a presidential candidate? Do you want somebody who adheres to Tea Party values or do you want the most electable person? Because you can't win elections without independents.

DEMINT: You're exactly right. But there is no the Tea Party. I mean, a lot of Obama and a lot of the Democrats, folks in the media have tried to speak of the Tea Party in derogatory terms and suggest that it's a small right-wing group, but over 70 percent of Americans think we need to balance our budget and stop adding to the debt, that's pretty much what the Tea Party is, it's thousands of small groups around the country who are concerned about the spending, the borrowing and the debt, and for every person who goes to a Tea Party rally, there are hundreds of people who share those concerns.

So what the Democrats are criticizing is legitimate genuine citizen activism, which has brought some accountability to Washington. And that's what I want to be part of.

CROWLEY: But why do you think only 26 percent of independents have a favorable view of it? Do you think it's just PR? DEMINT: Well yeah, they have been blamed for the downgrade and all of these other things and obstruction, which they haven't had anything to do with. These are active citizens. And they -- I have been to Tea Party rallies, Candy, they include a lot of Democrats, libertarians, conservatives, and lot of independents.

So it really is a case where you've the media putting down the Tea Party and then a pollster coming in and saying what do you think of them?

But if you ask what do you think of citizen activism, people who are concerned about reducing spending, borrowing and the debt you're going to find 70 percent of Americans agree with that. So it's not so much the label Tea Party, it's just getting citizens active. And that's what I am trying to listen, that's the voice I am trying to take to Washington.

I am not a head of the Tea Party. There's no head of the Tea Party. The good thing about the Tea Party, is no one a head of it. There are thousands of leaders that who have become active as citizens. And I think as Americans understand more about that, that's something they really appreciate.

CROWLEY: You have kept your powder dry, as they say, when it comes to selecting somebody that you think will be your choice for the presidential nominee from the Republican Party. And so I understand you wanted to hear from them and all of that, what I want to know is when you look at the slate of Republicans who are in there now, is there anyone you could not support should they win the nomination?

DEMINT: Well, Candy I appreciate CNN televising the forum that we are doing on Monday. This is a chance for the candidates to define themselves in their own terms. And we've picked the candidates that are over 5 percent of the poll so we've narrowed the field a little. And they all have strengths. And there is no one in the group that I couldn't support as our nominee, and there's no one who would not do a better job than our current president.

So I'm very open right now. I'm listening to what they say.

DEMINT: I want to find the candidates who understand the principles of American exceptionalism and have the character, the courage, and the confidence to actually lead the greatest nation in the world.

CROWLEY: South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, thanks for your time.

DEMINT: Thank you, Candy.

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