ABC "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" - Transcript

Interview

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STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to bring in Congressman Grijalva. And you're going to get the last word. But what if the Republicans do call the president's bluff, pass the tax cut extension for the middle class, but nothing else? That's going to be mean no extension of unemployment benefits, the sequester kicks in, cuts in both domestic and defense spending, and the president will have no more leverage after that fact. Isn't that true?

GRIJALVA: I think the leverage is there for the president, George. I really do. I'm happy the president and the Democrats are not negotiating with themselves this round. They're actually negotiating with people that are in a position in the House to make the decisions.

And -- and if the middle class is -- if that's the vote we take, that is a good vote, it is a step toward in a direction. But I think that one of the issues that's being left alone in this whole discussion is the amnesia of how we got into this situation, who's responsible for the situation. And to blame the three programs that we're talking about -- Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- as the drivers of this deficit is a mistake.

The drivers happened long ago, two wars on a credit card, financial institutions that didn't -- that took -- abused the American people, and now we're being asked to go back to the same people that have endured this crisis and ask them to pay up again. No. No.

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