CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Ted Cruz, Government Shutdown, and Affordable Care Act

Interview

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Well, OUTFRONT tonight, Republican Congressman Michael Grimm from New York. He voted yes last night to stop the shutdown and avoid default.

Also, OUTFRONT, Republican Congressman Ted Yoho from Florida. He voted no.

OK. Great to have both of you.

Congressman Yoho, let me start with you.

Ted Cruz, you think, comes out looking like a winner.

REP. TED YOHO (R), FLORIDA: I think Ted Cruz, you know, he is standing with his convictions and beliefs. And I think any time you get on in front, where you stand on something and you stand for something like that, and engage the American people, I think everybody wins on that.

BURNETT: Everybody wins.

All right. I know, obviously, Representative Grimm is going to disagree. But, Congressman Grimm, Rush Limbaugh weighed in. Let me play that as well.

Here is Mr. Limbaugh.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO HOST: We learned that one guy standing up can stop the status quo in its tracks. Can you imagine in this last fight if we would have had five or 10 Ted Cruzes? Can you imagine the different dynamic? Can you imagine -- if we had five or 10 Ted Cruzes, we'd win a lot of debates. If we had 45 Ted Cruzes in the Senate, we'd come close to winning every vote. (END AUDIO CLIP)

BURNETT: You know, you've got to love Rush. He goes exponential, he went from one to 45, 45 Cruzes. A good idea?

What do you think, Congressman Grimm?

YOHO: I think so. I mean --

REP. MICHAEL GRIMM (R), NEW YORK: I would have to say no. That's not a great idea

BURNETT: And so, you know, you just heard Congressman Yoho, said, look, he's standing with his convictions. Everybody wins. What's your response?

GRIMMS: It's -- unfortunately, the principles and the convictions may be correct, but you have to have some tactics and you also have to have some respect for the fact that this is a big party. And it's a party that I think there is a lot of Reagan conservatives, which is what I consider myself, that are known for standing for our true values, but also being pragmatic and reasonable, and working with others to come to a solution.

I think, look, I think Obamacare is bad policy. I agree with my colleagues there. But I think shutting down government is bad policy. And not, the full faith and credit, damaging the full faith and credit of the United States is very dangerous policy.

So, the truth of the matter is, during this, we crowded out the true message which is the launch of Obamacare was a disaster. We didn't hear as much about that because we heard about the shutdown. And all the federal employees, all those who work for contracts that are getting contracts from the government, none of those people were working and they got hurt really bad in this.

So, I would say there were no winners. I think the House looks bad. The Senate looks bad, and the president for not leading. All look bad. That's not good for America.

BURNETT: Congressman Yoho, what's your response to that? What about what Ted Cruz just -- his staffer just said to our Dana Bash at the top of the show, that he not ruling out the government again? How is that everyone winning?

YOHO: Well, nobody wanted the government to shut down, Erin. You know, Michael and I, we border each, other our offices are next to each other. But when you get the American people engaged is what it's going to solve this problem.

We got send up there. I got sent up from a very conservative district that says, we have got to -- they wanted us to defund the Affordable Care Act. So we put that in. We negotiated that Senate four different times. We didn't want to shutdown. We had four different packages to renegotiate with the Senate.

The last one was a C.R. and a call to go to the negotiation tables, so that we could resolve these problems. In addition, we put a one-year delay for the individual mandate, the same delay that President Obama gave to over 1,600 special interest groups. He gave it to big business. He gave it to unions. We were trying to do the fair thing.

So, Ted Cruz is standing on a platform saying, this is something we have to address. It is not going away. We're at $17 trillion. If we don't address it today, when are we going to address it?

BURNETT: And, Congressman Yoho, all that may be true. But what the "my way or the highway" sort of attitude seems to be what the problem is. I mean, if Ted Cruz is going to do that, you're not going to get anywhere in politics. You've been in politics, right? You don't get anywhere with that attitude.

YOHO: I agree with you that "my way or the highway", that's exactly what we saw coming out of the Senate. Again, we sent four different packages that we renegotiated, went from a full defund down to just a one-year delay for the individual mandate. And the Senate and Harry Reid and President Obama said absolutely not. No negotiation.

We were trying to get him to the table. We had the funding in there to keep the government open.

So, I agree with you. My way or the highway doesn't work. The president and Harry Reid proved that.

BURNETT: Congressman Grimm, quickly before we go, what are you going to do about Ted Cruz? He's going to be here again in three months. I mean, are you going to stand up this time and say, "Hey, buddy, shut it" or no?

GRIMM: Well, this is what I think -- you know, my message, and I'm very fortunate to have a veterinarian, my colleague, Mr. Yoho, next to me. I have a little dog. If anything goes wrong, I want to stay on Mr. Yoho's good side.

But here's a reality. It took a super majority to create Obamacare. So, when we say defund, repeal, it's going to take a supermajority to that. So, I agree with my colleagues that we should try to defund or repeal. We do that by winning more elections, winning the presidency and winning the Senate. That's how we defund Obamacare.

So until then, we can nibble around the edges but we should be focused on is the growing debt. That's a crisis that could really destroy our country.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate both of you taking the time.

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