Host George Stephanopoulos, center, is joined by, from left, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Rep. Peter King, D-N.Y., on This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
(ABC News)ABC'S "THIS WEEK WITH GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS"
FEBRUARY 15, 2009
SPEAKERS: GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST
SEN. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, D-N.Y.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.
REP. MAXINE WATERS, D-CALIF.
REP. PETER T. KING, R-N.Y. [*] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning, and welcome to "This Week."
The president gets his plan.
REP. NANCY PELOSI, D-CALIF., SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We have done something today that is transformational for our nation.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But at what cost?
REP. JOHN A. BOEHNER, R-OHIO, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: What happened to the promise that we're going to let the American people see what's in this bill for 48 hours? But, nope, we don't have time to do that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And his strategy for sick banks...
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TIMOTHY F. GEITHNER: This program is going to require a substantial and sustained commitment of public resources.
STEPHANOPOULOS: ... falls flat on Wall Street.
(UNKNOWN): We wanted real guts and details to this, and we didn't get it today.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Will the Obama's plans confound the skeptics and fix the economy? Senate, House Democrats and Republicans square off. Our "This Week" debate.
Then, one more pick for commerce secretary bows out.
SEN. JUDD GREGG, R-N.H.: I said yes. That was my mistake.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it one more sign that bipartisanship has its limits? That debate and the rest of the week's politics on our roundtable with George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, and Donna Brazile.
And, as always, the Sunday funnies.
JAY LENO, TALK SHOW HOST: The economy's so bad, Barack Obama's new slogan, "Spare change you can believe in." That's how bad it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: From the heart of the nation's capital, "This Week" with ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos, live from the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again.
When President Obama signs his $787 billion stimulus plan into law on Tuesday, he'll set a new record. It will be the single most expensive piece of economic legislation ever in our history, and it passed without a single Republican vote in the House and only three in the Senate.
So the voting is done. Let the debate begin.
For that, I'm joined today by four key players from Capitol Hill, Senator Chuck Schumer, the vice chair of the Joint Economic Committee.
Welcome.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, she's a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.
Senior Republican on that committee, Representative Peter King of New York.
And Senator Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Senate Budget Committee.
And I'm going to begin with your governor, Mark Sanford.
GRAHAM: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Big opponent of the stimulus legislation. And I want to show everybody what he wrote in this morning's State newspaper in South Carolina. He says that, "For every job the bill creates, American taxpayers will spend $223,000. If we add the costs of this bill to the previous efforts of the federal government to deal with the financial crisis, the American taxpayer is on the hook for $9.7 trillion. If the stimulus bill were a country, it would be the 15th- largest country in the world."
Senator Schumer, he says it's going to be a waste, it's not going to work, and we're going to be paying for it for generations.
SCHUMER: Well, you know, it's easy to say no. We have the worst economy we've had since the Great Depression, half a million people more losing jobs every month. The economy's hurdling southward. Yes, this is a big, strong, bold package.
It's going to do three things. It's going to keep or create 3 million to 4 million jobs. It's going to put money into the hands of the middle class so they spend it in the stores and restaurants and get the economy going. And it's going to create an infrastructure that not only puts people to work, but leaves something after, God willing, we get out of this. To do nothing risks a depression.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what's wrong with that?
GRAHAM: Well, I wanted to do something. I think we do need a stimulus package with a focus, and that's create jobs in the near term. Eleven percent of the appropriated money in this bill hits in 2009. Most of the money in this bill is in entitlement spending that's not going to create jobs.
Twenty-seven percent of the bill is now tax cuts. That's down significantly. And of those tax cuts, most of them, only $3 billion goes to small business.
Seventy-five percent of the people in this country work for small business. Of a $787 billion bill, $3 billion is directed to small- business people. I think we missed the mark a long way. We increased new government; we did not increase new jobs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And, Congressman Waters, when this bill came out of the Senate at the end of the week, your speaker, Nancy Pelosi, had to quell a mini-revolt among House Democrats who actually take an opposite view from Senator Graham. They thought the bill wasn't big enough, and they didn't like the cuts, particularly in state aid, education aid, that came in the Senate.
WATERS: Absolutely. We worked very hard on that bill in the House. And as you know, many well-known economists say that this should be a trillion-dollar bailout bill, that we need to put more into our economy.
And we worked very hard on education, as you know. Our schools are in great disrepair in this country. We have children going to schools in deplorable conditions, and so we wanted more money in school construction. We thought, not only does that create jobs, it's an investment in the future.
And so those kinds of programs we really, really wanted to fight for. As it turns out, we have through the conference committee accepted the amendments from those Republicans who were willing to step up to the bat and at least do something for the people of this country. And so we lost on some of it, but it's a big win for all families and all Americans.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Only three Republicans, Congressman King, in the -- in the Senate, zero in House. And I have to say, it -- it surprised me that zero Republicans in the House went along with this. And, for example, I know that you support infrastructure spending. I know you support Medicaid aid to the states, yet you -- you vote no on this. Was this more taking one for the team so the Republicans could be unified?
KING: No, not at all. First of all, I do support the Medicaid provisions in the bill. But as far as the infrastructure, less than 9.5 percent of the bill goes to infrastructure on transit and highway construction. That was a key part to me, which was really severely diminished.
As far as taxes, actually, Lindsey says 27 percent. Really, it's only 18 percent in new tax credits, because the fact that the AMT was put in, which would have been factored in anyway. So it's really only 18 percent in tax relief. We give more tax relief to the arts than we do to small businesses.
And, you know, obviously, we have to do a lot. I supported strong infrastructure, strong tax relief. We didn't do it. And that's why you have people even like Alice Rivlin, who was Bill Clinton's budget director, testified against the stimulus bill, Martin Feldstein, who had -- had been for it is now against it, and the CBO says, over a 10-year period, it's going to diminish the economy, bring down the GDP, and actually cause a reduction in wages.
SCHUMER: Yes, the bottom line is, first, there's good -- good help for small business. The NOL provision is kept in for businesses...
(CROSSTALK)
SCHUMER: ... below 15 -- it allows businesses that have had losses to take those losses now so they don't have to pay tax instead, can put people to work. And there's going to be more for small business in the economic plan that the president is announcing.
The bottom line is this: This -- the -- when you ask people what you need to do about this economy, the number-one thing all economists -- Martin Feldstein, who wanted a bigger package -- he wanted a different one, but a bigger one, he didn't want no -- all of them say the great danger we face, George, is what they call a deflationary spiral, prices keep going down.
And once you get into that spiral deeply, you don't know how to get out. That's what the Great Depression was. To a lesser extent, that's what happened in Japan for 10 years. And we need to get out of it. And this is a jolt to the economy. It's a strong jolt.
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