Rep. Roy Blunt on Obama's GOP Fiscal 'Credibility' Comment

This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," February 10, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

STUART VARNEY, GUEST HOST: Back to the stimulus.

The Democrats' closed-door meetings between the House and Senate could start as early as tonight. But some Republicans say, open up the private negotiations. They want taxpayers to see exactly how their money is going to be spent.

Republican Congressman Roy Blunt wants those meetings opened.

Congressman, if you open up the sausage factory and let the people in, you don't make any sausage. You have heard that before.

HOUSE MINORITY WHIP REP. ROY BLUNT, R-MO.: Well, I think that you normally do open up the factory, because you have hearings, you have markups, you have all the things that people can see.

And, certainly, there's a tradition that these last-minute negotiations are done between the two parties. These are being done within one party. There's no hearings. People really have no idea what is in this bill.

• Video: Watch Stuart Varney's interview

Now, Stuart, the truth is, there's not much new in this bill, because it is 10 years of collective desire by the current majority to spend more money. It is not a stimulus package. The American people deserve to see what's in there and deserve to have a chance to know how little of it will be spent in the next year.

VARNEY: But Senator Schumer told us earlier today that people, voters, don't care about pork. They just don't care. I guess he said just get on there and spend it.

BLUNT: Well, that's an interesting — that's an interesting view. I hope he is prepared to defend that for the next couple of years.

(LAUGHTER)

BLUNT: But all the things in this bill are things that people are going to be shocked about when they find out about many of them in the next — the next six months, the next year.

I think they're going to be most shocked that this is a stimulus bill that nobody believes that more than a fourth of it could be possibly spent during the year that we're in right now. So, what kind of stimulus is that?

When we did a stimulus package together a year ago, we said it needed to be targeted, timely, and temporary. This is none of those three things. And the American people deserve to see that.

VARNEY: President Obama says, hey, look at you Republicans. You're criticizing all this spending. You want tax cuts. He says, you're criticizing all this spending, but how can you criticize, because you spent so much in the past?

He says, look, you...

BLUNT: You know, that's — that's...

VARNEY: ... doubled the national debt in the last eight years. He says, you can't be concerned about spending.

BLUNT: That is such a poor defense, it's unbelievable.

A trillion dollars — which is what this is with the first five years' interest — a trillion dollars is all of the income tax collected in a given year. A trillion dollars is an amount equal to the entire discretionary budget that Congress votes on every year.

If that's — that's no defense that changes Washington. That is a defense that simply is afraid to defend what you're doing in this bill, beyond the spending bill that's going to come to the floor in the next couple of weeks.

You know, we haven't funded this year yet, because the Democrats were afraid to bring their bill to the floor for this year's funding. On top of that, we're spending that much more money on a stimulus package.

And, Stuart, we don't have one of those dollars.

VARNEY: Yes.

BLUNT: So, we're going to have to borrow every one of those dollars against somebody who is out there trying to borrow money to go to school, to buy a car, to build a house.

The government is going to have the first claim on another trillion dollars of borrowing over the next few months.

VARNEY: Yes.

You know, I have been looking at the numbers, a trillion dollars to bail out Wall Street, $800 billion stimulus plan. We now have a $2 trillion ongoing federal deficit.

Congressman Blunt, we appreciate you being with us. We wish we could get in to see how the sausage is made, but we probably can't.

BLUNT: Well, I do, too.

VARNEY: Congressman...

(CROSSTALK)

BLUNT: And we ought to keep insisting on that.

VARNEY: You got it.

Thank you very much for joining us, sir. We really appreciate it.

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