Rep. Price on Jobless Relief

This is a rush transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," July 5, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

BRIAN SULLIVAN, GUEST HOST: Well, the Senate expected to take up several spending plans next week when lawmakers return from holiday break, including an extension of jobless benefits and aid to states.

The president says Republicans are holding more jobless relief "hostage."

Republican Congressmen Tom Price disagrees. And he is here.

Congressman Price, you just heard a Democratic strategist's point of view, saying, we need to spend more, that the government has got to pick up the slack in the job market.

Do you agree?

REP. TOM PRICE, R-GA.: Boy, Brian, you know as well as I that no nation has ever borrowed and spent its way to prosperity. We're not about to be the first.

And all you have to do is look at the record. This administration, with Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid, has spent literally trillions of dollars. They have increased unemployment. They have increased our debt, and they promised that they would create jobs, and they promised that unemployment would not go above 8 percent.

But the record is completely different. And the American people need certainty in the job market right now, and they don't see it. Consequently, it's imperative that we step back and say, look, these policies right now of spending and borrowing aren't working. We need to put in place positive job-creation policies that we believe would stimulate the economy and create that economic productivity that is so vital out there in the market.

SULLIVAN: Private sector jobs have been created some, but not nearly to the point where we're going to get an economic recovery, and we still have 9.5 percent unemployment. And some people suggest we have nearly 20 percent under-employment.

Do you think the private sector is not hiring more aggressively, Congressman, because they're unsure about the economy or unsure about what Washington is going to do?

PRICE: Well, it's both. But, right now, it's that they don't know what Washington's going to do with the tax levels. The president has said that they will likely increase taxes at the end of the year, after the election. They don't won't to do it before the election. Surprise, surprise.

The job-creators aren't certain about what the full impact of the health care bill is going to be. What is that going to cost to their bottom line. They're not certain whether or not there's going to be a national energy tax. They're not certain about other taxes that will increase the burden on the job-creators across this nation.

And, so, if you're a business, large or small, out there right now, you're saying, look, I have just got to wait until I get some certainty on all — in all this before I can begin to hire. That's not what we ought to be doing as a country. We ought to be incentivizing those job-creators, so that we can increase employment in the private sector, not the public sector, the private sector, across this nation.

SULLIVAN: But, to Tara's point, there are many families that are suffering, five job-seekers for every one job opening. How does the GOP get through this and not appear heartless? How do you tell somebody that their benefits are simply cut off, and that's it?

PRICE: Well, a couple points. One, the current — the current proposal, the current solution that the administration and Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid have offered isn't working. It is, in fact, prolonging the problems that we have in our economy and I believe deepening the problems that we're having.

So, we need to get to some sane fiscal policy. We need to get to the point where the job-creators are in fact incentivized. And then helping those that are hurting, you're absolutely right, needs to be done, but it needs to be done within the context of a budget and a prioritization of spending.

This Congress right now can't even pass a budget, refuses, as a matter of fact, to pass a budget. If we are going to utilize our resources to be able to provide some of that cover for folks who are hurting right now, that's an appropriate thing to do. But we ought to priority it. We ought to make sure it's paid for. We ought not go into debt doing that.

Congressman Tom Price, sir, thank you very much for joining us on "Your World."

PRICE: Thanks so much, Brian.

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