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Published January 27, 2017
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 16, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Back here at home, the budget battle in Washington continues. Lawmakers managed to delay a government shutdown once again yesterday when the House passed a three-week extension of the federal budget. But what happens when the clock runs out of time?
Well, joining me now with reaction, Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner.
All right, Congressman, here's why we are in this position. This is just a fact. You had both Houses of Congress last year -- run by the Democrats. You had White House. You guys didn't pass a budget. It is your responsibility. You should have passed the budget. You didn't pass a budget. Now we find ourselves at this impasse.
All the Democrats are offering -- it's $4.5 billion in cuts. We have a $1.65 trillion deficit this year, after nearly three trillion of Obama debt in his first two years. And we also have, you know, $3.7 trillion budget.
You can't find more than $4.5 billion to cut?
REP. ANTHONY WEINER, D-N.Y.: Well, frankly, let's get the history right. The Bush administration drove the economy into a cliff and we've been digging out ever since.
HANNITY: Blah, blah, blah.
(CROSSTALK)
WEINER: Well, let me answer the question. It's true we also did add a trillion dollars of additional debt and deficit by giving tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires -- something many of us opposed. But the fact is, if you look at the president's budget --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: You mean, the bill that Obama signed. The bill that Obama signed. That Obama went along with, extending that tax cut -- that one.
WEINER: I understand, but you are asking my position. I don't support taxes for millionaires and billionaires, do you?
HANNITY: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: I support tax cuts for everybody. For every American --
WEINER: Well, you apparently you don't believe we should fix the Alternative Minimum Tax, because that's something the Democratic budget proposal does --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Congressman, we don't is a revenue problem. You guys spend too much of our money. Stop spending it recklessly. That's the answer, Congressman.
WEINER: Well, one of the ways that we spend money is giving it to millionaires and billionaires.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: No. The millionaires and billionaires that you're deriding here -- are the ones -- the top 10 percent pay 75 percent of the bill and then you want to hit them over the head with a baseball bat.
WEINER: No, there's no doubt about it. Some people believe in tax cuts for billionaires -- you are one of them. I'm saying you have to pay for it.
HANNITY: Congressman, I believe in tax cuts for everybody. I want people like you to stop irresponsibly spending our hard earned money.
I live in New York, 55 percent of my income, sir, goes to taxes and you want more money. I don't want to give you any more money. Start managing the money you have.
WEINER: You want tax cuts. Look, you make a lot of money, you want tax cuts, but you got to pay for it somehow.
Now maybe what we should do, maybe we should is have cuts in defense or maybe we should do Michelle Bachmann's plan and cut Medicare and cut veterans. This is about how to make these decisions.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Congresswoman, weigh in. I'm done.
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN, R-MINN.: Well, you know, that one of the first things Representative Weiner said is that President Obama inherited a mess. Well, let's look at it. The last year that the Republicans had a budget resolution, the deficit was under $161 billion.
Just last month under President Obama, the deficit was $223 billion. So the president has been creating more debt than anyone has ever seen before. So there is no comparison.
When you look at tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, I don't think they are getting a great deal right now because the top 1 percent of all income earners in this country are paying over 40 percent of all of the taxes to the federal government.
So his facts are wrong on their face.
WEINER: Let me just --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Congressman, hang on, I ask the questions.
WEINER: I know, but it's a two-on-one. I should get a little bit of time here.
HANNITY: I asked you --
(CROSSTALK)
WEINER: You sure two-on-one is enough for you, Sean?
HANNITY: Here's my point -- $3.7 billion, we have nearly $5 trillion now accumulated Obama debt, $5 trillion. You tell me how much you are willing to cut out of the budget.
WEINER: Well, let me ask you something. Is it accumulated Obama debt --
HANNITY: Oh good grief.
WEINER: When President Bush left office there was 700,000 job losses that month. There were more private sector jobs created under President Obama in his two years --
HANNITY: That's a lie.
WEINER: That's absolutely a fact. That's absolutely a fact.
(CROSSTALK)
WEINER: More private sector jobs created under President Obama than under eight years of President Bush --
HANNITY: Congressman, I know you are a Democrat and I know you're a bitter partisan. But in the month of February --
WEINER: No, I'm just a partisan.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Let me finish. You're a partisan hack. Stop it. In the month of February our deficit --
WEINER: You're going to call me -- don't call me names, Sean. It is almost St. Patrick's Day, you are going to call me names?
HANNITY: Yes. Our deficit was $223,000 for the month. In 2007, if we are looking at real dollars and real money, we paid less in a year than we did for the month of February!
WEINER: Well, look, I will tell you this. That the deficit right now comes from three places. One, unfunded wars, two, enormous numbers of jobs lost -- and that's a tragedy that President Bush drove us into this cliff -- and three tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: Congresswoman Bachmann, you know, George Bush has been out of office for nearly 2-1/2 years he can't get over it. Barack Obama's budgets nearly $5 trillion in debt. He won't mention where he would cut. I'll ask you the same question --
WEINER: What do you mean he?
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: That would be you! Congresswoman, where would you cut?
BACHMANN: You know, Sean. I had no idea that Representative Weiner was such a reader of fiction. He's a huge fiction reader because that's all of his numbers. I wanted to mention --
WEINER: Bachmann, I don't think you want to go there. I don't think you want to go there, Bachmann.
BACHMANN: Sean, if I could have the respect of speaking, on the day that Nancy Pelosi took the gavel in 2007, she said we dealt with historic deficits. Now under her the Congress was going to be different. She was planning to make sure we had no more deficits.
That day, there was $8 trillion in deficits. The day she gave up her gavel -- thankfully, four years later -- she had increased that deficit by $6 trillion. So she has taken us from $8 trillion in deficit to $14 trillion in deficit.
We were going nowhere fast, but over a cliff. Thank goodness John Boehner pulled that gavel out of her hand. Thank goodness to the American people who gave him that gavel.
HANNITY: All right, Congressman, I'll give you one last chance. I really want a specific answer because we're out of time. What would you cut and how much are you willing to cut in spending, sir?
WEINER: I think that frankly we do need to cut spending. I passed four amendments that we do spending by over $400 million, Michelle Bachmann had none of them. And by the way, for her to make fun of me of not knowing fact from fiction is a bit ironic to say the least.
BACHMANN: I'm a cutter.
(CROSSTALK)
WEINER: I know, you want to cut Medicare. You want to veterans spending. You want to cut air traffic controllers. You and I have different values and that's what this fight is about. I believe we do --
(CROSSTALK)
BACHMANN: We have very different values. I agree with you.
HANNITY: You don't think you are spending too much money, Congressman? You are talking $400 million of a $3.7 trillion budget.
WEINER: I believe when there are millions of Americans not working because of the Bush decisions that we do have to take care of those people and that adds cost, no doubt about it. But we're paying less because of health care --
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: Congressman, you're going to have to man-up. You have to sit at the table and put your pants on and come to this realization. Barack Obama's president three and a half years --
WEINER: Next time, make it three on one or four on one next time, I'm ready for you.
HANNITY: You're a star. Just go look in the mirror.
WEINER: I love these balanced debates.
HANNITY: Yes, well, that's what it is.
BACHMANN: Tell me about it.
HANNITY: Tell me about it.
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