Sen. Blunt: Jobs Plan Vote Is a Political Charade

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," October 11, 2011. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ERIC BOLLING, GUEST HOST: All right, Senator Roy Blunt still voting no on that bill. He joins me now.

Senator, so, as it stands, you are going to vote no on the full $447 billion package. However, if pieces were brought out -- first of all, can you explain to us how pieces get brought out, who decides which pieces get pulled?

SEN. ROY BLUNT, R-MO.: Well, I guess, in the Senate, it’s going to be the majority leader that decides what pieces come out, if they come out.

I think this has always been more about 2012 campaigning than 2011 legislating. The president’s not here talking to members of Congress, the House or the Senate, about what it would take to get this done. He is out with a slogan that he knows can’t possibly happen. This bill is not going to pass. It is stimulus warmed over, half the serving that we had before, and the serving we had before didn’t do the job.

So I think all the effort today is just to see how many Democrats they can hold on to in the Senate, not talking about how they get any Republicans or anywhere close to the 60 votes it would take for this bill to move forward. This is all a political charade. And I think everybody in Washington knows that.

BOLLING: And, Senator, I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but David Axelrod said this isn’t going to be a smorgasbord, you can’t pick and choose what you want out of the bill.

Meanwhile, it feels like it’s changed quite a bit. Senator Schumer, like I have mentioned, says it may end up being smorgasbord. But what about that? Is the White House sending mixed messages?

BLUNT: Well, I think it’s a smorgasbord that not many people are going to want to take a helping off of or a serving out of.

The White House is sending one consistent message, which is the president wants to say the Congress didn’t save the economy. It’s his plans that have made this economy worse, not better. It’s his plans that have slowed down job creation to a creeping pace. And the American people understand that. And he wants to change the subject to say that more of my plan would have done what the first part of the plan didn’t do.

And, again, I just don’t think people believe that. So, this will get very old by the time we get to the election next year. And people are going to be looking at unemployment numbers, over-regulation, talk about higher taxes, and realize the economy’s not growing, and it’s not because the Congress didn’t pass the bill.

BOLLING: Senator, take a listen to President Obama regarding the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: This is gut-check time. Any senator who votes no should have to look you in the eye and tell you what exactly they are opposed to. These are proposals that have traditionally been bipartisan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLLING: All right, Senator, gut-check time. What do you oppose in the bill?

BLUNT: I’m opposed to stimulus two, which is what this bill is all about.

And the president’s idea that some time in the last 30 years, a Republican or two might have been for pieces of this just doesn’t pass the straight-face test. He can be out there campaigning all he wants to, but if he wants to pass the bill, he’d be right here talking to members of the House and Senate about what it would take to get this bill passed.

BOLLING: All right, Senator, in -- I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I’m guessing it’s not so much the programs you’re concerned with. It’s how -- it’s the pay-fors.

BLUNT: Well, it’s the programs as well. I just think this didn’t work before. There’s no reason it would work now.

It’s $450 billion of the $800 billion -- just like the $800 billion that we now owe somebody that we didn’t owe anybody in the world three years ago, and the American people will be paying for that for 30 years. It is a program that won’t work. The pay-fors are only a small part of the fallacy of this plan.

The way to create jobs is to encourage private sector job creators. And the president just doesn’t believe that. He believes that government can create jobs. And government doesn’t create jobs that pay the bill. Government creates jobs that are the bill.

BOLLING: That are the bill.

All right, Senator Roy Blunt, thank you very much, Senator.

BLUNT: Thank you.

BOLLING: OK.

Content and Programming Copyright 2011 Fox News Network, Inc. Copyright CQ-2011 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.