NBC News Transcripts

Meet the Press (10:00 AM ET) - NBC

August 19, 2001 Sunday

Representative Dick Gephardt discusses the budget surplus, the national economy and stem cell research

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. Mr. Gephardt, welcome to MEET THE PRESS.

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT, (D-Mo.): Good to be here.

MR. RUSSERT: As you well know, there's a big debate in Washington as to what is going on with the budget surplus. Will you, as the leader of the Democrats, vote for any budget that taps into the Social Security or Medicare trust funds? REP.

GEPHARDT: Well, we already have a budget, unfortunately, that's doing that. And that really worries me. We said at the time the tax cut passed that we thought that it was too large, too unfocused and it would cause us to go into Social Security and Medicare, and, Tim, that's what's happening right now.

MR. RUSSERT: But if you look at what has happened to the surplus, just $40 billion is applied to the surplus from the tax cut. Let me show you what you were proposing back in March. This is Dick Gephardt. "We're going to continue to try in any way we can to assert this as a stand-alone bill for $60 billion that we could get in this year. In the next month, we could get this money starting out to consumers all over the country." You wanted a bigger tax cut this year, $60 billion, as opposed to George W. Bush's $40 billion.

REP. GEPHARDT: And I'm glad we have this tax cut going out, because it might help us get out of the slowdown that we're in. But let me tell you what also we said. We said we ought to have a trigger on the tax cut. Olympia Snowe, a Republican, said we ought to have a trigger on the tax cut. If we'd taken some of these commonsense measures while we were doing the tax cut, we wouldn't be dipping into Social Security, which is what we're doing right now.

MR. RUSSERT: As you know, Mr. Lindsey quoted you accurately, saying that, "We have to get off this idea that we have to be exactly mathematically calibrated each and every year, as if we're going to turn into pumpkins. You're saying that this notion of we can't go into this idea that we're not at absolute utter strict balance each and every year, the sky's going to fall in." That's Dick Gephardt in 1997. Now, you're suggesting because the Republicans are in power, this is all a disaster.

REP. GEPHARDT: That's not true, Tim. That was four years ago when we still had deficits. But let me tell you what's on the table now. What's on the table now is Social Security. What are we gonna do about the future of Social Security? The president has set up a commission to look into the privatization of Social Security, which is his answer; not our answer, his answer. The first thing you don't do is dip into the Social Security funds. And that's what we're doing right now. So we're in a different time, with a different set of circumstances, a different challenge than we had in 1997. We ought to be adjusting this budget. The president ought to come in with a new budget right now, this fall, to avoid this problem of going into the Social Security Trust Fund. That's the last thing we need to do.

MR. RUSSERT: But for the record, during your entire career in Congress, you and every other Democrat voted to use Social Security and Medicare trust funds for all budget expenses.

REP. GEPHARDT: And we paid every dime back. But we're in a new time now. We have the baby boomers coming to Social Security, and we need to make sure that we're paying down back debt of this country, so we're ready when the baby boomers hit the Social Security Trust Fund.

MR. RUSSERT: You're calling for the president to propose a new budget. You gave him some advice last month in Iowa. Let me show you, talking about what happened in 1993 where budget cuts were made and taxes were increased. "I'm glad we did what was right in 1993, and I'll do it again because I believe in being fiscally responsible with the taxpayers' money." Would you recommend to the president that he, one, repeal some of the tax cut, delay some of the tax cut, as well as reduce spending to avoid tapping into Social Security?

REP. GEPHARDT: No, I don't think you need to do that. I do think the economy can come back. I hope it does come back. I don't know that we face this problem. Maybe you could put a trigger on it, so that, as Olympia Snowe and others said, that we don't go back into this taking money out of Social Security. But we need a new budget. We need to review our spending. We need to look at what we're doing, because we've got a Social Security challenge and a Medicare challenge in front of us, and we need to deal with it.

MR. RUSSERT: What programs should the president reduce in the new budget?

END OF EXCERPT