[Bill Hemmer, Cnn Anchor:] As the Republicans move out of Philadelphia toward the end of this week, a number of issues that were brought up here in Philly will certainly carry over into the election leading up to the White House the first Tuesday in November. Joining us now with his take on those issues and more, a Democrat: Vermont's Senator Patrick Leahy. Nice to see you.
[Sen. Patrick Leahy , Vermont:] Nice to be with you, Bill.
[Hemmer:] You OK around all these Republicans around here?
[Leahy:] Oh, yes. Remember, I come from a state that has a lot of Republicans, and fortunately a lot of them vote for me. So I'm fine.
[Hemmer:] No sense of insecurity here, I see.
[Leahy:] No.
[Hemmer:] Let's talk about the issues. And one of the biggest issues is going to be this projected budget surplus: $2.2 trillion. Republicans in Congress have made it quite clear they want tax cuts. What's wrong with that?
[Leahy:] Well, with tax cuts, if we didn't have a national debt I'd say, heck, just cut it all immediately. But the fact of the matter is that during the Reagan-Bush years, the national debt was tripled. They talked about balancing the budget. Instead, they had the biggest budget deficits in history, tripled the national debt. Today, a lot of people don't realize, every working day, we spend almost $900 million a day in interest, primarily to pay off the debt of the Reagan-Bush era. And I would like to get some of that debt paid off. I'm thinking of my children and grandchildren. I don't want them to be paying debt just so I can get a tax break. And I'm in the tax category I'd get the biggest tax break. I don't want to do that and not pay off the debt. What I'd like to do is see some very targeted things. We could the Democrats proposed that we eliminate all estates up to $100 million from estate tax. Republicans wouldn't accept that. We proposed to eliminate, truly eliminate, the marriage penalty, any marriage penalty, immediately.
[Hemmer:] So you would support that but not the death tax, the estate tax?
[Leahy:] But, they didn't but we also said up to $100 million. Over $100 million in your estate, you could probably afford to pay a little tax. In fact, I would rather tax that dead millionaire than the working mother.
[Hemmer:] Well, what about the people, the mother who is working out there? If the economy continues to motor along at the current rate, that $2.2 trillion might be able to go to 3 trillion. Who knows what's going to happen over the next five or 10 years? But do you think Democrats lose a bit of this argument when they know that surplus is out there and it's so large?
[Leahy:] No, not if we do a couple of major things with it. One, pay down the national debt, this huge national debt, so that we're not paying $900 million every single working day for interest on the Reagan-Bush debt. And secondly, make absolutely sure that we've locked in to protect both Social Security and Medicare. Do those two things and then, as far as I'm concerned, do any kind of tax cut you want. But don't say that we'll give tax breaks to billionaires; we will give special interests tax breaks, but we won't protect Social Security, won't protect Medicare, and we'll tell our children to pay off the national debt. I don't think that's the way to handle the surplus.
[Hemmer:] Governor Bush argues, and other Republicans in Congress, that, indeed, they can take care of that because the Social Security issue has been placed to the side.
[Leahy:] Well, these are the same people who said that if we went to balance the budget, we'd have devastation. Instead, we had economic expansion.
[Hemmer:] Good deal. Wish we had more time to talk. There's a lot to talk about.
[Leahy:] Good to be with you.
[Hemmer:] Good luck getting back to Vermont.
[Leahy:] Thank you.
[Hemmer:] Patrick Leahy, senator here with us today.