Fox News Network
SHOW: THE O'REILLY FACTOR
August 21, 2001 Tuesday
GUESTS: Janice Schakowsky
BYLINE: Bill O'Reilly
BODY:
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND
MAY BE UPDATED.
O'REILLY: In the "Unresolved Problem" segment tonight, as I said in
the "Talking Points" memo, we are in a recession and it's up to the Bush
administration to get us out of it. Can they do it? Joining us now from
Chicago is Congresswoman Janice Schakowsky.
REP. JANICE SCHAKOWSKY (D), ILLINOIS: Hi, Bill.
O'REILLY: A Democrat. Nice to have you here, congresswoman. You know,
I don't want to do the -- you know, on all of the other news programs tonight,
they're all going, "Oh, he's taken money from Social Security. He's taking
money from Medicaid, doing the books." Look, in six months we'll know if
they did that or not. All right? So I don't want to do that. It's boring.
We can't prove it. We can't unprove it.
Bush says he's not. You guys say he is. In six months we'll know for
sure. What should we do to get out of this recession?
SCHAKOWSKY: Well, Bush inherited the greatest economic prosperity of
a generation, actually an era of fiscal responsibility where we were paying
down the debt. We were managing to fund our priorities. And in six months,
that's pretty much gone.
It seems to me that the main culprit here is that we have a $2 trillion
tax cut that prevents even the President from fulfilling his promises of
a prescription drug benefit for seniors, of funding the bipartisan education
bill, of protecting Social Security and Medicare. The economy was doing
just fine is my point.
O'REILLY: All right, it was doing just fine until about midway through
President Clinton's last year, as you remember. In March of 1999, there
was a jitter. And then last Labor Day, the market started to go south and
hasn't recovered. And the reason was that Alan Greenspan kept interest
rates artificially high, strangled the money. Corporate reinvestment in
R&D dried up. That had nothing to do with President Bush. It had everything
to do with Alan Greenspan.
SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I would -- you know, we're going to agree here, Bill,
miracle of miracles. I mean, I think that Alan Greenspan's keeping the
interest rates high was in fact...
O'REILLY: Insane. It was insane. And it looks now to be one of the biggest
blunders in economic history in the 20th century.
But you...
SCHAKOWSKY: I think it's been compounded though.
O'REILLY: What?
SCHAKOWSKY: I think it's been compounded now.
O'REILLY: Well, maybe...
SCHAKOWSKY: By the...
O'REILLY: ...you're right. But again, we'll know that in six months.
We'll see.
SCHAKOWSKY: Actually, we're going to know it sooner, because we're not
going to have the dollars. In fact, the Bush administration had to borrow
money just to pay for these tax refunds, which I think most Americans don't
know is really an advance on their refund for 2001.
O'REILLY: But congresswoman, most Americans are overtaxed. Would you
not agree?
SCHAKOWSKY: No, I would not agree with that.
O'REILLY: Really? You think that forking over 50 to 60 percent of your
income in state, local and other tariffs is our obligation to the government?
SCHAKOWSKY: You know what don't see, Bill. If you say to Americans,
"are you overtaxed," they're going to say "yes."
O'REILLY: Of course.
SCHAKOWSKY: If you say, wait, if you say to them though, "Would you
rather have your taxes cut or protect Social Security and Medicare or have
a prescription drug benefit or fund a..."
O'REILLY: But you can do both.
SCHAKOWSKY: Wait a minute.
O'REILLY: If you stop wasting money. You see? You waste, and by you,
I mean, the government, an enormous amount of money.
SCHAKOWSKY: I'm on the government reform committee that my -- I'm the
ranking Democrat on the committee that did the hearing on the Pentagon
credit card issue. I agree with you.
O'REILLY: Yes. It's insane.
SCHAKOWSKY: I think that there's plenty of waste. But if we're talking
about enough money to fund our priorities, like a prescription drug benefit,
and protecting Social Security, we were doing just fine and people were
making money.
O'REILLY: Well, you weren't doing just fine because you were wasting
billions of dollars.
SCHAKOWSKY: Oh, I don't disagree with that.
O'REILLY: And people like me, congresswoman, are paying between 50 and
60 percent of our money to you. Come on.
SCHAKOWSKY: No, I don't disagree with that. If you think, however, that
cleaning up the waste would result in a $2 trillion tax cut, Bill, I'm
sorry, that is really crossed the map.
O'REILLY: I will tell you, congresswoman, if you streamlined the federal
government and cleaned up the massive amount of fraud and waste, 25 percent
in Medicare. Come on, you know, you would be way up there and the surplus
would be greater.
I want to continue, because you're the ranking member.
SCHAKOWSKY: OK.
O'REILLY: I want to bring you back. And we're going to continue this
in a more micro way. And we'll go through all the waste and we'll add it
up. Congresswoman, thanks, a pleasure talking to you.
SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you, appreciate it.
O'REILLY: Plenty more ahead as THE FACTOR moves along this evening.
What is going on down in Florida with all the shark attacks? We'll talk
to a man who had a chunk taken out of him. And then, Michael Kinsley says
I'm a poser and distorter of the truth. We'll confront him as THE FACTOR
continues.
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