Van Hollen on MSNBC: ‘The most effective way to reduce deficits is to get America back to work’

Washington, DC – Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, today appeared on MSNBC to discuss job creation and the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Video of the interview is available here and the transcript is below.

CRAIG MELVIN: Congressman thanks so much for thanks joining us this morning. The White House said this morning they would like to see more than $1.5 trillion in cuts, and there’s also talk of job creation measures being included in the plan. Are both of those things politically feasible?

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Yes, I think those are both important goals. First, the most effective way to reduce our deficits in the short term is to get America back to work, to help people find jobs, to help small businesses create those jobs, so that has to be priority number one. It should be coupled with a long-term plan to reduce the deficit. And I agree with the President that the more we can do in terms of deficit reduction over the long term, the better off we’ll be. That will help create long-term sustainable economic growth. It has to be done in a balanced way, and a fair way. The President has laid out some ideas earlier in that regard, and obviously the committee, the Joint Committee, will be looking at different ideas as well.

MELVIN: Will you support cutting Medicare and Medicaid to fund that money?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I will certainly not support the kind of plan that the House Republicans put forward, which would end the Medicare guarantee and just gut the program. We’ve made it clear we’re prepared to modernize the Medicare program, and build on some of the steps that we took in the Affordable Care Act. We do need to move the incentives in Medicare away from the volume of care and the quantity of care more toward value and quality, so there are things that we can do in that area, and in fact we’ve put ideas on the table already in that regard.

MELVIN: If the six Republicans on that so-called “Super Committee”, they have all signed that anti-tax pledge, as they all have, what makes you think that there is even a remote possibility that the 12 of you are going to be able to generate some type of compromise here in late November?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Craig, first of all I think the American people are sending a message loud and clear that it’s time for people to work together for the good of the country. So I hope our Republican colleagues with come to the table in that spirit. Every bipartisan group that has looked at this challenge, the challenge of reducing the deficit, has said we need to do it in a balanced way. Yes, we need to make cuts, and in fact, cuts were already made as part of the earlier round here, but you can cut the loopholes and cut the subsidies for big oil companies, you can cut loopholes for other special interests as part of reducing the deficit as well. So I hope they will come around to a balanced approach. Clearly the overwhelming majority of the American people support that approach, as they have said in various surveys.

MELVIN: What’s the starting point, Congressman, -- when the 12 of you sit down for that first formal meeting-- you guys start where?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think we begin to look at the challenge in front of us, and try and reach some kind of consensus, some kind of agreement on the framework. I hope we will all agree that focusing on jobs is the best way to get the economy moving in the short term. For example, when it comes to infrastructure, the current House Republican budget would cut our infrastructure investment by 33% this year compared to just last year, when it was already too low. We need to fund our infrastructure investment, put people back to work, trying to repair broken roads, bridges, all sorts of other infrastructure--

MELVIN: --and you think that is something that is going to come out of the committee?

VAN HOLLEN:  I hope that we will agree jobs are an important first component to beginning to reduce the deficit. Second, I hope that we will agree to take a balanced approach. Exactly how we get there is something the committee will obviously have to discuss. We’ll be getting input from the public and our colleagues. I hope that people agree that taking the balanced approach is the right way to go.

MELVIN: Ten seconds here really quickly. When you guys use the phrase balanced approach, is that code for tax increases?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, that’s code for reducing a lot of these corporate tax loopholes and asking the folks at the very top to go back to the kind of rates they were paying during the Clinton Administration when the economy was booming and 20 million jobs were created.

MELVIN: Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Thank you so much, Congressman. Appreciate your time this morning.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.