Transcript

Charlie Rose: Congressman Ryan joins us now from Washington. Good morning.

Congressman Paul Ryan: Good morning, Charlie, Norah, how are you doing today?

Charlie Rose: Congressman Ryan, the democrats are saying they are prepared to let the Bush tax cuts expire unless Republicans are prepared to do some taxes on those people who earn more than $250,000.

Congressman Ryan: And my reaction, I take it?

Charlie Rose: Yes, sir.

Congressman Paul Ryan: We have the biggest government and the highest deficit since World War II. We are spending more money than we are bringing in. We’re borrowing forty cents of every dollar we spend, surely can get a down payment on spending cuts. The House of Representatives already passed, Charlie, a spending cut package to pay for the sequester, it’s sitting over in the Senate. The President and the Office of Management and Budget is not even telling us how they’ll do the sequester. We passed a bill 414 to 2 on Wednesday.

Charlie Rose: But my question is, what will republicans do if in fact the democrats allow the Bush tax cuts to expire? And they say, perhaps, Senator Murray said, let the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that began at the same time go ahead. What are you going to do if they take that tact?

Congressman Paul Ryan: So we don’t think that’s a good idea. We will next week pass a bill to extend all of the tax policies – remember, these tax policies have been in place for a decade, Charlie – so they’re really not tax cuts, we’re just talking about keeping taxes where they are. A year and a half ago, the president said, the last thing we want to do in a soft economy is raise taxes, we agree. The economy’s worse now than it was then.

So we’re going to next week pass an extension of the tax code for another year and we’ve already passed two bills dealing with the sequester, all of which are sitting over in the Senate, which hasn’t done anything for three years. No budget for three years, no sequester mitigation plan for three years, the White House hasn’t even announced any plans to deal with the sequester. We passed a bill almost unanimously in the House on Wednesday, telling the Administration: if you have no plan to deal with the sequester, you have to tell us how you plan on imposing it. We’ve been acting in the House, Charlie, we’re just waiting for the Senate and the White House to do something.

Charlie Rose: Thanks.

Norah O’Donnell: Congressman, you’re calling them tax policies and tax codes, you’re afraid to call them tax cuts now?

Congressman Paul Ryan: They’re not tax cuts, Norah, because they’ve been the current tax policy for ten years.

Norah O’Donnell: Come on, Congressman.

Congressman Paul Ryan: Honestly, Norah. Keeping taxes where they are is not cutting taxes. Preventing a tax increase is preventing a tax increase, it’s not actually cutting taxes. So we’re saying, don’t raise taxes, especially in this soft economy, but more importantly, Norah, eight out of ten businesses in America pay their taxes on the individual side of the code. Ninety percent of Wisconsin businesses pay their taxes; more than half of small business income will be hit by the president’s tax increase.

Charlie Rose: As much as I hate to, I’m going to have to interrupt you because, as you know, we have this tragedy in Colorado.