E-mail a friendSen. Robert Menendez
airdate February 11, 2009
In '06, Democrat Robert Menendez became the first person of color to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate. He previously served in the House and chaired the Democratic Caucus, becoming the highest-ranking Hispanic in Congressional history. The NY native began his public service career in college, at age 19, when he led a successful petition drive to reform the school board. He's served as a school board member, mayor and state legislator. Menendez sits on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee.
Senate Banking Committee member argues that GOP opposition to the economic rescue bill was partisan and not based on principle. (1:21)
Full interview. (10:28)
Sen. Robert Menendez
[Clip]
Tavis: House minority leader John Boehner expressing his disappointment with the compromise reached today in Congress on the economic stimulus package. For reaction to today's developments, I'm joined by New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, a member of both the Senate banking and budget committees. He joins us tonight from Capitol Hill. Senator, nice to have you back on the program, sir.
Senator Robert Menendez: Good to be with you, Tavis.
Tavis: Let me start by asking you what, in fact, did happen today?
Menendez: Well, what we did is to strengthen President Obama's economic recovery package from where it left the Senate in a conference that actually makes sure that we get more people to work, which is job one of this bill - it's about jobs, jobs, jobs. It's about getting people to work in a way that also creates long-term economic benefit.
It's about giving the president's centerpiece effort on making work pay a reality, giving working families a tax break. It's about giving the middle class a relief from over $3,000 a person that they would have paid in the alternative minimum tax. It's about a new generation of green-collar and new energy jobs to break our dependence on foreign oil, it's about turning this country around, and I think we should be proud of the work that's being done here.
Tavis: You just heard John Boehner, the House minority leader, say what we've done today is to increase wasteful government spending in the ways of Washington today. I'm paraphrasing that. I guess the question is whether or not Republican opposition to this you view as principled or partisan.
Menendez: Well, I have to be honest with you, Tavis, I view it as partisan, and I'd like to say it's principled. But I view it as partisan. Look, when the Republican leader in the House, Mr. Boehner, said before the president several weeks ago, went to visit them at their caucus, that the bill was dead on arrival, announced two hours before President Obama went to talk to them in an unprecedented effort to reach out to their side, he should have waited to see what the president had to say.
He should have had a dialogue with the president and then come to his conclusions. He already said it was dead on arrival before the president even got there. The president has worked really hard on trying to stretch his hand out to the other side, but they have obviously not heard the results of the people's desire for change.
They obviously have misinterpreted the results of the election, and they obviously don't understand that this economy is in a deep, deep challenge, and that only by creating an effort to turn it around and put people back to work and get money flowing and creating demand in our economy are we going to be able to avoid some of the great catastrophe that might be before us.
Tavis: You are in charge of oversight where this money is being spent, being on the banking committee and on the budget committee. You know this better than I do, obviously; this is your job. So you know that a lot of this spending doesn't really get down to the street level until a year, two, three years down the road.
This money isn't all going to the street level right away. How, then, does it really stimulate the economy when, depending on the estimate you're looking at, only 16, 18, 19 percent of it gets started immediately?
Menendez: Well first of all, Tavis, just for your viewers, what we're talking about passing her is different than the rescue plan we had for the banks, right?
Tavis: Exactly.
Menendez: This is about going to Main Street at the end of the day, and about 90 percent of all of the tax provisions will be spent in the first year. And that means money in the hands of families, of working families, those trying to get into the middle class, and those who are in the middle class. That's money that automatically goes out into the economy.
Secondly, on the construction-type jobs, both for schools - and some of those monies have been replaced in this compromise; some of the original money on transportation, those are ready-to-go jobs. Those mean that those have projects that have already been approved; they have all of the elements necessary to start work. We'll see that, after this is signed, within a couple of months.
So the overwhelming majority of this money is going to be put out in this first year and then moving on into the second year. And that's the reality of where it is. Republicans continue to take 1 percent of this bill and try to highlight it and criticize it, and they let go the 99 percent that is actually going to make a big difference, as the president has envisioned.
Tavis: You rightly state, Senator Menendez, that there are two issues here. One, of course, is the stimulus package that is being talked about, of course, today; conferenced on today. And there is the second part of this - those TARP funds, that $700 billion rescue package. Let me go now to that second issue that you raise.
Mr. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, has been making the rounds the last couple of days on the Hill, talking to your committee and others about how the second half - that is to say, this $350 billion - is going to be spent this time around. Tell me why the American people should believe that it is going to be spent any better than the first $350 billion, which I think most Americans have to be disappointed in how the banks spent that money - for acquisitions, for investments, for paying down their debt, trying to buy corporate airplanes.
How is this second half going to be spent better than the first half?
Menendez: Well, Tavis, this is a great question, and I share the American people's incredible outrage over how some of the banks dealt with the first 350 under the previous administration with Secretary Paulson. The difference is Secretary Geithner and President Obama have a different set of parameters as to how they're going to put out this money.
First of all, it's gonna be about making sure that there's lending into our communities, to make sure that the small and mid-sized businesses have access to the capital they need to keep their people employed and to grow their businesses.
It's going to be about consumer lending, to make sure that the teacher who needs access for a car loan is going to be able to get it, even though she has a good score and can't get it now. That will change. It is going to be about foreclosure mitigation. A significant part of that will go to ensure that more people stay in their homes and that we ultimately create performing assets instead of non-performing assets, and strengthen neighborhoods and communities.
The president has a very clear message. When he called me to ask me to vote for the second $350 billion and I asked him some questions about what's going to be different than what we saw under the Bush administration, he made it very clear to me there's going to be incredible transparency.
Tavis, you're going to be able to go onto a website and see who's getting the money, under what terms and conditions they got it, and how they perform. That's not available right now. There's going to be accountability.
And today, Secretary Geithner was before one of the committees that I serve on and I said to him, "Mr. Secretary, there has to be consequences, as well. If, in fact, we're going to give money to these banks to strengthen their situation, to create the lending, to ensure the mortgage mitigation, to ensure that, in fact, this economy turns around, and we unfreeze the frozen credit markets, if they don't do what they're supposed to be, there have to be consequences." And he agreed.
And so we will look to see how the administration puts out the rest of the - they've given a broad outline, they're going to put meat on the bones. When we see those meat on the bones, I think we're going to see a program that will do what we want it to do: Save the banks, be able to ensure that the financial markets are stable, increase investor confidence, be able to get money to small and mid-size businesses, be able to get it to consumers, stop the meltdown in our foreclosure process, and start moving this country financially in a better direction.
Tavis: Let me offer this, then, sir, to ask the exit question. We started this conversation talking earlier about your assessment as to the partisan nature of the Republican opposition to this stimulus package. Let me offer this as the close. The Democrats control the White House, you control the House, you control the Senate. A year or two down the road, how do the American people keep score? How and on what do we hold you all accountable for this money that was approved today?
Menendez: Well, Tavis, first of all, it's true what you say. We have majorities in all of these two institutions and of course the White House. In the Senate, we still don't have 60 votes, which is the reason we've gone through the negotiations we have, to try to get 60 votes to stop a filibuster to be able to move President Obama's economic recovery plan.
I think they're going to be able to look and say did, in fact, we create jobs? Instead of having millions of jobs lost, as we've had over the last 12 months, did we begin to stabilize that and begin to create jobs? Did we finally melt down the credit crisis, where small businesses on Martin Luther King Drive and throughout all types of our communities in New Jersey and across the nation finally going to get access to some capital?
And finally, did the banks begin to pay back their money, and did they meet their obligations, which are going to be clearly transparent and that every American's going to be able to look at a website, which they couldn't do under the first $350 billion of the Bush administration, and say bank X got this much money under these terms and conditions. They were supposed to do this, and we'll see whether they did it or not. I think they're going to have a lot of ability to have accountability.
Tavis: And if that doesn't happen, mid-term elections, Democrats should be thrown out?
Menendez: I fully expect that we will perform just as we passed children's healthcare, just as we passed equal pay for equal work, regardless of your race or gender, just as we will pass this economic recovery package, we will continue to perform and the American people, who had the patience to understand this isn't going to overturn overnight.
This has been in creating over the last eight years; this is what President Obama inherited. He's doing his best to turn it around, and I think people will have the patience to see the benchmarks that we're moving in the right direction. I believe we're going to perform, and I think that performance will be rewarded.
Tavis: We will be watching. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. Senator, always glad to have you on. Thanks for your insight.
Menendez: Good to be with you.
Tavis: Thank you.
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