This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” July 14, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And tonight in “Your America” Democrats unveiled their plan to overhaul America’s health care system. They did it earlier today on Capitol Hill, and just as they did with the stimulus bill, they planned to rush this legislation to a vote in both Houses of Congress. Let’s look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HENRY WAXMAN, D-CALIF.: We cannot allow this issue to be delayed. We cannot put it off again. We, quite frankly, cannot go home for a recess unless the House and the Senate both pass bills to reform and restructure our health care system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: All right. Here’s one of the reasons that Democrats are in such a hurry to pass the bill. Now it could raise taxes on millions of Americans. Now households earning more than $350,000, they’re going to see their taxes raised by at least 1 percent. Households making between $500,000 and $1 million, well, they’re going to see a tax hike of 1.5 percent, and households earning more than $1 million annually will get hit extra hard with 5.5 percent in a surtax.
So does this legislation have the support that it needs in Congress? We’re joined now by Indiana congressman, Mike Pence.
• Video: Watch Sean’s interview
Congressman, good to see you, welcome back.
REP. MIKE PENCE, R-IND.: Good to see you, Sean. Thanks.
HANNITY: All right. First of all, we have reports blue-dog Democrats are the ones that are now fighting back against Pelosi. Does it have the support? So maybe — does it have the support?
PENCE: Well, look, I think after months of runaway federal spending, a stimulus bill that is clearly not working to put America back to work, a budget bill that’s going to double the national debt in five years, triple it in 10, and a national energy tax just a couple of weeks ago that’s going to raise the cost of energy to every American by $1,000 a year, I think even some Democrats are waking up to the fact that the American people know the last thing you want to do in the worst recession in the last 25 years is raise taxes on virtually every small business in America with their government takeover health care.
HANNITY: But Congressman, with cap-and-tax we kept hearing now we don’t think we can get this passed, but in fact $2,000 per family, Heritage Foundation analysis, in terms of a new tax. They got it passed.
What makes you think that Democrats will split off from President Obama?
PENCE: Well, you know, you’re leaving something out of the equation there, and that’s somebody that Washington leaves out a lot, and that’s the American people. I think most Americans were stunned when they saw the heavy handed tactics of the Democrats on Capitol Hill who brought that national energy tax to the floor with one amendment, one day of debate, pile-drived it through the House.
And I think an awful lot of Democrats in Congress went home, and I think they got an earful from their constituents.
HANNITY: All right.
PENCE: And they’re coming back, you’re seeing them now step up and say hold on, and look at this health care proposal. Taxes on individuals, taxes on small business owners, taxes on businesses making inadvertent filing errors.
Sean, we’re in the worst recession in the last 25 years. We’ve lost two million jobs since the stimulus bill was passed, and all the Democrats can do is try and pass a bill on health care that involves a government-run insurance option and pays for it with taxes on small business owners.
HANNITY: I saw one version of the bill in the Senate that was defended by Senator Kennedy’s office that literally a health care bill that includes billions for walking paths, street lights, jungle gyms and farmers’ markets.
My question to you is this. How bad — if you had to give a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is this bill, and on a scale of 1 to 10, how likely is it that it will pass?
PENCE: Well, I think — you know, I think on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the absolute worst, I think this bill is a 10.5.
Look, you know, to introduce a government-run insurance option as the president says to, quote, “compete with the private sector,” I mean, come on, Sean. You know the private — the federal government competes with the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck. It consumes it.
And folks know that. Folks know a government-run option would result in tens of millions losing insurance they have with their employer now and millions of Americans losing their jobs, and the idea now that piling on top of all that big government takeover of health care are going to be tax increases on businesses and employees is just astonishing.
The chances of it passing, you know, you’ve got to look on the other side of the aisle, but I’m telling you what, a lot of my Democratic colleagues are looking a lot more jumpy right now than they were before the national energy tax, and I think if the American people engage, I think we can stop this thing and get to work on this economy.
HANNITY: Well, we’ve got Biden saying that we misread the economy, but Obama says the economic plan has worked as intended. That’s not what they were telling the American people, and on top of it, you know, unemployment, they’re predicting, goes to double digits.
So my question is. Do you think — politically speaking when the full fallout of their plan is felt by Americans, do you think there’s going to be political fallout? Does that create an advantage for the Republicans?
PENCE: You know what? I mean if they keep — you mean if they keep growing government and running up.
HANNITY: Yes.
PENCE: … record deficits and debt and passing tax increases, probably, but you know, the real losers here are going to be the American people. We’ve lost two million jobs since the Democrats passed their so-called stimulus bill.
Now the president said back on July 1st that it had, quote, “done its job.” He said this weekend on another network that the stimulus bill was working. I think he said exactly as we anticipated.
I mean, come on, Sean. The Democrats need to admit that their liberal wish list of spending priorities that they call add stimulus bill is a flop. We need to repeal it, and we need to take that money.
HANNITY: All right. Last question.
PENCE: … to do a tax bill that will bring tax relief, not increases to working families, small businesses and family farms.
HANNITY: Eight out of ten issues now, significant issues, Scott Rasmussen says that the American people are now supporting the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party seems to have learned some of the lessons about spending and growth of government because it resulted in two bad elections, one in 2006, one in 2008.
Do you any the Republican Party has returned to their Reagan conservative roots? Are you confident that they have?
PENCE: I believe they have, Sean, and you need look no further than every single House Republican voted against the so-called stimulus bill, every single House Republican voted against the president’s budget busting budget.
Look, Republicans are coming together around conservative values. We need the American people to ride to the rescue. We can stop this government takeover of health care, and we request demand this Congress take action that will get this economy moving again.
HANNITY: Congressman Mike Pence, always good to see you, thank you.
PENCE: Thank you, Sean.
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