Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama Addresses Syria, Talks with Iran and Congress on Budget and Debt Ceiling

Aired September 27, 2013 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Let's go to Capitol Hill. Dana Bash is standing by.

Dana, the Senate passed the legislation to keep the government funded. They eliminated what had earlier passed the House of Representatives, the defunding of ObamaCare.

The ball is now in the court of John Boehner, the speaker of the House, the Republicans in the House.

I think all the Democrats are pretty much united in the House of representatives. They want to continue funding and they're not willing to tinker right now with ObamaCare.

So set the scene for us, Dana. What's about to happen over this weekend?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know. I mean, that is the honest answer.

We don't know, and it's because House Republican leaders don't have a plan yet. In fact, Wolf, as the Senate was passing its bill funding the government, the House was already done with business for the day.

The parking lot in the Capitol was filled with cars. Several of the members who live close by went back to their constituents for the night, went home for the night, and plan to be back here tomorrow.

There's going to be a meeting of House Republicans. Right now, it's planned for noon tomorrow for them to sort out what they're going to do.

It might seem kind of unbelievable, but this is a symptom of the problem that we've seen, or the issue that we've seen for weeks and weeks, months and months, and even longer, which is, House Republicans have a very strong, very vocal caucus of about 40 people, maybe more, who are demanding that they not give up.

In fact, a Republican leadership source said to me, our members want to fight. They just aren't exactly sure what they want to fight about or for.

So that's the situation that Republican leaders are in right now. They're trying to kind of navigate that. There, of course, is the possibility that they could pass a bill keeping the government running and do it with heavy Democratic support if a lot of the Republican rank and file members vote no, but that would put John Boehner potentially in a really big bind with his own caucus. So they're trying to figure out exactly what the best course is, going forward.

BLITZER: They have two, three days left to do it. Stand by, Dana.

Brianna Keilar, our senior White House correspondent, you're in the briefing room, Brianna. The president is about to walk into the briefing room, make a statement. Is he sticking around to answer questions? Have they said?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, they haven't said, Wolf. We don't know at this point, but we do expect him here in the briefing room shortly.

Of course, we have been hearing from the White House the message that I think we're expecting in part from President Obama and that we have been hearing from the White House is really just putting pressure on House Republicans.

What the White House obviously would prefer is that the House just take up the bill that has made its way through the Senate now, a clean spending bill, as they put it. They say that the House should just accept it.

This would fund the government through mid-November, and they say that would give obviously several weeks to work out some sort of budget agreement, which as you know, having watched many attempts at budget agreements, it seems perhaps unlikely they could even come to further agreement.

They're so far apart, perhaps farther apart than they have ever been, even perhaps in their past negotiations, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, they will have another chance.

Let's say, Brianna, that they do go ahead and pass some sort of spending resolution in the House of Representatives, something acceptable to the Senate and doesn't include a defunding of ObamaCare.

The government continues to operate, at least for a few more weeks if not a few more months.

There is another big fight coming up October 17th, by October 17th, Brianna, that they have to raise the debt ceiling.

Republicans are making demands on what they would do in order to vote to raise the debt ceiling, allow the federal government to borrow, not default on various expenditures.

But the president has drawn a line as recently as yesterday and said he will not negotiate on anything in order to raise the debt ceiling.

Is there any wiggle room there as far as you can tell, Brianna, at all? KEILAR: You know, talking, I know it's hard to imagine, Wolf, the idea that perhaps the White House would not negotiate when it comes to the debt ceiling, the idea that the debt ceiling could be breached, which to hear from the White House would be economically calamitous. We've heard that from economists as well.

It's hard to imagine that they would allow the debt ceiling to be breached without engaging House Republicans, but they're insistent that's what they're doing.

They feel if they are to negotiate, if they are to give anything, they will only continue to see further demands from House Republicans. They say they have negotiated in the past and then it gets them into a bad place. So they don't want to continue with that.

And you ask officials here over and over, is there any negotiating room? They insist, Wolf, there isn't.

But also keep in mind, we do have some time before that deadline of October 17th when the debt ceiling is expected to be hit.

BLITZER: Brianna, they haven't given us a two-minute warning. Usually before the president walks in, they make a two-minute warning announcement. They haven't done that yet, right?

KEILAR: No, we haven't had that yet.

BLITZER: You let us know when you get the two-minute warning. We're anxious to hear what the president has to say.

He's about to walk into the briefing room and make a statement. We'll see if he answers reporters' questions as well.

Gloria, is there some wiggle room here? Let's say they get through the government shutdown crisis, they work out some temporary deal. It doesn't eliminate funding for ObamaCare. Is there some wiggle room where the adults on both sides can come up with a deal so that the debt ceiling can be raised?

BORGER: The adults on both sides, first, I was thinking about this after talking to a bunch of White House people who say they're not going to negotiate.

They're using very strong terms, you know, saying this is, you know, holding the American people hostage, et cetera, et cetera.

What I can see, and I don't know if this is going to happen or not, is more of a procedural negotiation than a substantive negotiation, i.e., kick-the-can-down-the-road kind of negotiation, which is agree to raise the debt ceiling, not to shut down the government for a time certain, and we'll deal with all the other issues over the next, you know, six, eight, ten months, whatever.

That won't make anybody happy, but it would at least avert a calamity. I don't know if either side would be willing to do that, but that's one of the only ways I can really see out of it. CROWLEY: I'm not sure anybody is going to want to push it down the road to right before elections. That's number one.

BORGER: Or after.

CROWLEY: So the fact is they're also really adamant on both sides until they aren't anymore. You don't give it up.

I agree that the terminology from the White House is pretty definitive. I mean, it is, we are not, we are not, we are not.

You could have another piece of legislation, but you know, the problem, I think, so far is this has all been tied to health care.

And that really is a nonstarter. That really is something I don't think this White House will give up in any way, shape, or form except to tweak it after it started.

BLITZER: It started today with Mitt Romney, the former Republican presidential nominee, and they spoke about this issue.

Let me play a little clip. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": Seems likely that the Senate is going to send back to the House a clean government funding bill without the defunding provision of ObamaCare.

And House Speaker John Boehner is going to have a choice to make. What do you think he should do?

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We would like to see ObamaCare go away.

Now the question is, what's the best tactic? What's the best vehicle to try to make that happen?

My tactic would be different. But that doesn't mean I don't respect and honor the fact that other Republicans are choosing other tactics they think are effective because we agree on the objective.

The objective is to stop ObamaCare because it is going to hurt the American people. That's the message that Ted Cruz got out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You'll see the full interview with Mitt Romney at the top of the hour, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, on "THE LEAD."

I recommend you stick around and watch that. Jake goes through a whole bunch of issues with Mitt Romney on that.

Gloria, you want to make a point?

BORGER: I learned that the statement from the president is also going to be on foreign policy as well as the continuing resolution.

BLITZER: Presumably welcoming the upcoming U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria and its chemical weapons and maybe something on Iran as well.

He had wanted to meet with the new Iranian president. The Iranian president said he wanted to meet with him but it was too complicated. They couldn't work out the details.

BORGER: And we heard the president talk a little bit about the U.N. situation earlier today, so he'll probably elaborate on that as well as talking about the fiscal deal.

BLITZER: All right, I'm sure that there's going to be a bunch that the president will want to say, something about the government shutdown, something about Syria and its chemical weapons.

We're standing by to hear from the president.

Want to go back to Dana Bash up on Capitol Hill.

As far as we know, Dana, is there a dialogue going on? Is the president having some conversations with John Boehner, the speaker of the House?

Are lower level officials, Denis McDonough, for example, the White House chief of staff, meeting with some of Boehner's aides? Is there a little back channel going on to avert a crisis?

BASH: No, not that we know of. In fact, not in a back channel, but in high-level meetings, that an aide to John Boehner told our Deirdre Walsh just moments ago that they've got no call from the White House, no invitation to come to the White House for a meeting.

Now, we've heard White House officials say over the past 24 hours that they're not going to negotiate with hostage-takers.

I'm not sure if they consider John Boehner the hostage-taker, or they consider him maybe the hostage to his own caucus, and maybe it's not really that necessary or valuable to talk to Boehner.

But, look, I mean, in these times, Republicans in the House and Senate argue that, you know, the phone works both ways and that the president still has the ability and maybe even the responsibility to call up Republicans in Congress and say, hey, let's talk.

Whether they can figure something out at the end of the day, who knows, but hey, let's talk, and that's not happening.

And then with regard to Republicans and Democrats here in Congress, Harry Reid said just about an hour ago that he's had no conversations with John Boehner and the House.

So there's not any talking going on. The truth is everybody knows what their positions are. Senate Democrats have made that clear in public. House Republicans, as I said before, they don't know what their position is because they're trying to sort of negotiation with their own caucus first, so I think that might be a big reason why things are frozen right now.

BLITZER: All right, so we're standing by. Momentarily, the president will be walking into the briefing room.

We're told now he will make a statement, presumably a statement not only a potential government shutdown, but a statement also on the United Nations Security Council, which is scheduled to reconvene at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, later tonight.

Here's the president.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon, everybody.

Before I discuss the situation in Congress, let me say a few things about two important opportunities in our foreign policy.

Just now, I spoke on the phone with President Rouhani of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran's nuclear program.

I reiterated to the president what I said in New York. While there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution.

I have directed Secretary Kerry to continue pursuing this diplomatic effort with the Iranian government. We had constructive discussions yesterday in New York with our partners, the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and China along with the Iranian foreign minister.

Going forward, President Rouhani and I have directed our teams to continue working expeditiously in cooperation with the P5-plus-one to pursue an agreement, and throughout this process, we'll stay in close touch with our friends and allies in the region, including Israel.

Now, we're mindful of all the challenges ahead. The very fact that this was the first communications between an American and Iranian president since 1979 underscores the deep mistrust between our countries, but it also indicates the prospect of moving beyond that difficult history.

I do believe that there is a basis for a resolution. Iran's supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons. President Rouhani has indicated that Iran will never develop nuclear weapons.

I have made clear that we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy in the context of Iran meeting its obligations.

So the test will be meaningful, transparent, and verifiable actions, which can also bring relief from the comprehensive international sanctions that are currently in place.

Resolving this issue, obviously, could also serve as a major step forward in a new relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

It would also help facilitate a better relationship between Iran and the international community, as well as others in the region, one that would help the Iranian people fulfill their extraordinary potential, but also help us address other concerns that could bring greater peace and stability in the Middle East.

A path to a meaningful agreement will be difficult, and at this point, both sides have significant concerns that will have to be overcome, but I believe we've got a responsibility to pursue diplomacy and that we have a unique opportunity to make progress with the new leadership in Tehran.

I also communicated to President Rouhani my deep respect for the Iranian people.

Now, as I said before, this comes on the same day that we can accomplish a major diplomatic breakthrough on Syria, as the United Nations Security Council will vote on a resolution that would require the Assad regime to put its chemical weapons under international control so they can ultimately be destroyed.

This binding resolution will ensure that the Assad regime must keep its commitments or face consequences.

It will have to be vigilant about following through, but this could be a significant victory for the international community and demonstrate how strong diplomacy can allow us to secure our country and pursue a better world.

Now, America's security leadership doesn't just depend on our military strength or our alliances.

First and foremost, America's strength depends on a strong economy where our middle class is growing and everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead, so let me say a few words about the situation that's developed over the past few weeks on Capitol Hill.

Here at home, the United States Congress has two pressing responsibilities, pass a budget on time and pay our bills on time.

If Congress chooses not to pass a budget by Monday, the end of the fiscal year, they will shut down the government along with many vital services that the American people depend on.

The good news is, within the past couple of hours, the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, acted responsibly, by voting to keep our government open and delivering the services the American people expect.

Now it's up to the Republicans in the House of Representatives to do the same. I say that because, obviously, Democrats have a great interest in making sure that these vital services continue to help the American people.

So far, the Republicans in the House of Representatives have refused to move forward, and here's the thing. Unlike the last time they threatened this course of action, this debate isn't really about deficits.

In fact, our deficits are falling at the fastest pace that they have in 60 years. By the end of this year, we will have cut our deficits by more than half since I took office.

So that's not what this is about. And in fact, if you've been following the discussion, the Republicans in the House don't even make a pretense that that's what this is about.

Instead, the House Republicans are so concerned with appeasing the tea party that they have threatened a government shutdown or worse unless I gut or repeal the Affordable Care Act.

I said this yesterday. Let me repeat it. That's not going to happen. More than a hundred million Americans currently already have new benefits and protections under the law.

On Tuesday, about 40 million more Americans will be able to finally buy quality, affordable health care just like anybody else. Those marketplaces will be open for business on Tuesday.

No matter what, even if there's a government shutdown, that's a done deal.

As I have said before, if Republicans have specific ideas on how to genuinely improve the law rather than gut it, rather than delay it, rather than repeal it, I'm happy to work with them on that through the normal democratic processes, but that will not happen under the threat of a shutdown.

So over the next three days, House Republicans will have to decide whether to join the Senate and keep the government open or shut it down because they can't get their way on an issue that has nothing to do with the deficit.

I realize that a lot of what's taking place right now is political grandstanding, but this grandstanding has real effects on real people.

If the government shuts down on Tuesday, military personnel, including those risking their lives overseas for us right now, will not get paid on time. Federal loans for rural communities, small business owners, families buying a home, will be frozen.

I'm already starting to get letters from people worried that this will have an impact on them directly. Critical research into life-saving discoveries will be immediately halted.

The federal government has a large role across the country and touches the lives of millions of people, and those people will be harmed. And even the threat of a shutdown already is probably having a dampening effect on our economy. We saw that the last time these kinds of shenanigans were happening up on Capitol Hill.

So to any Republican in Congress who is currently watching, I'd encourage you to think about who you're hurting.

There are probably young people in your office right now who came to work for you without much pay because they believe that public service was noble. You're preparing to send them home without a paycheck.

You've got families with kids back in your districts who serve their country in the federal government, and now they might have to plan how they're going to get by if you shut the government down.

Past shutdowns have disrupted the economy, and this shutdown would, as well. It would throw a wrench into the gears of our economy at a time when those gears have gained some traction.

That's why many Republican senators and many Republican governors have urged Republicans to knock it off, pass a budget and move on. Let's get this done.

This brings me to Congress' second responsibility. Once they vote to keep the government open, they also have to vote within the next couple of weeks to allow the Treasury to pay the bills or the money that Congress has already spent.

I want to repeat. Raising the debt ceiling is simply authorizing the Treasury to pay for what Congress has already authorized.

Failure to meet this responsibility would be far more dangerous than a government shutdown. It would effectively be an economic shutdown with impacts not just here, but around the world.

We don't fully understand what might happen, the dangers involved, because no Congress has ever actually threatened default, but we know it would have a profound destabilizing effect on the entire economy, on the world economy, because America is the bedrock of world investment.

The dollar is the reserve currency. The debt that is issued by the treasury is the foundation for our capital markets. That's why you don't fool with it.

Some Republicans have suggested that, unless I agree to an even longer list of demands, not just gutting the health care law, but cutting taxes for millionaires or rolling back rules on big banks and polluters or other pet projects that they'd like to see and they have been trying to get passed over the last couple of years, that they would push the button, throw America into default for the first time in history, and risk throwing us back into a recession.

Now, I am willing to work with anybody who wants to have a serious conversation about our fiscal future. I've demonstrated that by putting forward serious reforms to tax and entitlement programs that would bring down our long-term deficits.

I have said in the past and I will continue to say that I'm willing to make a whole bunch of tough decisions, ones that may not be entirely welcomed by my own party.

But we're not going to do this under the threat of blowing up the entire economy. I will not negotiate over Congress' responsibility to pay the bills that have already been racked up.

Voting for the Treasury to pay America's bills is not a concession to me. That's not doing me a favor. That's simply carrying out the solemn responsibilities that come with holding office up there.

I don't know how I can be more clear about this. Nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the United States just to extract political concessions.

No one gets to hurt our economy and millions of innocent people just because there are a couple of laws that you do not like.

It has not been done in the past. We're not going to start doing it now. I'm not going to start setting a precedent, not just for me, but for future presidents, where one chamber in Congress can basically say each time there needs to be a vote to make sure Treasury pays its bills, we're not going to sign it unless our particular hobby horse gets advanced.

Imagine if you had a Republican president and a Democratic speaker and Democratic speaker said, well, we're not going to pass the debt ceiling unless we raise corporate taxes by 40 percent, or unless we pass background checks on guns, or whatever other list of agenda items Democrats were interested in.

Does anybody actually think that we would be hearing from Republicans that that was acceptable behavior? That's not how our constitutional system's designed. We are not going to do it.

The American people have worked too hard to recover from a bunch of crises, several of them now over the last couple of years inflicted by some of the same folks in Congress that we're talking about now, to see extremists in Congress cause another crisis.

And keep in mind, by the way, this whole thing has to do with keeping the government open for a few months. The continuing resolution, the bill that's designed to avert a government shutdown basically just funds the government for another couple months so we could be doing this all over again.

I'm sure the American people are thrilled about that. And that's why we've got to break this cycle.

My message to Congress is this. Do not shut down the government. Do not shut down the economy. Pass a budget on time. Pay our bills on time. Refocus on the everyday concerns of the American people.

There will be differences between Democrats and Republicans. We can have all kinds of conversations about how to resolve those differences.

There will be areas where we can work together. There will be areas where we disagree.

But do not threaten to burn the house down simply because you haven't gotten 100 percent of your way. That's not how our democracy is supposed to work.

Every day that this goes on, is another day that we're not focused on doing what we need to be focused on, which is rebuilding this great country of ours so that our middle class is growing and everybody's got opportunity if they're willing to work hard.

That's what I'm focused on. That's what Congress should be focused on as well.

Thank you very much, everybody.