Interview With Maine Senator Olympia Snowe
BALDWIN: Well, Congress has wrapped up its work before its election recess. It didn't exactly break productivity records. Lawmakers passed 173 laws, as of last month. The original. quote/unquote "Do Nothing Congress" was back in 1948, passed more than 900 laws and this year is the earliest congressional quit-date before an election in more than 50 years. And we have Senator Olympia Snowe. She joins me from Washington. She's retiring this year, not running for re-election, citing some of the frustration, Senator, with some of the political gridlock and I just want to say welcome back here to the show. And before we speak, I just want to play a little bit of your -- we'll call it fiery -- fiery, colorful speech, slamming the snail's pace of work. This was yesterday morning. Let's roll it.</s>SNOWE: Through the self-inflicted travesty of last year's debt- ceiling debacle, that we're facing another manufactured crisis, this year, with the fiscal cliff that never would have existed if the Senate had remained in session, had fewer recesses and maximized every legislative day based on the job that we were elected to do as I have argued virtually throughout this entire Congress. According to a recent study illustrated by this chart, deferring, last year, the debt ceiling to the 11th hour in August produced the highest level of policy uncertainty of any event that occurred over the last 20 years. That includes 9/11, the financial crisis, the fall of Lehman. It included the Iraq war.</s>BALDWIN: Senator Snowe, self-inflicted travesty, manufactured crisis, is it fair that you were saying Congress has blown it?</s>SNOWE: Basically, that is true and, based on the fact that we failed to address these issues, none of the issues that we are now confronted with in the fiscal cliff, for example, were issues that were a surprise. They were all anticipated. Even the debt ceiling crisis didn't have to be a crisis. We knew in January 2011 that we had to raise the threshold. In fact, the original deadline was in March. But it continued to be deferred to the 11th hour in August of that year, creating a crisis and putting the country through emotional travail. And, so, that's what is such, I think, a travesty and, also, I think, affecting the confidence of the people of this country towards their elected officials and political institutions.</s>BALDWIN: But, Senator, if I may, and I appreciate your candidness yesterday and let's just be honest here. Who is to blame for this?</s>SNOWE: Well, you know, obviously there is enough blame to go around, but in the United States Senate and that's what we were addressing yesterday, obviously, the majority -- the Democratic majority controls the Senate, so they control the agenda and how it's established. It is important to get a legislative agenda at the beginning of the new Congress, work it out with the minority leader, and then sort of lay a plan for how it's going to be addressed, so the debt ceiling was one issue. We knew the tax rates were going to expire, so we did a temporary extension. And all of these together should have been addressed at the onset of the Congress, in conjunction with the president and, obviously, with the speaker of the House of Representatives. Bringing them to the table and say, this is the agenda. We know these are the issues that have to be addressed and we want do it in a timely fashion that's thoughtful and deliberate rather than in the 11th hour, bills that crafted behind closed doors, giving very little time to evaluate and to analyze them and, so, thus, we're in this situation in the lame duck session.</s>BALDWIN: You talk about how it is the Democratic majority in the Senate that sets the agenda, but what about -- you mentioned the fiscal cliff, right? The fiscal cliff is looming. You called it a manufactured crisis. What about the Republicans, though, your party? Do the Republicans need to give in on opposition to raising taxes to help the deficit? Do they need to give in?</s>SNOWE: You know, the point is here, Brooke, is to have the committees address these issues in a timely fashion, as I mentioned, which would have been, frankly, last year. You know, assign the committees. We had the tax rates. We should have had tax reform and get everybody on board.</s>BALDWIN: But that didn't happen, as we well know, so what about now? What about Republicans? Will they give in?</s>SNOWE: Well, it's a question of what we're -- it is not a question of giving in. It's what is it that we're going to address and how we're going to address it for the future of this country? What are the ideas and what's the merit of a plan and who is going to be drafting it? We have to have people who've been elected by their constituents to be participating in the committee process to get this done. That's why I argue with the majority of the leader in the letter. Have us lay the groundwork on a bipartisan basis and I sent it to Mitch McConnell, as well, that we should lay this out, last April. Let's begin that process so we're prepared for a 36-day lame duck session to deal with all of the big issues. That hardly seems sensible or reasonable to do the right thing and then we can see where everybody stands in on the questions that you raised. Absolutely.</s>BALDWIN: Multiple issues -- forgive me, multiple issues left to tackle, not just the fiscal cliff. But final question to you, Senator, and that is, we have to talk about Mitt Romney. Let me just play some sound. This is what he said late yesterday about Washington and, specifically, President Obama.</s>MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I can change Washington. I will change Washington. We'll get the job done from the inside. Republicans and Democrats will come together.</s>BALDWIN: Do you have faith that your party's nominee can do that?</s>SNOWE: Well, I hope so and that's what he has said and that is important. He had to do that, obviously, in Massachusetts, as governor of Massachusetts, and certainly has to happen here. Now, I just regret that that hasn't happened to the extent that it should have. That could have, I think, changed the political dynamic and perhaps this dynamic wouldn't have taken hold. And, now, as to how we go forward and certainly that is something that both, you know, Mitt Romney and the president need to address in this campaign because it is a critical issue and, certainly, I take Mitt Romney at his word.</s>BALDWIN: You take him at his word, not just hope so, but believe so, as well.</s>SNOWE: Yes. It is important. Absolutely. And he understands the value of that, and we have to change the dynamic here. And, also, having the American people participate in that process and that's something I will be addressing once I leave the United States Senate and encouraging people how they can change it in real time, so that this kind of culture doesn't continue to persist.</s>BALDWIN: Eighteen years.</s>SNOWE: Yes.</s>BALDWIN: Eighteen years, three terms, Senator Olympia Snowe, we truly appreciate you coming on. Thank you.</s>SNOWE: Thank you. Thank you, Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: And talking about Mitt Romney here, the big news today, his 2010 tax returns being released today, a short time ago. They were released online. Jim Acosta has been covering the Romney campaign. He joins me live from Las Vegas. And, Jim Acosta, why now? Why today?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to the Romney campaign, it's because this information is ready and let's run through some of these numbers because there is sort of an interesting story to tell here, Brooke. First of all, according to this 2011 return, which has been put up on the Mitt Romney website, Mitt Romney paid nearly $2 million on roughly $14 million in income for an effective tax rate of 14 percent. But this is the interesting part. The Romneys donated $4 million to charity, but they only claimed $2.25 million in -- as a deduction for their contributions. Why is that important? Well, previously during this campaign, Brooke, Mitt Romney said that he basically paid more than an effective tax rate of 13 percent for all the time that he's been paying his taxes. He was even asked in an interview on ABC, do you recall a time you paid less than 13 percent? He went and looked and said he would go back and look and report back to us in the news media. And so what the Romney campaign is saying is that he limited the deductions that he took in terms of those charitable contributions in order to, as the campaign calls it, conform to his previous statements about that 13 percent tax rate. So, that is interesting to note. The other thing that they put out today were the health records from the Romney campaign from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and according to those health records, Brooke, both candidates are in very, very good health. Brooke?</s>BALDWIN: OK, Jim Acosta, thanks so much for us from Vegas. And staying westward, live pictures over the Los Angeles area, Space Shuttle Endeavour flying to its final home, going to land at LAX any moment now. We're going to take you to the landing site and bring you the historic moment, live on CNN.