U.S. Marine Released from Mexican Jail; Fiscal Cliff Talks may Resume; Interview with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
GRIFFIN: Welcome back to STARTING POINT. Let's hope our lawmakers return to Washington this week with a little bit of that leftover Christmas spirit because they only have six days to avoid the fiscal cliff. The president will leave Hawaii very late tonight to come back to D.C. As for the Senate and the House, let's speak to Congressman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida. Congressman, I know you played a big role in getting a marine veteran out of a nightmarish prison in Mexico and back to his family for Christmas. We want to talk about that in a second. But first, I got to ask you about the fiscal cliff and what you think is going to be happening in the next couple of days. First of all, do you think it's possible we'll get anything other than a Band-Aid between now and six days from now when the triggers kick in?</s>REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, (R) FLORIDA: I'm very optimistic if all of us pull our weight and do some serious conversations we'll have a bipartisan solution, because nobody wants to go over this fiscal cliff. It will damage our economy. It will hurt every taxpayer, the largest tax increase in history. It will affect everybody. And anyone who is watching who thinks, oh, this isn't going to impact me, you will find out it will. And we know the problem is a lot of spending. Not that we're not taxing people more, we're just spending too much. We hope that the president understands that as for as Republicans are concerned, we're willing to negotiate and have a civil conversation, but also he's got to bring in some spending cuts and tax reform, because Americans want tax reform and we don't want to hurt the economy. And, look there, are not enough millionaires in the United States to tax them all to be able to spend our way out of this problem. So let's give up a little bit -- each side can concede a little. And I think we can find that middle ground. I'm optimistic.</s>GRIFFIN: When we had your colleague Nan Hayworth last hour, she was expecting work to be done in the Senate. The House did its best, Boehner did his best, now it's up to the Senate to come up with something. Is that your position now, your understanding of how your house leadership is handling this, that it's now basically the ball is in the Senate's court?</s>ROS-LEHTINEN: All you have to do is look at what Harry Reid, the leader of the Senate has been saying from day one. Every time that Speaker Boehner put forth a common-sense plan to fix this problem, Harry Reid would say, right off the bat it is DOA, dead on arrival. There wasn't one thing that Speaker Boehner proposed that Reid said, oh, we can work with that. It's all about scoring political points. I know the American people are tired of all of us, I understand that. We just make used car salesmen look good. That's the only group is below us. But we've got to get our act together and prove to the American people that we can regain the trust that they once had in us and get the job done and, as you say, not kick the can down the road. They want to us work this out. I hope we do.</s>GRIFFIN: Let's talk about something a little more bright, and that is this former marine stuck in Mexico. If you don't know the story, Jon Hammar was basically trying to go on a surfing trip. He had an old Winnebago and a bunch of surf boards, and some sort of antique, torn apart gun that he wanted to use to hunt rabbits and birds. He got caught up in the judicial system and was languishing in prison, a pretty rough prison across the border, and nobody from the United States seemed to be caring much about him. Isn't that what was going on, congresswoman?</s>ROS-LEHTINEN: Absolutely. This is a feel-good Christmas story with a wonderful, happy ending. I had an e-mail from Olivia, Jon Hammar's mom, about what a wonderful Christmas they spent together. Mike Thompson, a congressman from California, he's a Democrat, he's the congressman who has the -- whose clinic for post-traumatic stress syndrome, Jon Hammar was a patient in because Jon served our nation in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in a fierce fire fight in Fallujah. And then remember, this rifle that he was taking into Mexico, he actually went to U.S. custom border patrol and registered it with them. They waited, they photographed it. They told him, sure, you can bring it into Mexico, just register it. And it was when John was registering the firearm that he was arrested for his trouble. And he had been there since August, chained to his bed. It was a nightmare scenario. So if a bipartisan group of legislators were able to get together to bring Jon Hammar home, maybe we can fix the fiscal cliff problem. Here is what we can.</s>GRIFFIN: Here is what Jon Hammar's mom had to say about the homecoming, which was really a Christmas gift to them. Take a listen.</s>OLIVIA HAMMAR, MOTHER OF FREED MARINE VETERAN: It was like my first night that I slept all night long without getting up, and it was just the thought of not wondering what's going on with him, can anyone hurt him tonight? That's my thought. He's eating. He's able to have a meal.</s>GRIFFIN: You know, congresswoman, I have to ask you one pointed question. Why did it take you guys to get involved? Where was the state department? Where was anyone trying to take care of this U.S. citizen stuck since August in a Mexican prison?</s>ROS-LEHTINEN: First of all, I don't want to blame our officials more than I blame the Mexican authorities for putting him in custody. He was facing 12 years in jail for doing the right thing, registering the firearm, which is not really a killer machine. It was to shoot birds and something that had been in the family years and years and years. But anyway, U.S. officials kept getting us a status report, how John is doing. We said status report? Why aren't you actively lobbying to get Jon Hammar home. So we had to shake up the democracy. Jon is pretty sick right now. You can imagine he was not eating well and dehydrated, had the stomach flu. He hasn't made any public appearances, he's got to chill out a little bit and get better and we're just praying hard and worked hard and this is a very religious family. I think their faith carried them through this ordeal. They tried to do it the right way, quietly. And month after month, John was still stuck in a Mexican jail. And so we went to bat for him, and thanks to so many people praying and working hard for him, he's finally home. They are constituents of my congressional district, so I'm very glad this has a feel-good ending. But there are a lot of these kinds of difficult situations. When people go abroad, they've got to remember there, is no place like this wonderful country that has this wonderful judicial system. Mistakes happen here, but there's nothing like home.</s>GRIFFIN: Congresswoman, thank you so much. We hope you give us another feel-good story in six days or less we hope. Take care.</s>ROS-LEHTINEN: We're hoping, praying, and working too.</s>GRIFFIN: There you go.</s>ROS-LEHTINEN: What a great gift for that family to have their son back in time for the holidays.</s>CHO: Ahead on STARTING POINT, the decision just made thousands of miles away that could affect couple who are trying to adopt children right here in the</s>U.S.  GRIFFIN: Plus, the numbers are in, and they are not good. Find out what might to be blame for disappointing holiday shopping season.