Jindal Blasts Budget, Answers Critics

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 5, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And our headline on this Thursday night, day number 45 of false hope and loose change is "No Confidence," and that is the message today from Wall Street to the White House.

Now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted another 281 points today closing at just below 6600. Now, maybe the president is paying attention now, or maybe not. He spent the day pushing his universal health care agenda, otherwise known as Hillary Care 2.0, just what the doctor ordered for the economy, more government?

Well, a FOX News poll released earlier today have some very revealing numbers that the president needs to pay attention to. When asked whether or not the billions spent stabilizing the economy is working only 38 percent said yes, without the money having been spent, things would be a lot worse. But 44 par percent of Americans think without the expansion of government, things would be the same or even better.

Clearly, Wall Street feels the same way. But instead the White House and Democrats, well, they spent their time trying to drive a wedge between Republicans with made-up controversies like the battle or so-called battle between Rush and Michael Steele.

And joining us tonight is the governor of the great state of Louisiana, Republican Bobby Jindal is with us. The rock star of the Republican Party.

• Video: Watch Sean's interview

I won't even ask, are you running for president? Everyone's asking. You want to run for president? I assume you're not even thinking about it.

JINDAL: Well, Sean, first of all, thank you for having me, I'm running for reelection in 2011. We've got a lot of work to do right here in Louisiana.

HANNITY: All right, look, this is now serious. Everyone sees that they're losing a lot of money in the stock market. We're headed now to 5,000. If we go back to May of last year, we were at 13,000 plus. These are people's retirement. This is serious.

Why do you think Wall Street is reacting this way to almost everything that the president is doing?

JINDAL: Well, the market's looking for predictability, they're looking for a plan. It seems like almost every day there's another bailout, they're spending trillions of dollars like they can print this money for free. You know you start with a stimulus, nearly a trillion dollar spending bill. The largest spending bill passed by Congress.

You look at a billion dollars for the census, $300 million for new government cars. $50 million dollars for the National Endowment for Arts. Houses, temporary houses targeted, then they follow it up with a $410 billion domestic spending bill, an eight percent increase, it's got thousands of earmarks, 8,500 and 9,000 earmarks, despite the campaign promise to get rid of earmarks, and then they followed up with a $3.6 trillion dollar budget for next year.

Sean, if you believe every one of the administration's assumptions, let's — let's just assume that all these temporary programs are really temporary. Let's assume the economy rebounds in the second half of this year. Let's assume that we're not spending all that money on overseas military. Let's assume all that were true. They still predict annual deficits of over half a trillion dollars.

The market knows that's not free. And the market knows we can't continue to raise borrow money. The market knows we can't borrow from our children and our grandchildren to increase government spending today. They want predictability, they want a plan, they're not getting that, they're not getting that leadership from Washington.

HANNITY: Governor, I can't say it any better than you just did with the passion that you just said it, and I want to ask you more specifics about it, but we're balk to the tactic of fear. Now the president's out there, we had a $634 billion laid down, as what he calls a down payment on nationalized health care. He’s out there selling it today, and he's back to fear tactics.

Let's roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Wait a minute. The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds? Where did this statistic come from, Governor? Because I don't believe it.

JINDAL: Why you — you even have another network — you even have another network going online and debunking this number, this outdated study, but let's go to the basic point here. As conservatives we absolutely agree that Americans should be able to afford high quality health care. We just don't think government bureaucracy is the answer.

We think that patients and their doctors should make these decisions. We believe in refundable tax credits, health care savings accounts, electronic portable health care records, group purchasing polls, reform of the system so we can afford private coverage.

Not a one-size-fits-all, government-run system. We don't need to go to the path of Canada, of Britain, let's preserve what's best about our health care system.

HANNITY: Governor, you said in your response to the joint session of Congress speech that Barack Obama gave, you said that the Republicans had to regain the trust of the American people. Now you were talking about some of the earmarks.

Why pigs smell happens to be my favorite, why, I don't know, because it's just another — another bridge — I'm glad you're enjoying that, Governor. But they're spending money on this study, why pigs smell, but my question is 40 percent of these earmarks are going to Republicans. Why would they ever not take this mantle of fiscal responsibility and run with it especially in light of the last two election results?

JINDAL: It's a great opportunity. I was disappointed. You saw quite a few Republicans vote to strip these earmarks. Not enough. You know, quite frankly, in our state, we've shown what can work. I line item vetoed over 250 earmarks in my first budget, that was twice what previous governors had done in the last 12 years combined.

You know, we as Republicans got fired and fired with cause in the last two election cycles because our actions didn't match our rhetoric. We need to go back to being the party of smaller government, smaller taxes, we need to present a real contrast with the president showing that we believe the best way to restore our economy is to get the private sector growing and hiring again.

You do that with less regulations, with targeted tax cuts, lowering the capital gains, lowering the permanent the income tax rates. You don't do that by trying to copy the other party. We'll never beat them. We'll never outspend them. Let's stop trying.

HANNITY: Governor, you're singing the Hannity tune here. I mean I love to hear it. I wish more Republicans shared these values because I think that will also result in electoral success for them.

You came under some criticism and some fire after your speech, and I thought it was unfair because I listened to substance, I listened to your ideas, you didn't have 900 people clapping and cheering and standing or booing at every remark that you made, and so you didn't have the theater that Barack Obama did.

What do you say to those critics that were unfairly targeting you after that speech?

JINDAL: Well, thank you, Sean, a couple of things. Look, let me concede the president is a very gifted speaker, and I certainly think he's a better speaker than I am, I'm not the only one that thinks that. But I agree with you. I hope that people will look beyond the delivery and actually look at the content because I was outlining a contrasting vision for our country, and I think it's important, the American people realize, what's at stake here.

This isn't just one bloated stimulus package. This isn't just a bloated appropriations bill. This isn't just a $3.6 trillion budget. This is a real philosophical debate about how do we move our country forward? One side agrees with government spending and expansion, we believe in growing the private sector. It's as simple as that.

HANNITY: Governor, I know I'm not supposed to ask. You're 37 years old?

JINDAL: I am indeed.

HANNITY: It's — the future is bright for the conservative movement. Good to see you, Governor. Thank you for being with us.

JINDAL: Thank you, Sean.

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