MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
We're going to turn now to Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, he is the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Congressman, welcome to the program.
REPRESENTATIVE CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: Melissa, it's great to be with you.
BLOCK: We heard Majority Leader Eric Cantor say that the White House meeting with the president was useful - that's his word. The White House called it a good meeting. What are you hearing about the talks and what came from them?
HOLLEN: Well, I'm hearing what you just reported, which is they were useful, but there are, obviously, differences that need to be worked out. First and foremost, we should open the federal government right now. There is no reason to continue to have the shutdown. Speaker Boehner has it in his power to vote tonight, if he wanted, to reopen the government. Second, I think most people agree that it would be much better to commit to paying our bills for at least another year, rather than just six weeks as House Republicans have proposed.
Six weeks will mean a cloud continuous to hang over the economy. And so we don't think that's the best approach. But there is good news in the fact that House Republicans finally want to negotiate on the budget. So that's a positive development.
BLOCK: But Congressman, the things that you're talking about, you know, opening the government, a longer term extension of the debt ceiling, those were not on the Republicans' radar, at least the first thing this morning. So are you saying that there has been some real widening of the discussion here and the Republicans are coming forward with things that they weren't before?
HOLLEN: Well, we are hearing in the last couple of hours from Senate Republicans that it is the priority for them as it is for the president and House Democrats to open the government now. Look, with respect to the debt ceiling, there's the good news and the bad news. The good news is that Republicans have recognized that it's a bad idea to threaten the full faith and credit of the United States in order to try and enact their agenda. The bad news is they say they only want to do it for six weeks. Now, we don't think it's a good idea to do this for just six weeks. But we also think it's a worse idea if we default.
BLOCK: Are you concerned, Congressman Van Hollen, with the White House meetings with the Republicans as they go through these discussions that the president will be negotiating a way, as he has before, things that are very, very important to the Democratic caucus?
HOLLEN: No. I don't think there's any sign that the president is going to do that. The president's priorities are the same as ours. Number one, reopen the government. Number two, he has indicated it would be much better to extend the debt ceiling for a year to avoid that cloud of uncertainty, but again, his priority is to make sure that we don't default. And third, the president, like the Democrats in the House and Senate, has been trying to engage in budget negotiations without preconditions with our Republican colleagues.
BLOCK: To the extent that you can understand the Republican caucus in the House, do you think that Speaker Boehner is now at a point where he is going to bypass the more conservative wing of his party?
HOLLEN: It's too early to tell. We really don't know. And one of the things we have all learned, that the country's learned over the last couple weeks is that you don't know minute to minute what the House Republicans' position is, because Speaker Boehner sometimes announces one position, but within a very short period of time, he has retreated in the face of opposition from the most reckless parts of his own caucus. He admitted on national television that he had reached an agreement with the Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, to keep the government open.
The agreement had been that Democrats would agree to a lower funding level for a period of time that we think makes sense in exchange for Speaker Boehner agreeing not to add unrelated, extraneous provisions to the funding bill. And, obviously, Speaker Boehner walked away from that agreement. He said he walked away from the agreement under pressure from folks like Senator Ted Cruz and the more radical and reckless members of his party. So hopefully that will change for the good of the country.
BLOCK: That's Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He is the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.
HOLLEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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