'Meet the Press' transcript for Dec. 14, 2008

MR. SCOTT:  And that $1500 we got back from the government was, in fact, our down payment.  And I thought--quite honestly, I thought that was a very effective way to give myself and my family the opportunity for home ownership and to do it in a very constructive way.  I think back then the interest rate was 8.75, so it wasn't that attractive.  But I think there is a role that government can play.

MR. GREGORY:  Governor:

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Can I just say, I, I think that one other piece that is very important that is an opportunity right now is to give people the means to be retrained.  And so we've got a lot of people in Michigan, for example, that have had the rug pulled out from under them, and maybe they could be retrained to do, you know, energy efficiency work by retrofitting homes or businesses with weatherization and, and a--you know, making sure that we reduce our carbon footprint.  Maybe they could be retrained for healthcare jobs.  We've done something in Michigan--you know, we have no, No Child Left Behind.  We call it No Worker Left Behind, where we have taken the community colleges as the means of work force training and use them to be able to retrain people. We've got 35,000 people in the training system right now.  But government can really help explode that because, as you create this knowledge economy, our goal is to double the number of college graduates in Michigan.  We're in the middle of this paradigm shift where we tell people you can't just expect to go from high school to factory anymore.  Well, as the, as the next administration considers the stimulus, work force training is a huge opportunity.

GOV. ROMNEY:  It's been going on for a long time in Michigan.  Michigan needs, needs some help fast.  But I guess the nation needs help fast.

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

GOV. ROMNEY:  The real question that, that I have is why is Washington waiting?  We're seeing more than 100,000 jobs a month being lost in this economy, and we're waiting.  I guess people are waiting for the next president.  I don't know why.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Well, tell the president to...

GOV. ROMNEY:  I think, I think, I think the Republicans and the Democrats and the president need to come together and say, "We're going to take aggressive action to get this economy moving as fast as we can."

MR. GREGORY:  You think the president could have been more aggressive about this?

GOV. ROMNEY:  Oh, I, I think Congress and the president need to act...

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

GOV. ROMNEY:  ...and put together their own stimulus package instead of waiting for Barack Obama.  Take action right now.  Look--right, right now we talk about, for instance, infrastructure projects.  Those are great.  We're, we're in favor of those things, they need to be done.  They're going to get done anyway, let's move them forward.  But they take time in most cases because you have to have the environmental reviews and the...

MR. GREGORY:  Mm-hmm.

GOV. ROMNEY:  ...the engineering work done, and then you have to contract it out to different contractors, and it takes a while to happen.  We'll do it, but it's not the immediate jump-start this economy needs.  That's why tax policy, in many cases, lowering taxes on middle income individuals...

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

GOV. ROMNEY:  ...is the way to get things moving most aggressively in the consumers' hands...

MR. GREGORY:  And we...

GOV. ROMNEY:  ...and in small businesses' hands.  But let's, let's put together our platform.  Let's have Republicans put together our own platform of what we'd do to stimulate the economy, get it out there, have the Democrats do the same.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

GOV. ROMNEY:  Let's vote on something, get it in place instead of waiting for late January or February.

MR. GREGORY:  Well, let's, let's talk about our recent polling.  The question was about the role of government, and the question is, "When it comes to the economy, the federal government is focused on..." what?  Look at the responses:  61 percent in our poll said helping large businesses; just 5 percent said helping average Americans.

The question, Eric Schmidt, is what responsibility, then--if that's how people are perceiving this--does the business community have in being statesmen and women and playing a real leadership role beyond Washington?

MR. SCHMIDT:  The issue ultimately is about self-interest.  And you had a lot of scenarios where people have taken their own self-interest ahead of the citizens or their, or their employees or so forth and so on, and it's put a bad name on that whole part of the industry.  The important thing here is to lead for the nation.  This is a great country.  We have some of the most amazing resources and opportunities.  I would much prefer to be going through this in the United States than, for example, in Europe, right, where all of this stuff will take five years rather than one year to get through.  So let's get on with it.  Let's get the message out.  Let's restructure.  Let's do everything Carly said about small businesses, and let's do it quickly, as the governor said.  The most important thing we can do right now is help fund the facilities that are already in place.  The states have things ready to go, the infrastructure projects are ready.  There, there's a lot of things that we could do literally in the first week of President-elect Obama's service, if not before.

MR. GREGORY:  Lee Scott, you know, you've been criticized at Walmart on, on healthcare issues, on driving down wages.  As a business leader, and when you think about your successor at Walmart, do you have a responsibility to help Washington with the employment picture?

MR. SCOTT:  Well, we've been fortunate this year with our business to have added 30,000 jobs here in the U.S.  We've improved our health care, we've improved, I think, the, the general opportunity of our associates.  So criticisms aside, I, I think Eric's exactly right.  These are not times to be self-serving, and that's why we have reached out to the new administration and said, "We want to be a partner on these things." Any business or anyone today who's putting their interests ahead of this country, I think, is just on the wrong track.  And, and we get, quite honestly, some people who, who say that we shouldn't be pushing for this energy policy and for this reform in health care, that Walmart shouldn't be involved in that.  I think they're just wrong. I think today, more than ever, we have a responsibility to participate, and I don't mean on a negative side of participating by just being critical of what's proposed, but by being a partner in these solutions.

MR. GREGORY:  I want to go around the table with everybody.  As we, we get closer to Christmas and people are worried about this, and we go into the new year and a new administration--I'll start with you Governor Granholm.  What are you watching?  What are you looking for as an indicator of whether this is going to get worse or whether we're going to see some recovery?

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Well, I mean, for me, the--in the immediate--and I want to thank President Bush for actually saying--indicating that he's going to be using whatever executive power he can to ensure that the auto industry does not go down, because it means so many other industries across the nation.

MR. GREGORY:  And he can top the TARP.  He can get some of that bailout money to help, yeah.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  And he can do that.  It's exactly right.  Just to get us to this.  But I do think this issue of confidence and of access to credit is so important.  Confidence is so critical for the nation.  If you're not confident, you're not going to buy a car, much less a product from Walmart. You're not--you know, if you don't have access to credit.  So that issue. And, and the leaders, I think, really need to be evoking this, "We're going to be all right.  In fact, we're going to be magnificent." And a crisis brings a moment for us to shape something different into the future.  That's true with the automobile industry, it's true with every industry.  And so I think that the issue of, yes, we want to see swift action on jobs, we want to see swift action on access to credit, but we also want to make sure that we, we, we have a vision for the future that's going to take this issue forward.

MR. GREGORY:  All right, so we've got three minutes.  I want to get to everybody.

Carly Fiorina, what are you looking for as an indicator?

MS. FIORINA:  Well, I think credit conditions improving is vital.  And frankly, common sense and logic say to me that if the government has already spent hundreds of billions of dollars bailing out large financial institutions that there should be some conditions attached to that bailout, and the conditions should be, "Let's loan some money." It is inconceivable to me that the automakers who actually need a bridge loan to get them to a place where they can restructure are coming to the government because the banks refuse to give them a loan.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Right.

MS. FIORINA:  Those banks ought to be, I'm sorry, required to loan money. The taxpayer has bet on them, and they are unwilling to bet on three American companies.  Credit has to be loosened or small businesses and consumers are not going to be able to buy or hire.

MR. GREGORY:  Eric Schmidt:

MR. SCHMIDT:  The government is guaranteeing more than $2 trillion worth of loans to these institutions.  It's time for that money to start working. Hopefully, very soon after the president-elect is, is in office, we're going to see a stimulus package that is of, of sufficient size that will bring confidence back to the markets.  We know that when American consumers have credit, have cash they will spend it.  That will then begin the recovery cycle, and it will be quick.

MR. GREGORY:  OK, Governor Romney.

GOV. ROMNEY:  You know, I, I'll paraphrase Yogi Berra when he said, "I don't like forecasting, particularly if the future's involved." And so I'm not sure I can, I can look at indications to say...

MR. GREGORY:  But what would you--what are you--what are you looking for as, as indicators?  Not a prediction, but what do you want to see?

GOV. ROMNEY:  What I want to see is government act.

MR. GREGORY:  Yeah.

GOV. ROMNEY:  I don't want to see a government just talk about the problems, I want to see them actually act to take the, the kind of measures that will stimulate our economy and get it moving again.  I don't want to have them wait until after the inauguration or months after that.  I want them to move quickly and with a broad-based economic stimulus plan that doesn't waste money, that doesn't have earmarks for very special projects that congressman and senators want.  I want instead the normal process going through departments, with criteria published as to how the money's going to get spent.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

GOV. ROMNEY:  I want to see action now.

MR. GREGORY:  And, Lee Scott, you're on the front lines of the American consumer's mind-set.  What are you going to be watching for to see whether or not things are getting better or worse?

MR. SCOTT:  Well, every morning at 6:00 I get sales from around the world, and, really, that tells you as much as anything.  And what we'll be looking for is that that Walmart mom is confident, that, that the future and the money that's available to them will continue to improve, and we'll see that in our sales.  And right now they need us, and that's what we're focused on.  We'll see it in our stores, I think, immediately as they feel better about what's happening.

MR. GREGORY:  Governor Granholm, do you want to be in the Obama Cabinet?

GOV. GRANHOLM:  I want to be governor with that great partner in the White House.  It'll be the first time in eight years that we feel like we have a partner.  It's great.

MR. GREGORY:  All right, and we want to take a moment, Governor Romney, to wish God's blessings for your wife, Ann, as she confronts difficult health challenges.  We wish the best to you and your family.

GOV. ROMNEY:  Thanks so much, David.

MR. GREGORY:  Thank you all very much.

GOV. GRANHOLM:  Thank you.  Congratulations.

MR. GREGORY:  Thank you very much.  I appreciate you being here on my first program.  Thank you.

GOV. ROMNEY:  Very exciting.  Very exciting.

MR. GREGORY:  We're going to continue our discussion, by the way, with this dynamic group and ask them to share their advice for the incoming president in our MEET THE PRESS Take Two.  It's a Web extra.  It's on our Web site this afternoon at mtp.msnbc.com.

And we'll be right back.

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MR. GREGORY:  That's all for today.  The beginning of a new era for this program.  There's a lot of change going on right now in Washington, but there is one thing that won't change, if it's Sunday, it's MEET THE PRESS.

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