This is a rush transcript from “Hannity,” January 27, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Now just a short time ago President Barack Obama concluded his very first State of the Union Address. Joining me now to give a Democrat’s take on the speech is the one and only Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. Governor how are you?
GOV. ED RENDELL, D-PENN.: Good evening Sean, doing good.
HANNITY: Well we are glad you are here. Welcome with the opposition response. All right. Governor I want to ask you this, the stimulus hasn’t worked. In spite of the president claiming we saved two million jobs. We’ve lost four million jobs in a year. Is that legitimate or is that somewhat manipulative to the American people to say we saved two million jobs?
RENDELL: Well, Sean again you can debate the term has it worked. It certainly saved jobs. For example if you took all the stimulus money out of Pennsylvania state budget it would have cost 25 to 30,000 lay-offs of policemen, firemen, emergency workers, teachers, state workers, county workers, there is no question about that. The infrastructure portion of it which is the best part you and I agree that certainly created tens of thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania.
HANNITY: But Governor we never used this standard. We got to be honest with the American people. If we include the under employed and those that gave up looking for jobs we are at 17.3 percent. He lost four million jobs; he said unemployment wouldn’t go above eight percent. Why should we believe him?
RENDELL: I agree with all of that.
HANNITY: Why should we believe him?
RENDELL: Because there’s — when we would do job figures and statistics in Pennsylvania, way before any of this, we always do jobs created, jobs retained, they are both important factors. A state wants to retain its core jobs. I think the stimulus has allowed us to retain a significant core of jobs, hundreds of thousands across the country.
HANNITY: We have never.
RENDELL: The infrastructure part of it, now we do that all the time when we compute.
HANNITY: No, no. But on a federal level Governor, you can’t name a president that has used the term created or saved jobs; it has never happened before.
RENDELL: Well I bet you if you go back to the deepest recessions, presidents always use that because saving jobs is crucial in the midst of a recession. But Sean I want to say one thing because I think you are a fair guy and that’s the reason I come on all the time even though you kick the living daylights out of me.
HANNITY: I try.
RENDELL: I think the president — well you try and you do it very well. I think the president did a very good job today of reaching out to the Republicans on three separate issues.
HANNITY: What?
RENDELL: Hear me out.
HANNITY: All right.
RENDELL: The jobs bill, small business tax credits, elimination of capital gains for small business and infrastructure; those are basic core Republican principles. On energy, the president talked about nuclear power, clean coal technology, and off shore drilling. And on fiscal responsibility he talked about pay as you go legislation and the Judd Gregg-Conrad Entitlement Commission. The ball is in the Republican court now, 93 percent of Americans said in the recent poll too much partisanship let’s see the Republicans respond to that initiative.
• What did you think of Obama’s speech?
HANNITY: Let me respond to this initiative. The president locked Republicans out of the health care debate, there is no disputing that.
RENDELL: Let’s talk about what he said tonight Sean.
HANNITY: History is relevant here. Words read off a teleprompter about lobbyists and about earmarks and about a whole host of issues have proven not to be true. He promised everything would be on C-SPAN!
RENDELL: If you were in the Senate would you support a jobs bill that had elimination of capital gains for small businesses and tax credits for job creation —
HANNITY: I would support massive across the board tax lifts. Here is the problem though, for all his talk about transparency lobbyists and earmarks he did the opposite of what his words say. Now this is a problem, it is a credibility gap. Now you were on my radio program the other day and I asked you a tough question and you gave me an honest answer. I’m going to challenge you tonight on TV to do the same. When the president gave $300 million to Mary Landrieu, is that a bribe? When he gave a special exemption to Ben Nelson, was that a bribe?
When unions don’t pay taxes because they supported President Obama and the rest of us pay taxes, is that a bribe? Is that corrupt? Do those things stink to high heaven for all this talk about government and Washington and reform, blah, blah, are those things corrupt in your mind?
RENDELL: No argument from me, those things are bad political deals.
HANNITY: Are they corrupt?
RENDELL: Corrupt — they are bad political deals which by the way, presidents of both parties have been making for time in memorial. They shouldn’t have happened, it is wrong what happened, there always have been deals.
HANNITY: Never. Never has it happened like this.
RENDELL: There have always been deals and you admitted that on radio as well.
HANNITY: Never like this.
RENDELL: But Sean — he handed out the olive branch tonight nuclear power offshore drilling, clean coal technology let’s get together and do something. Stop criticizing tell the Republicans to get together and get something done. It’s one nation.
HANNITY: Listen, tort reform, portability, medical savings accounts. Iif he wants to open the door on health care there are better solutions, if he wants to drill in Alaska and drill offshore, build refineries, expand nuclear power, I’m with him.
RENDELL: Talk about it. Tell the Republicans to sit down and work with him, let’s try doing something this country.
HANNITY: You arrange for me and the president to sit down and you can broker the debate.
RENDELL: Run for the Senate.
HANNITY: Run for the Senate. In New York? I couldn’t be elected. I couldn’t get five percent of the vote!
RENDELL: You would surprise yourself.
HANNITY: Governor we love having you on. Thank you for being with us.
RENDELL: Nice to see you Sean.
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