Vice President Cheney, President Bush, Rep. Dennis Hastert

ELECTION 2004

Mr. Speaker, Man of God

September 1, 2004

CBN.com – NEW YORK -- Most of the attention this year is focused on the presidential race, but Republicans are determined to defend their control of the House of Representatives. Lee Webb sat down with the 62-year-old Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to look at those elections as well as the Illinois congressman's unique tax proposal, his Christian faith, and a new book.

LEE WEBB: Joining us now is a man that the public knows little about. That's how he likes it. When you don't seek the limelight it is easier to pull together as a team and get the job done. That job is an important one. We are delighted to welcome Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Mr. Speaker, it's good to have you with us.

DENNIS HASTERT: Great to be with you today.

WEBB: This is an important week for you and your party. What do you hope to accomplish?

HASTERT: It is an important and exciting week, and I think it is a week that is really going to define where this country goes for the next generations. We are trying to build a legacy that we can hand off to our children and our grandchildren. We want to help build a country that is more secure and build on the successes that we've we had, and make sure we keep out the hostile groups and terrorists. We have been fairly successful. We are not all the way there yet, but we're working on it. Then we are making sure we are economically secure, so that families have more control over the money they earn, that they have a little bit more money in their pockets, that they can decide how to spend money for their children and grandchildren, decide how those kids can go to school, and control their healthcare cost. We know that 85 percent of the people who don't have healthcare today actually work. People who work ought to have healthcare. We are trying to make sure that we put in with the systems, so they can get that healthcare, and have control over it as well.

WEBB: You floated the idea of eliminating the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). After you proposed that, you sensed that it is getting traction, is that the idea?

HASTERT: Well, there's a lot of conversation, mostly on the talk radio shows that I have done in the last almost month now. All they want to do is talk about that. My premise is, every time we manufacture a product in this country, we have every company or corporation that that product moves through has hidden taxes, embedded taxes. They pay taxes, but those taxes get put into the cost of that product. When you sell overseas, those taxes are still in that product plus overseas taxes. We are at a disadvantage of selling overseas. When the overseas products come here, their taxes fall off at the border, and we still have our taxes embedded. We are at a disadvantage in competing. If we want to bring trillions of dollars of capital back to the country and do away with the IRS, and save $250 billion dollars a year, these are some things we ought to take a look at, and we ought to have a national debate about it.

WEBB: You are not only running the House of Representatives, but had time to write a book. It's called "Speaker: Lessons from 40 years in Coaching and Politics." What is more difficult, molding 17 and 18 year-old young men into good athletes, or keeping the House of Representatives together?

HASTERT: We try to take good kids and make good athletes out of them. In the process, you build them into a team, so they depend on each other and they set their goals together, and that's a lot of what this job as Speaker is. You take a group of people, you build them into a team, to get things done.

WEBB: Mr. Speaker, many of our viewers may not know that you are an Evangelical Christian. You are a man of faith. What role does your faith play in the decisions you make on a daily basis?

HASTERT: Every day that I get up to do this job, I thank God for the ability to do it, and for giving me this responsibility, and I ask Him for His guidance every day. I couldn't do this job without the ability to do that.

WEBB: Has He been faithful in that respect?

HASTERT: Certainly He has, without a doubt. Sometimes I think, here am I. How did I get chosen to do this job? I never asked or looked for it. But it just happened.

WEBB: Are you glad it did?

HASTERT: It is a great challenge and it's a great job to do.

WEBB: Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure to have you with us. The title of the book is "Speaker: Lessons from 40 years in Coaching and Politics." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

HASTERT: My pleasure.

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