Transcript: Rahm Emanuel and Rep. John Boehner

STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning and welcome to "This Week."

More change from Obama. On Cuba.

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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Terrorist interrogations.

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(UNKNOWN): The president moved swiftly to end that practice.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner are the guests this Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And the economy.

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OBAMA: We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: As the president rounds out his first 100 days and the new Congress returns from its first recess, what's next on the agenda? We'll ask our exclusive headliners, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and House Republican Leader John Boehner, only on "This Week."

Then,...

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(UNKNOWN): No more bailouts!

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Tax day tea parties. Boom or bust? That and the rest of the week's politics on our roundtable, with George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson and Peggy Noonan.

And as always, the Sunday funnies.

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(UNKNOWN): Nothing shakes a politician up like a complimentary bag of tea.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello again. Ninety days into his term, President Obama's wrapping up his second overseas mission today and coming home to his next set of challenges in Congress. That sets the table for our exclusive headliners this morning, beginning with the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Welcome back.

EMANUEL: Good morning.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you could not have been happy when you got up and saw the New York Times this morning. Headline talks about the president's softer stance. The first paragraph says he's shown a willingness to capitulate on some early initiatives. Then it goes on to quote Leonard Burman of the Urban Institute, and he says that -- he says, "the thing we still don't know about President Obama is what he's willing to fight for. He likes giving good speeches, he likes the adulation, he likes to make people happy, but it's hard to think of a place where he's taken a really hard position." Your response?

EMANUEL: Well, George, let me approach this from two sides, if I can. As you noted, we're into only 90 days. What have we gotten done in those 90 days? First, we passed the largest recovery act to put Americans back to work. We've gotten in place the financing to help stabilize the credit system throughout the financial system. A housing plan so people can keep their homes, and millions of Americans can refinance. We started the ending -- we started the process to end the war in Iraq, put in place a policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan area that will change that area and take the fight to the terrorists that exist there. We also started the credit flowing to small businesses.

So in the first 90 days, a lot has been done both to get the economy moving again and change America's foreign policy and its objectives...

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STEPHANOPOULOS: Is that the easy part, though?

EMANUEL: Well, if you think that's easy, George, and you've been in the White House, I would suggest in the fist 90 days, it's quite a lot to take on, but the American people asked for us to roll up our sleeves every day and get to work on behalf of them.

Second, let me squeeze it from this side, or address the question from this side. You could not report on the challenges of the fights with the special interests if it wasn't for what we've initiated under President Obama. A, taking on the banking industry as it relates to the student loan. We basically said we're going to cut you out, put $94 billion that we subsidize you with, and we're going to give it directly to the students who are trying to go to college.

In the area of healthcare reform and getting costs under control, we said to the insurance industry, we're eliminating your subsidies and only going to pay you what basically 100 percent on the dollar, but not 115 cents on the dollar, and you're going to compete for that money. And that saves the taxpayers about $170 billion...

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EMANUEL: George, George, finally, on the oil and industry, we eliminated their taxpayer subsidies and put that money into alternative energy. So every one of the fights that you're engaged over the next six to nine months were ones that we initiated in taking on those special interests.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you had two important ones, healthcare and energy. And when you look at those issues, what the president has done in his first 90 days, achieved a lot of his major initiatives, as you pointed out, but with very little Republican support. Only three Republicans on the stimulus package; none for the president's budget.

To get healthcare, energy, regulatory reform, the president is going to need Republican votes. What adjustments is he willing to make to get them?

EMANUEL: Well, you just said adjustments. The first question was we're compromising too much and now are you saying how are you going to compromise to get those done? We set the goals. The goals are getting healthcare costs under control. The goals are having an energy policy in which America is independent of its tie to foreign oil and having a policy in which America basically has an energy policy that frees itself from exporting $700 billion of wealth to the Mideast. Those are the objectives. Now, he's open to different roads to get there, but what he's not open to is compromising on the...

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EMANUEL: ... healthcare costs under control and ridding us of our dependence.

Now, as President Obama said when asked by a congressman at one of the task force on healthcare -- not on healthcare, on fiscal discipline. You know, the Republican congressman said we're being cut out.

EMANUEL: He says, well, you should be included; that's fair, but you have to come constructive.

And when you're the party of no; when you're the party of never; when you're the party of no new ideas, that's not constructive.

So my recommendation is, we'll work with people of all sides' ideology to get things done. And I think you'll see this on Tuesday. The president will sign a landmark legislation for national service.

And the sponsors are President -- Senator Kennedy and Senator Hatch, a Republican.

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EMANUEL: And if you go through the process on kids' health care, national service, as well as getting resources necessary for stabilizing the banks, every one of those votes has been bipartisan.

The challenge will be, will the Republicans come to the table with constructive ideas?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's talk about the big issues. On health care, on Republican idea on health care is to tax employer benefits. The president blasted Senator McCain for that idea during the campaign, yet it's now being joined by some Democrats as well.

Is the president willing to consider that as a way to pay for his plans to expand coverage?