ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのMeet The Press Broadcast (Full) - April 4th, 2021 | Meet The Press | NBC News

CHUCK TODD:This Sunday: A fourth Covid wave.
DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY:So much reason for hope, but right now, I'm scared.
CHUCK TODD:Cases are climbing.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI:We need to hold out just a bit longer and give vaccines a chance to really get the upper hand.
CHUCK TODD:Even as vaccinations hit 4 million a day.
PRES. JOE BIDEN:Too many Americans are acting as if this fight is over. It is not.
CHUCK TODD:States are dropping restrictions and domestic air travel is up, as the CDC relaxes guidance for vaccinated people. But is the US getting back to normal too soon? My guest this morning: epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm. Also, rebuilding America.
PRES. JOE BIDEN:It's a once in a generation investment in America.
CHUCK TODD:President Biden is making his pitch for a $2 trillion infrastructure package. How will he pay for it?
REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:It just raises taxes.
CHUCK TODD:And how much will he spend?
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ:We need to go way higher.

CHUCK TODD:My guests this morning: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. And, taking a stand. After President Biden weighed in.
PRES. JOE BIDEN:I think today's professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly.
CHUCK TODD:Major League Baseball pulls the All-Star game out of Atlanta. Just the latest of nearly 200 companies and organizations to condemn Georgia's new voting restrictions.
ED BASTIAN:This is something that's, that’s more than money, this is about protecting the voices of our people.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP:It means cancel culture and partisan activists are coming for your business.
CHUCK TODD:What's next for the fight over voting rights? Joining me for insight and analysis are Yamiche Alcindor, White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour; Amy Walter, national editor at the Cook Political Report; Rich Lowry, editor of National Review and María Teresa Kumar, president of Voto Latino. Welcome to Sunday. It's Meet the Press.

ANNOUNCER:From NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history. This is Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.

CHUCK TODD:
Good Sunday morning and a Happy Easter and Happy Passover. You know, the backdrop of the current political fights on Covid, the economy, immigration and voting rights is a country that’s still on edge, despite rising optimism. Consider Friday alone: An attack on the U.S. Capitol left a police officer dead and another injured, shaking Washington's slow return to normalcy. The CDC announced vaccinated Americans can travel without testing or self-quarantine. But cases are rising, up in 31 states over the past two weeks. America's past-time, Major League Baseball, declared Georgia's restrictive new voting law un-American, announcing it was moving the All-Star Game and the draft out of Atlanta. And all week in a courtroom in Minneapolis, the nation watched the personal trauma of eyewitnesses forced to relive the violence of the final minutes of George Floyd's life. And it's perhaps because of this uncertain backdrop that Joe Biden officially declared the era of small government over by deciding to go big on infrastructure. Biden is hoping to drive a wedge between Republican elected officials and their voters, putting his political capital behind legislation that, on paper, is widely popular. The Covid relief plan had 70% support, and America’s -- Americans, in theory, also favor an infrastructure overhaul. 79 percent support a government overhaul of American roadways, railroads, bridges and ports. And while Biden is going big on infrastructure, it's what he chose not to go big on, think guns and immigration, that does reinforce this idea he’s still a pragmatic politician at heart. But with Republican officials already seizing on the size of the plan and the tax increases that Democrats are proposing to pay for it, fighting for this popular infrastructure proposal may not be any easier than any other Washington fight he could choose to pick.

PRES. JOE BIDEN:It's big, yes. It's bold, yes. And we can get it done.
CHUCK TODD:President Biden, rolling out the next phase of his economic plan this week in Pittsburgh.
PRES. JOE BIDEN:It's a once in a generation investment in America unlike anything we've seen or done.

CHUCK TODD:
The president's proposal includes: $620 billion for transportation infrastructure, at least $650 billion to expand broadband and invest in clean water and green energy, upgrading homes and schools; $400 billion for home and community-based care for the elderly and disabled, and $580 billion for research and workforce development. Former President Trump and Congressional Republicans left a bipartisan deal on the table, turning promises on infrastructure into a long-running joke.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP:The American people deserve the best infrastructure in the world. We will create the infrastructure of the future. We call it infrastructure week.
VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE:We're actually at the end of what the President called Infrastructure Week.
SEC. ELAINE CHAO:Last week was a great week. It was infrastructure week.
PRES. JOE BIDEN:How many times have we heard “this is Infrastructure Week” over the last four years?
CHUCK TODD:Now Biden is determined to push a bill through, over Republican opposition.
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL:I'm gonna fight them every step of the way because I think this is the wrong prescription for America.
CHUCK TODD:Paying for his plan by primarily raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28%.
REP. KEVIN McCARTHY:It seems less about infrastructure, more about tax increases.
SEN. MITCH McCONNELL:A big whopping tax increase.
SEN. TED CRUZ:Joe Biden wants to come along and jack up taxes.
CHUCK TODD:Still, Biden is counting on the fact that public works projects are popular back home. Despite their objections to the plan, some Republicans already appear to be promoting them.

SEN. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO:I was able to get some money in there specifically for the completion of Corridor H and the Appalachian highway system.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL:I can't imagine that somewhere in a multi-trillion dollar bill, there wouldn't be money for the Brent Spence Bridge.
CHUCK TODD:Like President Obama a decade ago.
PRES. BARACK OBAMA:Mr. Boehner, Mr. McConnell: Help us rebuild this bridge.
CHUCK TODD:This week, Biden's cabinet members are heading out on a road show to make his case.
PRES. JOE BIDEN:I think the Republican’s voters are gonna have a lot to say about whether we get a lot of this done.
CHUCK TODD:While most Democrats are praising the president, some have concerns.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER:I’m going to be sensitive to any tax increases that hurt the families in my district.
CHUCK TODD:And it's not clear whether the White House can unite progressives and moderates around a plan.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ:We need to go way higher. We can do $10 trillion.
SEN. JOE MANCHIN:To get onto reconciliation, you have to vote to proceed. I have told them I will not vote to proceed until we try.
MIKE ALLEN:Do you believe that you can get ten Republicans on an infrastructure bill?
SEN. JOE MANCHIN:I sure do.
CHUCK TODD:And joining me now is the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. Mr. secretary, welcome back to Meet the Press.
SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:Thank you. Good to be back.

CHUCK TODD:
I want to start with, for you, for our purposes of this discussion with both yourself and Senator Wicker who I have later, define infrastructure as this administration sees it because we're already having a debate of, "Hey, bridges, roads: that's infrastructure. Elder care is not." Define infrastructure in your view.

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
So, I'd say infrastructure is the foundation that makes it possible for Americans to thrive. And what we know is that that foundation has been crumbling, whether we talk about care infrastructure or whether we're talking about roads and bridges and the other things that I work on as the secretary of transportation. We have fallen to 13th in the world, in terms of our transportation infrastructure, and continuing to head in the wrong direction because we've been failing to invest for a generation. The American Jobs Plan is our chance to fix that.

CHUCK TODD:
This is being broken up into two parts. This part is approximately $2 trillion. The next part being rolled out in three weeks is, I guess, another trillion or so, here. Is this being broken up because you think, well, alright, the bricks and mortar part of infrastructure, we can find Republican support. The social service infrastructure, we can't?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
I think we can find a lot of support for all of the elements of the president's agenda. Certainly, what we're seeing with the American Jobs Plan is overwhelming support among the American people. And, you know, in many ways, it feels like we've already convinced America. Now, we just got to get Washington to follow suit. And I would note also that there's a lot of support for how the president is proposing to pay for this. That’s part of why I think this is such a compelling package. We know that we as a country can afford to make big investments in infrastructure. We just need to make sure that corporations are paying their fair share. That's what this plan is going to do.

CHUCK TODD:
Let me start, first, with how long you're going to look for bipartisan support. You know, it was about this time in 2009 that President Obama and a Vice President Biden rolled out a health care plan, and they spent six months convinced -- because polling told them there was bipartisan support, and individual lawmakers thought -- you thought there was bipartisan support. And you ran into, sort of, a party brick wall there. How much time do you give to bipartisanship?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGEIG:
Well, the president really believes in a bipartisan approach, and it's one of the reasons that I'm constantly having conversations with members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, gathering ideas. But the president also has a clear vision, and as he said, this has to get done. We -- he's asking for Congress to make major progress on this by Memorial Day. The bottom line is we've got to deliver for the American people. And we can't let politics slow this down to where it doesn't actually happen.

CHUCK TODD:You know, it looks as -- from this observer's standpoint, that the administration looks like it wants bipartisan support more than Congressional Democratic leadership. Is their patience less than the president's?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
You'd have to ask them. But I believe that they are just as interested in trying to get somewhere that's a win-win. At the end of the day, yes, it's the president's belief, but it's also the belief of the American people, that government works better when you've got both parties actually talking to each other, negotiating, working in good faith. And that's what we're working to do around infrastructure. I mean, if there's any issue area where it could be done, surely, it's this one. Now, at the end of the day, of course, it'll be up to the other side of the aisle whether they're prepared to vote for a package that maybe isn't perfect for anybody, but it's a great package. And again, now is the season for hearing any ideas they want to bring to the table. I think you'll find the president's very open to that. We've already had two Oval Office meetings with members of the House and Senate from both sides of the aisle. You can expect more of that.

CHUCK TODD:
Talking about paying for this plan. President Biden has one idea, right? Mostly corporate tax rates, and I know the idea is, “Hey, if you've got another idea, we’ll listen.” There's three ways to fund projects, right? You -- there's user fees, you know, you can throw gas tax into kind of a user fee category, there's straight up corporate taxes, income taxes here and then there's debt, deficit spending. Does President Biden, does he guarantee that he will sign a bill that is totally paid for, or will there be some deficit spending in this bill?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
Well, I'm not going to get ahead of the process in Congress, but what I will say is that the vision the president has put forward is fully paid for. Across 15 years, it would raise all of the revenue needed for these once-in-a-lifetime investments. So by year 16, you'd actually see this package working to reduce the deficit. And again, it's important to point out that the American people agree with this because we've seen corporations paying zero. We're just asking corporations to pay their fair share at a rate, by the way, that would be lower than it's been for most of my life. Now, again, if folks on the Hill have other ideas about how to pay for it, we're going to be interested to hear those ideas, but there is a clear vision to pay for this bill in full.

CHUCK TODD:
I was just going to say -- it's not lost on me, though, that you say, “There's a vision to pay for this bill in full.” But if a bill that funds this infrastructure project comes to the president's desk and it does not include enough to pay for this bill and its deficit spending, it doesn't sound like he would somehow veto it. I mean, is that what you're saying here? He's going to be open --
SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:Well, that decision —
CHUCK TODD:-- If Congress decides to deficit spend, so be it?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
That decision is very literally above my paygrade. And we'll see how this thing looks by the time it actually reaches the president, which we hope is quite soon. But what I'll say is we've got a great proposal for how we can do this that is responsible, that keeps the American economy competitive. But if there are other ideas, now's a great time to hear them.

CHUCK TODD:
Are you worried that the sense of urgency for this bill -- you call this a JOBS bill, right? The acronym JOBS. You guys want this to be seen as a “jobs” bill. We just had a tremendous jobs report on Friday. We're probably going to have a couple more months just like it, if not better, as we reopen due to the pandemic restrictions. It's natural. Do you worry that that will recede the sense of urgency for this plan, and perhaps, make even some Democrats hesitant to spend this much money?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
No because those jobs numbers, which are good news, still reflect an economy that's coming out of a deep hole created by the pandemic. But those are also numbers that are about this week, this month, this quarter. The American Jobs Plan is about a generational investment. It's going to create 19 million jobs. And we're talking about economic growth that's going to go on for years and years. So yeah, the Rescue Plan was largely about just getting through this season, getting America back from the brink. But I want to be clear. The American Jobs Plan is not about short term stimulus. It's about making sure that America is positioned to compete for the next decade and for the generation ahead. We know that China and our other strategic competitors are already making major investments. It's time for America to lead the way again. And those 19 million jobs we're about to create go way beyond some quarterly or monthly report.

CHUCK TODD:Do you have a --
SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:This is about our future as a country.
CHUCK TODD:Do you have a vision of -- what is America going to look like in 2035 if you implement this plan?

SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:
Absolutely, yeah. By 2035, America will be much more economically competitive. We will be stronger in terms of leading the world because of the research and development investments that are here. And, we will be on track to avoid climate disaster because of the provisions for things like electric vehicles. And just as importantly, because we will have made these investments here starting in 2021, those electric vehicles, that more and more people around the world are driving, will have been increasingly made in America by union workers. This is what you get for planning for the long term. I mean, look, right now we're still coasting off of infrastructure choices that were made in the 1950s. Now is our chance to make infrastructure choices for the future that are going to serve us well in the 2030s and on into the middle of the century, when we will be judged for whether we met this moment here in the 2020s.

CHUCK TODD:All right, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, secretary of transportation. Appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. We'll see how long this takes. Thank you.
SEC. PETE BUTTIGIEG:Thanks for having me.
CHUCK TODD:And joining me now is Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. He is the top Republican on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, one of the key committees that is focused almost solely on infrastructure in this country. Senator Wicker, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir, on this Easter Sunday.
SEN. ROGER WICKER:Thank you, Chuck. Appreciate it.

CHUCK TODD:
And let me start with a study from the American Society of Civil Engineers. They gave an infrastructure report card to the country. Wasn't very good, C-. For the state of Mississippi was slightly worse. Bridges, by the Civil Engineers, were given a D-, drinking water a D. We know about the Jackson, Mississippi issue. Roads, a D-, overall a D+. How badly does the country and Mississippi in particular need a massive infrastructure investment?

SEN. ROGER WICKER:Chuck, thanks for having me on. Let me take a minute, though, first of all. And your panel will probably be talking about the attack on the Capitol.
CHUCK TODD:Yeah.
SEN. ROGER WICKER:I just want to say our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of our Capitol Policeman, Billy Evans. He gave his life for his country. And I think I'd be remiss --
CHUCK TODD:I'm glad you did that, sir.
SEN. ROGER WICKER:-- in not mentioning him.
CHUCK TODD:Yeah, we are definitely going to honor him later, but I'm glad you said that. Thank you.

https://ameblo.jp/shinobinoshu/entry-12667082227.html