ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュの Biden, Harris to address plans for economy as pandemic rages

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: (00:49)
Good afternoon. President-Elect Biden and I just met with some of our nation’s business and union leaders. Together, they represent millions of workers across our country and some of America’s leading technology, auto, and retail companies. We had an important conversation about the impact that this pandemic has had on workers, especially essential workers, frontline workers who have risked their own health and the health of their families, and many whom have given their own lives to keep us safe and keep our economy running. And we all know that this pandemic and this recession have hit communities of color particularly hard. Black Americans and Latinos are three times as likely to contract COVID as others and more likely to die. Native Americans are more than four times as likely to be hospitalized as others. And last month, the unemployment rate for Black Americans was almost twice the rate of others.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: (01:56)
And we have also had a conversation about the impact this pandemic has had on our economy as a whole, from the Fortune 500 to the small businesses that so many communities rely on. Over the past few months on the campaign trail, the president-elect and I saw that impact firsthand. In state after state, we met with workers who shared their struggles and told us about their pain. Essential workers who have had to stay on the job, even as they worry about their family’s well-being and their own. Small business owners, who are dipping into their own savings to make payroll and keep their doors open. And many others who have had to close their doors and fear never reopening at all. Their stories have stayed with us, and the president-elect and I are focused on building our country back better for them and all Americans.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: (02:59)
And as I said the night we won this election, now is when the real work begins, the necessary work, the good work of getting this virus under control, saving lives, and beating this pandemic and opening our economy responsibly, while rebuilding it, so that it works for working people. And we will do it by protecting the health and safety of our workers and creating millions of good-paying union jobs from auto and construction jobs, to domestic workers and caregiving jobs, to service and hospitality jobs.

Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris: (03:41)
The road ahead, it will not be easy, but the president-elect and I are hitting the ground running because we all know the challenges facing America today are great. The American people deserve no less, and we don’t have a moment to waste. And now, it is my incredible and great honor to introduce our President-Elect Joe Biden.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (04:06)
Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Vice President Harris and I, as she indicated, just met with a group of America’s top business leaders and labor leaders. And I must tell you, it reinforced what I thought from the beginning – we’re ready to come together. The unity was astounding. I want to go back and talk about the people who actually participated in that. I’m going to list all the people, just so you know who we spoke with. Number one, there was Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, Mr. Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, Rory Gamble, president of the UAW, Mary Kay Henry, president SCIU, Mark Perrone, president of the UFCW, Lee Saunders, president of AFSCME and Sonia Syngal, president of Gap, Richard Trumka president of the AFL-CIO.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (05:23)
It was really encouraging, quite frankly, to get people, business and labor, together agreeing on the way forward, which I’m convinced the American people will rally to do when they hear what we have in mind. And I’m very pleased it all came together around the same table to advance areas of common ground. And we agreed we’re going to continue these conversations. They represent very different perspectives, but I’m convinced that we can all come together around the same table to advance areas of common ground, which are really, I wish you could have all heard the conversation. It was really encouraging, and that’s what we were ready to discuss today.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (06:05)
We all agreed that we want to get the economy back on track. We need our workers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control. We’re going in a very dark winter. Things are going to get much tougher before they get easier. And that requires sparing no effort to fight COVID so that we can open our businesses safely, resume our lives and put this pandemic behind us. It’s going to be difficult, but it can be done.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (06:29)
And they all agreed that means rallying the country behind a national strategy with robust public health measures like mandatory masking, widely available testing with rapid results, scaled up production of life-saving treatments and therapeutics, and safe, equitable, and free distribution of the vaccine. It’s great news that Moderna and Pfizer have each come up with vaccines that are in excess of 90% effectiveness. And getting the vaccine and a vaccination, though, are two different things. Everyone on our call today, in our Zoom today, agreed that the sooner we have access to the administration’s distribution plan, the sooner this transition would be smoothly, move forward.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (07:14)
And you know, as we battle COVID what have to make sure that business and workers have the tools, the resources, the national guidance and health and safety standards to operate safely. And we can do that. We can bring Democrats and Republicans together, work with business and labor to deliver those necessary resources. And for millions of Americans who’ve lost hours and wages, or have lost their jobs, we all agreed on our call that we can deliver immediate relief and it need be done quickly. Affordable healthcare for millions of people who have lost it, or are in danger of losing it. Childcare, sick leave, family leave, so workers don’t have to choose between work and family. Corporate America agreed on this today, the folks on the call.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (08:02)
We need to support small businesses and entrepreneurs that are the backbone of our communities but are teetering on the edge. And we all agreed on the urgent need for funding for States and localities to keep frontline workers and essential workers on the job, vital public services, running law enforcement offices, educators, first responders, like we did with The Recovery Act of 2009, saving literally millions of jobs.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (08:31)
There’s a reason why the federal government is able to run a deficit. Because the States must, must balance their budgets. And they’re in real trouble. You’re going to see hundreds of thousands of police officers, firefighters, first responders, mental health clinics, you’re going to see them going out of business. Right now, Congress should come together and pass a COVID relief package like The Heroes Act that the House passed six months ago. Once we shut down the virus and deliver economic-

President-Elect Joe Biden: (09:03)
… months ago. Once we shut down the virus and deliver economic relief to workers and businesses, then we can start to build back better than before. We talked about how we have an opportunity to come out of this stronger, more resilient than we were when we went in, and I wish you could have heard corporate leaders and the major labor leaders singing from the same hymnal here. Throughout the campaign, I laid out my Build Back Better plan. We laid out a plan that an independent analysis put out by Moody’s, a well-respected Wall Street firm, projected would create 18.6 million jobs. We talked about the need to own the electric vehicle market. We talked about climate a lot, building 550,000 charging stations, creating over a million good-paying union jobs here at home. The need for a federal government to invest more in clean energy research.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (10:03)
It’s based on a simple premise, it’s time to reward work, not just wealth in America. We’re going to have a fair tax structure that makes sure the wealthiest among us and corporations pay their fair share. Our plan will create millions of good-paying union jobs in manufacturing, building the vehicles, products, technologies that we’re going to need for the future to compete with the rest of the world. From autos to our stockpiles, we’re going to buy American. No government contract will be given to companies that don’t make their products here in America. To secure our position as a global leader in research and development, we’re going to invest $300 billion in the most critical, competitive new industries in technologies creating 3 million good-paying jobs. And the corporate American technology firms like Microsoft on the call, they all agreed. We can make sure a future is made here in America. And that’s good for business and it’s good for American workers.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (11:08)
We can also modernize infrastructure, roads, bridges, ports. 1.5 million new affordable housing units. High-speed broadband, we talked about, for every American household, which is more important than ever for remote learning, remote working, telemedicine in 21st century. Building a digital infrastructure to help businesses, healthcare workers, first responders and students. A hundred billion dollars to rebuild our crumbling schools. They talked about the need, the business community, talked about the need to invest in HBCUs and community colleges. Retrofitting 4 million new buildings, our old buildings, retrofitting them and making them new. Weatherizing 2 million homes. Building more climate resilient cities and towns. These investments will specifically target communities of colors so we can break the cycle where in good times they lag, and in a bad times, they get hit first and the hardest and in a recovery, it’s the toughest to bounce back. These are the kinds of investments that are going to strengthen our economy and our competitiveness, create millions of jobs, union jobs, and in doing so, respect the dignity of work and empower the voice of workers.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (12:26)
You’ve heard me say it before. My dad, when he lost his job in Scranton, eventually moved to Wilmington and got a good job. He’d say, Joey, a job’s about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity, respect, your place in the community. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, everything’s going to be okay. When we build back better, we’ll do so with higher wages, including a $15 minimum wage nationwide, better benefits, stronger collective bargaining rights that you could raise a family on. That’s how we build back the middle-class better than ever. That’s how we make sure workers are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve. I can go on. I can tell I was very encouraged by our conversation, but the point is this: there’s so much we can do. The only way we do any of this is if we work together. I know we can do this.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (13:24)
For example, on the call, I made it clear to the corporate leaders. I said, I want you to know I’m a union guy. Unions are going to have increased power. It is not, they understand. It’s not anti-business. It’s about economic growth, creating good-paying jobs. 11 years ago when Barack and I took office during the great recession and implemented the recovery act that saved us from another Great Depression. We didn’t see a map in red and blue states – it was the United States of America. We didn’t care whether the city had voted for us or against us, the state voted for us or against us. We work with everyone and we recovered and rebuilt together as one nation. We can do this again. Refusal of Democrats and republics to cooperate with one another is not due to some mysterious force beyond our control. It’s a conscious decision. It’s a choice that we make.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (14:24)
If we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate. I believe this is in part, a mandate for American people. Part of the mandate they gave us. They want us to cooperate. They want us to deliver results. And the choice that Kamala and I will make is that we’re going to do that. That’s why I’m so pleased today we were able to bring together business and labor leaders to make the choice jointly with us. We’re all Americans. Let’s get to work. As I’ve said, many times. Thank you. May God bless you. And may God protect our troops. I understand now I’m going to take some questions, Megan, fire away.

Speaker 1: (15:11)
Thank you, President-Elect Biden, vice president-elect.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (15:13)
I’m looking in the wrong direction, sorry.

Speaker 1: (15:15)
Good to see you. I’m going to start with a question about your pandemic planning and then a question about your economic plan. You spoke about the need to access the outgoing administration’s COVID vaccine distribution plans. What do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now, given President Trump’s unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power?

President-Elect Joe Biden: (15:35)
More people may die, if we don’t coordinate. Look, as my chief of staff, Ron Klain would say, who handled Ebola, the vaccine is important. It’s of little use until you’re vaccinated. So how do we get the vaccine? How do we get over 300 million Americans vaccinated? What’s the game plan? It’s a huge, huge, huge undertaking to get it done, prioritize those with greatest need and working our way through it, and also cooperate with the World Health Organization and the rest of the world in dealing with this. And so they say they have this Warp Speed program that the not only dealt with getting vaccines, but also how to distribute this. If we have to wait until January 20th to start that planning, it puts us behind over a month, month and a half. And so it’s important that it be done, that there be coordination now. Now as rapidly as we can get that done.

Speaker 1: (16:39)
On the economy, the vice president-elect talked about having an economy that works for working people. One thing I didn’t hear you talk specifically about is canceling student loan debt. Does student loan forgiveness figure in your plan, would you take executive action to achieve it?

President-Elect Joe Biden: (16:54)
It does figure in my plan. I’ve laid out in detail. For example, the legislation passed by the democratic house calls for immediate $10,000 forgiveness of student loans. It’s holding people up. They’re in real trouble. They’re having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent, those kinds of decisions. It should be done immediately. In addition to that, as you know, I think that everything from community college straight through to doubling Pell grants, to making sure that we have access to free education for anyone making under $125,000 for four years of college. And there is a program that exists now under the law that forgives student loans for being able to engage in public service. I’m going to institute that fundamental change in that so it’s able to be available to everyone, that in fact, is engaged. It’s not being very well managed right now. So I’m going to do all of those things. Thank you.

Speaker 2: (17:57)
Thank you, Mr. President-elect. You just spoke of some of the dangers of the president’s continued stonewalling of this transition, but it doesn’t appear that the-

Mary: (18:03)
… of the President’s continued stonewalling of this transition, but it doesn’t appear that the President is going to come around anytime soon and admit defeat. So what are you going to do? What options do you have to try and ensure that you are ready to go on day one?

President-Elect Joe Biden: (18:14)
Deal with every individual organization in the country, from business, to labor, Republicans and Democrats, to try to pull together a serious and consistent plan so we’re ready on day one. Everything from staffing to ultimately naming the cabinet members, to moving along on coordinating with business and labor, the COVID attack, how we’re going to attack COVID. And, so it would make it a lot easier if the President were to participate. You have a number of Republicans suggesting that. The good news here is my colleague is still on the Intelligence Committee, so she gets the intelligence briefings. I don’t anymore. So that is, but there’s a number of Republicans calling for that. I am hopeful that the President will be mildly more enlightened before we get to January 20th.

Mary: (19:16)
And what is your message to Republicans who are backing up the President’s refusal to concede? You clearly need to work with them going forward.

President-Elect Joe Biden: (19:25)
My message is, I will work with you. I understand a lot of your reluctance because of the way the President operates, but I’ve been in contact with and will be in contact with more of them as we move along. And if it has to wait until January 20th to actually become operational, that’s a shame, but maybe that’s the only way to get it done. Thank you very much, Mary.

Speaker 3: (20:01)
Thank you very much, Mr. President-elect. I want to kind of piggyback off of that. I want to get your thoughts on the President’s tweet over the weekend, where he first seemed to acknowledge that you won, then he said he won’t concede, then he said, “I won.” How did you interpret that? And at the end of the day, do you want him to concede?