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Rep. Katie Porter: Dems ‘Wholly Committed’ To Passing Infrastructure Bill - YouTube
Channel: MSNBC
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working backwards from what i just
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reported uh
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what can you tell us about that meeting
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uh with speaker pelosi
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well i think she made clear that we are
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wholly committed to passing this
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infrastructure bill
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that we are glad that republicans are
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stepping up
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and committing to delivering for the
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american people on infrastructure
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and that we understand that part of
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building back better
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is doing that infrastructure work but
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building back better also means making
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sure that no
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american is left behind in our economy
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so we are going to have to use the
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reconciliation process
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to address some of our kind of other
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economic needs including things
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like child care universal child care
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expanding medicare
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there are other paid family leave this
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plan fundamentally that president biden
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has put forward is about work
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and workers and those things go together
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like a hand in a glove and so we have to
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do both of them and that is our plan to
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move them
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both forward it sounds like the
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bipartisan infrastructure bill uh is
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likely to
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move first basically past the senate
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first and it sounds like uh what we're
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hearing through the hill
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and so forth is that speaker pelosi is
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saying when the senate
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passes that bipartisan bill she will
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just hold it which she can do
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just hold it in the house for months uh
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before bringing it up for a vote
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and she will bring it up for a vote
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around the time
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that the other bill the reconciliation
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bill is also ready for a vote
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is is that what's going to happen here
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yes and as you know lawrence sometimes
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the house goes first sometimes the
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senate goes first
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and so what we're talking about doing
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here is really trying to deliver
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on what the american people said they
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wanted when they elected president biden
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which is a strong economy a globally
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competitive workforce
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and so that means not only investing in
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infrastructure everything from
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roads and transportation to climate
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resilience but also investing in the
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people who do
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the important work of america uh making
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sure we're investing in health care
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making sure that we're investing in
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child care
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making sure that we're doing that and so
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the plan here is to champion
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this infrastructure bill to be grateful
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that it's a bipartisan bill
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we hope and encourage republicans to
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support the rest of president biden's
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agenda
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uh and of course even joe manchin says
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he doesn't expect them to do that he
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expects to get them on the bipartisan
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bill
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and then you will have to do the work on
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the rest and
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so you uh were you in the meeting with
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steve roshetti in the progressive caucus
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today
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yes sir i was and so in in that meeting
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you know that on the reconciliation bill
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you're basically going to be negotiating
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uh with
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joe manchin and more moderate uh senator
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democratic senators
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uh and trying to come to a spot uh
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what where do you think that's good how
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do you think that's going to be arrived
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at steve burchetti's got a lot of
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experience in putting that together did
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he give you any guidance on this today
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well the biden white house has been
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incredibly responsive about being in
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communication with us about
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listening to not only the congressional
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progressive caucus where i'm deputy
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chair but other parts of the caucus and
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what we're going to do here is
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lay out what we want so we're going to
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decide on the kind of child care
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that this country needs to move forward
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the kind of paid family leave that we
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need to move forward
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the kind of investment in health care
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that we need to move forward
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then we will hopefully get buy-in across
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the ideological spectrum within the
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democratic party
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to do that and to move forward and what
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senator manchin said in the clip that
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you played
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with this morning with stephanie rule is
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is absolutely fair
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we can't agree to a number without
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knowing what we're spending that money
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on that would simply be irresponsible
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if my children say can i have five
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dollars my first question is
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what for so it's exactly the same here
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in congress
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it's not about the number it's about
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what we're going to be
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doing to help the american people and we
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have to be championing those priorities
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in today's conference with the
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conversation with the white house
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was talking about what those top
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priorities are and why they're so
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important in communities across this
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country
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let me let me imagine a scene where you
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and joe manchin
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are in a room and the negotiating
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discussion about the democrats only bill
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in september when the when that will
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start to get very very real
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and you've laid out what's in the bill
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uh but senator manchin simply doesn't
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like
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the total amount of the cost of the bill
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the total amount of the spending in the
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bill
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and he might even be in favor and happy
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and think everything you're proposing is
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good
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but he just thinks you we can't afford
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to spend that much
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what's the case you make to senator
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manchin
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about the spending number whatever that
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turns out to be
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i think there are two points to make the
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first is the extreme
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costs of doing nothing in some of these
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cases
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we are simply falling behind as a global
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workforce
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because we have failed to invest in
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things like paid family leave
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that every other competitor nation um
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has done and so there is a cost to doing
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nothing
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and i would try to make that case too
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oops i would try to make that case
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um to my earring just fell off i would
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try to make that case to senator manchin
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the second thing i would try to do is
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say to him
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look we are going to pay for these
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things the president has made clear
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that he is going to champion a fair tax
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system
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and so yes these things are investments
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just like the investments in
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infrastructure they have a price tag
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but we are going to pay for them by
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having a fair tax system and the
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american public
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democratic republican independent the
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kind of district that i represent
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they support not just creating jobs not
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just supporting workers
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but doing it by having a fair tax system
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and so we really have to think about
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what's going to be the net extra
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spending after
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we adjust our tax system to be fair
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uh you seem like uh someone who's
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uniquely positioned
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to kind of negotiate this sort of thing
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with joe manchin since
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you're representing a district that was
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formerly a republican district you are
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obviously surrounded by republicans in
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your life in that district all the time
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you're not in one of those
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isolated protected one-party districts
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uh and so you know his concerns
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in in uh in the politics of west
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virginia
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uh which are overwhelmingly more
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republican
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even than your district in orange county
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uh and
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that's something that everyone's gonna
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have to keep in mind in in any
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negotiation with joe manchin isn't it
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well that's why it's so that is why it
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is so important
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about what we are talking about because
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things like lowering the age for
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medicaid
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and medicare eligibility things like
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making sure that medicare
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covers hearing and vision coverage
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things like making sure that no family
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can has to go bankrupt or cannot afford
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to pay for child care
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making sure that we have paid family
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leave these policies are tremendously
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popular they are popular across party
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lines and so i think this is a really
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important case
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for my colleagues in the democratic
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party across the ideological spectrum
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to be listening to their communities
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because as you often know
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where the party is in washington dc is
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not always where the people are of this
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country
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and that's who we need to be responsive
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to in this package
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[Music]
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