MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Yeah, that`s right, Ali. And, you know, this was an embarrassing counter-offer from the Republicans when they proposed it today, it`s alll smoke and mirrors.

Could you imagine if you are bidding on a house and you put in an offer that was 17 percent of what the asking price was? You would be laughed out of the street.

So, I think this is a situation where the president has wanted to show, and to be, frank needed to show for some of the more conservative Democrats in the Senate, that he is making an effort with Republicans. But the reality is, they`re going to drag this out for a long time. They haven`t budged. They`re not proposing anything so far that is even remotely close to what the president has said he wants to do.

And so, I think the time has run out. We need to move forward quickly. All of the polling that you showed was very similar to what we saw for the rescue plan, which got more and more popular as time went on. And it`s extremely popular as people get shots in their arms, money in their pockets, their kids are going back to school. There`s, you know, some light coming in to their homes.

Well, here is another place where the American Jobs and Families Plan extremely, extremely popular, and we are also pushing to make sure that we have really important and populist things in there like expanding Medicare eligibility, extremely popular across Republicans, Democrats, and independents. But none of that moves forward if we don`t quickly say to the Republicans we are done negotiating, you haven`t produced anything in good faith. We need to deliver for the American people. They expect us to and it`s urgent.

VELSHI: So, here`s the question -- as they inch toward each other, at this pace it will take many, many months to get anywhere close to a deal. If as you say the president decides this isn`t worth it, we`re taking up too much valuable stuff from this bill, does he settle at the last White House proposal, or do we go back to what the original proposal was in the case of the jobs plan, the infrastructure bill? How do they approach it at that point?

JAYAPAL: No, this was a mistake actually that was made during the Obama administration where they negotiated with Republicans that came down significantly, and then at the end of the day, no Republicans went along and voted for that either. And, you know, and then I think we saw that that package was far too small to do what we need it to do to jump-start the economy.

I do think that the president has learned from that lesson, and certainly, the people around him have learned from that lesson. He has said, multiple times, the problem will not be that we go to big. The problem will be as we go too small.

And so, I think we go back to the original proposal, and, of course, we progressives are calling for an even bigger proposal than what the president proposed, and we combine the Jobs and Families Plan, we do it as a once in a generation investment that gets care to people, that gets infrastructure in all of its forms to people, that fixes our schools, our water systems, so much more, and we give hope back to the American people as we create jobs and we allow families to thrive and survive.

VELSHI: Congresswoman, thanks for joining us tonight. We always appreciate you. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington is the chair of the House Progressive Caucus. Always appreciate your time. Thank you.

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