MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries
Interview
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MELBER: We are joined by Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, part of the House Democratic leadership.
Very busy times. Thank you for making time to be here in our leadoff story on THE BEAT.
Congressman, first, your response to what we just saw there from McConnell?
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Well, Mitch McConnell has no shame.
The reality is that the debt ceiling first and foremost is not a forward- looking vehicle where we are raising the debt ceiling, so we can acquire additional debt for things that we would work on into the future. The debt ceiling, as you pointed out, Ari, is a backward-looking vehicle to pay for credit card bills that the government has already acquired.
And in this particular case, those bills fall on Donald Trump`s ledger, by and large. In fact, 93 percent of the debt that needs to be acquired in connection with the debt ceiling showdown that is in front of us relates to Donald Trump`s spending.
A significant part of that is the 2017 GOP tax scam, where 83 percent of the benefits went to the wealthiest 1 percent in America, saddling us with approximately $2 trillion worth of debt that the so-called fiscally conservative Republicans didn`t pay for.
[18:10:10]
Now, some other part of that debt does relate to the bipartisan agreement, such as the CARES Act, in the context of the intervention that was necessary to deal with COVID-19. But that all falls during Trump`s presidency where, by the way, we raised the debt ceiling or set it aside in a bipartisan way three different times.
And now, because there`s a Democratic president, Mitch McConnell and House Republicans are willing to detonate the full faith and credit of the United States of America. It`s wildly irresponsible.
MELBER: Yes. Well, good to get your straight-up view on that.
The record does speak for itself there. We were talking about Senator Manchin here just moments ago with Joan. She brought him up. You and your colleagues brought, I think, him up pretty specifically as far as your advocacy on this.
Let`s take a look at his exchange with our own reporter, NBC`s Garrett Haake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT HAAKE, NBC NEWS CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Senator, the president keeps asking you for a number, for a price tag. Can you give him one today?
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I don`t think that`s what the meeting is about.
HAAKE: Progressives think you`re dragging your feet, Senator.
MANCHIN: Everybody has their own opinion, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELBER: Why did you all bring him up?
And what is the concern here? Is it that you have a disagreement about policy and what the numbers should be, or that we`re here in the -- kind of the closing of this, and he`s not saying what his position or numbers are?
JEFFRIES: Well, the Senate sent over to us both the bipartisan infrastructure agreement, which is important in terms of fixing our crumbling bridges, roads, tunnels, our airports, our mass transit system.
It`s a down payment in that regard, but more needs to be done. And they also sent over to us the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act framework through reconciliation.
And there was a broad understanding that we were going to proceed on parallel tracks because we need to decisively deal with the issues confronting the American people, including cutting taxes for middle-class families and working families, which is what the Build Back Better Act is all about, creating millions of good-paying jobs, particularly in areas like health care and home care and elder care and child care, and also lowering costs for everyday Americans.
And so we`re prepared to move on the House side of the equation. But we don`t have any clear visibility into what can be accomplished in the Senate now that a handful of Democratic senators have indicated, well, perhaps they`re not comfortable with the $3.5 trillion number, which, by the way, Ari, as you know, is a budget number spent over a 10-year period of time.
So it`s meaningful investments that will pay huge dividends for everyday Americans, not a one-shot deal, similar to what was necessary in COVID.
Putting that aside, what we need to proceed is an actual number from the Senate, so we can get the Build Back Better Act, along with the infrastructure agreement, over the finish line.
MELBER: Congressman Jeffries, again, thank you for walking us through what you see ahead here at this busy time. I appreciate it.
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