Speaker Pelosi on CNN's State of the Union

Joining us now, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who is here in studio. Thanks so much for joining us, Madam Speaker. I appreciate it. So how how close are you to a deal on this larger package of elder care, daycare, child care, family leave, that stuff, whatever, whatever you want to call the bill, the social safety net bill, we call it. And will President Biden have a deal in hand when he leaves for Europe this week? Well, first, thank you for the opportunity to talk about that this morning. I'm glad that you talked about COVID in your opening here, because that's how we start all of our meetings. What are we doing to protect the American people to stop the spread of COVID? And I want to commend President Biden for having a completely different approach than his predecessor on this. We have to correct a lot of what went wrong then. And we're on a good path. And the good news about children being safely able to be vaccinated is something that will help stop the spread. So thank you for focusing on that, because that is we talk about it every day, all day. And so do we in the House Democratic Caucus. In terms of where we are, I've said already, we've 90 percent of the bill agreed to and written. We just have some of the last decisions to be made. It is less than we had was projected to begin with, but it's still bigger than anything we have ever done in terms of addressing the needs of America's working families. And it is about all that you said in terms of care, the care piece. But it's also about the climate piece, which is a health issue, a jobs issue, a security issue and a values issue for us. And we will have something that will help meet the that will meet the president's goals. I feel very confident about that, even though it will be different than what we originally proposed. By the time he leaves for Europe, you think you'll have a deal by Thursday or Friday? No, I think I think we're pretty much there now. You think you have a deal now? We're almost there. We just it's just the language of it. But it will be it will not offend, shall we say, the concern that Senator Manchin had about the CPP. But nonetheless, the point is to reach a goal and the president's goals of reaching the emissions, the pollution and all the rest, because we were prepared with our select committee headed by Kathy Castor. We had other options, other ways to pay for it, other ways to other ways to reach the goal. And yes, pay for it as well. So I want to get to that in a second. But just as a side issue, because there are a lot of people who are very eager for the bipartisan infrastructure bill to come up and be voted on as well. And progressives have said they're not going to vote for that until there's at least a deal on the larger social safety net bill. You've said the House must pass the bipartisan infrastructure plan by October 31st, which is a week from today. Moderates are frustrated. Two deadlines have been missed because of the progressives. Are you going to meet that goal? Wait a minute. There was no deadline that was missed because of the progressives. OK, that line was missed because they changed from three point five to one half that. And we've had to go in. It's lamb meat lamb. Everything is good in the bill. What do you cut? OK, so in terms of this date, this date is fraught with meaning because on October 31st is the day that the Highway Trust Fund authorization expires. Right. And if that expires, we have to get billions of dollars someplace to continue that. The best way to do that is to pass the BIF, having nothing to do with all the other, shall we say, deliberations that are going on. Our chair of the committee, Peter DeFazio, is a master of this of the infrastructure, transportation, infrastructure committees, has said we must pass this right by October 31st. But the reason I invoked progressives, I'm not blaming anything on them, but I'm just saying they have said a sizable number of them, enough of them to tank the bill that they will not vote for the BIF, the bipartisan infrastructure plan, unless there is this framework. Are you saying in the next week the framework will be agreed to or there will be a deal on the social safety net bill, an agreement, there will be an agreement on that and you will also vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Both of those things will happen in the next week. That's the plan. That's the plan. And right now we are just as as you indicated, the two Senate leader Schumer, Mr. Manchin, Senator Manchin and the president are having the meeting on some of the particulars that need to be finalized. And I'm optimistic that we can do that because, again, when one basket was climate, which is a jobs bill and a bill for the children, for the future is the health care piece of it. A strengthening Affordable Care Act, expanding Medicaid and expanding Medicare. Let's get into it. Let's get into some of these issues because they're important for people. And then the third basket is we're getting into it just so we have. Yeah, there's the third bucket is the care, elder care, child care, child care, family leave, child care and universal pre-K go together. Elder care. When we say home health care, that's for elder or children, right? Or siblings who are disabled or something like that. So it was family leave going to make it into the final bill. It was four weeks of paid family leave. Is that going to be in the final bill? I hope that's what we're fighting for. So Senator Sinema, who was a key Arizona Democrat vote in the Senate, Senator Sinema has said she will not support raising the corporate tax rate, raising the tax on high wage earners. And President Biden has acknowledged that might mean you can't pay for the rest of the bill using those sources of revenue. Do you have an alternate way? Yeah, we do, because we were ready to pay for three point five. Right. So we certainly can pay for one point half of that. And what are what is that alternate way? Is it a billionaire's tax? Is it a minimum tax for corporations? It's a choice that has an appeal, but it doesn't produce that much money. It's we because the bill is not written yet. We hope it will be written today and introduced tomorrow. Only then can the Joint Tax Committee evaluate what it brings in. We anticipate two hundred, two hundred fifty billion dollars. But we need closer to two trillion dollars. So where do we have other things such as well, such as we have enforcement and that's several hundred billion dollars. We have the overseas harmonization of taxes and that's a few hundred billion dollars. We have an array. We have an array. And I'm not going to say what they are right here. Corporate minimum tax so that Elizabeth Warren was talking on on the lead the other day about if a company like Amazon makes hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars and pays zero, this would be legislation that requires that they pay something. Is there is that in there? Well, the president president during his campaign had a market rate. Excuse me, a book rate proposal, and that is being evaluated as well as to how much that brings in, but that's another way to tax the increase in wealth in corporate America. But the thing is, is that whether we use the increase in the corporate tax rate, increase in the tax on. Some of the other aspects, you know, wealth tax, billionaire's tax. Just some other aspect, because we probably will have a wealth tax, but again, it's only 10 percent of what we need. We and we the other things are more like eight hundred billion dollars versus two hundred billion dollars. But we can use them another time if they don't go away as a source of revenue to pay for how we go forward and we want to pay for. But you said you probably will have a wealth tax. Well, that is it. We'll see. We haven't seen the bill yet. And you said also that it's being written right now and you're going to and you're going to send it to the. This is a Senate proposal and they've supposedly are writing it today. Tomorrow they would introduce it and then tax the Joint Tax Committee is the one that says this is how much you get from that. But again, on our side, we have been totally ready with alternatives in terms of House and Senate and the White House. We have plenty of alternatives. We're ready. So what is your response to progressives who say with the Washington Post editorial board said that Democrats are in danger of breaking the promise to roll back the Trump tax cuts and to fully pay for the plan? Well, we're going to fully pay for the plan. You are probably more than pay for the plan. And one bill does not make a no. We look like getting rid of. We had the rescue package. One point nine trillion dollars. We have the infrastructure bill over a trillion dollars. That's around three trillion dollars. And we'll have this at two trillion dollars. Nobody has done anything that remarkable. So while it isn't everything that was put out originally, it does it takes us down a path where we can continue investments in these. Now, this this piece, the care piece, the climate health, the care piece is the all three of them make it transform transformative. Yeah. America's working family. It is a big bill. It's a very big deal. It would accomplish even at half. It's a very big bill. So let me ask you, because one of the questions right now is paid family leave. You said that you hope that that's going to be in there for weeks of family and the expansion of Medicare to enjoy to include rather dental vision and hearing coverage. Is that going to be in the bill? Well, that's part of the negotiation. Dental is very expensive. So hearing and hearing and visual and dental. But dental will take a little longer to implement. But that's part of the negotiation right now. So you don't you don't know what's going to be in the final bill. It sounds like you're saying dental might not make it because it'll make it'll be on a path. It'll be on a path. But what they told us and I don't quite understand why, but we've been told by people know about these things that will take five, six years in order to implement the dental. So how do we how do we shall we say fill in the blank there? Bernie has some suggestions about how to do that. That'll be part of the negotiators, the independent from Vermont. Are you are you. I mean, you talk about how you're almost there except for 10 percent of the bill. And you also talk about how the House is there. You guys are ready. You're going to pass it. And it's really these two Senate holdouts, Sinema and Manchin. Are you frustrated with them? Well, I'm I'm respectful of everybody's point of view. I do not want the Bush tax. Excuse me. I don't want the Trump tax cuts perpetuated. I don't want anybody to think if we don't address those right now that that's they're off the table. No, we will use them for something at some point because you can't use the wealth tax and and tax the billionaires, which is what we should be doing, and let corporate America off the hook. But corporate America will be paying because of the of the overseas tax and some of the other provisions are very technical to go into right now. We'll know more tomorrow to see what makes the cut, what makes the cut. And then it's worth it. The time to go into it. There's also this issue of the of the debt ceiling. Yeah. Right. Well, that's a different that's a separate issue. But but the terms of how you get it through the Congress to the president Biden's desk may be separate, maybe not. Congress acted to raise the debt ceiling through December 3rd. After that, Republican leader, minority leader Mitch McConnell says you're on your own. We're not going to provide any votes for Democrats. A default obviously would would be devastating for the American economy, for the for the world economy. Are you willing to attach raising the debt ceiling to the social safety net package or if not, to use reconciliation, which means only 50 votes, 51 votes needed in the Senate anyway, in order to get this done? That's one path, but we're still hoping to have bipartisanship. It seems that the American people should understand that what we're talking about is largely the Trump debt. Right now, we participate in some of it with covid and the rest, but we didn't participate in giving a tax scam. Eighty three percent of the benefits to the top one percent that added two trillion dollars to the debt. President President Biden's part of this debt is about three percent. Right. And yet the Republicans who when president, the former president was in office at three times, we had to do something about the national debt. Now, look at what is in jeopardy. Even talking about it is not a good idea because I mean, even placing in doubt whether it was not a good idea because it can lower the credit rating of our country as it did when the Republicans did not want to increase it when President Obama was president. So they're OK with it when there's a Republican president, but not a Democrat. Six to seven million jobs could be lost. Fifteen trillion dollars in household wealth, consequences that could last for a decade. I get rid of the debt ceiling. Well, that's what we have a plan to do as well. There are a number of plans to do that. But would the Republicans agree to that before we we again? OK, well, so your mind is your mind is open in terms of whether or not you use reconciliation or whether or not you attach it to the social. Well, we still would rather have bipartisanship, whether it's a Democratic president or Republican president. You probably won't have it. So you'll you'll consider these options is all I'm saying. I want to ask. And it's very, very, very important. Absolutely. The House voted on Friday to hold former Trump ally Steve Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena. Do you think people who refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas should be prosecuted by the Justice Department and at the end of the day go to jail? Yes, you do. I do. I do. Well, first of all, this, you know, people say, well, this hasn't happened before. We haven't had an insurrection incited by the president of the United States and one of his toadies having knowledge of advanced knowledge of that happening. So, in fact, it's important for a number of reasons. It's important for us to find the truth about what happened on January 6th, an assault on our Constitution, our Congress and our Capitol. But it's also important to in terms of the separation of power and checks and balances of the of the Constitution, which is the genius of the Constitution for this to happen in this way. So you're willing if the if the committee decides to subpoena Trump, you're willing to have that happen, too? I'm not. They have everything on the table. I don't get involved in the decisions of the committee. But when you say if he should do this and go to jail, well, he'll be tried and see what his court. Yeah. I want you to take a listen to a key moment in which President Biden was talking about voting rights in the CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper the other night. Take a listen. When it comes to voting rights, just so I'm clear, though, you would entertain the notion of doing away with the filibuster on that one issue. Is that correct? And maybe more. So that is President Biden saying that he is willing to entertain the notion of getting rid of the filibuster for Voting Rights Act and maybe for other things as well. Do you agree with him on that one issue that at the end of the day, having some sort of voting rights bill is more important than preserving the filibuster, at least for that one vote? The most important vote right now in the Congress of the United States is the vote to respect the sanctity of the vote, the fundamental basis of our democracy, that there were one vote that the filibuster could enable to go forward. That would be the vote and enable so much more because we're talking about stopping the suppression of the vote and the nullification of the elections. We're talking about redistricting in a way that is fair and may not benefit Democrats, but it might open up some of these Republican seats. It talks about stopping the big, dark, crushing special interest money and empowers the grassroots. This is. And then in addition to that, the Voting Rights Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, John Lewis wrote the first 300 pages of the first bill. Mr. Manchin has weighed in. The compromise that they voted on last week is perfectly good. And but he didn't get any Republican vote. So it's worth it to you to know it's fundamental to our democracy. Right. Now, mind you, just to remind when what's his name was president and the Donald Trump Republicans were in power. Mitch McConnell pulled back the filibuster to enable, with simple majorities, three justices to go to the Supreme Court for life. You would think that they could pull it back for the American people to have the vote in a way that you're on. You're on board with that is the only thing I'm on board. It's the most important vote is about leading the way. You're not just on board quickly. I do want to ask about your own future in Congress. Are you going to run for reelection? You think I'm going to make an announcement right here and now? Yeah. Why not? I could be on many more times than that. You're going to run for reelection, though. Yes. Why would I tell you that now? Well, it's not just me. I always have that conversation with my family first, if you don't mind. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Best of luck with the legislation. Thank you. It's a heavy load to be here. Thank you.