CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Joe Neguse

Interview

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REP. JOE NEGUSE (D-CO): Well, it's good to be with you, Erin. The symbolism is certainly not lost on me. I was in the House chamber on January 6th then was evacuated with my colleagues off of the House floor when the insurrection took place. I think it's appropriate for the President to discuss the insurrection and our response to it.

Clearly our country as a constitutional republic has been tested on multiple occasions in the last several years and that includes the events of January 6th. Ultimately, we've risen to the occasion every time and I think it's important for us to take stock in terms of just how far we've come, the progress we've made in the last 100 days and the ways in which our democracy has endured, notwithstanding the efforts of some to try to interrupt the peaceful transfer of power just 110 days ago.

BURNETT: So the plan the President is going to announce tonight, the additional $1.8 trillion. I mean, it's a heck of a lot of money. I'll get to that in a moment. But I want to make that point in this question, because despite that price tag does not include an expansion of Medicare, which I know is something you care passionately about.

You lead a group of 80 lawmakers. You sent a letter to President Biden this week calling on him to include Medicare expansion in the plan. It did not make the cut despite a $1.28 trillion, I'm sorry, spending tag. How disappointed are you?

NEGUSE: Well, look, first I would just say I think that the President is going to include, I suspect, in the American Families Plan and in the presentation that he delivers tied to the Congress historic expansions in terms of providing more health care access to 10s of millions of Americans, for example, through the ACA credits.

And I don't believe that those measures are mutually exclusive to the measures that you mentioned that me and many of my colleagues across the ideological spectrum have been pushing forward such as lowering the Medicare eligibility age broadly supported by the American public.

[19:20:08]

I want to give an opportunity to the President to make his presentation and I'll certainly be supportive of the measures he's proposing. And I imagine we'll continue to make our case to the White House and to our colleagues in the House and in the Senate that we ought to do more and keep on - continuing with that debate in the coming days and weeks and months ahead as the bill gets through the legislative process.

BURNETT: OK. So now back to the price tag, because I think we've gotten to a set of numbers, which whether you agree with them or disagree with them, they are incomprehensible to any of us as individuals, because the numbers are just so big.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin today told CNN that he's 'very uncomfortable with the price tag'. So far between the COVID stimulus, the infrastructure to parts, the plans together that have been put forward by President Biden represent 30 percent of the entire U.S. economy, 30 percent of the entire US economy possibly being passed by Congress in the space of a couple of months. Does that make you nervous?

NEGUSE: No, Erin. And here's why, I mean, clearly, the plan is ambitious. It's bold. It is comprehensive. When the President calls the American Families Plan the, the American Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan a once in a generation investment into infrastructure, human infrastructure into the foundations of middle-class prosperity, he means it.

And it's clear that many Americans across our country are still struggling to meet basic needs and cover basic expenses. So I believe these investments are necessary. And we see the impact every day in my community of the American Rescue Plan, the FEMA clinics that those funds have been used to scale up where folks are getting vaccinated, the ways in which food insecurity has been a challenge and we've been able to make great strides in cutting childhood poverty.

BURNETT: Yes.

NEGUSE: And, of course, the historic investments that I think the President will announce later tonight to address things like childcare and early childhood education. As the father of a two-and-a-half-year- old daughter, I can just attest for all of the young parents across our country, these investments, they'll make a real difference.

BURNETT: Well, I'm also the parent of a two-and-a-half-year-old and I understand what you're saying. All right. Thanks very much, Congressman, I appreciate it.

NEGUSE: Thank you.

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