CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with James Clyburn
Interview
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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me.
You know, I said on the floor yesterday, when we were debating this bill, this holiday should give us an opportunity every year to reflect on how bad it is you fail to communicate.
The Juneteenth took place in 1865. Slavery was outlawed by the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863. For two and a half years, nobody communicated to these people that they have been free. That to tell us something by keeping the lines of communication open.
And so, I have been using this experience to say to my colleagues, it's time for us learn to communicate. If we communicate with each other, we could do better on behalf of the American people.
BLITZER: That's a good point.
CLYBURN: Some celebrating not just a new holiday, but celebrating the fact of how valuable it is to communicate.
BLITZER: Let's also talk about Obamacare, Congressmen, the former president, Barack Obama, just tweeted, "The Affordable Care Act is here to stay." Is this new U.S. Supreme Court ruling, do you believe, the final word?
CLYBURN: I would hope so. This is the third time. And I think that we almost the trends here. The first time Supreme Court spoke on this decision was five to four, today, it's seven to two. And the majority of the seven happened to be -- considered to be conservatives on the court.
So, I think that it is here to stay. What we ought to do now is look at how we can make it a better, make the Affordable Act better for the American people and more expensive. We've got what? A dozen states, South Carolina being one of them that has refused to expand Medicaid.
It will have so many more people covered by health care if we were to expand Medicaid. So many more jobs created in the health care industry. So, this is what we ought to be doing. Stop this foolishness. Stop wasting time, spending money and sit down around the table and communicate.
BLITZER: The -- there is movement, as you know, Congressmen, President Biden's major agenda items including infrastructure is this latest Senate proposal, which has the support of 11 Republicans right now. A real step forward or another false start?
CLYBURN: I think is a real step forward. I think that people are getting beyond the notion that infrastructure can only be about traditional stuff that people are now realizing that if we are going to have a good health care delivery system, good educational system, we got to have broadband as an integral part of infrastructure. And so, people are now realizing that if you're going to only do what's traditional, you're always looking back.
We got to start looking forward. The future of this country means that infrastructure, it's got to be about high speed rail. It's got to be about affordable, accessible broadband for everybody. It's got to be about making businesses more effective.
[17:25:07]
You and I both know that after this experience we've had to COVID-19 and the workforce is going to be operating differently going forward. And so, I suspect that this economy is crying out for us to make broadband an integral part of infrastructure.
So, I think, these 11 people are coming to grips with the fact that we can't keep looking back if we're going to prepare our children and grandchildren for the future. BLITZER: Let's see what happens. There is movement potentially, important movement indeed.
Representative James Clyburn, thanks as usual for joining us.
CLYBURN: Thanks for having me.
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