welcome back vermont senator bernie
sanders is pushing for a massive
reconciliation package
larger than the floated 3 trillion 3 and
a half trillion
package senator sanders speaking to
reporters on his proposed package
outside of the white house following a
meeting with president biden let's take
a look
are you on board with 3.5 trillion now
we're going to be fighting right now
there's
we are in the midst of very serious
discussion
as you know i introduced a proposal for
six trillion dollars
so i'm going to fight to make that
proposal uh as
uh as robust as it can be and i think
quite frankly
a strong majority of the members of the
democratic caucus
want to go as big as we possibly can
wow a strong majority wants to go as big
as we can
six trillion dollars joining me right
now is west virginia senator
shelley mercapido senator it's great to
see you this morning do you agree with
that a large majority wants to be
big like six trillion no i don't agree
with that i mean
it's it's six trillions is an enormous
amount of money on top of the 1.9
trillion
that was already spent during the rescue
plan it's still yet to go out the door
another 1.2 trillion on physical
infrastructure it seems that the
spending
is just way out of control and and and i
think more specifically
what would you be spending 6 trillion
dollars on and what effect would that
have on the economy
well i mean that's what i want to ask
you about senator i mean you're there
as a leader in all of these meetings
from the senate side
what's the point of all of this okay so
the economy is coming back
we're seeing we're seeing a recovery
little by little and we're looking at
you know
bang out earnings from the corporate
sector and we're looking at
growth once again what are you trying to
achieve you and your colleagues
why keep getting the numbers up and up
and up and up and up and adding to the
debt and deficits
well i don't think all of us certainly
don't agree with what senator sanders is
saying here
i think this is going to be a fight on
the reconciliation package which will be
the second package
i think we do agree that physical
infrastructure is something that we've
dedicated
uh federal resources to but we usually
pay for it and so that's where i think
this bipartisan package needs to be
scrutinized in terms of how is it
actually paid for are they real pay
force
and will they actually meet the
expectations that we have
that we will pay for that package roads
and bridges and
and other things infrastructure related
broadband and other things
as you look at this human infrastructure
or social infrastructure package
this is where they're talking about free
community college and preschool and
who knows what else because it's not
specific it's just a number and they
seem more enamored with getting the
numbers up then where
where the real meat of what they're
trying to do
uh is is explained and i think there's
going to be
troubled waters ahead for anything that
goes near
that kind of figure i don't see how that
possibly passes
even with um many democrats saying
that's way too much spending
i mean can we really i mean can we stop
saying human infrastructure i mean come
on
i mean what is human infrastructure it's
just so absurd
there's a spending package that they
want to spend money on things that
is separate and apart from
infrastructure i totally agree you've
got real bipartisan support
on infrastructure but what i'd love to
know is what kind of tax
increases and spending levels will the
president be able to get through
during reconciliation senator because i
know that the president was
you know really criticized after he
tried to shake down you and your
colleagues by saying
oh yeah we agreed to something we didn't
get everything we wanted we agreed
but oh by the way two hours later i'm
not going to sign that unless there's
another bill side by side on my desk
is he is he still insisting that if you
say yes to the infrastructure
package then you have to be on board for
the second spending package
well i think they're in inextricably
tied together
maria and i think that's troublesome
because if the deal is that in order to
get a physical infrastructure package
you've got to vote for a three four five
or six trillion
social or human infrastructure package
i i think that that is a clear
path to uh an inability to pass
anything uh and and i think that uh we
ought to take the bipartisan wins that
we can get
and and move on from there and let the
democrats try to figure out how they're
going to get 50 votes
on all kinds of human or social
infrastructure
it is amazing to me the way um
some folks here in washington can come
up with a term that a new term that
describes something that sounds much
different than you know spending on
social programs
and and so i think that because that's
where we are
exactly and we and people see through it
i mean it's so ridiculous to say human
infrastructure i mean you know it's it's
money for schools it's you know it's
money for seniors okay just be tell us
what it is
meanwhile the border continues to worsen
senator
we've got new numbers in june my sources
on the ground told me that 174
000 people were apprehended in the month
of june
on top of 180 000 in may and there were
39 000 plus got aways in june
are we ever going to see a real effort
to secure our borders here with this
administration
well we're six months into an
administration that announced before the
president was inaugurated
that we're going to open our borders and
in anticipation of that nothing was done
no preparation was made
and so you see the numbers going up and
up and up and you see more
unaccompanied children you see families
you see more people coming
not from central america not from uh the
northern triangle areas but
uh other areas south america europe and
other places
and so it's just i mean the news is out
our borders are poorest
they're not doing anything they've taken
away all the wall money even
even leaving gates on the ground and not
completing that
so there's no real commitment here i
don't think
to to narrow the numbers and if the
president gets rid of this title 42
it's going to be worse yeah it sure is
senator thank you for your leadership