-The House just passed a $1,900,000,000,000 package.
I know you think it is too much money.
There is a lot in here, though, that you do support --
direct payments to Americans, money for vaccinations.
It appears it won't include a $15 minimum-wage hike,
which you opposed.
Are you open to voting "yes" on that plan?
-I have no clue how it will come out of the Senate.
Republicans have not been involved.
I listened to Press Secretary Jen Psaki
speaking about how we've been listened to.
I started laughing.
That is such a joke.
You can find one thing perhaps where, "Oh, my gosh.
We will get criticized on that.
So, we'll adapt."
But the reality is, is that they put forward a package
which reflects the interests of the Democratic
constituencies that elected the president.
-The last time the Senate voted for a higher minimum wage,
it was my first month in office.
It was the first speech I gave on the Senate floor.
It was so long ago that the presiding officer
was a first-term Illinois
senator by the name of Barack Obama.
He was presiding over the Senate.
That's how long ago this was.
Since we've raised the minimum wage,
the Republicans have failed to do it.
We're gonna raise wages.
We're gonna find a way.
No, I'm not gonna negotiate on "Meet the Press," as prestigious
as this longest-serving show, whatever, is.
-I appreciate it, but we'll host it.
-But we're gonna make this happen.
We're gonna find a way.
It's just too important not to.
-$480 million of the COVID relief bill,
according to the CBO,
would go to the arts, humanities, museums, libraries.
Again, what does that have to do with emergency COVID relief
and getting kids back into school this year?
-Well, first of all, 90% of this package
goes to address the twin crises we're facing right now, Chris,
which is getting the pandemic under control
and helping the American people go back to work,
helping them get the relief
they need to get through this period of time.
Schools are like businesses, Chris.
They need to budgetary-plan over a period of time.
Some have to front-load changes,
whether it's to their facilities or ensuring
that if they have to hire additional teachers
or bus drivers at this point in time --
-But we're talking about a decade from now, Jen.
-Do we need to pay for bridges?
Does that have anything to do with COVID?
Do we need to pay for tunnels for Silicon Valley?
Does that do anything?
I mean, if you look at what they're doing --
if we were focused on COVID,
let's take care of the people who have lost their job.
Let's help our businesses.
Let's make sure we have plenty of tests
and make sure we have plenty of vaccine.
Get that out quickly.
But this radical-left stuff?
First off, giving money to states
when their revenues have not even gone down,
and we've already given them $400 billion?
And we don't even know how much has not been spent?
I mean, we have $27 trillion worth of debt in this country.
Let's spend the money where we need to spend the money,
but stop wasting money.
Interest rates are going up.
Inflation is starting to kick in.
We're gonna hurt the poorest families
in this country if we're not careful.
So, I want to help people.
Republicans want to help people.
This is just a radical left-wing agenda
that they're trying to cram through
because they think they can tie it to COVID.
-What is fair is that President Biden
and the Democrats in Congress
gave several weeks for there to be a serious negotiation
that came close to the scope and range of this challenge.
The proposals that came forward
weren't anything like the scale of the challenge.
-So -- -And so, frankly,
we're moving ahead with a bill
that probably will get no Republican votes in the Senate
but will have broad Republican support in the country.
My hope is that after we pass this bill,
we will then move towards bipartisan legislating
on a whole range of other issues,
whether it's immigration or criminal-justice reform
or national service or other topics.
-Republicans remain willing and are working on issues
that require bipartisan cooperation.
We've done five on COVID-relief package in the past.
It could have happened here.
They made a conscious decision not to include us.