Represent people in the fifth congressional district. Congressman, thank you for your time. Thank you very much. We now go live to an event at politico with an interview with House Minority leader nancy pelosi. The event has just gotten underway with introductions and we expect the Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to be here shortly. This is life, john cspan2. It does mean more years in retirement and lastly every important as our inefficient health care system. How does that that affect the economy clocks that start by affecting the budget. So these are the top seven budget categories in 2016. Im going to leave the labels off for a minute but one is seventh. By 202010 budget item becomes the third largest. By 2046 he becomes the becomes the second largest. By 2050 if they comes the single largest item in the budget. Does anyone want to guess what that is . Interest pics of interest on the debt is unpaid. Another thing that debt does is something called crowding out. Discretion is because for a lot of investments are in the economy, education, infrastructure, research development. In 1970, most of the budget was discretion, 61 . This year it will be down to 30 . And by tenure so that its down to 20 . The growth of these mandatory spending programs and interest on the debt compounding is squeezing this discretionary spending. The other facts that has, it takes the capital for private investment, reduces our fiscal flexibility. If we have another crisis we have less able to handle it. It lowers certainty and a poorly and risks the Safety Network without a sustainable budget the safety net and those who depend on it are put in jeopardy. Some good news before i depart, theres a lot of solutions, many ways to solve this problem. Our foundation is nonpartisan. We d did something a couple yeas ago called a Solutions Initiative will be gathered five different think tanks to solve the budget, do whatever you want, tell us what you would like to do to the budget and we will score it. Heres what they did. Heres the path we are on. Is what the American Action for him did, the American Enterprise institute, the bipartisan policy center, the center for American Progress and the Economic Policy institute. And so that all successfully stabilized the debt. Clearly they did a lot of different things, they all had different opinions but this proves theres many ways to solve this problem. Before hand this often want to touch base on the current reforms under consideration and put them in some physical context for you. Health care and the acr front and center. Health care as you know is a key fiscal issue, 70 of her future spending growth is in health care so its important fiscally. Its a huge economic issue. 18 of our gdp is spent on health care. Spending has tripled over the last 20 years so its on a Significant Growth path which has effects on our impediments, wages, etc. In terms of the aca that generates considerable revenues. Over the next 10 years the projection is to generate 1. 2 trillion in revenue. Significant medicare savings built in about 800 billion in the subsidies as the Medicaid Expansion cost about 1. 6 trillion. We will see how this comes up but theres significant components that need to be dealt with. Secondly, Corporate Tax reform, to put that in some context, over the next 10 years the total revenue base is about 43 trillion. Corporate taxes, income taxes is only about 10 so only dealing with about 4 trillion over the next 10 years. A lot of discussion about potential reforms, preliminary but lowering rates has been a significant goal of republicans. That would cost about 2 trillion over 10 years according to some of the proposals. Tax would raise about 1 trillion and the House Republicans plan calls for revenue neutrality. Its not a fundamental drive but obviously we can make changes we receive it and do as we agreed in congress , its much lower than it has been. Thats not where you need to go to solve the problem. Its not just a few key takeaways, we already have a historically high level of debt that is growing at an unsustainable level. That has a huge effect on our economy, affecting incomes, growth, etc. Any solutions that exist, any way to solve this problem but policymakers take on the challenges this year and hopeful they will consider our fiscal challenge in that context. I want to thank the leader for speaking with us today. [applause] thank you so much and thanks to the g Pearson Foundation for making this conversation possible. Before we get started, i want to remind everyone if you want to tweet at us and get jakes attention on the ipad or questions or thoughts as we go through the conversation and without further ado, please welcome nancy pelosi to the stage. [applause] congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. So no shortage of things to talk about as we said before you came out here so we will jump right off. You began this week in kind of a spat with the president but most notably, you are one of the first people to call for jeff sessions, the attorney general, to resign. Yesterday, he recused himself, youre not happy with that. No but first let me thank the foundation and michael for hosting us here this morning. I enjoy this presentation, its really important for us to address the deficit and the foundation has been in the lead on all those challenges to make our contribution. The only thing i would say about michaels presentation was that when president obama stood on the steps of the capital, the deficit was 1. 4 trillion. It has now been reduced by 70 percent in his office so when it said 2009, the spending was 1. 4 when he came in. That doesnt mean we should be, thats why democrats from the start, as early as 1982 convention, thats a midterm convention. George miller, a progressive democrat in the congress, i wasnt in congress at that time and he talked about payasyougo and that was a resolution that was passed by the convention, payasyougo. Whatever you want to do, it must be paid for because from the start, the debt, it wasnt an investment. Its money down the drain and even when president reagan was president , he said we have to reduce the deficit because it is an opportunity cost for doing many other things that would create growth area that would invest in the future and it didnt become law until, the president is a little in the agreement that came right before clinton became president but when clinton was president , it became payasyougo. Whatever you want, if it was an investment, payasyougo. A tax cut, payasyougo. That meant president clintons budget, the last four or five budgets were either plus or in balance. And then we came into president bush, tax cuts at the highend, always, etc. Medicare part d and also 2 to 4 wars and the deficit soared and went from a passive deficit reduction, Debt Reduction to the opposite direction so when president obama took office, 1. 4 trillion, of course it was a 1. 4 trillion and now 74 percent but the problem is that on the payasyougo, republicans will say you have to invest in education and payasyougo but if you want to give tax cuts to the rich, we dont have to pay for those and thats really the problem. So if we could just have that equity , paying for everything that we do, it would be better so i agree with what michaelsaid , growth as a way to, i just say this enclosing. Nothing produces things more to the treasury then investment in education. Early childhood, k12, time learning, that helps us bring money into the treasury so when our college says we have to cut grads and cant do this, lets start under their budget now, maybe 100,000 kids will go with headstart, thats a false economy because again, investment into education, gets research and development, all those things to keep america economically number one and help people reach their aspirations. When we send people to the table to negotiate, we save the agnostic. Any good idea is welcome from any side. But it has to create growth. And reduce the deficit. Dont think you didnt Pay Attention backstage. I want to follow up on that before we get to jeff sessions. I do, i do. One of president trumps priorities and something the city is extraordinarily interested in his tax reform and what the president , although we dont know what the president thinks, youve not given any sort of plan but we know what the speaker thinks and the speaker wants to do something called the border adjustability tax which would defer, for those who havent been following, it basically means that the country will begin taxing imports instead of exports, its a simplistic explanation i know. Then they use that to pay for tax cuts. What you think about that . What is is a transfer of wealth. They want to give tax cuts to the highend as usual. Its in their dna. Grant people their position and their position is that if you want to create jobs, you give tax cuts to the wealthy. If you want to balance the budget, give tax cuts to the wealthy. If you ever you want to do, give tax cuts to the wealthy and it would trickle down. If it does, that would be good but if it doesnt, so be it. We had buttons named so be it, thats the free market. We have a different view that you invest in increasing the paychecks of americas working families who have Consumer Confidence to inject the man into the economy to again, create jobs and bring revenue to the treasury to reduce the deficit so we have a different point of view and how we go to the table to debate that is the debate at the budget is the battle of the budget in congress and i say to my colleagues, show me your values, show your budget. If your values are about tax cuts for the rich, then Everything Else has to thrive or not in that world and the deficit has to depend on that, then make your case and we will make out. So before your tax is a real regressive tax on working families in our country and we have practically here, maybe somebody supports it in our caucus but they have not come forward because its just not a place to go. I dont even know that it has any level of success on the republican side but as you practically describe what it is, its, lets have a border tax to bring in money that is going to affect the consumer, in other words, if we charge the system we will pass it on to the consumer. Again, affecting consumer consumption in order to get a tax break to the wealthy or lower the Corporate Tax. We all agree that we should lower the Corporate Tax and one reason to do it is not only to make our companies more deciduous but to get them to pay some tax, to get them to pay some taxes because theyre in growth, thats a whole other session. We may want to get around to. Jeff sessions. The recently recused jeff sessions. So we need to do the tax reform, we all agree and we think that how we do it should be in a way that brings some of that money home and invest in infrastructure, bring it home at a lower tax rate and pay taxes. The other part of that is several years ago we did repatriate funds with the idea, with the company that we repatriated funds would useit to invest in jobs in america. They got a lower tax rate. They didnt turn around and invest in jobs so when they came in again and said we need to repatriate funds , you didnt invest but for the taxpayer and they said youre right, we didnt. But this time we will. Maybe its so and i think you have to have that more firmly committed that the repatriation at a lower rate than they will but the tax issue is, so many people talk about all the things they believe in. Climates, addressing the climate crisis, gun safety, womens right to choose, immigration reform. All those kind of things. You see the election, they say i dont want to pay any more taxes so all those things went away. What happens in that election . People have to see that its in their interest to have all of these things which keep america number one. The education of our children, the safety of the neighborhoods in which they grow, the discretion that their families, the most important thing issafety and the economy, our children, our children and healthcare, education. 80 and clean area in which they can live and thrive. A world in which they can seek fulfillment and our country continues to be the great country that it is. So all these things come back to the budget. What is important to you as a nation as how you invest your resources in the statement of your values. Who did you want to talk about . Speaking of values, the news of the day, the week frankly, jeff sessions. Thank you to peter for getting the peterson foundation, they have been just remarkable factual work on all this and michael, thank you. All right, so jeff sessions. Third time is the charm. How about the budget . Seriously though, you called for him to resign. He has recused himself, thats the latest. Is that enough . What can you do if you dont think thats enough . We talked about budgets and statement of values and we move into the leadership of our country. We hope to talk not only about the authority of this person but the moral authority of the new administration and what we see is a very narrow recusal. A very narrow, im going to recuse myself from the investigation of the election. Not that theres a whole connection of the personal and political and financial russian connection of trump and his administration and his campaign. So if in fact the meetings were innocuous, then why did he not sign the packet . Hes the highest top cop, highest Law Enforcement officer in the country. What does that say to both lawyers and the department of justice . What does that say to the american bar association, their standard of professional conduct . Alabama, they have conduct. Hes a lawyer there so this is totally unacceptable and the very idea that they are making refusals and splitting hairs, we had not seen the end of this. The recusal is an admission that something was wrong and as you see in some of the reports in the media which you take it for what thats worth. Oh no. What im saying is love, i think the president path to the media is authoritarian, they are wrong. I cant even imagine what our Founding Fathers would think of it. Media has reported that, i think its the approach but im not sure, they call a number of members on the Services Committee hasnt found anyone yet in addition to sessions who thinks that he was asked for a meeting by the russians. 23 members of the armed Services Committee and sessions is the only person. Lets drill down. Youve been in congress a little bit and leadership. Have you ever met with the Russian Ambassador . Not with this Russian Ambassador, no. Is it normal to meet with ambassadors . Help us understand. Lets just say everything is about timing. And the fact is that when these meetings were occurring, not just with the attorney general sessions but with others in the administration, it was very clear since the summer that the russians were hacking election systems. But it wasnt as if they were saying all hi, nevermind about that, lets talk about the ukraine. The ukraine, thats a very serious matter heres the situation. First of all, i keep saying every week lets take a deep breath. Lets think about america. It isnt about democrats or republicans, its about our country. Its about our National Security which we take an oath to protect anddefend. Its about our values, our moral authority, how we are viewed in the world so when we find out that a country, and i said at the convention, maybe some of you were witnessed at the first day of the convention, the russians are hacking our system. I dont notice from an intelligence point of view that theyre going to talk about this idea. But i know it because a lot of money gets sent to investigate it. There hacking of the Democratic Campaign committee. And as you know, they were more fully and for a longer time doing the Democratic National committee. They took a number of weeks before the highest level but that was self evident and everybody knew it that the russians were hacking our system. In the fall and before the election, at the highest level of competence of our intelligence agencies said that it was the russians who were hacking our systems and its a disruption to our election. Every buddy signed off on to it except the fbi. The fbi said its too close to the election. This is 1 october, its too close to the election, it might affect the election. Two weeks later, fbi director kobe said in a statement that they were investigating emails of hillary clinton, 10 days before the election. I dont know how he can say is too late the first week and yet 10 days before the election, he would make that statement. But two days before that, Rudy Giuliani said it was coming. Everybody knew that something was out of order that was going on. For him to say in my meeting with him in the normal course of a meeting with an ambassador, the Russian Ambassador, everybody knew was hacking your system. Its beyond nacve. Itsalmost pathetic. So for him to go before the congress and say you talk to them about elections . Number maybe. But the other question, did you meet with him . Number so he did not tell the truth. And now its come out that hes not telling the truth and other people in the Trump Administration have met with the Russian Ambassador. In some view, some of the biggest Intelligence Officers of the russian government. So this is a very big deal. Because at the same time, the president of the United States is saying these are sanctions which for a period of time, all of us had time to strengthen the sanctions, talking to heads of state in europe and saying we have to stick with the sanctions in order to change the russians. And hes thinking a start treaty, underlining that crazy boot and expense, who we are but the list goes on. What do the russians have on donald trump that he would do that . And i dont know who knew what it all of this but its important for us to find out and we must have that investigation. The very idea that the top cop would go to his colleague in the senate and withhold the truth. Thisis not an unsophisticated person. Theres a possibility here, he knows whats there and its just a reflection of the week moral authority of this administration to support what hes doing and so thats why we have called for this, this recusal is an admission that something went wrong but its not admission and there are two things, just as important. One is the recusal as a surrogate of president Trumps Campaign but then candidate from the campaign having communications with the russian government, knowing that they were hacking our system. Thats one thing. Thats what the recusal is about. However narrow it is. The other part of this, the possibility of perjury which is punishable by law for anybody else, certainly we should have that standard for the highest ranking lawenforcement person in our country. And again, the russian influence is not just about this election. What they are doing in germany and france, theyre doing and theyre undermining democracy and these actions by the Trump Administration make them accomplices to it unless they help us get to the bottom of it. What are the republicans in Congress Afraid of . They dont want to see the president s tax reviews for the First Time Since gerald ford, they dont want to investigate in a wholesome way the destruction of our system . What are the republicans afraid of western this goes right to the republicans in congress, to their doorstep and when the public sentiment is linking everything they hear from their constituents, perhaps they will be more inclined to seek the truth. You talk about the moral fabric of this administration, certainly donald trump has an acute interest, lets say that but you and your leadership, let me read a few quotes. While ive been watching the state, i think shes incompetent actually. If you look at whats going on with democrats in the party, its getting smaller and smaller. When you talk about capital the other night saying its time to do away with those, time to come together, bipartisanship, what you make of that and the fact that he has. He appeared to point at you, did you notice that . I spent more time watching him then whats going on. Ididnt have to look at the paper but other people have told me. I saw your head was kind of down for a little bit heres the thing. He said that first of all because i said hes done nothing and hes done nothing for jobs, nothing for infrastructure, nothing for tax reform. Nothing but renegotiate nafta, he hasnt notified congress which is what you have to do to trigger the clock ticking and he saidhes going to do it in the first hundred days and he hasnt. Even after the clock starts ticking it takes 90 days so its 43 days into it so i say hes done nothing instead of wall street first. Make america sick again and instill fear in our country with his immoral, in some cases unconstitutional issues relating to immigration and the band, deportation band and hes done nothing to loosen the grip on russia. Letting them get away with all that. Thats all he has done. So then when somebody asked me about what i think is his agenda, i use the word loosely, what does he think about these things. I said at the press conference, Chuck Schumer and i did our remodel and this is what got under his skin. He reminds me of this story about yogi berra. Yogi berra had a report card and in those days you had to have your mother and father signed the report card and mother being a little more lenient, he went to his father with the report card and he said yogi, dont you know anything . And yogi said i dont even suspect anything. So i just dont know what he thinks or what he knows. But i do know that that got under his skin and that was his comeback. Thats going to get under your skin. Have you had any actions with trump . What has it been like since hes moved into the white house . I spoke with him after the election. But in terms of when he went into the white house, you know what happened. There was the first meeting of the leadership, house and senate, republicans over it. Ill stick to the meeting part of it. The meeting started with him saying that he won the popular vote. Even if you thought you did, were talking about a legislative agenda. Were talking about a new president of the United States. Your values. I won thepopular vote. He didnt. But it doesnt matter. It doesnt matter that he thinks that he did. Heres the thing. This is trivial. Its just a reflection of what is important to a person , the size of the crowd, the size of the vote. Neither actually beingfactual statements so this is what we have to deal with. When a person doesnt know the size of the crowd or the size of the boat and he makes a statement about my leadership, i dont trust his judgment. But heres the thing, he says i had it coming, theres no evidence to support that. He knew somebody was standing in line which turned out not to be true as well but i challenged him and i said that doesnt count california. I tell you who voted illegally in that either. That was what was important to him. Thats how he started the meeting. So this is a problem. Whatwe need to do is talk about how to go forward, to grow our economy , to have america be respected in the world and we are not going to , its amusing but it really isnt funny to see how he prioritizesthings. So again, nothing. I remind you that as president obama stood on the steps of the capitol in 2009, i watched this whole action now to create good payingjobs , to educate our children for jobs in the future, the list goes on. One weekend one day after that speech, we passed the recovery act. One week after that, four weeks after the inauguration, february 17, president signed the american recovery and reinvestment act, getting more savings for millions of jobs. He already signed the Lilly Ledbetter act, put himself in the front of the program and other things. And even president bush, i didnt agree with him, when he took office when he made his speech at the joint session he had a tax plan that he had created and presented but this president has nothing and its a stunning thing that you think the republicans are baying at the moon for seven years and we still havent seen a plan in seven years to repeal or cut it back so show us something. But he has had something. He talked about infrastructure, in his speech he didnt even get it and this is where we go from here. If were going to do these things but not the initiative. So we cant when people say can you work with him, show us something to work with. The talk about that, lets talk about working together. One thing and i have been talking about with republicans and its funny because i think a lot of capitol hill republicans recognized this agreement with george bush and weiner in many occasions that you had to bail them out on both sides, a whole host of issues where you begrudgingly at times but youve done it and i want to ask you on issues like the deck community and government funding which are two big issues that we see coming up in the next 4 to 6 months, talk about your mind and how you see the state of play and how you see the mood of democrats about cooperating with the president. Im glad you brought up president bush because people know we disagree with president bush profoundly on the war in iraq and what could be worse than that . We work very much together on so many issues, we passed the energy bill, a stimulus bill related to refundable tax credits or poor people, very progressive. He wanted big floor, we did that, we did a number of things together in the senate and members abandon him on. We talked about immigration, president george w. Bush had the best immigration and to the respect that he had people that advocated in his party so this isnt about republicans or democrats not working together, it wasnt like that at all. We had a responsibility to find common ground. And with Speaker Boehner as well but on the subject of the debt ceiling, this agency put it in the constitution, we take an oath to protect and defend the credit of america so, i dont know how much is in the leadership of the committee on the democratic side of ways and means of making it clear to the administration that we want a clean debt ceiling, lifting of the debt ceiling and that doesnt mean that i have a debate about whether were going to fix it or not. It keeps the debate lowered, our Credit Rating two years ago when that debate took place. We cant have that. So from the standpoint, we stand ready to work with the president to lift the debt ceiling, a clean debt ceiling, not one that is bogged down in ideological who knows what. Who knows anybody knows what. But thats clean and i forged to places in congress in the Appropriations Committee and in intelligence and in two places where we largely work in a bipartisan way, that appropriations will be able to come to terms i think for the reparations bill. Its just a question of coming from on high. Whats coming from on high when you see the president , 4 billion on defense but we already have the defense we need. What is your mission . But we also measure our security from health, education and wellbeing of the American People and thats the source of our strength as well. Both in terms of military strength and in terms of economic and health of our people so you cant take 54 billion and upset the agreement that was carefully crafted in parity between us and in defense but also recognizing that on this domestic side is included homelandsecurity, intelligence , state department, veteransaffairs , some of this may go into the defense side some on the domestic side so to have all of that that is part of the domestic but is really a defense conscious and if you say were going to hold that but have little to invest in education, research and development, science, judiciary, housing , all of the other responsibilities to meet the needs of the American People so again, the balancedbudget is a fight we will have to have but i have confidence that the republicans on the Appropriations Committee, that they know what our responsibilities are. We are running short on time so were going to move to legislative priorities, clearly not a lot of agreement with donald trump on a lot of this when he set the bar by august, 30 million spending packet from obamacare by early spring. Do you think hes unrealistic in terms of how fast this could actually get done . [laughter] well we have to start. That would be a good place. If we had started at the election, because i talk about resident obama Inauguration Day in april, we didnt start on Inauguration Day, we start after the election a few months or more in advance to get ready. Though it would be unrealistic to think things could happen too quickly if you never start. And then, but the thing is that you have to go to the Affordable Care act because somewhere in the bowels of the capital, there may be a proposal for the Affordable Care act. Our leaders discussed the republicans putting their alternative Healthcare Plan in a locked room so their members could receive it. To be fair, they didnt not you guys for being secretive and now theyre doing a similar thing x they have not, it didnt happen. We had four hearings and didnt have anything locked down any place. Wehad public markups , the senate marked up for 22 days and thats one of the longest markups in history, a public markup so that is to be, but in anycase , its important to point out, give me a chance to point out the difference. And the fact is that we had regular sessions that were required, mandated sessions where we drilled down on every word in the bill so that people could understand, comment and whatever it was and they knew that but anyway, in that sense this is. Now we have a situation where they want to repeal and replace. The only thing repeal and replace, the only thing it has going for it is alliteration. They dont have the votes. How are they going to replace , it will not happen. They may come up with something but heres the thing. We have said, the purpose of doing the Affordable Care act was to lower costs. Everyone lost their care and their insurer and all that, the rising cost of healthcare in our country was totally unsustainable. Small business to corporate america, putting a lot of this and it was totally unsustainable to the private sector. The local state and federal governments, and michael pointed out some of the continuation of that tax, largely contributed to the cost of prescription drugs, thats another subject so our point was to lower costs, to demand more coverage and increase access to more people, 20 Million People. 400,000 people didnt have Health Insurance before but what this really is important and what i think the republicans may care about, not caring that much about the 20 million is the hundred 55 Million People who have more benefits and lower costs to their employer, hundred 55 million get healthcare through their employer, many of them have seemed to think they have unsustainable conditions so they say were going to keep that and keep the tax and the 26yearold but you cant do that unless you have insurance plans that has money coming in to do it. And the other part of it is that this is a free market initiative. Heritage foundation, individual mandates, youve got to have those restored in order to be able to afford the coverage. One of the things that is endangered either going down this path, also what the Affordable Care act did is to 800 billion in savings from medicare. By creating statements and the private longevity committee, the prolonged solvency, the 10 more years. It also proposed the prescription, the cost of prescription drugs are lower for seniors, and it has been pretty checkups from the beginning so caused seniors are healthy because they have that free checkup to begin with so that lowers costs. Im sure youve seen the healthcare, the lower the cost. They have met and the biggest problem i think that we face is what happens to expanded medicaid. Medicaid is, thats where a lot of expansion was for lower income people and it is an initiative that people think of as for poor children, but its important for the largest amount of money, its a large amount of money to spend on seniors, people with disabilities, also the only way the rest of that. But over 50 percent of the money spent on longterm health care seniors, these are seniors in Nursing Homes or healthcare is through medicaid so i want to start by saying, dont take it from me. Casey said thank god for medicaid, thats where were going to get the money to deal with the rehab and the opioid issue has intensified or amplified the need for those resources so they always said medicare should live online. Schumer has had in his budget a guarantee of medicare. Medicare is a guarantee, you remove the guarantee, you dont have medicare. You say to seniors, remember when wedidnt have medicare and you had to shop for Health Insurance , or your parents did, heres a voucher, a small voucher for your use, they have big challenges because this legislation was not just about Affordable Care act and healthcare, it was about health of america, prevention , Early Intervention and the rest so i think as i say, seven years, still nothing. Lock us in the basement and thats not how we did it even though thats how may be how they characterize it. Lower costs, they continue to lower costs, expanded coverage. But lets say it another way. Its not the cost of lowering costs and increasing coverage again, expanding access, thats something to talk about what lets do a rapidfire, quickly running out of time. The action formed by august, thats what the speaker says. Its very hard, we all have this thing that happens but wehavent seen any initiative to go to the table. President bush , his tax proposal proposal only addressed going into that, that would have been a few days old, one path. We will see what they have to offer. They have not the fish out with it but they probably should not have kicked the can down the road on the debt ceiling. And doing it again, for the budget, theappropriations bill. They have to do that. The shutdown of government. And a set of the office of retention budget, cutting down the government that we use and that goes against opening government at the time. So we will see what value they place on that. Its all about the border wall. Democrats dont have to propose any package in any state reform that includes money for building a wall . X of course the wall is wine into in marble and ineffective. And enormously costly, how are you going to pay for it . How are they going to pay for it . You know thats a question and so it has no use to it. Technology, personnel and the rest, its a better price to go so i just dont see it. He talks about it like hes building the wall though. Its what he has. I dont think he has too much support on the democratic side but republicans seem to be cheering ahead. You overturned tv which nearly 200 of them voted for. It was something that you cheered for, something that you cheer for at the state of the union, one of the few things democrats cheered for in unison was, mrs. Trump right. The infrastructure package. It was the package. The idea that you get 1 trillion in private Public Partnership on infrastructure. The president in addition to being a fearmonger is a notion mother. There is a deficit idea that comes forward, something that this is a goal or vision, that these are the facts about it, this is our plan to get it done. This is ourplan on infrastructure. You say a private Public Partnership that would benefit because the speaker is saying , hes quoted as saying that there has to be a 40 to 1 ratio of private investment into infrastructure, 42 one. 40 from the private sector, one dollar from there. Thats not going to happen as tightly as we need to build our infrastructure so i said to the president from day one in every conversation, which has been many. We talk about it on the phone but if this is a Real Infrastructure bill, talk but if this is a tax bill, thats not going to happen. What do we hear when he says Publicprivate Partnership . Thats the formula, lets see what it is but it is what we suspect it could be is wealthy individuals getting tax credits, build something which they will own and charge in total. Because what youre talking about is a taxpayer funding it and paying for the maintenance and somebody making a profit off of it. Off of their tax plan. Thats not going to happen. But if they want to say, we have several billion dollar deficit in our infrastructure, its never been partisan. Weve always worked together in that way since obama proposed something and we no longer have the majority, they thought that and we did get in infrastructure bill but not as big as we should and thats why we need more, whether its transportation, highways and all that, highspeed rail. Mass transit, the border system. Probably we could spend as much money on Water Systems of 100 years old brick and wood, have a glass of water on that one. One system, broadband infrastructure for the future and the red, this is jobs, jobs. We have to put some repatriated funds into infrastructure. Thats what Publicprivate Partnerships but it cant be something that transfers well, once again to the president s charging tolls for the consumers to pay for something that they already funded through tax credits. But he did mention it. I think we have a bell . We already know, i have to let you off the stage but we spent a lot of time critiquing donald trump, the future of the Democratic Party a lot of infighting and the different ways we have a new leader, at the dnc under tom perez. Some places that are some of the stagnant leadership of the house democrats, and taking a strong 2018, what is the message that you would like to bring to democrats. Stagnation is another name for that. [laughter] heres the thing. Its amazing to me because the beauty of the Democratic Party is we have diversity in our ranks. Would want to be the head of the party is a rubberstamp . So when theres an theres this division, we have competition about leadership and approach and style and the new realities in terms of technology and participation from the outside. And we will always party that has from the bottom up and what is exciting about a trump president and hes working together is a good thing because they bring metallic to it. But this is not about the democrats, its about america. What is it that gives us so much hope is that people see the urgency, understand elections have consequences. Since the election, i dont know if you hear it but we hear it all over the country, weve never seen anything like that in the general election in the manner in which we are seeing it. Urgency, taking responsibility, that gives us opportunity. Our members are united as far as who runs this which is part of a political party. And we are united and we have some differences about one subject or other in terms of their enthusiasm for certain things , but they are united by a value , that centers on americas working families. Thats why were democrats and thats the point we have with the republicans. Trickledown versus the middleclass, bubbling up. And that is the debate and thats why we all come together. We have may have less enthusiasm that i may have on one subject or another. But our unity is about those working families and that is our purpose, it has always been that purpose, as long as any of the other issues weve seen along but these other issues are part of our value system and we have the talent, etc. To accommodate all thats you say they have a division, there in the division, we are the Democratic Party, we are by definition diverse. I definition, always challenging how we go forward. I feel very confident and i want to talk politics but maybe back in the other day, i feel confident that we know how much is in the republican white house, we did so when president bush was here. We will put together a game plan, our playbook. Listening to the people. People say we are here and i say if i came to you with a plan youd say how come you made a plan without talking to me . So were listening to all new possibilities and we want to know the whole technology, opportunity is so great but putting together the playbook. And that will be put together in a very grassroots building way. Were almost getting to that. Then we will put together a game plan and we wont get back. You will see that as it unfolds. Leader, thank you so much for your time today. Unfortunately we are out of time. Thank you to all the audience and the live stream, join us and live stream, the live online and on social media for updates and again, really a special thanks to the Pearson Foundation for their support on making the playbook interview possible. We have next thursday, our next playbook interview with Senate Majority leader mitch mcconnell. Thank you. [inaudible conversation] more