Top of the hour, im alisyn camerota. Im victor blackwell. The message from whistleblower Frances Haugen is that facebook should declare moral bankruptcy and seek help from congress. She testified in front of a Senate Committee today sf. Shes the former employee of accusing the social media giant of knowing how harmful their algorithm is for children and our entire democracy. I believe facebooks products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy. The companys leadership knows how to make facebook an Instagram Saver and wont make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed. They wont solve this crisis without your help. Cnns Donie Osullivan joins us live from capitol hill. So i mean, she just put to words what many people have been fearing for years about the algorithm of facebook, that it does much more harm than good, so where are we and what can lawmakers actually do . Reporter well, lawmakers can legislate to regulate and theres certainly a lot of indication from senators on both sides of the aisle who were at that hearing today that they would be willing to do that, that this seems like a bipartisan issue, and a lot of it is due to how compelling this whistleblowers testimony was. Have a listen. Facebook knows that its amplification algorithms, like engagement based ranking on instagram can lead children from innocuous topics like healthy recipe, i think all of us could eat a little more healthy, all the way from Something Like healthy recipes to anorexia promoted content. The bullying follows them home. It follows them into their bedrooms. The last thing they see before they go to bed is someone being cruel or the first thing they see in the morning is someone being cruel to them. Kids are learning their own friends, people who care about them are cruel to them. I would like to emphasize one of the documents on problematic use examined the rates of problematic use by age and that peaked with 14yearolds, its just like cigarettes. Teenagers dont have good selfregulation. They say explicitly i feel bad when i use instagram and yet i cant stop. You can hear there why she is an absolute nightmare for facebook, and on top of all of that, shes got thousands of their internal documents, and she was with the company until as recently as may. The Company Facebook is pushing back very very hard putting out a statement in the past hour. Ill read you some of that. Theyre really trying to down play this whistleblower, the work she did. They say she worked for the company for two years, no direct reports, never attended a Decision Point meeting with c level executives, and testified more than six times, in the Subject Matter of question. We dont agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about. But so much of what she testified about is the truth, right, i mean, a lot of what shes saying about how these algorithms are designed, and what facebook and instagram is doing and what is happening on their platforms, weve documented, to our reporting, through reporting elsewhere, and through other experts who follow this sort of thing, so this is a very big issue for facebook, and finally, i will say this is not today is unlikely to be the last time that Frances Haugen is up here on capitol hill. Senator blumenthal suggested they might invite her back to speak more about child safety, and we heard from adam schiff yesterday saying her talk about what facebook did between the election and insurrection she may appear before the January 6th Committee as well. Donie osullivan on capitol hill. Thank you, donie. Joining us now is a current facebook executive, Monica Bik Ert is a Vice President for Content Policy at facebook. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. I know you just heard that report, and so i want to get your take on what Frances Haugen has said. Is it true that facebook uses these algorithms that push inflammatory content because that drives more clicks and engagement . It is not true. And i want to say, i think there have been a lot of mischaracterizations today about what those documents say and about the work that we are doing to keep facebook safe. But just so im clear, i just want to be clear, you do not use, youre saying what part is not true. You dont push out inflammatory controversial content because you know that heightens engagement . We do the opposite, in fact, and if you look in our transparency center, you can actually see that we demote, meaning we reduce the visibility of click bait, why would we do that, one big reason is for the longterm health of our services, we want people to have a good experience. We want them to want to continue to come back to these sites, and connect with the people they care about for years to come. But my background hold on, i have a question about that. Do you deny that teenage girls are not having a good experience on instagram . The majority of young people on instagram are having a good experience and that is borne out by the documents that were stolen, including the instagram youth survey of about 40 instagram users. These were teens who were already struggling with Mental Health issues and on all of the issues, the majority of Boys And Girls said that instagram either makes things better or doesnt have a Material Impact on their experience. Hold on, i want to be clear, one thing, i let you say your piece. Youre saying you do not have internal research that shows that depression and suicidal thoughts go up for teenage girls as do thoughts of Eating Disorders . Im saying that for the majority of teens on instagram and the survey, the Stolen Survey that was shared in the testimony shows that the majority of teens, this was a very small survey, not Peer Reviewed research. This has been mischaracterized, what it actually says, and we have published it. People can look at it themselves, on the 12 issues for these teens who are struggling with Mental Health issues, instagram, the majority of them said instagram makes things better or doesnt have Material Impact. How about the minority, the 13 that said it increased suicidal thoughts . Its important for me to say i spent my career as a criminal prosecutor and worked a lot on child safety so even one teenager having a bad experience on instagram is too many, and i can tell you that the hundreds of people at facebook who actually do work on child safety, this former employee does not, did not. But those who work on child safety and work with dozens of external academics and child safety experts, this is our top priority. And are not only are we doing this research and asking the hard questions, we are also using that research to inform the way we build our products. Have you found reside that girls say it increases suicidal tendencies, any research, have you seen that . If i can finish, some of the tools we built. We connect them, if somebodys searching for Eating Disorder related terms, we connect them with wellness resources. We give them tools to prevent bullying and harassment. Thats the result of us asking these hard questions and doing this research, and were going to continue to do it. Let me tell you what frances said on 60 minutes. As these young women consume Eating Disorder content, they get more and more depressed, it actually makes them use the app more so they end up in this Feedback Cycle where they hate their bodies more. Facebooks own Research Says it is not just that instagram is dangerous for teenagers, it harms teenagers. Its distinctly worse than other social media. Do you deny that that research exists . There are theres research we have put out. In fact, we put out more than 400 Research Papers that we have participated in or released ourselves in the past year alone, and there is this survey that is not the same thing as peerreviewed research, but has nevertheless, weve published this as well. That survey has been mischaracterized. Am i saying everybody has a great experience, no, but what that survey says is that the majority of teens who were surveyed, its a small number, who are struggling with these issues, for the majority of them, it made things better or didnt have material change. Now, we need to do better for those who are having a bad experience, but thats exactly why we do this kind of research. We wouldnt ask these tough questions if we didnt care. Were asking because we care. On a bigger issue, what about democracy, does facebook take any responsibility for what happened on january 6th since it allowed the big election lie, propagated by donald trump to proliferate on the site. The responsibility for january 6th, i cant be more closure about this, than to say the responsibility for january 6th lies with those who broke the law, and those in politics and elsewhere who incited them, and the work that we did both before the election and all the way through january 6th, partnering with academics and researchers, working closely with Law Enforcement and authorities to understand what the risks were, and to put Safety Measures in place that started before the election, well before the election, and continued through march, that was work that im very proud to have been a part of. Ive frankly never seen such an effort to prepare for an election. Why did you dissolve the Civic Integrity Department which worked on misinformation before january 6th . We didnt dissolve that team. What we did was build a bigger team that that team became a part of, and in part thats because over the last few years with covid, with the election, with other matters that we had teams working on individually, we were learning about things like how to use informational labels on content, how to build informational centers, and we wanted to be able to leverage the things that these teens were learning and put them all on one team to work together. We have expanded the number of people working on these issues. Why doesnt facebook allow more transparency to allow more regulators to see how the algorithms function . We are the most Transparent Company in the industry. We started the practice of releasing public reports about how we are enforcing our policies. We have built a transparency center. We launched this year where you can see our content demotions. We launched an independent oversight board, and we respond to them. Their opinions are transparent. Our responses are publicly available, and most importantly, we have said for more than two natch and a half years, we dont think we should be making decisions on our own. We welcome regulators, we welcome the conversations with regulators at facebook to see the work were doing and will continue to do. I want to get to what the solution is. First, let me play for you how Frances Haugen says you are much less transparent than other social media. Listen to this. At other Large Tech Companies at google, any independent researcher can download from the internet the companys search results and write papers about what they find, and they do. But facebook hides behind walls that keeps researchers and regulators from understanding the true dynamics of their system. Facebook will tell you privacy means they cant give you data. This is not true. Do you keep some of the visibility from regulators . I want to first answer the point about researchers. We actually partner with hundreds of researchers. We put out thousands of peerreviewed Research Articles that our researchers have participated in in the past several years, so this is something we care a lot about. With election 2020, we are working with 17 independent researchers who have access to data, and of course we have to make sure thats privacy protected but they have access to the relevant data so they can do work and independently put out their assessment of these issues on our platform. This is something we care deeply about. If theres no problem, if youre doing everything great, why are you asking for more regulation . I think the first step in regulation is getting transparency from the entire industry, and then we can actually see, you know, how Different Companies are doing and what is possible in terms of making a better experience for the public. I think its important, and our leadership in this Company Including Mark Zuckerberg have called for this regulation because we think these are important decisions that we shouldnt be deciding for ourselves. What can facebook do better . There are a lot of things that we can do better, and that could be said for every company out there, of course. But one thing we want to do better is make sure that our Enforcement Systems are keeping people informed about the decisions were making, that were telling them clearly what our policies are, why were making the decisions were making. We also want to get better at Finding Content that violates those policies, and thats why we publish our Community Standard enforcement reports. Weve done this since 2017 where you can actually see the progress were making over time. The whistleblower says the stuff you publish is not the looking Under The Hood stuff. Shes saying the innocuous stuff you publish but youre not publishing really how the algorithms operate, and really what people need to know in terms of the controversial and most inflammatory content, and how different algorithms prey on different peoples confirmation bias. Thats whats happening, you get the positive reinforcement, you get the Reward Center that lights up because youre fed content that reinforces and some would say hardens your belief system. Is that not whats happening . On the contrary, and look, lets talk about first with our algorithm what we do to counter polarization, and lets be clear, people can opt out of the algorithm. The algorithm is a way of ranking content people have chosen to follow from family and friends and groups and pages. If you want to see posts in chronological or reverse chronological order, you can. But since were talking about the algorithm, and potential for polarization, we publish the content we demote, meaning reduce the distribution of. That includes click bait, Engagement Bait bauds we want people to have a good experience on the service. I just want to say, i understand the temptation to blame polarization on this industry, but if you look, the research is very clear that polarization in this country has been going up for decades before social media even existed. And if you look at other western democracies i suppose. The research that ive the research that ive seen is that when social media got popular, poplarization got worse, and i think there are loads of research that suggests that also, but monica bickert, we appreciate you coming on. We know you have to go. I could talk to you much longer about what youre asking congress for, and how you plan to regulate, but this is the start of a conversation, and we appreciate your time. Thank you very much. I think that element in which she talked about how the algorithm populates topics or posts that you have expressed interest in, what we heard from ms. Haugen today, someone interested in Healthy Eating choices, how that escalates to pro anorexia messages, and the obvious danger for children there. And its not what your friends and family are necessarily seeing, its your news feed. I dont know if she was making a distinction between those two things, but obviously theyre saying they couldnt be more transparent. The whistleblower is saying they must be much more, as is congress. Theres a divide there, and well see if lawmakers decide to do anything about that. All right. Moving on now. Former Vice President mike pence claims the january 6th Capitol Riot was a tragic day in the history of the country but hes now claiming the media only talks about it to distract from President Bidens agenda. Well have more on that. Before we talk about taxsmart investing, whats new . Audreys expecting. Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. This isnt just a walk up the stairs. 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Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer warned that we are getting dangerously close to defaulting on the countrys debt but senator Mitch Mcconnell is holding firm that republicans will not help democrats raise it. Theres a clear path to achieve raising the debt ceiling, which must happen. America must not ever default. And doing it with democrats only. Theyve had plenty of time to execute the Debt Ceiling Increase and have chosen not to do it. Senate republicans have manufactured a crisis that threatens to plunge our economy back into a recession. We do not have the luxury of using a drawn out convoluted and risky process. We could prevent a catastrophic default with a simple majority vote tomorrow if republicans would just get out of the damn way. Cnn politics reporter and editor at large, Chris Cillizza is with us now. Leader mcconnell says theres a clear path. There are several clear paths, hes on one of them but said theyre not going to go down that. A lot of spin there. Lets start with what were talking about here. People think the debt limit is about the Government Spending more money. Its not. Think of it like your credit card. This is paying for bills weve already racked up in terms of spending. What are those bills . Well, the trump tax cut was a big part of it, and the American Rescue plan, joe biden stimulus plan for coronavirus was a part of it. But this moneys already been spend. This is not about Government Spending more money. Its about paying for the money thats been spent. You mentioned mcconnell. On monday, he sent a letter to joe biden, since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone itself. Since your party wishes to govern alone, Mitch Mcconnell is putting democrats over the coals here because they are trying to pass this Big Social Safety Net bill with only democratic votes, using a Budget Process called reconciliation, where you only need 50 votes. He doesnt want to help them on the debt ceiling because he wants to punish them for going that route. Okay. You heard Chuck Schumer say tomorrow were going to have a big vote. What does closure mean, you need 60 votes to end it. That means ten republicans would have to vote with the 50 democrats to end debate. If they did that, end debate on the debt ceiling, if they did that tomorrow, then 50 democrats would then vote to raise or increase the debt limit and we would be done with all of this. Thats not going to happen because ten republicans arent going to vote with the 50 democrats. I would doubt any one would because Mitch Mcconnell has kept them in line, which then brings us to the options that democrats have. They have two options, one, change the filibuster, you keep hearing this, right, liberals want to change the filibuster roles. Joe manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema before they were the swing votes on the spending packages, they were the swing votes on a filibuster. They dont want to do that. Its unlikely you will see the filibuster rules change, which brings us to this option, option two, which is heres the word, the reconciliation process, there it is again. The same process that democrats are going to use to try, if they can come to a deal to get that social safety net bill through, somewhere between 1. 9 trillion, and 3. 5 trillion. Were not exactly sure where it lands, which is how it would go about this, which would allow them to raise the debt ceiling with 50 votes. The issue, though, is that would be 50 d votes and 0 r votes. Democrats dont want to do that, because even though i mentioned the debt limit is about paying bills you have already accrued, the public thinks its about the federal Government Spending more money. Democrats dont want to own this. What are the stakes here. This isnt a made up deadline. Theres plenty of made up deadlines, we have to do this by next tuesday, and next tuesday comes, we have to do it by thursday. This is a real deadline. It would be disastrous for the american economy, and millions of families and workers, whose financially security would be jeopardized by delayed payments. You dont have to take Janet Yellens word for it. In 2011, standard and poors downgr downgraded our Credit Reporting as a country. This is real stuff. This is not congressional brinksmanship to no end. Theres real danger here and my guess, democrats go the Reconciliation Route because theyre afraid of the circumstances and what would happen if they dont. Back to you guys. Im just wondering, chris, on a scale of one to ten, how much should i be panicking right now . It seems like this is going to happen, that theyre going to do the Reconciliation Route. If one is your laid back person, and ten is me, just in a normal day, i would say six because i do think ultimately, alisyn, i do think democrats, theyre not going to want to do it, it is complex, theres a lot of, you know, theres a budg budgetary thing theyre going to have to do but i dont think theyre going to let us default on our debts if they have the ability to not. And reconciliation gives them the opportunity or not. You have heard joe manchin of West Virginia say we have other options available to us. Hes talking about reconciliation there. Chris cillizza, thank you for explaining all of that. Great to see you. It has now been nine days since the january 6th Capitol Riot. Thats bloodthirsty Trump Supporters chanting hang mike pence as the mob Assaults Police officers, vandalizes the capitol, and tries to hunt down then Vice President mike pence and other lawmakers in an attempt to overturn trumps election loss. The former Vice President was forced into hiding with his wife and daughter and was then, you see here, rushed out of the building, but it seems that his position has evolved. He is now down playing the riot, and deflecting blame. I know the media wants to distract from the biden administrations failed agenda by focusing on one day in january. They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again, and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020. Olivia troy was a former National Security adviser to the Vice President and Scott Jennings is a cnn political commentator, former Special Assistant to george w. Bush. Olivia, let me start with you, the this image as the former Vice President as this defender of democracy on january 6th continues to disintegrate. Your reaction to his now calling the insurrection a day in january that the media is using . Its completely appalling, and it is in keeping with what i would say mike pences cowardice and greed for power. What hes doing here. He knows this is a Republican Partys core tenant and agenda is to down play and whitewash what happened on january 6th which was a horribly dark day in our democracy. The factor of the matter is americans are not going to forget, and you cant forget the images weve seen. We cant forget the u. S. Capitol police that really faced that mob head on. But his sights are set on 24024 and thats where his focus is. He knows it. He has to go along with this, even though that day almost led to the death of him and his family, and put all of them and his staff at risk. I think he knows he stands no chance at 2024, he has to go along with this because that is what the Republican Party is pushing right now. Is mike pence aware he stands no chance in 2024 anyway because donald trump is going to be getting back in and not choosing him this time as a Vice President . Yeah, i mean, hes in a strange box, right, number one, he clearly wants to run for president. Number two, if donald trump runs, that is an impossibility for him and frankly everyone else. If trump doesnt run and he gets in, he needs Republican Voters to forget that donald trump is essentially excommunicated him from the trump orbit, and it leads then to crazy statements like this, which then leads people like you guys to play the video of the crowd chanting hang mike pence, which makes the whole thing look ridiculous. I have been a mike pence fan for most of his career, you know, he served the country admirably. And he did the right thing on january 6th. He resist lded the calls by peo to overthrow the government. He tried to down play. After you were there and were a central player. I should point out that he resisted the calls but checked around first to see if he could do what the president , the former president asked of him. Olivia, let me come back to you, and this is on Stephanie Grisham on her book tour now, former Communications Press secretary there at the white house, former Chief Of Staff for the first lady. Before we get into the specifics on what shes writing, what do you make of this tour, this b book, is there some value in this contrition after serving through the insurrection. Yeah, you know, its certainly hard for me to watch a lot of these people come forward on their book tours, telling stories that are so egregious, and people like me, coming forward prior to the election, people needed to know who was in office and what four more years would bring, and how dangerous that would be at that moment. I think theres value here in the fact that people have a shortterm memory at times. And theres a whole group of voters who is still supporting trump who needs to hear this from someone like Stephanie Grisham, who led the strategy and the attacks and she was one of the chief enablers for those of us who worked the white house with stephanie. She knows exactly what this man is, what he represents, and what hes capable of. And scott, now shes saying that she has seen the light and now shes saying that she realizes how dangerous donald trump is and would be if he were to be elected again. Heres what she said today. If he gets into office, he doesnt run for reelection again. Hell be able to do whatever he wants, and we all know theres going to be retribution, theres going to be revenge. I guarantee there will be very draconian policies, and theyre not going to care because they dont have to run for reelection again and if you think or people think the people in that Trump White House were bad perhaps, i have a feeling the 16 crowd might be working in the white house in 2024 or the Sidney Powells or the rudy giulianis. Scott, so just to put a finer point on it, let me put up a picture of what trumps cabinet 2. 0 would look like according to Stephanie Grisham. These are the people who, as youll recall, President Trump called very special, great people. He said he loved them. These people with the Confederate Flag and all of this stuff. And basically she, Stephanie Grisham is terrified of what that looks like, and scott, do you think the rest of us should be ads well . A couple of things. Number one, and i have said this many times, if he runs, he will be the republican nominee. I dont know how anyone is going to beat him as the party has current instconstituted. I think he gives the party the least chance to win, and wouldnt win when other people have a much better chance and take the country in a new or better direction if youre a conservative policy person like i am. I dont need Stephanie Grisham to tell me what the attitude would be. Is this a great revolution that he would turn to, these are the people he turned to at the end of his administration. This is not great brooeaking ne. We are aware of how this would go the next time around, so i dont have a lot of use for staffers, frankly, who go out and do this kind of book writing after the fact, and i certainly dont think shes Leveling Anything we all dont already know, so i hope the republicans nominate someone else. I fear if he runs, hell get the nomination, and likely means a democrat would win again. Not for sure, because obviously joe biden is not having an easy go of it right now. On the point of what Stephanie Grisham said, his second term would be about revenge. Is that the what the base of the party wants, they want revenge. When you look at the polling, how many republicans say that believing that the election was stolen from former President Trump is part of the days of calling yourself a republican. Yeah, i think thats certainly part of the narrative now that the Republican Party is, and especially driving grievances, driving hate, and it drives violence, and i think that revenge is certainly going to be part of what that would lead to, and i honestly, it is terrifying to think what this country would look like should he get the nomination, and run and when. I think it would be a terrifying moment for our National Security. It would be terrifying for the Intelligence Community who hes disparaged and we have seen what this man is capable of. I do think theres a whole group of people out there who want rev revenge and think about those people who call themselves patriots, and i say that in quotes, the people who were charging the capitol that day, people who were attacking Law Enforcement that day, who were calling for mike pences hanging that day, those people certainly want revenge. Its all part of the overall narrative of the big lie and laying the ground work for overturning future elections potentially. Thats the direction this would go in. When i think of trump winning the white house again i think of people like Stephen Miller being in power and being the National Security adviser to the president , and that is a pretty frightening and scary thought. Olivia troy, i can hear the dogs saying the interview has gone too long. Im going to wrap it there. Scott jennings, thank you both. Thank you, guys. Any minute now, President Biden will give a speech to rally support around his twin economic packages that remain stalled on capitol hill, so well bring you his remarks as soon as he makes them. Paying f. Love you, sweetheart they guide me with achievable steps that give me confidence. This is my granddaughter. Shes cute like her grandpa. Voya doesnt just help me get to retirement. Theyre with me all the way through it. Come on, grandpa later. Got grandpa things to do. Aw, grandpas are the best well planned. Well invested. Well protected. Voya. Be confident to and through retirement. This is President Biden in howell, michigan, boosting and trying to get support for his build back better. The American Labor Movement Across the board has the single best workers in the world. Serious, serious training goes into being a union worker. I mean it, the best in the world. I was kidding. Someone said to me earlier that, i said, im a union president. And someone pointed out to me that i allegedly used the word union as president more than the last seven president s combined. You built the country, no, not a joke. You built the country. And its great to be here with several excellent members of congress. Lisa slotkin, alyssa, you dont want to screw around with her. Shes an Intelligence Officer as well. Shes forgotten more than most of you know. But thanks for riding out with me, and thanks for the advice youve given me, and i mean that sincerely, and how were going to make sure that everything we do here is paid for. And not a single penny raised in taxes of anybody making under 400 grand. And debbie, youre the best in the world. You and john have been friends of mine for so so long, youve stepped in and taken over in a way that i think is had to be both emotionally difficult, but youve done an incredible job, and i consider you one of my great friends. Thank you. And dan, youre okay, dan. You aint quite like the woman sitting next to you, but all kidding aside, dan, youve done great, i really mean it, youre always there for everything thats important to your constituents, and you understand, im going to talk about it a little bit later, the way we built from the country is the bottom up and the middle out and not the top down and you get it. And andy, as my dad would say, you got good blood, kid and thank you for what youre doing. Thank you for stepping in, and thank you for the great job you do. Cast some really important votes to keep things moving, and of course its great to be here with my friend. Weve become friends, out standing governor, one of the best governors in the United States of america, and her Lieutenant Governor who covers her in every way, both in terms of physically, and mentally, and every other way. And thank you for all you did to help me get elected, i really mean it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Look, i know theres a lot of noise in washington, there always is. But it seems to me a little more than usual now. A whole lot of hyperbole, a lot of heat, and im here today to try to set some things straight if i can. I want to talk about whats fundamentally at stake for our country now at this moment. I know its an overused phrase but i have been using it a lot, were at an Inflection Point. Anywhere from 40 to 80 years in america theres an Inflection Point, we have to choose what direction were going to go. Not democrat republican, but who are we going to be . For a long time america set the pace across the entire globe. For the better part of the 20th century, we led world by a significant margin in investments in ourselves, in our people, in our country. We inviested in our infrastructure, roads, highways, bridges, ports, airports, and the arteries of the nation that allow commerce to function smoothly and swiftly and allow us to generation significant income. We have invested in our people and opportunities. Were among the first to provide access, for example, to free education. Its the reason why in the 20th century began to take off. It was back in the late 1890s we decided among the first kr countries that we were going to be the first nation of every single american, regardless of their background, it wasnt at the time regardless of their background but based on income would have free 12 years of education. We invested to win the space race. We led the world in research and development, and led to the creation of the internet. You know, then something happened, we slowed up. We stopped investing in ourselves. America is still the largest economy in the world. We still are the most productive workers and the most Innovative Minds in the world, but we risk losing our edge as a nation. Our infrastructure used to be the best in the world. Literally. Not figuratively. Today according to the World Economic forum, we rank 13th. Our infrastructure, 12 nations have better infrastructure than we do, which means they can move product, so many things better than we can do. Were among the first to guarantee access to universal education. Now the organization of Economic Cooperation and Development Ranks America 35th Out of 37 major countries when it comes to investing in Early Childhood education as a percent of gdp. Think of that. Think of that. Of all the industrial nations in the world, the instinct of americans would say if you asked them 25 years ago, they would say were number one. We are not. Theres only two industrial nations that are lower than us. All of those investments that fuel the Strong Economy weve taken our foot off the gas. I dont know whats happened. The world has taken notice, by the way, including our adversaries, and now theyre closing the gap in a big way. So its essential that we regain the momentum that weve lost. The work of our time, it seems to me, those of us who hold Public Office is to prepare ourselves to be more competitive and win the fast changing 21st century in the global economy. Things are changing incredibly quickly. Thats why i propose two critical pieces of legislation being debated back in washington right now. The first, a investment on our infrastructure, and the second is a bill to invest in our human infrastructure. Ill talk about both of these bills in just a moment. First i want to set one thing straight, these bills are not about left versus right. Or moderate versus progressive, or anything that Pits Americans against one another. These bills are about Competitiveness Versus complacency. Theyre about opportunity versus decay. Theyre about leading the world or continuing to let the world pass us by, which is literally happening. To support these investments is to create a rising america, an america thats moving, to pose these investments is to be complicit in americas decline. To support these bills is to pursue a Broader Vision of our nation and to oppose them is to accept a very cramped view of our future. This isnt about two pieces of legislation. Its about the Inflection Point i mentioned earlier we are in our history, the world history. So heres what im proposing, first,s Infrastructure Bill, its about rebuilding our roads, our highways, our bridges, our ports, our airports, our broad band, all the things that need repair. Our arteries of our economy have always been fueled by the economic might and dynamism of americans. Across the country right now 45,000 bridges and 173,000 miles of roads, according to engineers are in poor condition. Right now. Including more than 1,200 bridges as the governor has been fighting to repair here in your state. 7,300 miles of roads here in michigan. Ill bet everyone in this room can tell me what the most dangerous intersection in this town or any town they live in and where it is. You hold your breath when youre driving over trying to cross the street. Not a joke. Working with the governor and members of the congress here were going to put Hard Working Americans like the Operating Engineers here in howell on the job to bring back our infrastructure and bring it up to speed. Good union jobs, not 12, 15, 18. Prevailing wage jobs. Wage that gives you dignity, that you can raise a family on, that you can hold your head up. This is a Blue Collar Blueprint for how we restore americas pride, and these are jobs that cant be outsourced. Were going to put plumbers and pipe fitters to work replacing lead pipes in america so families and children can drink clean water. 400,000 schools. Its not just our homes. Its across the country. Were going to put line workers and electricians to work Laying Thousands of miles of Transmission Lines and to build a modern infrastructure and energy grid. Were going to make high Speed Internet affordable and available everywhere in america. Were talking about it on the way over, how short, the number of people who have access to the internet here because of the lack of investment. Were going to make the largest investment in Public Transit in american history, and were going to mange the most important investment in our rail system since the creation of amtrak 50 years ago. Let me tell you, our competitors arent hanging around and waiting to see what were going to do. They have been pouring billions of dollars in infrastructure and into training their people for years now. Take china, for example. Now, i have been clear that china uses unfair practices to get ahead of their competitors, but thats not the whole of the story. They also invest in themselves. In recent years, china has spent around three times as much on infrastructure as a share of their economy than we have. Three times. And theyre not slowing down. Yesterday, my u. S. Trade representative delivered an important speech on our competition with china. She pointed out that china made a major investment in steel plants beginning about 20 years ago. And the last 20 years, half of American Steel companies have been shuttered. We went from 100 u. S. Steel companies to 51, and employment america Steel Industry dropped by 40 since the year 2000. China now produces more steel in one month than america does in an you can see it in sector after sector. Other countries are speeding up and america is fall beg hind. We have to reset the pace again. For example, here in michigan we need to make sure that American Auto workers lead the world in Electric Vehicles. Some of you came to the white house when i had the Chairman Of The Board of general motors, chrysler and gm i mean general motors, chrysler and ford. And what did they decide to do . They decided they are going to lead the world and theyre going to build more of the Electric Vehicles than any other country. But guess what . China is not waiting around. They manufacture more than twice as many Electric Vehicles as we have over the last decade. They control more than 75 of the battery market. And they are poised to invest another 14 billion in Charging Capacity now in their country. Back in may i had the chance to tour fords new State Of The Art Facility In Dearborn where Union Workers are building the first allelectric ford f150. I got to drive that sucker. Its quick. Zero to 60 in 4. 1 seconds, and its a big boy. Months later, i hosted the Big Three Automakers at the white house. The ford 150 was joined by the hummer and gmc. All going electric. All in partnership. The future of the Auto Industry is electric. We need to make sure america builds that future instead of falling behind. We should build those vehicles and the batteries to get them here in the United States of america. We should build them here in the state of michigan. I want those jobs no, i really mean it. I want those jobs here in michigan, not halfway around the globe. Thats what my plan will do. The Infrastructure Bill will put in play the Union Workers installing hundreds of thousands of charges stations along our roads, highways and communities. Over 500,000 of them. When you build a charging station, like back in the day when my grandpop worked for an oil company in the turn of the 1920, in that area, they went from state to state convincing people that they put allowed them to put 20,000 gallons of gasoline under the ground. They didnt want them around. But guess what happened . Everybody builds up around them. You put these Charging Stations along the highway youll see Significant Economic Development go well beyond the charging station. And the build back better plan will boost our manufacturing capacity. Investing in new and retooled facilities that employ American Workers with good wages and benefits. That includes grants to kickstart new battery and parts production. Purchasing incentives for families to buy clean unionmade vehicles like the ones championed by debbie and dan and the senate and the house. And loans and tax credits to boost clean vehicle manufacturing. Look, these are the kinds of investments that get america back in the game and give our workers a chance. My plan also makes historic investments in clean energy including tax credits to help people do things like weatherize their homes, install solar panels, develop Clean Energy Products to help businesses produce more clean energy. All told this project will save Literally Hundreds of millions of barrels of oil on a yearly basis. Not a joke. These credits, those credits could cut the cost of Installing Rooftop solar by about 30 . Helping families cut their Utility Bills and helping the country cut its emissions. My Infrastructure Bill will put americans to work and long overdue National Environmental cleanups. I want a job corps just like roosevelt but an environmental job corps. Of over 160,000 excuse me, 1. 6 million people. That means good jobs prevailing wages, Capping Hundreds Of Thousands of abandoned oil wells. We have thousands of abandoned oil wells and gas wells with methane leaks. Guess what . The miners and people who dug those wells will get paid the same amount of money to cap them now. Its going to help us meet the moment of the Climate Crisis and do away with its going to create good jobs making us more economically competitive. Folks, here in michigan, you all know the cost of extreme weather. All of you remember the flooding this summer that shut down parts of i96. The Power Outages and tornado warnings. They are costing your State Billions of dollars. Nationally last year, last year, because of extreme weather, it cost america 99 billion. 99 billion taxpayer dollars. I went all over the country. I went out west to the fires. You know more has burned down in the northwest than the entire state of new jersey. Thats how much weve lost. You see whats happened with the droughts that are out there. Reservoirs down 30, 40, 50 feet. Youre worried about the cooling down. What the Colorado River is going to do. This is a big deal. This is gigantic. Were not going to ease up. Were not going to ease up on any of this. We have in invest in resilience. You saw texas. Their entire power grid went down. Because they had no resilience. The ability to build back and build things stronger. Why a lot of those fires in the far west . Because, guess what, its a hell of a lot safer to have those wires underground, not being knocked down by high winds and tornadoes and the like causing fires. I havent passed we havent passed a major Infrastructure Bill for decades in this country. It used to be a normal thing to do. Used to be a bipartisan thing to do. If we get this done well breathe new life into our economy and workers and breathe clean air. Economists left, right and center agree. Earlier this year, wall street, not some liberal think tank, wall street, moodys, projected the investments in these bills could help our economy create an additional 2 million jobs per year. Every year. 2 million per year. Thats going to be transformative. Heres the deal. The jobs are for people who too often have felt left behind and were left behind. Left out. 90 of the jobs in this bill, these bills, my infrastructure plan, dont require a Fouryear College degree. We need to get this done. Were going to lead the world like we used to. If were going to do that, we have to also invest in our people like you do in this training facility. Thats why my second bill, the build back better plan, thats what it does. Take education, for example. When america said everyone is entitled to 12 years of free Public Education, universal, it gave us the best educated, best prepared workforce in the world. That was one of the reasons america began to grow so rapidly. But guess what . If were going to put together a committee today, like they did in 1898, i think it was, and were going to invent a Public Education system, is there any chance we thought 12 years was enough in the 21st century . Just 12 years . I dont think so. Study after study shows that earlier our children begin to learn, not day care, better. For themselves, for their families, no matter what background they come from. They are increased by 56 the chance theyll get through 12 years of School Without getting in trouble. Its a gigantic deal. Doesnt matter whether mom and dad know how to read or write or the home is a home that is challenging. But right now were lagging behind. While other countries are investing in their children. Today only about half of 3 and 4yearolds in america are enrolled in Early Childhood education. In germany, france, the united kingdom, latvia, the number that number is more than 90 . 90 of their 3 and 4yearolds. Were falling further and further behind the curve. Its not just education. According to one study, we ranked 33 out of 44 advanced economies when it comes as a percentage of our young people who have attained a posthigh school degree. Anything after high school. Were at the bottom of the heap. If you were on a quiz show you might have said we were two or three or four. Its ridiculous. My build back better plan gets us back on track. Well make four additional years of Public Education available to every person in america. Two years of highquality preschool at the front end and investments in Community Colleges so our students can gain skills they need to carve out a place for themselves in the 21st century economy. And increase pell grants. Helping their foelks, helping them get through Community College or historical ly black colleges in order to get a shot. And well invest in historically black colleges and universities. Its an Essential Asset to support and maintain and make sure young people of every background and circumstance have a shot at goodpaying jobs. This bill also invests in our workforce by providing so much needed Breathing Room for working families. After all, how can we compete in the world with millions of american parents, especially moms, cant join the workforce because they cant afford the cost of child care or elder care. They have to stay home. For example, here in michigan, the average twoparent family spends. 10,400 on Child Care Costs for just one child each year. 30 years ago, the United States ranked sixth