gretchen whitmer ahead. plus, scandals grow. more accusations against new york governor andrew cuomo. as he faces mounting criticism, does the governor the support of his people or his party? hello. i m jake tapper in washington, where the state of our union is beginning to feel a little hopeful. the pace of vaccinations in america hit 2 million per day last week. though health experts warn now is not the time to relax restrictions or public health measures. and for the millions of americans devastated economically it seems more help is on the way. saturday, the senate passed a $1.9 trillion relief bill which appears to be headed for president biden s desk after a final vote in the house on tuesday. the passage is aid targeting middle and low income americans including new $1,400 checks and a $300 boost to unemployment benefits and aid for state and local governments. the package passed with zero republican support, and the path was bumpy among senate democrats. on frid
unavoidable inflation taxes are draining workers hard-earned wages as the price of gasoline and groceries continues to climb. senator sanders answer is to throw more money on an already overheated economy, while 52 other senators have grave concerns about this approach. amid the division, congress has yet to pass the spending bill or the 1 trillion dollars infrastructure bill. here with his insight, missouri republican congressman jason smith. he is the ranking member of the house budget committee. so from your post on the budget committee, when you hear senator sanders say that americans overwhelmingly support this 3 1/2 trillion dollars bill, what s your response, congressman? i d like to know what americans that senator bernie sanders is talking to, because when i m traveling across the state of missouri, they are overwhelmingly opposed to it. in fact, a very liberal news network just this week came out with a poll that said only 25%,
you version for medicare for all fit resembles what senator sanders is proposing. it s about wall street paying more. what we tax in terms of financial service. that s part it. the other part is to understand this is an investment which will reap a great return on investment. we can t only look at this issue in terms of cost without think about benefit. benefit to the american public will be that people will have access to health care that right now they cannot afford and we re all paying a rice for that. senator sanders say that s impossible to achieve without a middle class tax hike. i m not ready to engage a middle class tax hike. it would cost $30 trillion over a decade to pay for this. taxing wall street will reap 30 trillion in order to cover this? what we re doing right now is
broadly speaking for us as a country. and he did it when he pounced on this issue. governor chaffee, you were the only republican in the senate to vote against the iraq war. you say secretary clinton should be disqualified from the presidency because she voted in favor of using force in iraq. she has since said her vote was a mistake. why isn t that good enough? we just heard senator sanders say that it s the worst decision in american history. that s very significant. the worst decision in american history. if you re looking ahead and you re looking at someone who made that poor decision in 2002 to go into iraq when there was no real evidence of weapons of mass destruction in iraq, i know bays did my homework, so that s an indication of how someone will perform in the future, and that s what s important. secretary clinton, he s questioning your judgment. well, i recall very well being on a debate stage i think
politics as a country, and it s something that he did specifically at that democratic debate. it was this debate otherwise dominated by hillary clinton and bernie sanders. and lincoln chafee from the very edge of the debate stage, from the very edge of relevance, he did something that because of today s news ends up being crucially important to the news cycle and to our politics and broadly speaking for us as a country. and he did it when he pounced on this issue. governor chaffee, you were the only republican in the senate to vote against the iraq war. you say secretary clinton should be disqualified from the presidency because she voted in favor of using force in iraq. she has since said her vote was a mistake. why isn t that good enough? we just heard senator sanders say that it s the worst decision in american history. that s very significant. the worst decision in american history. if you re looking ahead and you re looking at someone who made that poor decision in 2002