Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) spoke with Jake Tapper on CNN today regarding prior to his visit to the White House with President Biden to discuss the Build Back Better Act.
Click the following image to watch Pocan’s video in full. Excerpts of Pocan’s remarks are embedded below.
“We’ve said all along, these two bills are going to move together, so I don’t anticipate there’ll be a vote that’s set up for failure, but I know there’s myself and 50 other members who would vote no if we can’t get the entire Biden agenda done. It’s really important that we do that and that’s what we’re working towards.”
“The problem is there’s a few folks in the Senate who have been a little bit less clear that they’re committed to seeing the bigger bill get done. These are twin bills, and much like the movie “Twins” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, we look at one bill as a little bigger. We want to make sure it gets done. The best way to ensure that is to do exactly what Speaker Pelosi said, which was that we should vote on these two bills together. We’re really standing behind the President and getting his agenda done, and we hope that everyone will join us so we get these two bills done together as we’ve said for months.”
“The President is really working on the folks that are more hesitant to get this done. We completely have his back. We’ve already gone from his request of six trillion, compromised down to three and a half trillion. We want to make sure people get universal child care. We want to make sure that we have community college available for everyone. We want that tax break for families via the Child Tax Credit. We want to make sure that people have paid leave, and that Medicare is expanded, just like the President does. The best way to ensure all of those things happen is to take both of these bills up together. It’ll create millions of jobs, and that’s ultimately what the President wants. That’s what we want. It really will happen, it’s just a matter of a few people that are just going to have to come around to the fact that everything that’s in these packages is good for their constituents. They need to vote for these bills on behalf of their constituents, not the special interest here in Washington.”
“I don’t think there’s anyone that doesn’t need child care, that doesn’t need a tax break for average working people who have children, who doesn’t need an expansion of Medicare. All of those things are going to benefit their constituents. The problem is here in Washington, a lot of special interests don’t want to pay their fair share to get these things done, and they get in the ear of some members, and we just have to remind people who elected them and who they serve. I guarantee Joe Biden is doing the right thing for the country. We have his back and are getting these things done, and those members too can make sure their constituents benefit from these very proposals.”
“There are no deficits in these bills. It’s completely paid for by people who make more than 400,000 year and corporations that either don’t pay taxes or hide their money overseas. Those are the interests that are somewhat concerned. For the average person, they’re going to see their costs lowered, they’re going to get a tax break. You’re going to have millions of jobs created, many that are tackling climate change. It is paid for, so there’s not a deficit to be worried about if you’re one of those people. You should be worried about whether or not you’re delivering those very benefits to the people in your districts, or whether Big Pharma and other special interests are going to win. I would err on the side of my constituents if I was them.”
“Monday is a very arbitrary date. If it takes another week, even another two weeks to get this done right, we’re all working together, I don’t think this is a battle among moderates and progressives. This is a battle to make sure that we get the President’s agenda done. It’s a good agenda. The American people are going to benefit from this, and it will be paid for. It’s just those special interests are the only people that are in the way of getting this done, and we’re going to defeat the special interests.”
