Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Mark Pocan (WI-02) spoke with Chris Jansing on MSNBC today following his Tuesday visit to the White House with President Biden to discuss the Build Back Better Act.
“We are strongly behind the President’s Build Back Better agenda. This is an agenda that’s going to help working families across the country. It’s going to provide a tax cut for 40 million Americans. We’re going to get it done. The when doesn’t matter. The what is what really matters. What we want to do is make sure that universal child care, that community college, the expansion of health care, and all the benefits that are going to be there for working families, as well as the 2 million additional jobs, many of which tackle climate change, are going to be included. We need to get all of that done in these two bills. As Nancy Pelosi said this morning in a meeting, hundreds of Democrats are in support of this. There’s two in the Senate, maybe a handful or two in the House that are just a little bit reluctant right now, but I know that their values are the same as ours. At the end of the day, everyone’s going to come together and get these two bills done. Whether it’s Monday, whether it’s the following Monday, or the following Monday, I don’t personally care. I care that we get these big wins done for the American people. I guarantee, Democrats are going to do it.”
“Monday, September 27 was a date to keep talks going, and I would say it succeeded. As Nancy Pelosi said, hundreds of Democrats are ready to do this. The real problem we have in Washington is that it’s Big Pharma and special interests that don’t want to have to pay for this because, as you know, this is a bill that’s completely paid for, unlike the Trump tax break for the wealthiest. There’s a lot of good that’s going to come out of this. President Biden has a strong agenda for our working families. We will deliver on this. At the end of the day, we just have to make sure that any of those reluctant members that have special interests a little too much in their ear, remember that they’re delivering for their constituents, the people who elect them. We’re going to get that done, and we’ll pass both of these bills.”
“This isn’t about an arbitrary dollar amount. It’s getting the values that the President has in his Build Back Better agenda done. What he told us very clearly was that he needs to know what values some of these reluctant members are for, and that will dictate a number, but we need to know what they like and what they may not like in what we’ve marked up in the House bill. The good news is that several hundred Democrats are strongly in support of what we’ve marked up in the House and we’re ready to go and get both these bills done. We just have to get through getting a few people across the finish line. I’m really confident that it’s going to happen.”
“It’s astonishing how much Republicans are thinking about their next election. They won’t work with us on virtually anything, and they still have a leader in exile who’s the head of their cult. At the same time, I’ve been doing politics for decades as state, local, and federal government. I’ve never seen a political party so disjointed right now as the Republicans are. The fact that they won’t even work to do something in the national good to pay for the debt that they created by their tax break for the wealthiest, but instead make us do it. Fine, we’ll get things done. I just think it’s a really sad statement about where the modern Republican Party is.”
