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Speaker 1: Live from our nation's capital. This is Bloomberg Sound On.

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Speaker 1: When you have such a slim majority, it means that

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Speaker 1: there's going to be compromises. One way to draw more

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Speaker 1: people into the workforce and to draw them in productively

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Speaker 1: is to pay them a higher way. Schloomberg Sound On, Politics, Policy,

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Speaker 1: and Perspective from DC's top Name. Inflation is running much

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Speaker 1: higher than the Fed projected. There is a monitoring system

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Speaker 1: that many big corporations are really contemplating is to sort

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Speaker 1: of how do we keep the employees that are inside healthy.

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Speaker 1: Schloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew on Bloomberg Radio Live

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Speaker 1: from Washington, where we've got news today. As an effort

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Speaker 1: to move forward on a bipart as an infrastructure bill

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Speaker 1: fails in the Senate, Republicans said no. Majority leader Chuck

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Speaker 1: Schumer now headed back to the drawing board, and coming up,

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about what just happened with Bloomberg. Government's Jack

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Speaker 1: Fitzpatrick will also be joined by Mark Zandy, the chief

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Speaker 1: economist at Moody's Analytics, who is arguing for the need

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Speaker 1: to spend on infrastructure to boost the economy, and he

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Speaker 1: doesn't buy the talk about inflation lately. Thank you for

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Speaker 1: joining us on a busy day in Washington where Republicans

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Speaker 1: in the Senate have blocked a move to begin debate

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Speaker 1: on infrastructure. On this vote, the yeas are forty nine.

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Speaker 1: The nays are three of the senators duly chosen and

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Speaker 1: sworn not having voted in the affirmative the motion. The

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Speaker 1: motion is not agreed to. No, you haven't, Senator Tina

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Speaker 1: Smith Minnesota. With the final tally, the motion fails. Likely

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Speaker 1: no one was surprised. You've been following this. Let's talk

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Speaker 1: about it to begin with Bloomberg Government's Jack Fitzpatrick. He's

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Speaker 1: been following it since this whole process began. Jack welcome.

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Speaker 1: What was the point of this exercise if everyone seemed

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Speaker 1: to know it would fail. The point was to get

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Speaker 1: things moving. The Majority leader, Chuck Schumer had known that

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Speaker 1: this was going to happen, that they weren't going to

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Speaker 1: get sixty votes in this procedural vote today. But you

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Speaker 1: could probably argue that he got what he wanted because

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Speaker 1: it lit a fire under the bipartisan group of senators

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Speaker 1: negotiating the final details. And the latest we've heard from

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Speaker 1: Senator Mitt Romney is actually they may be able to

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Speaker 1: finish this up Monday or Tuesday of next week, and

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Speaker 1: previously we hadn't heard something that soon, So we may

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Speaker 1: see another one of these procedural votes in the near future,

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Speaker 1: maybe early next week. Because this seemed to light a

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Speaker 1: fire under those numbers. Well, that's the beauty of a

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Speaker 1: self imposed deadline, as I've been saying throughout the day,

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Speaker 1: Right Chuck Schumer can do this again Monday or Wednesday

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Speaker 1: or whenever there's a document if that happens. Though, assuming

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Speaker 1: that it does, Jack and we actually have a bill

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Speaker 1: that people can read and vote on, will there be

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Speaker 1: Republicans who vote yes? It sounds like it one there.

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Speaker 1: They can't get this procedural vote done unless there are

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Speaker 1: at least ten Republicans who are happy with it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: they need sixty votes. That means at least fifty Democrats

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Speaker 1: plus ten Republicans. The latest we've heard there actually was

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Speaker 1: a joint statement that came out from the bipartisan group

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Speaker 1: of senators who were involved in these talks that includes

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Speaker 1: well Democrats and ten Republicans saying they're going to keep

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Speaker 1: working on it. They're getting close. So yeah, right now

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Speaker 1: there are ten Republicans who feel good about where things

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Speaker 1: are going. There wasn't They weren't fast enough to get

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Speaker 1: it done today. But unless something comes out of left

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Speaker 1: field and and messes everything up next week, there should

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Speaker 1: be something that comes together that at least ten Republicans

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Speaker 1: can support. All right, perfect, Jack, Thank you, Bloomberg Government's

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Speaker 1: Jack Fitzpatrick with the very latest here from inside the

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Speaker 1: belt Way. I've been looking forward to talking with Mark Zany,

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Speaker 1: chief economist at Moody's Analytics out the report today that

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Speaker 1: everyone seems to be writing about and posting on social media,

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Speaker 1: argues for passing both the bipartisan infrastructure deal that was

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Speaker 1: at issue today as well is the reconciliation package that

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Speaker 1: we'll still frankly being conceived all for the better of

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Speaker 1: the economy. And he's with us now, Marksany, welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Radio. Good to be with you, Joe, Thanks

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Speaker 1: for having me. You say, failing to pass these plans

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Speaker 1: would quote certainly diminish the economy's prospects unquote, Mark, aren't

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Speaker 1: we already growing at a pretty fast clip? We are

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Speaker 1: as we rebound from the pandemic, and that is the

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Speaker 1: result of the reopening all of the fiscal and monetary

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Speaker 1: support the economies receiving UH and all the up demand

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Speaker 1: that's getting unleashed UH and being fueled by a lot

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Speaker 1: of the excess saving that's out there. So yeah, we're

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Speaker 1: growing very quickly, but that will diminish and we'll settle

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Speaker 1: back in you know, twelve, twelve, eighteen months from now,

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Speaker 1: and UH. The legislation we're talking about here is about

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Speaker 1: longer term economic growth, you know, lifting the economy's long

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Speaker 1: run growth potential so that you know, we're not stuck

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Speaker 1: in a two percent world where we were prior to

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Speaker 1: the pandemic. We want to see something stronger than that,

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Speaker 1: and this legislation is about trying to lift that longer

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Speaker 1: term growth. What would be the difference, uh, with or

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Speaker 1: without What kind of growth would this achieve uh over

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Speaker 1: the next decade beginning in two which is you know,

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Speaker 1: if everything kind of sticks to script when the legislation

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Speaker 1: would be implemented. So let's just say the tenure budget

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Speaker 1: Arizony one, it would everything got kind of got past

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Speaker 1: as as I uh, I'm assumed, and you know, as

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Speaker 1: you pointed out, there's you know a lot of things

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Speaker 1: to be worked out here in a lot of moving parts.

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Speaker 1: But if they kind of stick to my script, then

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Speaker 1: it would raise a g d P growth real GDP

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Speaker 1: growth by about a tenth of a percent per anum

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Speaker 1: over that ten year period. So you know that instead

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Speaker 1: of growing two percent, we grow two point one percent,

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Speaker 1: which you know, I think to most people's ears, that

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Speaker 1: doesn't sound a lot in a given year, it's not.

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Speaker 1: But over a period of a decade or two or three,

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Speaker 1: you know, that's real money and would make a difference.

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Speaker 1: And it's also not, you know, hopefully not the end

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Speaker 1: of the story. It's you know, the stort of going

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Speaker 1: down a path to addressing some of our long term

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Speaker 1: economic problems, the lack of infrastructure, issues around climate change

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Speaker 1: and income in wealth inequality. So these are long term,

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Speaker 1: long running, pernicious problems that can't be solved in a

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Speaker 1: year or even a decade. It took us longer to

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Speaker 1: get into these problems. Canna take us a few decades

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Speaker 1: to get out. Well, there you have hard numbers from

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Speaker 1: Mark's anty. That's a great place to start here. The

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Speaker 1: other side of this, of course, as as those criticizing

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Speaker 1: this type of infrastructure spending, is just the dollar signs

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Speaker 1: and you're indicating now those dollar signs will be will

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Speaker 1: pay back in economic growth. The other part of it

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Speaker 1: is inflation. Mark, you say you're not worried about this

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Speaker 1: causing long term inflation. A lot of people in Washington are.

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Speaker 1: How how come you see it differently? Well, Uh, I

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Speaker 1: think for a few reasons on the inflation issue. Of First, Uh,

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Speaker 1: there's there's still a lot of slack in the economy.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the unemployment rate is five point nine percent.

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Speaker 1: That's still a long way from where we were pre pandemic,

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Speaker 1: you know, in the mid threes. And of course labor

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Speaker 1: force participation is much lower today than it was pre pandemic.

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Speaker 1: These are folks that stepped out of the workforce and

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Speaker 1: the pandemic and not even count as unemployed. So it's

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Speaker 1: gonna take a fair amount to get you know, those

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Speaker 1: people back to work and to get back to you know,

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Speaker 1: something that we feel really good about. So there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of room to maneuver here, and we have a

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Speaker 1: lot of slack. Pretty tough to get sustained higher rates

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Speaker 1: of inflation. Second, um, as I mentioned the I think

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Speaker 1: the legislation will lift longer term economic growth, so you know,

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Speaker 1: it gives us more room to grow without creating inflationary pressures.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the legislation should lift our productivity growth, lift

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Speaker 1: lay before his participation, and that eases inflationary pressures, allows

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Speaker 1: us to the point of it is to grow more

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Speaker 1: quickly without generating inflationary pressures. And then third, you know,

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Speaker 1: if you look at the kind of the elements of

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Speaker 1: you know, what's going into the legislation are intended to address, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, the cost pressures. You know, just as an example,

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Speaker 1: a big part of the of the of the reconciliation

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Speaker 1: packages is trying to help increase the supply of housing.

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Speaker 1: And you know, many of us are now aware of

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Speaker 1: the very severe shortage of housing, particularly affordable homes, low

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Speaker 1: lower priced homes and more affordable rental properties are in

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Speaker 1: very short supply, so rents and prices are rising very rapidly.

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Speaker 1: That adds to inflation. Well, you know, this legislation increases

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Speaker 1: the supply of housing and that should take the edge

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Speaker 1: off rents and prices and broader inflation. And that's just

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Speaker 1: an example. There are many other examples, so there's lots

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Speaker 1: of reasons to believe that this is not going to

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Speaker 1: be uh, you know, an inflationary problem. Uh, Finally, I'll

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Speaker 1: point out, and I think it's important. You know, we

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Speaker 1: talked about the price tag, you know, at least on paper,

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Speaker 1: and we can discuss what that might mean. But at

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Speaker 1: least on paper, this is paid for. You know, there's

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Speaker 1: tax increases and there's other pay fors in the legislation

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Speaker 1: to cover the costs over a ten year budget horizon.

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Speaker 1: So we'll see a folks Day in there. We'll see

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Speaker 1: what happens with that. As we talked with Mark Zany.

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Speaker 1: You know, Mark, it's not lost on me, and I

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Speaker 1: think a few people have pointed this out that, of course,

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Speaker 1: there was a time when you were advising former Senator

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Speaker 1: John McCain. I just wonder what you think of the debate,

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Speaker 1: the form that this has taken, the shape that it's taken.

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Speaker 1: In terms of politicizing infrastructure. You're calling for passage of

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Speaker 1: both of these. Republicans don't want any part of the

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Speaker 1: idea of soft infrastructure, human infrastructure, but you're arguing that

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Speaker 1: that in itself will help to boost growth. What would

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Speaker 1: you tell Republicans on Capitol Hill. Well, you know, we've

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Speaker 1: got some very large problems that I think I've become

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Speaker 1: very obvious over time in the pandemic put them in

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Speaker 1: very clear relief. I mean, we have underinvested in physical

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Speaker 1: infrastructure for decades and it's showing. I mean, I think

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it's obvious to everybody who you know,

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Speaker 1: commutes into work, you know, gets on it gets in,

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Speaker 1: it goes to an airport or you know, trying to

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Speaker 1: use broadband, and in different parts of the country, we've

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Speaker 1: got a real problem with income and wealth inequality that

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Speaker 1: you know, it's very clear as a result of the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: You know, groups of the popular, you know, minority groups

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Speaker 1: and lower income households have been left behind. And we

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Speaker 1: have a climate change problem very severe that's now becoming

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Speaker 1: very very obvious. You can you can just see it

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Speaker 1: all over all over the planet. And so you know,

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Speaker 1: I would say, you know, we've got some big problems

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Speaker 1: and we can't sit on our hands. We gotta start,

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Speaker 1: we gotta start moving, we gotta start addressing these problems

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Speaker 1: because you know, again, you know, they didn't it happened

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Speaker 1: in a year or two. They happened over several decades,

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Speaker 1: and it's gonna take a long time to get out.

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Speaker 1: So if we don't, you know, take this window and

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Speaker 1: walk and walk through it and start to work on

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Speaker 1: these things. You know, the costs are going to be

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Speaker 1: even greater to us, So we gotta move. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to point you somewhere. You don't want to go here,

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Speaker 1: Mark Sandy. But when we talk about inflation and the

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Speaker 1: way that you're looking at this as a as a

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Speaker 1: short term phenomenon, can I extrapolate that you like the

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Speaker 1: way the ft is handling things right now? Yeah, you can.

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Speaker 1: I think they're doing exactly the right thing. I mean, obviously,

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Speaker 1: there's a boatload of uncertainty here in the pandemic is

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Speaker 1: you know, just outside the box. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: this is something we've you know, not faced in modern

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Speaker 1: economic history. So there's a lot of uncertainty, and no

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Speaker 1: one can should uh, you know, we should, we should

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Speaker 1: be humble here. You know, there's a lot of risk.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I do think given what we know

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Speaker 1: and given how things are kind of unfolding, the fet

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Speaker 1: is doing a good job. You know, they they I

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Speaker 1: think they do need to keep the foot flat on

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Speaker 1: the accelerator until it's you know, clearly obvious. We're on

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Speaker 1: the other side of the pandemic, and obviously you know

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Speaker 1: with the delta variant, We're not Mark Zandi, chief economists

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Speaker 1: at Moody's Analytics, appreciate your insights today. Glad you got

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Speaker 1: that report out. There's a good bit of timing here.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg. You sound on with Joe Matthew

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Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. He's accused of illegally lobbying the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration and lacoll was coming from inside the house on

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Speaker 1: behalf of the United Arab Emirates accused as well, charged

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Speaker 1: with the obstruction of justice for making false statements. That

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Speaker 1: would be Tom Barrack, founder of Colony Capital, former chair

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Speaker 1: of Donald Trump's inaugural committee. We talked about it a

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Speaker 1: bit yesterday, just a week before he was put in jail.

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Speaker 1: Barrack sat down for an interview with Bloomberg's Eric Shatzker.

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Speaker 1: Spoke to his deep ties with the Middle East. Everyone

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Speaker 1: knows that you have deep and long standing ties to

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Speaker 1: the Qataris, to the Amirats. You have a history in

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia that goes back to one of your first

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Speaker 1: jobs ever in the nineteen seventies. Are they all behind

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Speaker 1: you in this effort? Yes, yes, and very you know

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Speaker 1: that the as we've talked about before, the the region

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Speaker 1: is so complicated, he would begun to arrest within a

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Speaker 1: week of sitting for that interview, and to help us

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Speaker 1: learn more about what Barrick is he used of how

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Speaker 1: this all led to an indictment. Were joined by Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: investigative reporter Caleb Melby. Caleb, thanks for being here. Was

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Speaker 1: Barrick lobbying Donald Trump directly or or others in the

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Speaker 1: president's the former president's orbit, Yeah, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: It's um interesting question. The information we have in the

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Speaker 1: indictment really focuses on the conversations that Tom Barrick um

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Speaker 1: his assistant Matthew Grimes, who's also indicted uh and in

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Speaker 1: a Emoradi businessman named Rashid al Malik had and you

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Speaker 1: could see in those conversations Tom Barrack stain I'd put

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Speaker 1: in a good word with with either representatives for the

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Speaker 1: campaign or the administration. The the indictment that he's talking

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Speaker 1: about seven counts. It is quite a reef alleging Barrick

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Speaker 1: promoted the UA's interests in the media, wrote an op ed,

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Speaker 1: would do live shots on TV, and even got language

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Speaker 1: praising the U. A E in a speech that Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump made as a candidate. It goes on to say,

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Speaker 1: Barrett quote agreed to advocate for the appointment of individuals

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Speaker 1: favored by the U a E in the new administration.

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Speaker 1: Let's see if we can get back with Caleb here.

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Speaker 1: What did Barrick lie about? What's this obstruction charge all about? Yeah? So, uh,

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Speaker 1: investigators asked some pretty specific questions about his interactions with

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Speaker 1: the Amaradi businessman Rashid on the leak um in terms

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Speaker 1: of like what devices he not he received any feedback

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Speaker 1: directly from them, in terms of an energy speech that

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Speaker 1: he weighed in on that the Trump campaign gave very direct, concrete,

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Speaker 1: specific things that the government then laid out in the indictments.

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Speaker 1: This is something that we discussed yesterday with Rick and

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Speaker 1: Genie and I'd love to have them way in on

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Speaker 1: this before we update the news here Bloomberg Politics contributors

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Speaker 1: Rick Davis, Genie she and Zano. Genie, you heard what

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Speaker 1: Caleb was talking about here. I mean, these are serious

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Speaker 1: charges when when you're getting language inserted into a presidential

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Speaker 1: candidate speech, when you're advocating for the appointment of individuals

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Speaker 1: favored by another country to work in the new administration.

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Speaker 1: This is like a beach book when you read it,

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Speaker 1: it is I mean, if it was a movie, you

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Speaker 1: would almost not believe it. Amongst other things, we've also

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Speaker 1: heard that Barrick himself was up for an appointment that

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Speaker 1: didn't come through. But as you mentioned, inserting language in

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Speaker 1: a speech praising the government that you're lobbying on behalf

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Speaker 1: of providing talking points for TV appearances and not registering.

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Speaker 1: And then, of course, most significantly in terms of what

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Speaker 1: he's facing now as charges, making false statements about that,

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Speaker 1: lying about it an obstruction of justice. As we said yesterday,

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Speaker 1: don't lie to the federal government. Don't lie to the FBI.

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Speaker 1: And it's haunting to hear him talking a week before

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Speaker 1: these charges come down on him. Timing is pretty special

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Speaker 1: here the idea of Tom Barrack spending the weekend in jail.

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Speaker 1: Here Rick, it looks like he won't get a hearing

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Speaker 1: until Monday morning. This is gonna be a lot of

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Speaker 1: time to think, isn't it. Well. I'm sure that's not

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Speaker 1: lost on the prosecutors who are trying to soften him

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Speaker 1: up and get information. Uh, here's a guy who's used to,

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Speaker 1: you know, playing polo on his own private Polo field,

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Speaker 1: visiting his state of wine making, traveling the world on

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Speaker 1: his private jet, and and he's spending the weekend in

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Speaker 1: in in in a jail. So uh, it's uh, it's

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Speaker 1: it's got to be a startling culture shock and uh

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Speaker 1: in a reality check for for Tom Peric, especially considering

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Speaker 1: it's hard to believe that he's even saw this coming.

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Speaker 1: Is much as a month ago, Bloomberg did an interview

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Speaker 1: with him where he's talking about his new investment strategy

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Speaker 1: that included money coming in from U a Saudi Arabian cutter.

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Speaker 1: I mean you got to scratch your head and say, wow,

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Speaker 1: I mean, was this a complete and utter surprise? And

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Speaker 1: if so, um, you know, uh, I assume that's the

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Speaker 1: strategy that the government is employing. We're gonna find out

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Speaker 1: as we spend some time with the panel Bloomberg Politics

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Speaker 1: contributors Jennie she and Zano and Rick Davis. They're gonna

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Speaker 1: stay right here, broadcasting live from our nation's capital, Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: to New York, Bloomberg eleven, Frio to San Francisco, Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: nine six to the country, Sirius XM Channel one, and

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Speaker 1: around the Globe, the Bloomberg Business app, and Bloomberg Radio

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Speaker 1: dot com. This is Bloomberg Sound On with Joe Matthew.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for spending some time with us on Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good thing about a self imposed deadline is you can

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Speaker 1: always make a new one, right as we turned all

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Speaker 1: the way forward here on infrastructure and today's procedural vote

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Speaker 1: that failed as most expected, and so yes now it

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Speaker 1: is on to Plan B for Chuck Schumer. At the

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Speaker 1: end of the vote, I changed my response to a

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Speaker 1: no so that I may move to reconsider this vote

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Speaker 1: at a future time send a majority leader on the floor.

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Speaker 1: A short time ago, as it became clear that Republicans

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Speaker 1: blocked the move to begin debate, and we're spending time

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Speaker 1: with Bloomberg Politics contributors Genie she and Zano and Rick Davis. Genie,

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Speaker 1: we can just do this all over again next week,

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Speaker 1: right if if a bill is actually written with something

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Speaker 1: to look at to talk about, this could happen again Monday,

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Speaker 1: could happen again Wednesday, for that matter, it could. I

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Speaker 1: have to say, as a political junkie, I have been

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Speaker 1: on pins and needles all day between the infrastructure vote.

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Speaker 1: I know you've been on Capitol Hill following this thing.

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Speaker 1: Of course, Pelosi's bombshell, and you know, the list goes

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Speaker 1: on and on. But in terms of this, you know,

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Speaker 1: I have to say the word that came to my

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Speaker 1: mind was sort of an ominous start to what the

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Speaker 1: White House and Democrats had hoped would be a push forward.

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Speaker 1: And now we knew well before the days started that

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Speaker 1: they weren't going to get this vote. But even in

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Speaker 1: the aftermath of that vote failing, you've had Democrats charging

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Speaker 1: that Republicans, you know, asking them, you know, quite frankly,

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Speaker 1: why you can't agree to even debate a bill and

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Speaker 1: wondering if they're just dragging this on, and Republicans saying,

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Speaker 1: how could you ask us to vote for something you

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Speaker 1: haven't even gone to framework for, let alone legislation. So

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Speaker 1: you know, yes, everybody seems very hopeful about Monday, but

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Speaker 1: not necessarily, um, you know, something that we're going to

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Speaker 1: see happen unless we see what I think is some

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Speaker 1: kind of structure here with pay for us and everything else.

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Speaker 1: No real surprise here though, Rick, right, I mean, if

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Speaker 1: we will we even remember this in a couple of weeks,

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Speaker 1: if this bill eventually moves forward in some form. No,

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Speaker 1: it'll be one of the many deadlines stead have been

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Speaker 1: common bond in the course of this uh negotiation for

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Speaker 1: this bipartisan package. Uh. You know it was. It was

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Speaker 1: a month and a half ago and when Joe Biden said, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I've got this deadline this week, and it passed, and

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Speaker 1: we've made progress since in on a bipartisan package. There's

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Speaker 1: progress being made now on a bipartisan package. If it happens,

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Speaker 1: it will not be noticed. If it doesn't happen, it

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Speaker 1: will be part of the finger pointing that will occur

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Speaker 1: in both caucuses as to what went wrong in this.

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Speaker 1: It shows a distinct difference between Schumer, who likes the

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Speaker 1: pressure tactics and the high visibility walk people out on

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Speaker 1: a plank style politics, and and Mitch McConnell when he

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Speaker 1: was majority leader, didn't like to take a vote at

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Speaker 1: all if he didn't have the votes to win. Didn't

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Speaker 1: see any reason why you would ever take a vote

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Speaker 1: and lose it as a majority leader. And so it's

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Speaker 1: just a distinctly different strategic approach to run in the Senate.

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Speaker 1: So it's not about counting votes. That's about strategy here, right.

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Speaker 1: We heard from Mitch McConnell, the of course, Republican leader

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Speaker 1: in the Senate. Today, there's no outcome yet, no bipartisan agreement,

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Speaker 1: no text, nothing for the Congressional Budget Office to evaluate,

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Speaker 1: and certainly nothing on which to vote. Gennie, This is

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Speaker 1: an interesting scenario because the White House says it supports

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Speaker 1: Chuck Schumer's strategy here. Apparently the President like this, and

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Speaker 1: it gets back to lighting the fire right. You tend

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Speaker 1: to think that there may not have been such a

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Speaker 1: concerted effort to write a bill if this did not happened.

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Speaker 1: You know, I am one of those people who questions

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Speaker 1: this strategy. I don't know if I am just old fashioned,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think you call for a vote that

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Speaker 1: you know you're going to lose. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: the the bottom line is they lost this vote, and

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Speaker 1: you know, yes, we may forget about it if this

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Speaker 1: thing goes forward on Monday or or you know, in

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Speaker 1: the future. But I am not I'm not convinced that that.

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Speaker 1: By I mean to me, the message then to the

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Speaker 1: bipartisan group is you weren't concerned about moving forward on

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Speaker 1: this Unless I called this vote that I knew I

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Speaker 1: was gonna lose, I'd have more faith in this bipartisan

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Speaker 1: group than that, So I take exception to this strategy

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Speaker 1: by Chuck Schumer, but hey, it may work. He may

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Speaker 1: get the vote successfully on Monday, Rick, I have to

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Speaker 1: ask you about Mark Xany because he was on with

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Speaker 1: us little bit earlier this hour. As you heard from

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Speaker 1: Moody's analytics, he used to advise your office when when

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Speaker 1: you were advising Senator John McCain during the campaign, specifically,

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Speaker 1: as we remember this, Uh, he's on the other side

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Speaker 1: from Republicans on this matter. He is urging that both plans,

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Speaker 1: including reconciliation, be passed to boost the economy over the

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Speaker 1: next ten years, and he says this whole inflation concern

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Speaker 1: is not real. It will in fact be temporary. He

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Speaker 1: was advising, my memory serves correctly, he was advising Republicans

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Speaker 1: at one point. Oh yeah. He was our chief economic

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Speaker 1: advisor in that night presidential campaign, and we really valued

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Speaker 1: his advice. He was actually the first person to tell

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Speaker 1: John McCain that we were entering a very choppy period

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Speaker 1: in the economy and to watch out for a significant

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Speaker 1: downturn in advance of what we saw as the greatest

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Speaker 1: financial crisis of our time, and so I believe anything

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Speaker 1: marksany says and uh, doesn't it tell us a lot? Though,

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Speaker 1: if he's across the aisle now from Republicans on. You

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Speaker 1: know what, John McCain would be a part of this

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Speaker 1: bipartisan group, right. I mean like his favorite thing in

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Speaker 1: the United States Senate was being in the part of

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Speaker 1: the Gang of eight, the Gang of twelve, the Gang

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Speaker 1: of sixteen in this case would be the Gang of

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Speaker 1: twenty and it would be twenty one if he were there.

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Speaker 1: And uh, and and and yet you know, it's interesting

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Speaker 1: because Mark clearly has taken the approach that we want

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Speaker 1: to go big. It's great for the economy if we

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Speaker 1: do it. An economy can absorb that amount of activity.

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Speaker 1: I think John McCain was a kind of guy who

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Speaker 1: thinks big too, and I think he probably would have

429
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,760
Speaker 1: embraced that kind of thinking by Mark certainly did during

430
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 1: the campaign. But I think he also would have sounded

431
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:43,879
Speaker 1: like Genie, right, we're not voting on something that's not

432
00:23:43,880 --> 00:23:47,399
Speaker 1: written yet, there's no score, there's no hearings. No. He

433
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 1: would want to see action, right, and he would agree

434
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 1: with Mitt Romney Frinston, who have said, hey, look, I

435
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 1: told the Majority Leader that we could have a vote

436
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: on Monday, and I'll vote for passage. And I think

437
00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,639
Speaker 1: the Majority Leader just deaf to twenty people who are

438
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:03,879
Speaker 1: trying to get a deal done. He's not in those

439
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,919
Speaker 1: meetings of tacos and wine last night, and so I

440
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 1: think he's got a listen to the conferrees were actually

441
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 1: doing the hard work. I don't know if you guys

442
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 1: saw pictures of that big case of wine going into

443
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,040
Speaker 1: the Senate last night, but I felt like I missed

444
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 1: a party. Genie, you mentioned Pelosi's bombshell. I have to

445
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,720
Speaker 1: ask you about it. Today, the House Speaker basically kicked

446
00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: to Republicans selected for the January sixth UH Committee, the

447
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 1: Commission basically kicked them off, Jim Jordan, Jim Banks. And

448
00:24:32,320 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 1: in response, Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP leader, said fine,

449
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: I'm pulling all my guys off this panel. Are we

450
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 1: gonna end up with two separate partisan investigations? Well, we are.

451
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:46,399
Speaker 1: But one person he could not pull off was Liz Cheney.

452
00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,400
Speaker 1: And I think what stunned me the most today, and

453
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:51,760
Speaker 1: I know you were on Capitol Hill, was her statement

454
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,080
Speaker 1: on Capitol Hill when she sounded like, you know, the

455
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:58,680
Speaker 1: voice of the Democrats, but certainly the voice of the Constitution,

456
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,480
Speaker 1: where she said the is going to go forward, that

457
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: we are going to have, you know, a fair investigation here,

458
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 1: and she actually said that Jordan and Banks should have

459
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 1: been pulled off, that Nancy Pelosi did the right thing,

460
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:15,560
Speaker 1: and she also said she doesn't believe that McCarthy is

461
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:18,880
Speaker 1: qualified at this point to be speaker if he's elected

462
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,639
Speaker 1: in two So quite an astonishing moment from Pelosi to

463
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: McCarthy to Liz Cheney and to your point, this is

464
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: all going to be breaking in the next few months, right,

465
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 1: we have a lot to look forward to there. Rick,

466
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,119
Speaker 1: was this a smart move for the Republican leader in

467
00:25:34,119 --> 00:25:37,160
Speaker 1: the House. You know, look, he set up his own

468
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 1: defeat and then cried politics, So I mean like it's

469
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,639
Speaker 1: a tactic. I mean, he knew she wasn't gonna accept

470
00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:45,320
Speaker 1: Jim Jordan's you know on the panel. I mean, you know,

471
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: he's been the focal point of all the anti um

472
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,760
Speaker 1: messaging on this issue, so he knew she was going

473
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,600
Speaker 1: to throw him off, and he was right away ready

474
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: to march down to the to the House Media Office

475
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,240
Speaker 1: and say, hey, you know, look at the politics he's

476
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,200
Speaker 1: playing with this, saying, so, look, this is the House

477
00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:05,600
Speaker 1: of Representatives, right. If they don't do this, we gotta

478
00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,800
Speaker 1: take their temperature and make sure they don't have a problem.

479
00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg You Sound on with Joe Matthew

480
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:18,080
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. First it was the alpha UK variant,

481
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: then it was the beta, followed by the gamma, and

482
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: now we all know about the delta variant. More contagious,

483
00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: more dangerous, and the big take today says more variants

484
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,680
Speaker 1: are coming and the US is not ready to track them.

485
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 1: Bloomberg reporter Cynthia Coon's with a great piece of writing

486
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 1: here after spending time in the Pandemic Response Lab in Queens,

487
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 1: New York, where people in lab coats are busy working

488
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: on genomic sequencing machines to identify which form of COVID

489
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:49,920
Speaker 1: a patient has. They've seen them all, including one called

490
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,399
Speaker 1: delta plus. But the lab is doing the work free,

491
00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: leaving some to wonder how long this can go on.

492
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 1: Cynthia Coons joins us now on Bloomberg Radio with a

493
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: great piece. Thanks for being here, Cynthia. Why is no

494
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: one paying for such an important service? Well, first off,

495
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:09,159
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. This is a really tricky question

496
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: that we explored through a lot of different avenues because

497
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 1: there are labs doing this work, but they're all doing

498
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,479
Speaker 1: it either through brands or there's some federal money for it.

499
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,919
Speaker 1: Not a lot, but there is some. There's philanthropies that

500
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,520
Speaker 1: are funding this kind of work, but it is a

501
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: wide variety of people paying for it, and it's not

502
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:28,560
Speaker 1: going through the traditional channel when you think of most

503
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:32,000
Speaker 1: healthcare is paid through insurance. That's really what most healthcare

504
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 1: is paid through. This would never be paid for by

505
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 1: insurance because as of now, a mutation doesn't necessarily give

506
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,600
Speaker 1: a doctor any information from which he or she can

507
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: make a decision about how to treat a patient. So

508
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 1: this really falls into the realm of public health, and

509
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: public health has been chronically underfunded for decades, long before

510
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,359
Speaker 1: the coronavirus pandemic, and what this has really been a

511
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: wake up call is can we build these systems now

512
00:27:54,520 --> 00:27:57,719
Speaker 1: and continue to support them from a government perspective so

513
00:27:57,800 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 1: that we don't end up in this situation where we're

514
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,080
Speaker 1: constantly playing catchup, and we're still playing catch up with

515
00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: coronavirus in the US. We're still not in a place

516
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:09,080
Speaker 1: where we're moving that quickly with information about mutations for

517
00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: people to really know what's going on around them. And so,

518
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: how do we get to a place where we have

519
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:15,000
Speaker 1: a system where people can know what's going on and

520
00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: make decisions based on that information and have that ready

521
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: for us for the next pandemic threat. So insurance won't

522
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:23,320
Speaker 1: pay for it, because the doctor is going to treat

523
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,680
Speaker 1: you one the same way, whether you have one variant

524
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:28,920
Speaker 1: or another. And to be clear, the c d C,

525
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:32,600
Speaker 1: the federal government has not created a lab network of

526
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:35,360
Speaker 1: its own to handle this. It has a consortium through

527
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: which scientists communicate, and it does give out grants, and

528
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: it just gave out a bunch of grants very recently

529
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:43,479
Speaker 1: to academic institutions to help build up this capacity. And

530
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 1: it got new money from the Biden administration in April

531
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,680
Speaker 1: that it's handing out over the course of actually a

532
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: few years. It's going to do a couple different things

533
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,720
Speaker 1: with that money in order to build up sequencing. But

534
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: people in the community, the lab communities, say it's not

535
00:28:55,040 --> 00:28:57,520
Speaker 1: going that quickly, not as quickly as they hoped. There's

536
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,880
Speaker 1: not the urgency that's needed to respond the given pandemic.

537
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 1: The one we're facing right now, and so and look,

538
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 1: doctors could make decisions and may have tools to figure

539
00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 1: out how to treat a person differently if they had

540
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: more information about mutations. So an ear doctor maybe in

541
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: the hospital and have six patients responding a certain way,

542
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: but that doctor isn't being given those patients mutation information.

543
00:29:19,440 --> 00:29:22,360
Speaker 1: So there's a there's kind of a dearth of knowledge

544
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: that we could actually we should, we could develop this knowledge.

545
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: We could be on the cutting edge of moving forward

546
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,360
Speaker 1: with this, but we need to rethink our regulations, and

547
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 1: we need to rethink them in warp speed. We can't

548
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: be thinking and moving as slowly as we've traditionally moved

549
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 1: in this laboratory space, because that's just not going to

550
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:40,120
Speaker 1: address the current pandemic. One of the voices in Cynthia's

551
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: Peace is Rick Bright, senior vice president of Pandemic Prevention

552
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,520
Speaker 1: and Response at the Rockefeller Foundation, who says the CDC

553
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: failed to grasp the urgency of sequencing of this very

554
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 1: practice that we're talking about. And Rick is with us

555
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: now too on the line. Rick, thank you for joining

556
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,360
Speaker 1: us as we try to understand where we're going here.

557
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 1: You said it seemed more like a side project or

558
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 1: a hobby. When you talk to the CDC about this,

559
00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:07,560
Speaker 1: what are they missing here? Well, Joe, thanks for having

560
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,680
Speaker 1: me on. And it is an excellent story that Cynthia

561
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:13,160
Speaker 1: put out today, and it covers a wide scope of

562
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,040
Speaker 1: the challenge that we're facing in this new field, relatively

563
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: new field of genomic sequencing. UM. It's important to realize

564
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:24,040
Speaker 1: this is the first virus outbreak, a major pandemic that

565
00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: we've had when we've had this type of technology at

566
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:29,920
Speaker 1: our fingertips to be able to look at viruses and

567
00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: and and detect viruses in new ways and see how

568
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:37,000
Speaker 1: they're mutating and changing. And so since this technology hadn't

569
00:30:37,040 --> 00:30:41,440
Speaker 1: really permeated our healthcare system or the public health system, UM,

570
00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,520
Speaker 1: there were there were, you know, large gaps in the

571
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: knowledge base and how best to use it and how

572
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:50,800
Speaker 1: best to employ it, and there was there are gaps,

573
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: as Cynthia said, in our healthcare system to be able

574
00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 1: to incorporate this new technology in those labs. When this

575
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: virus first art as spreading in the United States and

576
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 1: around the world, but especially the United States, we had

577
00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: a very small lab set up in the CDC that

578
00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:13,240
Speaker 1: job was to sequence various pathogens. It wasn't focused just

579
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 1: on the stars could be too virus, And it was

580
00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 1: a very small lab with a few people and very underfunded,

581
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 1: and I believe they were doing the best they could

582
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,520
Speaker 1: to keep up with the sequencing as it came through

583
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 1: and the viruses became more and more prevalent, But they

584
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 1: just weren't equipped to handle the rapids for this virus,

585
00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 1: and the funding wasn't coming through for the federal government

586
00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: to enhance that lab or like we saw in diagnostic testing.

587
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 1: At the early days of this outbreak, there wasn't this

588
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: mindset to reach out beyond the federal government to incorporate

589
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,640
Speaker 1: the private sector and to incorporate the academic labs around

590
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: the country to do some of this work to help

591
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,239
Speaker 1: the CDC and help the federal government track these viruses. Well,

592
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,080
Speaker 1: now that we understand and the impact of Delta, this

593
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: is this is a household conversation. Now we realize how

594
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 1: it's spreading, how dangerous it is. Does that change the

595
00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: conversation as we know there will likely be more variants.

596
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: Rick actually has changed the conversation and somewhat in that

597
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,560
Speaker 1: the CDC and other public health agencies around the world

598
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: are doing more sequencing. So I mean you can see

599
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: the numbers earlier this year, Um, we're very low, less

600
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:30,040
Speaker 1: than a half a percent or so. Now they're almost

601
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,600
Speaker 1: a ten percent. The challenge that Joe is there hasn't

602
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:36,480
Speaker 1: been a lot of thought put into how to most

603
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 1: expectively sequenced, and so we're seeing more numbers, but it's

604
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 1: not targeted and distributed in communities that are hard to

605
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 1: reach or underserved. If we have ten percent more sequences done,

606
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: if they're all coming from New York, in l A

607
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 1: and and and in Houston or something, it doesn't tell

608
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: us what's happening in the middle of our country. It

609
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,680
Speaker 1: doesn't tell us what's happening into communities who are underserved.

610
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 1: So what we need to do, and this is where

611
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 1: I think that the CDC is still sort of missing

612
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 1: the boat here is they've decided a few months ago

613
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,720
Speaker 1: to really only sequence vaccine breakthrough case. So so these

614
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,880
Speaker 1: are viral infections and people have been fully vaccinated, and

615
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:20,760
Speaker 1: these are happening more and more as we see this

616
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:25,320
Speaker 1: delta virus spread. But the CDs decided the only sequenced

617
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 1: viruses from people who are hospitalized or died from the infection,

618
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,040
Speaker 1: and I believe this is the critical gap, and this

619
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: is what the Rock Cafeller Foundation, through our Pandemic Prevention Institute,

620
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:40,920
Speaker 1: is supporting a network of labs across the US and

621
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: other countries to shine the light on these viruses that

622
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 1: are emerging in people who are vaccinated, who don't have symptoms,

623
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,040
Speaker 1: or who are mildly infected and not getting treatment. This

624
00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 1: is the virus. This is where the virus is mutating

625
00:33:57,200 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 1: and where the next delta plus or the next lambda

626
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 1: or the next letter in the Greek alpha that's kind

627
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:06,200
Speaker 1: of emerged from. Because they're flying under the radar, they're changing,

628
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,200
Speaker 1: and no one's looking at those viruses. And this is

629
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,399
Speaker 1: what we're trying to bill the gap on with our

630
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:16,440
Speaker 1: Institute of ROCKETPLA Foundation. Thankfully you are there for us.

631
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 1: Rick Bright is Senior vice President of Pandemic Prevention and

632
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:24,000
Speaker 1: Response at the Rockefeller Foundation. More variants are coming in

633
00:34:24,040 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: the US is not ready to track them. The big

634
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:30,759
Speaker 1: take today on the Bloomberg Terminal, Cynthia Coon's great work,

635
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:32,920
Speaker 1: great reporting, and thanks for being with us today on

636
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Thank you. It's bringing Rick and Genie for

637
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 1: some final thoughts on this. Of course, our Bloomberg Political

638
00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:43,359
Speaker 1: contributors spent the hour with us Rick. As Delta takes hold,

639
00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:47,200
Speaker 1: particularly in unvaccinated areas, does the administration need to start

640
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 1: a more concerted effort to track these variants? Absolutely? I

641
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: mean what you really want to see is that the

642
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: Biden administration lead the world in tracking these to the source, right.

643
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: I mean, you want to find these where they start

644
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Speaker 1: South Africa, in India, in places like that. You don't

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Speaker 1: want to wait till they're in St. Louis in Michigan. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know you. But but in order to contain the

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Speaker 1: spread of these various and the mutations, as your earlier

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Speaker 1: interview we was talking about, UM, you've got to get

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Speaker 1: on top of what's actually happening and the fact that

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Speaker 1: we're not putting more resources after the trillions of dollars

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Speaker 1: we've spent, you know, on COVID economic recovery, to our

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Speaker 1: public health priorities. UM, it's disconcerting to me. It seems

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Speaker 1: like there's a lot there, Genie. While we're talking about

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Speaker 1: debating trillions in infrastructure. How come this hasn't been handled

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Speaker 1: in a more deliberate way. I think I was struck

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00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:47,959
Speaker 1: by the fact that you and Cynthia and Rick Bright,

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Speaker 1: we're talking about the fact that they are moving fast

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Speaker 1: enough in a pandemic, and that cuts across all these

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Speaker 1: stories we're talking about, right, whether it's the pandemic, infrastructure,

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Speaker 1: the race against China, cyber attacks, anything else. Why isn't

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Speaker 1: the US government able to address these crisies we are facing.

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Speaker 1: That's the question that's got to be asked and answered.

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Speaker 1: In Cynthia's piece by Sink is a great insight into

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Speaker 1: this critical area as it concerns genomic sequencing. It just

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Speaker 1: makes you realize what a patchwork this still is after

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Speaker 1: all this time. And Rick that the Biden administration has

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Speaker 1: really embraced COVID as something that it could win on

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Speaker 1: and this is potentially another liability. Sure, I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: thank goodness, um, you know we have an administration that's

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Speaker 1: actually taking the pandemic seriously. No doubt. We gave up

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Speaker 1: a year of examining our navels, so to speak, around

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Speaker 1: this topic when Donald Trump was president. But at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, there there the amount of depth

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Speaker 1: of of detail that still needs to be tackled both

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Speaker 1: here and abroad. Uh is going to mean that the

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Speaker 1: Biden administration regardless of whether or not it's still a

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Speaker 1: positive political impact for his administration. Needs to go to work.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Politics contributors Genie she and Zano and Rick day

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00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,319
Speaker 1: of His Thanks, as ever for your insights into all

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Speaker 1: of our guests here on Bloomberg. Sound on another day

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Speaker 1: in history. We'll meet you back here tomorrow. What could happen? Then?

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Speaker 1: Stay with US News, Break, straight Ahead, check Traffic to

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Speaker 1: I'm Joe Matthew and this is Bloomberg