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Speaker 1: Wait that ans up in the morning Breakfast club morning.

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Speaker 1: Everybody is DJ Envy Angela Ye, Charlemagne the guy we

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Speaker 1: are to breakfast Club. We got a special guest in

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Speaker 1: the building. Yes, indeed, the friends in the room. He's

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Speaker 1: been up here several times. Listen, I say it all

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Speaker 1: the time. He's the only person from the Democratic Party

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Speaker 1: who comes during the off season, when when it's not

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Speaker 1: an election year, even though it is an election year,

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Speaker 1: but when it's not an election year, Secretary Pete comes.

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Speaker 1: That's right, well, Secretary Pete, thank you for joining us

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Speaker 1: this morning. Thanks for having me on. How are you man?

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Speaker 1: Pretty good in New York? Absolutely too. I mean, this

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Speaker 1: is a really exciting time for the work we're doing.

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Speaker 1: So how do you like the position? You know, since

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Speaker 1: you started, how has it been for you? Stressful and

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Speaker 1: non stressful? All gray hair tell us about it? Definitely

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Speaker 1: more gray. I mean what I say is it's it's

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Speaker 1: the best time but also one of the toughest times

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Speaker 1: for transportation. It's the best time because we're making investments

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Speaker 1: that we haven't been able to do in my lifetime.

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Speaker 1: The funding that's in the infrastructure package, So there's in

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Speaker 1: my view, there's never been a better time to be

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Speaker 1: in charge of transportation policy, and there's not a better

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Speaker 1: job to have in the federal government. The other side

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Speaker 1: of the coin is we've actually been through more disruptions

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Speaker 1: to the transportation system in the last couple of years

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Speaker 1: than at any time, with the partial exception of nine

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Speaker 1: to eleven, than any time since World War Two. We've

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Speaker 1: had container shipping issues, We've had cancelations and delays in

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Speaker 1: our airports. We've had a number of disruptions everything from

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Speaker 1: trucking and supply chains to passenger travel. But we've been

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Speaker 1: working through those and the causes of those are mostly temporary.

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Speaker 1: Most of it have something to do with the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: So as we're tackling those issues, the investments that we're making,

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Speaker 1: the repairs that we're making, the improvements that we're making

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Speaker 1: to the transportation system, that's permanent. So the reasons that

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Speaker 1: the job has been demanding are I think less enduring

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Speaker 1: than the reasons to be really excited about about the work.

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Speaker 1: I love the job. It's definitely a complicated time for transportation.

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Speaker 1: It's been almost must be a sucky jobs, says all

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Speaker 1: must sucky job at this point, and the reason I

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Speaker 1: say that is right when you going off is that's

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Speaker 1: when everything started to happen, and things that you can't control, right,

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Speaker 1: Like you mentioned cargo, you can't control that. You can't

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Speaker 1: control what's going on in the world right now, and

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Speaker 1: it has to be so difficult to try to fix it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but that's part of what we sign up for when

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Speaker 1: we go into public policy, right. You want a job

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Speaker 1: like this so that you can tackle. You come in

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Speaker 1: with a list of things you wanted to do, and

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Speaker 1: then there's all the things to get thrown at you.

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Speaker 1: And that could be a labor issue in our rail system,

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Speaker 1: it could be a pandemic, It could be an extreme

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Speaker 1: weather event. It could be a terrorist attack. By definition,

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Speaker 1: you don't know. But part of the job is to

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Speaker 1: be ready for that and to help work through that.

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Speaker 1: You wind up dealing with a lot of things that

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Speaker 1: you don't control, and it turns out you can take

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Speaker 1: some of the things you do control and use those

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Speaker 1: tools to help. So you look at something like the

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Speaker 1: supply chain issue. Yeah, a lot of that global supply

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Speaker 1: chain imbalance is caused by factories shutting down in China

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Speaker 1: and then more ships making their way across the specific

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Speaker 1: than our ports are ready for. But it turns out

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Speaker 1: there are things we could do, working with the ports,

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Speaker 1: working with the companies, working with the tools we have

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Speaker 1: to not exactly fix everything overnight, but make it better.

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Speaker 1: Right now, there's less than ten ships I think, bearing

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Speaker 1: down on the West coast this time. A year ago

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Speaker 1: there there were about one hundred, and some of the

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Speaker 1: work we did helped with that. It's been almost a

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Speaker 1: year since the infrastruction law, that's right, Yeah, I signed

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Speaker 1: it in November. So what have the updates been? So

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Speaker 1: one year in, we've been standing up all of the

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Speaker 1: different programs that have created and starting to move the

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Speaker 1: money out, something like one hundred billion dollars already moving

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Speaker 1: in order to fix roads, fixed bridges, airports. We were

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Speaker 1: just in Orlando. We're improving the airport there. We're just

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Speaker 1: in Detroit. We announced a project there. We're putting one

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Speaker 1: hundred million in to help Detroit take I three seventy five,

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Speaker 1: which cuts right through it. They destroyed a couple of

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Speaker 1: neighborhoods when they built it, and it's just like a gash.

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Speaker 1: It just kind of slices those mostly black neighborhoods. Apart

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Speaker 1: from from downtown. We're gonna lift it up and turn

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Speaker 1: it into a boulevard and use it to reconnect the community.

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Speaker 1: We're doing a project in the Inland Empire Fontana, California,

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Speaker 1: part of the region that doesn't get as much attention

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Speaker 1: as La. You got kids who have to walk basically

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Speaker 1: on a highway. There's this road that has no gut

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Speaker 1: or no curve, no sidewalk, and in order to get

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Speaker 1: to high school, they're they're competing with cars and trucks,

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Speaker 1: and we're funding an improvement that's going to fix that.

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Speaker 1: We're doing the elimination of railroad crosses, literally hundreds and

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Speaker 1: hundreds of projects, so getting those under way who has

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Speaker 1: been the work of the last year. It's a five

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Speaker 1: year bill, so the bill, the presence sign has five

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Speaker 1: years of funding. We're just through year one and it's

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Speaker 1: really I mean, it's still the very beginning of a

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Speaker 1: lot of what we're working on, but we're starting to

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Speaker 1: see the results now. Secretary Pete, another issue always is

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Speaker 1: this right making sure that black owned businesses also have

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Speaker 1: access to getting some of those contracts to get these

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Speaker 1: where it done. So where are we with that? Because

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Speaker 1: I know that's something that's been needing improvement. Yeah, so

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Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of work to do here,

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Speaker 1: a lot of progress that we've made. The first part

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Speaker 1: is the contracts that we directly control out of the

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Speaker 1: depart in a transportation So we set a goal for

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Speaker 1: STB Small Disadvantaged Businesses of twenty percent. There's a more

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Speaker 1: ambitious goal than we've been able to set before, and

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Speaker 1: so far we're beating that goal. But I have to

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Speaker 1: say for every dollar that we contract out of the

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Speaker 1: department directly, there's about ten dollars that go out indirectly.

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Speaker 1: In other words, we fund a transit agency like the

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Speaker 1: MTA or a state department of transportation or a city

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Speaker 1: that's rebuilding a bridge or an airport, and then they

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Speaker 1: do the actual contracts. So we're working with them to

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Speaker 1: make sure that they are inviting more businesses to the

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Speaker 1: table that haven't had a seat before. Black owned businesses

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Speaker 1: have enormous potential right now to do all kinds of work,

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Speaker 1: not just if they're directly involved in construction and engineering,

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Speaker 1: but if you're involved in let's say accounting serving one

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Speaker 1: of the companies that is doing the construction right there's

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Speaker 1: opportunity there too. So we're actually in the middle right

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Speaker 1: now of the process of redoing the policy for dB

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Speaker 1: disadvantaged business enterprises where there's a history of discrimination and

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Speaker 1: we have legal authority to pay particular attention to creating

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Speaker 1: opportunity there. You can go online. I know the website

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Speaker 1: regulations dot gov probably does not sound like what a

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Speaker 1: lot of people are excited to check out on Monday morning,

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Speaker 1: but there is a chance right now through the end

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Speaker 1: of this month to weigh in. If you're involved with

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Speaker 1: a black owned business or any kind of MB your

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Speaker 1: dB and you've had an experience trouble getting certified, a

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Speaker 1: problem getting a seat at the table, or you have

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Speaker 1: a success story to share about how public work, maybe

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Speaker 1: being part of a construction project help you build your business.

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Speaker 1: Now is a great time to enter public comments about

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Speaker 1: your experience through Regulations dot gov on our DBE rule,

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Speaker 1: because that will be part of what we use to

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Speaker 1: make decisions about how to update the rule. Bottom line,

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Speaker 1: nobody has a better track record of creating jobs and

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Speaker 1: opportunity for people who have been left out in the past,

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Speaker 1: including women in construction, including black building trades workers, than

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Speaker 1: businesses who are owned by people who've been left out.

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Speaker 1: The past, and I'm really excited about what we can do.

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Speaker 1: But it's not going to happen on its own. That's

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Speaker 1: why we're putting a lot of effort and emphasis on it,

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Speaker 1: and I think we're gonna have a lot of results.

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Speaker 1: I just sat down with the National Association of Black

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Speaker 1: Women in construction. They have incredible success stories about how

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Speaker 1: they've created an opportunity, but also about what it's like

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Speaker 1: trying to get a seat at the table. Last week

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Speaker 1: I was in Philadelphia, we had at meeting. We have

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Speaker 1: a whole set of regional meetings that we're doing around

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Speaker 1: the country basically to make clear, make transparent what the

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Speaker 1: opportunities are actually going to look like. Because there's been

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Speaker 1: a pattern in the past where you kind of had

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Speaker 1: to already be in the business, already be connected, already

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Speaker 1: be doing business with unit's a government to feel like

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Speaker 1: you were in the know about what the next opportunity

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Speaker 1: was going to be. So we're trying to make that

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Speaker 1: more transparent. So I don't have any illusions about the

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Speaker 1: work ahead, but I think we're going to be really

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Speaker 1: proud of the opportunities that we create if we stay

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Speaker 1: very focused on it. Now, I saw you in Philly.

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Speaker 1: How do you do that though, because you know, the

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Speaker 1: conversation was about how do you diversify federal contract and

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Speaker 1: black and brown people, So how do you go about

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Speaker 1: doing it? So the first thing that we did just

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Speaker 1: when we were there was talking about some of the

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Speaker 1: challenges they face. So for example, access to capital. If

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Speaker 1: you're trying to get started or you haven't had these

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Speaker 1: kind of big business opportunities, just being able to get

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Speaker 1: capital funding or cash flow right, if you're a giant

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Speaker 1: multinational corporation and one of your vendors takes two, three

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Speaker 1: four months to pay, or now one of your customers,

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Speaker 1: then you can absorb that. If you're a small business

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Speaker 1: and a lot of these businesses starting out or businesses

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Speaker 1: that are just trying to break their way in, they

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Speaker 1: need prompt payment right, stuff like that. So we're talking

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Speaker 1: about those direct issues that can be on an obstacle,

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Speaker 1: but also we've got to have conversations with the prime

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Speaker 1: contractors that are bringing on a lot of these black

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Speaker 1: owned businesses as subs about how to be more inclusive

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Speaker 1: and how to get some of these subs to be

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Speaker 1: in a position where someday they can be the primes

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Speaker 1: we're talking to a lot of state leaders. I was

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Speaker 1: at convening Friday in Florida with all of the state

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Speaker 1: departments of transportation in their heads saying that you know,

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Speaker 1: we're counting on you to create more of these opportunities.

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Speaker 1: So there's a lot of different pieces of it, but

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that we're doing in parallel,

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Speaker 1: including this DV role that that that I was just

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Speaker 1: mentioning that we hope there's a lot of public input

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Speaker 1: on because then we can actually update the formal processes

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Speaker 1: around contracting, the way the directories are built, just even

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Speaker 1: the expectation of the requirement that you check to see

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Speaker 1: if there are any new minority owned businesses that could

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Speaker 1: be doing the work that you're about to open a

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Speaker 1: contract for before you before you sign the contract. I

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Speaker 1: was going to ask too, what you know, what the

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Speaker 1: what the airlines? I mean, it's been horrendous. It's been horrible.

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Speaker 1: People have been missing, you know, birthdays and weddings and

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Speaker 1: funerals and families and what are we going to do

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Speaker 1: to fix that. I've gotten better, though, yeah, I notice

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Speaker 1: has gotten bet Over was still bad, like you know,

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Speaker 1: and week and like she said, prices are high. So

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Speaker 1: what are we doing to fix that? Are they finding

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Speaker 1: me airlines? And right, so what do we do? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so it did get better, but it was tough over

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Speaker 1: the summer. We got big holiday seasons come up that

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Speaker 1: are going to test whether these improvements are going to hold.

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Speaker 1: There's three sets of things we're doing. First, finds, so

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Speaker 1: airlines are required to do things like offer you a refund,

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Speaker 1: give you a refund if your flight gets canceled, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of the airlines that were slow to do that,

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Speaker 1: or they drag their feet, or they didn't do it

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Speaker 1: at all. So we're subjecting them to find because we

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Speaker 1: enforce that rule that that you got to get a refund.

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Speaker 1: That's part one. Part two though, is the rules themselves

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Speaker 1: need to be tougher, So we'll enforce the rules that

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Speaker 1: are on the books. But we need to raise the floor.

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Speaker 1: So that's another thing that we have in the process

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Speaker 1: right now. It takes a while, it's a it's a

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Speaker 1: very ponderous legal process. You got to go through a

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Speaker 1: lot of comment periods. But we've got that open right

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Speaker 1: now on things like raising the floor. How long of

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Speaker 1: a delay counts as a serious enough delay that the

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Speaker 1: airline's got to give you a refund, so we're on that.

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Speaker 1: And then the third part that has really helped is

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Speaker 1: actually much simpler than the rulemaking process. It's just transparency.

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Speaker 1: So we set up a website that makes clear which

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Speaker 1: airlines will do what when you get stuck with a delay,

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Speaker 1: For example, will they give you a voucher for a female?

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Speaker 1: Will they book you on another flight? Will they book

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Speaker 1: you on another flight even if it's only on another

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Speaker 1: airline that there's a free flight, things like that. And

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Speaker 1: I wrote a letter to the CEOs of the airlines said, look,

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Speaker 1: in a week or two, we're going to put this

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Speaker 1: website up, So now would be a good time to

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Speaker 1: fix your problem. Yeah, now it would be a good

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Speaker 1: time to up your game. And they did. We went

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Speaker 1: in two weeks from zero out of the top ten

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Speaker 1: airlines to nine out of the top ten airlines that

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Speaker 1: will offer you at least offer you food or hotel

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Speaker 1: or something like that. So, in addition to the enforcement side,

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Speaker 1: which is very powerful but takes a long time sometimes

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Speaker 1: to line up the pieces legally, we found that just

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Speaker 1: transparency and we're going to add other things to this.

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Speaker 1: You can check it out on our website transportation dot com.

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Speaker 1: It's a passenger dashboard, just to give you the information

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Speaker 1: so you can make a decision when you're thinking to

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Speaker 1: ask for Sometimes you don't know it exists. I know,

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Speaker 1: you know what I learned when my bags get delayed coming. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: if it takes more than twenty minutes, you get Miley's

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Speaker 1: credit there you go, right. So I always will go

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, my bag to forty minutes to

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Speaker 1: come out, and I'll go right online and I get

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Speaker 1: it immediately, right, But you have to go in and

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Speaker 1: ask for it, right, yeah. Yeah, And you have to

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Speaker 1: know that and that that doesn't follow any of this protocol.

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Speaker 1: That's not given nothing back. So i'd invite you to

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Speaker 1: check the dashboard. I don't want to pick winners and

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Speaker 1: losers here, but it's really interesting. You know, we got

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Speaker 1: a little green check marks, a little red exes on

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Speaker 1: who does what and uh, look, some airlines have decided

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Speaker 1: we're going to offer less customer service and we're going

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Speaker 1: to be really cheap. And as long as everybody knows

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Speaker 1: that going into it, if you're empowered to make a decision,

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Speaker 1: that's fine. But what we can have happened is First

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Speaker 1: of all, we have to have a floor where I

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Speaker 1: don't care how cheap the ticket is. There are certain

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Speaker 1: things you can do to a passenger, like leave them

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Speaker 1: completely stuck and not offer them a refund. But also

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Speaker 1: as you're making those choices, we've got to make sure

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Speaker 1: it's transparent. We got to make sure it's clear, and

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Speaker 1: we have more work coming up on things like like

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Speaker 1: these fees, these little extra fees that aren't part of

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Speaker 1: the airfare, but you wind up paying for them, and

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Speaker 1: that's part of the cost to try ailing on a

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Speaker 1: certain airline. It's they got to be upfront about that.

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Speaker 1: What was causing these flight cancelations and delays. So yeah,

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Speaker 1: like a lot of things in our economy, part of

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Speaker 1: it had to do with staffing, hiring, being able to

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Speaker 1: find people. What's frustrating about that, I think for a

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Speaker 1: lot of us is we put billions of dollars into

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Speaker 1: saving the airline industry and one of the conditions was

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Speaker 1: you can't fire people if you're taking this federal money. Now,

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Speaker 1: they they lived up to that, but they let a

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Speaker 1: lot of people go into early retirement, including pilots that

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Speaker 1: are hard to replace. It takes a very long time

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Speaker 1: to qualify a pilot, both in general and then specifically

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Speaker 1: on any given type of aircraft. Right, So when the

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Speaker 1: demand came back, and we're glad it did, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's a good thing. It's a good sign for our

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Speaker 1: economy that so many people want to fly, but it

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Speaker 1: came back faster than they were prepared for, and our

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Speaker 1: messages you've got to be We're glad that demand is back,

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Speaker 1: but you've got to be prepared to service and tickets

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Speaker 1: that you're selling. You're collecting money on this. Another thing

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Speaker 1: that we've talked about is scheduling, realistic scheduling. So if

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Speaker 1: you know that you don't aren't going to have the

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Speaker 1: staff on this route, don't schedule has many flights, and

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Speaker 1: we've been pushing them a lot on that, and I

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Speaker 1: think that's that's gotten better and that's one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons we aren't seeing the cancelation rate. So before, you know,

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Speaker 1: we were seeing three to four percent. That doesn't sound

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Speaker 1: a lot, but the difference between one or two percent

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Speaker 1: where we are now and four percent is the system

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Speaker 1: starting to break down because it just can't ever exactly

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Speaker 1: like you said, but the prices are so expensive now,

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Speaker 1: prices through the roof soces for the inflation. So how

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Speaker 1: do we come on bad inflation now? Because people are

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Speaker 1: not making much Now, I'm like, this is ridiculous. Well,

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Speaker 1: this gets to the bigger story, right, of all the

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Speaker 1: different things where prices are high, and part of it

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Speaker 1: is that the costs are higher. I get that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: obviously one of the biggest expenses for an airline is fueled, right,

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Speaker 1: But that's not enough to explain all of it. So

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Speaker 1: part of what's happening, same with gas itself. Right, You

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Speaker 1: look at the price of oil and the price we're

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Speaker 1: actually paying at the pump, and the spread between those

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Speaker 1: two things is higher than it used to be. And

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Speaker 1: so we also have to have a conversation about a

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Speaker 1: lot of corporate profits that are getting fatter on the

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Speaker 1: margin there. And that's that's a big part of what's

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Speaker 1: happening across the economy that we need to talk about

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Speaker 1: when it comes to inflation. Because we've got some friends

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Speaker 1: in Congress, for example, on the other side of the

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Speaker 1: aisle who love talking about inflation but refuse to offer

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Speaker 1: any solution. Can you still call those people friends? I'm

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Speaker 1: being polite. It's a lot of fascism in there right now?

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Speaker 1: Can you call those people friends? When the democracy look,

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Speaker 1: I think we need to call something what it is,

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Speaker 1: and when somebody is threatening democracy, we need to call

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Speaker 1: that out. I also think, I know that there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of people definitely in Congress, in the Republican

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Speaker 1: Party who are horrified by what's happened to their own

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Speaker 1: apart speak out because they're afraid, because they don't vote

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Speaker 1: like they are fraid. No, And so you know, my

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Speaker 1: job as a policymaker is to sit down and work

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Speaker 1: with them on anything where they're willing to do the

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Speaker 1: right thing, which they did. On infrastructure for example, we

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Speaker 1: had you know, a lot of Republican Senators and a

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Speaker 1: handful of Republican House members come over and vote with

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Speaker 1: Democrats and work with the president on it. And what

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Speaker 1: are the solutions to regulating these corporations pack is getting

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Speaker 1: fatter while everybody's paying more and not come at any Yeah. Well,

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Speaker 1: on something like energy, we had an idea. President put

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Speaker 1: forward an idea called use it or Lose it, which

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Speaker 1: is basically, if you're sitting on these permits at these

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Speaker 1: leases but you're not doing anything to produce energy, then

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Speaker 1: at a certain point you don't get to keep sitting

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Speaker 1: on it. That didn't go very far, largely because it

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Speaker 1: was blocked by the allies that the big oil companies

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Speaker 1: have in the House in the Senate. We've got to

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Speaker 1: have more again, more transparency about the practices of some

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Speaker 1: of these companies, and we got to keep working toward

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Speaker 1: a tax code that's fairer when it comes to these things.

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Speaker 1: But again, the people who will talk about inflation all

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Speaker 1: day don't necessarily back any of those things that would

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Speaker 1: make a difference. We think that the best thing we

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Speaker 1: can do for inflation is created breathing room for people. Right.

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Speaker 1: That's why we cared so much about cutting the cost

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Speaker 1: of prescription drugs. Thirty five dollar insulin. We could have

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Speaker 1: had that and student Loanda absolutely right. That creates some

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Speaker 1: breathing room when you're facing these higher prices on groceries, gas,

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Speaker 1: you name it, even for gas itself. Right. It's one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons why we're pushing to make electric vehicles cheaper.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying everybody can go get an EV tomorrow,

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Speaker 1: but part of how we can give people alternatives is

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Speaker 1: to make sure everybody can afford an EV. Some of

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Speaker 1: the people who are beating us up over EV's being

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Speaker 1: too expensive. Voted no on a bill that would have

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Speaker 1: made them cheaper. That did make them cheaper. So we've

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Speaker 1: got to look at who actually has ideas and proposals

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Speaker 1: to create that breathing room because prices are going up here.

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Speaker 1: Prices are going up around the world. By the way,

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Speaker 1: It's not like this is a US thing. You know,

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Speaker 1: you go to England, Germany, I'm they're pushing ten percent

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Speaker 1: on their inflation. Now, there are a lot of sit

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Speaker 1: you know that many of the analysts the banks predict

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Speaker 1: that it's going to go down, but we're not comfortable

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Speaker 1: with that until it happens. It's why we're pushing to

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Speaker 1: create a little more space, a little more room, and

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Speaker 1: lower the everyday cost people are basing on everything from

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Speaker 1: healthcare to housing to transportation. I think that defaults. You

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Speaker 1: was saying that the parent that COVID might get really

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Speaker 1: bad coming up this winter. Are you guys preparing for

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Speaker 1: that too. Look, it's it's got this seasonal quality to it, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is still where this is. I guess

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Speaker 1: our our third time now dealing dealing with it, and

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Speaker 1: so we don't know everything. We know that we're dramatically

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Speaker 1: better protected than we were before. So the level of

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Speaker 1: loss of life that used to come with the COVID

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Speaker 1: surge is different now with so many people being vaccinated

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Speaker 1: and hopefully boosted. It's it's definitely a time for people

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Speaker 1: to get that booster if they're eligible. But yes, we

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Speaker 1: got to prepare for that because you know, another thing

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Speaker 1: that can happen even if you aren't going back to

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Speaker 1: the days when there were a lot of mandates and

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Speaker 1: shutdowns and that, yeah, exactly, you still you're still out sick,

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Speaker 1: it can't come to work. And if you're you know,

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Speaker 1: back to the airline example, if you have just barely

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Speaker 1: enough flight attendants and barely enough pilots to fly the schedules,

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Speaker 1: if there's no disruption or no complications and you have

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Speaker 1: you know, even five percent of your availability go down

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Speaker 1: because people have to take the five days, ten days

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Speaker 1: whatever while they're sick with COVID. That's going to affect

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Speaker 1: the system. So we are working to try to get

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Speaker 1: ahead of that. It was good to see you without

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Speaker 1: Demings in Orlando. Yeah, she's terrific. Yeah, And you know

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Speaker 1: a lot of people run up for the Senate don't

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Speaker 1: feel they're getting support from from Democrats. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if that's why you was down in So I was

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Speaker 1: there on the official side talking about the airport and improvements.

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Speaker 1: So she we were with two members of Congress, her

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Speaker 1: and then Darren Soto, who represent that area, and I

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Speaker 1: thought it was very important to be with them. First

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Speaker 1: of all, there were things they thought it was important

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Speaker 1: for me to see, and she wanted to make sure

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Speaker 1: that I met with the workers, and I met with

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Speaker 1: the leaders of the airport, of the economic development folks,

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Speaker 1: the tourism, I mean, think about Orlando, right, that's part

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Speaker 1: of the countrys been a mess iel. Glad you guys

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Speaker 1: fixed that because let me tell you something. People have

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Speaker 1: been missing flights Orlando. Yeah, so Florida actually has more

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Speaker 1: demand than they did before the pandemic. Yeah, it's it's

430
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,399
Speaker 1: it's and and there's some airspace challenges so Florida. I

431
00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:56,480
Speaker 1: don't want to get too I don't want to geek

432
00:19:56,520 --> 00:19:58,320
Speaker 1: out here, but but if if you look at the

433
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:02,000
Speaker 1: national airspace in Florida, you have more storms than usual, right,

434
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:03,920
Speaker 1: including the hurricane. Part of why we were there was

435
00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:06,560
Speaker 1: to look at the hurricane damage, and you have just

436
00:20:06,640 --> 00:20:09,960
Speaker 1: a lot of traffic, and you have military operations because

437
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,000
Speaker 1: there's so many military bases there, that can mean that

438
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:16,840
Speaker 1: you have to change air traffic and space launches. This

439
00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:18,760
Speaker 1: is actually they're actually we're getting to where there were

440
00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,680
Speaker 1: enough space launches, commercial space launches that that can start

441
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,160
Speaker 1: to have an effect on the system. So we're working

442
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,720
Speaker 1: through that anyway. Yeah, so so Valdemic's is one of

443
00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:32,440
Speaker 1: the members of Congress who supported this infrastructure law, and

444
00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:35,480
Speaker 1: now we're getting the funding out to places like Orlando

445
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:39,760
Speaker 1: where they're building a new terminal. Um. Yeah, I can't

446
00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 1: talk about that while I'm while I'm wearing this suit,

447
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,440
Speaker 1: but you can't. You can't officially. The thing with the

448
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,560
Speaker 1: Hatch Act is I can do one at a time.

449
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:49,399
Speaker 1: So if I'm at a campaign event, I can. I

450
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:53,640
Speaker 1: can campaign. If I'm here as a secretary, than I can't.

451
00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:56,080
Speaker 1: But but you know, it's definitely fair game to talk

452
00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:59,600
Speaker 1: about where we agree with the votes that people have

453
00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:01,680
Speaker 1: taken as members of Congress or as members of the

454
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:05,000
Speaker 1: Senate and the good policy that's going on including that,

455
00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:08,520
Speaker 1: because what we're what we're seeing right now is a

456
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:12,080
Speaker 1: lot of folks who voted no on the infrastructure deal.

457
00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,240
Speaker 1: The Republicans who did not join the Republicans who voted

458
00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:18,240
Speaker 1: yes with the Democrats on getting this stuff done are

459
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:22,600
Speaker 1: still there to take credit when when we actually announced

460
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:24,639
Speaker 1: that that we're building the bridge, or we're fixing the airport,

461
00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,000
Speaker 1: or we're doing the thing. It's really striking to see that.

462
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 1: And so I do think it's important just to keep

463
00:21:30,920 --> 00:21:35,080
Speaker 1: keep reminding people that, you know, the things that happened

464
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 1: on the floor of the House and the Senate, that

465
00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:40,040
Speaker 1: the present size, those have consequences, and you know, we're

466
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:42,080
Speaker 1: here for a very specific reed. We're able to say

467
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,080
Speaker 1: yes to these projects for this very specific reason that

468
00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:49,359
Speaker 1: the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed and signed. And you

469
00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:51,480
Speaker 1: know this is this is something that people need to

470
00:21:51,560 --> 00:21:54,160
Speaker 1: bear in mind when they're asking, Okay, is my government

471
00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,159
Speaker 1: doing anything at all that that I expect of my

472
00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: government to deliver for me? So if republic with that saying,

473
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:02,560
Speaker 1: with Republicans take over the House and Senate, how hard

474
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,159
Speaker 1: did they make your job? So look, my job is

475
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:06,920
Speaker 1: to work with whoever's in the House and Senate try

476
00:22:06,920 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 1: to get stuff done. I'll say that the legislation that

477
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,640
Speaker 1: Republicans in the House and Senate have proposed so far

478
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,280
Speaker 1: is not in line with what we're trying to do.

479
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:20,720
Speaker 1: For example, one of the things they've they've put forward,

480
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,120
Speaker 1: or they seem to be aligning on as a strategy,

481
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:27,360
Speaker 1: is that they might be willing to have another crisis

482
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: over the debt limit where there's a threat of shutting

483
00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,600
Speaker 1: down or even defaulting unless there are a number of

484
00:22:33,720 --> 00:22:36,320
Speaker 1: cuts in They could even affect things like Social Security

485
00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:38,320
Speaker 1: or medicare right. So at a policy level, again I'm

486
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 1: not talking about campaigns, but at a policy level, that's

487
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:45,200
Speaker 1: a pretty big disagreement. The pressure mounting for you and

488
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:47,200
Speaker 1: regarded the twenty twenty four because I know you said

489
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:49,520
Speaker 1: you didn't want to do anything else in government other

490
00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:52,640
Speaker 1: than this, But the Democrats have a very weak bench,

491
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 1: and I see how you move like you know, you'll

492
00:22:54,720 --> 00:22:56,240
Speaker 1: come to places like the breakfast club, you'll go to

493
00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 1: Fox News like you're talking to a big swap of

494
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:02,200
Speaker 1: the American public. So it is it growing louder for

495
00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,680
Speaker 1: Secretary Pete to run in twenty twenty fourth president? I mean, look,

496
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:07,800
Speaker 1: I already have a job, and we already have a president.

497
00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:12,359
Speaker 1: So the best thing I can do is support this

498
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,080
Speaker 1: president that I really believe in in the agenda and

499
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:17,320
Speaker 1: the vision that the administration has, and as long as

500
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:19,960
Speaker 1: he trusts me to do this work on transportation, try

501
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 1: to deliver on that. I mean, look, every job I've had,

502
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 1: and I'm not trying to be cute about the politics,

503
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,680
Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of political chattery that goes on,

504
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:30,359
Speaker 1: but every job I've had, especially in public life, the

505
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:32,680
Speaker 1: best thing you can do is just try to be

506
00:23:32,760 --> 00:23:34,520
Speaker 1: good at that job, and then whatever you want to

507
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,439
Speaker 1: do next, you're going to be better off if you've delivered.

508
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:40,480
Speaker 1: And delivering, you know, to our earlier conversation is hard

509
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: as hell, but also incredibly rewarding when you're working on

510
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,639
Speaker 1: stuff like are you concerned with more celebrities coming up

511
00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,440
Speaker 1: as being president that doesn't necessarily know politics, that really

512
00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:52,080
Speaker 1: doesn't know what they're doing. We have another situation like

513
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 1: in Donald Trump. Yeah, it's we're seeing a lot of this, right. Look,

514
00:23:57,840 --> 00:23:59,919
Speaker 1: I think there's something to be said for outsider enter.

515
00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:04,000
Speaker 1: I was. I was. I came into national politics as

516
00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,080
Speaker 1: an outsider, a different kind of outsider. I was involved

517
00:24:06,119 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 1: in policy as a mayor, but I was not part

518
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,639
Speaker 1: of Washington. And I don't think you have to be

519
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,720
Speaker 1: you know a Washington lifer to be effective. Um, but

520
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 1: I do think you have to care about public policy.

521
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:20,800
Speaker 1: I mean, you see some people now who just don't

522
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,000
Speaker 1: seem like they care. And I think Kanye's running in

523
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:33,040
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. God, okay, great, why not? Look In

524
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: the end, I think what people most want to know

525
00:24:35,160 --> 00:24:37,399
Speaker 1: is what do you care about? And who do you

526
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,200
Speaker 1: care about? And when I'm coming to work every day,

527
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,440
Speaker 1: the focus that we have is the person who's stuck

528
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,719
Speaker 1: at the airport because because their online didn't take care

529
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: of him. The person who lives ridiculously far away from

530
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:55,160
Speaker 1: from where they work and relies on transportation because that's

531
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:56,959
Speaker 1: what it takes in order to live somewhere you can afford.

532
00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,080
Speaker 1: Or the person who is paying way too much in

533
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 1: order to live where they can get to work because

534
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:05,760
Speaker 1: they don't have a good transportation option to do otherwise. Right,

535
00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 1: And we're thinking about them and how we can make

536
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:10,959
Speaker 1: life a little easier for them. I'm thinking about somebody

537
00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,520
Speaker 1: who is talented and skilled, maybe doesn't have a college degree,

538
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,720
Speaker 1: but has a lot of skill that needs to be

539
00:25:18,800 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 1: put to work and can make six figures if they

540
00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,760
Speaker 1: get a shot at the building trades but because because

541
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 1: nobody in their family ever has Maybe maybe there it's

542
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:32,119
Speaker 1: a working mother and it's not obvious to her how

543
00:25:32,160 --> 00:25:34,680
Speaker 1: to get the childcare so that she can work a

544
00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 1: construction shift that starts at six in the morning but

545
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: pays really well and could help her raise her kids.

546
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:43,359
Speaker 1: Like people like that, and I think the look I

547
00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: work in a building full of people who are deeper

548
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,080
Speaker 1: on every aspect of transportation policy than I am, because

549
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:51,040
Speaker 1: they've been doing it their whole lives. I think of

550
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 1: myself as a policy guy, but my job is to

551
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:57,080
Speaker 1: connect up the priorities of the people who sent us

552
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 1: here to do this work with all of that machinery

553
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 1: of government that's designed to deliver better answers, whether it's

554
00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: a better design subway line or a more affordable way

555
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:10,119
Speaker 1: to drive to work or a light rail, you know,

556
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 1: whatever it is. So I think that's the biggest question

557
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:17,320
Speaker 1: we have to ask about anybody who is in public services.

558
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:19,399
Speaker 1: What do you care about? And then, yeah, do you

559
00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 1: understand how to use this machinery of government, which it

560
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:23,679
Speaker 1: turns out, I mean, I spend a lot of time

561
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: just navigating my own agency. It's really complicated, But can

562
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 1: you use it in order to get things done. What

563
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,159
Speaker 1: about as a transportation secretary, Let's just say when the

564
00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: hurricane Ian was about to hit Tampa and everybody knew

565
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 1: it was coming, but some people couldn't get out. Let's

566
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: just say you couldn't have access to transportation or didn't

567
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 1: have the financial ability to be able to take yourself

568
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,399
Speaker 1: and your family out of the area. Would that have

569
00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: anything to do? Let you do a little bit. Yeah,

570
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,159
Speaker 1: So we try to help on situations like this. Just

571
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: Friday or Thursday, I went up with the Coast Guard

572
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: and we looked at the impacts on the bridges, for example,

573
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: over there, and we were able to release about fifty

574
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: million dollars of funding to help or to get to

575
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: work on getting those bridges ready. But what we're really

576
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,159
Speaker 1: focused on doing is, you know, before it comes to that,

577
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: before you you're you know, twenty four hours out from

578
00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,399
Speaker 1: the hurricane making landfall. Have we invested in things like

579
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 1: evacuation routes to make it easier. So we have a

580
00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:19,679
Speaker 1: part of the President's infrastructure package called Protect and it's

581
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: about seven billion dollars for resilience so that we can

582
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,160
Speaker 1: either build build a bridge that's going to be more

583
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: sturdy if there's a storm, or design things in a

584
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,320
Speaker 1: different way, because one thing that's happening is you got

585
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 1: climate change. You got more and more impacts, and you'll

586
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: have a road that gets washed out or destroyed, and

587
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:38,560
Speaker 1: then they'll fix it just the way it was, and

588
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:40,280
Speaker 1: then we'll get destroyed again and then they'll fix it

589
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:41,960
Speaker 1: just the way it was. Right, we need to do

590
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 1: something better or smarter. In the West, it means wildfires.

591
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,879
Speaker 1: I saw part of I seventy in Colorado was like

592
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: a climate change double whammy. First you had a drought,

593
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,359
Speaker 1: then you had a wildfire, and then there was nothing

594
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: holding the hill, the mud on the hillside in place.

595
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: Then you had a flood. I guess a triple whammy.

596
00:27:56,720 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 1: And then that meant that there's this mud slide that

597
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 1: took imite out of out of service. And that's a

598
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:03,919
Speaker 1: road that's critically important for supply chains because you're going

599
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:06,120
Speaker 1: through those mountains. There's no other there's no other way

600
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 1: to go. You don't have an alternative. So we're investing

601
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:12,480
Speaker 1: in things that will help communities be ready for when

602
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 1: disaster strikes, as well as trying to be there afterwards.

603
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:18,280
Speaker 1: Question when you do interviews right, and you're not allowed

604
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 1: to talk about things like the midterms. How does that

605
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:25,159
Speaker 1: help Democrats in the midterms? Well, look, I think the

606
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:27,959
Speaker 1: good policy is good politics. Like, if we're doing things

607
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,880
Speaker 1: that makes sense and we can explain it, then people

608
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:34,440
Speaker 1: will appreciate that. And in that way, there's no difference,

609
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:37,120
Speaker 1: or there's not a lot of difference between coming out

610
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:39,000
Speaker 1: on a campaign trail and saying I think you should

611
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 1: vote for this person, which is not what I'm doing today,

612
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 1: and what I am doing today, which is saying, here's

613
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 1: what we're working on as an administration. Here the policies

614
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:47,840
Speaker 1: we think are good. Some folks voted for it, some

615
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 1: folks vote voted against it, and this is what we

616
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 1: believe in. It's odd, but is there for a very

617
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: good reason, right, I mean, the reason we have these

618
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 1: rules is so that you don't go out using the

619
00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:01,000
Speaker 1: powers of the federal government and push a political outcome

620
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: on people. So I respect it. Shouldn't you go isn't

621
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 1: at the whole point? Look, we can take we can

622
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: take a different I can go put on a different

623
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 1: hat later when you know my flight wasn't paid for

624
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 1: by the taxpayer, and and talk about politics. But it's

625
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: it's I think it's okay to have those things be separate.

626
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: I think the important thing, though, is that I don't

627
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: ever want to say something in one context that I

628
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,320
Speaker 1: would be embarrassed to have repeated in another context. So

629
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:30,680
Speaker 1: it's also just really important that we're consistent and we're

630
00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 1: clear about what we care about and what we believe

631
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: in last question, do you feel like Democrats are rising

632
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,040
Speaker 1: to the urgency at a moment because we know it

633
00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: as a real threat to democracy, and like the midterms

634
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:43,160
Speaker 1: are right around the corner, but it doesn't seem like

635
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 1: there's a sense of urgency coming from the Democratic Party

636
00:29:45,960 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: about it. I think we have a sense of urgency.

637
00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 1: I think that the concern is how do we make

638
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: sure to let me put it this way, Sometimes when

639
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 1: something is sometimes something can be so big that it's

640
00:29:58,120 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: hard to make it out and you actually have to

641
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,680
Speaker 1: break it down into something smaller, if that makes sense.

642
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 1: So what I mean by that is that the stakes

643
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 1: for our country right now, in terms of our own democracy,

644
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,080
Speaker 1: in terms of our future, in terms of our standing

645
00:30:12,120 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: in the world, they're so enormous that if you try

646
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 1: to talk about it that way all day. Climate too

647
00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,960
Speaker 1: it's it's so exhausting that that I think it can

648
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 1: actually shut people down a little bit. On the right,

649
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: right wing media does it all day. Well, they say

650
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: that the democracy is about to be over, but they

651
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:32,520
Speaker 1: blame democrats. That's that's true. And one of the things

652
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,000
Speaker 1: that I think is really important is that facts still

653
00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:38,160
Speaker 1: have to matter. We have to make sure that there

654
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: are actives actually such thing as true and false. And

655
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: you look at what happened last January, you look at

656
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: what's happening right now with people denying the legitimacy of

657
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: elections that actually happened where you know, part of how

658
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: democracy works is when you lose, you admit it. Yeah

659
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 1: I've lost. Losing sucks, you don't enjoy it. But part

660
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: of your job is to acknowledge that reality. Because the

661
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 1: whole idea of democracy is rules and policy choices that

662
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:12,600
Speaker 1: we all have to live by, and that means we

663
00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:14,360
Speaker 1: all live by things we don't always agree. That's the

664
00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:18,719
Speaker 1: whole that's the whole concept, right. But I don't think

665
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: there's any confusion about what's at stake. I do think

666
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 1: there's there's a need to connect all these big picture

667
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: questions to very concrete things and I think actually right

668
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 1: wing media sometimes is a little better about that. I

669
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: have a TV in my office where I got it

670
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:35,240
Speaker 1: kind of splits into four quadrants, and I can see

671
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:39,160
Speaker 1: the three big cable networks, and I'm usually watching one broadcast,

672
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:43,040
Speaker 1: and every time I glance up at it, or almost always,

673
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:46,240
Speaker 1: what you see on Fox is more of a story

674
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:49,560
Speaker 1: from a specific place that is meant to make you

675
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:54,440
Speaker 1: angry about this big picture fear real or imagined, and

676
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: it just puts you in a different state of mind,

677
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: whereas we I think on my side of the aisle,

678
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: tend to prefer to talk in terms of the concepts

679
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,920
Speaker 1: the ideas right, And I do think there's some work

680
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:05,560
Speaker 1: to do there, But that's part of what I love

681
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: about my job, because there's nothing abstract about saying, Joe

682
00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 1: Biden signed this bill, and you're getting a better airport, right,

683
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,720
Speaker 1: or if you like this new subway stop that's coming

684
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,840
Speaker 1: to your neighborhood. It's there because Democrats with a few

685
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 1: Republicans helping out in Congress, in the House and in

686
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,720
Speaker 1: the Senate, voted on this bill, send it to the

687
00:32:25,800 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 1: President's desk, and he signed it. In my department implement

688
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: right like this is happening in your life. This isn't

689
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 1: like some conceptual debate about conservatism or free market princess.

690
00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: This is like, we're fixing this problem. And I see

691
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,160
Speaker 1: the number one issue is the economy. Yeah, when it

692
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:42,520
Speaker 1: comes to the elections coming up, and so we can

693
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 1: see who's voting for and against people to have more

694
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 1: money in their pocket. Well, that's the thing I mean,

695
00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 1: I mean, let's look at the choice. And again I'm

696
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 1: saying that's not election wise, but legislation wise. Look at

697
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,880
Speaker 1: the choices that are being made. Right. So, the last administration,

698
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 1: their number one economic policy was tax cuts for rich people,

699
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,200
Speaker 1: and they did it. It's one of the promises they kept.

700
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:07,960
Speaker 1: They didn't keep a lot of promises right then drain

701
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,360
Speaker 1: the swamp and they didn't build the wall. But they

702
00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:15,440
Speaker 1: kept two promises, and those two promises represent two things

703
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: they really care about. They kept their promise to cut

704
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,720
Speaker 1: taxes for the rich, and they kept their promise to

705
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:23,040
Speaker 1: take away the right to choose. Those are two things

706
00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:25,800
Speaker 1: they said they would do. They took power, and then

707
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: they did it. And what we're doing is working to

708
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 1: keep promises. And I know there's some unfinished business in

709
00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:34,960
Speaker 1: terms of promises that we've made. But we promised to

710
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,040
Speaker 1: get an infrastructure built on and we've done it. We've

711
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,959
Speaker 1: promised to act in ways that would reduce child poverty.

712
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: We've done it. We promised, the President promised to get

713
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: people back to work after we lost millions of jobs.

714
00:33:48,360 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: More people are working in the private sector now than

715
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 1: at any point in American history. So I guess you

716
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: could say both administrations back to back have come in

717
00:33:58,440 --> 00:34:02,320
Speaker 1: with a set of promises. People should think about which

718
00:34:02,360 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 1: promises are kept. But like you said, democrats are terrible

719
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,800
Speaker 1: that messaging. I mean, you didn't say that verbatim, but

720
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: you essentially said democrats are terrible that I think we

721
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 1: think in ways that we got to work a little

722
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,880
Speaker 1: harder to to um the second message. But it's okay.

723
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 1: I can tear you, Pete. That's what you're working on.

724
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 1: It's okay to say that. Look, I hear you, I

725
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:26,600
Speaker 1: hear you, right, Thanks yours, We appreciate it, and thank

726
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 1: you for always stopping through. That's pleasure with you. Thank

727
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:31,359
Speaker 1: Secretary Pete. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning,