Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: We turned out a Democratic Congressman, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina,
Speaker 2: joining us here on balance of power. Congressman, it's so
Speaker 2: good to have you this evening as we consider the
Speaker 2: changes the speakers trying to navigate here with the various
Speaker 2: factions of his party. They include bringing forward potentially stricter
Speaker 2: work requirements for Medicaid, bringing forward rollbacks to subsidies, and
Speaker 2: the Inflation Reduction Act. All of that could get us
Speaker 2: closer to the midterms in twenty twenty six. Does that
Speaker 2: actually serve you and your party better in thoughts about
Speaker 2: reclaiming the House majority?
Speaker 3: Well, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm not too sure that we are concerned about the
Speaker 1: conduct at this moment. We are concern about the people
Speaker 1: that are going to be affected by all of this.
Speaker 1: I always say, if we take care of our jobs,
Speaker 1: if we take care of the American people, that will
Speaker 1: do all we need to do for us as Democrats. Now,
Speaker 1: we don't know, or at least I don't know yet
Speaker 1: exactly what all there is to this legislation. I do
Speaker 1: know this, there is no knee jerk opposition to work requirements.
Speaker 1: We Democrats another pose to work requirements if they make sense.
Speaker 1: And the problem we've got now is that people tend
Speaker 1: not to remember that.
Speaker 3: We've had work requirements.
Speaker 1: In these pieces of legislation for several years now.
Speaker 3: We don't oppose that.
Speaker 1: We do oppose balancing the budget on the backs of
Speaker 1: working men and women. And I don't understand how they
Speaker 1: investor class they make their money off of people spending money,
Speaker 1: or so against people having money to spend. It seems
Speaker 1: to me that you would be interested in your products
Speaker 1: being afforded by the people who work in these companies
Speaker 1: and on the manufacturing places that you invest in and
Speaker 1: that you own.
Speaker 3: It's just like this Medicaid.
Speaker 1: Medicaid has beneficiaries, but the people who benefit from medicaid,
Speaker 1: or the people who own the nursing homes, the people
Speaker 1: are on these hospitals, these are the people who get
Speaker 1: the benefit.
Speaker 3: And so I just think that the.
Speaker 1: Time for us to start pushing a serious narrative about
Speaker 1: who or the beneficiaries as well as who gets the benefits.
Speaker 3: And that's what we Democrats are concerned about.
Speaker 4: Congress soon, it's good to have you back. I'm sure
Speaker 4: you saw the news from Moodies on Friday.
Speaker 3: The US no.
Speaker 4: Longer has a triple A credit rating by any of
Speaker 4: the major ratings agencies, and we've got the debt limit
Speaker 4: to deal with here. We're waiting for a more firm
Speaker 4: X state on this, but it looks like it will
Speaker 4: probably be part of this massive reconciliation project. How do
Speaker 4: you reconcile potentially voting no on this bill knowing the
Speaker 4: debt ceiling needs to be raised.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I've always been one for getting rid
Speaker 3: of the debt seimit.
Speaker 1: Ever since I've been in the Congress over thirty years now,
Speaker 1: I've always advocated by getting rid of that. We know
Speaker 1: on the company left doing that. I just think I
Speaker 1: think there may be one of us and said, I
Speaker 1: think of what we ought to do is separate that
Speaker 1: from everything else.
Speaker 3: We ought not have that as a part of this package.
Speaker 1: And so I would be voting against this bill irrespective
Speaker 1: of the fact that they're putting things in the raising
Speaker 1: the debt limit, because for raising the debt limit, I've
Speaker 1: got to vote yainst people having income or being able
Speaker 1: to occur in.
Speaker 3: The debt at all. And so that's the fool's eerrand
Speaker 3: that I'm not going to go on.
Speaker 2: Congressman, I'm sure you are familiar with the thinking of
Speaker 2: some Republicans in the Senate, including Senator Josh Holly, for example,
Speaker 2: who is also not in favor of Medicaid cuts of
Speaker 2: any kind. President Trump suggests he doesn't really want to
Speaker 2: see Medicaid touched for eligible individuals as well. To what
Speaker 2: extent do you expect that the other chamber may actually
Speaker 2: be the one that make sure these policies don't come
Speaker 2: to law, and that it's not just Democrats not voting
Speaker 2: for this in the House, but Senate Republicans saying no
Speaker 2: to some of these policies.
Speaker 3: Well, I think there'd be some Senator Republicans saying no.
Speaker 1: I think that's some House Republicans who would like to
Speaker 1: say no as well. It just so happens that people
Speaker 1: tend to put priority over whether or not they remain
Speaker 1: in this Congress or whether or not they get challenged
Speaker 1: in the primary. That's never been a priority for me.
Speaker 1: I get challenged every year, and that's fine. I'm here
Speaker 1: to do everything I possibly can to make those greatnesses.
Speaker 1: And the people say, I'd hear me say this, but
Speaker 1: this is a great country. We got a great educational system,
Speaker 1: We've got a great healthcare system, energy, We've.
Speaker 3: Got it all. The problem is.
Speaker 1: All Americans can't affod it. All Americans need to be
Speaker 1: able to forward these things. And so that's what I
Speaker 1: am going to be voted for trying to do the
Speaker 1: things are the necessary so that all irrespective of what
Speaker 1: side of town you may live on, irrespective of what
Speaker 1: zip code you exist in, whether or not you can
Speaker 1: afford to educate your children, whether or not you can
Speaker 1: afford to have health care, whether or not you can
Speaker 1: afford to pay your energy costs. These are the things
Speaker 1: we ought to be about. And to the extent that
Speaker 1: there are Republicans in the House and the Senate who
Speaker 1: would agree with us, I'm pleased to have them and
Speaker 1: I'm pleased to be associated with them.
Speaker 4: Harrison Kleinberg, I want to ask you about former President
Speaker 4: Joe Biden's health and this terrible cancer diagnosis that we
Speaker 4: have all learned about. I know you two are close.
Speaker 4: Have you had a chance to talk with them.
Speaker 1: I have not talked to the former president about this diagnosis.
Speaker 3: I do believe that.
Speaker 1: I received calls from him last week, which I did
Speaker 1: not get I saw this thing that I could not
Speaker 1: return a call to and I was told on the
Speaker 1: last evening those calls were coming from him.
Speaker 3: So I have not talked to him, but I do
Speaker 3: know this.
Speaker 1: I know what it is to be associated with people
Speaker 1: going through dehabilitating illnesses. My late life spent thirty years
Speaker 1: fighting diabetes that led to heart failure or stroke, told
Speaker 1: kidney failure, and I know what that's like. My father
Speaker 1: died from prostrate cancer, my mother from multiple my MoMA,
Speaker 1: and so these diseases that he has worked so hard
Speaker 1: to help alleviate and eliminate, to see him become a
Speaker 1: victim to one, it's a little bit disheartening. But I
Speaker 1: hope he will come along well, and I plan to
Speaker 1: talk with him very soon.
Speaker 2: Well. And we extend our well wishes to the former
Speaker 2: president as well, and we're sorry for your loss as Congressman.
Speaker 2: But we just heard from President Trump in the Oval
Speaker 2: Office suggesting that somebody is not telling the facts around
Speaker 2: this diagnosis. There's dark corners of the Internet where people
Speaker 2: are also questioning the timing of this announcement, And I
Speaker 2: wonder if it saddens you, sir, to see this kind
Speaker 2: of erosion of trust.
Speaker 1: Well, trust has been erouting for a long time in
Speaker 1: this country when it comes to our governmental process.
Speaker 3: This is not anything new.
Speaker 1: I've been talking about this now for about ten years.
Speaker 1: I just left the meeting before coming out here when
Speaker 1: I talked about the erosion of trust in our government,
Speaker 1: erosion of trust in the system. Whether or not we
Speaker 1: are going to continue to work together to try to
Speaker 1: build a more perfect union.
Speaker 3: We're going to go the way the country went back in.
Speaker 1: The eighteen seventies when we initiated that which became known
Speaker 1: as Jim Crow. I referred to Project twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: as Jim Crow two point zero. And if you look
Speaker 1: through that project, you will see throughout that those nine
Speaker 1: hundred ages or all kinds of things that undermined the media,
Speaker 1: undermine the government, undermine the private sector.
Speaker 3: These are just things that are eroding.
Speaker 1: And so I know that people, no matter what they
Speaker 1: see here these days, they're not going to believe it.
Speaker 1: So I have no idea when the cancer was first detected.
Speaker 1: I do know this that hindsight is twenty twenty which
Speaker 1: all of us because they have the benefit of hindsight
Speaker 1: as we go through the process of making decisions about
Speaker 1: our lives and our livelihoods.
Speaker 3: It's good to have you.
Speaker 4: Back with US Congressman Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina.
Speaker 3: We thank you.