Sen. Tim Kaine was on CBS’ “Face the Nation” this morning – see video, below. Among other things, Sen. Kaine said:
- The U.S. economy is showing record job growth and “very strong growth in wages,” “but the inflation issue is real, we’ve got to tackle it…President Biden and Congress are…working on initiatives in the Build Back Better legislation that will reduce costs – health care, prescription drugs, education…”
- The “most recent version of [Build Back Better] is not going to happen, but if you look at the core of the bill…I still believe we’re going to find the core of the bill…and pass it.”
- On voting rights, “it is such an existential issue…we have to do this, we all have to be recorded at this moment in time about where are we in protecting the right to vote; right now, it doesn’t look like it has the votes to pass, but we’re going to cancel our Martin Luther King Day recess and be there this week because we think it’s so important…and we WILL be voting, both on the bills, but also on…could we find a path to make some rules adjustments to pass them.”
- “As of right now, we don’t have all 50 Democrats on board with rules changes, but there are a couple different paths…carve-out to the filibuster…we could do longer debate and then end the debate and have a simple majority, but we WILL have a vote on the bills and we WILL have a vote on a rules path to get there, because it’s so important for the country.”
- Going into the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats need to pass the “core provisions” of the Build Back Better bill “that reduce costs for Americans.” And “we need to find a path to protect democracy from an assault that is being led by President Trump and his followers all over this country.“
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