'This Week' Transcript 9-24-23: Secretary Pete Buttigieg

Interview

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"Well, look, we all know the economic pressure that Americans have felt. When the president took office, the economy was flat on its back. But we're also getting extraordinary results, more than 13 million jobs created. That's more than any presidential term in American history. And, yes, it takes a while for people to feel the full benefits of those results, just like it's going to take a while to build all of the infrastructure that we're now underway on with the president's generational infrastructure build.

But he got the bill done after president after president, congress after congress couldn't make it happen. He did. We're getting the results on the economy.

And one other thing that I think is really important is that the American people agree with us and not with congressional Republicans on what to do about it. So, when you look at the economy, the most important thing, in the president's view, is to support families and support workers, not just with the job creation that's going on, but lowering costs. That's why, for example, lowering the cost of insulin to $35 for seniors is something that the president pushed for, got, wants to do for all Americans, but congressional Republicans are blocking him.

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Well, of course, I'm here on the official side, not to talk about the campaign side. But one thing I'll tell you, just from an administration perspective, is, when we go out on the road, when we demonstrate, for example, how the president's agenda of investing in roads and bridges and railroad improvements and better airports and all the things that we're doing around the country, how that's actually arising in community after community, you have a whole different kind of conversation.

Now, there's a lot more work to do. The story of these investments, these efforts and these results isn't going to tell itself, but that's exactly the work that we're doing. And we're an administration that isn't all about the polls. We recognize that if we get the results over time people will come to appreciate that.

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Which is why we are prioritizing making life easier and more affordable for Americans. Again, it's one thing to point to a problem and, frankly, in some corners of the --

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Well, they're down from their peaks. They're higher than -- than they were a few weeks ago. And the president will continue taking actions, not just to make sure that gas prices stay under control, but to make sure that Americans can afford their -- our overall bills.

And, you know, when you look at a congressional Republican opposition that is literally against having insulin capped at $35, is against the caps on those out-of-pocket costs, seems more concerned with tax cuts for the wealthy than with actually solving these problems, that's when you see the real difference in approach.

So, even if you have an agreement on an economic challenge, like prices at the grocery store, you have two different ways of dealing with it. Our way of dealing with it is to invest in the supply sidCe that -- that -- for example, improves the supply chains, which in turn helps bring down those prices, it's to invest in making life more affordable every day for Americans.

And the other side's talking about a shutdown. They're talking about government cuts that would -- I mean, you want to talk about groceries. They're talking about something that would wait-list families that need access to support to be able to afford to feed their children. They're pushing it --

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I hope not, because in the event of a shutdown, we would have to immediately stop so many important activities in the Department of Transportation, like training air traffic controllers. After everything we've been through, after all of the disruptions to air traffic -- to air travel that we experienced last year, this year, we finally see cancellations and delays back to normal. They're actually a little below where they were before COVID. This would be a reversal that nobody wants, nobody asked for.

And I can't believe some of the very same congressional Republicans, who get in line to try to beat us up any time there's a -- there's a travel disruption, even a weather-related travel destruction, are going to turn around and shut down air traffic control training. And that's just one example, from one department, that I happen to be very concerned about. So it better not be inevitable.

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I just don't think that's how it's going to actually play out in a Republican shutdown. You know, this is because Republicans can't -- you know, on the Hill -- can't even agree among themselves.
And remember, Kevin McCarthy and -- Speaker McCarthy and President Biden made a deal. And that deal was tough for all sides. Frankly, it was tough for our department. It meant cutting back on some things we wanted to do, some funds we were going to use to improve roads and bridges and airports. But we accepted that because that was the deal that was made earlier this year.

And now all we're doing is asking them to live up to that deal. If they can't be organized enough among themselves, if the House Republican conference is in such chaos that they can't even accept a deal that they supported earlier this year, or in the words of one House Republican, take yes for an answer, then I think Americans are going to see very quickly how we got in that situation.

And, by the way, not only are they driving us toward a shutdown, but their position, the thing they're trying to use the threat of a shutdown to get, is further cuts that would also undermine things that the American people overwhelmingly want us to do. In the case of transportation, things like railroad safety inspections.

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We stand with the UAW's determination to make sure that autoworkers benefit from the next chapter in the auto industry. As the president has said, when you have record profits in the auto industry, there ought to be record pay and record benefits for the workers who create that value.

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That's where he stands. He's a pro-worker president. He is an unapologetically pro-union president. And, you know, not just in contrast to the anti-union policies of the Trump administration, but really with respect to presidents of both parties over the last half century. He's proud of the fact that he is the most pro-union and pro-worker among them. And, by the way, getting this right.

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Look, the -- the president and this administration, we are not at the -- the bargaining table, but we are with workers. And, by the way, the -- the American --

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Yes, and I will say also, the companies, the American auto sector, will benefit in the long run from the deal that moves this country forward and secures American leadership, especially in the next chapter of the automotive industry.

Part of what the UAW has made clear is that they're not trying to turn back the clock, they're not saying that they want us back in horse and buggy days, they're not pretending that we can have the -- the technologies of the -- of the "60s power us into the 2020s, "30s and '50s. What they're saying is, if a whole new way of making cars is going to be the way of the world and the way of the automotive sector, then workers ought to be able to benefit from that and thrive on that, just like the last generations of workers did. And -- and there is a win/win future to be had. And that's what the president and the administration are urging the parties to reach.

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Thank you."

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