Lloyd austin and secretary of state nominee tony blinken. Hours after lawmakers got to question bidens choices for treasury secretary, Homeland Security secretary and director of National Intelligence. Today is President Trumps final full day in office and we are waiting for him to issue what is expected to be a list of dozens of pardons. Weve learned that list probably wont include himself or members of his family. And earlier, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell took a parting shot at President Trump for provoking the deadly insurrection at the u. S. Capitol earlier this month. The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. We have complete coverage of todays big events and breaking news stories on multiple fronts. Joining us now, White House Correspondent jeff bennett who is covering the Biden Transition Team from wilmington, delaware. Good to have you with us. We were just looking at the tarmac there, the private jet about to bring president
Prospect. A month after i became majority leader i direct canned the chairs and members of our relevant committees to start drafting a package to create new american jobs with the endless frontier act serving as the core of this earth. I also this effort. I also said to everyone, to people on both sides of the aisle, that if both sides worked together, id put a bill on the floor of the senate later that spring, and thats what happened when we overwhelmingly passed the act in june of 2021. It took three weeks, lots of debate, amendments. Just as the senate ought to work even on major and difficult legislation, as this has been. Senators cantwell and wicker were tremendous leaders in this effort and skillfully managed the floor process. They deserve a great deal of praise not only for passing last years bill, but for their efforts this year as well. A year later the legislation were passing today contains many of the critical investments in that bill. Both bills make historic investments
Trying to raise more taxes for washington to spend the money. How does this end . In the end, republicans, from everybody i talked to, they could live with the across the board cutting. It would hurt your state deeply. It would hurt the defense industry. Are you willing to just live with it . Heres what i hope will happen. We have in our alternative several proposals that the president has actually come out in favor of. There are improvements to the whats called the medicare provider tax, to get rid of the gimmick that states are playing. The president supports that. Our plan says we have to bring a federal Employee Pension benefit down in line with the market rates. Those are the kind of things that were talking about as alternatives that make a lot more sense, that wont have the impact on the people who are out there working. You know, the president is the one who proposed the sequester in the first place. Again, im questioning where this thing is going because hes not moved in any s
Sponsor of for that reason. These are indiscriminate cuts. We can do a lot better. What i hope to be able to hear from the president in the state of the union is he wants to join us in trying to effect much smarter cuts in spending. But thats what hes saying. We dont have to have the impact that you just described. Why not work with him on shortterm measure which he is talking about to delay this, find a different way to go about some of the cuts . The problem is, david, every time you turn around the answer is to raise taxes. And, you know, he just got his tax hike on the wealthy. And you cant in this town every three months raise taxes. Again, every time, thats his response. And weve got a spending problem. Everybody knows it. The house has put forward an alternative plan, and theres been no response in any serious way from the senate or the white house. Its time we really have to do it. This is how the president responded to that in his saturday address. Taking on the house plan and
In washington as the president prepares to deliver his state of the Union Address tuesday night. As we begins a second term, were being told he will return to his primary message of how to restore economic growth. Well talk to both sides this morning. Majority leader eric cantor and assistant democratic leader in the senate dick durbin. I want to welcome you back to meet the press. Pleasure, david. Thank you. There are so many areas that are contentious right now, and chief among them is the sequester word. This dirty word in washington, that means automatic spending cuts. It could begin in a matter of weeks with 85 billion in automatic cuts. Do you really want this as a republican leader . Look at the impact it would have in your state alone. The Associated Press wrote about this it this week. Sequestration, today a political football would cripple virginias economy if happens. Potentially no state would suffer more than virginia. The commonwealth would lose more than 130,000 jobs, mo