of friday morning. neil? neil: not all democrats are on board with this big spending plan. my next guest, congressman scott peters said no when that big spending measure came up in committee. he joins us right now. congressman, good to see you. you re part of the house problem solvers caucus as well. republicans and democrats work together to move the ball forward and get off of the stump speeches. so i commend you for that. i m wondering what gave you pause when this was in committee? i assume it s still gives you pause now. thanks for having me, neil. i want to say clearly i m for the reconciliation bill, the infrastructure bill that we re going to vote on thursday. it s for bridges, rail, roads, ports, broad band, the grid, everything else. all things we ve been talking about a long time, a trillion dollars is a major investment to
for the republican party? as they are the focus of this discussion, how do they come back, and they have all of them constituents back home to explain all of this too. how do they come back from, we don t care of the government defaults? well, brian, they don t see the outright, they say that they don t want to give the democrats the ability to spend more money. and that they re trying to block the biden agenda. but effectively with their vote they are signaling that they don t care if the government shut down. and they re also signaling that they know if the government shuts down they re going to use it politically against the democrats in the midterm elections in the deer. and so this is a pure political calculation, by mcconnell, and by the other republican senators. mcconnell has indicated that if democrats were to put forward just the spending measure, the budget magic that would ensure that the government stays open, indeed coupling it from the
going to use it politically against the democrats in the midterm elections next year. this is a pure political calculation by mcconnell and by the other republican senators. mcconnell has indicated that if democrats were to put forward just the spending measure, the budget measure that would insure the government stays open in decouple it from the debt ceiling question, that they would win republican votes for that measure so the first step of course would be for republican senators to make good on that and, you know, agree to pass whatever it is the democrats come up with in terms of just the clean spending bill for later this week to avoid the shutdown but looking forward, this is all going to be a political game and mcconnell is trying to basically trap the democrats and show that they can t govern competently, that they have these majorities, thin majorities as they are, but majorities nonetheless, and yet they brought the country to the brink of a shutdown, and they re having trou
now she is acknowledging that might not happen. we will bring the bill for consideration. but, you know, i m never bringing a bill to the floor that doesn t have the votes. the infrastructure bill includes spending for roads and bridges, high-speed internet and public transit. it has bipartisan support. but progressive democrats want it tied to the much larger spending bill. moderate democrats join republicans in opposing the massive price tag. congress faces a thursday deadline to fund federal agencies. a democratic move to tie the government funding to a suspension of the debt limit faces republican opposition in the senate. art arlette saenz reports on president biden s efforts to get the spending measure passed. reporter: president biden acknowledged negotiations over his sweeping economic agenda may
on notice today, warning it is preparing for any contingency. the 2019 shutdown lasted 35 days and cost the economy $11 billion. but a shutdown now, during a pandemic, could impac the c.d.c. and n.i.h. we ll keep government open. reporter: congressional democrats and republicans remain deadlocked over the spending measure, which includes aid for hurricane ida and afghan refugees. but the real disagreement is over a provision to suspend the debt limit so the government can keep paying its bills, which, so far, republicans are refusing to do. is there anything that can change your mind? i m not going to increase a debt limit to spend another $5 trillion in the next month. reporter: u.s. officials say failure to act could risk catastrophic damage to the economy. a default could wipe out nearly six billion jobs. can you count them? reporter: jody lamberti, who runs a daycare out of her home, hopes hers isn t one of them. it could mean losing my