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Biden Ramps Up Pressure On GOP In Debt Ceiling Fight; GOP Rep. Santos Pleads Not Guilty On $500K Bond. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 10, 2023 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For veterans in New York State because of not enough personnel -- not enough personnel. The difference between the 2022 budget, which they want to get back to, and the 2023 budget is I increased the funding for the Veterans Administration by $22 billion. And the reason I did it -- and the reason I did it, and probably some of you know these folks, the number of -- you know more veterans are committing suicide than are being killed in battle.

And so, they pick up the phone and they call the VA in their area, I need help. We'll come in in six weeks, come in and whatever. Well, we ended that -- we ended that. Now, they want to go back to the levels where we cut those folks that now provide that kind of help. This amounts to a $22 billion cut in veterans' health care.

Now, they dispute this. They -- nowhere in their actual proposal are their exclusive protection for veterans. But they say I'm -- it's an unusual language we use with presidents these days. They say I'm lying when I say that.

Well, the truth is, why do so many veterans' groups, why have they spoken out in opposition to the Republican proposal? They're not all Democrats. They know what's going to happen.

Folks, that's a game Republicans are playing. Anytime you single out the impact of their overall cuts, they tell you no, no, no, it's not true. But they're wrong.

They want to protect something. They would have written it down and said we're protecting it. You can't cut this program. You can't cut it. So, you can see it.

Here's another example. Under the Republican plan nationwide, 100,000 teachers and support staff would lose their jobs at the very time, we're attempting to overcome the sufficiently incredible deficiencies that occurred as a consequence of what happened with the pandemic. So many kids, the average student out there is about a year and a half behind. We don't need fewer teachers. We need more teachers.

And by the way -- no I'm not being solicitous. What we should be doing, and I proposed to him when I tried to finish this job. I'm proposing that we, for example, if we start instead of a head start, which they want to cut 21,000 head start spots, in this state alone, we should be sending -- all the studies show that if we send -- no matter what the background of a child, if we sent that child to school at age three, learning, reading, writing arithmetic, through age three and four and five, we ended up increasing by 56 percent the chance they'll graduate from high school and go on beyond high school.

But look. We're here at a community college. And by the way, this is one beautiful community college. No, it really is. The property here if you may. And the consequences here would be severe.

Here in New York, it would cut the maximum Pell Grant that millions of students use to get to community college by nearly a thousand dollars. It would eliminate Pell Grants entirely for 5000 New York students. And here at another devastating consequence, they don't want you to know about.

Moody's, not a Democratic outfit of respected Wall Street analytical firms said the Republican plan would cost the country 780,000 jobs. Yesterday, I brought two congressional leaders together at the White House to make sure America doesn't default on its debt, and for the first time in our history. And by the way, I know the speaker keeps saying 93 days ago I said to Biden I want to talk to him. And I said fine.

I said you put down your budget, I'll put down mine. I laid mine down in detail on the fourth -- on the ninth of March. He didn't put down his s0-called budget. I don't know what you call it. He's connecting the two items. He didn't do that until five days after he did it, I invited him to the White House.

So, folks, look. Let's be clear. The debt we're talking about is accumulated over 200 years. The last administration alone, the last guy who served in his office for four years, increased the total national debt by 40 percent in just four years.

Over the last decade, the single largest contribution to the debt aside from the pandemic, with the Trump tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and large corporations for $2 trillion. And made it clear -- I made it clear America is not a deadbeat nation. We pay our bills.

[14:05:03]

And I was pleased, but not surprised by the Republican leader in the United States Senate, McConnell, who said after the meeting in the White House, and he went to the press, he said, the United States is not going to default. It never has and it never will. We shouldn't even be talking about it.

And folks, Republicans in Congress used to understand this. In fact, under the previous president, Republicans voted to avoid default three times. This is not your father's Republican Party, though.

You know, here's what's happened if MAGA Republicans get their way. American defaults on our debt, higher interest rates for credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and payments for Social Security and Medicare of our troops, and veterans could all be halted or delayed. According again to Moody's, 8 million Americans are losing their jobs, including 400,000 New Yorkers alone. Our economy would fall into recession and our international reputation will be damaged in the extreme.

We shouldn't even be having this situation -- we're talking about this situation. As you know, I do an awful lot of foreign policy in my stint as a Senator for all those years and then as vice president. And I've traveled the world. I've met with over 80 heads of state -- eight heads of state so far.

They all are looking at me. Are you guys serious? No, no, I'm serious. Because if we default on our debt, the whole world is in trouble.

This is a manufactured crisis. And there's no question about America's ability to pay its bills. America is the strongest economy in the world. And we should be cutting spending and lowering the deficit without a needless crisis in a responsible way.

I believe in cutting spending and cutting the deficit. In my first two years in office, I'm the only president in history that lower the deficit in those two years by a record $1.7 trillion -- $1.7 trillion. And the budget I proposed back in March would cut the deficit again by nearly $3 trillion in the decade ahead.

For example, my budget cuts $30 billion in wasteful spending on tax subsidies to the gas and oil companies. They earned two -- tax subsidies aren't all bad, but they earned $200 billion last year. Do they need a $30 billion subsidy?

Well, look, it cuts wasteful spending for Big Pharma. We pay more for prescription drugs than any nation in the world -- any advanced nation in the world. You can get the exact same drug if you fly to Paris or London or to Germany, anywhere you've traveled -- Canada. And you -- that you've been -- you pay here, you pay a lot more.

On Big Pharma, we cut that spending by $200 billion by expanding the Medicare's power to negotiate prescription drug prices and making drug companies pay rebates when they raise prices faster than inflation. And we've already cut by $160 billion in savings, the bill we passed last year. And it has three parts to it by the way.

One didn't -- one part didn't kick in until January one. We said the price of insulin and other drugs -- the price of insulin would be reduced to $35. How -- let me put it this way. How many of you know someone with type one or two -- but -- type one or type two diabetes?

And you know -- you know, as needed to keep -- they need insulin to keep themselves alive or their children alive or in good health. Well, guess what? The price of insulin went from four or five 600 bucks a month found $35 a month for those on Medicare.

And like -- here's the deal. It's not just it made a reasonable for people to be able to stay healthy, but it saved the government $160 billion because they're paying less out. And by the way, the other cuts that are coming up because of what we did with medic -- with regards to being able to negotiate with Medicare, it's estimated we're going to save another $200 billion.

For example, do any of you know someone who's on Medicare, and also on a cancer drug? Well, guess what? They're paying right now sometimes 12, 14, $16,000 a year for the cancer drug.

Well, beginning this next January, the most any seniors going to have to pay is $3,500 for all of their drugs. And beginning in 2025 -- in 2025, they're only -- they've paid no more than $2,000 for all of their drugs. By the way, that saves the government another $200 billion because not paying out for all -- the drugs come forward, and they come at a reasonable price.

[11:10:09]

My budget also cuts tax loopholes. Look, I don't have anything against Wall Street or hedge funds executive, but just pay your taxes, man. No, I'm serious.

Hedge funds executive pay a lower tax rate than the middle-class worker who works for them. No one earning less than $400,000 you're going to see a single penny an increase in their taxes under me. Not a single penny. They haven't yet and they won't. And so, making -- if you're making more than 400, well, start to pay your fair share.

Look, instead, we're making the biggest corporation begin to pay their fair share. Just -- I'm not talking about 70 percent tax rates. For example, at least pay something.

Folks, let me ask you this. Does anyone think we have a fair tax system in America? No, I'm being deadly earnest, I'm not being a wise guy. In 2020, you got tired of hearing me say this. I pointed out there were 50 major corporations in the 55 of the Fortune 500 companies that paid zero in federal income tax after having made $40 billion in profits -- 40 billion.

So, we instituted to get past a corporate minimum tax of 15 percent. Well, guess what? You all are paying more than that. Just 15 percent and it paid for everything we did.

Look, I proposed the billionaire minimum tax. There have now went by -- went from about 760 I think the number was to run a thousand billionaires in America. Well, that's great.

And if you want to be a billionaire, you can make it. I'm not one of these guys that say you shouldn't be able to do that. And if you want to be if -- you're a multimillionaire, I'm not trying to say that can't happen. But at least pay something.

The average tax paid by a thousand billionaires in America individually, the average tax paid is eight percent. Eight percent. No billionaire should be paying a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter.

And there's nothing radical about this. That's why my budget also fully funds the Internal Revenue Service, you know. And it's kind of interesting.

Republicans have been consistent for the last 10 years cutting the number of IRS agents. I wonder why. So, we now have legislation passed that's going to -- that's in our budget that says we're going to beef up the number of IRS agents to thoroughly look at the taxes of billionaires in America.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, a bipartisan office, the estimate that just that alone would raise another $200 billion a year. Larry Summers, who's not what you call a wacko liberal out there, right, former president of Harvard, he says it's more like -- my kids who went to Penn would disagree, but that's OK.

But I went to a great school. I went to a state school. I went to the University of Delaware. But all -- but all -- but all kidding aside, estimates it would raise another $400 billion a year -- a year. And they still wouldn't be paying very much tax relative to their income, to begin with.

My budget also has some of the strongest anti-fraud proposals ever. You may remember when we had that -- the legislation to help deal with a pandemic, what Trump used to keep doing is cutting the number of inspectors general to be able to find out whether or not this money is actually not being wasted. Well, guess what? Turns out there was about several billions of dollars that were being wasted. People were getting money they didn't need or didn't deserve, and this -- and they're -- they were playing the system.

Well, you know, I think that we should have inspectors general again looking at what in fact we're spending and whether it's going where it's supposed to go. It calls for an unprecedented effort to combat identity fraud by tripling anti-fraud strike forces to prosecute pandemic fraudsters and seize back stolen funds. There's billions of dollars in stolen funds that we haven't gotten back yet. It's transmitted to inspector generals and watchdogs for taxpayers' dollars. It's estimated for every $10 every -- $1 we spend in firing these folks, whose going to save $10 -- $10.

This debate is about fundamental choices. Would you rather cut -- would you rather continuous subsidy of $30 billion for big oil or cut $30 billion from veterans? Would you rather cut Big Pharma or -- and -- or cut health care for Americans? These are real-world choices. That's what's at stake, literally.

[14:25:09]

You know, I ran for president to see to it that ordinary folks got an even shake. I was raised in a family that was typical -- we weren't poor, typical middle-class families. My dad -- we lived in a three- bedroom, split-level home in a housing development. They got -- was a nice area. That was when they were developing suburbia with four kids and a grandpa lived with us. I look back and I wonder how thin those walls were for my mom and dad. But anyway.

But you know, the truth of the matter is that you know, we -- my dad did fine. I guess by the time he retired, he managed an automobile dealership, and he was probably making the equivalent of $20,000 a year, which would be like, what, 60 or 70, or 80. I don't know what it would be.

But my point is that I thought -- I've always thought the middle-class folks are getting the short end of things. I think the trickle-down on the economy net, not much ever trickle down on my dad's kitchen table that I can recall. And so, when I ran and my whole career as a senator was about making sure middle-class folks get an even shot.

That's why I believe we should grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. The wealthy will still do very well. Because if the middle class does well, the poor have a ladder up and the wealthy still do very well. And that's fine. We all do well.

We've made enormous progress. Just look at what we've done so far. Over the past two years, we've created a record 12.7 million new jobs, more than ever in that period of time. Including 800,000 manufacturing jobs. Unemployment is at 3.4 percent, the lowest in 50 years. Black unemployment is at one of its lowest levels, and Hispanic unemployment is across the board. In part our policies are the pace of our annual inflation has been coming down for 10 months in a row. We still -- slowed by 45 percent. We still have more to do.

But you know, we're in a position to invest in America and all of America. The way we do that is we buy American products and we hire American workers. I get to spend a lot of money on Congress passes. So, if I have $60 billion to spend, I -- and I'm going to have to put new decks on aircraft carriers.

I don't outsource the work. There was a law back in the 30s it said buy American -- buy American. So, we -- they have to use American products, they have to go out and make sure that they hire American workers for a long time in Democrat and Republican administrations.

It was cheaper to go get the cheap labor overseas and bring back the expensive product. No more. Not on my watch. Not on my way.

Instead of importing jobs abroad for cheaper labor and importing product -- we're exporting products and buying American workers the opportunity to make a living. Folks, I signed the American Rescue plan which sent $27 million to this community college to keep students enrolled and keep this school afloat. Helped vaccinate our nation. We got immediate relief for folks who needed the most and got our economy back on track.

It didn't have a single solitary Republican vote. Then I signed the bipartisan infrastructure law which had some Republicans voted for it to build the roads as the best roads, bridges, airports, water systems, high-speed internet, get rid of all those pipes that are polluting water, etcetera

You know, how can we be the most prosperous economy in the world without having the greatest infrastructure in the world? We used to be ranked number one in the world in infrastructure. Do you know what we ranked now? 13 -- 13.

Next week this infrastructure -- it's infrastructure week. Remember. Of the four years in the last guy, we had infrastructure week every week? Well, under my predecessor of infrastructure, we became a punch line. On my watch, we're making infrastructure a decade headline.

We already announced over 25,000 projects in 4500 towns across -- and across Westchester County project for better water -- wastewater and sewer systems, repairing dams, and doing so much more. I signed the CHIPS and Science Act which I felt very strongly about to bring back key parts of our supply chain back to America.

Remember when we had real trouble when automobiles in Detroit said they had to stop making automobiles? You know they take 30,000 chips that -- I mean to be 3000 chips. Well, guess what? They're all being made in Asia. And when the pandemic hit, they shut down so we're in trouble.

Folks, these are the small computer chips the size of the end of your little finger. Nearly everything in our lives from cell phones, automobiles, refrigerators, and most sophisticated weapons systems.

[14:20:07]

American vanities chips, we invented them. We made them better. But over time, we went from producing up to 40 percent of the world's chips to producing only 10 percent despite leading the world in research and design. Now, we're turning that around.

The private sector -- I went around the world at home when I convince people that they had to invest in building chip factories here they call them fabs, FABS, factories. Investing -- and guess what? We've got a commitment for investments of $470 billion in American -- by American companies home and abroad for manufacturing clean energy like micron and Syracuse investing $100 billion over the next 20 years to build semiconductors. Thanks to the hard work of Chuck Schumer and Governor Hochul.

IBM of Poughkeepsie, investing $20 billion over the next computer chip. Putting America back in the game and creating thousands of good- paying jobs. Many of these jobs in the -- first of all, the construction takes a lot -- a lot of jobs. They don't require four years degrees when you're in these fabs. Do you know what the average pay is going to be? Close to $100,000. You don't need a college degree.

That's progress. But I know folks you're still struggling with inflation. The way I think about as the way my dad used to talk about it around the kitchen table for real. He said how much is the monthly bills? At the end of the month, you have enough to pay for all your bills and just have a little breathing room left -- just a little breathing.

Well, that's why I wrote and signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Americans pay more for prescription drugs, and I said than any advanced country on Earth. We're fighting for years to allow Medicare to negotiate those lower drug prices. Well, we finally beat Big Pharma, and we did it without a single Republican vote. I'll have a pro -- have a profound impact and saving lives is already happening.

As I mentioned earlier, it's going to reduce the deficit by $160 billion just this year. And how many of -- how -- you know -- you know guys I said, diabetes. One in 10 Americans have diabetes. Millions need insulin to stay alive. Insulin has been around for a hundred years, cost 10 bucks to make it -- $10 package a total of $12. And they're paying hundreds of dollars making record profits. Well, we kept it at 35 bucks, as I said. And we're going to make sure -- we're going to make sure it's capped at 35 for everyone, not just those on Social Security.

Because guess what? It saves the taxpayer money. The federal government doesn't have to write a check for 400 bucks. They write a check for 35 bucks.

Look, the Inflation Reduction Act also makes the biggest investment in fighting climate change anywhere in the history of the world. As creating tens of thousands of jobs is a giant step toward saving the planet. Tax credit for consumers to weatherize their homes, many of you have done it purchased energy efficient windows doors, appliances, electric vehicles, can save an average of a thousand bucks a year.

Look, tax credits for states and businesses that employ renewable energy, solar wind, hydrogen, and more. Not a single Republican voted for this law. And now they want to get away with -- get rid of it all.

Why would they want to repeal a law that's creating American jobs and lowering costs for American families? Well, when we have -- when have we ever heard of a Republican opposing tax credits for businesses? Well, that's what they're doing this time.

Take a look at the New York Times yesterday and what they wrote, I think as a front page. Texas now is becoming one of the leading states in the nation in renewable energy. The number of wind farms they have, solar farms, and hydrogen. But now the Republicans want to get rid of this law -- these tax credits.

Well, why do you think that is? Because the fossil fuel industry wants to get rid of them. That's why. Even though we're creating jobs, for taking on climate change, they don't want it because it's so, so much more costly to go the other route.

They say it cost too much. But the truth is, it's too successful. And here's the real truth. Big Oil doesn't want it and Republicans are carrying their water. That's what this is all about.

Let me close with this. We've made so much progress, but there's so much more to do. We're on the cusp of a major change. We're creating jobs again. American manufacturers are booming again.

Where's it written that America can't lead the world of manufacturing? We're lowering the deficit. Towns that had been forgotten and left behind are coming alive again, bringing back a sense of pride.

[14:25:06]

All those chip factories -- fabs that I talked about, they're going to be all over America. They're not just going to be in the Northeast and the West Coast. They're all through the central America.

You know people who come from the -- people, like, for example, up in Scranton, where I came from, where I was born and raised, or other states across the country where all of a sudden, the factories that employed 6, 8 -- 6, 700 people for years shut down and went abroad. Not only did they lose the jobs, they lost their sense of pride. They lost their sense of belonging.

How many folks who have -- no folks in the Midwest who had their kids come up and say, Mom, Dad, I got a good education, but I got to leave. There's no jobs here. No reason to stay.

We're bringing jobs back all across America. This is no time to put all this at risk, to threaten a recession, to put at risk millions adopt to undermine America's standing in the world. Republican threats are dangerous and they make no sense.

Folks, we have to keep going and finish the job. I have long said it's never ever, ever been a good bet to bet against America. Never.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, as President Biden is taking his debt ceiling message to Valhalla, New York about 60 miles away on Long Island, New York Congressman George Santos has just pleaded not guilty to 13 federal charges in court. Prosecutors saying that he's being released on a $500,000 bond. The embattled Republican charged with seven counts of wire fraud among the most serious of the charges, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and also two counsel making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

We have our CNN team that is covering every angle of the story. So, let's bring them in starting with Paula Reid. Paula, what more are you learning?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Just moments ago, this initial appearance for Congressman Santos wrapped. As you noted, he pleaded not guilty to these 13 charges and he has been released. What's unclear right now, if he or his attorney will address the reporters you might be able to see are assembled over my shoulder.

Now, we did not see the congressman enter the courthouse. He was driven to this hearing. We didn't have the chance to ask him any questions. And it's unclear if he's going to come out and address reporters now.

But the Justice Department has accused him of repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself among the "brazen things" that they have accused him of -- that they have accused him of filing for -- fraudulently for unemployment benefits while he was running for Congress. They accuse him of fundraising off of political donors, saying that he was going to buy TV time, but instead of transferring that money to his personal account and using it to pay personal debts or even buy designer clothes. They also alleged that he lied on his required financial disclosure forms for the House of Representatives. So, if he comes out to address reporters, clearly a lot of questions for the congressman.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly, so many questions for him and for his attorney. Evan, this moved pretty quickly, this investigation to indictment. Some of the things we knew about, right, there were so many reports a lot of this had been aired in media outlets. We didn't know about the unemployment part of this.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Right. We did not know about the unemployment part of this, and even the campaign finance ones. The allegations here in this indictment are not really the ones that got all of the attention, Brianna, because we know certainly from people going through his campaign filings that there were a lot of expenses that were made just to the right amount so that he didn't have to detail them. And so, we do know, one of the things that's happening right now is that the FBI and the IRS are still doing an investigation. It is very possible that we may see additional charges brought by prosecutors as part of this investigation.

But as you pointed out, this is moved fairly quickly. This is a congressman who's only been in office since January, and it's a stunning -- just a stunning number of lies that have -- that had been uncovered just in that short amount of time. It's not a -- of course, it's not a crime to lie to voters about you know how much money you make, about some of your policies, plans, and so on.

Where you do get into trouble and what George Santos appears to have gotten into trouble for is because he filed some of these lies in official paperwork to the House Ethics Commission -- committee, for instance, telling them about the amount of money that he said he had in his bank accounts, he undercounted some of it in his 2020 campaign and then seem to inflate that in 2022. Appears to have been trying to -- you know, maybe create the image of a very successful business person to be able to persuade voters to vote for him.

But it is this one allegation about, you know, stealing money essentially from the taxpayers of New York under the guise of being unemployed.