CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with James Clyburn

Interview

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REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me, Wolf. You know, I feel very strongly that we have to think about the future of this country and how we will fit in the overall scheme of things. Now when you look at infrastructure, for instance, you hear already people saying we'll vote for traditional infrastructure issues. Well, the fact of the matter is, until Abraham Lincoln did the transcontinental railroad, railroad was not an infrastructure issue. But it is now.

Until Dwight Eisenhower did the Interstate highway, and they said highways were not infrastructure, but they are now. Today broadband is a big infrastructure issue. School construction is an education infrastructure issue. So, I will hope that when we get to our negotiations, people will think about what kind of country we're going to have 10 years from now, 20, 30 years from now, and what is critical in order for us to maintain our competitiveness around the world.

Infrastructure is going to be huge, but it's got to get beyond traditional notions in order to be what we need it to be in the future.

BLITZER: But as you know, there's a 50-50 split in the Senate. The Democrats have a very tiny, with three, four or five, majority in the House. You're going to have to compromise in some areas. You want to give us one or two examples?

CLYBURN: Well, I think we can compromise on time. We can compromise on certain -- you know, the size of certain projects. The fact is, we have to do health care, and health care needs to be done in such a way to be efficient and effective. You can't have effective health care without broadband. You've got to have telehealth, telemedicine. And so we can talk about how big that should be, but it's got to be. We're not going to have adequate education for our children unless they can have online learning.

We can't -- going to be able to have our kids going back to school safely unless we've got school buildings that will not be cesspools for them. We've got to have school buildings with HVAC systems that will work so that COVID-19 will not become incubators in our school, will not be incubated in the schools.

BLITZER: The Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, he now says he thinks other Democrats actually share Senator Joe Manchin's view that this nearly $4 trillion plan, quote, "jeopardizes," his words, "jeopardizes the future of our entire country."

How narrow a tightrope does President Biden have to walk right now to get this passed without losing Democratic votes?

CLYBURN: Well, Wolf, you know, I've had long talks with Senator Joe Manchin. We met last week. We weren't talking about this particular item. We talked about other things that we think need to be done. I share his concern. Nobody believes more than I do that deficit spending is not a good thing. Going too deeply in debt is not a good thing. But I also believe that we've got to give our children a chance at life.

I also believe that our senior citizens, who have given so much for us to be who and what we are today, need to be taken care of in their golden years. And so we've got to look at how much it will cost to do it and how much it will cost if we don't do it, and then decide how we do what makes sense.

Yes, this is going to be very expensive to do, but you aren't going to do infrastructure clipping coupons from the Sunday papers. You've got to put the investments out there and we've got to decide how much is too much and be sure that we're going to do what's not enough. BLITZER: The House majority whip James Clyburn, thanks so much for

joining us.

CLYBURN: Thanks for having me.

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