ICYMI: New Dem Chair Annie Kuster on MSNBC's Morning Joe Urging Lawmakers to Support Bipartisan Debt Ceiling Agreement to Prevent Catastrophic Default
"You can either be part of the solution or part of the problem, and our Members are choosing to be part of the solution."
This morning, New Democrat Coalition Chair Annie Kuster (NH-02) appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to lay out why New Dem leaders are supporting the bipartisan debt ceiling agreement and urge lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to advance this agreement to prevent economic catastrophe.
You can watch Chair Kuster’s appearance on MSNBC here and read the transcript below:
Willie Geist: Let's bring in the Chair of the New Democrat Coalition, Congresswoman Annie Kuster of New Hampshire. Congresswoman, it’s good to have you on this morning. Do you share the confidence we've heard just in the last few minutes around the table here, and by the way from some of your Republican colleagues who are more center-right, that there will be the votes by the end of this week before that X-date to get this bill through and to get the debt ceiling raised?
NDC Chair Kuster: Well good morning, Willie. I was certainly glad to hear my colleague Dusty Johnson say the Republicans will put up their votes. I’m the Chair of the New Democrat Coalition. We're almost 100 center left Democrats and we are working hard, talking to our colleagues now, but seeing a lot of support. I think you characterized it exactly right. It's not perfect, and everybody’s got something in there that they want to dive into a little bit deeper. They've got some issues with. But, look, at the end of the day, you've got to step up and do the right thing. You know, you can either be part of the solution or part of the problem, and our Members are choosing to be part of the solution.
Geist: Congresswoman, what do you say to some of the more progressive Members of your own caucus, the Democrats who say the President gave away too much here, we shouldn't have work requirements, kind of ticking down the list? What do you tell them to earn their votes here?
Kuster: Well, one thing that hasn't been talked about very much is this was a budget negotiation that now means we won't have a government shutdown in September. And I've been through three or four government shutdowns in the decade that I've been here, and that is extremely disruptive to real people's real lives. We should put that on the chalkboard as things that we got. We protected Social Security, we protected Medicare, we protected Medicaid, and we do want to make sure that we bring those deficits down. I come from a part of the country where every tax dollar should be spent wisely or not spent at all. Let's make sure we are taking care of business, helping the most vulnerable amongst us, protecting our homeland and our security, protecting our veterans–– that was a big goal for us. We did get some changes in the negotiation at the end that I'm proud of. I want to make sure this gets to the finish line. So I'll be encouraging them to step up and do the right thing.
Claire McCaskill: Congresswoman, Claire McCaskill here. Pardon me while I get into the weeds of vote counting. It's my understanding that McCarthy has promised 150 Republican votes. I'd love you to confirm that. And then secondly, this thing swirling around the Rules Committee, he put some very extreme voices on the Rules Committee, and there seems to be a disagreement. The three very extreme voices there, some of them are saying that he promised, when he got their votes for Speaker, that all of the Republicans would have to unanimously support something for it to come out of the Rules Committee. On the other hand, there are others saying that there only has to be seven of the nine Republicans agreeing. Could you shed some light on that? Did he make a deal to get the Speakership that's going to get in the way here?
Kuster: Well, I was an observer, you might recall, going through 15 votes while he got to his Speakership. I wasn't party to those conversations, but the Republicans I've talked to said they didn't hear that conversation either. We're a majority institution, even on the Rules Committee. And if we get a majority vote, we'll be able to get that out of committee. So you're pointing to an internal disagreement, and I think today is a critical day. You know, the next 48 hours here are going to be very, very important for our country, for our economy. People are flying in from all over the country today. The Rules Committee starts at 2 pm., and then we have our suspension votes to make sure our–– checking off our attendance tonight, and then tomorrow we'll start with the bill on the floor and we’ll go from there.
Mika Brzezinski: Chair of the New Democrat Coalition, Democratic Congresswoman Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, thank you very much for being on this morning. We’ll be watching.
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