, getting that out and having it be a comprehensive strategy that is not just military, also >> today the center for american congress will hold a discussion on how technology is changing health care. watch live on c-span, online at c-span.org, or full coverage on c-spannow, our new video app. >> this afternoon president biden will provide an update on the u.s. economy. you can watch it live starting at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span online at c-span.org, or coverage on c-spannow our new video app. >> our first guest of the morning is -- nayak, the president for the center of american progress action fund and a counselor for the center for american progress. thank you for giving us your time.

i think the folks who watch the program long enough are mill your with the center for american progress, but what is the action fund and how is it different? guest: it is the active arm of the center. the center for american progress is one of the leading progressive think tanks. we really do policy work across a wide range of issues, national security, the economy, climate change, and the action fund focuses on the -- on taking the ideas and getting them implemented, turning them into laws and making sure that we are communicating in a way so that the american people understand how the laws are being implemented. host: how closely has the center been watching both the path it -- the passage of the infrastructure act itself but the current debate over the build back better act? guest: it has been a huge

priority, this has been the culmination of a decade of work by the center of our allies in the issues of child care, and the culmination of a lot of work in a really important moment. it is one that we are excited to feature. host: as far as the passage of the build back better act in the house, what is a concern as it goes towards the senate? guest: at the end of the day, it will pass, too -- given the tight margins, you need every democratic senator to vote for this and that creates a touch of anxiety. i feel very confident in saying that for every senator in the u.s. senate, this will be the most consequential bill that has ever come before them in terms of making a difference in the lives of their constituents. i think at the end of the day,

that is why maggert -- members of congress want to be in the u.s. senate and they want to make a difference to give them a chance and their families a chance to get ahead. there has never been a piece of legislation. i have been here 20 years doing work and over the last 20 or 4050 years this is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation, and i think that will be a compelling reason for it to get done. host: passage is one thing, and there are debates that certain programs or initiatives that were initially part of the package might get left out in the senate vote -- version, paid family leave, immigration provisions. if those things change, how strong is the package overall? guest: we are fighting hard for both of those provisions, which were included in the house package and we feel confident that they will be -- there will be some version of paid leave, the house has put in a minimum, and then certainly the

protections around immigration that the senate has been considering and were included in the house package, we hope both of those stay in and we feel confident that there will be the 50 votes to do that. i think the reality is that overall this is a really transformative package. obviously, it looks different than what the president initially proposed several months ago, and i think that is understandable. i think not everyone who is voting for this bill will get everything that they wants. but, every american will feel the difference of this bill. and you cannot always say that about legislation. the magnitude and way in which this bill will help people is still pretty significant. host: if you want to ask them questions you can call him on the lines, 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans.

independents, 202-748-8002. you can text us at 202-748-8003. can you imagine the various changes this bill has undergone, what are those concerns and the product -- and the concern for some is the price tag overall. what do you ping to the argument when price tags are debated? guest: that is not the -- what the american people care about. the price tag is not the thing that gets them excited about legislation or does not. it is not that it hurts, i think the polling is clear that the minute people here, the opportunity to log -- lower description -- prescription drug costs, the opportunity to give every family an extension of the child tax credit, lowering the cost of childcare, the range of ways when you start telling the american people what is actually included they view this as exactly they of that's exactly

what they have been wanting washington to do. the thing about the story of this bill is that we have spent 40 years in this country with an economic agenda that has really been about trying to grow a strong economy by giving tax cuts to the rich and reducing regulations with the hope that the benefits would trickle down to the rest of americans, and i think the american people and economists recognize the colossal failure, the middle class got decimated and we have not seen -- wages budge in 40 years and that is what the build back better agenda represents. it is a different approach to building a strong economy, which is about investing and working people, and families as opposed to trying to grow the economy at the expense of working people and families. i think when people understand that starting point a lot of

people will come to appreciate that this is the kind of legislation that people would have been clamoring for for decades. host: when it comes to the dollar figure, you probably saw the news last week from the cbo, the scoring of the bill even with every estimate put in, a deficit involved of $160 billion. do you think the american people care about the number or is it a political argument? guest: there is a lot of debate about how the cbo is scoring that. and just to give you one example, they do not really account for the way in which investing in the internal revenue service to make sure that people who are cheating on paying their taxes actually pay their fair share will generate revenue for federal government. and so there is a huge discrepancy in terms of how the treasury department scores a provision like that. they say will raise a net of

$400 billion. that is something that many economists say is conservative because we over the next decade will lose about $7 trillion in tax dollars because we did not collect them or people avoided paying them. so, i think this is going to be fully paid for. and, given the investments we are making, i really do not think the american people will be caught up on the cbo score. host: it being fully paid for, is that solely dependent on what the irs can bring in, or are there other factors? guest: no, i think there is a dynamic element to the scoring. i think the bottom line is that it is may be a helpful contrast, the democrats are making sure that these investments for working families are offset by a few really important things, one is allowing medicare for the first time to negotiate description drug prices.

and that is going to lower the cost of prescription drug prices for consumers also means the federal government itself will spend hundreds of billions of dollars less buying prescription drugs for medicare. so, there are those provisions, tax increase provisions, and there is really a lot of confidence from the treasury department, the white house, and our analysts that this bill will be fully paid for. host: this is our guest, navin nayak of the center for american progress action fund. the first call comes from marty in missouri, springfield. on the republican line. caller: i was just saying that this gentleman is wrong. he has from a far left organization, and he is only hitting the highlights of what he thinks the american people want to hear on what they are going to get. as far as the childcare and the

pharmacy prescription being paid for, this is going to be a bill from hell. that people will highly regret getting, and i like the way that they always hit the people who are for this bill, they always hit on what they think people will want to hear that they will get, rather than the devil is in the details. host: where do you think the bill is wrong? caller: that is the problem. most of the americans, including the congresspeople and senate people do not know what is in the bill. that is a lot of the problem. this gentleman does not know what is exactly and every bit of this bill. host: thank you very much. go ahead. guest: i really appreciate the comment because i think what she is capturing, and it is really hard to cut through is the deep cynicism that the american people feel about anything that comes out of washington.

we have had decades and decades of promises in the sense that washington says they will do something and then that is not how it works out. and it is part of my jobs a lot of my times watching focus blue -- groups and looking at polling and people are right to file sense of cynicism. and that is really our job and the administration is trying to communicate what is actually in the bill. i feel very confident that the more people share about what is in this bill it is already enjoyed really strong political support from democrats to independence, these -- independents, allowing medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs, there is a policy like that where you have 80 or 90% of all americans across political stripes saying yes, medicare should be allowed to negotiate prescription drug costs, which is something that families struggle with. this bill does that, and it will

lower the cost of drugs like insulin so that no one pays more than $35 a month. again, i say that, and even when i say it, i appreciate that marty is sharing that because the cynicism runs so deep in this country, but this is really a moment and if democrats can get this over the finish line it is the kind of bill that the american people should feel proud of because it is government working on behalf of the people and trying to do meaningful things to solve problems. host: how good of a job do you think that the president and democrats have done about informing people what is in it? guest: on the one hand it is a huge testament that the bill is really popular. in the sort of polarized political environment that we are in, republicans have been attacking the bill. fox news and the right reading

-- wing infrastructure has been attacking the bill from day one and you still get 60% or 70% of americans supporting individual pieces and the overall package. that underscores that something is different. if you go back to the debates around the affordable care act, it did not have this kind of popularity. it was under a lot of pressure eight months into the debate. on that front i think the president has done a fantastic job in the sense that the bill is popular. that being said, i think marty is not alone with not being able to name what is in the bill and there is a lot more work to do by all of us supporting the legislation to be able to communicate what the specifics are. host: here patricia in chicago on the line for democrats. caller: i want to ask a question and i still have to ask it. since we are trillions of dollars in debt, can we put

biden on the trillion dollar bill and biden -- and clinton on the billion dollar bill host: you're going to have to continue on. just go ahead. caller: cant we just pay our deficit off? host: that is patricia. guest: i think the encouraging thing on this bill is not only will it be paid for short-term, but long term the data is clear that it will actually reduce the deficit, and our deficit remains very manageable. i think the problem, the biggest problem with our economy is that working people have not seen their wages increase for decades , and necessities like childcare

and prescription drugs has seen prices skyrocket decade after decade and year after year. i think that is really what is important about this bill, it is trying to tackle the challenges every day americans face about their wages not going far enough and not being able to afford the things they need and accrue things that they might like to make their lives a little bit more comfortable and enjoyable, and i think at the same time this will make us more competitive over the long run and start to reduce the deficit, which is not our primary concern right now, it is about trying to help working people. host: ray in illinois, on the independent line. you are on, go ahead. caller: we are talking about how much money is going to be for the working people. so i was just wondering how much of the money actually goes directly to the families, or to

organizations, or to the states? how is this really going to touch family lives? a lot of people think that they will just get money in the mail, that it does not work that way. could you explain that to the people, please. guest: absolutely, when the bill gets complicated with so many important pieces there is, unfortunately, one answer to your solution which is a mix of a lot of different things, so the child tax credit which was transformative policy is that president biden and the democrats passed as part of the american rescue plan, just to be clear about it, every republican voted against that investment, the child tax credit actually does put money directly in people's checking accounts for 39 million families every month, and november 15, just last

monday, families would have gotten a $300 or $600 check in their account, which we know from data is making a huge difference in people's lives, helping them afford things and pay for expenditures in the immediate moment, and that is having a huge impact on the economy. other provisions are going to be invested in states and childcare will be moved through states agencies to increase wages for people who are working in those industries and help cut costs for the families that need childcare support. it is really a mix across the legislation, some of these will end up directly in accounts, and some of them you will notice when you go to the prescription drug counter the next time you fill out a refill and the cost of your prescription drug will be dramatically cut. i think people will feel the

benefits of this bill in different places throughout their lives, and again, you will not feel it the first day it passes. this will take time to implement, but the fact that it is coming and this is something that will make a difference directly in people's lives is really significant. host: what do you think about the influence that senator joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have had over the process? guest: maybe i will just step back for a moment, obviously after democrats won those two senate races, the runoff in georgia and took control of the senate there was a realization that president biden was going to get his agenda accomplished, which needed to be ambitious because of the scale of the problems that the american people are facing and required every single senator and the margins in the house are not that great, only four votes can

be spared. i think you are looking at the breadth of the entire democratic congress from someone like aoc and bernie sanders to someone like joe manchin and kristin cinema coming to an agreement. at the end of the day, they have made cuts that we do not support and just had to happen, with the most important part is that they have been negotiating and engaged and trying to actually get to a solution recognizing that these are opportunities to make this's kind of a difference in people's lives are rare, which is why they are both there. they have been instructed to try and find solutions that they could support and that will have a meaningful difference. host: senator synema talk to local television over the build back better. i want to play a little bit of what she had to say. [video clip] >> i continue my negotiations

with president biden, the white house and my colleagues on this next proposed piece of legislation which could have important impacts in arizona. as i am focusing on that negotiation i am keeping a couple things in mind. one, ensuring any spending is targeted, so that it is efficient and effective, and it is respectful of the fact that arizonans want to keep more dollars in their pockets and given the inflation that we are seeing a need to take out -- they need to keep dollars in their pockets. second, i want to ensure that any action that we take is fiscally responsible. so we are not taking any kind of tax increases that reduce american competitiveness or hurt our business' abilities to get ahead. [end video clip] host: two topics, what is your reaction? guest: i think it is encouraging

if those are her two issues that she wants to make sure are met, to take the first one for targeted spending and her concerns around inflation. this bill offers a -- every american family with children tax cuts by continuing the child tax credit, and that is erratically putting money in people's pockets, and i think the data is really clear over the impact that this policy has had just since july when it took effect. we have seen not only poverty in this country cut nearly in half, which in and of itself is a really -- is a feat that we should be proud of. it is discouraging how many americans given the wealth of this country live in poverty and the fact that we have made such progress with one policy is something that people should be proud of. but the data shows that americans even after inflation have more money in their pocket

because of policies like the child tax credit that democrats passed. continuing this policy to ensure that americans can afford the increases in prices which are real right now for them, whether at the gas pump or in other aspects of their life. the good news is that democrats have put more money in people's pockets and she also mentioned on that first point, inflation, and i am really heartened by what the experts and the economists -- the economists are clear on this which is that this will lower inflationary pressure on the economy by making us and the economy more competitive, by making these sort of investments in productivity and increasing wages, we will have a more dynamic and competitive economy which makes huge investments in technologies and industries that the u.s. has not been at the forefront of, energy is a good

example of that. there are a lot of reasons to feel confident that the two issues that she has raised will be addressed were already addressed in the legislation. host: this is navin nayak for the center for american progress action fund. this is diane on our phone lines. desoto, kansas. republican lines. caller: i would like to talk about the child tax credit, the $600 a month per child that persons can get. it is my understanding that there is no work requirements at all associated with this. furthermore, that there is a virus -- very high income level that people can qualify for. i have heard over $100,000 a year. please explain to me how that can be justified when there are people living on social security $1000 a month, and the contrast

does not make sense to me. the second point i would like to bring up is the concept -- the provisions in several parts of the law, and to me, that is nothing but a budget gimmick. it has been shown that people will not want to this stopped after a one year, and therefore the cost goes up by trillions of dollars in the last thing i have to say is thank god for joe manchin and kristin cinema -- sinema. as a republican i would vote for either one of them in -- as president. guest: thank you for those questions. let me start with the second one first. i do hope that congress extends the child tax credit. we support making it permanent and wish that congress had made it permanent. if they do that there are plenty of ways to be sure that it is

paid for. i will give one example. the tax rate for corporations in this country prior to donald trump and republicans having their tax package was 28%. if folks remember 40 years ago the democrats and the republicans in congress use the same process on a partyline vote through reconciliation where they passed legislation. you've heard a little bit about what democrats are trying to do with the process, lower prescription drug costs, invest in childcare, filled a different kind of republic gains -- different kind of economy. republicans gave tax cuts to the wealthy, $2 trillion completely unpaid for. one big provision that we which had been a part of the package that was not included is actually taking the corporate tax rate down from a low of 21,

which is where republicans put it which has been a boon from -- for corporations, profits have soared without benefits to the people. taking it from 21% back to 28% would more than help pay for extending provisions like the child tax credit. on the one hand you are right some of these provisions, we hope that they do get amended, there is no shortage of ways to make sure that they are paid for through this, and then on your first point, i think the important thing to remember is that we should be helping families raise their children. we know that -- and i am a parent of two young kids, the way in which you raise kids is the parents' choice, but we have failed families in this country are burdened with real expenses that come with having kids, and those are expenses from

affording childcare, to the clothing and food expenses with -- which increase with having kids and a lot of other countries that are successful ensure that kids have the best start which we know is so important. investments we make in children and helping families raise our kids has huge benefits, not just that is the right thing to do from a moral perspective, but it is in the best interest of our country over the long term that making those investments should be something that democrats, republicans, and independents support. those are investments in the future of this country and that is the reason why the child tax credit is so popular. it is not telling people how to spend their money it is making sure that they have the extra support that they need to help with any costs that come with having to raise kids. host: it looks like you have a couple of artists in your family.

this is larry, texas. the democrat's line. caller: yes, i was wondering in this package deal that they are coming out with, i know you are talking about lowering prescription costs for the seniors. is there anything else they are doing for the seniors in this package? or is it still going to be where they are giving refugees -- i mean illegals, four hundred $50,000 a person. i was trying to ask what kind of difference and other tax credits . for the kids it is fine, but what about the seniors other than the prescriptions? thank you. guest:guest: you think the prescription drug price is not a small thing. my research through focus groups and other things, we

consistently hear from seniors that prescription drugs remains a huge challenge and a real pain point for them. i think the fact that we are finally addressing this with something so common sense that allows medicare, which spends a lot of money buying prescription drugs on behalf of seniors, to negotiate those prices so that pharmaceutical companies cannot randomly and arbitrarily be waving the prices of lifesaving drugs. i don't want to this that as just a small thing. that is a really meaningful thing. the benefits of those cost savings will improve not just seniors, but also to other americans who rely on those drugs. i think that is a really important thing. the benefits are not contained only to some americans, but that all americans are going to benefit.

i think the other thing i would point to is a huge investment in home care basically allowing both increasing the access. we know there is a huge backlog where families are struggling to meet the needs of taking care of loved ones at home and getting affordable quality care their family needs for the elderly can be in the places with their families at times when they need it. this means a huge investment so that we have strong, stable workforce providing that care and increasing the access by removing the backlog. that is one other piece i would point to that i think it is going to be really meaningful for seniors. we know a lot of family struggle with the cost and access to be

able to take care of elderly families. host: there is a viewer off of twitter asking why does the bell wanted to lift the cap on state and mobile taxes. i know it falls within a certain bracket. what do you think of the addition of those salt taxes? guest: i think there is a lot of conversation we did not get into. i think this is somewhere where the senate is going to probably have a say in changing the bell. i think there are a lot of democrats who felt the changes were republican made to the state and local deduction went too far and basically penalized a lot of families particularly in states where the tax rates are high like new jersey, california, new york, where they do have high state-level taxes. though states were penalized.

i think there are senators who are trying to make sure that the benefit of fixing this really improves the family announcer: we will leave this program here but you can finish it if you go to our website, www.c-span.org.to take you now to a virtual discussion on health care by the center for american progress right here on c-span. >> ... showing that the harms of ai and data-driven tools often unfairly fall on vulnerable, underserved and excluded communities. president biden has summed up the process quite well. this could be a moment marked by peril or we could make it a moment of promise and possibility. that's why the administration is fighting to get research to ensure new technologies are rooted in our common values