04/29/21 04/29/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> nobody is responding. please help me, please. my father is dying. yesterday i lost my younger brother. amy: india is facing one million infections every three days, a

covid storm. we will look at the devastating situation and that reasons find this lethal psycho way. we will speak with journalist rana ayyub. her cover story, "how modi failed us." as pressure grows to put it into vaccine hoarding, share the supply with india and the rest of the world, we will speak with a doctor and economist. on the eve of his 100th day in office, president biden gives his first speech to a joint session of congress. for the first time in history, two women sat behind him, house speaker nancy pelosi and vice president kamala harris. pres. biden: madame speaker, madame vice president. no president has said those words from this podium.

and it is about time. amy: predent biden used his address to propose trillions of dollars in new economic proposals, calling the lawmakers to expand the social safety net with $4 trillion in taxes from the rich and corporations. we will get response from congressmember ro khanna. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. in his first speech to a joint session of congress, president biden urged lawmakers to support his plan to spend trillions of dollars on the nation's infrastructure and to expand the social safety net, and funding it with new taxes on the rich. speaking on the eve of his 100th day in office, biden unveiled his $1.8 trillion american families plan. pres. biden: the families plan

will provide access to quality, affordable childcare. guarantee -- proposing legislation we guarantee low and middle income families will pay no more than 7% of their income for high-quality care for children up to the age of five. the most hard-pressed working families won't have to spend a dime. third, the american families plan will finally provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave, family medical leave. amy: biden was speaking before room of 200 that holds 1600. they were wearing masks and were socially distance. he also condemns systemic racism and called on lawmakers to pass the george floyd justice in policing act.

biden repeated his vow to end what he call the "forever war in afghanistan." he also referenced china four times. pres. biden: we are in competition with china and other countries to win the 21st century. amy: the evening also marked a historic first, with two women sitting behind president biden on the dais -- house speaker nancy pelosi and vice president kamala harris. to mark his 100th day in office, president biden is heading to georgia today where he will meet with former president jimmy carter. india is facing a growing public health catastrophe. officials have announced about 3600 people died of coronavirus wednesday, but that figure is believed to be a vast undercount. another 380,000 new cases were confirmed as india's health system struggles to deal with a massive surge in patients and a shortage in oxygen. in new delhi, makeshift crematoriums are being set up in

parks and parking lots. despite the surge, elections are going ahead in west bengal where prime minister narendra modi has held large political rallies despite repeated warnings from public health experts. covid cases are also rising in neighboring bangladesh, nepal, and pakistan. we will go to india after headlines. a warning, the following headlines contains graphic details of hate crimes and police killings. here in the u.s., federal prosecutors have indicted three white men georgia for hate crimes and attempted kidnapping in connection with the death of ahmaud arbery, a 25-year-old black man who was chased down by the men and shot to death while he was out for a jog last year. the men -- retired police officer greg mcmichael, his son travis, and their friend william bryan -- already face numerous charges in georgia, including felony murder. in north carolina, a state judge

is refusing to release bodycam footage of the police killing of andrew brown, jr. for at least 30 days, but he did order more footage to be shown to brown's family. the family has only seen a 20-second snippet of video which they say shows brown had his hands on the steering wheel of his car when he was shot dead while police were carrying out an arrest warrant. an independent autopsy showed brown was shot five times, including once in the back of the head. harry daniels, an attorney for the brown family, called for the police footage to be released. >> let's not get distracted. an innocent man was gunned down, shot in the back of the head, vehicle riddled with bullets from the rear. i heard statements being made, well, he might have hit the deputies. or he might've did that. well, show us the video.

show us the tape. amy: in chicago, newly released video shows police killed 22-year-old anthony alvarez last month while he was running away during a foot chase. police have not said why they initially confronted and then chased alvarez. at one point in the video, he is heard saying, "why you shooting me?" the officer said, "you had a gun!" alvarez was killed on march 31, two days after chicago shot dead -- chicago police shot dead another young latino male, 13-year-old adam toledo, also after a foot chase. at the time of his death, the seventh grader had his empty hands up in the air. fbi agents have raided the new york home and office of rudy giuliani and seized his electronic devices as part of a probe into the attorney's dealings with ukraine. giuliani is the former mayor of new york and the personal attorney of donald trump. the fbi also seized the cellphone of conservative

attorney victoria toensing who has woed closely with giuliani. in colombia, tens of thousands of people took to the streets wednesday after trade unions called for a national strike to protest against the government of iván duque and a proposed tax reform bill. at least two protesters were killed. union leaders said protests occurred across colombia. >> this march is the biggest display of outrage against this government, against the tax reforms, and against the labor reform. the government has gone against the country and the country is responding in more than 500 cities in the country. amy: the pentagon has confirmed to the news outlet vox that u.s. contractors are continuing to help saudi arabia maintain its warplanes despite president biden's pledge to end offensive support for saudi's devastating six year war in yemen. the pentagon defended the role

of the contractors, sayg the u.s. military relationship with saudi arabia is "important to the region." press freedom grou are calling on israel to release palestinian journalist alaa al-rimawi, who was detained a week ago when israeli authorities raided his home. according to reporters without borders, the al jazeera reporter has been on a hunger strike for the past week and is being held in solitary confinement. meanwhile, another palestinian journalist, the freelance photographer mohammed atiq, is being held in an undisclosed location after being arrested at an israeli checkpoint last week. scientists have found glaciers are melting 31% faster than they did just 15 years ago. the most impacted glaciers have been in alaska, iceland, the alps, anthe himalas. robert mcnabb of ulster university linked the melting glaciers to human-induced climate change. >> on the global scale, the main driver of that is temperature.

it is hard to separate the fact the temperatus what is causing the melt with the fact humans are by and large causing the increase in temperature. amy: in other climate news, the senate has voted to reimpose obama-era regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas wells. the vote reverses a move by the trump administration to weaken the rules on methane, which is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide. president biden has nominated houston-area sheriff ed gonzalez to be the next head of immigration and customs enforcement. gonzalez was a vocal critic of the trump administration's immigration policies, speaking out against ice raids and the separation of families at the border. in 2017, gonzalez ended harris county's involvement in ice's 287g program, which deputizes

local law enforcement officers to perform the functions of federal immigration agents within local jails. in arizona, republican governor doug ducey has signed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that makes it a felony for doctors to terminate pregnancies because of a fetal genetic defect such as down syndrome. the bill's language is so broad it could also lead to charges against nurses and other staff at health centers. arizona state representative diego espinoza blasted the new law, saying it is "anti-families, anti-woman, and anti-doctor." meanwhile in a good or, celebrating after ecuador's high court decriminalid abortion in cases of rape. the national congress of american indians has slammed cnn for not taking santorum off the dish, to a student. >> we created a blank slate. we birthed a nation from

nothing. there's is nothing here. we have native americans, yes, but there isn't much native american culture in american culture. amy: the national congress of american indians criticized cnn for not firing santorum. the group's president fawn sharp said -- "televising someone with his views on native american genocide is fundamentally no different than putting an outright nazi on television to justify the holocaust." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i am amy goodman, joined by my co-host nermeen shaikh. hi, nermeen. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: a warning to our viewers, footage in this segment will include disturbing images. india has topped 18.3 million covid-19 cases after adding one

million new cases in just the past three days. at least 205,000 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic. over the past day, 380,000 new infections and 3645 deaths have been reported -- both record highs. researchers say the true toll of the pandemic is likely exponentially higher. in india's capital new delhi, one covid-19 death was being reported every four minutes. makeshift mass cremation facilities have been set up in parks and parking lots, with rows of bodies being burned on funeral pyres. with hospitals overwhelmed, some patients have been turned away and left to deal with their infections on their own. >> my father is in a very critical condition. i'm getting no help. nobody is responding. please help me. please. my father is dying.

yesterday i lost my younger brother. amy: vital supplies are coming onto a india including the united states come over the country still faces dark shortages. close the new for oxygen is not like food or water that can hold up for a few hours and then be given. it cannot even be held up for a few minutes. amy: that was a doctor at a new delhi hospital. as the surge continues come health officials warn or than 8 million people are expected to vote in state elections and was bengali. he could me the region a new icenter of t virus. ss tn 2% of most 1. billion has be fully vacnated since the rollout started in january. that will open up to all adults on may 1. but the massive problem is the lack of vaccines. for more crime india, we go to

mumbai where we welcome back rana ayyub, global opinions writer for "the washington post." her latest cover story for "time magazine" is headlined "how modi failed us." thank you for joining us. i know you are an the midst of a complete catastrophe with your own family as well as everything around you, people dying in the streets, gasping for air. can you describe the situation for us? then put it in the political context of how the second surge, this covid storm -- one million people every three days being infected -- happened. >> it is devastating, amy. the images you is outside hospitals, outside crematoriums -- i mean, an example, there was a news report today is being used to burn that -- it is exhausting. there are more bodies and a crematoriums.

i just got a video from journalist who sit me a video of 70 bodies laying outside one single crematorium. what i'm hearing from a lot of journalists is the death toll in india is anywhere between 3000 to 10,000. that is 10 times higher than what the indian government officials are saying. last evening, my family, seven members of my family tested positive. the doctors have told him they're not covid positive. my uncle was critical last night . be with my privilege and contacts and access, had to put out a tweet to get him a bed. i did manage a bed for my uncle, but others and in the country, especially in rural india, are not fortunate. i spoke to someone in a rural

town and they said there are more dead bodies everywhere. yesterday the indian medical association called bridger modi the super-spreader -- narendra modi the super-spreader. the high court i said he should be charged for murder. the highest cases right now -- despite all of this, the country is not stopping. instead of stopping the devastation, this country once to stop journalists from reporting. that is what they're prioritizing. they want to stop journalists from treating their blocked

accounts on social media. the chief minister of the largest state in india has sent out a message that no hospital should put out request for oxygen and if they do this, they will be charged. a young boy was begging for oxygen for his father on social media. he has been charged. that is the level of devastation in this country. it is exhausting. i have barely slept seven hours in the last three days. i don't think many of my journali friends have slept. there's acr friend or acquaintae begging for hospital bed or oxygen. there is not a single family in india -- th is what it is, amy. nermeen: one of the reasons this

catarophe has been brought so sharply into both global and domestic view is that, as you say, not a single family has been unaffected -- that is reach and poor alike. but as you also point out, wh is also going on in rural india, it has not received as much attention where there are many people dying without even knowing what illness ty dying from. could you talk a little bit more about what is happening in rural india and how this illness spread to villages across the country? >> the carnage at this point in time is now unfolding in rural india because a lot of these migrant workers have taken it from the cities to the villages.

they are spreading it because dish the villages i've spoken to come including on family, the looked her doctor said -- they're not calling them covid coronavirus list they don't even know it a vaccine is. a lot of them don't know what an antigen test is. when i called my uncle and asked him to get an antigen test, he asked me, what is an antigen test? that is the level of misinformation. there are no doctors -- how do you expect the hospitals to function? there's nothing being done to make sure the virus is not spreading. in my own family, there's no social distancing happening in the villages. everybody is mingling. there is not enough power, no

oxygen functioning under the hospital. people are dying on the pavement at the hospital. the real carnage is unfolding in india and no one is happening in rural india. there are no doctors. it is a class problem, a problem between cities and rural india. there has always been up crisis of health care in india, but never has it been so acutely divided as it is now. every day there are at least 1000 just been reported from rural india and the government is not reporting them as covid deaths because these people have no access to testing. if there's no access to testing, they do not go to the hospital. the government counts them -- nermeen: could you talk about

what the modi government said it will do to respond to the crisis, including, as you point out, the conspicuous absence of the most urgently needed medical supplies, including, of course, oxygen? >> the modi government, into speech the last time he said he would make sure oxygen reaches every part of the cotry. you will be able to solve the problem when you acknowledge the problem. the debt mortality rate they say is only 0.03% and is much less so than the rest of the world, but if you don't -- refused to acknowledge the problem, refused to acknowledge bodies lying all over the country -- there is a problem of oxygen. the prime minister does not want to be seen as taking help from the united nations. in fact, it is been told the new

parliament building being built in delhi, the prime focus will be on the new parliament building. is that priority? even when the prime minister has spoken one so far, announced dish he never takes a press conference. 10 days ago, since then, there's been hardly any communication from the prime minister or the health minister. still campaigning is to looking at the election. two days ago, a rally in southern india for municipal elections. thousands participated. what action you expect of the prime minister who clearly has no plan in to look at this list of international help is coming from various countries.

canada has offered as has the united states, but it is too little, too late. we still need a lot of help. this is too little for now. amy: before we go, the latest information we have, journalists, about 100 have died. half of that just in the last two weeks alone with information that they're being cracked down on getting up information -- not just journalists. modi government removing tweets criticizing the handling of covid and a lot of these large multinational social media platforms cooperating with him to remove them. >> absolutely. social media platforms have always been complicit in enabling modi. it is no different right now then removing posts critical of modi's management.

journalists should be vaccinated and they are not being vaccinated. also, the three journalists i spoke with sidney videos of the devastation. i wanted to write about them and they said, please, do not name us. if you do that, they will confiscate our property. that is the priority, this dictator who said anyone who reports on the shortage, the property will be confiscated. journalists are on the receiving end of this tirade of the government who is trying to basically make every attempt to make sure the real news does not get out of india. amy: rana ayyub, thank you for joining us in this time of terrible stress and catastrophe

in your country. journalists, global opinions writer for "the washington post." we will into your piece for "time magazine" titled "how modi failed us." please be safe. the pressure grows to put it into vaccine hoarding and share supply with india and the rest of the world, not to mention get out of the way for companies to be able to get patent recipes so they can make vaccines for india and other places. we will speak with an indian doctor and economist. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. as we turn now to continue with india to look the devastating situation there, looking at the reasons finds legal second wave and what can be done to help bring it under control.

as in other countries, more infectious covid-19 variants have been linked to a spread in cases. the so-called "india variant" has now been detected in 17 countries. -- 19 countries. to discuss this, we have a doctor. explain these variants in india and how they have contributed to this covid storm. >> india did very, very well with the first wave last year compared to many other countries. cases peaked and came down fairly quickly and there has been a plateau. cases have been occurring at a low level for several months. corona virus has somewhat all viruses do, they tend to mutate over time will stop -- over

time. they can then behave differently given rise called riant. the indian variant is widy reported as being present in many parts of the country. the other variant also circulating in india is the u.k. variant. between them, these two variants probably make up the majority of the viruses circulating. this virus behaves differently now and that it is much more infectious. it is still not known whether it is also perhaps causing more severe disease, causing disease but presenin different ways and whether it is causing more deaths. simply because there's not enough information. we need a lot more testing that is happening now. and not just regular testing of individual cases, but sequencing to understand how the virus is mutating. nermeen: could you talk about why it is you think the death

rate has gone up so exponentlly, not to mention the infection rate? we don't know whether the variants are responsible for death. talk about the option of crucial medical supplies and what else you think reasons are for what a second wave is so widespread. >> there's several reasons why it is so widespread. first, the variants are much more infectious. when there's one case, there many more people infected from that one case than the original strain of the virus. the second thing is behaviors. people have completely relaxed their guard. and the last few months, there has been very little masking in india and huge, huge gatherings. these essentially have been super-spreader events and the virus is raging across the country. those are the two really big

reasons. as far as the death rate, even if the variant strain was not causing more deaths than before, the previous strain of the virus come the medical system is now clearly overwhelmed. we know from our own experiences in the united states, which is really, resource rich compared to india, but when we have the surge in new york, what happened was there was a huge influx of cases into the hospital. hospitals are at their best when things are controlled and nurses and doctors can do everything they have been trained to doo take care of patients. when the numbers of patients coming in overwhelms the syem, everything breaks down despite the best of intentions, even if you have medications, even if you have ventilators, en if you have oxygen you can't have enough staff to take care of all of these people. you do not have enough triage facilities to ensure the sickest people get care immediately.

even in the absence of a variant, this kind of devastating death toll is an evitable when you overwhelm the medical system. amy: doctor, thank you for joining us from the mayo clinic, infectious disease physician. as we continue on what is happening in india and how it can be dealt with, particularly around the issue of vaccine apartheid and vaccine equity. as the death toll mounts in india, pressure is mounting for the u.s. and other wealthy countries to put in and to vaccine hoarding ensure supply with india and the rest of the rld. top white house advisor dr. anthony fauci addressed the crisis in india, saying -- "the only way that you're going to adequately respond to a global pandemic is by having a global response, and a global response means equity throughout the world." calls have also been growing for wealthy members of the wto to waive intellectual property rights related to covid-19

vaccines. earlier this week, democratic lawmakers and organizations working on this issue held a news conference to deliver a petition, over to my people, urging president biden and the debbie geo to grant the waiver. this is senator bernie sanders. close to me it seems this is not ally a debatable issue. we have the tools to save human lives, and those tools should be readily available to all people. for people and africa, asia, latin america, and throughout the world have as much right to be protected from the virus, have as much right to live as people in wealthier nations. to me, this is not a huge debate. this is common human morality. amy: the wto meets again next week to reconsider the waiver.

for more, we're joined by jayati ghosh, an economics professor at the university of massachusetts-amherst. she was previously an economics professor at jawaharlal nehru university in new delhi, india, where she taught for 35 years. thank you for joining us, professor. let's talk about the causes of this catastrophe in india right now and what vaccine equity looks like -- particularly, with the wealthiest country in the world, the united states, should be doing rig now. >> the catastrophe in india i would say right now is a man-made catastrophe because it really reflects a government that has become casual, responsible, and actively engaged in super-spreader events. we have had massive gatherings, political rallies addressed by political leaders in which all guidelines were floute we have had their bringing forward a very major hindu

festival at whicfor million people dissipated over the course of three weeks. again, a huge super-spreader and we have not even seen the full impact of that. those people are returning to their homes carrying this disease with them. we are going to see much more of that if there is no infrastructure for health. i think we have not seen the worst of it yet. it is beyond horror what is happening. i have friends and colleagues who have died from lack of oxygen positive this is not yet the worst. we need to vaccinate as many people as can be done. there's a shortage of vaccines in india and globally, but this is an artificial shortage. this need not happen. there's a net capacity for vaccines to vaccinate 60% of the population by the end of this year, the global population.

if we waive the directional property rights and transfer -- and electoral property rights and transfer to different parts of the world who are willing to make it. if it was subsidized. if we waive and allow the knowledge, we will be able to vaccinate significant part of the population and do something about arresting this pandemic. every day we do not do this is more lives lost. nermeen: professor, india is home to the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, the serum institute. how is it the institute has failed to produce larger numbers of vaccines for domest use? >> well, every company has its

own manufacturing capacity. they have done as much as they can, but it is ridiculous to expect one company to meet the needs of 1.3 billion people or the global population because they also have many export commitments to covax and other areas. you really have to expend the production. you have to license other producers. it is a no-brainer. it is so obvious that you cannot rely on the nufacturing capacity of just a few companies. this is a problem that has plagued the entire attitude to vaccine development and production in this pandemic. a few companies have the rights and thei moving -- holding onto those rights and only producing themselves. they must share this knowledge and allow other producers because that is the only way we are going to combat the crisis. you can't blame one company as i, "you're not producing enough." it is impossible for one company. amy: mine announced this

historic deal between mark, which did not make a vaccine, johnson & johnson, just so that those vaccines could get out there. that was a while ago. i want to ask you, professor, about the back-and-forth. he was an interview with medicare for all activist, the disability rights activists ady barkan during the 2020 presidential campaign, then-candidate joe biden vowed to not let intellectual property barriers prevent other countries from mass producing coronavirus vaccines. this is part of their exchange. >> 50 was discovers a vaccine first, lee committed to sharing that technology with other countries and will you ensure there are no patents to stand in the way of other countries and companies mass-producing those life-saving vaccines? mr. biden: absolutely, positively. this is the only humane thing in the world to do. where i president now, and i propose to do it now, set aside

$25 billion to put together a plan now, this incident, how we will distribute that vaccine when it is made available to guarantee against every american and access is made availableo e rest o the wld. so t answer is, s, y, yes. d it is t only aood thg to d it is overwhelmingly in our interest to do as well. overwhelmingly. amy: so that was candidate buying. is he living up to this promise? close so far, and, not. the u.s. has continued to hold the waiver. i am hoping that that should make the u.s. dropped his opposition. it is just really 14 or 16 countries and of world, the rich countries home to big pharma

companies, that are preventing this from happening. every other member of the wto is supporting this. we really need them to live up to what they believed and even a few months ago. it is not just a moral imperative -- of course, it is, but it is sensible. if you do not contain this virus, you're going to get these new mutant variants and you'll have to have the whole process over again in your own country. it is in the interest of rich country populations to release these patents right now. nermeen: i want to bring in congressmember ro khanna into the conversation. he has been leading calls for the u.s. to do more to help countries like india, including to push forward this waiver to the trips agreement. good morning, congressman khanna . could you talk about what is happening and what you believe the u.s. needs to do now? >> thank you.

the professor is absolutely right. we have to license this technology so that other countries can produce their vaccine. the argument manufacturing capacity isn't there is simply not accurate. i was speaking to the ambassador of india yesterday. he said the to production sites ready to manufacture this vaccine. obviously, we need to invest more in transferring the technical know-how in further building production capacity, but the main thing is they need to have the vaccine recipe, the formula to be able to do this. one misconction is this idea if we have the trips waiver that somehow pfizer or moderna won't get paid. that is false. this is not asking companies to give away if are free. we are saying they need to license it. it would require compensation. it is just ey would be able to use the vaccine -- currently, it

is important understand, they are not allowing manufacturers to use the vaccine even those willing to pay for it. amy: york he much to the democratic leadership in both houses come also in the white house, what is happening? you heard that interaction where candidate biden said he absolutely understands this and that cooperation is happening to develop in the u.s. like merck and johnson & johnson. when will this happen internationally in terms of the u.s.? >> several have made it clear to the administration that we need to do it, we need to -- trips waiver. joe stiglitz takes to "the washington post" op-ed come advocating for this. i think the concern is these companies, pfizer imager to come

have so much power over the distribution of vaccines in the united states, the production of vaccine, there's some concern that no one wants to rock the boat with these companies because obviously, we want to make sure everything goes smoothly in the united states. but i believe president biden gets on the phone with these ceos and makes the case to them, they will have to comply. they will continue the production in the united states and they will actually see it is in the long-term strategic interest with the markets in india and the rest of the world to at the very least temporarily suspend the ip requirements and share the vaccine. amy: yeah four in american congress members -- you have four indian american congress members. pramila jayapal just went home, came back to this country after her family was affected, and

said to a doctor from california and you have covers member christian murphy of illinois demanding this happen. >> nermeen highlighted the importance of representation. i never fully appreciated it until this crisis but you will see more voices for one of the forces sounding the alarm because either having family there are representing constituencies with a lot of family there. i bet the president -- i am glad the president has taken exigent dissent oxygen comes in ppe, send essential equipment that india needs. but a lot of it was in response to the activism in the early voices in congress. now the key issue is the trips waiver, having the president call these pharmaceutical companies and say, you're going to get paid, are going to get compensated, it is in your long-term commercial interest

but you can't be refusing to license your vaccines. that is what is going on. we should be absolutely clear about this. it is not that they are asking for money, not that they're asking for a profit. it is that they are not willing to license their vaccines, even making money, even making a profit they're not willing to let other countries manufacture it. and that is just cruel. amy: we have to go to break and then we will go to what happened last night, this historic joint session of congress that president biden just addressed. i want to thank our guest jayati ghosh, an economics professor at the university of massachusetts-amherst. and ro khanna, democratic congressmember from california. member of the house armed services committee. we ask people to stay with this. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh.

wednesday night, president biden gave his first speech to a joint session of congress with attendance restricted to just about 200. 1600 people usually fit in to allow social distancing. mine open by noting the first time in history, two women sat behind him. house speaker nancy pelosi and vice president campbell harris. pres. biden: madame speaker. madame vice president. [applause] pres. biden: no president has ever said those words from this podium. no president has ever said those words and it's about time. [applause] amy: biden used his address to propose trillions of dollars in

new economic proposals and build his one point trillion dollar american families plan, which included one between dollars in new spending and $800 billion in tax credits and aimed at expanding childcare. and expand the social safety net in part by funding it with four dollars trillion in taxes from the rich and corporations. but also condemns systemic racism and called on lawmakers to pass george floyd justice in policing act of 2020. on the foreign policy project on he vowed to end what he called the forever war in afghanistan and referenced china four times. for more, we're joined by ro khanna, democratic congressmember from california. he is a member of the house armed services committee. thank you for staying with us, congressmember khanna. let's talk about his proposal on

taxing the rich and explain the significance of it, how popular it is in this country -- except for the u.s. senate. >> i thought the president gave a very powerful and consequential speech. we have come a long wait when president clinton said the era of big government is over. this speech was in explicit rejection of the neoliberal framework that i would say starting with reagan and thatcher a president biden made the case you need an active role of government in investing in people to unleash their potential, not massive deregulation and tax cuts. he also explicitly made the case those at the very top are simply not paying what he said were their fair share [indiscnible] raise the tax on the wealthy and ect the taxes from them and corporations to invest in our

working-class and middle-class and our country. it was very popular comedy speech, and variable delivered. amy: jayati ghosh is with us, and leading economics professor in this country. if you can talk about how transformational these proposals are if they infect became law. what biden is presenting here, shocking even progressives. >> i think it is unexpected and very welcome. it is very important to turn the direction of -- from protecting the interests of the rich and large capital to protecting the interest of people and making the economy work for people. this has not been the aim of government policy across the world, especially in the u.s. for the last three decades. it is very refreshing to see this shift. it is not enough but it is an important first step and i hope this will have very positive

implications for the rest of the world. already we have seen the declaration he was would support a minimum global tax rate for corporations of 21% has had very significant impact. and part of a global commission that is saying we must have a minimum tax rate for corporatns and ensure we tax them as one signal unit globally, which is how they make their profit, so wdon't have this massive shift of profits into low tax jurisdictions so people everywhere in the world is out. nermeen: congressman khanna, you've said biden's vision will not come into view until we end the filibuster. could you explain why? >> the reality is that a lot of the proposal on immigration, on gun safety, on voting rights

require 60 votes. you cannot do that the. there is no way you're going to t 10 republicans to vote for some of thoseli things when they were not even willing to vote for basic covid really. we need to get rid of the filibuster. if we do not have the filibuster, it would decrease the leverage of some of the members in our own congress and allow come as a present -- for the president's agenda to go forward. i agree with the professor. the transformative nature of the speech, kind of like -- this idea you don't just have the government spending on the military so 53% of our budget, our investment in education and health care is freedom-enhancing, ashley what you need for people to have true freedom in a, and good for economic growth. when you look at the philosophical primark that biden

is adopting, that is a dramatic shift in the right direction for our country. nermeen: professor, you mentioned bites proposal would have a positive impact globally. could you say more about why you think that is? >> i think the tax proposal for minimum protects globally is very important and will have a very positive impact. the other aspect, unfortunately, i don't think was necessarily going to have a positive impact. the u.s. economy growing would help all economies grow but it is very important for other countries to have the options for public spending that are so easily available to the united states. and for that, you really need the united states to be actively participating in global architecture changes. again, professor stiglitz and others come have called for. we need to ensure there is for example a very large issue of

special rights by the imf to make more finances available to developing countries. u have to do something about a whole lot of public debt that is simply unpayable. you have to restructure it so many developing countries who are in massive debt, not by their own fault, can get on with not spending all of this money on debt service but on health and people in climate and education. i think the u.s. still has an important global role to play. i recognize the important for americans, but it is very important in the use interest to make sure the kinds of strategies we are trying to implement and in the u.s. are also available to people in the developing world and to governments elsewhere. amy: congressmember khanna, the white any of president biden forcefully talking about ending the forever war. you have called for slashing of the pentagon budget. he is calling for increased for

the budget, just shifting a possible military might, setting up a kind of cold war situation with china and russia. he talked about china a number of times in his speech last night. you talk about how you redirect that? also about, you know, is taking on white supremacists calling them very directly terrorists at home? >> i was disappointed and the president's defense budget. it is still 53% of the federal budget. i think that is an over prioritization over the investment we need an education and health care, infrastructure and makes it more difficult to fully achieve the vision he is talking about. and on china, we need to make sure we are competitive. i agree ultimately we have to

show liberal democracy is a superior model for the world and we want to be leading in cleantech and ai and synthetic biology jobs in the future, but that does mean we have to replicate a cold war, that we should be engaged in xenophobia or fear of chinese immigrants. the reason we are having this conversation on zoom is because of a chinese immigrant who was denied entry into the united states seven times and was able to come on his eighth try and founded zoom. i rather those individuals be in the united states. we went when we have collective advances on science. to solve cancer, have a better chance to do it if it is not just american scientist but scientists around the world. there has to be areas of disease, climate change, international operation. we ought not to replicate the paradigms of the 20th century with colonialism and cold war's into a 21st century.

let's compete without making the cold war framework. amy: very quickly, congressman khanna, why what the democratic leadership move in the senate on the filibuster? it is clear this all cannot happen without that gone. the upheld slavery come upheld jim crow laws. >> i think what you see is we have the democratic leadership, the democratic party has accepted the bold progressive vision in terms of ideas. but now there has to be an you believe importa second step, complementary step, and there has to be bold institutional reform. reform about ideas and a bold vision is necessary but insufficient if it does not come with instutional reform. the filibuster, ending that is one key component as a voting right, as a campaign-finance reform, as is ending

gerrymandering. unless we have institutional reform, are going to continue to the of frustration with politics where 70% to 80% approval, the speakerf the house supporting, the president supporting, yet are not getting an active. we have to make the case that institutional reform is tied to the substantive issue. amy: democratic congress member ro khanna, thank you for being with us, and economics professor jayati ghosh. that does it for our show. happy third birthday to our dear producer deena's son. tune in this saturday to a livestream of my panel on whistleblowers with edward snowden and daniel ellsberg as we move into the 50th anniversary of his release of the pentagon papers. for more information for that event as we span the world from

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