i'm andrea mitchell in washington where it's now up to the senate to decide whether americans will see those larger stimulus checks, after president trump demanded and the democratic-led house approved $2,000 payments to those in need. but with most republicans voting no. so will the senate republicans now get on board with the president's demand, despite strong opposition to those $2,000 checks? all this just a week before the critical georgia senate elections that will decide who controls the senate going forward. moments from now, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell will be speaking on the senate floor. also in the senate, whether to override president trump's veto of the defense bill, legislation approved overwhelmingly by both houses. senator bernie sanders is vowing to block that vote to force senator mcconnell to have a vote on the increased stimulus checks.

meanwhile president-elect biden blasted the trump administration yesterday for, he says, not providing critical information needed for the transition. joining us now, nbc news correspondents leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, garrett haake in west palm beach with president trump, mike memoli covering president trump, and the associate press' jonathan lemire. welcome, all. senator schumer is threatening to force a senate vote on the stimulus checks. what's mitch mcconnell going to do? >> hey, andrea, that is the big question. the ball is really in mcconnell's court. as you said, we'll hear from him on the senate floor within the next few minutes. shortly after that, we can expect senate democratic leader chuck schumer to offer his unanimous consent request to go ahead and for the senate to pass the $2,000 stimulus checks. of course any one senator can block that and we compaexpect to

be done. there are a few dynamics that are at play here just developing in the last hour or so. the georgia runoff, the two republican senators who are fighting for their reelection, they came out in a tweet and said that they are going to back the president, they say, and back the $2,000 stimulus check. so does that give mcconnell any sort of incentive to offer a vote, an up or down vote on the stimulus checks? because we know that senator bernie sanders of vermont is planning to force one. but the question is, mcconnell always has a plan up his sleeve, he always wants to do what is best for his party, for his conference. so could we see him offer several votes, one of which is perhaps what the democrats want, then perhaps a separate vote on a $2,000 stimulus bill loaded with things that republicans want as well? there's a lot of options for mcconnell, we don't know his

game plan yet. we'll be watching closely as the showdown over the stimulus check continues in the senate today, andrea. >> and all of this was thrown into play by of course the last-minute actions by the president, garrett. you've been following that minute by minute as he jumped into the action belatedly, demanded the $2,000 checks, then signed the bill anyway. we now learn after some last-minute lobbying on the golf course, lindsey graham taking credit. what's your take on all this? >> i believe it was "the washington post" reporting graham's involvement here. this is often the case with the president, he does most of his own lobbying and arm twisting right out in public where we see it on twitter or sometimes in front of the television cameras. what we're learning about now is what work was done behind the scenes to try to get him to sign the bill as it existed or to figure out what an appropriate exit ramp for him would be. we knew lindsey graham was here in florida, golfing with the president, on christmas day. he came out afterwards and tweeted that he thought that

$2,000 checks were a reasonable demand. we're also learning today the president was in pretty regular contact with david perdue of georgia, so says david perdue of georgia. it's obviously in his political interests to appear as necessary as possible to this $2,000 check, which he now says he'll vote for. it's always a little bit tricky to report on the president while he's down here at mar-a-lago. he's cut off from the staff who normally surround him at the white house, instead he's surrounded by his friends and golf partners. it's the 17th, 18th, 19th hole diplomacy that happens to get the president to come around on items of legislation, like what seems to be the case here. but you never exactly know who is lobbying whom and in which direction. >> a lot of this was this so-called signing statement which had a lot of claims and promises that will be very hard to deliver on. that seemed to be what got him over the finish line. mike memoli in wilmington, a lot of troubling news on the transition front because the president-elect is pointing to

obstruction at the pentagon, also in other national security areas, the omb people, on defense budgeting, complaining about that. and today he will talk about the slowdown on the rollout of vaccines, something we'll be getting to a little later in the show. >> yeah, that's exactly right, andrea, and when you think about what the president-elect vowed to do in the campaign and the commitment he really doubled down on since his election was to try to lower the temperature in our politics in this country, it's made it all that much more interesting, those moments when we do here the president-elect speak out as forcefully as he did yesterday about what he called these roadblocks on the part of the trump administration. and it all has to do with his concern over what it means for national security. we heard from the transition team about a week and a half ago, first raising concerns about what they were calling the pockets of recalcitrance, saying they were getting cooperation largely across the board except for the pentagon, which is so important given the national

security threats that we continue to learn more and more about. that was a concern that biden himself gave voice to yesterday. take a listen. >> we've encountered roadblocks from the political leadership at the department of defense and the office of management and budget. right now, we just aren't getting all the information that we need from the outgoing administration in key national security areas. >> the reason biden chose to speak out as he did yesterday, i'm told from transition officials, has to do with the fact that that initial flare sent up by the transition a few weeks ago was not met with any change in posture at the pentagon. career officials, the cupboard is now bare in a lot of these places, raising concerns about national security. on top of that, you have the pandemic, you have the solarwinds hack which many are attributing to russia. the biden team thinks they need much more now at this point.

as it relates to the pandemic, we will hear from the president-elect in just a few hours, talking about his concern that we, yes, are seeing vaccine distributed throughout the country, the cdc's own data shows more than 11 million of those vaccines have gone out, but only a small fraction of americans at this point are getting the vaccine itself. the questions is this a supply issue or is this a distribution issue. this is another area where members of the biden covid-19 task force say they don't have information from the trump administration about what the potential holdups here and that's also something biden will speak to directly this afternoon, andrea. >> and jonathan lemire, the president has meanwhile not, to my knowledge, not said a word, not tweeted about nashville, said little if anything and what he said was misleading about the hack, pointing to china, not russia. he seems completely focused on i guess golf and challenging the election, the joe biden election, as well as his late

entry into the stimulus debate. >> the president has largely abandoned his day job, andrea. you're right about nashville, the president hasn't weighed in at all. tennessee's governor says he heard from the president, pledging support, but the mayor of nashville says he hasn't. this fits a pattern of silence when it comes to incidents of domestic terrorism. he is not reluctant to speak out about other acts of terrorism, perhaps perpetrated by suspects of certain ethnicities and religions, namely islamic. he hasn't said much of anything about the cyber hack except to downplay russia's involvement even though, stop me if you've heard this before, his intelligence agencies point to russia as the perpetrator.

the pandemic has claimed so many lives and he's not focused on that at all. he has yet to take the vaccine himself even though we know, of course we saw vice president pence and president-elect biden each take it on camera, vice president elect harris has done so as well. it's a lack of leadership as he focuses on the election, whose results he's trying to overturn as well. even this last-minute push to up the size of the checks to $2,000 to americans is done so with an eye on his own political future, aides telling me he's trying to keep his hold on the republican party for the present but also burnish his reputation going to any potential 2024 run. >> that veto of the defense authorization bill creating huge problems in both parties but particularly for mitch mcconnell. mitch mcconnell speaking about the defense bill and how they'll try to bring it up right now on the floor. let's listen.

>> the ndaa will continue our momentum in rebuilding and modernized our armed forces. it will authorize the personnel, tools, equipment, and training, to reinforce the national defense strategy and to deter great power rivals like china and russia. it will cement our advantage on the seas, on land, in the air, in cyberspace, and in space. and the bill will help us continue to recruit, retain, and support the men and women who keep us safe. it provides a pay raise for the troops, improvements for military housing, childcare, and more. so, madam president, for the brave men and women of the united states armed forces, failure is simply not an option. so when it's our turn in congress to have their backs, failure is not an option either. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation one more time when we vote tomorrow.

now, on another matter, on sunday, president trump signed into law another historic bipartisan rescue package. it will provide major support to american families through what we hope will be the home stretch of our fight with the coronavirus. congressional republicans, congressional democrats, and president trump's senior team had all worked togetherpass hundreds of billions of dollars of assistance to people who need it the most. this new law will save jobs, renew and continue federal programs that have helped laid-off workers endure the crisis, it will send more cash to households, it will invest billions in vaccine distribution so the success of operation warp speed kills the pandemic as fast as possible, and much more. this bipartisan compromise was our shot at getting help to working families on the urgent timeline that they need. once again, i want to applaud president trump for signing the bill and getting this

much-needed assistance into the pipeline. during this process, the president highlighted three additional issues of national significance which he would like to see congress tackle together. first, as he explained, the president would like further direct financial support for american households. second is the growing willingness on both sides of the aisle to at least reexamine the special legal protections afforded to technology companies under section 230 of the communications decency act including the ways it benefits some of the most prosperous, most powerful big tech firms. and the third subject, since every american regardless of their politics should feel the integrity of our democracy is beyond reproach, is exploring further ways to protect the sanctity of america's ballots while continuing to respect the federal government's limited role in standing behind state and local governments who actually run elections. those are the three important subjects the president has

linked together. this week the senate will begin a process to bring these three priorities into focus. i move to proceed to calendar number 480s3985. >> the clerk will report. >> a bill to improve and reform policing practices, accountability, and transparency. >> i ask unanimous consent that following the leader remarks on wednesday, december 30 -- >> leigh ann caldwell, garrett haake, jonathan lemire, you're all still standing by. leigh ann, mcconnell just announced the overriding of the president's veto tomorrow, bernie sanders will challenge it until he gets votes on the stimulus checks. we're waiting to hear from senator schumer on the stimulus checks. what are we expecting to see for

the rest of the votes coming up in the senate? >> a lot of moving parts here, of course. let's just look at senate process. the override of the veto of the national defense authorization bill is a process that if all time is used, if all members don't agree to move quickly, it could take up to four days to do so. so we're watching a couple of senators who could demand all that process, all that time be used. that includes senator rand paul and also senator bernie sanders. bernie sanders has indicated that his problems with the national defense bill, something that he didn't support anyway, but he's trying to leverage that for an up or down vote on a $2,000 direct stimulus check that is also in the senate's purview now as well. another thing that senator mcconnell just said which was very interesting to me is that the senate would begin focusing on the three issues most important to the president, on section 230, the stimulus bill,

and voter fraud, which he calls voter fraud, anyway. so we're going to be watching how mcconnell deals with that, andrea. >> and senator schumer, leigh ann, is now on the floor saying that there is support for the senate on the stimulus bill, he wants to push that forward as a standalone bill. let's listen. >> the defense bill and the $2,000 checks before we go home. we will start the process on overriding the president's veto of the defense bill tomorrow. today, at the end of my remarks, i will ask the senate's consent to take up the house-passed bill to provide the american people immediate survival checks of $2,000 a person. throughout this pandemic, working americans have taken it on the chin. right now they're facing their hardest and their darkest days. tens of millions have lost their jobs. tens of millions are struggling

to put food on the table, keep a roof over their heads. in the wealthiest nation on earth, modern day bread lines stretch for miles down american highways. the fastest way to get money into americans' pockets is to send some of their tax dollars right back from where they came. $2,000 stimulus checks could mean the difference between american families having groceries for a few extra weeks or going hungry. the difference between paying the rent or being kicked out of your home that you've lived in for years. it could buy precious time for tens of millions of people as the vaccine thankfully makes its way across the country. of course we could have taken up this issue weeks ago. in the covid bill congress just passed, democrats wanted generous direct payments to the american people.

speaker pelosi and i repeatedly asked our republican counterparts how much they could support. their answer? $600. it was a compromise many of us were not happy about. i came to the floor myself with the senator from vermont to ask that we double, at least, the size of those checks. a republican senator objected. $600 was the most republicans would support. well, my colleagues and my fellow americans, $600 is not enough. not enough for the mother in nashville, $4,000 behind on the rent, whose water was shut off earlier this month. not for the medical receptionist in mccomb. $2,100 behind on the rent. total electricity shut off in december on her son's third day of virtual kindergarten. not for the 12 million americans

who have fallen on average $6,000 behind on their rent and their utilities or the 26 million americans who have had trouble putting food on the table in the past five days. $600? no, it's not enough. so in a moment i will move to have the senate take up the house bill to increase that number to $2,000, which i might add, had brought bipartisan support. i don't want to hear that we can't afford it. i don't want to hear that it would add too much to the deficit. senate republicans added nearly $2 trillion to the deficit to give corporations a massive tax cut. republicans just fought to include a tax break for three-martini lunches in the covid relief bill. so i don't want to hear it, that it costs too much to help working families get a check when they're struggling to keep their jobs, pay their families, pay their rent, feed their families, and live a halfway

normal and decent life. even in an our deeply divided times, madam president, this issue has united americans from coast-to-coast and bridged the massive political divide in washington. republicans and democrats strongly support $2,000 checks. an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the house supports $2,000 checks. senate democrats strongly support $2,000 checks. even president trump supports $2,000 checks. there is one question left today. do senate republicans join with the rest of america in supporting $2,000 checks? now some of my republican colleagues have said they support the checks. but there's a major difference in saying you support $2,000 checks and fighting to put them into law. the house bill is the only way,

the only way to deliver these stimulus checks before the end of session. will senate republicans fight for a vote on the house-passed cash act, or will they look some other way? will senate republicans stand against the house of representatives, the democratic majority in the senate, and the president of their own party, to prevent these $2,000 checks from going out the door? we're about to get the answers to these questions. so now, madam president, i ask consent to set the ndaa -- no, sorry -- madam president -- where am i? the senator modify his request to include a unanimous consent

request, to include unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of hr 9051, a bill received from the house, to increase recovery rebate amounts to $2,000 per individual, that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. >> is there objection to the modification? >> i object. >> object is heard. is there object to the original request? the senator from vermont. >> thank you, madam president. reserving -- preserving the right to object, we should all be very, very clear. the working class of this country today faces more

economic desperation than at any time since the great depression of the 1930s. and working families need help now. not next year, but right now. last night, the house of representatives, with a two thirds majority, 275 to 134, two-thirds by partisan vote, moved to increase the direct payment going to working families from $600 per adult to $2,000 per adult. the house did the right thing. i congratulate them. and now it is time for the senate to step up to the plate and do what the working families of this country overwhelmingly

want us to do. madam president, as a result of the pandemic, tens of millions of americans have lost their jobs and their incomes. these families in the middle of the winter now face the threat of eviction and the possibility of being thrown out in the streets. hunger in america is at the highest level than it has been for decades, with moms and dads struggling to feed their kids and working families lining up mile after mile to get emergency food packages. we are even seeing an increase in grocery store shoplifting as desperate americans try to keep their families from going hungry. all of this taking place in the

wealthiest country in the history of the world. madam president, over the last number of years, as i think everybody in america knows, congress has provided massive tax breaks for the very wealthiest people in our country, which is one of the reasons why today we have more income and wealth inequality than any time since the 1920s. in fact, in the midst of this pandemic, this terrible pandemic, inequality has grown worse, with many in the billionaire class seeing their wealth increase by hundreds of billions of dollars while average americans struggle to put food on the table. congress has given tax breaks to large corporations so that some of the most profitable and largest corporations in america today pay zero in federal income taxes.

we have just passed the largest military budget in the history of our country. $740 billion, more than the next ten nations combined. and by the way, there was almost no debate about the size of that huge budget. trump's veto dealt with other issues. meanwhile, over half a million americans are homeless. half of our working families are struggling to survive, paycheck to paycheck. and in the midst of this terrible, unprecedented pandemic, over 90 million americans are uninsured or underinsured in the midst of a pandemic, and they're not sure they can afford to go to a doctor. madam president, we are coming to the close of one of the most terrible and painful years in american history.

that is a tragic fact. over 330,000 of our people have died from covid-19. and as we speak, we are seeing record breaking numbers of new cases and hospitals around the country being overwhelmed with new admissions. during the last year, the education and well being of tens and millions of our young people from childcare to graduate school has been disrupted. and the terrible emotional isolation that this pandemic has caused, where people are unable to spend time with their family or their friends has resulted in a huge increase in mental illness, drug addiction, and even suicide. madam president, as i mentioned, the house has done the right thing. by an overwhelming vote, democrats and republicans voted to increase that $600 direct payment to $2,000.

a recent poll came out. 78% of the american people think that was the right decision. they're hurting. they want help. the leaders of our country, president trump, president-elect biden, minority leader chuck schumer, the speaker of the house nancy pelosi, are all in agreement, we have got to raise that direct payment to $2,000. so that is where we are right now in this historic moment. do we turn our backs on struggling working families or do we respond to their pain? so madam president, would the senator modify his request that immediately following the vote on the veto override, the senate proceed to the consideration of hr 9051, that the bill be

considered read a third time, and the senate vote on passage of the bill, without intervening action or debate? further, that if passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. >> is there objection to the request for modification? >> object. >> objection is heard. is there objection to the original? >> i object. >> objection is heard. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak there wherin up to ten minutes each. >> you've heard mitch mcconnell objecting to bernie sanders' proposal for a vote on the stimulus checks right after the veto override vote. and you heard the objection from senator mitch mcconnell as well to schumer's proposal for an

immediate vote on the stimulus checks. leigh ann caldwell and garrett haake are with me. we are going to be in senate gridlock, leigh ann, for a while as the days wind down, and the issue of the $2,000 may very much be held hostage to the veto override or vice-versa. >> that's right. these two issues are absolutely now connected. mcconnell has a choice, does he let the stimulus issue die and let the veto override process go up until saturday, the amount of time it takes, that's a day before a new congress is seated? or does mcconnell try to give his members who need, perhaps, a vote on the stimulus bill down in georgia, some sort of vote on that? there is a lot of questions and a lot of unknown answers at this point, andrea. the story is not over yet in the senate. >> better you than i up there on capitol hill today, leigh ann.

thanks so much for all of that. garrett, you know the hill as well as anybody and you're down there with the president who is probably out on the golf course and not watching this and worrying about it but there will be an impact in georgia where the senators have flipped on their support and now are supporting the $2,000 which they had long opposed, the republican senators, i should say. >> there absolutely will be an impact in georgia. and the thing to remember about mitch mcconnell is this. he just got reelected. his entire constituency in his mind at this moment is 51 fellow republican senators, and really primarily those two who are running for reelection. his calculation here, he does not care how unpopular his decision to block that vote just now may make him in the rest of the country. if he can set the table up favorably for those two republicans running for reelection in georgia, that's the way he's going to look at this right now. >> garrett haake, thank you so much. leigh ann caldwell, thanks to you. we'll be back in a moment.

mike memoli as well. ahead, why has the federal government fallen short on its vaccination goals? i'll talk to admiral brett giroir about the rollout. (announcer) do you want to reduce stress? shed pounds? do you want to flatten your stomach? do all that and more in just 10 minutes a day with aerotrainer, the total body fitness solution that uses its revolutionary ergonomic design to help you to maintain comfortable, correct form. that means better results in less time. you can do an uncomfortable, old-fashioned crunch or an aerotrainer super crunch. turn regular planks into turbo planks without getting down on the floor.

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strains. what's utilize there and how much of the uk the mutation. >> number one is, we do believe that the evidence is getting pretty strong right now, that it is more transmittable, so it is more contagious and therefore more dangerous in that regard. however, if you do get it, it's no more serious. in other words, you won't wind up in the hospital or the icu or

have fatal outcomes. vaccines should work against this. we certainly expect that, we don't have ec100% proof. we don't have evidence, direct evidence that it's here, just given the patterns of travel. there's a good probability that it's here. it's probably at low levels. yes, we need to increase our sequencing. the cdc is doing that both within themselves and a variety of other partners. but they're also, and it's sort of too detailed for the show, but you can get an idea of where it is by some of the traditional assays thatof are short of sequencing, some of them out there in the millions and millions and we're looking there as well.ns we haven't found itki yet. it might be ndhere. m again, i think we have an advantagee because travel has been restricted since march by the 212-f order, so 90 to 95% decrease from the uk. i certainly support the pretesting of people comingrt or that the cdc put forward for the uk and i think that probably should be extended to other countries. >> and finally, let me ask you aboutly herd immunity. where do you come down on

whether or not to reach herd immunity with this vaccination program, we need to vaccinate 60 to 70% or maybe 80 to 90% of the population as dr. fauci recently said? >> i talk to dr. fauci all the time, and the doctors huddled over the weekend. herd immunity is a function of many things including how transmissible the virus is and that transmissibility changes at different times of the year. we all agree the 70 to 80% number is our best estimate given the transmissibility of the virus as we know it. below 70% is probably too low. but this is not measles where if you walk into a room, anyone who is susceptible will get measles, literally it's that contagious. we're much less than that. so 70 to 80% of people who have either gotten natural immunity from the virus or much more preferred getting immunity,

long-lasting immunity from the vaccine, that's probably the number we'rein shooting for. again, we do believe that any adult who wants to have the vaccine in this country, about 200 million people, 210 million people, will have that opportunity by june, rapidly ramping up from now until then. >> okay. thanks for clearing that up. admiral brett giroir, as always, thank you very much for being with us. with us, dr. kavita patel, where do you come down on the wn rollout, the miracle of having two vaccines and more on the way, a but it's very, very slow going. what is your own experience at the clinic that you operate here in d.c.? >> yes, absolutely, andrea, thanks for having me, and you hit on a lot of the high points. i thmean, number one, this has t been kind of a national, even kind of distribution. even in terms of allocation, the

admiral answered accurately, we left it up to the local jurisdictions and the states, but therein lies the e problem. as you point out, these are underfunded, understaffed, these are the same statesd, and jurisdictions that have to deal with testing, tracing, school closures, all of the kind of ongoings of the pandemic. my local experience in washington, d.c., i work in a safety net community where we've had some of the highest positive rates for covid and andrea, let's be clear, we want the icu staff, the emergency room, and this wasm, an answer the admira gave, he mentioned hospitals and nursing homes, and then we'll move, quote, to the next phase. therein lies the problem. the majority of clinicians in the country are not in hospitals. they needed to go first, but they have gone first, and you've pointed out that there are gaps, huge g gaps. right now in the district, maryland, and parts ofis virgin, there are community physicians, pediatricians, who are not able to even find out how to access

the vaccine. everybody's trying their best, but andrea, you and i know the district's layout. i can drive ten miles and have an incredibly different experience with access to vaccines. that doesn't bode well even if we have enough supply to deal with the demand. it'sea confusing, and quite honestly,si andrea, it's turnin off some of the communities we really need to reach and get more confidence in. >> and let me ask you about the minority communities, many of whom you serve. are they y gaining more confidee inco at least the scientific validity of the vaccine, the necessity of it? >> yeah, there's a lot of myth debunking that we're doing. the majority of the staff i work with are from racial minorities and ethnic minority communities. and honestly, andrea, we did more good by having -- at our community health center by having our own internal vaccine

strategy rollout with our staff than we w could have had with a hospital doing it with us, because they know us, we trust each other. the hesitancy is there because of the lack of information. to your point, i've been able to show a chart that shows this line, where if you take the vaccine, the line goes from the high, high, high chance of getting covidha and just kind o flattens it. and that's been very compelling. it also has helped explain to people, this does not interfere with is your genetics, it does not interfere with your dna. the majority of health workers, people who are in nursing homes and changing bedpans, they're worried about myths about fertility. there is a lot of confusion and this is what the federal government will need toat clearp and should be doing. >> dr.sh kavita patel, thank yo

so much, happy holiday and new year to you. will stimulus checks be enough to help during this pandemic? gene sperling, top economic adviser to presidents obama and clinton, joining us next.

today the senate is back in gridlock over the larger stimulus checks to americans.

majority leader mitch mcconnell blocking democrats from forcing a vote on the $2,000 checks approved by the house last night. whether mcconnell allows that vote this week remains to be seen. georgia could be on his find. this as millions of americans are turning to food pantries for help for the first time. many more losing their unemployment benefits as well. joining me, gene sperling, former top economic adviser to prts obama and clinton. author of "economic dignity." gene, thanks for being with us. what a mess. watching schumer and mcconnell go at each other this morning. bernie jumping in trying to get -- use the leverage of the defense bill to try to get the stimulus checks to people. the president jumping in, in the middle of all this. will the stimulus checks even come through? this $2,000? will the $600 make a difference as the economy is slowing down and people are really in desperate need. what can joe biden do, in fact? >> well, you hit it just right.

this is, obviously, an economic story that can be told in economic numbers and metrics but it's a humanitarian crisis. it's a crise bis about our neighbors, our friends, our fellow americans. when you look at numbers like the unemployment rate looking like it's doing better at 6.7%, the truth is the economic policy institute and others think the true number is closer to 11.2%. there's estimated right now that 36% of americans are having trouble just paying normal expenses. 17 million children are facing some kind of lack of food. 17 million in our own country. and i think there's just more hardship that's going to come. and you can't look at just the worker who has been teleworking and doing well. three times more low income people have lost their jobs. they're hurting. and i think this could continue and the state and local side,

it's not about some financial issue. it's about a million educators and teachers who have already lost their jobs. it's about whether the state and local government you were just talking about are going to be cutting back on housing assistance, cutting back on first responders because they are facing a $400 billion, $500 billion shortfall due to the pandemic, not their own fault. so right now if there's one big message, everybody needs to stop worrying about whether we're doing too much and worry deeply about whether we're doing too little. there is no evidence that a short-term increase in the debt to help our fellow citizens to recharge this economy, to help the people who have lost jobs, or lost hours. there's no evidence that's going to in any way hurt our economy. there is lots of evidence to suggest that if we don't have more direct relief if we don't help state, local governments, if we don't help the people who are really hurting, the people

who are $30 billion to $70 billion behind on their rent, we're going to see real pain. we're going to see a real loss of dignity for bhepeople who ha worked hard their whole lives and it's going to slow us down getting back to full employment, an economy where everybody can work and prosper. >> and, in fact, the delay over the weekend as the president didn't immediately sign that bill led to two unemployment programs supporting 14 million americans to run out. so those have to be figured out. people are living day-to-day. joining me food lines. we only have about a minute left, but, you know, president-elect is talking about the initial stimulus checks and covid relief being a down payment. that more is going to be needed. but what is the chance that this congress, that the next congress is going to agree on anything big enough? >> well, if anybody has any doubts how important the stakes are in georgia, you know, the only thing that we can all agree on is this is a down payment.

it's an important down payment but it's a down payment. and even if all this goes through, people are going to be running out of unemployment. 20 million people are going to be running out in ten weeks. you already have people, as you say, not getting their checks. even debate about whether people will lose a week. so, you know, one can hope this check goes through. that $2,000 could mean everything to families who are right on the edge. but you have got to hope that even in divided government that the biden administration can press every day how much pain is going to happen to so many working families who did nothing wrong other than be -- in 2020 during a pandemic. >> gene sperling, thank you so much. very happy new year to you and your family. that does it for us for "andrea mitchell reports." kasie hunt is in for chuck todd next with "mtp daily" only right here on msnbc. virtually 100%.

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if it's tuesday, the fate of $2,000 stimulus checks, funding for the military and so much more rests with mitch mcconnell as the president rails against republicans for rejecting his demands in the waning days of his presidency. plus, the vice president-elect receives the vaccine as her home state of california is now the epicenter of the pandemic in this country.