LA mayor: Infrastructure fuels prosperity, and federal government needs to do its part

JUDY WOODRUFF: As we reported earlier, President Trump today unveiled his long-awaited infrastructure
plan and spending priorities.
Both were overshadowed, though, by internal struggles at the White House and the questions
of how top staff handled domestic violence allegations against two aides.
It was a major focus of today's White House briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, White House Press Secretary: The president and the entire administration
take domestic violence very seriously and believe all allegations need to be investigated
thoroughly.
Above all, the president supports victims of domestic violence and believes everyone
should be treated fairly and with due process.
QUESTION: Why haven't we heard the president say exactly what you just said right there,
that he takes domestic violence very seriously?
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: I spoke with the president, and those are actually directly his words
that he gave me earlier today.
QUESTION: But why hasn't he said that?
He had the opportunity.
He's been active on Twitter.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: It's my job to speak on behalf of the president.
I spoke to him, and he relayed that message directly to me, and I'm relaying it directly
to you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And our Yamiche Alcindor joins me now for more.
So, Yamiche, what the White House wanted to talk about today was the budget and something
else, and we will get to that in a minute.
But this lingering story is still hanging out there, reporters asking, how did the president,
how did the White House handle this?
Why is this still going on?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, this was, as you know, supposed to be infrastructure week.
This is the White House's second try at infrastructure week and each time it's been overshadowed
by this scandal.
We're talking about it still largely because President Trump tweeted about it over the
weekend.
He didn't name Rob Porter, the other aide that resigned because of domestic violence
allegations, but he said that people's lives were being destroyed and that they needed
due process.
Because of that tweet and because of the fact nobody really knows who knew what when at
the White House, this has been an issue the White House is continuing to deal with.
John Kelly, who is the chief of staff to President Trump, has said as soon as he heard about
the allegations, that 40 minutes later Rob Porter was out of the job.
But Sarah Sanders today from the podium said that it was actually 24 hours later that Rob
Porter resigned or terminated.
And even that detail is still murky.
So there is the idea this President Trump continues to likely -- come to the defense
of men who are allegedly domestically violating people.
And you have this idea that Sarah Sanders said herself that the president dictated a
statement to her in support of domestic violence victims.
But the president, who of course has no qualms ever using his Twitter account to say whatever
is on his mind, has not spoken publicly in support of the women here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And people were pointing to a series of these statements over the last
several years where he's spoken out in more sympathy for the people have been accused
of abuse.
So, Yamiche, let's talk about the other things going on at the White House today.
The president did roll out -- they did roll out their budget for the coming fiscal year.
Just give us the highlights.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Some of the highlights are that this is a budget that's $4.4 trillion.
That's 10 percent more than Republicans spent in -- or wanted to spend in 2017.
The other thing that's happening here is that they're asking for $23 billion in border security.
That includes money for the wall.
Of course, that's the wall on the border of Mexico -- then you have -- $28 billion, sorry.
Then you have $13 billion for opioid treatment services.
That's a critical step since President Trump has declared a public health crisis about
this issue in October.
And then you have $200 billion for infrastructure structure over 10 years.
So, then you have 17 -- I'm sorry -- $716 billion for military spending.
The other thing that's happening here is that it eliminates 62 agencies, including the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.
It eliminates a lot of entitlement programs, which is something that Republicans wanted
to get rid of.
They said 64 agencies.
Sorry about that.
Then they have $554 billion are getting cut from Medicaid; $250 billion are getting cut
from Medicaid; $214 billion is being cut from the SNAP program, which of course used to
be known as the food stamp program.
The other thing that's really being cut is here the EPA.
It's going to be losing $2.8 billion.
That's a lot of money.
Most of those programs are to eliminate climate change programs.
So, that's a big deal, because a lot of people are saying that this is an administration
that has been hostile to climate change issues.
And then the last thing that it does is that it adds $984 billion to the deficit in 2018
-- in 2019, which is a huge, huge change for Republicans who have really been wanting to
balance the budget.
JUDY WOODRUFF: It's been noted that they don't even make a pretense of getting to balance,
of worrying about deficits.
So, the last thing, just quickly, of course, is infrastructure.
This has been long awaited and the White House did finally push out their plan.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The White House pushed out their plan today.
And it's a plan -- it's an issue, I should say, that the White House should be able to
get some bipartisan support on.
The president, when he talked about infrastructure, it was a very popular thing.
Bernie Sanders, when I was on the campaign trail with him, also talked about infrastructure.
But the way that President Trump is talking about the infrastructure plan is essentially
saying that states and local governments are going to be the ones bearing the brunt and
paying for the most of it.
The federal government would spend something like $200 billion, but that's a small fraction
of what they want to spend.
And today Senator Chuck Schumer came out and basically said that there are going to be
Trump tolls all across the country, saying that for President Trump to get this plan
passed, it's going to have to turn into tolls and all sorts of fees being passed on to different
Americans.
Republicans, on the other hand, some of them have been saying they praised this program.
And some of them, of course, have been saying that they want more explanation, because they're
very worried about the fact that they're adding to the deficit.
JUDY WOODRUFF: A lot of discussion still about how this is paid for, in very early stages.
Yamiche Alcindor, so much going on.
Thank you.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Thanks.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, as Yamiche said, the president's broad infrastructure blueprint does rely on
states and local governments to fund much of the money that would be needed for a trillion-dollar-plus
plan.
It also would depend on a major infusion of investment from the private sector.
We get some reaction now to all this from the Democratic mayor of the city of Los Angeles,
Eric Garcetti.
He's also the chair of a task force on the subject for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Mayor Garcetti, thank you very much for joining us.
So, let me just start out by asking, what's your overall reaction?
They are talking about leveraging federal dollars to state and local dollars and the
rest of it, something like one to five.
ERIC GARCETTI (D), Mayor of Los Angeles: Well, good evening, Judy.
And any day that Washington is talking about infrastructure is music to my ears, but, of
course, the devil will be in the details.
But we have got a yawning $5.4 trillion gap, and we want to get home to our families quicker.
We want to cut traffic.
We don't want to be on unsafe bridges.
And we need the next generation of ports and airports to help fuel prosperity in this country.
So, since President Trump was elected, American cities have passed $260 billion of infrastructure.
This only proposals $200 billion over 10 years.
There is more money, for instance, in his budget for the wall than there is for the
next 10 years for all the cities in America to have transit dollars and to fix their roads,
to fix those potholes.
So we're doing our part, and we want to see federal government do its part and not just
take $20 out of our wallet and give it to themselves, give it back to us, and say, here's
your infrastructure money.
We want it to be real money for real jobs and for real infrastructure repair that this
country so badly needs.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we know that is important to you and other state and local officials
around the country, Mayor Garcetti, but at the same time, the federal government is -- has
to be focused on the deficit, on how much spending there is.
We just heard some red ink numbers that are pretty scary.
You can't -- or can you, I should say, expect the federal government to come up with the
lion's share of this money that's needed?
ERIC GARCETTI: No, we expect them to do what they have in the past, and think about the
Erie Canal, the work the federal government did to help the interstate highway system
or to build the Internet.
These are things that pay back.
And when we don't take care of our infrastructure, we pay billions, even trillions of dollars
in lost competitiveness, in literally millions of hours we're away from our family, companies
that don't start here in the United States because it's too difficult to get through
the red tape.
So this is money that helps bring more money in.
And we're not expecting them to have the lion's share, but they actually cut existing programs
in some cases to pay for this.
And we want to work with Congress, both houses, both parties.
We have got Democratic and Republican mayors who are ready to show how what we have been
doing and have the federal government can come and help lead.
But we're going to need that money to be paid for with real dollars.
We should have done it with probably the offshoring of those overseas profits -- or onshoring
of those, rather.
But we will keep looking at other alternative ways to get in there.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we know the federal is also -- this administration is also looking
to the private sector to come up with some of these dollars.
Why isn't that a good idea?
ERIC GARCETTI: It can be.
And we're doing that here in Los Angeles.
Denver was able to help the private sector build a new rail line from downtown to the
airport quicker and cheaper.
But don't expect the private sector to come and to redo water that right now in many cities
is polluted or to always upgrade our electricity lines, to build out our port or our airports.
Those are things that we have to do with federal help.
And American cities have a loud and clear message for Washington.
We will help.
In fact, we're doing more than you are.
But we want some of our federal tax dollars back in our communities, from rural communities
to our most densely populated urban areas, to match those dollars, as we traditionally
have.
And we both can count those dollars if we do it the right way.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mayor Garcetti, another quick point I want to ask about is what the president
had to say about streamlining, in effect, the permitting process.
He said, Washington will no longer be a roadblock to progress.
Washington is now going to be your partner.
We know that a number of your fellow mayors are saying, hey, it's a good thing that they're
talking about streamlining, cutting back on some of the federal regulations.
What about that?
ERIC GARCETTI: Absolutely.
Any day we cut red tape is also music to the ears of America's mayors.
And so I think that's a great part of this proposal, if it actually bears out.
But we do need to have money to match that.
We don't want projects to take a decade to move forward, two decades to move forward.
We have built some of the greatest infrastructure in this country in a war, in moments of growth
in this country in a matter of months or just a year or two.
We should be able to do that again.
So, that part is good.
But we need to make sure there is also money to match.
Money is what moves projects forward.
And we are stepping up, as I said, with a quarter of a trillion from America's cities
just in the last year-and-a-half.
We need the federal government not to space out $200 billion, which is less than that,
over a decade.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Mayor Garcetti, I also want to ask you a question about immigration.
As you know, the Senate, the United States Senate is beginning a major debate tonight
on what to do about immigration reform.
Among others, the big -- one of the big questions being discussed in the Congress is what to
do about these young people who were brought into the country without documentation as
children and whether they should be given a path citizenship.
There is something like 700,000 of them, so-called DACA recipients.
Right now, people are asking, are Democrats prepared, if Republicans give on that and
keep that path to citizenship for these DACA young people, are Democrats, in turn, prepared
to give on things like the visa lottery, on so-called -- what Republicans call chain migration,
letting more family members in, parts of legal immigration?
ERIC GARCETTI: My opinion is that we should hold the president and hold Republicans leaders
who have said they are for these dreamers to their words, independent of other things.
I'm the grandson of a dreamer who came to this country when he was 1-year-old fleeing
war in Mexico.
He volunteered to fight for the only country he knew in World War II and got his citizenship.
I'm literally here today.
I have seen the brilliance of these young men and women.
Paul Ryan, of course, the president, they have all said they want to do something.
Do that independent.
And then negotiate the rest of immigration, whether it's border protection, whether it's
the type of family reunification we have.
That's the place where we can give and take in negotiations.
But holding the dreamers hostage after people have publicly said and over 80 percent of
Americans support giving them a permanent pathway to some legal status, that needs to
get done right away.
People should -- I believe, kind of old-fashioned, that people should live up to their word.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we're going to watch that debate unfold this week.
Mayor Garcetti, Mayor Eric Garner, of Los Angeles, thank you very much.
ERIC GARCETTI: Great to be with you, Judy.
Thanks.
PBS NewsHour full episode February 12, 2018 Here’s what Trump’s spending proposal would fund and cut The World's Future MEGAPROJECTS (2017-2040's) This Russian reality TV star won't beat Putin at the polls. Why is she running anyway? WATCH: President Trump holds meeting on infrastructure at the White House WATCH: Barack, Michelle Obama portraits unveiled at National Portrait Gallery PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode Feb. 11, 2018 Attract Abundance of Money Prosperity Luck & Wealth★Jupiter's Spin Frequency★Theta Binaural Beats Luke Walton about Channing Frye and Isaiah Thomas joining the team President Trump 2018 State of the Union Address (C-SPAN)

LA mayor: Infrastructure fuels prosperity, and federal government needs to do its part

Latest Posts