Who?
Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA)
LISTEN: Laslo & Bera
Ask a Pol asks:
When we spoke at the start of the Trump administration a few weeks ago, you were saying ‘our party needs to look for ways to work with Republicans’ — has that gotten harder just in that short span?
Key Bera:
“Yeah,” Rep. Ami Bera exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “I mean, obviously in the last four weeks we’ve seen Republicans go silent on a whole bunch of issues where, essentially, DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] is dismantling the federal government.”
ICYMI — Ask a Pol exclusive with MTG
Caught our ear:
“He doesn’t know anything about aid development,” Bera tells us of Elon Musk
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Ami Bera
SCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo catches Bera as he’s walking back to his office after voting on the House floor.
Matt Laslo: “Now that we’ve seen, you know, people lined up outside of [Democratic Leader] Hakeem Jeffries’ district, people frustrated with John Larson — when we talked 3 or 4 years ago, I mean weeks ago, you were saying ‘our party needs to look for ways to work with Republicans’ — has that gotten harder just in that short span?”
Ami Bera: “Yeah. I mean, obviously in the last four weeks we’ve seen Republicans go silent on a whole bunch of issues where, essentially DOGE is dismantling the federal government.”
ML: “Yeah?”
AB: “I mean, we just saw what they did to the State Department and USAID, so it’s hard to work with Republicans when they are afraid to say anything. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t come up with policies that reflect where the country wants to go. They’re creating this massive opportunity for us.”
ML: “Interesting.”
AB: “So we shouldn’t just be, ‘resist, resist, resist,’ we should say, ‘okay, here’s how we would do aid developement in the 21st century, here’s how we’d modernize things.’”
ML: “Ahuh.”
AB: “They’re gonna create an opportunity, because they’re totally disrupt the health care delivery system.”
ML: “Yeah?”
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AB: “And we wanted to reform health care in a long, and it’s just so — creates an opportunity for us to reform health care in a way that brings down costs, increases access. So, that’s how I’m thinking about this. I don’t know if there’s going to be Republican members of Congress who are going to be willing to say, ‘don’t do it that way’.”
ML: “Yeah?”
AB: “But, there’s plenty of conservatives, thought leaders that are out there, right? That are, you know, think tanks, the AEIs [American Enterprise Institute] of the world, et cetera.”
ML: “Yeah.”
AB: “And say, ‘okay, obviously we don’t want to dismantle the NIH, the FDA, but what would a modern FDA look like?’ And why wouldn’t we want to bring some of those conservative thinkers in with more liberal thinkers to say, ‘okay, what would, what is the 21st century FDA?’”
ML: “So if it’s a good point, you don’t attack and stuff like that.”
AB: “Absolutely. So, how do you do technology? Like, if Elon Musk was focused on improving the technical systems that serve — I don’t have a problem with that.”
ML: “Right?”
AB: “He doesn’t know anything about aid development. Or that 22-year-old doesn’t know anything about it, and I think it’s totally disrespectful to say to a, you know, potential veteran or foreign service officer that you got 15 minutes to go clean out your desk. That’s bullshit.”
ML: “Dude, they cut Ebola funding.”
AB: “I know, right? Which is ridiculous, so, some bad things are going to happen. They’re gonna own it, and we should make sure they own it. But then we should say, this is how we would do it.”
ML: “Yeah. And then, when it comes to government funding, is this kind of a test for Democrats? Or are you guys still united, saying, ‘no, no, they’re in charge?’”
AB: “They are in charge, right?”
ML: “Yeah.”
AB: “I mean, when I was being asked on television the other day about the Budget Reconciliation Bill, it’s like, this is not a bipartisan bill. This is a Republican bill. They didn’t ask us for input. Now, March 14th, I don’t want to see a government shutdown, but I also, you know — if Trump is gonna ignore our budget and just do whatever he wants to do — I’m shocked by, you know, Chairman Cole, you know, saying ‘oh, appropriations are just top line numbers, they can be [changed by the presidnet]’, it’s like, that’s bullshit.”
ML: “Right? Preciate ya!”
Nicolae Viorel Butler contributed to this report.
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