The NPR Politics Podcast - Weekly Roundup: June 4th

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had asked the Labor Department to bar governors from prematurely ending supplementary unemployment payments tied to the pandemic. In an interview with NPR, Walsh said there probably wasn't anything the administration could do to stop them.Also: Vice President Harris is taking her first international trip in an effort to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S. southern border.This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Tamara Keith, and congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, this is Meg Staggard, and I'm currently riding my bike home to Bayham, New Jersey after the second meeting of our Beach Reads book club, where a bunch of moms sit on the beach and talk a little bit about a book. This podcast was recorded at 1.23 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, June 4th. Things may have changed by the time you hear this. Okay, here's the show. I want to go to the beach. I'm amazed at her, like, multitasking.

She was biking, right, at the same time as recording this? Well, hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. And I'm Tamara Keith. I also cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. So this morning, I had the chance to speak with the Biden administration's Labor Secretary, Marty Walsh. And I started by asking him about the monthly jobs report that came out this morning. It showed that there were 559,000 jobs that were added. And, you know, quite frankly, I feel like the sort of analysis of that depended on who you asked. Some folks said it was good. Some folks said any other economy would be a blockbuster number. But in this

economy, with millions of people still unemployed because of the pandemic, it's, you know, it's seen as kind of disappointing or middling or people just don't know what to think about it. And so I raised that question to Marty Walsh, the fact that these numbers paint a sort of muddled picture of where the economy is. I mean, we have a pandemic is, in my opinion, what's going on here. And we're coming trying to get out of a pandemic. We have, you know, people, I think it's 50 plus percent of the country that's vaccinated. We're still putting more vaccines into people's arms. We're trying to get people back to work. We're trying to make sure people feel safe coming back to work. You know, we shut the economy down, basically, or shut jobs down in this country last March and April. And unfortunately, you can't just slip a switch.

There are people that are unemployment benefits. Thank God they had it, because if they didn't have it, they would have lost their homes, their livelihoods. They wouldn't be able to put food on the table. And those benefits are still needed by a good portion of people in this country because the jobs have not come back yet. You know, Asma, it's interesting that he's talking there about the unemployment benefits because Senator Bernie Sanders, who we know is the progressive independent from Vermont, has called on Walsh to stop Republican-led states from ending those special COVID unemployment benefits. That's the additional $300 per week that the federal government is sending to people who are already receiving state-level unemployment benefits. That's the additional $300 per week that the federal government is sending to people who are already receiving state-level unemployment benefits.

Did Walsh talk about that at all? You know, Kelsey, I actually asked him that very question, that essentially the folks I've talked to give me a sense that there's actually not much the Biden administration can do. No, there isn't. I think that's why we're all focused on trying to get people back to work. That's why the president made the investments in the rescue plan. That's why he's advocating on behalf of the jobs plan and the families plan as he moves forward here. But I think that, you know, I think that, you know, it's unfortunate that this conversation has taken such a stage about somebody getting $300 extra in unemployment benefits during a pandemic. I just think that that's, you that's a tough way to frame an argument.

What we should be focusing on is some of those folks, how do we pass the jobs plan so we can make stronger permanent investments in America so we can get people into the middle class so they're not worried about being on unemployment, worrying about losing their job, worrying about losing their house, not being able to put food on the table, send their kids to school. That's what we should be focused on as a country. So to confirm, though, Secretary, there's really nothing you think can be done about those? No, we're looking into it, but I'm not sure if we really can do anything about some of the

decisions some of those governors have made. And I think what this sets up, Asma, is potentially an interesting experiment, right? Like you're going to have basically half of states getting rid of this additional unemployment benefit going to have basically half of states getting rid of this additional unemployment benefit earlier than the other half of states. And what does that do for the employment picture? What does that do for the number of people looking for work? Labor shortages are a very real problem right now, at the same time that child care and schools not being fully reopened and so many other things are also like headwinds on the economy. That is kind of part of why Democrats, you know, say that this is the right

time moving forward with Biden's infrastructure plan, right? Because a big part of the infrastructure plan that Biden is proposing is related to care. Elder care and child care are considered part of infrastructure in the Democrats' imagining of that word. So for them, this is actually an argument for the bill they're trying to get passed. You know, I think I'm just struck, though, too, that every time we get a jobs day report, it just feels like the numbers say one thing, but how they're interpreted, it just feels like it's wildly different depending on who you ask. Just a technical thing about jobs reports. They're kind of lagging.

This job support is based on what was happening in the middle of last month. Well, what was happening in the middle of last month? There were a lot of people who were just becoming eligible to get vaccinated and who were not fully vaccinated yet. So although a lot of people have gotten fully vaccinated since then or were fully vaccinated then, I mean, I think that there are a lot of people who think that, yes, this jobs report was not as blockbuster as folks were thinking it might be, but that maybe the next one will be bigger because more people will be fully vaccinated and that will have had more time to absorb into the economy. Like, I mean, just think about us. Two weeks ago, were we doing all the wild and crazy things we're doing now? Well, one thing that I have heard from Democrats, to your point, Tam, is that, you know, that it isn't a matter of get a shot, get a job.

You get a shot and then you, you know, become fully vaccinated and then there's a process of get a job. You get a shot and then you, you know, become fully vaccinated. And then there's a process of finding a job. There may be, to your point earlier, a process of finding child care so you can go to a job. And that some of these things take time so that people can move into the economy in the fullest sense of the word. And Tam, you know, I was struck by what you said earlier, though, about this essentially being an experiment of two different American economies, because a Republican official I spoke with yesterday told me that from his perspective, it's the fact that there are a number of people he feels out in the economy who are capable of going back to work, who he feels

would go back to work if there wasn't this expanded unemployment benefit out there. And so they actually feel like there's a labor shortage. There is a demand for jobs and businesses cannot fill those positions. And while there are some Democrats who completely disagree with that, there are also some Democrats who quietly wonder the same thing. And I guess in a few months we'll have, you know, some side by side comparisons. You know, Kelsey, how does a report like this one affect what the landscape is around Biden's infrastructure proposal around the jobs plan? Well, it affects it in kind of an indirect way in some ways, in that Republicans are talking right now with President Biden about some sort of bipartisan agreement. And Republicans say that any infrastructure spending should be paid for with unspent money for coronavirus relief.

And they say that a big part of the unspent money is going to come when states stop asking the federal government to pay those additional unemployment benefits. Now, there is a real risk there in tying the conversation, the very politically charged debate about unemployment benefits, pandemic response, and whether or not the pandemic is even ongoing with an infrastructure bill that is supposed to be bipartisan. So it is entirely possible that ramping up the conversation about unemployment benefits actually makes it harder for them to get a deal. Now, there will be a meeting. It's 1.30-ish right now in Washington. And there will be a meeting later today between President Biden and West Virginia

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who is negotiating on behalf of Republicans. Perhaps we'll see some movement there. But I would not be surprised if you see more and more Democrats starting to get very uncomfortable with the conversation about taking money that they approved for federal benefits and putting it towards spending that they say should be in addition to all of the money that they've already spent. All right, well, let's take a quick break. And when we get back, we'll talk about Vice President Kamala Harris's first international trip. This message comes from NPR sponsor Hint, fruit infused water with no calories or sweeteners. Hint water comes in over 25 flavors. The watermelon water actually tastes

like watermelon. The blackberry water tastes like blackberries. Hint is water with a touch of true fruit flavor. You can get Hint water at stores or you can have it delivered directly to your door. When you buy two cases, you'll get a third case free and free shipping. Visit drinkhint.com and use promo code NPR at checkout. On NPR's Rough Translation. There's just fewer people that know somebody that's in the military. After 20 years of war, are civilians and military farther apart than ever? They were asking me, do you want to hear this? Do you want to know us? Listen to Homefront, the new season of Rough Translation. And we're back. Kamala Harris leaves on Sunday

for her first foreign trip as vice president. She'll travel to Guatemala and Mexico as part of a White House push to address the influx of migrants coming to the U.S. via the southern border. And Tam, this is not an easy job. It is a job that other vice presidents have had in the past, notably Joe Biden himself. And immigration has been a really polarizing issue in this country. So I guess I want to start with a very basic question, which is what is Kamala Harris attempting to do on this trip? Well, she has been very clear and the White House has been quite firm that her job is not the border. It is the root causes that are causing people primarily from effects, corruption, violence, a lack of economic opportunity. And all of these things feed into each other. Some experts I was talking to today say that, yeah, former vice president, now President Biden, had that role and it was a difficult job when he had it. And it is even harder now that Vice President Harris is heading this up because, you know, the leaders of the countries, Guatemala and Honduras and El Salvador, are not great partners and they're not totally on board with the U.S. agenda to root out corruption, for instance. And the other challenge is just that

no one is going to be content with Harris saying, oh, gosh, all that stuff at the border, that's not my problem. It's just this stuff, you know, in Central and South America, that's my problem. One challenge I would think for Democrats here is that they want to do comprehensive immigration reform. And that's something that is on the top of the list for congressional Democrats and for this White House. And it is very difficult for them to attempt to have a conversation about immigration, you know, immigration policies of any kind, while the situation at the border is the way it is. It's most people are not going to separate out in their minds, legal immigration debate versus, you know,

what's happening at the border. This is not, that is not how people's minds typically work. Yeah, Cecilia Munoz, who worked in the Obama administration, told me that this is a refugee crisis in the Western hemisphere. Well, that is very different from an immigration crisis or a border crisis. And absolutely, U.S. immigration law and the incredible brokenness of U.S. immigration law does not make Harris's job at trying to control the root causes any easier. And what Harris is talking about doing, the sorts of reforms or aid or any

of the programs and projects or, you know, foreign investment or any of these things that they're talking about, this is not an overnight fix. This is not going to change the images on the nightly or not so nightly news of people crossing into the U.S. or of facilities where families are being held. It's just not going to affect the big bad story that is, you know, giving a ding to the Biden administration's approval ratings. You know, Tam, you mentioned that Cecilia Munoz told you that this is a refugee problem, in contrast to, say, a border problem. But I have a hard time understanding the clear distinction between that, because if you are a refugee in Central America, the issue is, is that that has led to a border situation as well, right? Like for so long, these things have been

intertwined. So spell out for us why the White House is trying to create this very clear distinction that I would argue a lot of folks don't really see. Yeah, I mean, I don't think there's a great political distinction, but I think politics are part of the reason here. Like the Biden administration is in a really tough spot because they came in, they said they were going to be more humane. And people took that as a cue, you know, in conjunction with all of the things that are pushing people to want to leave their countries. There are also some pull factors that people got the message, whether intended or not. They got the message that, well, this administration isn't going to be too closely tied to her portfolio. That's also not an easy job, though I will say, you know, if she's able to be successful there, I think that really could help her chart a more successful future here within the Democratic Party.

Voting rights is absolutely not an easy job, particularly right now in this moment where Democrats are trying to figure out, you know, what a voting rights bill looks like that they could all agree on. Now, it's one thing to get a voting rights bill out of the House, which has happened. It's something altogether different to get something through the Senate, where they need unanimous support from Democrats to do it. And they would also, you know, aside from having unanimous support for doing voting rights, they need unanimous support to get rid of the filibuster to even move on to that. So this is one of those situations where if Harris can turn voting rights into the moment that, you know, breaks the filibuster debate wide open, if she can be the person who convinces filibuster skeptics like Joe Manchin of West Virginia or Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, if they can go through that process, get them on board with getting rid of the filibuster and get them on board with

passing a voting rights bill, that would be a huge and monumental change that, you know, that Biden and Harris could move forward on. So these are like really big, difficult assignments. She has these huge, one person said, you know, the root causes of migration job is a buzzsaw that she's walking into. So she has these huge impossible tasks. Why would someone who wants a political future want huge impossible tasks? Well, you know, what it says, at least some people I talked to are saying, what it says is that these are a priority for the administration, that it is important. Like important things aren't easy. Important things are difficult. And in fact, we were told that Vice President Harris asked to be given the voting rights portfolio.

It's not like she was tossed this rag that she didn't want. She asked for it. To your point, Tam, voting rights are a real energizing force within the base of the Democratic Party. And I feel like usually when you've got a Democrat or Republican in charge of the White House, the opposition party is usually really riled up. Right. And for some reason, it's kind of interesting to me that voting rights are a real animating force that is energizing Democrats, even though in this moment they control the White House and Congress. There's a Trump angle there. Yes.

And there's a Trump angle on a lot of things, but we'll just leave it there. All right. We are going to take one more quick break. And when we get back, it's time for Can't Let It Go. Support for NPR and the following message come from BetterHelp, offering online counseling. BetterHelp therapist Hesu Jo shares the unique benefits of therapy. Being in therapy is this very intimate, unique experience to have this other person see you, this other person acknowledge who you are and accept all of it, you know, and like figure out the bits and pieces that you don't want to accept to change that stuff for the better. Even if you're not struggling with something necessarily, but you just want to learn a little bit more about who you are, you want to

function a little bit better in your relationships are. You want to function a little bit better in your relationships with people or change the way that you approach habits. Doing that together with somebody else can be very powerful and impactful. So talk this out and process this together as two humans. To get matched with a counselor and get 10% off your first month, go to betterhelp.com slash politics. And we're back. And it's time to end the show like we do every week with Can't Let It Go. That's the part of the show where we talk about the things from the week that we just cannot stop thinking about, politics or otherwise. And Kelsey, why don't you start things off?

Oh, I am thinking about sugar, sugar, sugar. I'm thinking about donuts. It's National Donut Day. Oh, it's International Donut Day? How did I not know that? It's National Donut Day. Oh, it's International Donut Day? How did I not know that? It's National Donut Day. That's why the line was so long at Dunkin'. There are free donuts to be had, but donuts have been on my mind all week, more so than usual, because it's okay to have donuts on the mind all the time if you really want. It came up in the White House briefing this week where there was a conversation about giving away free beer if America hits the vaccination goal of 70% by 4th of July.

And White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she didn't really advise going for the free Krispy Kreme and the free beer at the same time. What? And that became extremely controversial. I'm with her. That sounds absolutely gross. And I became extremely controversial. I'm with her. That sounds absolutely gross. And I've been thinking about donuts ever since. I find that such an interesting question, by the way, to throw to Joe Biden, who, like Donald Trump, does not actually drink himself. You know, it's one of those things

where I'd be curious what the president himself would have said to that bitch. You know, I can't imagine he's I would imagine he's probably a donut guy, though. We've seen him eat ice cream. I feel like he is a sweet tooth man. Yeah, he loves his ice cream, that's for sure. Tam, do you want to go next? Sure, I will go next. So there was a big debate this week in the New York mayoral race.

It was in person. It got a little spicy because they could see each other. They weren't in little boxes. But this New York Times article about the debate has this amazing sentence that says, the first hour of the debate, co-hosted by WABC-TV, aired on broadcast television and may have been the biggest stage yet for the mayoral candidates, though the station preempted the second hour with a game show, Press Your Luck, forcing viewers to switch to another channel or an online stream. I, as a child, loved Press Your Luck. It's the show where you're like, no whammy, no whammy, no whammy. I don't know that show.

We were just giving viewers an opportunity. Wait, what channel was that show on as kids? Oh, I don't know what channel. It was broadcast. I totally don't remember that show. But it is on regular circulation on the Game Show Network now, I believe. Yeah, it's the little red guy who kind of laughs. He's a whammy. But this made me think about this other thing that happened. There was like a tornado warning or something, and local TV in D.C. cut in to Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions to warn people that

there was a tornado coming. And then the weatherman went on Twitter and went on a rail, like basically saying, you people, stop complaining about me cutting into Jeopardy! I was trying to save your life. People love their game shows. Don't want to mess with it. Yeah. So what about you, Asma? What are you holding on to as we're ending this week?

Okay, so the Social Security Administration comes out with this list, right, of the most popular baby names. And I feel like anybody who has a kid is usually kind of fixated on these lists to see, like, how unique is my baby's name anyhow i was struck because the name karen uh i feel like i don't even need to explain this story but the name karen has dropped quite a bit in popularity since 2020 it dropped 171 spots um we all know why people don't want to be called a karen right there's central park karen Soho Karen. Karens are like, Karens have become the, uh, Karens are just white ladies who are trouble. That's all. White ladies who don't know their privilege. I was going to say though, I did have some empathy with this because you know, when I was thinking of names to name kids and it's all these things you got to think about with different names. And it was interesting when I was in college, I had this friend whose little brother was named Usama. That was pre 9-11. But it was one of those things where I was like, ouch, that is not a name that a lot of people want to be called. So anyhow,

you Karens out there who still currently have that name, you know, I will say you probably are going to be in a pretty unique position because there's not that many new Karens out there this year. I look forward to people having to explain that dynamic to their children later when they wonder, like, why did my name dip so low for just this one year? You think so, Kelsey? You think it'll be back next year? Karen is making a comeback. You know, I think that in this news environment, people forget things just about as quickly as they tweet things. Also, do you think that we're going to see like a culture war battle over the name Karen that like in certain states, Karen is going to become the most popular name just to spite folks in the blue states? I'm marking this down for I'm marking this down for Can't Let It Go June 2022, where we can revisit next year's list of names. All right. Well, that is a wrap for today. Our executive producer is Shirley Henry.

Our editors are Mathoni Mathuri and Eric McDaniel. Our producers are Barton Girdwood and Chloe Weiner. Thanks to Lexi Schpittle and Brandon Carter. Our intern is Claire Obie. I'm Asma Khalid. I cover the White House. I'm Tamara Keefe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Kelsey Snell. I cover Congress. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.