Biden adviser: ‘There’s a lot of common ground’

Jared Bernstein, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers for President Joe Biden, has said that there is agreement between Republicans and Democrats on assisting businesses and controlling the coronavirus.

The economic adviser to President Biden was speaking on CNBC’s Capital Exchange on Wednesday.

“And there’s, as I said, there’s a lot of common ground when it comes to virus control, when it comes to helping businesses,” said Bernstein, according to the interview’s unofficial transcript US and Global News received from CNBC parent company NBCUniversal. “So I think that the key thing there is that the President is willing to exchange information and ideas in any way that accomplishes the goals he set out for this package.”

Also currently a senior fellow at think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Bernstein is was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2011.

He was considered “a strong advocate for workers.”

Bernstein said late action is unacceptable to Biden.

“Not moving quickly and not moving with the force to finally put this virus behind us and launch this recovery,” said Bernstein, adding: “That’s the part that’s not acceptable to him.”

He further added, “But if anybody has any better ideas in how to get there more quickly, of course, you know, not only is he willing to listen to them, but he is listening to them.”

Earlier in the interview, CNBC Washington correspondent Kayla Tausche had asked, would Biden get 10 Republicans to vote for the package or would the president get a handful so that the White House could say that it had passed with bipartisan support, but that the Biden administration would still need to use budget reconciliation as a tool to actually get it across the finish line.

Bernstein stressed that reconciliation does not mean no Republican participation.

“Well first of all, you just made a point that alludes a lot of people, which is reconciliation doesn’t mean no Republicans joined the plan,” said the adviser. “And in fact, there’s been many examples throughout history where reconciliation has actually been bipartisan.”

He gave the example of the Child Health Insurance Program, which had done reconciliation with votes from both Democrats and Republicans.

Tausche quickly reminded, “Not 60 votes, importantly here.”

“It’s a fair point,” responded Bernstein. “And I think that when it comes to sort of political nose counting, I’m just not the person you want to talk to about it. I’m thinking much more about the magnitude of the package. But that is, you know, key to the politics.”

He went on to say that Biden has been open and that the government had been in talks with Republicans for weeks.

“I mean basically, the President has been open and, you know, by the way, this didn’t start a couple of days ago, we’ve been talking to Republicans for weeks,” he said. “And by the way, a lot of those Republicans were pushing some of the very checks that you’re now hearing folks criticize.”