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00:00You've been very bold in saying we need more stimulus. We need what we have already. We need more has to be a certain type. And you've been very specific about that. But how critical is it you having served in Washington and having helped get through things like Obamacare. How critical is it that the president has at least 50 50 in the Senate rather than the minority. Look I think administrations can function more effectively when they've got at least some degree of control of both houses of Congress. It controls ridiculous inquisitorial investigations. It enables a nominations and confirmations. It prevents various kinds of harassment. It enables working majorities on the various committees. All of that I think makes a big difference. So this is a big night for the Biden administration. But look David there are some things that are beyond politics. We are not succeeding with respect to covert. We fail the testing. We failed at masking. And we're now doing very poorly at vaccinating. We haven't allocated enough money and we haven't spent the money we have allocated. Well fundamentally Cove it is costing the economy billions of dollars a day. Allocating money to getting testing working better to getting vaccines of every kind distributed to every place so we're not making these excruciating decisions about who should get it. Getting the right kind of PPE distributed all of that is essential and is first to water and is actually more important for stimulating the economy than so-called stimulus. And so that needs to be a first priority. However this election turns out. And in all honesty when we're fighting World War 2 there weren't. Democratic and Republican priorities. And when we're fighting Coburn I don't understand really why there should be Democratic and Republican priorities. It can't make sense that this is a moment when we're slashing the ability of state and local governments to serve people and to meet basic education and health care expenses. That can't be a sensible priority. It is a very sad commentary on our political system and maybe it's even a very sad commentary on our electorate when people are plotting relief for the poor. Support for state and local government health care and educational and security expenditures. And money for vaccination and testing when anybody is suggesting that that is somehow a lower priority than just sending checks to everybody. That is a very sad commentary on our political process. And I hope that the Biden administration with or without a Republican majority is going to prioritize first putting Corbett in the rearview mirror. Those basic support expenditures for the poor and for the essential services of state and local governments and then building back better which God knows we need to do at a time when we've got an obsolete infrastructure in our country at a time when we're not investing in the way we should in education. That's one way we're not investing in the way we should in science. And as a consequence. We're in danger of falling behind China. That's what's at stake. And I think we've got a better chance of getting it. If he's got a working degree of control in the Congress and I just add one other thing. It's totally understandable that we are preoccupied right now by what's happening in our country. But we learned something very powerful in the last few days. We are all very nervous about this British strain of covered about the new South African strain of covert that teaches us that lethal mutation. And I don't think the mutations that we've had so far. They're very serious but they're not devastating. But the next one might be devastating and it can come from anywhere. And that's why we've got a stake in a global effort to contain this thing. And that means the United States needs to go back to its traditional leadership role in addressing global problems. This isn't a case where we can win and somebody else can lose. And that's gonna be critical for us as well. Larry I want to come back to your expertise in Washington both as a decision maker and also as an observer of Washington. It has been said that typically a president has one bullet in the gun one big legislative initiative to make. You saw it with Obamacare Affordable Care Act. You saw it with President Trump with his tax cuts. If that is true in your experience does that almost defined what the main thing is the Biden position can do. It's certainly the first year or two is going to be covered and not building back better. I hope he can do both. You know President Obama did a major stimulus bill. He did Obamacare and he did Dodd-Frank and he had done all of those in the first 15 months of his administration. So I'm guardedly hopeful that we can build back better as we respond to cove it. But that's not going to be nearly as easy. If tonight doesn't work out the right way for the Democrats and frankly it's not going to be nearly as easy. If anybody's investing political capital in the two thousand dollar checks which really aren't a priority either for covered or for building back let's target relief at the poor. Absolutely. Let's target relief at people who are out of work and who have to stay home because of COBRA. But there is no reason why 94 percent of the population should be getting a two thousand dollar check with the crying needs that selected parts of the population have. And with the crying needs that our country has to invest in its future both to respond to combat and frankly to me the very real challenge of competition from China.

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Summers: This Is a Big Night For Biden Administration

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, discusses the importance of the Senate election in Georgia, coronavirus and what he thinks the priorities should be for the United States. He speaks on Bloomberg Television. (Source: Bloomberg)

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