[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi everyone, I'm Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We kick off the program with United States Congressman Andy Kim.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

- Congressman we're taping this on the 21st of March.

A lot going on.

We'll talk about former President Trump in a moment.

Biggest lesson for you to date, given what we know from the Silicon Valley Bank collapse and other banks that have collapsed since then as it relates to the role of the United States Congress with respect to regulation.

- Well, look, the I think the biggest lesson that we're all learning is that, you know, we have to have greater attention to what these banks are doing and make sure that they're being good stewards of the money of the American people.

And that's something that we recognize that you can't ever assume that these banks are just gonna be okay.

We do need to make sure that we understand the repercussions that are out there.

And we saw a system with the Silicon Valley Bank that could have very well decimated a lot of our startup innovation here in this country.

And that's something that we had to make sure that we took action to be able to stop.

But we're not out of it yet and I'm still worried about where things are looking.

- Hmm, shift gears.

You're also worried significantly about US-China relations.

You are in fact on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

What is the greatest concern you have, Congressman?

- Well, look, the greatest concern that I have is about ensuring that our country continues to be the strongest country in the world.

But we gotta make sure that we're looking at that not just through the lens of the military, I worry that sometimes Congress is putting too much of the emphasis on this idea of a security threat.

There are real, legitimate security threats.

But I believe that we need to be engaged in efforts like investing in our own economy, fixing and healing our democracy to show that our democracy is not on the decline, and making sure that we're taking steps to be the innovators of the future.

Those are some things that I'm hoping to be able to get bipartisan support to be able to push forward on, but we're gonna try to do our best in Congress to try to do that in that way.

- You know, Congressman, you talk about bipartisan support.

How much bipartisanship is there these days when the speaker, the new speaker, the relatively new speaker in the house, Kevin McCarthy, and many of his members who are most vocal, seem to be talking most about the importance, the significance, the imperative of investigating Joe Biden, everyone in his family, particularly Hunter Biden, not what you're talking about.

- I do think there's a big disconnect.

You know, this is something that I've heard from Speaker McCarthy.

He was talking about how he wants to make sure that we're tackling this challenge that we're faced when it comes to China.

But then I talked to him and others of saying, well, look, one of the biggest things we can do to make sure that US strength and leadership continues is to make sure we're not defaulting on our debt.

To make sure that we don't have a situation where a political impasse when it comes to the debt ceiling is something that's gonna put our economy in jeopardy, especially as we're seeing the shakiness with these banks.

So, you know, that is something I tried to push, but I do feel like there's a number of my colleagues that are putting the politics ahead of just getting things done to be able to support our country right now.

So it is something I worry about a lot.

As we're taping today there are many who believe former President Trump will be indicted in Manhattan, the DA in Manhattan.

Assume that happens, again, this will be seen later, not from a criminal or legal point of view, what do you believe that means politically for, forget about the Republican Party or this country, given the fact that President Trump is running again for president in 2024?

- Yeah, well, look, I don't know what's gonna happen next, but one thing- - And also an investigation in Georgia.

We don't know what's happening in Georgia either.

Go ahead, please, I'm sorry, Congressman.

- Yeah, well, I don't know what's gonna happen next, but what I do hope is that whatever does happen that we as a country approach this with calm and with respect and try not to have this be something that throws gasoline on the fire.

I do worry about our state of our politics.

I say that as someone who's been in the last four years.

I was there at the Capitol complex on January 6th.

I've seen with my own eyes just the level of of tribalism that has taken over our country in that kind of way.

What I'll say is that we unfortunately live in an era of great division within our politics and we certainly see people and leaders, again, using that for their own advantage, weaponizing the fear that's out there to be able to push their own agenda and their own ambitions.

And that's something that I am fearful of.

I really worry about this in terms of how our democracy is gonna survive and go forward.

- And we'll show a picture right now of Congressman Kim.

It's an iconic picture that I think the Library of Congress has capturing what happened on January 6th.

It was the congressman, I think it was the day after January 6th, or on January 6th, it was that night attempting to work with others to clean up what they could clean up after the devastation that happened, the attack based on the attack of the House of Congress.

The Dad's Caucus in Congress, what is it?

And is childcare a part of that discussion, Congressman?

- Yeah, when I came into Congress I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old, and there were not that many people that were young dads, young parents in Congress.

And over the last couple years there have been more and more, you know, young parents.

And I remember I was talking to one of my colleagues who helped start the the Dad's Caucus, Jimmy Gomez.

He was changing his baby, his newborn, on the floor outside the House of Representatives.

And I pointed to him and I said, "You know, there's a there's a changing table and one of the bathrooms at the Capitol."

So we just started by just kind of sharing tips of how to be dads in Congress, how to just deal with this.

I am down in DC almost half the year.

I have now a five year old and a seven year old.

I have a wife that I'm trying to work on this with to try to be the dad I need to be.

And then as we had this conversation, we realized that, you know, this is something that needs to be talked about more broadly.

So about childcare, about the child tax credit, about child hunger.

A lot that I've been trying to do to make sure that kids in our country are not going hungry, which unfortunately many are by the thousands.

So this is something that we wanna make sure that we're addressing and putting that forward, that this is something that needs to happen.

It's not just for moms to talk about, it's about dads, it's about everyone.

It's about our future of our country.

And we're trying to use this Dad's Caucus to bring attention to that.

- And real quick, the impact of childcare on the US economy.

- Well it's devastating.

You know, I know that people are paying upwards, a huge percentage of their paychecks are now going to childcare.

This is something that is becoming a huge problem right here in Jersey.

I'm just talking to parents that just can't afford to be able to have their kids go to childcare, which is then having an impact on our workforce.

You know, dads and moms are not able to go to work because they're struggling to get childcare.

That impacts our entire economy, that impacts our workforce at a time when we're struggling to fill jobs.

So that is something that I hope we recognize.

This is something that benefits all of us.

Our country is stronger when we have stronger childcare and better taking care of children.

- Got a minute left, Congressman, lemme ask you this.

You went from being in the majority party to the minority party, right, based on the last election.

The biggest difference for you and your life and your work in the United States Congress because of that change in party stature and control of the House.

What's the biggest difference?

- Well, I think one of the biggest differences is what I think is possible in terms of legislation right now.

Last year I was able to pass legislation.

Bill that I wrote that capped out-of-pocket costs for seniors on Medicare when it comes to their prescription drugs at $2,000 a year.

No senior on Medicare will ever have to pay more than $2,000 a year for prescription drugs.

I was hoping to be able to build on that.

I was hoping to be able to take further steps to lower prescription drug costs and healthcare costs.

All that has come to a screeching halt with this new Congress because I just don't have leadership there, a speaker there, or committee chair people there that share my priorities.

And that's sad because people are struggling right now.

So I'm trying to figure out other things to do.

I'm working on mental health.

I'm trying to deal and tackle the opioid crisis.

Other things where I might be able to get bipartisan support on.

But, unfortunately, a number of the big priorities, whether it's prescription drug costs and healthcare costs or climate change and others, we're seeing a real stagnation on this for the next two years.

- United States Congressman Andy Kim, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Best to you and your family and to your colleagues in Congress doing the work of the people.

Thank you, Congressman.

- Thank you so much.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'’ll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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