00:00 Go ahead.
00:01 The Press: Thanks, Jane.
00:02 So Warren Buffett this month said that taxes will have to be raised to pay for the national
00:06 debt.
00:07 He said the government may want to decrease spending.
00:09 So with -- we've had announcement after announcement of taxpayer money being doled out.
00:13 We've seen almost weekly now.
00:15 Is the federal government spending too much money?
00:17 Ambassador Rice: So let me just say a couple things that Warren Buffett did say that we
00:20 certainly agree with.
00:22 And I'll quote him, "The wealthy are definitely under tax relative to the general population,"
00:27 which is why.
00:28 So the President has a plan to make sure that wealthiest among us, the billionaires and
00:33 big corporations, pay their fair share.
00:35 And we've been very clear about that.
00:37 They pay their fair share in order to pay for his investments in America and cut the
00:41 deficit by $3 trillion.
00:44 And Buffett also said it doesn't bother him to pay taxes.
00:49 And so it has been very clear, the President has said, that he will not raise taxes on
00:53 anyone making less than $400,000.
00:56 That is what the President has said.
00:57 Warren Buffett pretty much agrees with us.
00:59 We agree, obviously, with him.
01:02 And this is very different than what Republicans want to do.
01:05 They put out their plan.
01:06 They put out what they want to do.
01:07 They want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, give tax breaks to billionaires
01:12 and corporations.
01:14 We do not agree with this.
01:15 And what we want to do is continue to make sure that we're lowering costs for Americans,
01:20 for families, whether it is big pharma, fighting big pharma, lowering health care costs, making
01:25 sure that we go after corporations as we -- you hear us talk about junk fees.
01:30 Those are the ways that we want to move forward.
01:32 That's what our focus is.
01:33 So we increase taxes to pay the debt?
01:36 We -- on -- but let's be really, really clear, right?
01:38 On billionaires and big corporations, who Warren Buffett himself said, as you started
01:45 asking me about Warren Buffett, he says that they are undertaxed.
01:49 And that is something that the President agrees on.
01:51 And he believes if we are able to do that, to tax corporation and billionaires, that
01:56 would pay for his investments in America and cut the deficit by $3 trillion.
02:01 That is something the President has been very clear about since day one.
02:04 One more, if I could, on China and the tariffs that are coming.
02:07 So in July of 2019, then-candidate Biden said that tariffs on China are an abusive policy.
02:13 Has the President changed his mind and now believes tariffs work?
02:16 So look, I'm not -- I'm not -- I'm going to be really mindful.
02:19 I'm going to let -- in due order, you'll hear directly from the President, directly
02:26 from us.
02:27 So I don't want to get ahead of that.
02:29 Jake said it really well when he was here.
02:31 We have always had concerns on China's unfair trade policies.
02:36 We've been very clear about that.
02:38 And the last administration, when they did the trade deal with China, what it did is
02:42 it failed to increase American exports or boost manufacturing.
02:46 That is not something the President wants to see.
02:48 He has been doing the opposite, making sure that American manufacturing is created here,
02:54 right here in America.
02:55 And so that is something that he has been very focused.
02:57 He says he wants to protect American workers, protect businesses, American business.
03:01 That's what the President wants to do.
03:02 He spoke about this when he was in Pittsburgh not too long ago, talking about making sure
03:08 that we see fair business practices as it relates to American workers and American businesses.
03:14 So don't want to get ahead of that.
03:16 But we've been very, very clear on how we move forward on these types of practices,
03:21 of trade practices, and what we want to see.
03:25 And that is the framework, as Jake Sullivan said here moments ago, that we move forward.
03:29 So he now believes tariffs work?
03:31 I'm just going to be really mindful, not get ahead of what we're about to announce soon.
03:37 And what we have been really, really clear about is protecting workers, protecting businesses.
03:43 And we have called out China's unfair trade policies.
03:47 And so we're going to continue to do that.
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