00:00It is a big deal and would make this country a better place.
00:06John Oliver is calling out two Democratic senators for holding up President Joe Biden's $3.5 trillion government overhaul plan.
00:13According to the White House website, the Build Back Better Act plans to create jobs, cut taxes, and lower costs for working families,
00:20all paid for by making the tax code fairer and making the wealthiest and largest corporations pay their fair share.
00:26During Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight on HBO, Oliver noted that to pass the bill and avoid a filibuster,
00:32every single Democratic senator must be on board.
00:34But two of them, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are holding it up.
00:39Moderates like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin argue it costs too much.
00:43Yet Sinema and Manchin need the support from their more progressive counterparts to pass a related $1 trillion public works bill that they want to pass.
00:50Oliver went on to talk about how a group of people kayaked to talk to Manchin about it while he was aboard his yacht.
00:55I am not sure which stage of capitalism we've reached if we're now kayaking out to a politician's yacht
01:01to beg him to help the poor, but it's got to be one of the last ones.
01:06Oliver then called out Sinema for getting smart with a reporter who asked what she would, quote,
01:09say to progressives who are frustrated they don't know where you are.
01:13She responded with simply, quote, I'm in the Senate.
01:15He wrapped up by again emphasizing how the bill could, quote, benefit people's lives.
01:19If you are blocking it, you owe people more than vague platitudes shouted from the back of a boat
01:24and a cutesy, I'm in the Senate comment.
01:27For more on this story, go to THR.com.
01:30For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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