It's been a year since Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts. Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined GBH News All Things Considered host Arun Rath to reflect on a year of COVID-19 and discuss the relief package passed by Congress on Wednesday. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Arun Rath: With this coronavirus aid package that's now going to President Biden's desk, we know that some compromises had to be struck in order for it to win approval. Are you comfortable with what the package looks like as passed?
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Well, I think of it this way: The problem that we face is enormous — a pandemic, a resulting economic trauma, and we've been in the middle of a racial reckoning. This is a package that is designed to meet the moment. It's big. It has a lot of moving parts to it, but it concentrates its energy on middle class families, working families, poor families, people who need help, people who are the backbone of keeping this economy going. So look, nobody ever gets everything they wanted. You know me, I was always pushing for more here and there. But it's the right kind of package, and it's got the right scope to it.
Rath: One thing that was left out was the minimum wage hike, to $15 an hour. It wasn't just Senate Republicans opposing it. Eight Democrats did as well, including Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who registered her no vote with a now notorious thumbs down. Are you concerned about more moderate Democrats like Sen. Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin making it harder to pass a more progressive agenda, items that that will be following this?
Warren: Well, look, we need to raise the minimum wage. I think all Democrats recognize that we've got a dispute over exactly how much and exactly how to get it done. But make no mistake, the reason that the $15-an-hour minimum wage wasn't in this package was because we were trying to do it through what's called reconciliation, so that we could do it with 51 votes. The problem is the filibuster. We can't do a head-on, up-or-down, let's-negotiate-hard-over-where-we-want-it-to-land raise in the minimum wage so long as Mitch McConnell gets a veto.
So what we're seeing is in all kinds of areas —the minimum wage, voting protection around the nation, immigration reform, criminal justice reform, more money longterm to provide for universal pre-K and universal child care — with all of those things, we're trying to shove the camel through the eye of a needle because we're trying to get it done with 51 votes.
Now, anyone listening who hasn't been in the middle of this debate for a long time would say, wait a minute, I thought that a majority always carried. But in the United States Senate, as you know right now, Mitch McConnell has a veto. So I see the central problem here as the filibuster. We need to get rid of the filibuster so that we can do the business Americans sent us to come here and do.
Rath: I don't spend too much time on the national politics, but people have used the phrase "tyranny of the minority." About 75 percent of people supported this bill, and we had 50 senators vote against it.
Warren: That is the problem with the filibuster. Remember, the filibuster's roots are in white supremacy. The filibuster's real use was designed to keep us from making progress, to keep us from passing anti-lynching legislation and what ultimately became the civil rights laws. Using the filibuster now and giving Mitch McConnell the power to say over and over and over, no, no, no, whatever President Biden and the Democrats want to do, he doesn't want to be part of it.
That doesn't move us toward bipartisanship, for sure. But more importantly, it doesn't move us toward getting done the things the American people want to see us do. And you're right, I'm not talking about things that are hotly disputed and closely divided. I'm talking about things for which three out of four Americans really want to see us move forward and raising minimum wage, that's just one of them.
Rath: Your colleague in the Massachusetts delegation, Sen. [Ed] Markey said that the $1400 that will soon be going out to below a certain income threshold, that should just be a down payment — more aid will be necessary. What are your thoughts about what else we will need once this gets through?
Warren: I want to say we've gotten to a good place. That is, we've got a package that's big enough to meet the moment, the scope of the problem in front of us. Now let's see what happens. Part of what this package does is ramp up where we need to be on vaccinations. We need to get our arms around this pandemic. We need to get it under control. That lets us start to reopen the economy.
But part of what we proved over this past weekend is that even if we can't get a single Republican to step up and help us, Democrats are willing to come together and do what's necessary. So if the problems persist, if the need persists, then, yes, this will just be a first step. We'll do what it takes to beat back this pandemic, to stabilize our economy, and to get some real racial justice in this country.
Rath: Taking a look at policy at the state level, the Baker administration says starting Friday, residents can now preregister for a vaccine appointment on what will be a new website. As you know, there have been a lot of ups and downs right here in Massachusetts with the vaccine rollout. Give us your take on where we are with the vaccination effort in Massachusetts right now.
Warren: Well, we're doing better than we were. But part of the problem, of course, is that it's been a real problem up to now. I have to tell you, I've really been shocked at how slow Massachusetts has been to roll this out and get people vaccinated. I have to admit, down here in Washington, I usually feel pretty smug about how terrific folks do in Massachusetts on all the health care and science issues. Look, on Friday, Gov. Baker is going to roll out a preregistration system. The whole delegation and I called for that weeks ago. I'm glad it's happening, but the delays have been really frustrating for everyone.
Rath: Stepping further back, it's been such a hard, strange year for all of us. Think about all of the things that have happened. You ran for president. We had this incredible election, this racial justice movement. So a big question: What are your takeaways if you're stepping back now and looking back on this year, what hits you?
Warren: How many people have died. You know, I lost my brother in this. We have had the equivalent so far of more than six Vietnam wars. We've lost grandparents and aunties and uncles, we've lost cousins, as a nation, and we haven't even been able to come together to mourn them, to be able to hug each other and to tell funny stories and to settle this someplace in our hearts. I think we're going to be dealing with the fallout from this horrible pandemic for years and years to come.
