But he says he will oppose the new President if he proposed issues that are exclusionary.
Washington (KM) A new President and new Congress will convene in January, and 6th District Representative John Delaney (D-Md) says he’s willing to work with the new administration. “To the extent they’re working on things to rebuild the country, or to make our international tax system more competitive, I think we can work together,” he says.
“Obviously, policies that I view as exclusionary, that don’t lead to an inclusive country, I’m going to oppose those type of policies,” he says. “To the extent there are policies that gut important programs in the federal government, like the Department of Education, I’m going to oppose those types of policies.”
He and other Democrats say that Trump ran a very divisive campaign, and targeted certain sectors of the population. But now he needs to reach out to them in order to unite the nation.
As part of their campaign, Trump and the Republicans said they will repeal the Affordable Care Act if elected. Delaney says the law needs some changes. “The Affordable Care Act is an important piece of legislation that does need some Congressional fixes,” he says. “I, like many of my colleagues here, have tried to work in a bipartisan way to accomplish some of those things. The past Congress was not interested in fixing the Affordable Care Act. They were interested in repealing it which I didn’t think was particularly productive because there were a whole bunch of fixes that need to be done a bipartisan basis.”
On the issue of immigration reform, Delaney says he likes the bill that passed the Democratic-controlled Senate a few years ago. But House Republicans refused to bring it to the floor for a vote. He says he’d like that legislation to return for consideration. “If the Administration wants to pick up that bill and try to get something done, then I think there will be a number of Democrats who will want to work with him on it, just like there was when we did in the Senate,” says Delaney. “But if they come up with proposals that I think are against the interests of the country, or don’t represent our values on immigration, then I’m going to oppose them.”
During the campaign, Trump promised to build a wall along the US–Mexican border, and get Mexico to pay for. Mexican officials say they will not pay for any border wall.
Delaney says it’s hard to say what specifically he will support or oppose from Trump when he takes over as President because the new administration has not made any specific proposals.
In the meantime, Delaney says he will continue to push for a bill to repair the nation’s aging infrastructure. The legislation, which he says has bipartisan support, will set up an infrastructure bank that allows local and state governments to borrow money to pay for improvements to roads, bridges and other infrastructure. He says the nation’s tax laws could be changed to encourage companies which parked their money overseas to return some of that to the US, which would be used for the infrastructure bank.
President-elect Trump has proposed repairing the nation’s infrastructure as a way to put people back to work. “We’re willing to work to rebuild America, to rebuild our country, the way we’ve been working on the last couple of years. If the Administration wants to be a willing participant, a partner on that, then that would be great,” he says.
By Kevin McManus