In case you missed it, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) appeared on the Democrats’ Daily Blueprint for a wide-ranging interview that covered his commitment to lowering costs on health care, releasing the Epstein files, and his plan for “economic patriotism” as the representative for Silicon Valley.

WATCH

You can find highlights from the conversation below: 

On the importance of fighting for lower health care costs amid a Republican government shutdown:

Congressman Khanna: “Well, it’s pretty simple. Health care premiums for [22] million Americans will double if we don’t do anything. And this fight is about making sure you’re not going to pay twice as much in premiums for your family. Now, what is outrageous is that we’re not in session. Who does this? I’ve been in Congress nine years. We’re not voting to pay the troops. They’re having to move money around and scramble just to pay the troops. When previous shutdowns have happened, I have been on call, where, every two hours — even in the middle of the night — you’d be called in to vote on something.

…

Democrats have been here, we’re ready to vote, we’re ready to vote on things like paying our troops, paying federal workers. I mean, one of the things we need to do is make this guy, Russ Vought, a household name. He’s firing folks. He’s firing people like teachers on military bases. Someone was in my office telling me that teachers are not getting paid who are there to educate our troops’ kids. I mean, this guy is firing people, he is not paying folks, and Democrats are saying, ‘We’re ready to negotiate. We’re ready to pass money to be able to pay workers.’ And by the way, the Republicans could do this tomorrow, they could open government. They’re in charge. They’ve got 51 senators. They’ve got the House, they’ve got the presidency, and they’re not willing to do it.”

On his bipartisan effort to release the full Epstein files:

Congressman Khanna: “This is not political. I mean, we’ve met the survivors. These are women who were raped and abused at the age of 14, 15, who were told to go recruit other junior high friends of theirs, high school friends of theirs, knowing that those folks would get raped. And they stood in front of the Capitol and said, ‘We want these files released.’ Some of them didn’t remember the trauma to themselves, and they said they want to read the files so they understood what happened to them. 

“It was so emotional that Marjorie Taylor Greene was there and emotional. She hugged me and we’ve seen, you know, people be emotionally impacted. Lauren Bobert is on the petition, Nancy Mace is on the petition, and we have 217 signatures. Now, [Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva] will be number 218. And that would force a vote. And what Speaker Johnson knows is that if there is a vote, 60 to 70 Republicans are going to vote for releasing the files. And he doesn’t want to do that. He doesn’t want to do that at the time where we have a shutdown. So he’s literally said, let’s not have Congress since September 23rd. Who does that? What other employer do you just say, ‘Well, we’re going to shut it down. Don’t come.’”

On the economic message that Democrats should be running for office on amid Trump’s failed trade war:

Congressman Khanna: “I can answer simply what the Democrats should stand for. We should stand for what I call ‘economic patriotism.’ That means addressing the economic inequality and divides that are tearing this country apart. That means having our highest priority [be] the economic success of every family and every community in this country. What does that look like? It means taxing the billionaires in my district. It means childcare at $10 a day. It means having Medicare for All so that we don’t have these extraordinary premiums and deductibles, even Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying insurance is terrible. It means having a trade school in every town, so that people — especially in a digital age — are able to have a job, a career, after school, if they don’t go to college. It means financing the modern factories in places that have been de-industrialized. It means financing modern health care jobs and education jobs with university extensionships. We need a Marshall Plan, not for Europe, but for the United States of America that creates good jobs and lowers the cost of child care, of health care, of housing. This, to me, is what the Democratic vision is. 

“The Republicans have got 19th century policies for a 21st century economy … I believe the Democrats have a better vision for the economic future, and how we’re going to make sure every family participates in it, than Donald Trump.”