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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) – Town Hall Q and A – LGBTQ – Indianola, Iowa – October 20, 2019

21 Monday Oct 2019

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) – town hall – Indianola, Iowa – October 20, 2019

The question and response:

Question: …Last Summer, uh, I spent some time in the Philippines, for, and, uh, one of the things I noticed was the number of, uh, LGBTQ in the Philippines that were very free to express who they were and be who they were without any fear. And so, when I come here I see so many that have to hide. And so, just my one question, there, you know, what more could you hope to do for our LGBTQ?

[….]

…to marry an immigrant, uh, this coming Summer. I’d like to invite you to come. [cheers][applause]

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D): Well, let me know what the dress is, whether I can wear my sneaks or we’re really gonna go for it. Okay, sounds great. Thank you, Michael. And thank you for being here.

Um, so. let’s start the question about our LGBTQ youth. Uh, What do we do to provide better support? For me, this, this starts at a foundational place. And that is the statement of our values. What kind of a country we want to be, what kind of a people we want to be. The thing? This is very straightforward. I believe in the worth of every single human being in this country. [applause][cheers] And I believe we can support that in a million ways, large and small. But let’s start, I’ll talk about it in just a second, let’s start with where we are right now. And that is, we have a President who traffics in hate…It is a strategy, a strategy, and the strategy is, turn people against people. Turn people against people. Turn white against black and brown. Turn, uh, um, straight against gay, and particularly trans, and particularly trans people of color. Um, turn Christian against Muslim. Turn everyone against immigrants, particularly black and brown immigrants. And his hope is that enough people are fighting with each other, nobody will notice that Donald Trump and his corrupt buddies are stealing this country blind. [applause][cheers]

And here’s the benefit we’ve got as we start rolling into 2020, it’s about what we’re out there fighting for, but it’s also how we’re fighting. How we are building a grass roots movement together to pick up each others’ fights. Not to state, well, that’s your fight, and then your fight is the other one, and your fight is about Social Security, your fight is about student, that’s ’cause you’re different ages, your fight is about what’s happening in criminal justice where there’s such a heavy race component. It’s to say, no. We’re gonna pick up each others’ fights. We’re all gonna make this America that works, not just for a thinner and thinner slice at the top, we’re gonna make this an America that works for everyone. That is our goal…[cheers][applause].

So, I have, as you’re not surprised, lots of plans around LGBTQ plus, and LGBTQ plus youth. Uh, LGBTQ plus youth are more likely to be homeless. We need to put real resources in. And that means counselors, sending people into the field…in the streets, so that we can help families, and places for people to go, if that’s what they have to do.

Uh, it’s powerfully important that every policy we think about we take a step back and think about how it’s felt by people of different sexual orientation, different identification, uh, people who are non-binary. How does it, how does it work? And nowhere is that more true than for our youth.

So, it’s about health care, it’s about immigration, it’s about every time we want to make sure as a country that we’re building opportunity, that opportunity is not a narrow bridge, that you gotta be just one way, to cross that bridge. That it’s a bridge that’s got a whole lot of on-ramps to it for a whole lot of people. ‘Cause, here’s the deal, we are a country that will be the country of our best values when every single one of our children is valued, gets a good education, and has lots of opportunities available to them. [applause][cheers]

Previously:

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) – Town Hall – Indianola, Iowa – October 20, 2019 (October 20, 2019)

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) – Town Hall – Indianola, Iowa – October 20, 2019

20 Sunday Oct 2019

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“…And understand this, that difference is not accidental. It’s not the consequence of, of gravity. That difference is about who government works for…”

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) – town hall – Indianola, Iowa – October 20, 2019

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) continued her presidential campaign in Iowa with a town hall at Simpson College in Indianola on Sunday afternoon. In a presidential campaign tour de force, she spoke at length, took questions, and then stayed and stood for selfie photographs with a very long line of supporters. Close to 500 individuals attended the event.

Senator Warren’s remarks:

…Today, the question asked in Washington is, where do we set the minimum wage to maximize the profits of giant multinational corporations? Well, I don’t want a government that works for giant multinational corporations. I want one that works for our priorities. [applause][cheers]…

…We have a government that works great. Works fabulously. For giant drug companies. Just not for people who are trying to get a prescription filled. Can I have an amen on that? [voices: “Amen!”] A government that works terrifically for anyone who wants to invest in private prisons or private detention centers. Just not for the people whose live are destroyed…[applause][cheers] A government that works terrifically for giant oil companies that want to drill everywhere. Just not for the rest of us who see climate change…And when you see a government that works great for those with money and not so good for everyone else, that is corruption, pure and simple, and we need to call it out for what it is [applause][cheers]…

…whatever issue brought you here today, whatever is the one that gets you up in the morning, keeps you up at night, whether it’s criminal justice reform, whether it’s climate, whether it’s gun safety, whether it’s health care, student loans, whatever is the issue, if there is a decision to be made in Washington, I guarantee it’s been touched by money. It’s been influenced by money…

…If we…want to make this country, this government, this Democracy work for us its gonna take big structural change…

..And I got a plan for that [cheers][applause]…

…Here’s the good news. I have the biggest anti-corruption plan since Watergate. Yay! [applause][cheers] Here’s the bad news. We need the biggest anti-corruption plan since Watergate…

…End lobbying as we know it. [cheers][applause] Block the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. [cheers][applause] Here’s one you may never have even thought about, make the United States Supreme Court follow basic rules of ethics. [cheers][applause] Boy, I love this. Uh, I could do these all day long. [laughter] But, I tell you what, let me just do one more. You really want to root out some corruption? Really. Here’s one. Every single person who run for Federal office has to put their tax returns online [cheers][applause]…

…Once you disrupt the influence of money, once they’re no longer able to call the shots without somebody calling them out, now we’ve got the possibility of some more change…

…Unions built America’s middle class, unions will rebuild America’s middle class…

…It is time for a wealth tax in America. [applause][cheers] And here’s how it goes, here’s my plan. Your first fifty million dollars in accumulated wealth. Free and clear. [laughter]…But on your fifty million and first dollar, you gotta pitch in two cents. And two cents on every dollar after that…

…By raising the payroll taxes on the top two percent in this country we can extend the viability of Social Security for decades we can give every single person getting a Social Security check a two hundred dollar a month raise, and we can get every person who counts on a disability check a two hundred dollar a month raise…

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D): release the Mueller Report

23 Saturday Mar 2019

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2016 file photo by Jerry Schmidt]

Last night from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D), via Twitter:

Elizabeth Warren @ewarren
Attorney General Barr—release the Mueller report to the American public. Now.
[….]
4:21 PM – 22 Mar 2019

Elizabeth Warren (D) – running for President in 2020

31 Monday Dec 2018

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) has formed a 2020 presidential campaign exploratory committee.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D) [2016 file photo by Jerry Schmidt]

The transcript:

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D): In our country, if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to take care of yourself and the people you love. That’s a fundamental promise of America – a promise that should be true for everyone.

Growing up in Oklahoma, that promise came through for me and my family. After my older brothers joined the military and I was still just a kid, my daddy had a heart attack and couldn’t work. My mom found a minimum wage job at Sears, and that job saved our house and our family. My daddy ended up as a janitor, but he raised a daughter who got to be a public school teacher, a law professor, and a Senator. We got a real opportunity to build something.

Working families today face a lot tougher path than my family did. And families of color face a path that is steeper and rockier, a path made even harder by the impact of generations of discrimination.

I’ve spent my career getting to the bottom of why America’s promise works for some families, but others who work just as hard slip through the cracks into disaster. What I’ve found is terrifying: these aren’t cracks that families are falling into – they’re traps. America’s middle class is under attack.

How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie, and they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice. They crippled unions so no one could stop them, [….] dismantled the financial rules meant to keep us safe after the Great Depression, and cut their own taxes so they paid less than their secretaries and janitors.

[….]

After Wall Street crashed our economy in 2008, I left the classroom to go to Washington and confront the broken system head on.

[….]

We created America’s first consumer watchdog to hold the big banks accountable.

[….]

I never thought I’d run for office – not in a million years. But when Republican Senators tried to sabotage the reforms and run me out of town, I went back to Massachusetts and ran against one of them – and I beat him.

[….]

Today, corruption is poisoning our democracy. Politicians look the other way while big insurance companies deny patients life-saving coverage, while big banks rip off consumers, and while big oil companies destroy this planet.

Our government’s supposed to work for all of us, but instead it has become a tool for the wealthy and well-connected. The whole scam is propped up by an echo chamber of fear and hate designed to distract and divide us. People who will do or say anything to hang on to power point the finger at anyone who looks or thinks or prays or loves differently than they do.

But this dark path doesn’t have to be our future. We can make our democracy work for all of us. We can make our economy work for all of us. We can rebuild America’s middle class – but this time, we gotta build it for everyone.

No matter where you live in America, and no matter where your family came from in the world, you deserve a path to opportunity. Because no matter what our differences, most of us want the same thing: to be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules, and take care of the people we love.

That’s the America I’m fighting for, and that’s why today I’m launching an exploratory committee for president. But the outcome of this election will depend on you.

In the last two years, millions of people have done more than they ever thought they thought they would to protect the promise of America. And here’s what we learned: if we organize together, if we fight together, if we persist together, we can win – we can and we will.

Previously:

Julián Castro (D) – running for President in 2020 (December 12, 2018)

Short and sweet (it’s late)

08 Wednesday Feb 2017

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Wanna know what happened this evening in the confirmation hearings for Senator Jeff Sessions to be Trump’s Attorney General (note I don’t say our Attorney General)?:

Senate Republicans passed a party-line rebuke Tuesday night of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for a speech opposing attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, striking down her words for impugning the Alabama senator’s character.

In an extraordinarily rare move, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) interrupted Warren’s speech, in a near-empty chamber as debate on Sessions’s nomination heads toward a Wednesday evening vote, and said that she had breached Senate rules by reading past statements against Sessions from figures such as the late senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and the late Coretta Scott King.

The statements contained in Mrs. King’s letter and Senator Kennedy’s speech speak directly to the reason that Senator Sessions is unfit to hold this position. Silencing Warren means that the GOP is now a political organization dedicated to achieving power for themselves and their wealthy supporters and that in that ugly pursuit they do not scruple to openly support an authoritarian racist while ruthlessly suppressing any dissent. This is not the way a democracy works.

Let Blunt know that his party has overstepped the line and that if he voted to suppress these statements, his party will face a reckoning in 2018 – and that we will not forget the role he has played in facilitating the despicable Trump. Also ask him why Republicans are so afraid to have a truly open debate. Here a link to his email contact form; there are also links to his office with phone numbers.

Addendum: Here’s a link to Mrs. Kings letter, also checkout #LetLlizSPeak on Twitter.

Addendum 2: Interesting take on this incident and why it’s important:

But the other side of the coin is the prospect of a creeping normalization of what is happening to both the executive and legislative branches of our government – and potentially to the judicial if this administration survives. We’ve seen how the norms of what have kept these institutions functioning for decades are being slowly eroded in a way that too often goes unchallenged.

A perfect example was the silencing of Sen. Elizabeth Warren last night on the Senate floor when she attempted to read Coretta Scott King’s letter in opposition to the nomination of Sessions to be the Attorney General. While those of us who follow these kinds of things closely were appalled, most Americans will either never know it happened or will simply assume that it is business as usual in a divided Senate. That is how this kind of thing gets normalized.

Addendum 3: Here’s what Elizbeth Warren has to say to say about how the unsavory incident could help mobilize the resistance that will be necessary to keep such events from becoming business as ususal:

“People all over this country need to see how Donald Trump is trying to transform America into a meaner, more hateful place,” Warren said. “Democracy is not a machine that runs itself. It requires people.”

Medical research or Big Pharma: Guess which Billy Long loves the most

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

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Rep. Billy Long (R-7) is excited about the possibility that Congress will pass the 21st Century Cures Act by the end of this session, and he wants his constituents to know that he cosponsored the bill. Unfortunately, even though Billy seems to think that his support for this bill is a big deal that will will help wipe disease off the map, I’m afraid that, along with some funding for medical research, it contains poison pills in the way of corporate giveaways that may be too big to swallow.

The bill does spend some money on limited types of medical research, and, no matter how inadequate, these days the situation is so dire that more is always good. But not when it comes at the cost of loosening important safety regulations, essentially giving the regulatory store away to pharmaceutical firms and medical device makers in order to solve problems that – guess what? – don’t really exist. Contributors to Health Affairs Blog, a Project Hope affiliated publication which “features posts from noted health policy experts and commentators from a wide variety of perspectives,” summarizes the problems with the bill:

Proponents of the proposed legislation—drug and device companies, and members of both parties in the House and Senate—argue that the FDA stifles innovation and advances in treatment by approving drugs and devices too slowly compared to other countries.

That premise is faulty. Nearly two-thirds of the novel drugs approved in 2015, for example—29 of 45, 64 percent — were approved in the United States before being approved in any other country. The proportion was even higher in 2012 and 2013. The majority of these drugs (60 percent) took advantage of existing FDA expedited review programs—fast track, breakthrough, priority review, and accelerated approval—and nearly half (47 percent) were approved to treat rare or orphan diseases.

As for devices, research shows that “it takes the same amount of time or less for patients to gain access to innovative, high-risk medical devices” in the U.S. as compared to Germany, France, Italy, and Britain.

The House and Senate bills ignore the above facts. They essentially seek to speed-up the approval process by relaxing FDA’s safety and effectiveness standards. And to make that more palatable, sponsors have attached the changes to increases in funding for the National Institutes of Health and the FDA.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leveled a powerful attack on the paltry and likely ephemeral increase in research funding that is on offer:

For more than two years, Congress has been working on legislation to help advance medical innovation in the United States. Medical innovation is powerfully important, and I have spent as much time working it as any other issue during my time in the Senate.

From the beginning, I have emphasized one obvious fact. Medical breakthroughs come from increasing investments in basic research. Right now, Congress is choking off investments in the NIH. Adjusted for inflation, federal spending on medical research over the past dozen years has been cut by 20%. Those cuts take the legs out from under future medical innovation in America. We can name a piece of legislation the “cures” bill, but if it doesn’t include meaningful funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, it won’t cure anything.

That’s why months ago Senate Democrats said any so-called “cures” legislation must have a significant investment in medical research. And that’s why Senate Republicans publicly committed to doing exactly that. But now they have reneged on that promise and let Big Pharma hijack the Cures bill. This final deal has only a tiny fig leaf of funding, for NIH and for the opioid crisis.

And most of that fig leaf isn’t even real. Most of the money won’t really be there unless future Congresses passes future bills in future years to spend those dollars. …

Just in case, she hadn’t made her position clear, Warren added:

I support most of these proposals. I’ve worked on many of them for years. I even wrote several of them myself. If this bill becomes law, there is no question it will contain some real legislative accomplishments.

But I cannot vote for this bill. I will fight it because I know the difference between compromise and extortion.

Compromise is putting together common-sense health proposals supported by Democrats, by Republicans, and by most of the American people, and passing them into law. Extortion is holding those exact same proposals hostage unless everyone agrees to special favors for campaign donors and giveaways to the richest drug companies in the world.

Somehow, Billy Long neglected to tell us about the real focus of the bill; he wants us to believe that a poorly funded bill based on Big Pharma’s and medical device makers’ wish-list “could save millions of lives.”

When it comes down to it, if the choice is between Ozark Billy and Elizabeth Warren, I know who I believe.

 

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The post that made Blue Girl burst with pride and pass the baton

15 Saturday Oct 2016

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By @emmocupcakes

My name is Zoe Anne, and I am 12 years old. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I am who you’re busting your butts for, because I’m going to inherit this mess.

I won’t be able to cast my first ballot until the 2022 midterms, but you can bet I will vote in every election that season, and every election thereafter. I always kinda-sorta knew I would be leftish. I’m being raised in a Redemptorist, Liberation Theology Catholic family, church, and school.

Yesterday I attended a rally for Jason Kander with Senator Elizabeth Warren at the College Basketball Experience at the Sprint Center downtown. After yesterday, I’m a liberal in my own right, not just because of how I’m being raised.

When my grandma said she wanted to take me to a rally on my day off from school I wasn’t thrilled, I honestly thought it was going to be really boring. When the first state representative started talking about her time with Jason Kander I was actually really interested by what she was saying. All throughout I was listening and I actually learned a few things. The main thing that I remember was when Robin Smith, who is running for Secretary of State, started talking about how many real cases of voter impersonation there have been (31 out of a BILLION ballots cast) and all the other laws that are trying to be passed to strip certain people of their rights really made me think. How many hoops am I going to have to jump through to register to vote in a few years if these guys get their way and keep taking more and more rights away?

I didn’t know who Elizabeth Warren was until two days ago when my grandma told me about her and the CEO of Wells Fargo, but when I saw her I was so excited. Everything she said was really inspiring and sometimes very thought provoking. I’m actually quite hopeful for some of this year’s politicians and I hope that they live up to the expectations we have for them.

Jason Kander said several times his generation would fix things. I hope those weren’t just words, because my generation is counting on them.

This post was written by my 12-year-old granddaughter after her first rally. Apples, trees, yadda yadda… Blue Girl

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