Watch this holiday week on cspan. Deval patrick spoke at a town hall in New Hampshire. Topics included Economic Growth and combating the opioid epidemic. Nice to meet you. I know you. We have met before. How is the family . My pleasure. Sarah. Hello, sarah. I like your teacher. Tshirt. How are you . Nice to see you. It is so nice to see you guys. Some old friends of mine up in sandwich. Center harbor side. Friend of mine where i spent last night. Extended family for 40 years. You have an extended family here. You are welcome to stay at my house. My name is carlos. Party chairocratic and delicate at large. My story began in 2007. Moved to you New Hampshire family life was tough at the time. I came here, i enjoyed it night school. Ran for office at a young age. I was told that i was too young to run. I won by 46 votes in a city that is all republicans. The only hispanic and the state to be elected until two years ago when we had a few representatives. I am going to quote the governor. He said something that means a lot. He said it earlier. Is onlye first important if there is a second and a third. We have a couple of hispanics elected, that starts to me a lot. I just wanted to host all of the candidates. That was the idea to have a conversation about the issues that matter to us. We have so many things facing us. Our voices matter. Thee i was receiving progressive of the year award last week, i met the governor. I extended an invitation and he said, lets do it. So, here we are. Its an honor because deval firstk was the africanamerican governor for the state of massachusetts. Im used to saying the state of New Hampshire. Only the second in our nation. Still to this day, we have only had two. I think when our nation is so diverse, there should be more than one or two. Huge advocateen a for climate change. As a young person, i believe that we can only solve the problems of the future if we focus on the biggest threat that we have today which is climate change. Thank you for being such a champion in massachusetts for us. Of course, with Health Insurance, you were a huge advocate in passing Health Insurance in massachusetts and making sure that 90 of massachusetts was covered. 99. Im sorry. That is huge. That is something that i value and i thank you for doing that before running for president. He has been a governor that has had result. Without further ado, it is a huge honor to have Deval Patrick here in New Hampshire. Thank you very much. Thank you for the warm welcome. A very generous introduction. Thank you for your leadership which has been key and an example for all of us. For those of you, i know a couple of you here. Prefer conversations. I am not going to do a lot of talking at you. Why i am in the race and what i think the opportunity of this moment is for all of us. I will start there because i think democrats, and i am a proud democrat. Although, democrats get on my last nerve. We tend to focus on the how before the why. And i want to i grew up one why. The south side of chicago. Most of that time in poverty with my mother, my sister, my cameparents, relatives who and went in our grandparents two bedroom tenement. We used to share one of those bedrooms. Every third night on the floor. I went to overcrowded under resourced sometimes violent public schools. I dont remember owning a book until i was 14 years old. I got a break through a Scholarship Program called a which was like landing on a different planet. There was a very strong sense of community. Every childays when was under the jurisdiction of every single adult. If you mess up down the street, she would go upside your ahead and that she would call home. What those adults are trying to get across is when you are a member of the community, you have a stake in your neighbors struggles as well as your own. You are responsible for doing what you can in your time, in our time, to make things better for those who come behind. Those values are what i have tried to live by as i went on to college and law school. I practiced with civil rights lawyers. I did business law. I was headed the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department and the clinton administration. Businesses to grow where we can deliver measurable social and environmental goods. I have lived the American Dream. By which i mean, not being limited by the circumstances of your birth. And determination and personal responsibility are absolutely key, so was access to a great education and a Transportation System so you could get back and forth to a job. I knew leaving the south side to come to milton that there were other kids just as creative, just as ambitious, just as determined as me who did not get that chance. Years, the over the American Dream is becoming more out of reach for more and more people. I know it does not have to be that way. Have pulled back from that notion of common cause and common responsibility for a long time. I think the shortterm focus, the obsession with the shortterm focus frankly, is the reason for everything from the economic ands to social anxiety. I would say even to the administration we have in office right now. Anxiety and frustration and even anger that comes from the environment around us is something i recognized from the south side of chicago. Left, itsteel mills left everyone feeling like they had been kicked to the curb. Opioids fill that void. If atsues became issues all, at election time and not in between. The lack of confidence in government as a source of solutions or as a source of even seeing and hearing peoples at a low. We created all of this. E, i mean all of us in a democracy, we get the government we deserve. Better government, if we want more engagement, we have two reach for it. We have to insist on it and stop accepting what is on offer as often as we have. Likei think about things the economic indicators. Everything is so great. Inflation is low as long as you dont count the cost of education, housing, and health care. The things that enable you. Unemployment is low. If you do count both or all three of the minimum wage you have to survive. We dont have to accept this. Experiencethat in my in life and leadership, change that lasts requires setting a goals. Big broad agenda ,hen i was elected governor which was the first thing i ever ,an for, 15 minutes after that the bottom fell out of the global economy. Eight years of real focus and asking people to turn to rather than on each other. A number one achievement in health care service. Right. Not get everything nobody does. But we got as much done as we resultsuse we were focused. We were about everyone everywhere. Not just the folks who were wellconnected and knew their way to and around. Because of the agenda that we had, we kept listening to make sure it was the agenda that actually mattered to people at the point where policy touches people. About the range of leadership experience that i lessons, there are some that stick. One is that we have to reject false choices. We are offered them all the time. You dont have to hate republicans to be a good democrat. I dont think you have to hate police to believe black lives matter. I dont know why we keep getting offered these false choices. The other side is setting up these little tradeoffs. We have to look through that and put that down if we want to make change that matters. The other lesson that i have is that the way you get change that lasts is that you share the victory. It is about bringing people in, setting a goal, others may have or morer or different effective way of achieving that goal. I dont think any person, any party has a corner. I think change that lasts is the only thing that saves our democracy right now. It is why what we are focusing on is an opportunity agenda and a democracy agenda because it is so broken. We are i would say getting around and listening to people and checking whether the agenda we think is the right one is the one that matters. Are,e are sure that you and when i say you, i mean everybody, understand that this is not just a style of campaigning but it is a style of leadership where you should expect accountability and time notetween campaigns and just during campaigns. Isyou want leadership that just about plans and not results or just about being mad, i am mad too, by the way. But just being mad is not about how we use the opportunity of change to heal us as a nation. If that is what you want, i am not your guy. If what you want is someone who understands that lasting and meaningful change is not just necessary but is an opportunity to heal us, i think i am your guy. I would love to earn your support and your vote. Why dont we start with earning your support and have some conversations . Everybody like whenever you speak just say your first name, where you are from,. Nd what is important for you i can just call on people, too. Will . I think that there needs to be more programs that will help people in early recovery to sustain sober houses. Is there a limit on how much time you can have in the sober house . As soon as i got to the sober house, i had a job lined up. A lot of people arent lucky enough to be in that position. Coming out of a time when they are destroying their lives. Difficult if is you have not done it for a while. There needs to be more programs to help sustain them in their. Ransition sustained sobriety. If this is too personal, just tell me to stop. Time . Id you decide it was i hit bottom. I think everybody has to hit their bottom when they decide it is time. Nobody is going to get help if they dont want it. You cannot force it on someone. Where you caught up in the criminal Justice System . Yes. I pulled up to the sober house from prison. I partner with a couple of sober houses here in laconia. Laconia had the highest death rate in the state of New Hampshire for overdoses. The biggest problem is in the winter. This time of year, people are falling into the despair. They cannot afford their housing. They cannot afford to continue to go to work because they dont have a license. Where there is no public transportation, having these things are important. It is a life or death. One of these the things he is touching on, the biggest statistic is when they get out of the sober house, when they have health care and insurance that covers their sobriety for a two months, they get out in 28 days and now they have to find a job, find a place to live. The average rent is about 200 per week minimum. That is being nice. You dont have a job to begin with. Now you are going back to the previous circles that you knew because that is all you know. We need to do better as a society on how we help them continue. After you have destroyed your life is expensive. That is the only way we can put it as a nation from here on. I find a lot of special young men that the system has forgotten about. There is luckily great people in this community that are working hard. To people lost in one year drug overdoses. It is insane. Especially under the age of 30. Education is important. At the same time, if we are going to keep people sober and out of the system. This is another problem we find. They go to jail and they come out and have all these fines to pay. How do you get out of that . You just go deeper and deeper. Why we arereasons rolling out policies in packages instead of in silos is because most people dont live in policy silos. You cant talk about longer periods in sober houses without talking about how you move into independent housing, how you get the training for the job that is actually available and not just training and hoping. A community, act like we have a stake in you to the point you can stand on your own. When i say stand on your own, dont hear that as disrespectful. We all need a hand. The stuff you some of we try to do in massachusetts. Realize, ibegan to left off coming on five and a half years ago. We began to see what was coming not so muche come in the adult addiction community but in department of children and families. We had a family first strategy. Kids will come in because they were in state custody. Getting them back to mom and dad quickly was harder to do because mom and dad one or both were dealing with their own addiction issues. We were beginning to see what was issues, so we were beginning to see what was coming and its since been a huge wave. We opened the largest stateoftheart treatment facility, treatment and recovery facility, i think in massachusetts history, and we built that by the way, right through the recession. That was a step. We did do a drug course so we had that diversion. We put additional money into Recovery Centers and we had a mandatory, we had an administrative extension of the recovery period. Actually quite controversial for some. What i dont think we nailed was the transition after that longer recovery. I think it was extended, i would have to check this. I think it was extended to 65 days. I think thats right. But what we didnt perfect is the transition on into, you know, into that housing, into that job, so you were getting back. The mojo was just being on your own, so i think thats work we can do. The question i would ask you, because its come up in a couple of other conversations here in New Hampshire. Is a solution to get resources down to the local level and have local solutions, a solution to get it to states and have state solutions, or is it to hold it and go at it as a federal solution . The reason i ask that is because ive talked to a few people at the local level who said its a state level and the state isnt doing enough. Ive talked to people at the state level who have said we need federal help. Its really a local level. From the perspective of this evening. There is no easy solution to the problem. I think it would benefit to have it at the state level. That way, you know, people applying through like dhs or Something Like that, to get the help, and, you know, it wouldnt just be with the town, you know. Like you find, rehabs are closed. Like beds arent opened so you have to go to a different county, and if its at the state level, if youre transitioning between counties, you know that wont hold you up as much. Did you have your hand up . Here in New Hampshire, we have a system whats your first name . Sarah. So here in New Hampshire we have a State Government that profits from the sale of the first addictive substance most people try and thats alcohol and yet were supposed to have a fund earmarked for prevention, treatment and access recovery and its never been fully funded the fact is from the sale of okay. And so we have these great Liquor Stores on the highways that you drive by, and were supposed to earmark a ton of that money back into the community and its just not happening. Has it ever happened . I think the first year it happened, we do our budget biannum. 40 . That equals a Million Dollars every single year for the laconia district. Republicans are not really putting the money where it should go. This is a health crisis. Its not any personal feeling that what youve done in massachusetts. We also declared ate Perfect Health emergency. Yeah. Where are you from, joe . Im from laconia. Ive lived here for 33 years to. Touch base on the topic, kind of what hes talking about. The problem isnt with the Treatment Centers the big problem stems out of the insurance because my personal experience, when i was in a treatment center, im just a number to an Insurance Company. Yep. They made a decision after 14 days of never meeting me, never seeing anything but what they got back from your counselor that i was safe to come back to the streets. I begged and pleaded to say i wasnt ready. Im probably going to die. I dont want to leave and i was forced to leave to step down to a lower level, instead of staying in a safe, comfort area, which was a residential treatment center, because at that time, the Insurance Company deemed i was ready to move on to the next level. Another issue would be insurance as well, we talked this today, the medicare, the medicaid issue, you myself some of your prescriptions covered, as soon as you get your first paycheck, now youre on the books. Youre back to work starting to get back on your feet. My insurance has done it to me multiple times, which i actually work here, its a commissionbased job, its up and down, so then they pull your medicaid and you have to reapply. Its almost like i have to stay under i cant make a certain amount of money. Dont make this amount of money to keep your insurance, or pay the prescription out of your pocket and try to make this amount of money. Thats one of the biggest issues, they are putting the money in the right areas. Like he was saying, transition from rehab to sober living, i went to rehab myself seven times before i figured it out, you know. Im not saying everybody is perfect, but im on 88 days right now. [applause] the issue, like he said, you come from jail, you come from rehab. You tore your life down. You have nothing. By the time you get out, there is chuck ees and stars before you get money. A lot of these places, carlos know who i stay with, its owned by a sober house, hes a democrat, and he works with people like, if you dont have money to move in. He wont tell you, you cant move in. A lot of these places put their foot down. If you dont have the first week and you dont have the deposit, it can be 450 to a thousand dollars just to walk in the door. What kind of drug addict that just destroyed his life is going to go ask mom, dad, family and friends, im finally doing the right things, let me borrow a thousand bucks so i can go into a sober house. They think 28 days is enough and ill tell you, 28 days isnt enough for anybody. It took me multiple tries and thats the worst part. Weve all seen it, multiple, ive had over 20 friends already die here in laconia from addiction. It comes down to our community. We can fix it here and then fix it at a bigger level. Right here, people dont realize, and i think New Hampshire is number two in the United States for opioid problems besides ohio. People dont realize the severity of the issue. They dont want to see behind the scenes what its real and what its like to see somebody, you know, family, what happens to them after somebody overdoses and dies, and now your kid is going into the foster care system and they think all of these drug addicts are bad people. A lot of these people would give the shirt off their back in a heartbeat when they are sober but they cant seem to kick that issue because of either insurance, you know, not the right treatment policy or they just cant, its a combination of everything, you know what i mean . It kuscome down to you wanting it but you cant do it by yourself. Its impossible. It really is. The struggle to see it first hand. Its crazy. I think thats you know, no offense, the politicians dont know how it is on the street level, you know what i mean . They dont see how it affects people. Say more about, maybe react on the question of shame. The way it gets in the way of policy making. I think we have a shared social responsibility to break down a lot of the stigma associated with this. Its a health issue. I remember, and i dont this is so deep, i hate to turn from it, but i have some other issues i want to remember. On your last point, what people see, dont see what they look for and dont look for, my uncle sonny was one of those relatives who came and went. One of the reasons he came and went is because he was in and out of sober settings or jail. You know. I remember my mothers reaction when i came into railroad tenets, the rooms are behind each other. I remember saying to my mother, uncle is doing something strange. Everybody else was out except my mom, me, and him. And he was in the front shooting up. I was probably about this big. And i saw how agitated he was, and how instantly relaxed he was, and i think i had gone in while this was happening and, you know, he was just hanging there. And my mother flew into a rage. And, because she felt that this was not something that her child should see, let alone be at risk of, but just should see. She put him out, locked the door. My grandparents were away in kentucky. He banged on the door all night long. When my grandparents got back the next day, there was a complete like, just a fight to end all fights between my mother and her mother, because this is what happens, you know. Families get torn apart. Not just the person who is suffering as deep as the suffering goes but the whole family exactly. But so im acknowledging, first of all, that we need to think comprehensively. This is really where you started, and i think you built on it. I get it. I dont know all the pieces that there need to be. But i promise that, not just as a politician, but as a human being, i see you, and i hear you, and i want to serve you. [inaudible] one of the big things that concerns me, im a College Student right now going to school for several engineering and eventually i want to come back to New Hampshire. Where are you going to school . [inaudible] so i want to come back home. The problem is, you know, you look at all the young people, they arent coming back to New Hampshire. They are going back home wherever their home might be. [laughter] but, so it concerns me, how do we get young people to want to go back to where they came from rather than off to boston or new york or one of the large cities that just seems to be consuming everybody . Well, you know, as the parent of young people, im always a little careful about saying what young people what i think young people should do. [laughter] so im not even looking at him. Hes rolling his eyes right now. Look, some things that we know make possible the American Dream. Right . We know its a great school within reach of everyone. And great education, frankly, right through life, because more and more, our economy is going to be changing fast, and the ability to get training and get retrained for a specific job, not just training and hoping, but for a specific job, i think is critical. We did some work on that in massachusetts. I have done some work on this in my private sector life. I think spending on schools, on university, community college, and training is the single best expenditure of public money for the future. The second element, if you will, of how we build an economy thats going out and not just up, is innovation. Thats all kind of industries that are at the cutting edge of a knowledge economy. I doesnt mean you have to have a ph. D. Right . The middle skills gap, socalled, which i came to understand at the worst of the recession in massachusetts, there were 175 people 775,000 people, i think it was, looking for work, and 125,000 vacancies at the same time. And what employees were telling us is that in the case of many of those jobs, they couldnt find the people with the skills necessary for the jobs they had, and many of those jobs required more than a High School Diploma but not necessarily a college degree. Some kind of certification that was targeted for that job. Those kinds of jobs, and that kind of sensibility, that we can, we can shape a future around the innovation economy. It doesnt have to be concentrated in boston, or Silicon Valley requires the third thing. Which is infrastructure and investment. Thats roads, rails and bridges, yes. Its also Work Force Housing, right . Its also, you know, high Speed Internet service. Which changes everything. Not just in the sort of in those hubs that you talked about, that i mentioned but up in the North Country where we were just now, even cell service is so spotty. How can you participate in a knowledgebased economy if youre not in one of those hubs . Frankly, there is another thing that we invested in, in massachusetts, which i think is a model. Nationalize it, thats not exactly what im saying but other models that i have seen, and that weve put to great effect something called mass challenge, which was a publicprivate incubator for new businesses and Small Businesses trying to grow, so if you had an idea and you needed some coaching and you wanted to work alongside other folks, you could be a part of this incubator, and as it began to grow could you get some seed money to get going. Capital, not alone. Capital. Thats the difference. Right . And so the notion of being able to, you know to be an engineer, wherever you want to, in New Hampshire, might be laconia or it might be someplace else. You have housing that you can afford. You have an infrastructure you can access so you can participate in a market thats larger and you can have some folks around you, who show you what it might be like when you decide, you know what . I dont want to just work for this big Civil Engineering company. I want to have my own Civil Engineering firm. We used to understand how to do this, and i think adapting some of that attitude to a changing economy is critical. The last thing i would say, and you tell me whether what im saying responds to what youre worried about, is that historically speaking, weve been pretty good in america at innovation. Were not as good at transition, right . So we do the next thing but we get around to the impact on people, if at all, later. I think there is a way to think about how we own innovation economy, and we bring people in as we go. You know, we did some terrific work around the job creation opportunities in responding to climate change. We had this exploding new sector around energy efficiency, solar, and wind. Its exactly the kind of thing we have to do nationally and frankly globally. No one has gone to coal country, for example, and said look, the stone age didnt end because we ran out of stone. Coal isnt going to end because we run out of coal. Weve got a better idea. How about we do some of this here. How about coal country is the center of wind development. I dont know. I havent been either. Im going to but im saying, we dont think out. Were so short term focused from a commerce and a Government Point of view. We think out a little bit, and we ask others to help us think out. But i think it can be, it can be an incredibly exciting and meaningful way to deliver on change that lasts. What am i miss something what have i left out . Kind of expected that to be it. One of the things that brings me out is that im a mom of four and my daughter was born before the aca was established. Shes almost 11 with the aca it repealed lifetime limits on what you can pay for healthcare. But i think it can be, it can be an incredibly exciting and meaningful way to deliver on change that lasts. What am i miss something what have i left out . Kind of expected that to be it. One of the things that brings me out is that im a mom of four and my daughter was born before the aca was established. Shes almost 11 with the aca it repealed lifetime limits on what you can pay for healthcare. Thats really important to my child, and so im wondering, as president , what will you do to ensure that all children can have access to the healthcare that they need and that they can receive the services that they need. Because angela is here in New Hampshire but we go to massachusetts for her medical care. Im so glad you added the last part because mostly what weve been talking about is the very important question of unit universal access, thats important, but we dont have the capacity to meet the need. First of all, i should speak to the medicare for all slogan, i put that it way because people mean a lot of Different Things by medicare for all. I think we should have a public option in the aca. That public option could well be medicare. Could well be. The reason i land there is because i think there is value in the creative tension of having private insurance, having to figure out how to compete for a big part of the market thats going to move to a no cost or a low cost option, which means they are going they are going to do the work with others in the industry that needs to be done to bring system costs down, right . The other thing, we need innovative tension on the medicare side, on the public side, because frankly, most people buy a supplemental policy on top of medicare because medicare doesnt go far enough. And, you know, we havent even thats before you even joe point joe was raising about whether the coverage you have actually meets the needs you have. Right . And that you can rely on it without having to argue with the Insurance Company. So we got 99 of our folks in massachusetts covered because there was a Big Coalition of people, you know, policymakers and insurers and providers and Patient Advocates and labor and on and on. The Faith Community that came together to invent the bill that governor romney signed, and that went into effect the day i took office. Thats why it should be called patrick care. But that group stuck together to refine it because we kept learning things. I think i signed three, four, maybe five major healthcare bills after the first one because we kept learning new things, and i think thats how we have to come at it nationally. And this is to the point about having capacity, right . We have fewer and fewer medical students going into family care or primary care. Why . Why . Because of the debt they incur to go to medical school and the way to pay it off is to go into a high paying specialty. Its all connected, right . And i have some ideas about that. I also think there are things we ask doctors to do that other medical professionals can do at lower costs, and weve got i mean, one kind of, one example, i suppose, in massachusetts, by the way, its different statetostate, but in massachusetts, i think im remembering correctly, that a podiatrist can only do certain things to your feet but if your feet is really hurt and you need some help improving the circulation, you know, what do you call the profession you go to, to get retuned. Chiropractor. That we really had to have that on film. Anyway, chiropractor could do it but we couldnt, they werent authorized by the licensing authorities. There is a lot we can do to smooth this out so there is actual service. Health. Terrific response. You know what im talking about, Remote Access to a doctor. Its a terrific solution. I served on the board of a tele Health Company so ive been learning a lot about it. The rules are about to change, i think, in january, so that service is reimbursable by medicare, i think it is, but if you dont have access to high speed broadband, so what. Its back to the point i was making, its interconnected. We have to do more than one thing at the same time in order to really, really get the country going again. Governor, if i may bring up one thing. [inaudible] transgender people and gay people have the highest rates of suicide, and threats of violence against then. As president , how what would due to ensure that lgbtq people are not discriminated against, and that we can live the American Dream . Well, the first thing i would say, carlos, we need to enforce the laws we have, and as someone who led the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department in an administration that was actually interested in the subject matter, i can assure you that the department would be funded and supported and urged to enforce the laws vigorously. I think there are some gaps in the laws. And, you know, i need some help understanding those. I also think there are some gaps in our understanding, just our human understanding. We were talking earlier, that one of the ways we accomplished or achieved the bragging point of being first in the nation where you can marry anyone you love, is because people made it personal. They talked to people and realized that their neighbors, their friends, in many cases, their family members, with you just like them and happened to be members of the lgbt community. For these purposes. And then we got, i think we were just beginning to get a concept of a consciousness about trans, as i was leaving office. I think its the same thing. A lot of people are just afraid. It feels unfamiliar, and im not saying, im not saying the transcommunity has to gather that burden any more than i ever felt that black people had to carry the burden of making other people comfortable with us, before we were treated with basic human dignity. Thats not what im saying. But i think one of the reasons why it is so easy to divide us in this country, and im taking a little bit of a step beyond your question is that we dont know each other. And we dont have ways to know each other. We do this cartoon thing. Everybody is one dimensional. We push them into the smallest possible box and push them off to the side. I have some thoughts about that. Transpeople are transpeople and they are people. First and foremost. We owe leadership that models that behavior, and, you know, the gaps in the laws and the enforcement of the laws, im all in. Teach me. But the modeling of behavior thats about treating all people with the dignity, every living soul deserves, thats got to come from, you know, how you behave, and i hope you can count on that from me. If you become president , call me. Dont say if, say when. My name is john, im from New Hampshire, and im here today with the partnership to protect our retirement future. The question i wanted to ask you have we met . We have. I was working out at rebel stokes a few weeks ago. Good to see you. Good to see you again. The question i have to ask you, is what the your position on the financial tax, also known what we call retirement tax, im worried about it because thats something, its what would be, at least on what other candidates are proposing, would be a. 5 on all financial transactions. Im worried about that you dont like it . I dont like it, im worried about it because it could really affect a lot of just everyday, like people who have just regular old retirement accounts. Pension funds, unions. Those benefits that they fought for, the two biggest Pension Funds are like the california and new york Pension Funds. They could get slammed, even punks funds here in New Hampshire could get hurt. Anybody with a 529 would get taxed. I was worried about that. Do you think you could carve out exceptions or set the limits such that right now, i know a lot of other candidates arent focusing on that. I just wanted to know, do you support it, do you support that retirement ax . Or do you think that, what do you think should be done . I hear you, john. The first thing, i think, i want to do in the tax system is radically simplify the personal income tax. Three progressive brackets. Few, if any, i should say, few, deductions or exemptions, you know. Keep the charitable deduction, housing deduction, probably increase the earned income tax rate. And in the case of the business tax, not even the Business Community wanted to go as low as 21. 25. Thats competitive. That works. But they didnt finish the work. Weve got to eliminate all the loopholes. The loopholes were in place as a response to arguments about how the rate wasnt competitive. If the rate is competitive then get rid of the loopholes and lets have everybody contribute, right . We have some of the most Profitable Companies in the world here paying zero taxes. Thats got to end. And then the estate tax has to go back up, and what that rate is, we can talk about that but the concentration of generational wealth, and by the way, i dont think wealth is the problem. I think greed is the problem. Its the hoarding of all the benefits, all the goodies on a few on the expectation that its going to trickle down to everybody else, which is a shaky idea when it was proposed 30 or 40 years ago, and its proven how much it fails. After that, i dont know. After that, i mean, i hear what youre saying. But the question for me is not about what taxes beyond what i have said, should or should not be adjusted, its secondary what it is, what a government should do or not do. Do or not do . I hear what youre saying about a blanket across the board financial tax, which is a completely different, different, a completely different impact on a retirees withdrawal from a 401k or trade within the 401k. The reason i brought that up, obviously she has an ira. There are a lot of people who have 529s, kids with 529s. They are going to be super affected by that. Thats why i feel its important. Obviously when you have a plan thats a tax on everybody, that could really the people who arent as well off, who are still in the market, thats where they can get effective. Thats counterproductive, really. Yeah, i hear you. Youre speaking for your mom here in part. Shes about to be affected by it. Yeah. Did you want to add to his point . In any way . I think he had a very good question. Great. And were all going to be affected by this. Thats right. This one . Shy side over here. [laughter] i am wondering how you feel, because personally, it drives me crazy when i hear, well, we need affordable healthcare and Affordable Housing and no solution is affordable. Obama care was a great start but it wasnt affordable. The problem isnt with, i mean, i have a daughter. Shes in her mid30s. And they cant buy a home because the lowest cost for a home is 230,000 or 240,000, and they are in beginning jobs. They cant do that. Its not rents are high. Rents are very high. They cant save money. And, you know, they just want a little piece of the dream, like everybody else. A little piece. They dont need to have a mansion. They just want a nice little house. Its not the Affordable Housing. Its wages that are not keeping up, and in our area, especially, we went from having, in the 1980s, we were very, very massive manufacturing area, and nafta took all of those jobs away and my husband lost his job to nafta, and in its place, weve gotten just retail and restaurants and we cant live on that. This is what i was saying, you know. When you look at the actual jobs created, and its not to say, that retail and restaurant work isnt worthy. It absolutely is. The question is, how do you build . How do you move forward . We have how many young people do you know, do we all know, who are trying to decide after child one whether it is more efficient and affordable to go back to work and pay childcare or just stay home. My daughter stays home. She cant afford it. What we want is for people to have that choice and not to make it for them. So i think, first of all, that the question of job of how we grow the economy, as i was as i was trying to describe to ben, its about how you create an economy where you can get a toe hold and then move on. If your first job is, you know, in a clean tech economy, for example, is putting insulation into they are pretty well paid jobs, but maybe you move on to a more technical job. Youre doing some electrical work. And by the way in massachusetts, the kids who are coming out of lowtech schools, were looking at two and three offers at 60,000, 65,000 starting salaries, when i was in office. This whole middle field gap that were not preparing people for and making people, making training available. I think the other thing that we should be focused on, and can, and i think this is a collaboration that can be done with the private sector is having an equity stake in the businesses youre building and in the places that you work. Employee ownership, coopes, i went to whats called cca, cca. Cca, in manchester. Amazing. I think im right, 40 billion company here in New Hampshire. Meaning, they are member owners. They have a stake, so when the time comes, when someone wants to do their next thing, buy that house, you have a thing of value, right . You have an equity interest thats parts of your wealth creation, and when i think about, i sigh give me the hair hairy eyeball. There is a wonderful city planner and developer i know who was telling me, this is a pretty interesting idea. It sort of illustrates where, how my head has been turned. He said, you know, if i want to go, if he wanted to go to roxbury, a neighborhood in boston, an africanamerican neighborhood in boston, and build a 13story tower on vacant land, he said heres what would happen. The neighborhood would rally and say, you know what . No. Because youre putting pressure on our rents and were going to be forced out. And the city would do its job, which is basically to referee between the developer and the neighborhood, and what would happen, he said, is the city would say, you can do 11 stories, not 13, and you have to make a contribution to the neighborhood, a pocket park or some combination like that. And he said, now suppose by the way, at 11 stories, also pressure on the rents, right . He said, suppose i could do it economically, as a developer, at 11 stories, but i said, let me have all 13. The first are retail, the next are a couple of offices, affordable and market rate rentals and luxury condos on the top. That was his concept. Suppose he says to the city, let me have those last two stories and ill take the value of that and give it to the neighborhood as equity in the building. Its still true that there is going to be pressure on the rents, but they have a thing of value thats growing over time, and as he put it, we stop arguing about how to preserve pockets of poverty for poor people and instead start focusing on how we lift people out of poverty and get them on a path of economic mobility. There is a lot to like about that, as long as the experiment doesnt result in folks being, you know, imprisoned by some, something they dont have control over. So what am i saying . I think youre absolutely right. You know, its absolutely undeniable that jobs that enable people to build the future are critical, and i think thats one of the reasons why in an innovation economy is something that we should try to own as a nation instead of feel so threatened by it. Because they tend to be better paying jobs, although not all of them are, you know, require ph. D. s, not even most of them require a ph. D. s. Precision manufacturing, for example. But i also think alongside that we should be creating opportunities for people to build wealth. The job is important but to build wealth. Most people used to do it by owning a home. I think its probably true that people still do it by owning a home but if you cant get to the home in the first place, you know, i can say the obvious things that will be in our policy positions about investing in Affordable Housing, Work Force Housing is what im talking about but most of that is going to be rentals, i think. Question, how do you get a total, and start to build . I can tell you, this has been on the minds of black and brown communities for a long, long time. Because its a bad habit that weve been stuck with for a long time. You Better Believe its on my heart. Youre not officially running for president until you have signed a laconia president ial letter. Im glad you left room. You can do like Bernie Sanders and go around how about in the middle. Wherever you like. Just like youre not going to tell young people what to think, im not going to tell you where to sign. [laughter] thank you. Last but not least, on behalf of laconia democrats, thank you. Youre traveling a lot. Im so hungry, i have no idea. I brought snacks for everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, carlos. [applause] youre awfully quiet. Im listening. Our newest elected city councilor. Its not only in the policy making but in the transition of the policy to get to the areas needed. We can talk about Affordable Housing, and other things, and you can make policies at the top. But it translates down to the people who are actually dealing oneonone with a whole bunch of situations. It came up whether it was government or state administered monies and policy, but the state, if they are greedy, and dont get to the places where its needed, but its really nice to hear this quiet, thoughtful interchange, and i dont know how you translate that on to the national stage. First of all, its up to all of you. You have to make it personal, right . You have to decide this is the kind of leadership. Can i just say one last thing, though in response to that, and im looking over here because hes really impatient with me. Im not that interested in abstract policy. Im interested in policy where it actually touches people. And i remember we were doing this, ill tell this quick story and ill leave. John and i john you may have been there when i talked about this before. We were working on criminal Justice Reform in massachusetts. We had some pretty clear ideas about what we wanted to do in terms of sentencing reform and what have you. And we kept meeting people. I kept meeting people who had been in, who said, look, im out now, but i cant get a job because the things even things im ready for, i can apply for but i have to check the box that says i have a record and no one will even talk to me after they see that. So we need law that is ban the box. And, you know, it wasnt what i had been thinking about. But we kept hearing it over and over again. Cory is the system in massachusetts that tracks peoples criminal record. And we did cory reform that was ban the box and about your ability to purge your record. Thats about to be shortened again. We went out to sign the building in freedom house. Hundreds of people, in a big, unairconditioned hall, on the hottest day in the history of time, and, you know, you squeeze in to get to this thing, just euphoria because people are excited. We sign the bill and im on the way out, and this guy hands me his cell phone. And he says, governor, talk to my friend, and i take the cell phone and i said, and the guy on the end says, governor, thanks for signing the bill. I know it will make a difference in my life. Its a true story. I handed the phone back, i spoke to him and i said, look, i hope you make the most of it. Four years later, im in the western part of the state, and, to do an event and we stop at this restaurant, relatively new restaurant downtown to grab lunch, to take out. And im standing there in front, after we place the order, waiting for this guy, he walks by and he does a double take, which i always attribute to the fact that im taller on tv. And he says, are you governor patrick . I said yes. He said, do you remember signing that cory reform bill . I said yes. He said do you remember talking to a guy on the phone that day, on the cell phone that day . I said yes. He said i was that guy. He said i was sitting in jail when you talk that call. He said i got out, got a job here on account of that bill. He said im the executive chef at this restaurant today. So to me, its not until the policy gets down to us that it matters. Im not interested in kind of a notch in my belt, bragging rights. Im interested in what i was taught to be interested in, which is what we do right now to make it all better for those who come behind us. [applause] joe, appreciate it. Thank you for your willingness to tell your story. Keep pushing. Youve got to be proud of him. Good to see you as always. You mentioned that challenge. My daughter has shes the beneficiary. Fantastic. You should have spoken up. Yeah. It is. I think people are willing to work hard. Thats great. I hear you. Thanks for your area. Thank you. Its great. Youve got an active committee . Yes, we actually do. We have some real good people. Yeah, small but mighty. We get things done. Thank you very much. Thank you, ben. How far along are you in your studies . I am a junior now. So good stuff. Im going to get my bachelors degree next fall and after that, ill get my masters. So you do overlapping yeah. The fiveyear program. Good stuff. What kind of engineering do you want to do . Civil engineering. So the infrastructure stuff, good luck to you. Thank you. How are you . Good. Hi, im shevon. Hi. Excellent. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. How long were new worcester . There was for three years. Have you been back to worcester . I have. Its on fire. Oh, my gosh. Obviously, everyone always asks about entering the race late but youve been spending a lot of time in New Hampshire. Just talk about your strategy. First of all, were later, not late. Voters have not decided. Its a wide open race. And im here, and will be here a lot and in South Carolina a lot over the next month and a half because its important for me to reintroduce myself to the people of New Hampshire and to listen to them. You know, the reason i think, one of the reasons why the field is still so wide open is that we have a lot of talent in the democratic field but we dont have a lot of people with a record of results. Others have plans, i have results. And i think that i have some insights into how to get results that last. When youre talking to the voters here, a few questions kind of linked back to healthcare. Talk about your plans for healthcare. Well, i do think that the time is here for universal access to care and that has some implications as we talked about today, to actually having the capacity to meet that need. My own view is that we ought to have a robust public option inside the aca, as we continue to build and improve on the aca, and that public option might well be medicare. But i think there is some value in having the creative tension and competition between a free or low cost public option and private insurance. Can you speak to the ideas around election security. I dont think its been fully touched on yet in your policy agenda. Do you have specific ideas in mind . Is it a concern for . You its a huge concern and its also something ive worked on in the past. I think Voter Suppression and purging, some of the things frankly weve been reading a lot more about in georgia and in wisconsin, in florida, are deeply concerning, to the point you wonder whether the other side believes they can win in a fair fight. Lets have a fair fight. Lets have lets have same day registration. Lets have automatic registration, when we turn when young people turn 18. Lets end the partisan gather gerrymandering. Lets end dark money in elections. Lets also have a National Service agenda so that we learn to know each other. We come to know each other again, because i think one of the reasons why its so easy to divide us is that we just dont. One other question i have, reporting out from the Washington Post today says one out of every four Circuit Court judges is now a trump appointee. Can you talk about that especially on your background in law. Look, i think whats most concerning is that the hard right has been driving an agenda to put a lot of pretty radical jurists on the bench. I think an unusual number have been declared not qualified by the National Rating agency, the american bar association, so that should be very concerning. That will not be the case in a patrick administration. Well have top quality, serious jurists, experienced jurists, and a sense of, you know, continuing integrity in our federal judiciary. I think thats the least that a president can do. Any concern about not being able to be part of the debates . I know that field has already been getting smaller and smaller anyways, but not being able to go against the competition. Well, listen, im against the competition anyway. The debate is not that marker for me. Well make the debate stage in the fullness of time but thats not the end game. The end game is winning. Thank you. Take care. Im going to give back all of your electronics. Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020. Yourururururred view of politics. Heres a look at some of our featured programming this holiday week on cspan. Eastern,t 8 00 p. M. Symposium on religious freedom. At9 30 watch the festivities the White House Christmas tree. A. M. ,istmas day at 10 00 view the white house decorations with the first lady. Plus a look back at previous years decorations by hillary clinton, laura bush and michelle obama. Discussion about Global Technology issues with peter teal at the manhattan institute. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern, Hillsdale College journalism director john miller on the history of journalism and fake news at the liberty forum. Thursday, a joint Economic Committee hearing on the high cost of raising a family. Then, constitutional litigator Justin Pearson talks about occupational licensing requirements at the federalist society. Watch this holiday week on cspan. University of washington history professor Margaret Omara discusses her book the code, Silicon Valley and the remaking of america. You have the biggest government programs. You have what eisenhower labels the militaryindustrial complex. That becomes the foundation for this entrepreneurial flywheel of incredible creation and innovation and private wealth thation and an industry built itself on its own. Government has become almost invisible to many of the people who are in Silicon Valley who are the creators of these companies and technology. Part of the magic that it is a government out of sight. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Senator Bernie Sanders holds a Campaign Rally in venice, california. Hes one of several candidates making their way through Southern California following thursdays president ial debate. Join him is representative alexandria ocasiocortez of new york, who has endorsed senator sanders. California holds its president ial primary on march 3, one of 14 contests on super tuesday. Cornell west made introductory remarks