and a basic promise. - a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single american. - so the least among us shall have an equal chance to achieve the greatest things. - and the doors of higher education will be open to all. - no matter what your circumstances or where you are, you are part of the life of our great nation. - it s one thing all our presidents agree on, each in their own unique way. [patriotic music winds down] - have a good life. we will see you soon. - and to get that good life, all we had to do was follow the instruction manual on how to do the right thing. study hard, be nice to your brother. - get him! - go to college, graduate, and voila, achieve the american dream. but at some point. [clattering] - the us economy shrinking. - they re not getting married. they re not getting homes. they re not getting jobs. - we ve been looking at 40 years of flat wages. - those doors to opportunity got harder to open. [light laughter] - this is a big one
Michael LaRosa left the White House, where he was first lady Jill Biden’s top spokesperson and also served as special assistant to President Joe Biden.
to the politics and the power at the time that decision was made. do people want to reopen that? i mean, i know that s what you re looking at. i think that s a very fair question to reopen. [inquisitive music] - but in order to reopen it, i needed to understand how this little-noticed but massive change happened in the first place. i needed my own deep throat or you know, something that sounds less gross. - so this is what you learn in school is, the house and the senate have to pass the exact same version of the bill for it to become law. so you know, when you go back to the beginning and look at this. - so i called in a favor. - the house does its version. senate does its version. then send it back down to the house. - so that s a new bill they re sending? - right, so. - this is ryan mcconaghy, a top policy advisor from my days on capitol hill. and no one in d.c. knows more about how a bill becomes a law than him. - conference committee and then, when we re at this point in the line