Many times to cast our votes on bills and amendments and to discuss and debate the issues important to our states and to t the country and introduce and explain legislation talk about our states and what we learn on our latest visit to the farm or the Community Health center but what we dont talk about is the work of the men and women on our staff who make all of this possible. I have been fortunate i had a dedicated staff in washington and minnesota i have no doubt they will go on to do great things to serve our nation well. I am wonderful mom lucky to have a wonderful family to stand by the good times and times as a senator with packed schedules, latenight and time invested to understand the challenges and all too often that work does not leave time for families i am grateful for my wife and my children and their spouses who have stood by me to do my work effectively. Finally i take great comfort to know my successor senator designate smith has a wellearned reputation to be a hardworking Public Servant and i have no doubt that senator smith will serve all americans exceptionally well. When most people think of politics they think of arguments around the dinner table,ll online and here in washington. That is a big part of the reason people dont like politics. Often the debate can seem arcane and tough to understand to be so bitter it doesnt feel like we try to resolve anything. I get it why people want us to stop arguing but i thought i would take a big risk to say a few words they for. No there is no single magic solutionec to bring all 100 of us together many of you have heard about what makes me a democrat. When she was 17 months old her decorated father died in a car accident leavingng her mother widowed at age 29 with five kids. There was one sibling younger at three months old. But her family made it, barely thanks to Social Security Survivor Benefits. Sometimes they had to check with combinations of scholarships and pell grants paying forl about 80 of a Public College education but today it only pays about 35 my motherinlaw got a g. I. Loan g and went to college with three more and graduated to become an Elementary School teacher. Because she taught title i kids all of her loans were forgiven my brotherinlaw went into the coast guard to become an electrical engineer. Every member of her family became a productive member of society and a member of the middle class. They tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But first you have got to haveot the boots. The federal government Social Security Survivor Benefits and the g. I. Bill gave my wifes family the boots and that is why i am a democrat. Thats why i am a democrat. Over the years i hear people talk about their own values. The things they believe they care about what happens i have learned so much listening to the arguments and republicans learn to respect if not always agree with the opinions and how backgrounds could reach that conclusion i never could have imagined and i learned so much from my fellow democrats. But mostly from someone who is not here. For 12 years my seat was held by paul. As a tireless and passionate champion for working families across the nation and minnesota f for farmers and veterans were those who needed a voice. He had a saying to perfectly represent that we all do better when we all do better. That was his creed. What he meant was the middleclass and the welloff, the whole country does better when each and every one of us is able to contribute and participate fairly in our economy and democracy. Paul was right but they should not have to concernpl themselves for those that are soli accomplished. Some people believe that not and that if youre sitting should be dependent on where you are born or who you love for what you do for a living. Some people believe that some fundamental level we are all in this on our own. I dont agree with those values. Pe but i respect some people hold them and that is why arguments matter. Whether cable news or on the floor it can help us sharpen the ability to articulate what we want and to help highlight the choice of the American People because after all in a democracy people get to choose. As i prepare to leave the senate, mr. President i have been thinking of my values and the values that paul and i share with my colleagues in the senate and progressive activistsor to work alongside in minnesota and around the country. Regrettably the policies pursued by the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans today could not stand in stark or contrast p to those principles that paul championed and the values that i fought for while in the senate. Mr. President the values advanced by the president dont represent my belief that our economy, democracy and country work best forry everyone. The values propelling the agenda is about consolidating economic power in the hands of corporations and the very wealthy. Hi virtually each and every step of the process they chose to embrace the failed policies of the past crafting the enormous devil way that but for instance according to the neck mom dash 83 of the republicans will have accrued from the top 1 of income earners so people who make more than 912083 go to the benefit. Do we really need any other data point . Heres one. At the same time republican tax bill increases taxes on low and middle income families. During his inaugural address President Trump vowed the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer but the tax will is a slap in the face i guess the president forgot about that. Make no mistake it was flawed but when republicans tried to reconcile the differences that process that took place behind closed doors more favors were doled out with the special interest. New rules were created to give state developers and the top rate was cut at 37 lower than the house or Senate Versions of the bill. Then to stop Foreign Corporations by shifting profits overseas but the problem in this country is that the wealthy are not doing well enough after all it controls 40 of its wealth. But too many families have been left out by the top 1 but instead republicans decided to shower corporations and wealthy donors with tax breaks and special favors. The tax bill just did not come out of the blue but quite the contrary. F it comes on the heels of countless attempts to shred policies to offer protection but the corporations multi day donors believe that these policies stand in the wayei of profits and take healthcare for example. Despite President Trumps campaignan promise for resulting in 23 fewer Million People with Health Insurance including those who rely on medicaid facing unprecedented public outcry what the senators proposed one hour ago but this senate bill had 16 million more left uninsured while spiking premiums and those activists including the American Medical Association and that is exactly what happened with a republican attempts to read a failed but my colleagues have not learned their lesson to sustain the open assault they have said the essential component of the individual mandate. Asul a result but that doesnt matter to President Trump and his allies who need to repeal the central pillar to pay for the massive tax that that wealthy donors demand. Those same wealthy donors demand republicans turn a blind eye to Climate Change the existential threat toum humanity. Climate change is not just but to affect every aspect to pose a grave threat to public health. To suffer the devastating consequences this year hurricanes have reached across the south and wildfires with most recently in los angeles. We know Climate Change makes these extreme weather events worse. And this is just the beginning it is a t new normal but one simply we cannot and do her. It doesnt have to be this way we can address Climate Change while growing our economy and creating jobs. And through the energy title . The farm bill and those are investments paid off. Since 2009 the cost of wind power has reduced 66 and solar power is 85 . But we need to do more. I challenge the Energy Efficiency standard and right legislation to encourage Energy Storage is a game changer to be used when the wind is not blowing in the sun not shining. And to distribute energy that makes our grid more resilient and reliable. So at behest of the fossil fuel industry republicans have for forward who cut their teeth. But with that republican strategy of obfuscation that the affront to common sense. But mr. President the Trump Administration and allies never let common sense stand in the way of ideology. They have acted to rollback evidence commonplace protections when in place to improve the lives of those communities and to have a new rule of the Affordable Care act to cover Birth Control free of charge to benefit more than 62 million. And to access Affordable Reproductive Health Care has a powerful effect of women and families make every day and choices whether to finish college or buy a home or start a business that women have access to contraception is vital to our families why i have filed a grievance support requiring impalahe on dash requiring impala on despite the d scienc science. The Trump Administration but in february, the Trump Administration but how to protect transgender students. Mr. President lgbt students deserve to learn in an environment free from discrimination. And deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Often those transgender kids but to their children and parents we need to know why mom dash it took a while. It is our response and nothing poses a greater that they are deliberate with a sustained attack with the right to vote. With the supreme courthe disastrous 2013 decision in Shelby County that decision which the conservative got that Voting Rights act with states of the history of discrimination at the polls. After Shelby County decision, this they quickly those that are called to prod and then to say this is the strictest ie law so the state but the changes went into effect and to be challenged in court that the primary purpose is to make it harder for black people to vote. The new target targets africanamerican with almost surgical procedure on guest policy. So the fact that restrictions ample of racist discrimination is undeniable. But that strategy is there is ereven more insidious by mr. President , how importance words but to be complete the powerless withn a louder they are intended to and without influence of democracy. That is a far cry from his creed and when i think about what has gone wrong how i reflect how this country tries so hard to the majority of americans share, i have to say there is something rolling with the way we are arguing starting long before 2016. Lurking behind those issues is not just a difference of opinion orth values but something worse, the line. Take for example the Trump Administrations efforts to suppress vote shortly after winning the election then president elect trump was confronted he lost the popular vote he tweeted in addition to winning the Electoral College i won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally. So lets be clear he lost the popular vote by a 2. 8 million so he claimed nearly 3 million fraudulent votes were cast he said between three and 5 million caused him to lose the pop year popular vote. 130million votes were cast state Election Officials found virtually no credible evidence of fraud. Not one state reported any idprindication of whites read fraud. That did not stop the Trump Administration carrying that into policy creating a new investigate the unsubstantiated claim withth a right wing extremist who makes a career and who was fine for repeatedly lying to a federal court with voter id litigation. When asked if he believes the president s claim people voted illegal he said we may never know the answer to that questio question. But talk about that broder provide which is why more than 40 states refused to comply with that request at the same time to further of the justice department. It is present. To use the appropriate bathroom opens the door to sexual assault. President trump should not invest in these lies but they proudly repeat them or take the attacks on but the senators from the cdc premier health but President Trump ensured that everybodyan would have but that is who would be hardest. But to say everybody will be taking care of much better than they are now the republican bill would cut funding but he that over 90 of planned parenthood does is provide Abortion Services that the Trump Administration and republicans to repeatedly claim the wooded vance policies designed to benefit middleclass families, not the wealthy. But that is 83 of the benefit go to the richest 1 . But mr. President the text but then we have the ability to lose the help to build consensus. I see them are alexander. Thank you mr. Chairman. I yield back or at least help the American People make informed. I hope you fight for thosetl values. But at the end of the day is up. But simply to tune out the noise and if they do we will get the country back on track and in october but also to say it isnt about power politics is not about money, it is not about waiting for the sake of winning but the improvement of peoples lives. In the face of everything happening today i still believe in his words politics is the improvement of peoples lives. Those are true because American People still believe in justice and opportunity and i see evidence of that every day. In january more than 4 Million People joined the womens march. Standing in solidarity i saw later that same month issuing the executive order those land hundreds of lawyers responded to offeron services. And in support of the affected families and when a transgender boy was discriminated against had the courage to take his school to court and he won. In september when tens of thousands ofof americans vocalized in opposition to repeal the Affordable Care act and succeeded to kill the bill and at the ballot box in virginia and alabama resisting the temptation to give in but with the right to vote politics is about the improvement of peoples lives the American People know that to be true and fill me with hope for the future. Thank you madam president. Head of the operations, Sullivan Sullivan shortly after the mark march on washington after the i have a dream speech we must mark him now is the most dangerous negro in the future of this nation or communism and negro and national security. We learned the limits of military power during the vietnam war as a society and culture you cannot kill the idea with a bullet. I met mccarthy through my father who was a confidant. To him. He liked to party with a drink or two. And as long as you did not talk about communism you cannot ask about a more fine one very serious about that also someone who did not take advice very well but said things that hurt the cause of communism for some time
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