applause thank you, thank you all very much for coming out this afternoon and let me think those who have already spoken, sylvia pallid reno, ally new sin and chris dickson, thank you very much for what you have said. What i want to do is for a little bit different than what i usually do because i want to involve you in the discussion, i dont want to give you a long speech element to three hours. Think laughs i want to touch on, theres so many issues but i want to touch on some of these essential issues and get your thoughts on. I want to start off with the issue of money in politics. If you run for president of the United States it is an expensive proposition. My concern right now it is that especially since Citizens United and what we have seen is a major corruption of our political process and the concept of democracy meaning one person, one vote. What most of us believe, and we were arguing about an issue people raise their hand a majority winds and everyone has the same thought. But increasingly in american politics that is not the case so you have a handful of billionaires who are literally spending hundreds of millions of dollars and all kinds of ways to get money and super pacs whatever, electing candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful. That concerns me very much because that whole process undermines american democracy which is why you end up in congress with the Republican Leadership talking about tax breaks for billionaires and cuts to social security, you go out on this streets and nobody else believes in, that 5 of the American People with that is the ideology because that is what the money law interest to want, the first point i want to make is we have to deal with the impact of money and politics and that means to my mind overturning this Disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United. A applause it also means public funding of elections anne. It also means working aggressively to and Voter Suppression quite applause what democracy is supposed to mean i guess that i am a candidate youre a candidate you get up there and you say this is what i believe and i want your support, not yes i cant get that part of this states supported or i can get people of colors support that is a cowardly undermining of a democracy and what its supposed to be about. So let me tell you when we are in the white house our feet would be that if youre 18 years of age you will vote and of discussion on. A and in applause that regard, i am enormously proud of, proud to tell you this that our campaign has rewritten the history box in terms of campaign finance. As of today we have received for our campaign some 4. 2 million contributions coming from 1. 2 million americans which is more than any candidate in the history of the United States of america in. applause so unlike some candidates we dont have and never will have a super pac. Unlike some candidates i will not spend my time going to wealthy peoples homes, raising large sums of money from a handful of millionaires anne. Our average contribution if you can believe it is 18 dollars. Law our major source of employment you contributes to our campaign or not wall street bankers, not ceos their teachers quick applause their workers at amazon, workers at target, but we are running a unique American History as a campaign of the working class by the working class and for the working class of this country law second issue i want you to think about. A lot a debate going on about health care in america in four years ago i came to iowa and i said i believe that health care is a human rights not a privilege in quote. That it is an International Embarrassment that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to offer people while at the same time we are spending twice as much per person on health care, 11,000 dollars to every man woman in child twice as much as any major country on earth. My view and im glad that more and more people have accepted that view is that we need to move towards a medicare for all single payer program. applause what that Program Means is that there are no more premiums, there are no more copayments, there are no more deductibles. You all know it deductible is one of the craziest things over to my life, its as you have insurance but by the way you will have to spend the first five or 10,000 dollars out of your pocket, oh i dont have five or 10,000 dollars will fine you cant go to the doctor. Its a totally absurd proposition. We are also on the medicare for all going to eliminate fall out of pocket expenses. Make certain that no one pays more than 200 dollars a year for the Prescription Drugs that they need. applause now there has been a lot of discussion about how are you going to pay for medicare, health care is an expensive proposition, well the first question to ask is how are we paying for rain now. How do we pay for . First start we have 87 Million People that are uninsured or underinsured, not a very good situation when youre spending twice as much per capita as people of any other country. We have 30,000 people are dying, why are they dying in america . Because they dont go to the doctor when they should because they are under insured. Here is the most cruel thing it is extremely cruel and when we talk about 500,000 people a year going bankrupt for medically related debt in, no its not right that means, just think about it for a second, to think about the cruelty and absurdity. You go into the Doctors Office and youre diagnosed with cancer or some other Serious Health issues, you have a lot on your mind, what kind of treatment do it get, what kind of medicine do we, care doctor or what hospital . Thats where youre wearing about how do i get well . Can i get . Well but at the same time you can have to worry oh my god im gonna end up with 100, thousand 200,000 dollar bill from the hospital, how many gonna pay that i have on this show in my think, oh im going bankrupt. It should not happening in america on. Now my opponents and on this issue i have a lot of opponents, like almost everyone in the establishment so we have the Health Care Industry they dont like this proposal, its a terrible proposal, but will disrupt the Health Care System wow who are the folks that are running those 32nd things telling how bad medicare is, they are the Insurance Company and the Drug Companies, they love the Current System for good reason. They made 100 billion and profits last year and you made 100 billion and profits its a pretty good system. There are ceos make enormous compensation packages and get enormous compensation packages. They are doing just fine meanwhile one out of five americans cannot afford the Prescription Drugs that doctors prescribe because we pay by far the highest prices for Prescription Drugs . Why is that well maybe it has nothing to do with the pharmaceutical industry spending four billion dollars in the last 20 years on lobbying and Campaign Contributions so today you have a situation where its not a congress that regulate the Drug Companies on. Now how do we pay for health care right now its a long story but all abbreviated and all say this if you are the average family in america right in the middle of our economy and you make about 60,000 dollars a year, you are paying 12,000 dollars a year for your health care and terms of premiums, payments, Prescription Drug costs and out of pocket expenses. That is 20 of your income so all those people that say oh bernie how are you going to pay for medicare for all, take a look at whats going on right now. Take a look at the millions and millions of working class families who are paying 15, or 20, 25 of their limited incomes for health care right now. What we are proposing is a much simpler proposal and im much fair proposal. What we are saying for comprehensive health care that includes dental care, hearing aids, eyeglasses and home health care. Earlier applause what we are proposing is a 4 income tax, out of pocket its gone 4 personal income tax exempting the first 29,000 dollars so that means that if you are that family that makes 60,000 you are paying 4 of 30 want 1000 roughly 1200 dollars a year for comprehensive health care, pretty good deal i would think y. So for all my critics who dont want to take on the Health Care Industry, you go tell your constituents that burners proposal will cost the average American Worker 1200 dollars a year, theres will cost 12,000 dollars a, year i think we got the better deal year. And the reason that we can do that is number one we eliminated the hundred billion and profiteering from the Drug Companies and the Insurance Companies and then second of all this system is so byzantine and complicated and crazy, we have thousands of separate Insurance Programs in america, you get 5000 dollar deductible, you are in this network, that network youre on medicare youre on medicaid you are trying to administer that system and its costing us 500 billion dollars a year and by the way doctors, and nurses are going nuts trying to deal with this as our patients anyone deal with an Insurance Company here . There you go trying to fight for the policy you thought you were in title to but youre paying for the other guy at the end hes not covered so our system and you know its not a radical idea, i didnt come up with this idea at the middle of the night what they do in canada, what they do all over the world you go to the doctor thats it, you dont take out your wallet, if you dont take out your credit card you are paid for your health care through a tax system as we are proposing, okay, that eliminates an enormous amount of administrative bureaucracy which ends up saving the system of many hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Furthermore we take on the greed and corruption of the pharmaceutical industry, all right. Ahmed applause a we are spending a couple of months ago, three four months ago i went to canada from detroit with people who are diabetic. We bought insulin of one tenth of the price. Same product same company one tenth of the price, why is that . The answer is this country Drug Companies can charge anything they want, to completely unregulated, every other country in the world says sorry we are going to charge the we want our country a reasonable price that is what we are going to do. Y four years ago came to iowa and i proposed something which at that point was seemingly very radical and that is in a changing world. In a changing economy a competitive Global Economy we should rethink Public Education in america means and that is that free public kids education from k through 12 is no longer good enough and we have to make public colleges and universities tuition free and that means that we have to make sure that every person in this country who wants a Higher Education. A private school and a Public School and a trade school cant leave School Without debt. And we do that but i expanding grants significantly. We do that about expanding the Work Study Program and other financial aid. Bottom line if you want to Higher Education in america you should be able to get it regardless of the income of your family and the other thing that we do and ill tell you in a minute how are going to pay for it. The other thing that we do is we cant soul all student debt in america anney. Now some of my critics say but is a very expensive idea it sounds great how are you gonna pay for it 11 years ago against my Vote Congress spelled out the crooks on wall street, two years ago trump and his friends gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1 of large profitable corporations, what we are proposing to pay for free tuition and public colleges and universities a massive expansion in Work Study Programs, canceling all student dead and we pay for that through a modest tax on wall street. Last point i want to make before we open it up is an issue that worries me very much and it should worry every person in this room. Every person in this country. Every person in this world and that is that what the scientists are now telling us. The people who know the most about this they have underestimated the speed and severity and in which Climate Change is ravaging our country and the entire world. What they are telling us that it is possible by the end of the century if we do not get our act together that the planet earth will be five. Six seven degrees fahrenheit warmer than it is right now and what that means is almost unimaginable what that means is that rising sea levels will devour coastal communities in our country cities like miami, charleston, new york city will be underwater or partially under water, countries like bangladesh, vietnam, they will be underwater and what it means is when our forests are dried up we will have even more wildfires than we have seen with our own eyes in the last few, years you all know its going on in california and you may not know that australias burning as well right now. Last summer in europe thousands of people died because they had the hottest summer in recorded history, france, germany, uk and so forth, what we are looking at is extreme weather disturbances, massive rain falls putting houston underwater and resulting in a farmers not being able to have the time they need to grow the crop said they need, to ensure planting seasons because farmers were fine with their fields during mud and dropped it is not very productive if you want look at property but the United Nations is telling us that as a result of Climate Change we may be looking at hundreds of millions of people who are climate refugees and that means if you live in a community where there is no water that you can drink where you cant grow your crops youre going to have to pick up and move and we are talking about hundreds of Million People moving and youre talking about increased danger of International Conflict that is the reality. It is a very stat state of affairs that we have an ignorant person in the white house the not only doesnt recognize the reality of Climate Change, trump thinks its a hoax but in fact is exacerbating the problem by encouraging more fossil fuel production. So what we do . We do everything humanly possible to transform our Energy System and the worlds Energy System away from fossil fuels to Energy Efficiency and sustainability and in that regard im proud to tell you that we have introduced the most comprehensive farreaching Climate Change proposal ever introduced by any candidate for president in the history of this country. My critics say its a very expensive proposal. They are right it is we pay for it but its very expensive its a lot of money. But i want you to think about what the alternative is. What is the alternative to saving the planet. How much is too much to spend to make sure that our children, and grandchildren, and future generations live in a world that is healthy and habitable. Now our plan is based on the Green New Deal and what that means, we believe that as we transform our Energy System we can create up to 20 million paying jobs there is an enormous amount of work to be doney. Bottom line is that in terms of Climate Change we are going to have to be bold and we will have to be tough and we are going to have to tell the fossil fuel industry that their short term profits are not more important than the future of this planet and as president i intend to do that. But here is what makes a very difficult issue even more difficult. That is it is not an american issue, we can tomorrow to all the right things transforming our Energy Industries so that pakistan doesnt come on board and the world to be a very bad shape. So it i promise you that is president of the United States i will not be like trump denying the reality of Climate Change i will not be encouraging more fossil fuel i will be helping to lead the people of the world to stand up and fight for a planet that is healthy for their kids arent the message that i will take around the world and i cant guarantee you that it will exceed, the message that i will take is that maybe, just maybe and this is critical, that instead of spending 1. 8 trillion dollars every year on weapons of destruction decided to kill each other, maybe we should pull our resources and use that money to fight our common enemy which is Climate Change are new. All right let me throw it a question to you when you throw the question to me the impact of Climate Change is increasingly apparent. What i want to get you nervous about, im nervous already, my wife always tells me i dont have to depress everyone everywhere i go. But its not just what the scientists are saying, when you look at climate youre looking at thousands and hundreds of thousands but what is incredible is we are seeing changes in our own lifetimes i mean just think about the devastation that puerto rico experienced that new orleans experienced hurricane is sandy. Think about the forest fires the wildfires we are seeing all over the world. Think about the fact that fish provides protein for hundreds and millions of people and fish are dying in the ocean as the ocean becomes warmer. People are seeing, as they are writing about it every single day, why is it do you think that we have leaders here in iowa and around the country who still refused to acknowledge the reality of Climate Change, why is that . How could that be . Lets get some discussion arent. Theyre not gonna back something if they cant get money. So you think it is the power of money. Okay, make sure that mike is on bell. Okay more discussion on Climate Change. How can it be that so many leaders and other people, if i am a farmer here in iowa i have to be concerned about Climate Change in terms of the quality of what i am going to be producing. Why arent people dealing with that reality . Yes maam. People believe stuff that is in true and i think its because of fox news. applause see on this one now what is interesting, this is not a scientific debate anymore, the scientists are all acknowledging the implications. But now people have to deny the reality of their own eyes, california is burning, if Crop Production is going to go down because torrential rain and much on the fields there has to be an explanation. Any other thoughts on that . Yes maam mike is coming. We have to get religion out of politics. You hear people standing in the puppet saying vote for this person because there are godsend and they deny Climate Change because humans are not supposed to have that power that belongs to god. I have heard that over and over again where people in the churches are campaigning and theyre supposed to be non profit, you reported to the irs and they dont listen. Thats interesting thank you. So people have a hard time believing that human beings is doing what it is doing, okay. Any other thoughts on Climate Change . What would you like to see, ive given you an overview, what would you like to see a congress and a president doing on Climate Change . Yes sir one thing that can be done is trump has damaged the renewal fuel and i hope as president you will make that transparent. Absolutely we are looking at all forms of sustainable energy, by the way iowa deserves credit for being one of the leaders in terms of wind energy. You are right biofuel is another tool that we have and we have to expanded and improve it. All right i want to go to another issue. Health care my colleagues often tell me that we have the best Health Care System in the world. All right tell me if thats true or if its not true why it is not true. What are some of the experiences that you as patients have bumped into terms of the Health Care System . I see a hand right here. Just give us your name if you could. My son has lived in canada for almost 20 years, he has raised a family, they have had skin graphs and head injuries and broken bones and every film as a child can get and they have Wonderful Health care there is no waiting there is urgent care, i take those kids to the doctor and i do a show them the card and my son figures he pays about 2000 dollars in a federal talks and we have to talk about that in this country. He is getting some medical care thats worth at least 25,000 dollars and Premium Payments if you work in this country. Thank you arent. So how does that happen i live 50 miles away from the Canadian Border moments it is true ive been up there and when you go in canada someone has a serious illness, major surgery whatever it is here in the hospital in the month what is the bill when you leave the hospital . Zero. Well of course the sun pays taxes it ends up that they spend have as much per person on health care as we do because they dont have the joy of having to deal with the private Insurance Industry and i know your son is really upset about that. Thats a joke, its a joke i know that. All right so more discussion, thank you for that. And again you go abroad and you say to people well in our country people go bankrupt when they get sick. Literally they dont even know youre talking about, its inconceivable to them that people can go bankrupt because they got sick and yet we have a Republican Party fiercely defending the system and you have the democratic establishment defending this system with some modest modifications. But this is what i believe. Way back from one Teddy Roosevelt 100 years ago, more than 100 years ago Teddy Roosevelt talked about universal health care. Harry truman talked about it, john f. Pedigree talked about it, johnson talked about, it obama talked about it. You know after 100 years of top maybe we have the guts to take on the Health Care Industry and pass medicare for all. All right thats my rant, your thoughts, more about dealing with the Wonderful Health care, system maam right here. Yes you stand up. Hi so i am a child of a single parent and one thing i remember when i was young is that my mother could never afford health care for all five of us so we relied heavily on hawkeye, medicare, all that stuff and when she lost her job we lost our health care in my brother got really sick so she had to pay out of pocket, out of college to assertions for my brothers and myself and so having universal health care is really important to lower income, higher income, everybody its really important for me and deciding on who to vote for. Thank you very much applause whats your name maam . Arent shy is a is told all over this country. That is why 30,000 people in this country every year die because if you get sick and you cant afford your copayment. You cant afford the fee you hesitate to go and sometimes by the time you walk into the office its too late. This is an insane and cruel system that you have described. Other thoughts on health care, personal experiences . Its hard enough to get coverage for medical care but coverage that is out equipped for Mental Health care is extremely difficult to get. Good point applause absolutely in positively correct. We have a Mental Health crisis in this country and for ordinary people it is very hard to find the Mental Health treatments that they need. If you are rich you can find, it if youre working class, lower class it is very difficult. I want everybody to understand because every time i go to an event like this people say well will medicare call ex why enzi. It will, last last i heard Mental Health issues our health care issues. But i do have to say that the issue with regard to health care is not only passing medicare for all, making sure everyone can get to a doctor, it is making sure that we get doctors and nurses and psychologists and dentists to the areas in the countries where we need them. You know we should not be shutting down rule hospitals. We should be expanding Health Care Facilities in a rural america. By the way just as an aside one of the things ive been working very hard on it reasons a bit in this senate is expanding Community Health centers all across this country the good news is as i understand it that house will shortly pass a major expansion of Community Health centers that i have helped sponsor and i think we stand a good chance to get it through the house. That all mean clinics all over america, please do your best to get your senators to support that. All right let me switch and get your views on education, okay, now just Higher Education i want you to think about the obvious reality, through torque will to say it but the young people in the future of america. So its not a hard concept to deal with, dewy treats the young people from childcare through graduate school with the respect that they deserve in this country, who wants to answer that one . Your name please . I am a student and my little brother whose right behind to is about to be in college. Hes growing up angela. But my older brother is a senior in college, and im a junior unease about to be a freshman next year so my parents are about to have three children in college at once and yeah so he. Be nice to your parents, very nice. Yes absolutely but vinnie as one of the smartest people ive ever met any as all these opportunities to get all the schools but because of the money he may not be able to go to some of these places where he could become, a man who knows and i hate the idea of his, you know, whats the word im thinking about opportunities being limited because he has to go and pay 60,000 foreign education. Vinnie and you want to say a word on that. Your sister put you on the spot. She says youre really smart. He denies it, he says he is not. Okay other thoughts one person wearing a suit, all right. My name is nick daniel and i look into this a lot i look with constituents and this is one of the things that come. Iowa has the highest Graduation Rates but when it comes to Higher Education, Completion Rate falls down to the low 40s and part of that problem is a lot of our students are unable to deal with the challenges in school and they are not prepared to handle all the aspects of Higher Education. So having access to Higher Education is only part of the problem with completion of that of this, i would like to hear more discussion about how we will prepare more students for the job market, thank you. That is a good question but let me get some more comments and well get back to that. Let me ask you this one, angela kind of raise the issue. If angelas family was extremely wealthy and im assuming that youre not. Vinnie would not have to be making those choices, what do we think, do we think that everyone in this country regardless of the income of their family should be able to go and get Higher Education by the way its not just colleges trade schools or other types of education which will give them the skills they need to go out, should that be open to all people regardless . All right i think so and here is whats interesting in some of you may not notice that 50 years ago here in the United States some of the great public universities and colleges, you know how much tuition was, it was virtually zero so what has happened over the years is that states have cut back on their funding and the difference has followed onto the students and tuition is soaring and then you have the phenomena of high college debt. But you tell you a funny story i was in a meeting in washington a few years ago and i said you know the idea of free to russian and colleges not such a radical idea, it exists in college like finland in some kid sets up in finland its not free they pay as to go to college. But picking up on angelas point with regard to her brother and multiply that is that we want our young people to get the very best education that they can so that they can become the people that they want to be calm and what we need is as a society, we need doctors, scientists, teachers we need childcare workers need construction workers, we need a well educated workforce and people cannot afford to get the education they needed not only hurts the individual but it hurts us as a society as well. Already see a hand over there sir. Yeah my name is tom and i just wanted to add that i think what happens between birth and age five before kindergarten is critically important, Early Childhood education in childcare needs to be part of our educational system. Thank you so much. And well compensated. Sorry your first name tom hit the nail on the head every psychologist who studies the issue understands that the most important years are zero through four, zero through five and yet think about it. A trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations, we are now spending more than the ten nations combined on the military and we provide hundreds of billions of dollars of beer, a year through the fossil fuel industry which is destroying our planet and yet in iowa and vermont all over this country it is very difficult for a working class person to find the quality and affordable childcare for preeducation they need, so we have proposed is a revolution in education and it means that we will have universal affordable childcare with well paid, well, paid and well trained childcare instructors. It means that we are going to invest heavily on Public Education in this country especially in title i schools, school serving lower income kids, it means that no child in america will go hungry, and means and this may be the most important issue, we have to decide as a nation what our priorities are, what we believe in, i happen to believe that education is something that we should be involved in from the day were born into the day we die. That is what makes as human beings. So we have got to respect education and respect educators, i was in New Hampshire a couple weeks ago and i dont know how different it is from iowa but i was in a meeting with teachers and they said bernie you know that in some School Districts in New Hampshire which is not a poor state, teachers began at 28,000 dollars a year. All over this country in South Carolina teachers are leaving who have years and years of experience are leaving the profession in droves because they have to work two or three jobs to make a living. Taking money out of their own pockets for school supplies. Think about the future of a nation which does not cherish and prize education and our educators, so to the young people here i hope very much that you will think about all becoming childcare workers and teachers. My job of elected president is to make sure that all teachers in this country earn at least 60,000 dollars a year. applause because i want the young people here who have been saying you know what teetering is an enormously important and gratifying profession. You cant do much more important work than being a teacher and i want young people to say i am proud to be going into the teaching profession and i am going to earn a decent living when i do that. I dont have to work two or three jobs to be a teacher. Okay do i see a hand yes sir right here. Yes. Hi my name is lou and i guess what really sticks with me about education is the cultural stigma against Community Colleges and trade workers because in the system that we have now not everyone is going to be able to afford university and we need teachers and mechanics and cleaners and servers and cooks and to not only shame the people who want to go into these professions but also deny them the resources that they need when they go into those professions, whether by choice or by not, its ridiculous. Its counterproductive. Lou thank you, that is well stated. A couple of years ago i dont know if you study what goes on in germany. A couple of years ago we brought the ambassador from germany into the United States and i wanted him to talk about their apprenticeship program, in germany they are doing very much of what you are talking about they have done away or try to turn away with oh im gonna become a vague or a man to become a furniture maker on me to become a construction worker and somehow that is less important and someone who graduates college, so what they have done and they have a very Strong Program of apprenticeships we go to high school you are paid to learn how to become a baker or furniture maker, whatever you may need. A significant number of people do that, we have in this country, if you are a skilled plumber, in vermont you make a very good living. Carpenter makes a good living and enormously important work that has to be done in our society we need workers to do that. They need that opportunity to get the education at the edge of training they need to do that, your point is absolutely right on. Trump september 2019 but not yet implemented. [inaudible conversations] the subcommittee will come to order without objection the chair is authorized a recess at any the subcommittee will come to order. We are allowed to declare a recess at a time. We are examining the federal response to the epidemic of youth ecigarette used and fta food and Drug Administration compliance policy. I now recognize myself for five minutes for an opening statement. September 11 this
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