We are thrilled to have people from all over the country here for our third conference. Dedicated to improving the lives of americans from every background and every walk of life. As you can tell from todays agenda we strive to advance progress progressive values on nearly every possible front. We have an incredible line up of speakers. Many are activists and advocates fighting to create grass roots chains that may shape the country for decades to come. Unmistakable resolve. Millions have flooded our streets, our airports and town halls in solidarity and in protest. More people are taking Political Action than at any point in my lifetime. Yet while we celebrate that Political Action. We also recognize an undeniable truth that we are gathered here today at an extraordinary moment at our nations history, a time when fore actors seek to disrupt our political system and even free elections which served as a basic foundation of our government. When the president openly interferes with an investigation to uncover his ties with these same foreign actors. When the leader of the free world fires those who hold him accountable and even provides intelligence to our adversaries. Our founders established a system of checks and balances to safeguard the integrity of our democracy. The truth is, those checks and balances are only as strong as the leaders who have the character and courage to implement them. Right now too many in one party are putting their party over our country. It turns out that the founders prediction that each generation would have to renew our democracy is true. So the extraordinary threats facing our country, foreign and domestic demand a fierce and unrelenting opposition. Citizenship confers responsibility. The responsibility to get and stay involved, to educate ourselves, to speak out and to resist when our constitution and our democratic norms are threatened. It is for problems confronting familying everywheies everywher. They are values that americans share. They are ones that pull us together rather than pull us apart. Thats because at the end of the day we all want the same basic which i thinks. To support and raise our kids and to leave our families a little further along than where we started. So today we are proud to introduce a bold new plan for creating jobs in america, one based on an idea that modernized for a 21st century world. It is one that unites working families of every color and background by advancing fairness and Economic Opportunity for all. That collision must be broad enough to welcome each and every one of our fellow americans. It needs to be based ton principals and inclusion on opportunity and justice. These are essential values which lie at the heart of the progressive movement. They are the same values that drive the work of all of the leaders gathered here today. That brings me to our opening keynote speaker, los angeles mayor. As the head of americas second largest city he spear headed efforts to expand houszing for veterans and make investments in transportation and clean energy. Please help me give a warm welcome to mayor of los angeles. [ applause ] thank you so much. Good morning everybody. Thank you for putting together this ideas conference. Thank you to the staff here at four seasons for looking after us so well. They have been calling this a big moment for the party. They are right. I believe this isnt s an even bigger moment for the American People, a bigger moment for our country. We have heard politicians talking about how we are on the cusp of a revolution. Our country imported half of its oil that we needed to meet our energy needs. Today it accounts for just about a quarter of our energy usage. We may not be using toss sill fuels at all. To date it is no longer a death sentence. We may be able to say the same thing about lung cancer or alzheimers. Its amazing. A generation ago the only place you would see Something Like this literally was in a sifi movie. This feels like a time of great anxiety and great uncertainty. Over the next 20 years Artificial Intelligence will wipe out millions of jobs. Youre wondering how you will get by let alone get ahead in this new economy. Youre wondering whether any of those leaders who keep talking about this new future actually think theres a place in that future for you. See, i hear these anxieties every day. For 16 years as a local elected official i have been knocking on my neighbors doors, holding open office hours so people from all walk of life can talk to me about anything they want. Listening is at the heart of what i do. It may surprise some people here in washington to hear that the concerns that i hear about in los angeles are similar to ones we hear throughout this country in places like lancing. 4 Million People live in my city. A few of them kardashians. Most are Small Business owners, factory workers, firefighters and nurses. We have had to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and face an uncertain future. So whats p thatting in my city is whats happening around the country. For folks at the time theres never been a more exciting time. We have a diverse and thriving class. They are having a great time doing it. Why not . You can go on your smart phone and find any kind of food that you want, have it delivered to your phone. Go ahead and get ride share and have somebody come and pick up dry cleaning with a tap of your finger. We also have a Ballooning Service class. People that are doing the dry cleaning and they are barely hanging on. The cost of college for their kids skyrocketing. Secure retirement, a hope and a dream. These folks arent just anxious and insecure. They are angry and impatient. They hear us talk but regardless of whether or not they agree with what they are saying they dont see anybody taking real action to improve their lives. So they dont trust their leaders, any of them. This sbt just ability honesty or ethics. They zroent dont think we have us. They believe some challenges are so big that only is capable of add dresi addressing them. This is a problem for our country because this distrust robs us of our ability to take the kind of big action we need to embrace the future instead of fare it, the kind of action we can only take together. Do people believe you have smart ideas to address those challenges. Third, your guts. This is the most important of the three. Even if you show you can care, even if you thought of good solutions, do people believe youll do whatever it takes to deliver the results that you promise even if it cuts against your own personal or political interests . You need all three to lead. Majors who hear from our con stit constituents, we tend to understand that. It all goes back to listening. If you really listen and mayors have to americans actually agree on a lot. They want a decent job with reliable benefits including Quality Health care. They want good schools for their kids. Republican mayors often know they can raise taxes to invest in critical things. Mayors are in the business of getting things done. We see washington moving backwards, cities are moving forward. We raised the minimum wage to 15 abhour. People already have more money in their pockets. We want 40 and 50 an hour job. It isnt just about public. It is about good paying middle class union jobs. People without College Degrees who half a century ago were working on building bombers on the assembly line, today are building rail cars on the lax sign. Creating jobs where they live. Thats just the start. We faszed the nations largest housing initiative. We have the highest Graduation Rate we have had in decades. Walk them back to school and this fall we are becoming the largest for every Public School graduate. In l. Arthealth care has meant jo jobs. 6 million added to our gdp. They are sounding the alarm about trump care and why im ready to fight like hell to make sure it never becomes the law of the land. We need to convince people that they can trust us to fight for them and to deliver for them. When we do Real Progress is possible. Let me give you an example. Anyone who has been to los angeles knows we have the worst traffic in america. Everyone who lives in los angeles knows its more than a pain. Traffic robs us of millions of hours we could be spending with our family. So we set out to fix it. We proposed the largest local Infrastructure Initiative in this nations history times two. It would produce 465,000 good paying jobs that will stay here at home. But to get the initiative we had to go to the voters and get twothirds of them to vote yes, to raise their own taxes. So for three years i criss cr s crossed of an area it is democrats and republicans. On election day measure m passed with 71 of the vote. It didnt pass because they loved Big Government and because we had the best trargting or the ads. It passed because we listened and because people trusted under the circumstances to deliver. It brings me back to the challenge that yface. I know youre mad about the. Our l vas avalues are under att. We have set up a 10 million justice fund to make sure no immigrant faces the threat of deportation without legal representation. You know what . Im a dreamer. We are going to adopt it in los angeles and i have a dozen cities ready to do it the next day. Its the right thing to do for our economy. Yes. We have got to fight and we have got to win. This white house isnt going to succeed in dragging us back into the past. I know we have the constitution and we have the American People on our side. We are going to win those fights. But every day we spend playing defense is a day we are not making progress. If we define ourselves solely by our opposition we will sell ourselves short and more importantly we will sell the American People short. My friends, our country is at a transformational moment that has brought with it challenges and opportunities unlike anything we have ever faced. The future is here. The American People are waiting for someone to step up, to lead us with confidence and courage we need. So dont seed the power you have before you, exercise it. Dont settle for being. Dont fight pessimism with more pessimism. Most importantly, dont lose fate in america. I see it every single day. So lets refuse to settle for letting the future happen. Lets resolve to make a future. Please welcome lindsay washington. Well go down to line here. Glenn hutchens is a founder of silver Lakes Partners and leading investor in technology. Austin is a former chairman of the council of economic advisers under barack obama and is currently the professor of economics at the university of chicago. And he has done a lot of important work on keeping our economy and wall street accountable. I will start off with you, senator. We are focused on ideas to address ensuring the committeco works for all americans. Love your thoughts on how we can do that better. Thank you for joining us today. When i was graduating from High School America was an amazing place for working americans. My father was a mechanic m mothers mother lived in a railroad car. Working americans were able to buy a three bedroom home, buy a car. The fact is the fundamentals of life took an enormous leap forward. In those three golden decades from 1945 to 1975 Americans Workers shared in the wealth that they were creating. But from the time i graduated from high school, 1974 through now American Workers have not been involved in decades. They have been where their share has stayed flat and their wages have stayed flat. People about think a home only by inheriting it from their parents. My father could say to me, you go through the doors and work hard you can do just about anything here in america. Unstated was the belief was just as his generation had a great leap forward forworkers so that trajectory would continue over the decades to come. The last four decades we have seen a tax system for the wealthy. We have seen a trade system that impoverishes American Workers. We have to pivot and ask how do we recreate an amazing place for working americans . Thats the question we are addressing today. We do have to address the longterm structural deficits. [ no audio ] look at the model germany has put forward. It also means Higher Education cant be for many of our children. Their dream may involve going to college. They should be able to go to college debt free. At germany it takes 5 of a medium wage to go go to colleg. In america it was 50 . We make it a horrendous experience. Par pa parents are saying we are not sure we should go to college. They are afraid and no job and nay will be tranded and crippled by that debt. We have to transform that piece in order to make the economy work as well. Would you elaborate . Sure. My basic argument there was that there was very Important Information content that came through this past election on both left and right. Im not sure thats the right demention. I think the demention might be those who are benefit by globalization versus those who are not. It was the narrowly defined devastation to communities, industries and jobs. Even though the overall economy was growing more broadly. I think the answer is not just to my argument. The argument is not just to have a series of policies. We have written about together to create the kind of fairness that we need in our economy to send a message to the people who have been devastated by the last 30 years. It is also to embrace a set of policy simultaneously. I think we need to marry a fairness agenda that you are talking about. Rather than be a false choice as between Economic Growth and economic fairness to have a grand compact between business and labor to grow our economy in a way thats kind of fair to all. I think its the right way to think about this. With ideas today on essentially guarantee, a big investment but also thinking through kind of a new vision of infrastructure. I love your thoughts on that, but also we definitely want to talk about positive ideas. I dont want to lose sight of the trump agenda. It is ability inclusive growth and how to invest in your insfrukture. Let us return to the trump tax plan and what are the ideas behind it. They asked donald trump. He said you have been criticized. You say you want to repeal and replace obamacare. What would you replace it with . He said something fabulous. That was his answer. You open yourself up. Thats possible. Up to delegation from congress. They will give you ideas and say we have been pushing this for 30 years. Why dont you make that your plan. The trump tax plan as has been outlined would be the biggest tax cut for very high income people in the history of the United States. By far more than twice as big as george w. Bushs tax cut was. If youre old enough we remember, you all said if not in this very room we all said together we cannot afford to do this. This is a terrible idea. It would be twice as big as that. It would create the biggest loophole ever in the history of u. S. Tax code by allowing anyone that has a private business to call that profit and they will have to pay only 15 marginal rate on that. Now, just to put that in perspective, if you are a regular American Worker who is currently file and say youre a single parent. Youre filing as ahead of household, if you make 38,000 a year, you will have to pay he is going to get rid of head of household. You will file as a single person. You will pay a 25 marginal rate plus another 7. 5 of payroll tax. So youll pay a 30 plus percent marginal rate while somebody who literally made 1 billion a year will be paying a 15 rate. It doesnt make any sense, and the thing that i cant understand is how do you look at the last 30 years of the history of the United States. We have seen doing productivity and profits of large corporations and what they paid people and the erosion. How do you look at the 30 years of history and say the thing we were missing is we didnt cut billionaires taxes enough and run you have the deficit enough. Thats the premise of the plan. The basic world view is that we have to have growth. We have to if we want to restore what we had in the past we must grow again and it might be a manufacturing. It might be emts. It might be services. We have to grow. There is a difference of world views. One world view says growth comes from the absence of government that if we just get rid of all of the regulations and rules of the road and cut the tax rates then growth will come. If you bloelieve that i think y have a puzzle. It is in Silicon Valley. It doesnt have low taxes. Doesnt have regulation. It is not on the island of vandawatu. There are no Capital Gains taxes, no income taxes, no Corporate Taxes at all. Some times people will come after, where is this island of vandawatu. Why isnt it there . You know why. The dynamic Innovative Companies in the United States do not primarily move to Silicon Valley or where ever they go because its cheap. They go there because they cant afford not to go there. It does require the government to invest in education, science and all of the things that we need to grow and that i think is what the fight is really about. Just briefly, one of the things we have seen over the last 30 years in addition to one vision of taxes is an erosion of the ability of all workers to demand higher wages for their human capital. So one of the challenges there has been the erosion of unions in the United States. I want today ask you to talk briefly about that and then i will turn to lindsay to talk about her experience. It is a dynamically different approach to your world. Trump may have talked it. It is an extraordinary tax give away with 24 Million People. Extraordinary onepage summary of a 6 trillion tax g