Privatizing Social Security. By 2005, bush was off on a crosscountry tour pedalling his tour to make Social Security a better deal for younger americans. And privatizing the new deals guarantee of a dignified retirement was his number one priority. Despite being out numbered in the house and senate, this is how democrats, the party of fdr and the new deal responded. Over the recess, democrats who go home prepared to continue talking to the American People about Social Security and more than 240 town Hall Meetings on the internet, radio, College Campuses and editorial pages and evening news, democrats will present our views. Every media market will hear from House Democrats. We are working with more than 200 groups to counter president bush and the republicans misrepresentation across the country. Republicans know democrats are coming and they are running away from privatization. Okay. Fast forward to today. Less than 50 days before his inauguration, donald trump, the man who swore to protect medicare on the campaign trail is compiling a list of privatizers. First, of course, theres House Speaker paul ryan who has been trying to gut medicare and turn it into a fistful of vouchers for years as early as next spring. And then theres georgia congressman tom price, the pick for health and human services. Price has a long history of wanting to slash medicaid and is the number one fan of ryans plans to voucherize medicare. So whats the Democratic Party going to do . This time around, now thats its trump touring the country to spend the capital that trump who lost the capital vote by 2. 5 million votes and counting doesnt even have. Will the party bring the fight that the democrats brought during bushs second term . Senator Elizabeth Warren gave us an example on monday. The American People didnt give democrats majority support so we can come back to washington and play dead. They didnt send us here to whimper, wine or gravel. They sent us here to stand up for what is right. And now they are watching, waiting and hoping, hoping that we will show some spine and start fighting back. Now, when democrats fought back, they picked up 31 seats in the house. Nancy pelosi became the countrys first speaker of the house, harry reid became the Senate Majority speaker and the list goes on and on and on. What might they accomplish in the next few years . Joining me now for what were calling our boot camp for democrats, congressmanelect jamie rascan of maryland, howard dean, maria kumar and cornell belcher, pollster and author of a black man in the white house. Thank you all for being here. I want to go to you first, congressmanelect rascan. Youve shown the spirit that they want to see in democrats. In your view, is medicare the opening to what we can see as a fighting Democratic Caucus going in to 2017 . Absolutely it is. The Democratic Party is the party that built Social Security, that built medicare and medicaid and the programs that created the Great American middle class. The republicans will Campaign Like donald trump did and the minute they get into office, they create a cabinet of billionaires and ceos and white nationalists and its all about rolling back the gains that we have created for the american middle class and we have to defend the great legacies of the 20th century as we continue to expand Social Security and the programs that the middle class depends upon. So i think that, you know, we have to stand with the 64. 5 or 6 Million People who voted for the democrats, which is 2. 5 million more than voted for donald trump and weve got to defend the programs and the social infrastructure and the physical infrastructure that the American People depend upon. Howard dean, you come from the democratic wing of the Democratic Party, which is why so many people dug you in 2004. I want to play some sound of the late Teddy Kennedy who was, at the time, the liberal line of the senate. This is Teddy Kennedy talking in january of 2007 to fight a fight that just so the people understand, this is not new, this desire to privatize and repeal 20th Century Great Society programs is a thing republicans have wanted to do for a very long time. This is Teddy Kennedy talking about how the democrats needed to fight back then. And were looking at 3 billion but we still cannot get a 2. 15 over two years. Over two years. What is the price, we ask the other side, what is the price that you want from these working men and women . What cost . How much more do we have to give for the private sector in the business . How many billion dollars more . When does the greed stop . And howard dean, that was Teddy Kennedy talking about the republicans refusal to raise the minimum wage. Well, i didnt hear much consolation. People said, if he has a good plan, ill work with him. The problem with trump is hes totally unpredictable. He says one thing one day and the next five minutes the position is totally changed. We dont know which donald trump were getting. Although the cabinet makeup is a little frightening. So heres what i think is going to happen. If they this is first of all, trump is smart. Hes got good political instincts. If they go down this route, he will lose his base overnight. Attacking Social Security for working people, thats all theyve got left. All theyve got left. So this would be an this is really, i think, driven by the rightwing ideologues. I think trump is going to get it pretty quickly this is a stupid thing to do politically. The other thing, this is an incredibly stupid thing to do in terms of economic management. The truth is, what they want essentlly is to give everyone 401 k s. You want to turn the retirement system over to wall street which damn near tanked the entire Economic System six years ago . I dont think so. So this is just a bad idea, both economically and its a bad idea politically and i think its going to have a very short shelf life. And chris, i want to go back. First of all, ann coulter has come out on the medicare side, and this is Donald Trumps biggest fan on the right, she said, medicare is not what the election was fought over. If ryan wants to change medicare, then run for president on that and see how far you get. To her point, the election was not medicare. Paul ryan is eager to put these plans in place he keeps rotating to privatize medicare. This was donald trump actually talking about medicare during the campaign. Take a listen. Save medicare, medicaid and Social Security without cuts. Have to do it. Get rid of the fraud, get rid of the waste and abuse but save it. People have been paying in for years and now many of the candidates want to cut it. You save it by making the United States, by making us rich again, by taking back all of the money thats being lost. Chris, weve seen that donald trump has been able to reverse course on almost any promise and his base doesnt care. They dont care what he says, that hes filling the swamp with billionaires. Will they care if he comes from medicare and goes along with paul ryans plan to turn it into vouchers . Well, you know what, you know how crazy this election has been, im going to agree with ann coulter. Whoa. Ive lost it. Im sorry. If paul ryan wants to go after medicare, good luck for him. Politically, governor dean is right. This is a disaster in the making. If you boil down and scratch apart what happened here, there was clearly a working class, more so kind of a lower middle class number of americans that voted for trump. Especially if you look at the exit polls. And that demographic is they are not sitting on, you know, half a million or Million Dollar retirement accounts. They need medicare when they retire. They need Social Security. So to go to that issue automatically makes it a bread and butter issue that plays right into the democrats hands and obviously democrats would come after that with everything theyve got and that the Political Capital and impact that it would have for trump would be incredibly negative. Now, all of that being said, heres one thing i would caution everyone because, again, what ive seen from donald trump throughout this entire election now and even in the last few weeks, hes an enigma. Im not saying this is going to happen but theres always a chance where hes playing ryan up and then comes out and pretends like im going to fight for medicare and then people go, see, he really is a different kind of republican. So this is the trap that sometimes, you know, trump sets. I dont know if hes being that sophisticated. Maybe not. But we have to be very focused and strategic in terms of a response. If he comes after those critical safetynet issues, democrats should come after him in a very vocal and aggressive way with everything they have. I want to get the full panel in but i want to go back to congressmanelect raskin on this. What do you do if donald trump takes the democrats side . We remind people that they wanted to privatize Social Security a few years before the 2008 mortgage meltdown crisis and imagine if we had fallen for that propaganda back then. Its the exact same thing. I mean, our party is the party of solidarity among citizens in the United States. We stand together in good times and bad times and hard times and well get the country through this. A lot of people in the industrial heartland are hurting and fell for a lot of populist lull buys that donald trump was singing to them and its very clear that this administration is a moneymaking operation, not just a personal one for donald trump and his family but also for the people in the cabinet and the 1 of the country and the Democratic Party has got to speak very clearly in a voice that tells america, we are the party of the people, the party that is championing the middle class and privatizing medicare is an incredibly risky thing. Its a very Popular Program that works well. Why would we do that and make that part of the trump money making operation . Nancy pelosi gave a recent interview to the Washington Post and talked about the strategy back in 2005 to fight Social Security. She said, at that time, we committed to each other that we would be unified and disciplined. Bush had just been elected. Everybody stuck together. The equivalent is what we had in 05. Would you say that democratic voters would like to see unified and obstructionists because you have republicans who have signaled they like to come for medicare and Social Security would be next on the list for privatization. Right. Well, this is these are the conversations going on in the progressive community, quite frankly, out here in denver where i am right now with the party folks. And some say that we need to take him on and challenge him across the board in the same manner in which the republican did barack obama. Theres that class of people. Theres also the class of people who say weve got to cut a deal where we can cut a deal. So i think that argument is going to be playing out. For me, part of what i think is important for democrats is the future. Absolutely we have to protect medicare and Social Security and those things in the past but if you look at those voters, thats where the marketplace is, the millennials who are very diverse. If 8, 9 of latino and young africanamericans dont vote third party, shes probably president of the United States right now. We brought a lot of young voters to the process and they were not necessarily democrats. We have to look to the future and to their issues and protect the issues in the past but weve got to be a forwardlooking party and look to the issues of the Younger Voters and bring them back in line and not having them vote third party. Real quick, same question to you, thats a good point, if the fight that democrats decide to wage on defending the 20th century, medicare, Social Security, do they then leave out those young voters of color, the future of the party . Is that the democrats that you would recommend they stand on or is it Something Else . I think the challenge for the Democratic Party is they go by the next fire. Now everybody is rolling over and saying do we have to focus on White Working Class . And i would say you have to do the whole thing. You have to go deep and talk to individuals about their values. If donald trump says he wants to save medicare, help him. There are going to be times where you have to stand up and say do not help him because they will be completely antiethical to our values. The reason i say that is if you look at the 100 days that donald trump wants to say, item number one or two is basically creating term limits among congressional members. That would weaken congressional power. Imagine white nationalists that are rising because we gave them the power. What cornell said is if you were only going to look at the generation x and z and millennial generation, they would have Hillary Clinton would have gotten all 500 electoral votes overnight. When you start looking at where democrats should be, in georgia today, 2 of the electorate was latino. So when you talk about building for the future, you have to go into the heartland and into the south. Well, we are going to same congressman jamie raskin back to washington with all of this and well check in with you frequently, sir, to see how you are doing and how that fight is going. We appreciate having you and the rest of the panel will be back. Next up, Donald Trumps phone call with taiwan is the big story of the day. After the break, well tell you what hes really up to. Dont go away. American express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. Find out how American Express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open. Com. Gaviscon is a proven heartburn remedy find out how American Express cards and services that gives you fastacting, longlasting relief. It immediately neutralizes acid and only gaviscon helps keep acid down for hours. For fastacting, longlasting relief, try doctorrecommended gaviscon. He wears his army hat, he gets awalks aroundliments. With his army shirt looking all nice. And then people just say, thank you for serving our country and im like, thats my dad. Male vo no one deserves a warmer welcome home. Thats why were hiring 10,000 members of the military community by the end of 2017. Im very proud of him. Male vo comcast. You probably woke up this morning to screaming headlines about donald trump breaking decades of diplomatic protocol with a single phone call with taiwans president. And, yes, it is a big deal that the man who will hold the most powerful position in the world seems to ignore the fact that china considers taiwan a breakaway province. Chin n Chinas Foreign Ministry has logged a complaint with the u. S. The real story is the giant red flag it throws up about his fitness and readiness to be president. This reality show over his secretary of state is that much more critical and to raise the issue of a possible conflict of interest. According to newspapers in taiwan, a member of the Trump Organization visited the country last month and expressed interest in developing, surprise, a hotel there. So was trumps phone call about diplomacy or dollars . Back with me, former governor howard dean and teresa kumar. Hes not in even in and has caused a diplomatic incident. Is it more troubling that he had a call with the taiwanese president or that he did so, once again, in a situation where hes got business interests in place . I would say its a combination of both. Its almost not having a Historical Perspective of why and the sensitive relationships with china really are. A week ago he had a conversation with the argentinean head of state and next thing you know, his project there was greenlighted. So its a combination of both and i dont know how he decides if he wants to be a businessman first or the president of the free world. Howard, in that context, you have donald trump so far building an administration that is full of people who have great deals of money at stake, money interests, goldman sachs, the a little of them was put together. You have Todd Ricketts worth 5. 3 billion, commerce. Betsy devos, 5. 1 million, wilbur ross, 2. 9 billion. Tom price at hss, 13. 6 million. Jeff sessions as attorney general. We know his views on race are not forward thinking and elaine chao. You have that kind of a cabinet and then you look at mnuchin and zero in on him and this is a guy whose bank foreclosed on a 90yearold homeowner over a 20 cent homeowner in their mortgage. This include as guy who essentially profited off the mortgage meltdown. With all of that surrounding donald trump and his own pecuniary interests in the news, why would workingclass ame