Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Bernie Sanders talks about Elon Musk and the billionaire class

Transcript

Bernie Sanders talks about Elon Musk and the billionaire class · Elon Musk Podcast

0:05
Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
0:08
I'm your host, Will Walden, and if you're new here, this is a
0:11
show all about Elon Musk and his groundbreaking work that he's
0:14
doing with his various companies, including Tesla,
0:17
SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neurolink, and of course, X.
0:21
And before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share a
0:24
quick insight from our shows analytics.
0:27
It turns out the 45% of you listening right now are
0:31
subscribed to the show and thank you for that.
0:33
But that means that 55% of you are not.
0:36
So I'm offering you a deal. I promise to do everything in my
0:39
power to keep bringing you the latest and most interesting news
0:43
about Elon Musk every single day and about his companies.
0:47
If you'll do me one favor and hit the subscribe or follow
0:50
button on your podcast platform right now, that's it.
0:55
Pretty simple and straightforward.
0:56
It takes just a second for you, but it makes a huge difference
1:00
for the show. One of the great progressive
1:02
trade union leaders in America. So, brothers and sisters, we got
1:14
some problems in this country. We have a an administration that
1:25
is leading us to oligarchy and an administration that is
1:33
leading us to an authoritarian form of society and an
1:41
administration that is leading us toward kleptocracy.
1:49
And what I see happening, and I was just in Kenosha yesterday.
1:53
We were in Altoona, WI earlier today.
1:56
I see this incredible truck. Do you know how many people we
1:59
have here? We got a bunch of rooms.
2:01
We got over 6000 people. So what I see happening all over
2:19
America is people, not just Democrats or independents, but
2:25
Republicans as well, saying we fought for too long and too many
2:31
people died for democracy. We're not going dialogue.
2:43
You know, it's a funny thing that we are right here in
2:46
Abraham Lincoln High School. And I thank the high school for
2:52
allowing us to use their facilities.
2:55
So I want to tell you a little story.
2:58
I in Vermont on Memorial Day, I usually go to a parade, a
3:02
beautiful parade, one of the largest in the state, in a town
3:07
called Vergennes, Vermont, in the northern part of the state.
3:11
And at the end of the parade, people assemble it in town
3:13
green, and people give speeches. And the organizers always bring
3:18
up some kids from the high school to say a few words And
3:21
what they ask the kids from the high school to say, one of the
3:26
speeches is to recite Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
3:31
You all remember that. And let me remind you what he
3:35
said, 'cause it was really prescient and it was really
3:38
quite extraordinary. Here he was in 1863.
3:42
I think it was a few days after the terrible Battle of
3:45
Gettysburg. Thousands and thousands, maybe
3:48
10s of thousands of soldiers had died in the fight against
3:52
slavery. And he looks out, he looks out
3:57
on that field and this is what he says.
4:00
And you'll all remember this. He said that we here highly
4:04
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this
4:11
nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
4:18
government of the people by the people for the people shall not
4:26
perish from the earth. And that is why we are here
4:45
today. We're here today to, in fact,
4:51
make sure that after so many people in our country have
4:55
fought and fought and died for democracy, that we are going to
5:00
be stay a government of the people, by the people and for
5:05
the people. Now, I want to tell you what we
5:10
are up against because you got to know what this struggle is
5:14
about. And I think you all do.
5:16
And I want you to think back just six or so weeks ago when
5:19
Donald Trump was inaugurated. Now think about who the people
5:28
were. No, I had a box seat.
5:31
For whatever reason, I got pushed to the front of that.
5:34
So I was like 3 feet away and right behind Trump.
5:38
Sitting behind them were the three wealthiest people in
5:43
America, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos and Mr. Zuckerberg.
5:53
That's not all. Behind them were 13 other
5:57
billionaires who Trump had nominated the head major
6:04
government agencies. In other words, they weren't
6:10
hiding anything. They were telling the American
6:14
people and the world that instead of a government of the
6:17
people, by the people and for the people, we have now become a
6:21
government of the billionaire class, for the billionaire class
6:25
and by the billionaire class. That is what brothers and
6:33
sisters we are taking on. And I want to say something that
6:39
I really fully do not understand.
6:41
Maybe we have some psychiatrists in the audience.
6:45
And I mean, that's seriously who can help us here.
6:47
Because, look, everybody wants to make money.
6:50
Everybody wants to live comfortably.
6:52
Nothing new about that in this country.
6:56
Today in Vermont breaks my heart.
6:59
And I'm sure in Michigan we have major addiction problems, right?
7:05
We all know people who are addicted to drugs and what's
7:10
happening to their lives. We know people who are
7:12
alcoholic. We know people who smoke too
7:15
much, people who are, you know, overweight, eat too much, people
7:18
who have addictions. But I will tell you what the
7:21
most serious addiction is in this country.
7:26
Boy, it's a smart group of people.
7:27
That's right. It is the addiction of greed by
7:34
the billionaire class. Now, you might think that if
7:39
somebody had a few $100 million, had their own jet plane, had
7:45
their own island or whatever these guys do, it might be
7:49
enough, but it is never enough. They are addicted to more and
7:54
more and more, and they don't care how many people they step
7:59
over in order to satisfy their greed.
8:06
And right now, what they are in the process of trying to do, and
8:12
it's why I'm here in Warren, to stop them, what they want to do
8:16
is at a time when we have more income and wealth inequality
8:20
than we have ever had, when the billionaire class, the people on
8:24
top have never, ever, ever had it so good.
8:28
What they want to do is give over a trillion dollars in tax
8:32
breaks to the 1%, and they do that by cutting $880 billion
8:39
from Medicaid, over $200 billion from nutrition and other
8:45
programs that the working class of this country need.
8:52
So in other words, this is the Robin Hood proposal in reverse.
8:56
Instead of taking for the rich given to the poor, they're
8:59
taking for the poor and giving them to the rich.
9:02
We ain't going to let that happen.
9:06
And I want to explain for a moment what $880 billion in
9:10
Medicaid means. It means that when, in the midst
9:14
of the healthcare crisis, millions of children will be
9:19
thrown off of the health insurance they have.
9:23
If you have a mom or dad in a nursing home or somebody who may
9:29
need nursing home, understand that.
9:31
Two out of three people in nursing homes get there through
9:36
Medicaid payments cut. Medicaid can be harder to get
9:40
people into nursing homes. Quality of care will
9:43
deteriorate. We have 32 million people in
9:47
community getting their health care.
9:50
It community health centers, something that I've worked very
9:53
hard on, primary healthcare, 40% of the revenue for community
9:58
health centres comes from Medicaid, slash Medicaid.
10:01
It'll be harder for millions of people to get the primary care,
10:05
the dental care, the vision care that they need.
10:10
We are not going to allow them to slash Medicaid in order to
10:15
give tax breaks to the risk. Well, the reason we are in
10:29
Warren and we're in Kenosha and we're in Altoona is that all of
10:33
these congressional districts have Republican members of
10:37
Congress who won by a very slim vote.
10:43
Your congressman is Mr. James. John James, apparently you know
10:51
Mr. James. So my request of Mr. James James
10:56
is very simple. You know, I'm from Vermont and I
10:59
am here doing a town meeting in Warren, MI Mr. James, I think
11:10
your constituents here in Warren would love to do a town meeting
11:15
with you. And I think that town meeting
11:24
should be respectful people. He has the right to make his
11:28
case. Let him speak.
11:30
You have the right to ask him questions.
11:33
And I think the question that is most on people's minds is why
11:38
would any member of Congress vote for massive tax breaks for
11:42
billionaires and then cut Medicaid, education and
11:46
nutrition? But Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump are
12:05
not only going after Medicaid and nutrition programs, they're
12:10
going after Social Security. I think I speak for every member
12:18
of the Senate and telling you that we get calls every single
12:21
day from seniors, people with disabilities, say I'm trying to
12:26
reach Social Security, I got a problem, I want to talk to
12:29
somebody. It's taken forever to do that.
12:31
In fact, shamefully, some 30,000 people die every year waiting
12:38
for an understaffed Social Security.
12:40
They are way under staffed today to approve disability benefits.
12:45
You got that? So people are sick, they're on
12:48
disability, takes them forever to get their issue dealt with,
12:53
and they die in between. What Musk and Trump are
12:57
proposing are massive cuts to Social Security staffing, which
13:04
would make it harder for people to get their claims addressed.
13:09
That would mean more people will die.
13:12
That is not acceptable. And I'll tell you what else they
13:24
are trying to do. I, one of the honors of my
13:30
Senate life was I chaired for a while the US Senate Committee on
13:34
Veterans Affairs. And I'm very proud of that.
13:39
I have the opportunity to meet people, great veterans, not only
13:43
from Vermont, but all over the country.
13:46
And I think no matter what your political view may be, I think
13:51
there is nobody or very few people in America who would
13:54
disagree that when a man or a woman puts their lives on the
13:59
line to defend us, we honor our commitment to those veterans.
14:18
But at the behest of Mr. Musk, the VA has announced that they
14:24
intend to lay off 83,000 employees at the veterans and
14:35
that will mean for veterans to go into VA healthcare
14:39
deterioration and the quality of care they get.
14:42
For veterans who are waiting for their benefits, it will take
14:44
them longer to get. Now.
14:46
Just yesterday, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the second largest
14:51
veterans organization in the country, said, quote, we now
14:54
call upon VA to reconsider its planned reduction of 83,000
15:00
employees. The VFW is right.
15:03
I call on the Trump administration rescind that
15:07
order. We are not going to balance the
15:18
budget on the backs of our veterans or our seniors.
15:27
I'll tell you something else. In their proposal, the
15:30
Republican proposal, not only they have 880 billion in cuts
15:34
for Medicaid, they have $230 billion in cuts to nutrition
15:38
programs. Now you tell me in what
15:44
universe, in what world, in what religion is it acceptable to
15:51
give tax breaks to the to the very richest people and cut food
15:56
programs for hungry kids? That is disgusting and grossly
16:05
immoral. Now, obviously, one of the ways
16:15
you dismantle programs is you cut staffing, you cut massive
16:19
amounts of workers in Social Security at VA.
16:22
They can't deliver the services that people need.
16:26
So right now, they are in Trump and Musk are in the process of
16:31
laying off hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
16:35
And put yourself, we have any federal employees right here.
16:39
Yeah, all right. And we thank them for their
16:42
service. And I can tell you that, and
16:52
it's not hard to imagine you're a federal employee to everyone's
16:56
on pins and needles. They're wondering.
16:57
They're going to get a letter from Mr. Musk tomorrow telling
17:00
them that they're gone. People have worked for years.
17:02
People have done great work, gone out on the streets.
17:05
Now, I want you to think for a moment.
17:08
If Mr. Musk can do this, arbitrarily fire hundreds of
17:14
thousands of federal employees, think about what will happen
17:19
when the rebel technological revolution of artificial
17:23
intelligence and robotics really gets hold in this country.
17:27
Think about it. Everybody knows that this
17:31
revolution is coming, and that means that many millions of
17:34
workers in the private sector are going to be displaced.
17:39
If Musk can simply throw out onto the street for no decent
17:44
reason, hundreds of thousands of federal employees, what do you
17:49
think they're going to do when robotics and artificial
17:53
intelligence comes? They're going to replace those
17:56
workers, and they're going to throw them out on the street as
18:00
well. This is a prelude to what
18:05
they're going to do in the private sector and all.
18:07
I happen to believe that technology unto itself is not a
18:13
bad thing. If it can result in increased
18:18
worker productivity, that's great.
18:21
But what we want to make sure is that workers benefit from that
18:28
worker productivity increase. We'll watch CEOs all over this
18:43
country say, hey, we got a machine to replace you, we don't
18:46
need you anymore, you're out on the street now.
18:55
What we are up against is not only the incredible greed of the
19:00
billionaire class, we're up against something that we really
19:04
have never experienced in this country.
19:06
And I'm not going to stand up here and tell you with a
19:09
straight face that politicians never lie, never stretch the
19:15
truth a little bit. Occasionally that happens.
19:20
But what we're up against right now, and this is enormously
19:24
important, is we're up against the phenomenon that we have
19:27
never seen, and that is the big lie.
19:32
The Big Lie is not just stretching the truth.
19:36
Big Lie is not just fibbing. The Big Lie is creating a
19:42
parallel universe, a set of ideas that either have no basis
19:51
in reality or in the great scheme of things, are nowhere
19:55
near the most important concerns that the American people have.
20:00
What some of these people on the right are doing is saying
20:04
outrageously false statements. They say it over and over again
20:10
and then they have the right wing social media blast it out
20:15
to hundreds of millions of people until people actually
20:20
believe it. And then and then rather than
20:25
having the kinds of discussions and debate that we should have
20:29
in a democratic society, what are the issues?
20:31
You have your view? I have my view.
20:33
Let's debate. Let's come up to some consensus,
20:36
or we'll vote on it, whatever it may be.
20:38
We spend half our lives trying to refute outrageous lies.
20:41
Let me just give you a few examples which you're familiar
20:44
with. Trump claimed that the 2020
20:48
election was stolen from him and that he won by a landslide.
20:57
A lie. All of you remember the terrible
21:01
January 6th insurrection where they tried to prevent?
21:06
Well, Trump claimed that that was a day of love.
21:10
And by the way, pardoned all of those insurrectionists.
21:17
Trump has claimed that millions and millions of undocumented
21:23
people vote in American elections alive.
21:30
Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax originating in
21:34
China, a lie. And very recently, Trump has
21:41
claimed that Ukraine started the horrific war with Russia.
21:50
And I'll give you an idea how bad this is.
21:52
A couple of months ago and I was involved in this, there was,
21:55
there was what we would call, we call in Washington a continuing
21:58
resolution to see all keep the government going and people,
22:02
Democrats and Republicans work together for months.
22:05
And we had, I was chairman of the Health Education Committee,
22:08
a lot of provisions in there which would have cut the cost of
22:11
prescription drugs, would have expanded healthcare, etcetera,
22:14
etcetera. We were involved in that debate
22:16
anyhow, months and months of discussion, debate, arguments.
22:20
Finally, an agreement was reached literally the day before
22:25
that was going to be voted on and passed in the House.
22:28
Mr. Musk sent out on Twitter emails that said there was a 43%
22:36
increase in salaries for members of Congress.
22:42
Tell your member of Congress not to vote for it.
22:44
They're going to get a 43% increase, a total lie.
22:50
It was a 3.4 inflation. That's all it was, percent
22:54
increase total I and as a result of what Musk did and the emails
22:59
that he sent out, Republicans refused to go forward and that
23:03
bill died. And it doesn't stop.
23:09
If some of you have heard from State of the Union speech, he
23:13
claimed he picked up on something that Musk had started
23:17
and that as you all heard, millions, zillions of people who
23:21
are two hundred 150 years of age, 500 years of age, they're
23:26
all receiving Social Security benefits.
23:30
All right, I got 2 questions. Why would he do that?
23:34
What is the think, think. No.
23:37
What is if you say to people, the average American, you know,
23:42
that Social Security system is really corrupt.
23:44
You got all these people are 200 years of age, they're getting is
23:48
all corrupt. What is the goal?
23:52
All right. I can't raise one person.
23:54
Raise. I can't hear anybody.
23:55
Yeah, it's right. Yes, yes.
24:01
What else you got? Yep, that's right.
24:06
All right. All of this stuff is to tell you
24:12
give up on your government. Government can't do anything.
24:16
It's all fraud. Social Security is broken, it's
24:20
fraudulent. Medicare, Medicaid, it's all.
24:22
And if you do that, what is the end result?
24:26
The privatization of everything. You're going to give all this
24:29
stuff over to large corporations.
24:32
So the truth is, the truth is that well over 99% of Social
24:40
Security checks are going out to the people who earned those
24:45
checks, 70 million people, and nobody who was 150 or 200 gets a
25:02
Social Security check. Absolute lie.
25:09
Now the now the purpose of all this lying, it is not just to
25:16
push his right wing ideology. It's more than that.
25:21
It is, and this is big stuff that we got to say on what they
25:24
are trying to do is the Fleck attention away from the real
25:29
issues, the very serious issues that the working class of this
25:33
country is facing. And those are issues that Musk
25:37
and Trump do not want to address because it's not in their
25:43
financial interests to do so. So as a case in point, Trump
25:50
gave his State of the Union speech.
25:53
It went on for about 28 hours. I don't know, it was the longest
26:02
State of the Union. I think it was 100 minutes and
26:06
in his hundred. And this is what is
26:08
extraordinary. It's not what he said, it's what
26:13
he didn't say. He spoke for over an hour and a
26:18
half, and he almost completely ignored the issues that are
26:24
keeping working families up at night as they worry about how
26:30
they are going to survive in these very difficult times.
26:35
So let's do something radical. You ready to do something
26:38
radical? Let's do what President Trump
26:50
did not do. Let us take a real look at what
26:54
is going on in America today. OK?
26:57
All right. We are the richest country.
27:00
We are the richest country in the history of the world.
27:03
But you know what? 60%, Six, zero percent of our
27:09
people are living paycheck to paycheck.
27:14
Now. Unlike Trump, I grew up in a
27:16
family that lives paycheck to paycheck.
27:20
And I know a little bit about that, as I expect many of you
27:25
do. So what does living paycheck to
27:30
paycheck mean? Tell me.
27:32
Raise your hands and be loud. Yes.
27:35
Right here. Means surviving how you survive.
27:38
Yes. It means little money.
27:40
What does it mean? Yes.
27:43
Stress. Hold it one at a time.
27:45
Yeah. Survival.
27:48
Exhaustion. Exhaustion.
27:51
Fear. Fear of what?
27:54
A fear of everything. What?
27:59
Medical care? Yes, ma'am.
28:04
No money for emergencies. Yes.
28:07
Making difficult choices, ma'am. OK.
28:14
All right there. Yeah.
28:18
No future. All right, Here is here is the
28:21
reality. And I think you've all said it
28:24
in a few minutes. Millions of Americans today are
28:30
wondering how they're going to be able to pay their rent and
28:35
what happens if the landlord raises their rent?
28:38
What do they do where rents are going up all over the What do
28:42
you do with the landlord raises your rent?
28:43
You got to move. Where you going to move to?
28:45
You got to take your kid out of school.
28:46
Where's going to go? She going to go.
28:49
People are worried that your child or your parents become
28:52
sick. You can't afford to take that
28:55
person to a doctor or you cannot afford the prescription drugs
29:00
that your mom or your kid may need.
29:03
What's going on today in America is people are worried just
29:07
something as simple as basic Your car breaks down.
29:10
You got an old car, right? Your car breaks down and the guy
29:14
at the repair shop says it's going to cost you 1000 bucks to
29:17
get it fixed. Now, what happens if you don't
29:19
have the 1000 bucks? You can't get your car fixed.
29:24
If you can't get your car fixed, you can't get to work.
29:26
If you can't get to work, you're going to lose your job.
29:28
If you lose your job, how are you going to survive?
29:31
That's because millions of people don't have $1000 in the
29:36
bank in America today. And this is a remarkable,
29:44
remarkable fact. It is not just that our life
29:48
expectancy. You all know what life
29:50
expectancy, how long we live. It's about four years shorter
29:54
than people in other wealthy countries, and we should wonder
29:58
why that is so. But here's something that is
30:01
never talked about. Now I want to throw that out for
30:04
you. I want you to digest it.
30:06
If you are working class in this country, your life expectancy,
30:12
on average will be 7 years shorter than if you're wealthy.
30:22
Do you all understand what that is about?
30:24
That means that being working class in this country, in many
30:29
respects, is like a death sentence.
30:32
You're rich, you're going to live long life.
30:33
You're working class 7 years. Sure.
30:36
Why is that a stress? All right, What stress is about?
30:42
Stress is not some concept. Oh, we're stressed out.
30:48
Stress is a physiological reaction.
30:52
And there is, you know, doctors frame it as, as the, the, it's
30:58
the disease of a poor people who have to struggle every single
31:02
day. Stress wrecks your body and it
31:06
has a terrible impact on your mind.
31:09
If you have to worry every single day, how are you going to
31:12
survive? How do I feed the kids?
31:14
How do I pay the rent? What happens if I get a call?
31:18
I have to be at work at midnight for the midnight shift.
31:21
You Add all that together, people are living on pins and
31:24
needles day after day, year after year.
31:29
Stress kills, and in the richest country in the history of the
31:35
world, millions of people should not have shorter lives than they
31:40
otherwise should because of the economy that we have.
31:58
But it's not just domestic policy that we have got to be
32:03
concerned about under Trump. We are all proud.
32:07
I think we wake up in the morning.
32:09
We know it's part of who we are as Americans.
32:11
We are proud that we are the longest standing democracy in
32:16
the world, you know, and we are proud.
32:23
We are proud, and I mean this sincerely, that all over the
32:27
world people read our Declaration of Independence,
32:30
they read the Constitution and they say, you know what, that's
32:33
what we want our country to be like, a country that is free, a
32:37
country that is democratic. But I have to tell you that for
32:44
the first time in our 250 year history, we have a president who
32:51
is turning his back on democracy and allying allying us with
32:57
authoritarianism. No, Mr. President, Ukraine did
33:06
not start this war. No, Mr. President, Zelensky is
33:21
not a dictator. Vladimir Putin is.
33:32
We must not abandon the people of Ukraine who were invaded by
33:37
Putin. This country must stand for
33:44
democracy, not dictatorship. And there is another issue that
33:51
I have worked long and hard on, and that is, as all of you know,
33:58
there was a terrible attack by Hamas against Israel. 1200
34:02
innocent people were killed. Israel had a right to respond,
34:07
but Israel did not have the right to wage an all out war
34:13
against the Palestinian people. And as a result of that all out
34:27
war, 45,000 people, most of whom most of whom are women and
34:37
children, are dead. And as a result of that war,
34:41
well over 100,000 have been injured.
34:44
And as a result of that war, the infrastructure, the healthcare,
34:49
the schools, the water systems, the wastewater plants in Gaza
34:53
have been virtually destroyed. Now, tragically, Trump wants to
35:00
follow Biden's very mistaken policy and provide more weapons
35:06
to Netanyahu's right wing extremist government.
35:12
I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that
35:16
Netanyahu does not get those home.
35:28
And while we have got to be very vigilant every day as to what
35:32
Trump and Musk and these guys are doing and fight back, that
35:36
is not good enough. It's not good enough just to be
35:38
on the defence. We have got to play offence as
35:42
well. And here is a secret that the
35:52
corporate media will not tell you.
35:54
And that is the progressive agenda is wildly popular all
35:59
over this country. It is exactly what the American
36:05
people want. And at the top of the list,
36:14
whether you're Democrat, Republican, independent, you
36:16
know that we have a corrupt campaign finance system.
36:27
This is America. Billionaires should not be
36:31
allowed to buy politicians. It is beyond insane, beyond
36:43
insane that Musk was able to contribute $270 million to
36:50
Trump's campaign and then his reward?
36:53
He becomes the most powerful person in the government.
37:00
But it is not just Musk. It is not just Musk and
37:03
Republicans. It is Democratic billionaires as
37:06
well. We need, we need to end this
37:20
disastrous and corrupt campaign finance system.
37:25
We need to overturn the Citizens United decision, and we need to
37:33
move the public funding of elections.
37:39
Billionaires should no longer be able to buy elections.
37:44
And I'll tell you something else that the American people,
37:47
Democrats, Republicans, independents feel strongly about
37:50
at a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality.
37:55
They don't want the billionaire class to get another nickel in
37:59
tax breaks. When many millions of our people
38:09
are trying to survive on starvation wages, the American
38:13
people understand we've got to raise that federal minimum wage
38:17
today. Today our divisible 7 and 1/4
38:22
hour to a living wage, at least 5017 bucks an hour all over
38:34
America. We're going to be trade
38:36
unionists here. People in unions raise hand.
38:40
All right. Thank you.
38:43
All over this country, workers know that if it's going to earn
38:47
decent wages, benefits and working conditions, you got to
38:51
have a union at your back. Unions have never been more
38:58
popular than they are right now. But what's going on is that many
39:06
of these corporations are acting illegally in trying to prevent
39:10
workers from joining a union. They're threatening them.
39:14
They're threatening to move the plant to China, take them in
39:17
back rooms, indoctrinating them, all of which is illegal.
39:20
That is why we've got to pass legislation I just reintroduced
39:24
called the PRO Act that punishes companies that act illegally
39:28
when workers try to form the union.
39:36
If you can believe it, hard to believe, but it is true. 22% of
39:41
seniors in America are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or
39:47
less. Half of seniors trying to get by
39:50
on 30,000 or less. No Mr. Trump, we aren't going to
39:54
cut Social Security. We're going to expand Social
39:58
Security benefit. How many people in this room
40:09
think our current healthcare system is working?
40:14
You're right. We are spending twice as much
40:18
for personal healthcare as the people of any other country.
40:21
Yeah, we got 85,000,000 uninsured or underinsured.
40:24
Many of you have large deductibles, Right?
40:29
All right, we have 60,000 people a year in America dying because
40:35
they can't get to a doctor on time.
40:38
All right, they get sick, they wait, they wait, they walk into
40:40
the doctor's office. It is too late.
40:43
The time is long overdue for this country to do what every
40:47
other major country does, guarantee healthcare.
40:50
All people as a human right. I need your help.
41:04
We're going to reintroduce Medicare for All.
41:07
Let's get a test. Unbelievably, in our broken
41:18
healthcare system, one out of four people who got a
41:21
prescription from their doctor cannot afford to fill that
41:26
prescription. We pay by far the highest prices
41:31
in the world for prescription drugs, sometimes 10 times more
41:36
than people in other countries. Congress has got to have the
41:41
guts to take on Big Pharma and make sure that we cut
41:46
prescription drug costs in this country by 50%.
41:56
And here's another concept which is non radical, that already
42:00
exists around the world. It is common sense.
42:02
We live in a competitive global economy.
42:06
We need the best educated workforce in the world.
42:15
It's not just that we need more doctors and nurses and dentists.
42:19
We need more confidence and electricians and sheet metal
42:23
workers. We need more teachers.
42:33
It is totally insane then when we have a desperate need for
42:38
skilled workers, educated workers, that young people are
42:41
going 3050 a $100,000 or more in debt to get an education.
42:49
Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, let's make public
42:53
colleges and universities tuition free.
43:03
And despite what Mr. Trump may think, climate change, sadly is
43:09
not a hoax. It is an existential threat.
43:12
We can create millions of good paying union jobs by
43:16
transforming our energy system into energy efficiency and
43:21
sustainable energies. And by the way, by the way, when
43:30
we talk about freedom, and I hear that word a lot in
43:34
Washington, DC, you know what freedom means.
43:37
It means that every woman in this country should have the
43:40
right to control her own body. Now, I know, I know that a lot
44:04
of folks throughout the country here in Michigan are feeling
44:08
angry and you're feeling frustrated and some of you may
44:12
feel a bit hopeless. So let me say this.
44:16
At this moment in history, this very difficult moment, despair
44:22
is not an option. Giving up is not acceptable.
44:34
That is what the oligarchs want you to do.
44:46
So let us never forget real change.
44:50
The change that we have experienced over the hundreds of
44:53
years of our nationhood only occurs when ordinary people
44:59
stand up against oppression and injustice and fight back.
45:06
That's how change, change does not take place from the top on
45:14
down. It's the bottom on up.
45:17
And I want you to think in this difficult moment to understand
45:21
that this is not the first time in American history that we have
45:25
faced serious, serious challenges.
45:28
And I want you, and I don't want to be overly romantic here, but
45:31
I want you to think back to the 1760s, seventeen 70s where you
45:35
had these people here in the colonies, then colonies.
45:38
And they said, you know what? We want independence.
45:40
We want to be able to make our own decisions.
45:43
And they stood up to the entire British Empire, the king of
45:48
England, the most powerful guy on earth.
45:50
And you know what? They beat him.
45:59
I want you to think about the 1830s, eighteen 40s, eighteen
46:03
50s, people in the abolitionist movement who said, you know
46:09
what, slavery must be abolished once and for all from this
46:14
country. And they were taking on some
46:22
very powerful people and we were engaged in a horrible bloody
46:27
civil war. But we prevailed.
46:30
Slavery was abolished. Sean, Sean Sayne of the UAW was
46:41
up here a few minutes ago and I was just thinking, I was reading
46:43
something today about the labour movement.
46:46
All of you know, know anything about labour history, been in
46:49
the early parts of the 20th century.
46:53
You know, we had kids, little children working in factories.
46:57
We had workers working seven days a week.
46:59
We had workers who paid horrible wages.
47:03
And what workers said, they said, you know what, we want to
47:06
form a union. And what the companies would
47:09
often do is fire these workers. They would have workers beaten
47:13
up. Sometimes they were workers were
47:15
killed because they wanted to form a union.
47:17
I was just reading today. I don't know how many of you
47:19
know this, that in 1936 when people were forming the United
47:25
Automobile Workers, workers faced enormous opposition from
47:30
General Motors and the other big automobile companies.
47:32
The only workers did they actually took over G miss
47:36
factories. They waged a sit in and as a
47:48
result of that, the UAW was formed.
47:51
Throughout that other great unions were formed and the
47:53
unions helped create the American middle class.
47:56
They struggled and they won. And we all remember or read
48:05
about the extraordinary bravery of Doctor King and the civil
48:09
rights movement and their struggle against segregation.
48:14
We all know the history of the women's movement.
48:22
Women fought and died for the right to vote, for the right to
48:28
control their own bodies. It was not an easy struggle.
48:33
And we got the environmental movement and the gay rights
48:36
movement. In other words.
48:39
In other words, nobody. Frederick Douglass said that
48:44
nobody ever gives you freedom. You got to fight for it.
48:56
So yes, the oligarchs are enormously powerful.
49:01
They have endless amounts of money, they control our economy,
49:07
they own much of the media, and they have enormous influence
49:12
over our political system. But from the bottom of my heart,
49:19
I believe that if we stand together, we can beat them.
49:41
You know, Nelson Mandela made a very profound statement.
49:45
He said everything is impossible until it is done.
49:52
You know, like, oh, my God, camp happened to camp.
49:55
And then it happens. Oh, no big deal, you know?
49:57
Yeah. Well, all right.
50:00
So. Well.
50:01
Well, I love you too. So what I want you all to
50:13
appreciate, I want you all to appreciate that in the
50:18
wealthiest country in the history of the world, if we
50:22
stand together, if we do not let the right wing divide us up by
50:27
the colour of our skin or where we were born or our religion or
50:32
our sexual orientation, if we stand together fighting for an
50:37
agenda that works for the working class of this country,
50:41
nothing can stop us. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
51:00
It's not Bernie. It is you.
51:05
I'll do my job. That you've got to do your job.
51:08
I've just been informed by a staff member that right here in
51:13
Warren, MI today, we have over 9000 people of attending Isabel.
51:32
So I think in addition to this room, we got an overflow room
51:35
and then we got an overflow overflow room.
51:40
And what that tells me is the people not only in Michigan and
51:45
Vermont, but all over this country, we're prepared to stand
51:48
up, we're prepared to fight and we're going to win.
51:51
Thank you. Hey, thank.
52:11
You so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your
52:13
support. If you could take a second and
52:15
hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
52:18
platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly
52:21
appreciate it. It helps out the show
52:23
tremendously and you'll never miss an episode.
52:25
And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you
52:29
caught up quickly. And please, if you want to
52:31
support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stage Zero.
52:37
And please take care of yourselves and each other, and
52:40
I'll see you tomorrow.