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BREAKING NEWS : Bernie Sanders takes Elon Musk to task · Elon Musk Podcast

0:01
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
0:04
Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
0:07
the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
0:11
Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden, Vt.
0:16
Thank you, Mr. President. In the last couple of weeks,
0:20
I've had the opportunity to travel in many parts of our
0:25
country and I have been able to talk to folks in Nebraska, in
0:32
Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.
0:38
And what I am hearing from in all of these States and in fact
0:46
all over the country, is that our nation right now faces
0:53
enormous crises, unprecedented crises in the modern history of
0:59
our country. And how right now, at this
1:03
moment, we respond to these crises will not only impact our
1:10
lives, it will impact the lives of our kids and future
1:14
generations, and in terms of climate change, the well-being
1:20
of the entire planet. And, Mr. President, what I have
1:27
to tell you is that the American people are angry at what is
1:34
happening here in Washington, DC, and they are prepared to
1:41
stand up and fight back, in my view.
1:46
And what I have heard from many, many people is that they will
1:51
not accept an oligarchic form of society where a handful of
1:59
billionaires control our government.
2:04
Where the wealthiest person on earth, Mr. Musk, is running all
2:09
over Washington, DC, slashing the Social Security
2:14
Administration so that our elderly people today are finding
2:18
it extremely difficult to access the benefits that they paid
2:23
into. Where Mr. Musk and his friends
2:26
are slashing the Veterans Administration so that people
2:31
who put their lives on the line to defend us will not be able to
2:35
get the health care that they are entitled to or get the
2:39
benefits that they are owed in a timely manner.
2:44
Slashing the Department of Education, slashing USAID.
2:50
And why is all of this slashing taking place?
2:54
It is taking place so that the wealthiest people in this
2:59
country can receive over $1 trillion in tax breaks.
3:06
Now, I don't care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an
3:11
Independent, There are very few people in this country who think
3:19
that you slash programs that working families desperately
3:23
need in order to give tax breaks to billionaires.
3:29
Mr. President, I am the former chair of the US Senate Committee
3:33
on Veterans Affairs, and I've had the honor of meeting with
3:38
veterans in my own state of Vermont, all over Vermont, but
3:41
all over the country. These are the men and women who
3:46
put the uniform of this country on and have been prepared to die
3:55
to defend our nation and American democracy.
3:59
And these veterans and Americans all over our nation will not
4:05
accept an authoritarian form of society with a president who
4:13
undermines our Constitution every day.
4:17
Every day There's something else out there where he's undermining
4:21
our Constitution and threatening the very foundations of American
4:26
democracy. That is not what people fought
4:29
and died to allow to happen. Mr. President, I am not a
4:36
historian, but I do know that the founding fathers of this
4:42
country were no dummies. They were really smart guys, and
4:48
in the 1780s they wrote a constitution and established a
4:55
form of government with a separation of powers, a
5:00
separation of powers with an executive branch, the President,
5:06
a legislative branch, the Congress and a judicial branch.
5:14
These revolutionaries in the 1780s had just fought a war
5:24
against the imperial rule of the King of England, who was an
5:29
absolute dictator, the most powerful person on earth.
5:34
And these revolutionaries here in America, forming a new
5:38
government, wanted to make absolutely sure that no one
5:44
person in this brand new country that they were forming would
5:51
have unlimited powers. And that is why we have a
5:57
separation of powers. That is why we have a judiciary,
6:02
a Congress, and an executive branch.
6:06
In other words, way back in the 1780s, they wrote a Constitution
6:13
to prevent exactly what Donald Trump is trying to do today.
6:21
So let us be clear about what is going on.
6:26
Donald Trump is attacking our First Amendment and is trying to
6:31
intimidate the media and those who speak out against them in an
6:38
absolutely unprecedented way. Mr. President.
6:43
He has sued ABCCBS, Meta, the Des Moines registrar, His FCC is
6:55
now threatening to investigate NPR and PBS.
7:01
He has called CNN and MSNBC illegal.
7:07
In other words, the leader or the so-called leader of the free
7:12
world is afraid of freedom. He doesn't like criticism.
7:19
Well, guess what? None of us like criticism.
7:22
But you don't get elected to the Senate.
7:24
You don't get elected to the House.
7:25
You don't become a governor. You don't become a president of
7:29
the United States unless you are prepared to deal with that
7:34
criticism. And the response to that
7:38
criticism in a democracy is not to sue the media, is not to
7:43
intimidate the media. It's to respond in the way you
7:48
think best. But, Mr. President, it is not
7:53
just the media that Trump is going after.
7:59
He is going after the constitutional responsibilities
8:03
that this body, the United States Congress, has.
8:07
And I will say it amazes me, it really does, how easily my
8:11
Republican colleagues here in the Senate and in the House are
8:16
willing to surrender their constitutional responsibilities,
8:20
give it over to the president. Trump has illegally and
8:26
unconstitutionally withheld funds that Congress has
8:31
appropriated. You can't do that.
8:35
Congress has the power of the purse.
8:37
We make a decision. We argue about it here.
8:40
Big debates, voter Ramas, the whole thing, make that decision.
8:44
That money goes out. The president does not have the
8:48
right to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated.
8:52
Trump has illegally and unconstitutionally decimated
8:57
agencies that can only be changed or reformed by Congress.
9:01
You don't like the Department of Education?
9:03
You don't like USAID? Fine, come to the Congress.
9:07
Tell us what reforms you want to see.
9:10
You do not have the right to unilaterally do away with these
9:15
agencies. Trump has fired members of the
9:19
independent agencies and inspectors general that he does
9:23
not have the authority to do. But Mr. President, it is not
9:29
just the medium that he is trying to intimidate.
9:33
It is not just the powers of Congress that he wants.
9:38
Now, in an absolutely outrageous, unconstitutional,
9:44
and extraordinarily dangerous way, he is going after the
9:49
judiciary. His view is that if you don't
9:54
like a decision that a judge renders, you get rid of that
10:00
judge. You try to impeach that judge.
10:05
You intimidate judges so that you get the decisions that you
10:11
want. You know, I'm thinking back now
10:15
as someone who is not a supporter of the Roberts Court,
10:21
and I'm thinking about one of the worst Supreme Court
10:25
decisions that has ever been rendered, that as Citizens
10:28
United. I'll say more about that in a
10:30
moment. And I'm thinking about the
10:32
Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe V.
10:35
Wade, taking away American women's right to control their
10:41
own bodies. In my view, these were
10:43
outrageous decisions, unpopular decisions, but it never occurred
10:49
to me because maybe I'm old fashioned and conservative, and
10:54
I believe that you live by the rule of law to say, hey, look at
10:59
the decision Roberts made. We're going to impeach him.
11:02
No, we try to elect the new president, who's going to
11:05
appoint new Supreme Court Justice.
11:07
That is the system that people have fought and died to defend.
11:14
But it's not just the movement toward oligarchy, which is
11:20
outraging millions of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, by
11:24
the way. And it's not just the movement
11:27
toward authoritarianism that we are seeing the American people,
11:34
especially with Mr. Musk and 13 billionaires in the Trump
11:39
administration, running agency after agency.
11:43
The American people are saying as loudly as they can that they
11:48
will not accept a Society of massive economic and wealth
11:55
inequalities where the very richest people in our country
12:00
are becoming much richer while working families are struggling
12:06
to put food on the table. I've been gone all over this
12:12
country. I can tell you that the American
12:15
people are sick and tired of these inequalities.
12:19
And they want an economy that works for all of us, not just
12:26
the 1%. You know, Mr. President, we deal
12:31
with a whole lot of stuff here in the Congress.
12:34
And, you know, virtually all of it is important in one way or
12:38
another. But let's do something, you
12:41
know, fairly radical today. Let's try to tell the truth, the
12:46
real truth about what is going on in our society today.
12:52
Something that we don't talk about too much here in the
12:55
Senate, we don't talk about too much in the House.
12:57
We don't talk about it too much in the corporate media.
13:01
But the reality is that today we have two Americas, 2 very, very
13:08
different Americas. And in one of those Americas,
13:13
the wealthiest people have never ever had it so good in the whole
13:19
history of our country. The people on top have never
13:25
ever had it so good as they have it today.
13:30
Today we have more income and wealth inequality than there has
13:35
ever been in the history of America.
13:37
And I know we don't discuss it. You don't see it much on TV.
13:41
You don't hear or talked about here at all.
13:44
But the American people do not believe that it is appropriate
13:48
that three people, 123, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos and Mr.
13:54
Zuckerberg, three Americans own more wealth than the bottom half
13:59
of American Society, 170 million people.
14:06
Really, three people owe more wealth than 170 million people.
14:11
Anybody here think that is vaguely appropriate?
14:16
And by the way, those very same three people, 3 richest people
14:23
in America, all right there at Trump's inaugural, standing
14:27
right behind the president. So you want to know what
14:31
oligarchy is? I know there's some confusion
14:33
out there. What is oligarchy?
14:35
Well, it starts off when you have the three wealthiest people
14:38
in the country standing right behind the president when he
14:41
gets inaugurated. The top 1% in our country now
14:45
own more wealth than the bottom 90%.
14:49
CE OS make 300 times more than their average worker.
14:57
And unbelievably, real inflation accounted for wages today.
15:02
The average American worker, if you can believe it, despite a
15:06
massive increase in worker productivity, is lower today
15:12
than it was 52 years ago. And during that period, there
15:18
was a $75 trillion transfer of wealth that went from the bottom
15:24
90% to the top 1%. That is the reality of the
15:29
American economy today. And you know what?
15:31
Maybe we might want to be talking about that.
15:36
And in our America today, in that top America, that one
15:38
America, the 1% are completely separate and isolated from the
15:43
rest of the country. You think they get on a subway
15:45
to get to work, Think they sit in the traffic jam for an hour
15:48
trying to get to work? Not the case.
15:52
They fly around and The Jets and the helicopters that they own.
15:57
They live in their mansions all over the world and their gated
16:00
communities. They have nannies taking care of
16:04
their babies. They don't worry about the cost
16:06
of child care and they send their kids to the best private
16:10
schools and colleges. Sometimes they vacation not in a
16:16
Motel 6, not in a National Park, but on the very own islands that
16:22
they have, and on occasion for the very, very richest, just to
16:27
have for a kick, have a little bit of fun.
16:30
Maybe they'll spend a few $1,000,000 flying off into space
16:34
in one of their own spaceships. Sounds like fun.
16:38
But it is not just income, massive income and wealth
16:41
inequality that we're dealing with today.
16:45
We have more concentration of ownership than ever before,
16:49
while the profits on Wall Street and corporate America saw a
16:54
handful of giant corporations dominate sector after sector,
17:00
whether it's agriculture, transportation, media, financial
17:04
services, etcetera, etcetera. Small number of huge
17:09
corporations, international corporations, dominating sector
17:12
after sector. And as a result of that
17:15
concentration of ownership, they are able to charge the American
17:20
people outrageously high prices for the goods and services we
17:25
need. President, we don't talk about
17:28
it too much. Maybe we should.
17:32
But there are three Wall Street firms, BlackRock, Vanguard and
17:37
State Street, that combined are the major stockholders in 95% of
17:44
our corporations. Got that?
17:47
Three Wall Street firms, 3 are the major stockholders in 95% of
17:54
American corporations. So, Mr. President, that is one
17:59
America. People on top doing phenomenally
18:01
well. Not only do they have economic
18:06
power, they have enormous political power.
18:10
That's what's going on there. They live by kings.
18:15
That's one America. But there is another America,
18:19
and in that other America, 60%, six, zero, 60% of our people are
18:25
living paycheck to paycheck. And millions of workers from one
18:30
end of this country to the other are trying to survive on
18:34
starvation wages. And unlike Donald Trump, I grew
18:39
up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck.
18:42
And I know the anxieties that my mom and dad have living in a
18:47
rent controlled apartment. Can we afford to buy this?
18:50
Why did you buy that? And that's the story taking
18:54
place all over America. What does living paycheck to
18:59
paycheck mean? It means that every single day
19:04
millions of Americans worry about how they're going to pay
19:07
their rent or their mortgage. All over the country rents the
19:10
skyrocketing and people are wondering what happens.
19:14
What happens to me and my kids if rent goes up by 20% and I
19:20
can't afford it? Where do I live?
19:22
Do I have to take my kid out of school?
19:24
Where do I put my kid in worst case scenario?
19:26
Do I live in my car? Let's be clear, there are many
19:31
people who are working today who are living in the back of their
19:36
cars. How do I pay for childcare?
19:40
Talk to a cop, a guy the other day, a police officer spending
19:44
$20,000 a year for childcare. How do I buy decent food for my
19:50
kids when the price of groceries is off the charts?
19:55
What happens if I get sick or my kid gets sick, or my mother gets
19:58
sick and I got a $12,000 deductible and I can't afford to
20:03
go to the doctor? How at the end of the month am I
20:07
going to pay my credit card bill?
20:10
Even though I'm being charged 20 or 30% interest rates by the
20:17
usurious credit card companies, people are worrying about simple
20:23
things. What happens if my car breaks
20:25
down and the guy at the repair shop says it's going to cost
20:31
$1000 and I don't have $1000 in the bank?
20:35
And if I don't have a car, how do I get to work?
20:38
And if I don't get to work, how do I have an income?
20:41
And if I don't have an income, how do I take care of my family?
20:46
Those are the crises that millions of Americans are
20:50
experiencing today. But it's not just working age
20:54
Americans. Today in our country, half of
20:59
older workers, older workers have nothing in the bank as they
21:03
face retirement and they're watching TV and they're saying
21:06
miss the bus, firing Social Security workers and actually
21:11
worrying whether Social Security will be there for them.
21:17
And it's not just older workers with nothing in the bank
21:19
wondering what happens when they retire. 22% of seniors are
21:24
trying to survive on $15,000 a year.
21:28
I dare anybody in this country, let alone somebody who's old,
21:32
who needs health care, needs to keep the house warm, try to
21:35
survive on $15,000 a year. And there are people here, by
21:39
the way, talking about cutting Social Security.
21:45
Mr. President, it is not just about income and wealth
21:49
inequality. It is about a healthcare system
21:55
which everyone in the nation understands is broken, is
22:00
dysfunctional and is outrageously expressive.
22:03
I hear my Republican friends, you know, I don't know where
22:06
they are today, wanting to destroy the ACA.
22:09
And my Democratic friends say, oh, we got to defend the ACAACA
22:13
is broken. It doesn't work.
22:15
My state, the cost of Healthcare is going up 1015% in America
22:20
today, got 85 million people uninsured or underinsured.
22:25
Function of the healthcare system today.
22:29
It's not to do what a sane society would do, guarantee
22:33
healthcare to all people in a cost effective way.
22:37
Something which by the way every other major nation on earth
22:40
manages to do. The function of our healthcare
22:43
system is everybody knows it's to make billions of dollars in
22:48
profits for the insurance companies and the drug
22:51
companies. So I say to my Democratic
22:54
friends, it's not good enough to defend the Affordable Care Act.
22:57
It's a broken system. You got to have the guts to
23:01
stand up and allow us to do what every other major nation does,
23:06
guarantee health care to all people as a human right, not
23:11
allow the drug companies and the insurance companies to make
23:14
massive profits every year. And Mr. President, I want to
23:17
touch on an issue that gets virtually no discussion, but I
23:22
think it is enormously important and it says a hell of a lot
23:27
about what's going on in our society today.
23:31
In America, according to International Studies, our life
23:36
expectancy, how long we live as a people, is about four years
23:42
lower than other countries. Most European countries live
23:45
people, they live longer lives. Japan, they live even longer
23:50
lives than in Europe. So question #1 why is that
23:54
happening? We spent $14,000 a year per
23:58
person on healthcare, almost double what any other country
24:01
spends, and yet people around the world are living on average
24:07
four years longer than we do. But here is the really ugly
24:12
fact, even worse than that, and that is that in this country, on
24:18
average, if you are a working class person, you will live
24:25
seven years shorter lives than if you're in the top 1%.
24:32
If you're a working class person, your life will be 7
24:37
years shorter than if you are wealthy.
24:41
In other words, being poor or working class in America today
24:47
amounts to a death sentence. Mr. President, it's not only a
24:53
broken health care system. We have got to ask ourselves a
24:57
simple question. And the Biden administration
25:00
began a little bit of movement in this direction.
25:04
And that is, why are we living in a nation where one out of
25:08
four people can't even afford the prescription drugs their
25:11
doctors prescribe? Why are we in some cases paying
25:16
10 times more than our neighbors in Canada or in Europe?
25:22
How does that happen? And the answer, of course, has
25:26
to do with the greed of the Pharmaceutical industry and
25:28
their power right here, all of the campaign contributions that
25:33
they make, which has prevented us from negotiating prices.
25:38
But it's not just healthcare or prescription drugs.
25:41
When we look at what's going on in America, in Vermont and
25:44
throughout this country, we have a major housing crisis.
25:49
Here we are the richest country on earth, 800,000 people
25:53
sleeping out on the streets, and 20 million people are spending
25:59
more than 50% of their limited incomes on housing.
26:02
Can you imagine that? You're a working person spending
26:06
50% of your income on housing? How do you have money to do
26:09
anything else? And the cost of the housing is
26:12
soaring. Do not tell me, Mr. President,
26:16
that in a nation which could spend a trillion dollars on the
26:20
military, a nation that give massive tax breaks to the rich,
26:25
that we cannot build the millions of units of housing
26:30
that we desperately need. So, Mr. President, why is all of
26:36
this happening? Why do we have a healthcare
26:38
system, has broken prescription drugs that are the most
26:42
expensive in the world, the housing system, education in
26:45
deep trouble. Talk to educators in Vermont,
26:47
all over the country. Talk to a principal the other
26:50
day from Vermont. They're starting salary at a
26:53
public school, $32,000 a year. But don't worry, they can't
26:57
afford to even bring people in because they can't afford the
26:59
housing in the community. Why have we let education sink
27:02
to the level that it has? So I think the bottom line of
27:07
all this, the American people, I think are catching on.
27:10
And Mr. Musk, I must thank him because he has made it very
27:14
clear we are living in an oligarchic form of society.
27:18
If anybody out there thinks that Mister Musk is running around
27:21
out of the goodness of his heart trying to make our government
27:26
more efficient, you have not a clue as to what is going on.
27:31
What these guys want to do is destroy virtually every federal
27:35
program that impacts the well-being of working people.
27:39
Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service, public
27:42
education, you name it. So they can get huge tax breaks
27:47
for the rich and eventually make government so inefficient that
27:52
they will have the ability as large corporations to come in
27:55
and privatize everything that is going on.
28:00
So, Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in American
28:04
history, and I sense that the American people have had it up
28:08
to here. They are prepared to fight back.
28:14
They do not want a government run by billionaires who have it
28:18
all, who screed is uncontrollable.
28:21
You know, we have in Vermont and I think all over this country,
28:25
serious problem with addiction, with drugs, people drinking too
28:29
much alcohol, people smoking too many cigarettes.
28:33
But the worst form of addiction that this country now faces is
28:38
the greed of the oligarchy. You might think that if you had
28:44
ten, $20 billion, it would be enough, you know, kind of enough
28:48
to let your family live for the next 20 generations.
28:52
But it's not. For whatever reason, whatever
28:55
compulsive reason they have, these guys want more and more
28:59
and more and they are prepared to destroy Social Security,
29:04
Medicare, nutrition programs for hungry people in order to get
29:09
even more. That to me is disgusting.
29:13
So, Mr. President, we are at a pivotal moment in American
29:16
history. But having been all over this
29:18
country or many parts of this country, I am absolutely
29:21
confident that the American people, and I'm not just talking
29:24
about Democrats who are as complicit in the problems that
29:27
we have right now, is all Republicans because we got a two
29:31
party system which is basically corrupt.
29:34
You got Mr. Musk over on the Republican side saying, so any
29:39
Republican who dares to stand up and defy the Trump agenda, we
29:44
are going to primary you. And on the Democratic side, you
29:46
got 8 pack and you got other super PACs saying you stand up
29:51
for working people, you're in trouble as well.
29:54
We got a corrupt campaign finance system in which
29:58
billionaires are able to buy elections.
30:00
And that's why all over this country people are not happy
30:04
with our two party system, the Republicans and the Democrats.
30:09
So, Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in American
30:12
history. But we have had difficult
30:14
moments before. And I am confident from the
30:18
bottom of my heart that if we stand together and we do not
30:23
allow some right wing extremists to divide us up by the color of
30:28
our skin or our religion or where we were born or our sexual
30:33
orientation, if we stand together, we can save this
30:38
country. We can defeat oligarchy.
30:41
We can defeat the movement toward authoritarianism.
30:45
And in fact, we can create an economy and a government that
30:49
works for all, not just a few. Thank you very much.
30:53
Listen. Listen.
30:57
Thanks for listening to the Elon Musk Podcast today.
31:01
I appreciate your support and I appreciate you spending the time
31:03
here with me today. Now, if you could take a second
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and hit the subscribe or follow button on whatever podcast
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platform you're listening on right now, that would be amazing
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and it would help the show tremendously.
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So thank you for that. Also, please take care of
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yourselves and each other and I'll see you in the next one.