which is neither grand more a bargain for the american people. it is ham and egg justice at best. you know what ham and egg justice is, don't you? i learned that from reverend jackson. ham and egg justice, farmer said it's time for breakfast. we're going to be fair now with everybody in the barnyard, he turns to the hen and he says, give me one of your little eggs and then he turns to the pig and says give me one or two of your legs. that's ham and egg justice. that's this grand bargain, ham and egg justice. a little tiny, tiny contribution the rich and a devastating body blow do working class, middle class and poor people. we say no, there's nothing grand about that, that is not a bargain, it is time for the wealthy people in 24 country we're proud of their achievement, but they didn't

make it by themselves. when i grew up if you did well in america, you were supposed to do well by america. we call on this president to issue a veto threat toward that end, thank you very much. >> thank you very much. >> all right, i thought we had another thing here, but i think we are done. so thank you much. and let's get working.

also at that conference, illinois representative said there would be major consequences if progressives do not show up at the polls in november. this is just over an hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. please welcome the co-director of the campaign for america's future, roger hickey.

>> all right, i would like to bring on our panel. ms. flannery, jan shakowsky, molly catchcall from we build the dream. we're still filling the room, so i want to take a moment to do a shoutout to the generational alliance and all of the young activists that they have brought here to this conference. the campaign they have been live in this country, they have brought down the average age in this conference and they brought us close to the reality on the ground. we have made a commitment to bringing those people here, but we haven't quite paid for it. i want to make a plug for you to text and use the text

information on your tables, text 41444, in your message say, just future, or future dollars. we will not take any money from your card until you confirm what you would like to give us. but this would really, really help to pay for the young person's alliance and all those groups that they represent. it's right there on everybody's table. so brothers and sisters. i'm a little like reverend joel osteen, you've seen him on tv. i like to start with something funny. so have you heard that mitt romney is running for president on a plan to create jobs? the man from bain capital?

let me get something very, very clear, with 12.5 million americans still out of work and the middle class shrinking, the -- cham bier of commerce, the -- is a new way of destructive economic austerity. they want do to america, what angela merkel and david cameron are doing in europe. they want to -- they're impoising austerity right now on the u.s. by demanding spending cuts and opposing every single plan to create jobs. and after the election as we heard this morning, whether they win or lose, the right wingers are setting up yet another blackmail situation.

by which they will threaten to throw the u.s. economy off the fiscal cliff unless they get what they want. what do they want? they want the extension of the bush tax cuts for the wealthy, they want deep cuts in public spending, including medicare, medicaid, but not for the military contractors. and on top of all this, they want more tax cuts for the top 1% and for the corporations. now as we heard this morning, the conservative train wreck in december, avoiding that conservative train wreck, requires that we work to -- our first speaker knows how to win. before she won a state in the illinois assembly and then in the u.s. congress, jan shikowski was one of us. she was a activist winning victories then and now for our

consumers, seniors and women. and she kept on being an activist in congress. as a member of the simpson-bowles commission, she wrote up a progressive alternative to that unpopular deficit plan and she advanced a clear plan for funding public needs through economic growth, not austerity and through progressive taxation, and working with all of us, she put forward real solutions. jan also knows about the devastation that conservative poli policies are imposing on working families. we asked her here today for her to talk about how we can create a common sense program and create an economic future for young people and how we can win a new congressional majority

that will prevent the conservatives from having the power to throw our country over the cliff in december. so please give a big, big welcome to our progressive champion, jan shikowski. >> thank you. thanks so much roger and thank you for organizing this fabulous event. i think i have been to every one of the take back america conferences. yesterday my son showed me, i hadn't seen jon stewart, the hysterical bit he did about the senate hearing with jamie dimon, if you haven't seen it, you've got to google it, it is just priceless. but one of the things that he

shows is jim demint talking to jam jamie dimon, he said israeli correspondent chastise you for losing $1 billion, we lose that amount of money in washington every day. does mr. demint think that spending money is just the same as losing money? he mocks demint and he says, yesterday, this is supposedly demint. yesterday i had $4 million and now all i see is a freaking highway. where's my money? where's my money? that i think so clearly describes what, first of all the sense that somehow it isn't the people's money, whatsoever. and this idea that spending is really a way of losing money in

this country. two visions, two paths, that's what the president is talking about. and i want to tell you that i am proud once again to be a co-chair of the president's re-election campaign, i have known barack obama, i'm from chicago for the last 17 years and he's talking about investment in education, and energy and innovation and infrastructure and doing fair tax reform. and is the republican plan for job creation, more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation of everything, particularly like the environmental protection agency, repealing obama care, i say that, i think we should all embrace the term obama care, that's great, we love obama care, and repealing dodd frank. the republicans have gone against looting the economy to

out right sabotage of the economy. the transportation bill which has always been a bipartisan bill which has not passed, far from creating jobs, this could create 1.9 million construction jobs, we're already well into the construction season, they will not pass a bill. john boehner threatened once again a debt ceiling fight, not to raise the debt ceiling which the last time helped plummet our economy even further and put our credit rating diminished. they're doing this direct sabotage efforts, much less not passing the american jobs act, or that woe know would create 2 million jobs. so here's the truth.

during the obama administration, 4.3 million jobs have been created. now i know we had a bad week, when they were talking about only 69,000 jobs that were created. i just want to point out that that 69,000 jobs is still 69,000 more jobs that were created than during eight years of the bush administration. and 27 months of straight job -- okay, so here's the solutions that the republicans offer, austerity. we know how well that worked. roger pointed out how well that worked in europe. and there is increasing now talk, not just among republicans, but democrats as well, about the bowles simpson plan, or as i like to call it, the b.s. plan.

and roger is right, i offered my own alternative because i want to make sure everyone is clear about what bowles simple sson ry did. among other things, bowles simpson raised the retirement age for social security, from 67 to 69. it cuts benefits for current social security retirees because it changes the way the cost of living adjustment, the cola is calculated. it increases the cost of medicare, increases cost sharing, shifts about $110 billion in costs to seniors and persons with disability. it would undermine employer sponsored health insurance as it cuts the tax expenditures, all these tax breaks, one of the

things we should look at is if we can take this tax detection for employer provided health care and do away with that. if people really look at bowles simpson, this is really an attack to middle income people and those who aspire to it. let me give you an example of how we win, not just elections, but how we win on our issues. last week the president announced that those dream kids, the dreamers would no longer be under the threat of deportation and they could get work permits. i know that the president always

thought that the dream act was a good idea and changing our immigration laws was a good idea, certainly did that as a senate, but it certainly helps the day after day, the dreamers were out there organizing and pushing and putting out a tremendous message and mobilizing around this issue, mobilizing really works, we see the results. so progressives cannot be reluctant. we have to lead the way. ed women, is there any reason why any woman would vote for a republica republic republican? we need to -- every single republican voted against the

paycheck fairness act in the senate. so our economic security is at risk and that includes social security and medicare. so organizations like the national committee to protect social security and medicare. the alliance for retired americans, social security workings, the older women's act, we have everything in this room to make sure that women and planneded parenthood and naral and all those groups that work on our reproductive rights are out there mobilizing with their help, we can make sure that the women's vote and the gender gab rose mean more a and more and more. there's a war on our environment that woe meet to mobilize to protect. we need to organize just relentlessly, we need to organize for november 6, and then we need to be ready for november 7.

and if anybody is under the illusion that if we don't organize for november 6, that we're going to be able to make any progress afterwards if we lose these elections for the house, for the senate or for the president, get over it because we will be once again in a total defensive crouch for the next many years, and it could be generations because remember the supreme court and those appointments. think of 2010, 1/2 of 18 to 24-year-olds didn't vote in 2010. 1/2 of eligible hispanics did not vote in 2010. single women who tend to vote democratic, did not come out to vote in 2010 and seniors, we lost by 21 points. eight points in 2008, 21 points

in 2010. we cannot win the election without older voters. we did not so much lose in 2010 to the tea party, as -- they didn't so much win as we lost because our people were not mobilized and did not come out to vote. so our progressive vision cannot grow in romney republican economic soil. it can only happen if we are smart enough, and willing enough to make sure that every single day we focus, like a laser beam on november 6. between now and then, the republicans are going to do everything they can in congress to make sure we can't pass anything that's going to help the economy, it's about winning on november 6, the house, we only need 25 seats, a net of 25 seats, we can do this, that we keep the senate. and then by the way, on the

first day of the senate, we have got to push to change the rules, to get rid of that destructive filibuster rule. and harry reid has now said he's for that, and if we have any illusions that the republicans would maintain that, they would do it if they had the chance that we have now, we need to do it. so we can win, my friends, all the elements for victory, all the organizations and the leadership that it takes are in -- is in this room right now. so we have got a lot of work to do and we can be victorious. thank you. >> now our next speaker is molly

catchball from rebuild the dream. young people are really feeling the brunt of our economic austerity policies. nobody has felt it worse than the young people coming out of high school and colleges right now. youth unemployment is over 16%. which means even those kids lucky enough to have a job can earn low wages, they have few prospects for promotion and most stagger, i don't have to tell you this, most stagger under the weight of massive debts which make it close to impossible to buy a house or start a family or move this economy. young people on the occupy brigade and barricades know the priorities of wall street, have ripped off their generation big-time and they're discovering, that conservative austerity is a dagger aimed at their futures, including their social security, their medicare,

their health care as they get older. so now we're going to hear from molly catchball, a 23-year-old activist from rhode island who last year took on bank of america's $5 a month debit card fee using an online petition and she won. in only five weeks, she won. you probably remember "time" magazine's 2011 person of the year cover story. it was called the protester. well, that was us and molly was profiled in that issue. molly is now on the campaigns team at rebuild the dream where she primarily focuses on student loan debt. please give a big welcome to molly catchball.

>> so i am very solidly shaped and grounded by the experiences of my family. my dad would wake up at 4:00 in the morning and make his 45 minute drive to the plant that he worked at in massachusetts. he's a machinist. he's worked in this plant for 30 years. and he doesn't love it, but it's his job. and that's what matters to him. he has a job and he's secure. i remember him coming home in the afternoon with his calloused hands that were streaked with grease. he wore a thick overalls with a blue shirt with his name sewn in, jim. and he would stay home and take care of me in the afternoon while my mom would attend college to get her associate's degree. she instilled in me to view the

world through a feminist lens. my does -- i loved here, and i wanted to be just like her. when i was very, very young, i knew she was gay, and i loved her, and so then i loved all gay people. why shouldn't i? i experienced shared values and love. interconnectedness, respect, empathy, values of human dignity and this has shaped me and this has shaped my work and i approach my work with this understanding. and this is the power of the left that we need to reclaim and continue to strive for, a love, a caring and respect for everyone. >> we all come from different places, and we have different stories, but i believe that they are overarching shared experiences within my generation and there is one certainty, we

are undergoing a major cultural shift and our generation, my generation is fundamentally different than the generations before us. we will be one-third of the electorate in 2016, 80 million strong. and this is the reality that we live in. we're graduating college massively in debt. we hit $1 trillion this year. and why is this? well, tuition fees have doubled, while the median income has risen only 2.1% over that same time span, debt has tripled in ten years and university graduates, ages 21 through 24, 20% are unemployed and almost 10% are under employed. and these numbers also in no way reflect the racial disparities that exist and continue to perpetuate. we have live hope for a secure

requirement and the future of our planet is at risk. so i'm going to discuss a couple of points here and how they relate to the budget battle and austerity. to the budget battle debate that we're having, or rather how our movement is having it, completely under represents or excludes young people of every race, socioeconomic status, religion, education level and sexual orientation and we need to completely readjust the way we talk about and enact and engage with politics by recognizes the experiences of ying people. so like i said the budget question bait as we're having it e clouds and underrepresents young people. and as i said, this is a giant mistake because we will make up one-third of the electorate in 2016. and we're disengaged because politicians do not accurately represent us. and when leaders talk about what

really matters, they're really thinking about how young people are thinking about and experiencing what really matters. leaders are thinking and talking about the economy and not talking to those groups, to my visionary swiftly changing generation, period. how can you when the median age of a senator is 62, and congressman is 55. in our current congress, only 8% are african-american, 6% are latino, 3% are asian or native hawaii or other pacific isla islander, i also listed occupations held by people in congress and i was wondering, with where are the green collar workers? where are the electricians? where are the software developers? the nonprofit grant writers?

artists, organic pharmacists, nurses, where is america? so at its core, what is the budget battle debate? what is austerity? where do we fit in? because people like my parents, a physical therapist assistant, and a machinist--as it turns out people aren't using the technology, let's reframe it and boil it down to what it actually is. it's two fundamental belief systems, it's the belief that when we spend, we're irresponsible and shortsighted. and then it's the belief that the government has an important role to play by investing in our people who in turn allow us to innovate and grow. and to distill that even

further, it's what my parents taught me. it's values. it's individualism, it's pull yourself up by your boot straps mentality, versus what's going for me neighbor is good for me. it's a set of values, it's how we think and forms the decisions that we make and how we live our lives and where we live and we're going to lose that if we continue to play on the right field by only playing defensively, rather than going on the defensive. we must lay out a vision of the future. and lay out why it's important to spend and why we need innovation. we need to allow ourselves to engage in framing, rather than engage in policy debate and we need to completely come ahead and own the way we see the world and how we can truly succeed. and young people aren't going to be engaged. one-third of the electorate. so this cultural shift that i mentioned, what is it and how

does it relate to this reframing? i'm not going to say anything ground braeeaking here, but it amazes me that this is so -- young people are infinitely more connected than previous generations, we communicate better than older people. 28% of people who are on twitter. we grew up with shows like southpark and the simpsons, colbert report, daily show, and you can't snuff that stuff, it's who we r ironic, suggestive, cynic, skeptic, fast-paced, witty, funny and very, very authentic. and more importantly, we understand the role that corporations play in politics and it isn't fooling us, websites like open secrets.org allows us to see exactly who donates to which