>> thank you. thank you. thank you so much for having me here today. i am delighted to be here. for that and the tatian. thank you for the introduction. i am glad that rosie last in parts of the book. -- laughed. books are part of how i fight. this is a book that i tried to write to draw in more people, because our fight cannot just be our talking to each other. we have to draw more people into it. so that is what it is about. a book written of gratitude. my parents who have never had much but always believed their kids would do better than they would and

better -- gratitude to an american who invested in kids like me. i believe in that. [applause] i understand you spent much of the day talking about populism. i think it is the power of the people to change the country. in 2009 i was fighting hard for financial agency that would help level the playing field for families. basically by preventing big banks are pushing people around, tricking them on credit cards and mortgages in payday loans. of those and many people were involved in that fight. you may remember the biggest financial institutions were unenthusiastic about the consumer agency. how about dead set opposed and were spending more than $1

million per day for more than a order to block financial reforms generally and the consumer agency in particular. that was the targeted one. able to fight back. we were able to fight back .ecause of people like you people across the country who said i am in this fight, too. and because enough people got involved in the fight, we want. financialood, strong protection bureau. we got the pastor congress and signed into law. [applause] you know, for any of you in the room who thought i never thought i would be dorky enough to applaud a government agency, let --tell you one little slack

fact. it has been up and operational for a little over two years. theas already forced largest financial institutions 3.5his country to return billion dollars directly to american consumers that they cheated. that is an agency that works. that is government that works. [applause] so an hour uphill against the odds cannot win battle for the consumer financial protection bureau was not unique. in every fight to level the playing field. in every fight for working families, the past has been steep. our history, powerful interests have tried to capture washington and rigged the system in their favor. from tax policy to retirement

security, the voices of hard-working will it drowned out by powerful industries and well-financed front groups. those with the power to fight kills in every rule their favor and everyone else just gets left behind. rinks. the big they cheated the american banks, got bailed out and now the sixth largest 38% acre than they were in 2008 when they were too big to fail. they still swagger through washington, blocking reforms and pushing around agencies. gets caught with a few ounces of popping goes to jail on a big bank gets caught manipulating currency and no one even gets arrested. game is rigged, and it is not right. [applause]

it is not just the big banks. the federalchoices government makes today. our college kids are getting crushed by student loan debt. you need to rebuild roads and bridges and upgrade the power grid. we need more investment and medical research and scientific research, but instead of building a future, this country billions of dollars in tax loopholes and subsidies that go to rich and powerful corporations. many fortune 500 companies profitable companies pay zero in taxes. billionaires get so many tax loopholes that they pay lower tax rates than their secretaries but they have lobbyists.

lobbyists, lawyers, and republican friends to protect every loophole and every privilege they have. they game is rigged and it is not right. [applause] or take a look at what happens with trade deals. for big corporations trade agreement time must feel like christmas morning. think about it, they get special pass they could never through congress in public. because it is a trade deal, negotiations are secrets and the big corporations can work the hind those doors. we have seen what happens here at home when the trading partners here at home are allowed to ignore worker rights and environmental rules. from what i hear, wall street pharmaceuticals, telecom, big

polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rigged the upcoming trade deals in their favor. secret?trade deals i have heard supporters of the deal actually explain i have to be secret because if -- if the american people knew what was in them, they would be opposed. think about that. jobs atpeople, people's stake, small business owners who do not want to compete with overseas companies that dump waste in the river and hire workers for one dollar a day, those people, people without armies of lobbyists would be opposed. if people across the country would be opposed to a trade deal, that trade deal should not become law. [applause]

the tilt in the playing field was obvious everywhere. when conservatives talk about opportunity, they mean opportunities for the rich to get richer and the powerful to get more powerful. they do not mean opportunities for young people facing $100,000 in student loan debt to start a life. for someone out of work to get back on his feet and for someone who worked hard all her life to retire with a committee. dignity.the the game is rate. we can whine about it, weber about it, or we can fight back. i have decided i am fighting back. [applause] you bet.

this is a fight over economics, privilege, power, but deep down this is a fight over values. conservatives and their powerful friends will continue to be guided by their age-old principle, i got mine, the rest of you are on your own. we are guided by principle, too. all do simple idea, we better when we work together and invest in the future. whenow the economy grows hard-working families have the opportunity to improve their lives. we know the country gets stronger when we invest in helping people succeed. we know that lives improve when we care for our neighbor and help mold the future, not just for some of our kids but for all of our kids. these are regressive values. these are america's values.

day. values play out every these values are what we are willing to fight for. i want to hear a good strong amen out there. are we willing to do that caps that means raising the minimum wage. we believe people should retire thata committee him and means strengthening social security and we are willing to fight for it. [applause] we believe a kid should have a chance to go to college without getting crushed by debt, and we are willing to fight for it. rightieve workers have a

andome together to bargain rebuild america's class. and we are willing to fight for it. inbelieve and can't believe equal pay for equal work. and we're willing to fight for it. [applause] equal believe equal means and that is true in the work lace and in marriage. it is true for all of our families. and we are willing to fight for it. [applause] this is how i see it, we the people decide the future of the country. are our shared values and these are the values we are willing to fight for. this is our moment in history.

we are called on to determine the future of this country. and if we stand by and let it slide away, then shame on us. but if we get up and fight for what we believe in, we will head this country in the right direction for ourselves, .hildren and grandchildren i hope you're ready to fight. thank you. thank you. [applause] thank you. thank you. >> a couple questions. don't all stand out once.

-- at once. we're getting you a microphone. here it comes. in the beginning of your book you said you were urged to run for the senate you would lose that the idea is being brought to the american people. ideas and the ideas of bernie sanders continue to need to be brought to the american people and you should join together to run in the democratic primary. [applause] >> i appreciate the thought. i am not running for president.

but this is really important. we have to keep talking about the issues and we have to find every platform we can, and that is what i am doing. right now in the united states senate we have more than 30 cosponsors on a bill to cut the cost of student loans for our college students. the fight we need to have. we have a bill right now on minimum wage. the hearings on bank accountability. you have to stay on these. vote, make them vote vote. them -- make them let them go home and explained the people in the home states why they voted against. right now i will stay focused on the issues. i think it is -- i think it is critically important that i will be as loud as i can. [applause] >> we have the microphone.

from west virginia. >> my question is very specific, is there any possibility of getting congress to readdress the exceptions on withdrawals from 401(k). in my case, i am making withdrawals so i can afford to pay for obama care. hit with aget penalty next year because that will change my taxable income even though it is clearly for a necessity and there are literally millions of people across the country and are tapping their 401(k) for things like their mortgage payment, these bills -- all of things. then when it comes time to pay taxes, it goes back to the idea that we do not get any breaks, we get the shaft. let me start this in a bigger

frame. america is in the middle of a retirement crisis in getting worked by the day -- worse by the day. the crisis is brought on by a combination of events. the first one is the disappearance harshly of the defined benefits plan so this has to be about people investing in taking the risks of the market and taking money out when they have to use it for other expenses. this is part of a generational squeeze on middle class family. in the early 1970's, a one income family in america could put away about 11% of their take-home pay in savings. think about that. 2000 the median income family had to have two incomes to be able to make the

mortgage, health care payments, pay for the kids education and were able to put away zero and were head over heels with credit card debt, second mortgages and the like. and all of this is the consequence of the fact that wages have not gone up. a fully employed male today, adjusted for inflation, makes less than his father did a generation ago. families have done everything they can. they have put everybody into the work or spear he is they have run as hard as they can. a loaded up on death and then all got hit with the financial crisis in 2008. what you're talking about is fundamentally a problem of not enough money to go around. your 401(k) not unreasonably. the difficulty is we are counting on you to book to the 401(k) throughout the retirement years. so i want to push this in three

directions very quickly. the first is we have to address the retirement crisis directly. lastis absolutely the point in history we should be talking about talking -- about talking about cutting social security benefits. we need to increase them. that is part one. we are starting to take on the question about how to deal with the private savings part of retirement. i very much take your point and will take them back to my colleagues. we have to build an economy here at home again. future if wehold a are not making the investments together.

educating our children, hereting in infrastructure toamerica so workers can get their jobs. investing in basic research and scientific research and medical research. we know that these investments pay off, and yet, what we have been doing for 30 years is coming back, coming back. y? we could have a tax system that left more money for the rich and powerful, and we have to reverse the trend. we cannot do this. so part of the answer on this will be i know it is not the immediate answer but it will be the long-term answer so not everyone is in the same circumstances, has got to be we are willing as a country to say everyone pays into the system fairly. aprogressive tax -- there is

reason it is called progressive. a progressive tax that gives us the revenue we need to make the investments we need to build real opportunity here at home. so, yes. [applause] you.ank attorney general eric holder has recently changed course on too big to jail. >> it is not to shelter assets that help all the law. that is why they are in trouble.

i see this largely as a public relations move on and efforts of the department of justice. do you think this is just pr or real appetite to go after american banks for real malfeasance? an enormousbeen frustration for me, the lack of accountability all the way through. damon and i work together through the financial crisis, and i would say if there is a single issue we pushed the hardest on, it was in return for the tens of billions of dollars that were shoveled in to the big financial institutions, a little accountability, accountability on where the money went. accountability for the changes that financial institutions would make. accountability for how they

would spend the money and ways to help the american economy. be clear, this is under both administrations. this is one more way in which the playing field is tilted. wall street has been rebuilt. has anyone looked at the dow economyhe rest of the not so much. the glass-steagall bill is a great example of that. you all remember the glass-steagall bill coming out of the great depression. we put in place a rule that said in effect, thinking should be boring. banking should be boring. it has to be walled off from the risk-taking and investment that happens with wall street and other types of money management. not surprisingly, the financial institutions do not like it. they kept pecking at the wall.

the 1980's and 1990's they would get another whole and another whole and in the late 1990's it was repealed. in effect, anything goes. big financial institutions can be in any financial service they want to be. we all know what happens. this is happening simultaneously with the moment financial institutions figured out they could make incredible profit by mortgages that people would ultimately not be able to pay off. it was like selling grenades at the pins already pulled out. will be ok for a while but then it will go off. that is what is going to happen. they packaged up the grenades and send them out into the marketplace generally.

both of these have gone on for some time. glass-steagall is gone. making great profits until the --nades started exploded exploding in huge numbers and the economy crashed. what happened at that point that go at that point the federal government says we are going to come in and we're not going to let the economy go back to the stone age. we are going to put in lots of money to support the economy. but the treasury department under both administrations starts shoveling the money out on a no strings attached basis. money out onel the a no strings attached basis, you're just created too big to fail. when i say no strings attached basis, i come out of the backgrounds of teaching bankruptcy law for many years.

chapter 11. when new money comes in to mo which it often does, it is the oldn terms that say debt gets wiped out. the old debt takes a haircut. the management gets fired. the deal and had to come up with a new business plan. keep discipline in the system. that is how you make sure the new money will be protected, that they will do something different going forward. this did not happen with the big financial institutions. right now what we have is i have a bill pending. angus king, independent for maine and we have pretend -- propose instituting a 21st-century glass-steagall bill. [applause]

it would have two effects. one is simply size. just breaking up the largest. it makes them smaller by breaking them apart. the second is it makes certain the depository part of banking, the parts we must protect at all risk are very low operations. i heard someone ask the question, why? why was there no accountability for the largest financial institutions cap oh why can we not move glass-steagall right now? why is it we have heard one after another of the largest financial institutions in this country admit to breaking the law. that is what we have to tolerate, breaking the law. squandering drug money.

violating sanctions against foreign countries like iran. the latest, helping people cheat on their taxes i hiding money in foreign countries. -- not, not only does not one goes to jail, no one goes to trial. this is a about accountability. of the large financial institutions but accountability for our government, regulators to remind them they do not work for the big financial institutions. they work for us. [applause] they work for us. [applause] this really is the central point, who does this country work for? that is the question in front of us right now. work for thosery

of us who have already made it big? the big financial institutions. does this country work only for the billionaires and millionaires and the fortune 500 or is this a country that works for everybody else? a country that makes the investments that say not only are we going to have a system where we get a chance to build something for the future, but that our kids and grandkids are going to grow in a world where every kid gets a fighting chance ? that is what i am working on. [applause] >> elizabeth warren. [applause] the campaignfrom

for america's future with minnesota congressman keith ellison. his remarks focused on investment, growth and sustainability. this is 25 minutes. >> we are going to start this conference. good morning. come on, we are a bunch of populists. let's have that again. that morning. that's better. and i'mis roger hickey, codirector of the campaign for america's future. i want to welcome you to this new populism conference. new populism unites the growing majority of americans who know that the economic game is rigged against them. they know who rigged it, and we are using the political systemd to make the economy work for all americans. i also want to welcome all the people who are now watching

across the country on c-span, at ourfuture.org, streaming video at thenation.com. welcome. you are all part of this growing new populist movement. goes down,hose media just switch over to the other one. my campaign for america's future welcome you in a few minutes in a more thoughtful way, but we are going to move this conference along by keeping introductions brief so that you can hear our great speakers. our first speaker i want to introduce is a truly great american, congressman keith ellison. [applause] keith ellison was first a

community activist and civil rights lawyer in the twin cities. he was elected four times to represent minnesota's fifth congressional district running as the candidate of the democratic former labour party. a party that represents the great midwestern tradition of populism in america. he is also the cochairman of the congressional progressive caucus. go ahead, applaud. [applause] the cpc has done many great things. among them, the fight to preserve and expand social security. but he's going to talk to us today about their greatest leadership achievement, the cpc better off budget. economists tell us the budget, which would invest massively in job creation and economic growth, would boost gdp by 3.8% and employment by an additional

4.6 million jobs or so. as jared bernstein would tell us later in the afternoon, if you want to reduce inequality and cits,e the opposite -- defi you got to make sure everyone has a job with decent pay. [applause] thank you. keith is also the author of this new book. i recommend it highly. thee, mytry 'tis of faith, our family, and our future." so please welcome keith ellison. [applause] lot.anks a roger, thank you. thank oyou to my dear friend bo, wherever he is. thank you to everyone who made this thing come off. thank you for being here today.

we say to folks all the time, you've got to speak truth to power. we say that, right? but you know, i think the power already knows the truth. [laughter] think about it. do you think pete peterson is unaware that if a privatized social security that wall street is going to make a lot of money? do you think the multinationals are unaware that if the transpacific partnership gets past along that it will make -- give them a chance to make a lot of money and disemploy a bunch of workers? think they don't know that? the power knows that if we slash and burn the budget, the supports americans depend upon to get to a better economic situation will not be there, and people will be left on their own to fend for themselves and work

for any pay these people care to offer. are a huget if there ocean of excess workers out there looking for opportunity? that just means the people who do have a job better watch their mouth about talking about unions, right? that just means the people who do have a job that are not complain about whether they lose their fingers or toes or get incurable diseases while they are working. because you better hang on to that job. power --ing truth to the fact is, we need to speak truth to our own faults. you need to speak truth to your cousin who listens to rush limbaugh all the time. [laughter] you need to speak truth to your sister who thinks she is not into politics. you know who i am talking about.

you all know somebody, right? we need to talk to our people about the situation we are in, and we need to talk to our people in a systematic, persistent, intelligent, scientific, and heartfelt way. the name of the game today is populism. what is happening now in our country is that the oligarchs are thinking they are going to use their superior dollars to control the political scene. but what we know is our superior numbers will trump their superior dollars. so long as we organize and are in touch with each other. it can be done. it might be done easier now than in the past because we have a lot of social networking tools we can make use of. because all we got to do is knock on the door next to our apartment and talk with our neighbors over some coffee and

cake about how we are going to raise the wage to a livable wage. something everybody cares about. how we are going to make -- do something about this mountain of debt. .e can start a conversation we believe in the american dream, that if you work hard, play by the rules, you ought to do well. we are living in an america where if you work hard and play by the rules, you will have and stagnating wages. this is not the land of opportunity. it is grown to be the land of economic stagnation, and we are stuck. we believe in our country, and we love our country, and the thing we love about it is you can come here and make something of yourself. but there are days where no matter how hard you work, that is getting difficult every day ain't that something to start a conversation about? that is a conversation starter. we got to talk to each other,

and we need to do it in a systematic way. we have to do it in a fervent way. we have to do it in a smart way. i am telling you, the wind is that our back. skip thelicans -- republicans, the conservative types -- they have a very difficult job. they are trying to get a program to support a that serves only the 1%. we are trying to get a majority to support a program that supports everybody. a harder job have than us, which is why they are extremely comfortable with division, lies, deceit, and distraction. so your problem is, and my problem is, we think because we are right that we are supposed to win. is what we have found out just being right, if you are up against somebody who is utterly ruthless about pushing the program, willing to shut down the government for 16 days,

willing to raise prices on seniors, willing to cut social security with chained cpi, willing to cut meals on wheels, willing to cut head start -- you are talking about somebody who does this and is fine with it. you better figure you are not dealing with an ordinary kind of person with an ordinary conscience and sensibility. you are dealing with somebody else, and you got to be clear on that. but we have an easier job. because what we are talking is good for the most people. but we cannot be so naïve as to believe that that alone is going to get us the victory that we need. aen i say victory, i mean green, fair, prosperous america and rest of the world. let me tell you, the wind is that our back. we have a lot going for us. people all over this country are on the move. it is an exciting time.

with on may 15, 150 cities saw fast food workers on strike? [applause] not just 150 cities with fast food workers on strike. mcdonald's, wendy's, papa john's, all of them. 30 other countries were striking in solidarity. they were striking in europe. they were striking in asia. they were striking all over this globe. nra, they, the other national restaurant association, is all upset about it. they are spying on the rest of the fast food workers. they are probably spying on us now. they are welcome. here is our strategy to defeat you. [laughter] our real strategy is to raise the pay of americans to

create working-class prosperity, to have an america where if you work hard, you can do well. that is what we really want. what they don't know is that they can win too if they get with the program. but if they insist hard-working wagee work at the minimum for restaurant workers, then we have a problem, right? if we think about it, not only 130 citieson may 15, in december. where do we go from here? maybe they strike longer. maybe they will be real demands on the wages. what about the walmart workers? [applause] the walmart workers are striking. we were told these people are on organize will. able.organiz

they beg to differ. what about how people in north carolina are responding to the right-wing legislative acts of ope? oligarch alto -- al p a billionaire oligarch in north carolina who threw a bunch of money around, got in the republican house and senate, far right, they cut unemployment. they tried to undermine the vote through voter id and worse. they did a whole range of things. as we all know, dramatically changed the apportionment in the state to favor themselves. arepeople of north carolina organizing. you got to remember -- this is the south. they had one rally with 80,000 people. 55% of them were white. in the south, this is incredibly important.

it means human solidarity is overcoming history that has divided people along racial lines. this is incredibly important. we should all be really excited about it. as a matter of fact, one of the fastest-growing and aa cp chapters is in asheville -- naacp chapters is in asheville, north carolina. a predominately white community. they said, i don't know why not. they are growing and making demands. they know they need unemployment , they need medicaid, they need to go to the doctor, they need a better life. in north carolina, this thing is spreading to south carolina, to georgia, and even missouri. , whether it is fast food workers, folks in north carolina attacked by a right wing swing, or even the maids. the national alliance for domestic workers.

organizers all over the place. this sub-minimum wage be raised to a livable wage for people. on, and something going i going to tell you as a politician, we have not gotten the memo quite yet. but politicians see the light -- we may feel the heat. i am telling you, i want to add that the postal workers know that darrell issa and the folks who want to privatize them have them in their sights. they are not staying in the sights. they are doing something about it. there is a move to privatize the post office by partnering with staples and allowing non-sworn, non-background check people to handle your mail. postal workers are not standing for it. they are protesting. you need to get in line and carry a sign. couple that with the immigration rights movement.

we are in a populous moment. the question is, what are we going to do about it? i just want to add and build a little bit by pointing out that there are folks who thought they were not political, who thought, i am not into politics, who are now drowning in politics. they are not drowning in politics. they are swimming in politics. way above the water. one of them is a young woman who is 22. she worked at kfc and did not get enough hours, so she had to take the train to hours to work at another kfc. she lives in an apartment in new york city with four other adults and several children in an apartment with like one bedroom -- she's like, i cannot take this. i need $15 and a union. that is what she said. she has become a spokesperson, 22 years old. there was a time nobody heard of martin luther king.

he was some 26 year-old dude from atlanta leading some thing they are doing down there in montgomery. alabama. ok. then people figured it out after a while, right? my point is, this movement is throwing up leaders all the time. she was minimum wage at kfc, and she chose not to suffer the situation. chance -- weg the can't survive on $7.25. if you want to see how smart she is, check out stephen colbert. she was on his show. he was throwing her curveballs, and she was catching all of them. she is smart like that. this movement is growing up leaders. even the president has to respond. the president has said some very good things about income inequality. he issued an executive order to rate -- raise the pay of federal contractors. this movement of federal workers, supported by the progressive caucus and others, has been pounding on this for over a year before he issued the

executive order. the executive order was issued .ased on pressure from people good he did it, but on the other hand are president is still talking about trying to pass fast-track authority on the transpacific partnership. therefore, he is doing one thing with one hand and something else with the other, and we got to get in doing the same thing with both. [applause] so what i am saying to you is that we have the power to do it because we are in this populist moment. we have the power to do it because seniors are waking up. they have seen people try to take their money from chains ebi. young people are swimming under loans -- loads of student debt. they know it is wrong because they know their parents before them did not have all this debt. people know. the question is, what do the leaders do to make the change?

that is you, that is us in this room. the real question is, what decision will we make? we have got to make a clear demand, a clear demand that the real problem in this economy is not debt. the real problem is that we do not have good jobs. we need to invest in this country, and we need a blueprint and a plan that invests in the american people so that we can have not just civil rights and economic rights , but we can have real prosperity and have it on a basis that everyone can enjoy. [applause] caucus, we dosive not write our budget in isolation. we write our budget as a participatory process where we have our friends from the progressive community tell us what needs to be done. and we talk to our friends at

the economic policy institute, at the campaign for the american future, at the labor campaign. they tell us what needs to be in this budget. what should we call this budget? what does it do? it makes people better off. that is what we call it the better off budget. we have been doing this several years in a row, because we believe the way to a better future is to chart a path to the better future, and a budget is a way to do that. one of the first things our budget does is infrastructure investment. it starts by creating jobs. we believe that how you first describe your budget is extremely important, and whereas the republicans are talking about how much debt they cut and others talk about other stuff, we, the gay talking about this budget creates 8.8 million jobs by 2017. that is what our budget does. our budget stands $820 billion as a down payment toward meeting infrastructure needs.

i am from minneapolis. five years ago we had our bridge fall into the mississippi. 13 people were killed. 100 more people were terrified and had serious injuries. when we talk about infrastructure, it will make us more productive, put more people to work, improve our economy, but it will also improve our public safety. it is a necessity that we do this. not only that, but the better off budget will create a national infrastructure bank which will receive $25 billion in funding over five years, using the funding as seed money to fund infrastructure investments around the country through loan guarantees. you know, we argue for free trade. we believe american workers can make good products with anybody in the world. but not free trade -- you will did not correctly. there trade. we believe in fair trade. nafta and nafta

on steroids, tpp. we also believe that wall street has two do better by america. we have a financial transaction tax on stocks, bonds, and derivatives. our transaction tax, which we call the robin hood tax, would build us $350 billion a year and -- [applause] in addition to that, in addition to that what it would do is stop this high-speed trading which is wreaking havoc on our economy and extremely dangerous. some of you out this red the book by michael lewis. obviously we raise the minimum wage, but we also do something even more important. we strengthen labor rights. [applause] look, if america is a body politic, the backbone of that body is organized labor. ed,organized labor is weaken

the whole body is weakened. we have to pass the employer free choice act. something that is not in our budget but we better start thinking about, we need to make union organizing a civil rights. i am telling you this. ifneed to do this because you fire somebody who is organizing a union without regard to whether -- who wins the union election, if you fire someone who is organizing, everybody else gets scared and you kill the movement right there. you ought to be able to get a lawyer, sue, get recovery, get punitive damages, just like if they fire you because you are female or black or have a disability. that is what we need to do to stand up for our rights. going back to our budget, our budget restores democracy. we do campaign finance in order to establish a present of democracy that truly reflects our diversity.

wet of all, what we do is stand on the side of working americans who love this country and believe that this country is worth fighting for. country saidour women could not vote. they thought in the idea of liberty and justice for all and establish that right. we believe it should be dignity on the job. union -- people died trying to get unions. brave people sit up and establish them. we had a country where people were relegated to second-class citizenship because of their race. we stood up and fought for it. some people died, some people lost a lot, but we still did not. -- not quit. the work we are facing right now is no less serious. the question is, are we less serious? i do not think so. we are standing on the shoulders of giants. so we should see further than king, then all the great heroes

of the past to move the progressive ball forward. ourave to -- let's go take economy and society forward and away from these oligarchs, everybody. thank you very much. >> democratic pollster celinda lake spoke at the campaign for america's future new populism conference about trends. her remarks are about 15 minutes. [applause] >> thank you so much. i really want to thank bob and roger and -- that is a very lavish introduction. i wish my mom could have heard it. i was raised a teenage republican. like saying you're a teenage werewolf. a progressive.

i will never forget my dad yelling at my mom. i don't mind that you became a democrat, i just don't know why you had to become a communist. [laughter] here you are. all of us have been in lots of cases where we have seen the data. we don't mind. we were in lots of fights were we did not have the majority of the public. talking to theas public and getting the majority in favor of us. i want to really urge you to read the report the campaign for america's future has compiled, because we do not have to convince anybody. they are there. the key is to make the will of the people be heard. and i want to say to bob, highbury with everything you said. this is going to take a long time. ory.job is to hurry hist they should not take a long time.

in fact, we don't have time. america's families don't have time. our country does not have time. i will be working at 7-eleven in this economy until i die, but that's that -- that said, we don't have time. we have to make it happen, and it will happen with you as organizers and great leaders like the congressman. let's talk about the data real quick. you can all get copies. i am clearly the fastest-talking montanan you will ever hear. you can get copies of all of this. the shrinking middle class, everyone knows. these -- there we go. so, not that we were ever intending to have one, but real america does not think the economy is better. real america thinks the economy has gotten worse or stay the same. only 22% of americans believe the economy has gotten better.

the only people that believe the economy has gotten better, not republicans or tea partiers. tea partiers are actually pretty blue-collar. we have all kinds of opportunities to talk to audiences we would not even want to have dinner with two persuade. the only people who think the economy has gotten better are college educated white men. i do not propose that we deny student aid to college educated white men, but it is here -- true that some of these people ought to learn more when they go to college. college-educated white women, by the way, are you kidding me? this economy is not in good shape. people believe overwhelmingly that the middle class is disappearing. timect, so badly, at the when we had 85% of americans identifying as middle-class. now they identify as disappearing middle class. i fact, half of america says

am lower-class. i would like to be middle-class, but i am lower-class. people believe overwhelmingly that in america you should be able to get ahead. but that the rules are rigged in favor of the wealthy. they believe our economy makes it too tough for the middle class to make ends meet. overwhelminglye that the next generation will not be better off. we talked about this. this is at a record high, including the majority of people who think their own kids will not be better off. in this country, if you are like my family, you came to the east coast because you were one step ahead of the famine and the law, and then you went west because you were one step ahead of the law, and you make those moves and work hard for your kids because things are supposed to be better off. it is not worth it to work this hard for this little vacation, and to put up with those teenage kids who are damn annoying

unless they are going to be better off. and america feels this is a fundamental violation of what this whole country is supposed to be about. many people have talked about the new urgency around the inequality agenda, and people believe overwhelmingly that the wealthy are the only people who have made out ahead in this economy, that everybody else's fallen behind. , greathave economic data economic data validating why this is happening. real people knew it already. this is why i love being a pollster. conventional wisdom is about 95% wrong plus or minus five percent , and beltway conventional wisdom is 100% wrong. so people are there. experience tells them this. people believe overwhelmingly that inequality is a big problem. and frankly, people think they are and that problem, too. they do not think they have to look for somebody vulnerable.

they do not have to look past the kitchen table to find somebody vulnerable. we are all in it together. as carol moseley braun said, theher you came over on mayflower, a cruise ship, or a slave ship, we are all on the same boat now. that is how americans feel. people are not supposed to want to have a role for government. dhen we use the dreaded g-wor we also use the dreaded f-word sometimes, federal government. some people said, this is so bad, we have to have a role for federal government. how can you find a corporation that requires you to train your replacement of brought and then take away -- a broad and then take away your pension? a majority of americans believe if you work hard for a living and play by the rules, you never seem to get ahead. the new watchword is stability. people think that even when you were can do everything right, aig can make a decision and your

mortgage is gone. who even knew they had your mortgage? >> the right has an answer on this, too. the number one warning i would make is there are republican pollsters and there are republican leaders running for president who get this new populism. you will see this on the right, that is where the power of the tea party is coming from. middle-class people have the toughest in our economy. catchphrase for the rich, but no help for the little people. you know who made that statement? republicans made it. not only is it urgent to get on this, but it is urgent because if we don't, they will. job creation. i wish i had more data to show

you how popular it is. unfortunately, i don't ache is not enough people are talking about it. this is the number one thing that people want in this economy. this is the way people think we will get out of the deficit and get their families ahead. 91% of americans say the creating jobs is an absolute priority this year. the only people who don't are paul ryan and his friends. everyone else does. the second priority is the deficit. to know the number one solution? create jobs. you will see not only this, but in data that absolutely defies conventional wisdom, 62% of americans said, i agree that the government should focus on jobs,

even if it means increasing the deficit in the short term. the key voters in this election are blue-collar women. the people who agree with this statement most are blue-collar women. this is not just a liberal agenda, this is a mainstream agenda. the only people we have to argue with other people on the hill, not with anybody in real america. education, huge issue. it has gotten even bigger. so2012, education was not much on the agenda. now all the states have had to cut act and people think it is the absolute wrong priority. america overwhelmingly in favor of education. notice, that the education agenda unites our base, as bob was saying, and the swing. some cares about education the most? s, african-americans and latinos.

we are at a huge disadvantage in terms of turnout. it is frightening how much people are discouraged and not planning to turn out. you have your day job and your evening job, now you have your midnight job. you have to get people out to vote. it'll be a disaster if we don't. the nice thing is, your evening job and after midnight job are united by the same things. the issue agenda that people say this would make me want to come out and vote, make college affordable, raise minimum wage, crackdown corporations, increase funding for jobs. increase the minimum wage and funding for public schools and class-size. investment agenda is not supposed to be popular. it costs a lot of money if you don't do these things. people overwhelmingly in favor

of this agenda and willing to vote if this is spoken to. tax fairness. nobody leaving the charge more than frank clemente. charge more than frank clemente. the lower tax agenda still has power. we need and inequality agenda. we're going to close the inequality gap. the republicans wrote their side of the agenda which says the best way to do that is cut taxes and reduce regulation. they have a populist agenda, too. when we add tax fairness to the agenda, we pull ahead on taxes. as progressives, we are the most competitive we have been on taxes in decades precisely because of the power of that hoppe list tax agenda. that populist tax agenda.

support for taxing the wealthy and corporations that aren't paying taxes. taxing the wealthiest one percent. people on for good at math and aren't veryeople good at math in populist america. most people do not think they're going to be in the richest two percent in their lifetime. they're good enough at math to figure that one out. [laughter] which is your view? america has the highest rates on , we need to eliminate loopholes that allow us to reduce corporate rates. this is the type of reform that will raise more revenue.

it pretty powerfully worded statement. you would think we would get clobbered. we said taxing is rigged in favor of special interests and against the middle class. they call these corporations benedict arnold corporations. it is about time the corporations started living by the same rules as the rest of us. people overwhelmingly are for closing tax loopholes that allow you to ship jobs overseas. close loopholes on corporations that have offshore tax savings -- tax havens. this is wildly favorable. 62-79% in support.

more populars are than most congress people in america. [laughter] , winning strong policies. the investment agenda. people are worried about money and where money is going to come from. to not to turn that equation around? add tax fairness to it. when we close loopholes we win overwhelmingly. 62-39% this is the same data you saw in terms of tax fairness. regulating big business. everyone knows the conventional wisdom. we can't talk about regulation, regulation is a dirty word. groups,tested in focus we found we can use the dreaded word. 93% ofr-

americans think it is important that we regulate services and products. we tested the language that the president uses. people were off the charts on that. this isn't even a debate in the public's mind. this is a level of core values. people love the consumer financial protection agency. the number one area they should move into his retirement. the one area they can't move into? financial retirement. that was part of the compromise to get the agency. we ought to and that loophole. tougher rules and enforcement on practices that created this -- there is no way we

have made enough changes, is the attitude. when we talk about opportunity, people are -- i have a couple more slides -- people overwhelmingly would like trade but trade on our terms. a solid majority of americans nafta andagainst colombian and peruvian trade laws. they're asking what we're getting from columbia and peru. god bless america, there is a type of commonsense pragmatism out there. the last thing we need to do, and every speaker has alluded to it, we're not going to get these policies until we change the way our campaigns are funded. we have to take our democracy back. [applause] the only people more unpopular

than members of congress of people who put them there, the big-money campaign donors. overwhelmingly, people believe that we need big changes in our campaign finance system, and rise.umber is on the it is our time. public is with us. we need to organize, we need to nominate candidates who will support this agenda, and we will win. it won't take a long time. in fact, it could take just six months. let's grab back the selection. election. [applause] >> these remarks are 20 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you, it is a thrill to be here again. i like that you are packed into a small room so i can see everybody. i appreciate that. jared, thank you for the impact you have had in making such a difference. whove listening to thea gets trade just about better than anybody in this town. roger and bob have made such a difference with this new populism and what you do as progressives. i am going to tell a joke way jared's, but the difference is my joke is an absolute true story. a number of you know my wife was a pulitzer prize winner very it she thinks really fast on her feet and she is one of america's great progressive writers. she and i were at a reception in a room about the size with no tables or chairs.

everyone was standing and packed in together. some guy that she had never seen was standing next to her. i got on the stage, there were three or four people speaking. i spoke to her three minutes. as a starter to speak, the sky turned to my wife and said, i hate that guy's voice. she said, really? he said yeah, when he talks it is like fingernails on a blackboard. she said come a well, i like his voice. i like it when he wakes me up in the middle of the night and says, i love you baby. [applause] [laughter] true story. i so appreciate the work you do to make the country better, to make elected officials better. you understand way better than most that it is not just electing the right people, it is keeping the heat on congress, it is reminding them of things that

are going on in our country and tellingthem stories, them stories will always get you there. the me say a -- couple of comments and i want to talk about too big to fail, too big to manage or regulate, too big to exist. speak -- even though he doesn't look over 30, i heard him speak 30 years ago. you said something i will never forget. he said when a voter goes to the polls and thinks of himself or taxpayer, he or she is likely to vote republican. when the same voter goes to the poll the next year and thinks of themselves as workers, they're likely to vote democratic. keep the construct in your mind. to expand on that come with president clinton was talking to group of senators several months

ago. he was talking about the sort of , the working-class realtors of this party. he was speaking of nonunion workers, especially. know, he was olding about some of his political base in arkansas. don't think either political party's guide to do anything for them, but he said the vote republican because it think the democrats will do something to them. whitetoo working-class ford often means something to them means maybe raise your taxes, it is social issues sometimes, his guns, whatever it is, the point is that democrats aren't following the advice of all of you with the kind of economic populism that actually will speak to those voters. i was on the ballot in 2012 in ohio. president obama won the state by three points, i want by six

points, a lot of you are really helpful to me come even though most of you don't live in ohio. didn't clap,who there's another election in 2018. i run as a progressive and populist. you win states like ohio as a populist. because a national democrats have not gotten a message from the president on down that you need to be a populist economic party, it is much harder for those small-town and rural white , it is harder to get their attention because or not enough of us with that message. that is where you come in as activists and people that have made such a difference for our country. but me go back four years, five years, six years, i guess. my first year in the senate i was also on senator kennedy's help committee -- health

committee. it was kind of a sleepy committee and wasn't doing much then. ,n 2008 i was in zanesville oh o ohio. i got a call from the majority leader's office saying members will be on the phone calls in and bernanke. ,e heard this frightening whatsapp into to this economy. they wanted a bailout and tarp. the problems clear the country was facing in those days in september of 2008. since tarp ands the bailout, the six largest banks have gotten larger and larger. let me give you a couple of

numbers. 20 years ago, the six largest banks in the united states, their combined assets were about 18% of gdp. today, the six largest banks combined assets, 65% of gdp. fail,not just too big to it is not just too big to manage, it is too big to regulate, it is too big to exist in bob's words. economic just the power they have in the marketplace, it is a political power they have here. that is what is so important when you support people. like elizabethle warren and bernie sanders and a number of us on banking committees were beginning to change the environment and the culture of the committee, slowly, but making significant progress.

six largest banks are twice as large as the next 50 largest banks. secretary geithner made some interesting comments in larry summers'class at harvard. i guess it was harvard. said, of course these banks are too big to fail, but then he likened those of us trying to forever to captain ahab chasing the white whale. he finally acknowledged that he is not in power, that these banks are really too big to fail. if you think fixing this really matters that much. presidential adviser was in my office for five years ago. i was talking to him about the importance of manufacturing, especially when you look at

manufacturing 30 years ago, it was 22% of our gdp, now it is not much more than 10. financial services has grown to 20% of our gdp from much less than that three decades ago. we can't pickit, winners and losers. i said i'm not picking which manufacturer or which industry, i am saying we have picked winners and losers in this country for some time, and we picked financial services to be the winner, and their middle-class and working-class and poor people at manufacturing to be the loser. it is time that we refocus that, if you will. [applause] from cs remarks -- as wages decline, we borrow more. not just to enhance but maintain

a standard of living. wall street gets bigger and makes more fees. caps on emphasis on one sector takes wealth away from other parts of the economy. that is why in 2010, during dodd frank, i teamed up with one of my favorite people i serve in -- served in the -- the amendment on the floor got 33 votes. my math tells me that is well less than 51. 33 votes, which was a start. since then, times have changed. topfederal reserve's regulator endorsed this approach, so has george will. everything i agree with george will about his baseball.

peggy noonan has endorsed it, tom huntsman, even the former chair of citibank's andy wyle supports this. second, i teamed up with a member of the senate was about as conservative as they come, david fitter from louisiana, to and too big to fail once and for all. end too big to failto once and for all. on thisthe economist stage no, during the depression, capital, that is what helped so many of them survive. if you're back with $500 billion in assets, there are six of those in the united states. -- if your bank has five or 10% losses, you are not

underwater, you don't need a bailout, you have that 15% reserves. it prevents excessive leverage. the incentives are always for the bankers on wall street to take more risk. more risk they take the more money they make. when the sun is shining. when it is not shining, the risk they take means we are on the hook to bail them out. we can't have a financial system that works that way anymore. all street has had too much influence in washington. our legislation, both with ted kaufman on the amendment and vitter on the bill that has not passed. --t we have seen progressives like you, populist like you are speaking out against it. the gao says the funding advantages of the six largest banks is somewhere in the

neighborhood of one percent. if you go out and part money, you're paying close to one percent more for that money than the six largest banks. why? because you are a risk. the charger more because they don't know if you will pay back. the big banks charge less interest, low interest because they know even if they fall him of those big banks will be bailed out. that is why ending too big to fail fundamentally is so important, so these large banks that get government subsidies, these large banks will not continue to grow larger. if they're getting government subsidies, they can borrow money more cheaply than other banks and individuals and businesses. they're only going to grow larger because of that competitive advantage. that is why this consensus is building. always too slow for us to tear to change a system like you and i do. regulators, the

fdic and the federal reserve, always have been too biased towards the largest wall street banks. they have begun to change. again, not to the degree that we want, but they finalized a new higher percentage leverage ratio , in this case the eight largest banks, 50% higher than existing law. that happened because of this debate and that legislation and because of your activism, because you speak out on issues that matter. , i think, about what raising the public debate such aere, and makes difference. let me illustrate with a story. that you andact your mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers have made over the last several decades. lapel.a pin on my it is a depiction of a canary in a bird cage. you know the story about the

canary in the minds, the canary with very small lung capacity dies from lack of oxygen or toxic gas, the mine worker had no government to protect them, he had no union strong enough to protect him, so look back a hundred years ago when they took the canary in the minds 120 years ago. mines. today, the born, my daughter just had , a child bornld in the country today has a life expectancy about three decades longer than a hundred years ago. why is that? it is not just because of high-tech medicine, and not just because of cholesterol drugs or heart transplants, it is about what progressives have fought for in this country for these 100 years. take them off, civil rights, safe drinking water, clean air,

seatbelts, airbags, protection for the disabled, women's rights, prohibition on child labor, worker's compensation, medicare, medicaid, all the parentshat you and your and grandparents generations have fought for. thesess doesn't do things. state legislatures don't enact protection for workers because we are altruistic, we do these things because of who you elect and who you put pressure on. the lastress through hundred years, and building a more progressive country is all about the pressure you put from your labor union, child advocacy in the ethnic organizations, people in their religious institutions and church halls putting pressure on congress on the legislatures on mayors, governors, presidents to do things better.

that is your role, that is the role we always have. emerson talked about history as a fight between innovators and conservators. conservators are there to protect status quo and privilege and property. they want to move the country forward. there will always be that pressure. the conservatories are more likely to win because they have so much privilege and money and power already on their side. we win because we appeal to the public and because of the passion that so many of you have for these progressive issues. therporate lobbyist called brown fitter bill and a number of these issues radical ideas. i understand that is where the think. another corporate lobbyist after the present signed dodd frank, the day he signed it he said now it is halftime. in other words, this bank lobbyist said we're going to the agencies and slow these reforms down.

it is not a radical idea that banks no matter their size compete on a level playing field. it is not a radical idea to ensure the taxpayers -- that taxpayers are not punished by two big to fail. our mission is to fight that and take that fight on. it is not going to end tomorrow or next year, like everything in the progressive movement, it is a continued battle. we take two steps forward and one back heard we take three steps forward and one back. we move forward and look what we have all done in this country. i will close with this story. an international bank called barings was destroyed by fraud committed by one of their traders. there were no profits, just big losses. nicktrader named

leeson managed to conceal until the firm collapsed. here is what he wrote. fraud, theremy were too many chiefs who would chat about it at arm's length but never go further. to ask me anyed questions, since they were afraid of looking stupid about not understanding futures and options. think about that, i have been on the banking committee eight years now. i started off not knowing these issues as well as i should have or wanted to, but i also the gamed that that is they play. they use language, use intimidation, and threats is the oo. the uset

language to make you not want to question them because the media does not want to sound stupid and regulators don't want is sound stupid, so we don't challenge them. the story shows why it is so important that we challenged him. still be afraid of looking like you don't know enough about financial reform and financial regulation and these economic issues. don't be fearful about not knowing enough when you challenge power and when you challenge their comments. that is why the work that senator warner and and senator sanders and senator merkley are creating a new vocal dynamic to hold wall street accountable. we have the opportunity to remake this economy. we know what is happened to middle-class wages. we no profits are up. we know that corporations are moving overseas to avoid taxes. profits are up, executive salaries are up, workers, the middle-class, working class and poor people are not making the wages they once did.

the minimum wage has a third less buying power than in 1968. you know all these things. that is the importance of remaking this economy. i will close with this. mississippi civil rights leaders in the 1960's, this is perfect for your activism, said hotel may what you believe, show me what you do and i'll tell you what you believe. -- don't tell me what you believe, show me what you do and i'll tell you what you believe. we win enough to have his canary indicates that will symbolize the progress we have made in america. i'm so thankful to all of you for playing such an important role. thank you. [applause]

>> coming up on c-span, senate democrats on immigration legislation. that is followed by republican congressman steve ting of iowa responding to comments about him made by senate leaders. judiciarybers of the committee speak to reporters after the house passed a bill limiting nsa data collection. then a house floor debate on that bill. >> coming up on the next washington journal, the tired marine sergeant jesse jane duff of concerned veterans america -- for america discusses ms. management at ca hospitals -- at va hospitals.

post walk blogon writer christopher ingram on gerrymandered congressional districts. washington journal is live every morning at 7:00 eastern at c-span. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. for over 35 years, c-span brings public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences and offering complete gavel to gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. we are c-span, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. watch us in hd, like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. >> if we don't step up the enforcement side, the enforcement side brings the

media attention. if we're going to say the only that makesn rely on these universities and colleges do what they should be doing is for them to get a bad story, first of all, that is a lot of victims. aat, to me, would be depressing conclusion. we have got to figure out some that is shortante of waiting for another tragedy to hit the front pages. >> i would almost say less the dollar amount and focus on the work. a 13 team -- a 13 person team can't do it. seenhanges i have institutions make our when they are under pressure. see thatlmost rather investment in a bigger team. fairness, they will be paying for it.

i think every survivor would back that up. >> senator claire mccaskill and discussions several about rape on college campuses, saturday morning at 10:00 eastern. cheney examines the political philosophy and presidential tenure of james madison sunday morning at 11:00 on c-span2. the life and work of american red cross founder clara barton. we will visit her missing soldier's office in washington, followed by your questions and comments live. c-span3. >> senate majority leader harry reid and other leaders on immigration reform. senator reid urges the passage

of immigration legislation now -- this is 15 minutes. see, we had to back up our chart a little bit. these keep building up. 328, it is now been 329 days since the senate has passed a comprehensive bill that will create jobs, reduce the deficit by almost $1 trillion and keep families from being torn apart. there is real human cost when house'sse -- for this in action. the most frequent excuses we have heard from house republicans for their inaction is one they have used over and over again -- we don't trust president obama.

we don't trust him to enforce the law. true,hough that is not the president has proven he will enforce current immigration law. all wee past 329 days, have heard from house republicans are various excuses why they can't act, not why they could act. today, it is my understanding that the speaker said, i want to do immigration reform. does it -- that is pretty easy for him to accomplish. we can't allow the radicals in the house like stephen king, a man who says that the dreamers are drug dealers, we can't let people like him determine the fate of this legislation. that is what has happened in the house. here's a suggestion to resolve the impasse. it is fairly reasonable. let's pass immigration reform today. in 2017.ake effect

republicans don't trust president obama. let's give them a chance to read the bill under president rand --l or -- under represented or tedenator rand paul cruz. i hope republicans will consider this offer. it is time to show some compassion and start acting. if they say no to this offer, we will suggest there will never be a time when house republicans are willing to act on immigration. senator durbin. >> thank you, senator reid. we are about to celebrate an anniversary of a year since the senate passed its bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill, a bill that i worked on mr. schumereague

and many democrats and republicans who believe that we can do this, and we did it. at a time when people were skeptical that congress could do anything on a bipartisan basis, we did something that i will say immodestly was historically significant. inwill be unfair to say that that year the house is done nothing on immigration. it has been about a year since the house under speaker boehner's leadership asked the only immigration bill that they considered, a bill offered by congressman stephen king to deny the docka program. speaker boehner thought it was appropriate within the last year to call that to the floor of the house of representatives for a vote. sadly, his members supported it overwhelmingly. that, to me, was an embarrassing moment.

embarrassing that the house of representatives would take that up as their only action on immigration within the last year. i might say a word about congressman king. because of some of the statements he is made, i went to his district in iowa was senator harkin and had a town meeting. i will tell you, he does not represent the feelings of the people of iowa on the issue of immigration. some of the statements he has made have been part of a sad and time-honored tradition of nativism and prejudice against immigrants. he continues that to this day. a basic question for speaker boehner, does he speak for the house republican caucus? there have been times when the speaker has apologized for some of his outrageous comments and called him to task because of them. the question now is, will he set the agenda when it comes to immigration in the house of representatives for them remainder of this year? i hope not. i hope that the speaker will listen carefully to former speaker dennis hastert as well

as the business and labor leaders and religious leaders across america who are calling once and for all for us to fix this row can immigration system before the end of this year, before we break for august, we need to get his job done, we need to have a bipartisan bill passing in the house of her representatives and on its way to the president. >> thank you. now, we're coming up as a sign shows on a one-year anniversary. it is clear that house of representatives has not lifted a finger to act. they have not lifted a finger and they have gone out of their way to give steve king's anti-immigration amendments, like the one that would require us to deport dream act valedictorian votes on the floor of the house. it is amazing. in fact, now we have the so-called conservative manifesto which came out this morning. doesn't contain a word about immigration.

any book about guiding the gop back to prominence that does not mention immigration reform is a waste of paper. they may as well not have written it, because they will lose the 2016 election for president, senate and house if they don't do immigration reform. but they can't, because they are letting the steve king's call the shots. steve king says do nothing, the house leadership does nothing. that is what has happened so far. thus far, everything steve king has wanted they have done. it is time for speaker boehner wresteader cantor to the gavel back from steve king and work with democrats and pass immigration reform. coming up with excuses. the present excuse is, we can't

pass immigration reform because we don't trust president obama to enforce the law. well, first, they shouldn't pass any laws. why are they here? they can just go on vacation for the next 2.5 years. they don't trust the president to enforce laws, why pass any laws? second, it is a bogus argument. as many people in this room will tell you, the president has been tougher on deportations than any president before him. many people in the community don't like that. third, if they really believe that, then let them take up our suggestion that leader reid and i have made, which is pass the bill now, let it take effect january 1, 2017. the president won't enforce the law. plain and simple. if that is a reason for not doing it, we have a simple answer. plain and simple. so, one other point.

we are not going to go along with minor fixes that failed to address the bigger problems of our immigration system today. if the oil is leaking in your ler has a hole in it, you don't change your windshield wipers. republicans are barely even considering that, but it doesn't even scratch the surface of our immigration system. those thatgiving serve in the military the opportunity to earn citizenship, but we also want to fix our agriculture worker program, secure our borders, ensure high-tech as mrs. and provided pathway for the 11 million who stand in the shadow. and he wanted things the in list bodywill satisfy any that something was done on immigration reform is whistling to the wind. they have about a six week window from june 10 after the

last republican primary to the august recess. if they don't pass immigration reform than, the president will have no choice but to act on his own. we would much rather pass legislation, but they're worried that the president is going to do something on his own, well, you have one easy, simple way to prevent it. pass immigration reform. if you don't want the president to implement it, as we said, have the starting date be january 1, 2017. , thee president has to act only blame will fall on the shoulders of the house republicans who, against the wishes of their party and the american people, are just following steve king's dictates and refusing to move. know that the extreme forces in the house republican and get upsetvous every time the word immigration reform is uttered, but hopefully

house republicans will pay more attention to the vast majority of the american people. we can get this done. there isn't anyone that i know that thinks the current law works. everyone in america knows it is broken, whether it is our high-tech companies who know that they can't get the workforce to help create jobs here because of the current system, or it is our agriculture sector who can't literally pick the crops in our fields because of the broken system, or the many, many families who are torn that to the current system doesn't reflect the realities of making sure that we keep the values of this country when it comes to our families and taking care of them. even though this is an election year, i really hope the house republican caucus can stand up and do the right thing, and do it the american people expect us to do, whether it is a budget agreement or whatever challenge we have, and that is work to fix

the problem. our leader senator reed has offered a compromise in the spirit of compromise that does not reflect what all of us want, waiting until 2017, but it is a compromise offer and ought to be taken up by the house and passed. for all of the fiscal conservatives out there who are not coming to the plate on this, i want to remind them that the congressional budget office has estimated that the senate will on immigration would not only grow our economy, it would reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion over the next two decades. there are many reasons to pass this legislation, but most of all, we need to show the american people that our country can work, that we can fix laws that don't work and that we have an obligation as leaders to step up to it. i hope the republicans in the house caucus will stand up and say it is time to do this. >> take some questions? i just spoke with speaker

boehner. he says that he doesn't trust president barack obama. why are we keeping hope alive? >> why not put the pressure now on the congress? >> first of all, we understand what this has done to families. when i first started talking about this situation a long time ago, the words were family unification. there is no demographic group in the world that believes in family unification more than hispanics, that is what i believe. goal, it should be our first goal.

a way to do that once and for all is to pass comprehensive immigration reform. as we have said here today, each one of us, if they don't trust the president, pass the law and make it effective at the beginning of the next presidency. that is reasonable. if they are unwilling to do that, senator schumer mentioned a deadline. i will accept that. , we should have the secretary of homeland security's report on what the president can do from a legal perspective. so, we have waited 329 days, we are willing to wait another six weeks, but at the end of six weeks, if something hasn't been done, then there will have to be a move made. it is too bad we have to do that. we all know things can be done. it is better to change the law. we have 11 million people who are waiting and have been waiting.

i admire what the president did with dreamers. that is a tearjerker for all of us. we all have examples we .2. i have one. a little girl who came across in a boat with a rosary and a little doll. she is four years old. mexico is not her home, america was her home. we're going to continue. plan here.d out our i'm disappointed that mice death is told me and you just told me that boehner is going to do nothing. >> leader reid, the leadership iseed that president obama

not going to do anything until august. -- we have and the department of homeland security a report. there are some things i think he is considering doing. they are fairly minimal. the big move would have to come after having received from the secretary of homeland security what he believes can be done. he is in the process of reading that right now. >> do think that the president should expand on what he did for dreamers to a few other groups? noty personal feelings are going to get it done administratively. i have some strong feelings about some of the things that can and should be done if they don't move in six weeks, but i am going to wait until jeh johnson gives the president the report.

they definitely don't want the senate version. support thedly second step approach. i asked about that. it is not moving either, so again they are saying they don't trust him. we know what talking points are, but in terms of strategy for you , if the house is not going to move now or in six weeks or before the election or after the election, what is your game plan? >> i think our plan has been laid out this morning. i think it is a good one. if they don't trust the president, pass along make it affect you of when -- make it effective when we have a new president. what about the constraints on the nsa data searches? >> here's what i want. i want chairman feinstein and chairman leahy to take a close

look at that and report to the senate as to what they think should be done. i believe that we must do something and i have no problem with the house having it. i will be prepared to after feinstein and leahy look at this . [indiscernible] >> i think that the house has done has not been unreasonable. again, chairman sanders has done a remarkably good job as chairman of that committee. his predecessor was the woman standing right next to me. i'm confident that he will -- if the bill is as it should be, we should get something quickly. i don't think we should wait around for a long time. i would hope that this is one thing that the senate republicans would not hold out. --how can you are knuckle

boehner?ou bareknuckle >> i repeat, we have laid out our plan. i think it is a good plan. ,f they don't take our offer we're going to have to go to the second step which is not my preference. administrative rules cannot trump legislation. we're are going to have to do what we have to do, as we proved ka. doc you just heard in the news conference the senate democrats. listen to republican congressman steve king of iowa. he responded to the comments. here is some of what he said. >> had come to the floor this afternoon to address you and

bring up the topic of the dialogue that has been flowing forth on the floor of the united states senate over the last few weeks. as i listen to that dialogue and listen to the way they have radicals andes for decided that they're going to implement them and deploy them on the floor of the united states senate, it occurs to me out of the mouths of people like senator schumer and senator reid and senator durbin come these allegations, and sometimes allegations that name and target members of the house of representatives, it occurs to me that when i came to this 2003, there was a rule that existed here that are vented a member of the house of representatives from naming a united states senator here on the floor. it was a kind of shield of protectionism so that the

senators could not be directly criticized in the dialogue that we have here on the floor. my good friend and then member of congress tom feeney from florida read through the rules as a good, honest lawyer newly elected to the u.s. congress would. he saw that rule and wondered why can't we either the name of a united states senator on the floor of the house of representatives. he could come up with no reason why we shouldn't be able to, so he brought an amendment to the rules that struck that prohibition and thereafter, thanks to then congressman tom feeney of orlando, the rule has been gone and it was amended. that is a good thing, because now i can actually name the people who are attacking me on the floor of the united states senate. you know what is going on, mr. speaker, in that other body, that other body that constantly calls for bipartisan work and bipartisan cooperation. from senatori get

chuck schumer of new york. 2014, on the floor of the united states senate. he decided that he would target me and blame me for the things theelieves are failures of entire house of representatives. here are some of the quotes the chuck schumer uttered on that day of may 1 from the floor of the united states senate. he called me" an extreme outlier on that issue of reform. you will find language in the republican party platform that supports the position i have long held on immigration. an opposition to the hold is this. we need to respect the rule of law, we need to secure our borders, we need to have an immigration policy that is designed to enhance the economic, the social and

cultural well-being of the united states of america. it can't be for the democratic party in america because they are so closely aligned, in fact they have enveloped the entire progressive party. the progressive party comes to this floor on a regular basis and gives speeches and presents a position. lebrates socialism, they're wrapped up inside the democratic party, we don't adhere to that on my side. we adhere to the rule of law, the constitution, a secure border, a sovereign united states of america and a policy for immigration that's designed to enhance the economic, social and cultural well-being of the united states of america. and we have enough common ense, mr. speaker, to know that our country is limited in

size, scope, however it's a large country. we cannot simply be the relief for all for all the poverty in the world. there are seven billion people on the planet, and if they all have good sense, they'd all want to live here. we need some of them in those countries to rebuild those countries and establish american principles so that they can enjoy the prosperity that we enjoy. we build, reconstruct around the principles and the other countries around the world. we need to lead the world. we don't need to necessarily bring all the world to feed all the world here in the united states. and so extreme outlier, not so. chuck schumer represents the extreme outliers and they are socialists, marxists, progressives, liberal democrats. i'm sure one of the laboralists will be one he's embraced, mr. speaker. second quote, senator chuck schumer of me, steve king. it is beyond the pale.

i'm certain the majority of republicans in the house will see their stomaches chur when they hear him spew that kind of rhetoric. that's not dialogue, mr. speaker to see that kind of thing and what i wonder is why would chuck know he would know when the stomaches of republicans might churn. i think they might churn when they hear him say those things. . my doesn't. i take this with good humor. i understand it's a tactic. it's designed to bring out a goal. and it's not necessarily to raise me up to the point where he assigns me with the full sense of responsibility and authority to determine immigration policy here in the house of representatives. i wish it were so, mr. speaker. i don't believe it's so. yes, there is some influence there. history will decide how much. not he me, not chuck schumer. but here's his goa