♪♪ it's great to see you, i'm geoff bennett in for katy tur. we're expecting the president to speak at a community college in ohio. he will address the economy but these will be his first public remarks since the latest mass shooting in america. the death toll in that attack at a rail yard in san jose, california, now stands at nine. the victims gunned down during the busy change between shifts yesterday range in age from 29 to 63. last hour we heard from officials at the valley transportation authority about those who were killed. >> many of you have reported the names of the employees who were lost. to us here at vta they are friends and our family. and we want to honor their memory. we want all of our employees to know we are all grieving together and we want to do everything we possibly can to

support each other. whatever your emotions, the pain, sorrow, anger, love, questions, these are all normal, but please reach out to someone if you want help. >> the shooter was a co-worker who authorities say moved deliberately and quickly while wielding two semi-automatic handguns. his motive is not yet known but an ex-girlfriend recounted a history of violent mood swings and domestic violence. now, according to the associated press this was the 15th mass killing in this country this year alone. it's a uniquely american tragedy, yet again we're seeing the same calls for gun control. in a statement the president called on congress to take immediate action and our own capitol hill team reports there may be a path to some version of a background check bill on the hill, but it appears a larger legislative deal on guns remains as allusive as it's been for years. just as we saw after shootings in indianapolis and texas last month, and in boulder and

atlanta in march, and year after year from las vegas to portland to sandy hook, there is little support among congressional republicans to deal with gun violence in any meaningful way. we're going to start our coverage in san jose, california, with msnbc weekend lainger lindsey riser. in that press conference last hour with those vta officials and the workers, they in their words and in their tears put into focus the immense sense of loss that folks are feeling there. recap what we heard last hour and what you've learned about the investigation. >> reporter: it was very emotional, geoff. these people are their co-workers, their family, all of these vta officials really describing themselves as a family. in fact, the general counsel for vta saying they prepare you for an active shooter scenario, they don't prepare for you for the aftermath. you are looking at pictures of the nine victims, all vta employees. we are learning more and more about them and i will get to more on that in just a minute,

but i want to update you with the latest on the investigation. yesterday we know that around 6:30 that shooter came to work and started shooting his colleagues, going from building to building. he was an employee here. he knew where employees would be. this was shift change so workers from multiple shifts were here at the time. at the same time that those shots fired calls were being reported to 911 about a ten-minute drive away at his house a fire had been reported by neighbors. so right now the sheriff telling savannah guthrie with "today" that we are operating on the belief that either he had some way to detonate that fire or some way to set it to coincide with the shooting or had somebody else set it, they are still investigating that. we're learning that the shooter had two semi-automatic handguns on him and 11 magazine rounds. we also know really a sign of the times, geoff, that the sheriff's office had held active shooter training here at this facility just within the last

year and they are very close but still just in that short amount of time that shooter was able to take the lives of nine people. we want to talk more about who those people were. we heard from the vta chair saying we are not alone as we go through this journey of any employees at the transit system need to take a minute to themselves he encouraged people to do that. keep in mind these people who have been through this have to go back to work. now, vta is offering grief counseling here, but they're still trying to get transit completely up and running back to regular service for the folks in this area. but we heard from one of the light rail superintendents who has worked here for 20 years, worked closely with some of the victims, for example, paul megia, he said he always had a smile, was always asking people how to help. you are looking at some of the employees being walked across the street just yesterday in the aftermath of the shooting. i want to have you guys listen to some of what we heard in the press conference, really the emotion about what they're going through in losing their co-workers. let's listen. >> we get up every morning, safe

in the belief that when we go to work that we would come home to our family and our loved ones. that did not happen for abdolvahab, adrian, alex, josé, lars, michael, paul, taptejdeep and timothy. some of us get training on what to do when there's an active shooter event, but not about the aftermath and yesterday i was up at the family assistance center and i saw that aftermath and i saw the immense pain in the faces of the families. >> reporter: and she says she also heard the screams and the

cries when those families unfortunately learned that their loved ones were gone. geoff, i should mention many of the employees who are now victims of this have worked here for 20, 30 years. there will be a vigil for them tonight at city hall. >> lindsey, i was struck by hearing that detail as well from one of the officials. he said it's a small agency, everybody knows each other and as you point out folks had decades on the job. just an unspeakably tragic event. lindsey riser, our thanks to you. joining us now is moderator of washington week yamiche alcindor and chris brown the president of one of the oldest gun violence prevention groups. it feels like we have this same conversation on gun reform every few weeks as horrible as that is to say. as someone who has dedicated their life to this cause, i know you believe that change is possible but how? it doesn't seem like any change is coming in the federal government on this. >> we've made huge strides.

i know it feels hard, it's terrible to see the loss every time it happens and i have to tell you it never gets easier. it's heartbreaking to see and hear the impact of gun violence in america today which is at an epidemic level and is preventable. the house of representatives has passed hr-8, it's pending in the senate and ultimately it takes 60 votes because of the filibuster to pass gun violence prevention reform. just like anything else on president biden's agenda. i think the question is whether we have enough support for common sense measures. and let me just lay out, if you will, for ten seconds, 20 seconds about what this is. the brady law was passed about 27 years ago. what that did was operationalize the gun control act of 1968 and said that gun dealers have to do

background checks and can do it instantaneously checking with the fbi. the problem is at the time that passed federally licensed firearms dealers were not on the internet because it didn't exist and gun shows weren't big business. all this law says, hr-8, the bill that's pending, is the same rules should apply to people selling guns on the internet and people at gun shows. it's that simple. i'm incredulous at the idea that we can't get 60 people in the senate to support that measure. that's where it's pending. but do you know what, if we can't it means the filibuster must end and if it just takes 50 votes to pass this bill, then that's what it takes to save lives. we lose 100 people a day just like we did yesterday with nine innocent people going to work in san jose. it must stop. >> yamiche, in addition to hr-8

there is new legislation that's been introduced i want to read some nbc reporting to you and get your reaction because we have senator john cornyn and chris murphy, they want to clarify who is required to register as a federal firearms licensee and that's conduct fbi checks on a buyer before selling a gun. the senators say an ambiguity in the law has enabled unlicensed sellers to transfer weapons to dangerous people who skirt the background check system. this is something that's small and targeted and chris murphy, you have somebody from connecticut who represents the nu town families and cornyn you have somebody from texas who represents one of the most permissive states when it comes to gun ownership. on this specific bill based on your reporting do you think this is the kind of thing that can get 60 votes in the senate? >> small and targeted means that maybe it would have a better chance than the gun reform that the president and democrats have been pushing for for a long time, but even with that being said it's still every time you bring up the idea of any sort of

gun law changes it becomes a really, really hard thing to get through congress. it was last month that president biden assembled families whose families had been impacted by gun violence, including some of those newtown families and said that gun violence was an international embarrassment in the united states and talked about the executive actions he was taking including ghost guns. but this really is about whether or not the president will be pushing congress on this and whether or not congress can even be pushed on this issue. i remember being in connecticut when those six year olds were gunned down, i thought the world was going to shift and really nothing came from that. it's a big question now whether or not president biden can make this a priority because he's juggling so much. >> and we will see what he says about this if anything at the start of his remarks 10, 15 minutes from now. our thanks to the bo of you. two hours from now we are expecting a rally at the louisiana state capital as calls grow for the arrests of the

officers involved in the 2019 death of a black motorist. body cam footage obtained by the associated press showed state troopers punching, dragging and using a stun gun on a handcuffed 49-year-old ronald greene. the family was initially told that greene died in a crash during a high-speed chase and troops denied video of the incident existed until last year. greene's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit and they just held a news conference where his mother called on the state to act. >> it's so disrespectful to the state of louisiana to continue this, to run this through, hoping that eventually it will lose traction. for some reason or other it will just die away, which is not going to happen, because this is for my son. this is for a lot of what's been happening here, the cover ups, the corruption. all i want to say is the narrative was controlled by

them. by them, they all know who they are, from the state troopers on up to those who control them. these good old boys. >> joining us now from louisiana is nbc news correspondent sam brock. sam, the family as i understand it they issued a challenge to louisiana's elected leadership. so what's next in their fight? >> reporter: in the immediate future, geoff, they are looking to leverage local indignation and national indignation over this to try to put pressure on public officials because there was the expectation coming in today that we might learn about state charges. that turned out to not be the case, much to the frustration of mona harden, ronald greene's mother and the civil rights attorney who was representing the family. on the steps of the state capital building about 30 or 40 minutes ago they said is murder to the illegal in the state of louisiana because what we witnessed on that body camera and on the dash cam video was murder by anyone's conception of it. you mentioned it a second ago

the fact that we saw troopers in this case beating, stun gunning, dragging ronald greene's body by the ground by the ankles when he was shackled. he laid there for nine minutes bleeding and at the same time those same troopers were caught on camera sanitizing their hands and talking about the fact that they had just beat him and at one point he was, quote, limp. this is why you're seeing so much anger right now. here is lee merritt describing why he doesn't think charges are coming at this point. >> the reason that we haven't seen justice in the state of louisiana is because it's leadership doesn't have a taste for justice. if they had a taste for justice they would have made the arrest already. this is actually absurd that we are standing here 747 days later asking for initial arrests and then a presentation to the grand jury. it is a failure of leadership, a lack of leadership. >> reporter: geoff, it took 474 days for the state of louisiana to officially pursue and

initiate an investigation into the death of ronald greene. we know that later today in addition to this protest a couple of them that are going on this afternoon that we just mentioned the family and lee merritt will be meeting with governor edwards which has happened before but merritt said he scolded them before for talk about this video. he says he wants to have a conversation with the governor in the light of day to see if he can exert any influence in haste thing at least criminal proceedings in this case. >> sam, it's worth underscoring the only reason we know about this video is because of the journalistic efforts of the associated press. i mean, the louisiana state police and louisiana officials did not make this video, you know, available voluntarily. sam brock, great reporting as always. we appreciate you. still ahead, welcome back to 2016. tonight paul ryan will reboot his fight with donald trump over the future of the gop. but will version two prove any different? later, china calls president biden's intelligence probe into the origins of covid-19 a smear campaign. but first, the mother of fallen capitol police officer brian sicknick is on capitol

hill to plead with republicans to investigate january's insurrection. >> usually i'm staying in the background and i just couldn't stay quiet anymore. and i just t stay quiet anymore ♪ where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪♪ ♪ and they're always glad you came ♪ ♪ you wanna be where you can see(ah-ah) ♪ ♪ our troubles are all the same (ah-ah) ♪ ♪ you wanna be where everybody knows your name ♪ ♪ you wanna go where people know ♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. i'm still wowed but first, the mother of ha. but first, the mother of not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin,... i want that. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. and has less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis has both. don't stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke.

eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. while taking, you may bruise more easily... or take longer for bleeding to stop. get help right away for unexpected bleeding, or unusual bruising. it may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. the number one cardiologist-prescribed blood thinner. ask your doctor about eliquis. think of what peanuts have given humanity! fuel for vast migrations! sustenance for mountaineering expeditions and long journeys across the world! but most importantly? they give us something to eat when we drink beer. planters. a nut above.

aid green. adrian. aid green. adrian. recent adrian. d green. adrian aid gr adrian adrian woman on a mission is going door to door. there you see gladys sicknick. you've likely heard about her son brian sicknick the capitol police officer who was on duty during the january insurrection

and then suffered two strokes and died the next day. now, the senate is expected to vote as soon as today on an independent bipartisan commission to write the definitive account of what happened on january 6th, but with the republican filibuster looking likely in the senate sicknick's long time partner and his mom are making a last minute plea to change minds. >> if they look at the footage that happened it's very obvious that that was not a peaceful day. police officers were getting attacked, they were getting beaten, fire extinguishers were thrown in the them, they were being attacked by flag poles, mike and officer dunn here -- i should say -- >> gladys sicknick says she couldn't stay quiet anymore. you might have heard there she was asked a question about a statement that she sent to republican lawmakers. now, in that statement she says her son, quote, fought for hours and hours against those animals

who were trying to take over the capitol building and our democracy as we know it. not having a january 6th commission to look into exactly what occurred is a slap in the faces of all the officers who did their jobs that day. those are the words of gladys sicknick. joining us now our capitol hill correspondent garrett haake and kara lennig, author the author of "zero fail: the rise and fall of the secret service." a preemptive apology in case president biden starts speaking and we have to cut you off. gladys sicknick met with 15 republican senators, there were a dozen senators who didn't respond to her request to meet with her i'm told and already we've heard from at least a couple of these senators who say, you know, look, we send our condolences, but they're still against forming a commission. so how does this look like it's going to play out on the hill? is the filibuster here inevitable?

>> it certainly appears that way, geoff. we will probably see it sometime later this afternoon or this evening. it would actually be the first republican filibuster of the biden administration and a noble place to start really on this commission to investigate what happened on january 6th. those meetings, by the way, are still going on. i believe even as we speak the sicknick family is meeting with senator lisa murkowski who is one of just three republicans who have committed to voting in favor of at least moving the process forward on this january 6th commission, but mitch mcconnell really slammed the door on this for a lot of his members earlier this week. he had been on the fence as recently as last week about this but came out and said he sees this as a nakedly political exercise. he would not support it even with any changes made to increase fairness and i think democrats are saying, all right, if that's the way you want to play t we're going to make you take this vote and actually say, no, we do not want a commission. it will be a tough vote here

later this evening. >> and, carol, to garrett's point, one of the things that mitch mcconnell the senate republican leader said today is that he views this as being an extraneous commission. he said there's nothing an extraneous commission could uncover. he said basically the doj investigations are enough, but there are still a lot of big things we don't know about tra transpired on january 6th. you know, not the least of which is what president biden -- sorry, then president trump what he was doing on that day. so give us a sense of what more we could learn about january 6th. >> you know, without subpoena power of congress and of a congressional committee we are never going to learn what lawmakers were doing and any coordination by that i mean basic communication that they had with some of these rioters. that's a big concern for democrats and has been since january 6th where they believed republican colleagues were involved. answering that question could put that to rest. if the answer is no, everybody can get along very much -- much

better than they are now. the other thing that you can't answer while you're trying to prosecute individual people, you can't answer about the intel failures. the police decision-making beforehand. about how they would provide certain level of staffing. you can't learn how the pentagon responded before, during and after. there are so many questions and honestly, you know, gladys sicknick is kind of this voice of moral clarity and reason in saying it's a slap in the faces of other officers to not want the answers. doj can't answer those as they're prosecuting this person and that person for being a rioter. it's critical that we know how this got seeded, how this intelligence failure and also security planning failure unfolded so we don't have it happen again. >> carol and garrett, my thanks to the both of you. we are going to go straightaway to cleveland, ohio, where president biden is beginning his

remarks. let's listen in. >> -- you have to come and ride a bus again with another guy. you are awful nice to be here. the only thing worse for an elected official when the president shows up is to say the worst sentence in the english language is i'm at the airport. so thank you all so much. you've got some really great friends me, start with marcie. anyway, mr. mayor, thank you. dr. johnson, thank you very much and for letting me borrow -- by the way, marcia fudge to serve as secretary of housing and urban development. you know, certain places just by chance and circumstance can become markers in the course of your life or in the course of the nation and for my tri-c is

one of those places. just a little over a year ago, march 10, 2020, i came to cleveland as a candidate running for president to rally -- hold a haley here at the community college. upon unloading we got word that governor dewine he did the right thing, wanted large indoor events to shut down because of the growing concerns over the virus and spreading all across america. there would be no rally that night. life in america had changed and a long, dark year was about to descend upon all of us. 14 months later we finally made it to campus and from a year of darkness we are now emerging into the light. i said from the very beginning there's no chance, no chance, this economy to come back unless we beat the pandemic. i remember congressman ryan and i talking about that a lot on

the campaign trail. you had to beat the pandemic to bring the economy back. and so that's what we set out to do was help a lot of the people that are right here and after administering 271 million doses of vaccine in the first 120 days and we have -- cases are down now from january -- they're down 83% covid cases, down. the number of deaths has fallen by 85%. schools reopening, businesses are opening, restaurants are reopening and i hear that as last night's vaccine lottery ohio has a new millionaire. i tell you what, who would have thunk it? a million bucks for getting a vaccine. but it's working. now 56% of ohioans have had at least one shot. we've got to get to 70%.

that's the goal. we've turned the tide on the ones in a century pandemic, we've turned the tide on a once in a generation economic crisis and families are beginning to be able to breathe just a little bit easier. we still have work to do, but our future today is as bright and as wide open as it ever has been. and now we're faced with a question, what kind of economy are we going to build for tomorrow? what are we going to do? i believe this is our moment to rebuild an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. not a trickle down economy from the very wealthy. that has never benefited people who are at this college or any other place where they're trying to make a living. to build an economy the reward is work, not just wealth. an economy that works for the back loan of this country. the people who get up every single day, work hard, raise

their families, pay their taxes, serve their country, volunteered in their communities. just looking for a little bit of breathing room. my dad used to say just a little bit of breathing room, honey. and tim has heard me say this 1,000 times, my dad used to say, joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. it's about your dignity. it's about respect. it's about your place in the community. it's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, it's going to be okay. the last few months demonstrated what that economy can look like. when our event here was canceled in march our economy was on the brink of collapse. my mom used to have -- say, you know, the greatest gift god gave mankind was the ability to forget because if we didn't do that everyone would only have one child, but all kidding aside, the good news is we forget the bad times, that's the

good thing about we americans, we're always optimistic. but ten months -- ten months ago we were in trouble. when i was sworn in there were ten million furs jobs in america and a lot here in ohio. in my first three months in office the economy has added back 500,000 jobs per month. in fact, we've created with the help, again, of the members of congress that are here today 1.5 million jobs, more jobs than have ever been created in the first three months of any presidency in the history of united states. before i took office the average initial claims for unemployment insurance were over 830,000. this morning we learned that number has fallen below 460,000. and we are at the lowest level we have seen since march 2020 when the pandemic first struck.

before i took office almost 24 million americans were going hungry. marcie has heard me say this before, did you ever think you would see people lined up for miles and miles and miles, going into a stadium to get someone to put a box of food in their trunk? people never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever thought they would need that kind of help. well, that number of hungry americans, food-starved americans, has dropped by 30%. still too many, but there's clear progress. before i took office independent experts projected that our economy would grow at 3% to 4% in the year 2021, but they are now projecting that growth will be 6% or higher in 2021. the fastest growth in this country in 40 years.

to sum it up, covid cases are down, covid deaths are down, unemployment filings are down, hunger is down, vaccinations are up, jobs are up, growth is up, people gaining health coverage is up, small business confidence is up. put it simply, america is coming back. america is on the move. [ applause ] >> and that wasn't an accident. it wasn't luck. it happened for two reasons, first, we made the vaccine program a priority. as my friends in congress tell you i got a lot of heat for just focusing on the vaccine. goes back to what we all talk about, you've got to fix the pandemic before you can fix the economy. we were able with a lot of hard

work get 600 million doses of the vaccine, enough for every single solitary american. we didn't have enough vaccinators so i went to fema, the united states military, went to the ama and got retired docs and nurses to come out of retirement. got thousands and thousands of additional people to administer the vaccines that we didn't have before. we created more places to get vaccinated, hitting my target to ensure that 90% of all americans would have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live, and now 50% of all of america, more than any other country, is fully vaccinated. [ applause ] 75 -- 75% of seniors, black, white, hispanic across the board are fully vaccinated.

we're getting lives back. the american economy is coming back. and that's the second reason we are on the move. i committed to an approach of building an american economy, a different economy, to build back better, not just build back, build back better. that approach recognizes that we do -- all do better when we all do well and the best way to grow our economy is from the bottom up and the middle out. you know, i don't have anything against anybody on wall street, i don't have anything against anybody making a million bucks, but wall street did not build this country. the middle class built this country. and unions built the middle class. that's a fact. recognize that this time when we rebuild the middle class we have to bring everybody along,

regardless of their back ground, regardless of their religion, regardless of their race. that's the approach reflected in the american rescue plan which my friends in the congress helped get passed. because of that law more than 167 million americans got a rescue payment of $1,400. it's gone out helping families pay their rent, pay their bills, buy their groceries and maybe most important give them for the first time some hope, a little bit of hope. hope goes a long, long, long way. those checks matter. small businesses, restaurants, were getting killed. now we're delivering the loans and support they need to reopen and stay open. stools were struggling to reopen so we made targeting teachers to get the vaccine as a priority. we delivered to schools much needed support. state and local governments and,

you know, mr. mayor, a lot of them had to lay off their employees, cops, firefighters, first responders because you have to balance your budget. well, now they're coming back thanks to the rescue plan. beginning this summer families with children will get tax relief, tax credit, a child tax credit. we're going to deposit money directly into their banks every month until that money is paid out. by the way, we had no problem passing a $2 trillion tax plan that went to the top 1% that wasn't paid for at all, just increased the debt $2 trillion. every time i talk about tax cuts for working class people, oh, my god, what are we going to do? well, we're going to take back some of that 1% money and make them pay for it. and thanks in part to part of

the rescue plan named for an ohio labor leader, butch lewis, championed by sherrod brown who i don't think sherrod is here today, hundreds of thousands of retirees and workers across ohio and millions more across the country can trust that their pensions they worked so damn hard for and sacrificed to secure will be there for them. unlike my dad who busted his neck the whole life and when the company went under he lost his pension, completely. even my republican friends in congress, not a single one of them voted for the rescue plan. i'm not going to embarrass anyone, but i have here a list of how back in their districts they're bragging about the rescue plan. they touted the restaurant revitalization fund, they touted the fact that we are in a situation where we're -- touted

grants to community health centers. touted -- i mean, some people have no shame. but i'm happy. i'm happy they know that it benefited their constituents. that's okay with me, but if you are going to try to take credit for what you've done, don't get in the way of what we still need to do. the bottom line -- the bottom line is this, the biden economic plan is working. we had record job creation, we're seeing record economic growth, we're creating a new paradigm. one that rewards work -- the working people in this nation, not just those at the top. we did a study, 85% of my jobs plan -- 95% of my jobs plan you don't need a bachelor's degree. 75% you don't even need a degree

that's a community college degree. it helps, but guess what, the bottom line is that people are going to be going back to work. there's a new barn and everyone in it will be in on the deal this time. now as our economy recovers there's going to be some bumps in the road. we know that. of course there will be. you can't reboot a global economy like flipping on a light switch. there's going to be ups and downs and jobs and economic reports. there's going to be supply chain issues, price distortions, on the way back to a stable and steady growth. in the coming weeks my administration will take steps to combat these supply pressures starting with the construction materials and transportation bottlenecks and building off the work we're doing on computer chips. we are also announcing new initiatives to combat anti-competitive practices that hurts small businesses and families. fixing those problems can help build more dynamic innovative economy and we are going to have

a lot more to say about that in the days ahead, but this -- this is already clear, we're on the right track. the american rescue plan laid a strong foundation for a new economy that brings everybody along, but it's just the first step. we're going to build on the incentive and incredible progress that we made and set america on a sustainable path to faster, more inclusive economic growth. we're going to have to start investing in ourselves again and the american people again. consider this, three decades ago the united states was number one and some would argue number two in the world for r&d spending, research and development, a share of our economy. do you know where we are now in the international competition? we're number nine. nine. meanwhile, china was number eight and their overall spending in research and development three decades ago, they are now number two.

number two. this past year japan, canada, italy, france and the eu have now significant infrastructure spending. china has announced they're increasing their research and development spending dramatically. japan is making huge investments in reducing carbon emissions and building out the digital capacity they have. the european union as well. we're in a race to see who wins the 21st century. now, if i could hold just for a second here, one of the things i've found -- you know, i'm supposedly -- they always announced me in the past as an expert on foreign policy. well, let me tell you something, economic policy is harder than foreign policy. do you know what the basis of foreign policy is and our stature in the world? one thing. our economic prowess. our economic prowess. we must be number one in the world to lead the world in the

21st century. it's a simple proposition. and the starting gun has already gone off. we can't afford to fall any further behind. now is the time so build the foundation that we've laid. to make bold investments in our families, in our communities, in our nation. we know from history that these kinds of investments raise both the floor and the ceiling of an economy for everybody. like when we brought electricity to every household in the country in the 1930s or we connected the country through the interstate highway system in the '50s. they created millions of jobs, good paying jobs. they set the economy up to grow more quickly and share prosperity more broadly for decades to come. those electrical poles and wires still help power rural communities 80 years after they were built and it's time now to rebuild them. a quarter of all the miles

americans travel on roads are on interstate highway system, built 60 years ago. 60 years after we built it. these are generational investments. private sector does not make these kind of investments. we've neglected that public investment for much too long. the pandemic exposed how bad we needed to invest in the foundation this have country and the working people in this country. that's why i proposed the american jobs plan and the american family plan. the generational investments we need today to succeed for tomorrow. you know, as my wife jill who has been a teacher for a long time, she used to be about ten years younger than me, now she's 30 years younger than me, she is in every way, god love her, she's the only first lady to ever work full-time. full-time. she teaches 15 credits at the community college. 15 credits. she's a remarkable person.

she's out in missouri right now and in kansas doing other things, nothing to do with her job as a teacher. but my point is this, jill has a constant refrain. joey, any nation that outeducates us is going to outcompete us. it's a simple proposition. you know, think about this, one of the reasons that caused us to move ahead so significantly as a world leader in economic leader in the world was in the late 1800s, early 1900s we were the first nation in the world to say we're going to have 12 years of free without any limitation free education. 12 years. now, imagine if -- and the rest of the world has caught up with us. and they've now passed us in many cases. imagine if we were sitting today and say we're going to set up an education system.

does anybody think 12 years of education is enough for us to compete in the world in the second quarter of the 21st century? i'm not joking. just consciously think about that. is it enough? it's not. and so i'm proposing four additional years of education, two years of high quality pre-k for three and four years old. not in daycare. in school. the studies show that if you do that those children have an opportunity of 56 -- 56 better chance of going through all 12 years of school and beyond without getting in any trouble, no matter what the background or the family they come from. no matter what. on the front end those two years are important and then two years of free community college. free community college. to better prepare our people to get these good-paying jobs and

future, jobs i saw students training for throughout the manufacturing technology center. you know, we need to invest in transportation infrastructure. drive anywhere and you can see why we're rated 13th in the world in infrastructure. united states of america is viewed to have the 13th best infrastructure in the world. come on. this is the united states of america for god's sake. we need to invest in universal high speed internet, more seamlessly connect our businesses and their customers, expand the possibilities of job opportunities in every hometown in america no matter how big or small. and, by the way, if you hold for a second, think about this, how many of you men and women have children who were doing remote learning? think of all the children throughout the country, in inner

cities and rural areas that had no rural connection. it's estimated that some of those kids will be pushed -- although it's only been one year -- three years behind in their education. look, investment in high growth industries like clean energy, electric vehicles, it's not just we want to deal with the environment, we want to lead the world in exports of these new technologies instead of seeding the global market and job creation to the chinese. they're building 20 times as many electric vehicles as we are doing now and the technology that goes with that. what are we doing? it's millions of jobs in china instead of here. it's not that the jobs we're going to create here, but we're gks g.ing folks port the technology. we used to be the net exporter of major technologies. i also think, and i'm pushing very hard, to make major

investments in medicines and cures in the future. folks, diseases like alzheimer's, diabetes, cancers, they are all on the cusp of being able to be dealt with. you know, if we don't do something about alzheimer's in america, every single, solitary hospital bed that exists in america the nurses can tell you, every single one will be occupied in the next 15 years with an alzheimer's patient. every one. costing us an excess of a trillion dollars. so what are we doing? i came up with an idea and i think it's going to get done and that is that, you know, there's a thing called darpa which is a defense applied application research, it's an outfit that came up with the internet in the defense department, came up with gio spacing and a whole range of things that relate to our security. i want to do the same thing at the nih to focus on those diseases. it's estimated if we do -- if we

spend $5 billion a year on that research and development, focusing on what insurance companies don't have the money to focus on, we can make significant breakthroughs. we're already doing that. already doing that. if we invest we can create millions of jobs, rebuilding the foundation of a strong, fair, resilient competitive economy and save hundreds of thousands of lives. 100% of our investment is going to be guided by one principle, make it in america. make it in america. [ applause ] i can hold that for just a second, there is a law that was passed in the '30s, doesn't violate any trade principle, saying that whatever money -- whatever program the taxpayers are paying for, you can spend it all on american contractors. no one has ever done t i promise you, i signed an executive

order, if, in fact, we're building the new deck on an aircraft carrier, guess what, i get as president to let contracts over $600 billion a year. i promise you there will be no contract let to a foreign company or any of the product down the line. right now what can happen is you can hire an american company and they can sublet and they can -- their downstream product can all be foreign. all you have to do is get that particular agency to say you got an exception. we can't find that job here in america. well, guess what, they're going to find a job here in america. i promise you or they're not going to get the contracts. these jobs will be good jobs, american jobs that deliver good wages and dignity. and, look, this is about choice. we can keep giving every break in the world to corporations and

ceos or we can raise the corporate tax rate back to 28%. it was, by the way, 36%. we came down to 28% which is still lower than it was at any point between world war i point went world war i and 2017. they're making trillions of dollars. in the ten-year period between '14 and '24 -- excuse me, between '10 and '20 -- 2010, 2020, they made over $1 trillion. i think that's good. you know what they did, they bought back 56% of their stock. the more they buy back, the more valuable the stock, that's how ceos get paid. ceos used to get paid 35 times, 36 times the average employee, and they should get paid.

now over 370 times than the average employee. as my mother would say, who died and left them boss? i'm serious about it. now, so you got over 50% going to stock buybacks, and the other, i think it's 42%, let me see, 56 -- it's -- it's 38% goes to dividends which is reasonable. here's the point -- after all is said and done, that leaves 8% of that trillion dollars for research and development, salaries, new product, new enterprises, new initiatives, 8%. i come from the corporate capital of the world literally, more corporations are incorporated in the state of delaware than any place in america combined, all the rest of the -- corporate

registrations combined, in my state. it used to be corporations felt they had responsibilities beyond their taxpayer, beyond their shareholders and beyond their executives. what is it now? average ceo becomes a ceo for six to seven years. and by the way, capitalism has incentives. one of the worst votes made was during the clinton administration, say a corporation could not deduct in tax -- deduct from their taxes more than $1 million that paid for any ceo. so guess what they started doing? 80%-some get paid in stock options. why do you think they buy back the stock to raise the price in stock? they're not bad guys. it's just the incentives. e tax to 28% which is still lower than where it was i

said between world war i and 2017, that generates $90 billion into the additional treasury for the year, per year. that could put hundreds of thousands of people to work. to modernize our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports, and pay for it. [ applause ] >> pay for it. put people to work to make sure every american has access to high-speed internet, so businesses can compete in the 21st century. kids in every community can get ahead. another choice. we can ask the top 1% of the taxpayers in america to pay the same tax rate they paid when george w. bush was president. do you know how much that would generate? that would generate $13 billion per year, allowing every student in america to go to community college for free. when i was in the last administration that i was part

of, obama/biden, the president asked me to find out what the major corporate entities, thought was the most important thing they needed. we interviewed over 340 -- i think it's 348 ceos. do you know what they said? everyone of them -- a better indicated work force. they're not spending money to educate the work force. so imagine what we do, corporate america benefits with a better educated population. do you want to give the wealthiest people in america another tax cut? by the way, i don't begrudge them the money they made. just start paying your fair share. just a little bit. consequences would help every high school graduate earn an education like students here at tri-c. one that puts people on a path to good paying jobs and industries of the future. look, i know, i know you know what's best for america. and by the way, better educated public helps everybody. look, my plan is -- my plan is

the right way to invest, spreading key investments over time so we limit the price pressure. this is the right time to invest when we have historically low interest rates. investing now with a plan to pay for it that is fiscally responsible thing to do. of course, there are critics out there who want to stand still. by the way, some of those critics are the same people who said that money was no object when it came, as i said, to that $2 trillion tax cut that went to the wealthiest 1% of america who hold 30% of all the wealth in the country. what we need to fix, a road or water system, help millions of people return to the work force by helping them afford childcare or elder care or help attend -- the ability to attend tri-c, they think that's -- that's a bridge too far. investing in america again is going to create growth, more jobs, but there's something else we have to do to ensure the

high-quality jobs exist. we must restore the connection between the success of our economy and the people who produce that success, hard-working americans. the connection has been severed. we all remember it used to be the case when you were part of generating success of a company, you got to share in the benefits. that's long since gone. not a joke. and by the way, i'm a capitalist. but here's the deal -- from 1948 after the war to 1977, i think it was 1977, '79, productivity in america grew by 100%. we made more things, productivity -- do you know what the workers pay group -- 100%. since 1979, all that changed. productivity has grown four times faster than pay has grown.

the basic bargain in this country has been broken. if you work hard and contribute to the enterprise, you get to share in success. that's not the case anymore. so you can carve out your place in the middle class. that's how it happens. that's how it works in healthy capitalist economies. along the way we started seeing the stock market and corporate profits and executive pay as the sole measure of our economic success. let me tell you something -- my sole measure is how working families are doing, whether they have jobs that deliver dignity. that means we have to focus on wages like we used to. when it comes to the economy, we're building rising wages aren't a bug, they're a feature. we want to -- we want to get something economists call full employment. instead of workers competing with each other for jobs that are scarce, we want employers to compete to attract work. we want the companies to compete to attract workers. that competition doesn't just give workers more ability to

earn a higher wage, it gives them the power to demand and be treated with dignity and respect in a workplace. and it helps ensure that america when you're walking into work, you don't have to check your right to be treated with respect at the door. full employment also means more options and opportunities for workers including black/hispanic workers, asian american workers, women, who have been left behind in previous economic recoveries, when the labor market never tightened up enough. look, this isn't just good for individual workers, it also makes our economy a whole lost stronger. when american workers have more money to spend, american businesses benefit. we all benefit. higher wages and more options for workers are a good thing. a lot of companies have done extremely well in this crisis. and good for them. good for them. the simple fact is, though, corporate profits are the highest they've been in decades. workers' pay is at the lowest it's been in 70 years.

we have more than ample room to raise worker pay without raising customer prices. soaring corporate profits and stagnant wages aren't the american dream. and they aren't the american deal. look, i'm not looking to punish anyone and say business shouldn't be able to make a significant profit. i understand the risk and challenges business owners face. and they should be rewarded for their success and the risks they take. i just think after decades of workers getting the raw deal, it's time they be given a fair shake. [ applause ] wait until you see what happens when employers have to compete for workers. companies like mcdonald's, home depot, bank of america, and others, what do they have to do? they have to raise wages to attract workers. that's the way it's supposed to be. and we've got to do two more things -- congress should raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

[ applause ] no one -- no one should work 40 hours a week and live in poverty. live below the poverty level. and we ought to pass the protect the right to organize, p.r.o. act supported by union workers. look, let me close with this -- [ applause ] you know, it's an overused phrase these days, but it's still accurate. put an inflection point -- we're at an inflection point in american history. it happens every several generations. we have a chance to seize the economic momentum in the first months of my administration not just to build back, but to build back better. and this time we're going to deal everyone in. everyone has been left out. and breathe new life into the middle class and new hope into those struggling to break into the middle class. we have a chance to make