Democratic president ial candidate tom steyer hosted a town hall in waterloo, iowa. Is two hours. Good evening. Gruber, and i am vice chair of the county democrats. A fewant to acknowledge of the dignitaries tonight. Jeff, a member of the school board. [applause] pat harper, former state senator and state representative. Of course, we have jerry, who is currentk hawk county democratic secretary. Are there any elected officials or former that i missed . I am a councilmember of the Cedar Falls Community school board. [applause] tonight, i have the honor of introducing tom steyer. Tom left his investing business seven years ago to give his own money and all of his time and energy to fight for progressive causes. He soon became one of the leading forces in registering young voters, registering voters of color, fighting Climate Change, working for racial justice, and fighting to secure better lives for all americans. [applause] tom has led a number of peoplefirst, grassroots campaigns that have repeatedly defeated powerful special interests, including beating big oil to win clean air laws, forcing big tobacco to pay its share of health care costs, and closing a billiondollar Corporate Tax loophole to fund Public Schools. [applause] tom and his wife were early signers of the giving pledge, a commitment to give the bulk of their fortune to good causes before they die. [applause] toms dedication to doing what is right came from his parents. His father was a lawyer who prosecuted nazis. His mother was a journalist and teacher who volunteered to teach prisoners in new york city jails. Tom says his parents showed him the power of having the courage to do the fight thing. Courage to do the right thing. Their greatest lesson was that our actions speak louder than our words. What we do is more important than what we say. Please join me in welcoming tom steyer to the stage. [applause] mr. Steyer hey, you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Hello. Wow. It is great to be here. Let me say, this is the fourth day of driving around a snowy iowa in a bus. I hate to tell you, this is as much fun as i know how to have. I love this so much. People always ask me, is it grueling . I say, ok, talking to americans and listening to them and learning about what is going what is coming across in the United States, if you think that is grueling, do not run for president. This is the thing i enjoy the most and think is the most important thing i can do. Let me say at the start, i want this to be a conversation. I want to spend a few minutes explaining who i am beyond what nate said, and why i am running for president , but mostly i want to take as many questions as i can take from you. I want to have as much of a conversation to hear what is on your mind and answer any question you have. Let me say this. When people describe me, i sometimes think i should describe myself as Billionaire Tom Steyer instead of just tom steyer, but i am not from that kind of background. My mom was from minneapolis. She was a teacher in the Public Schools and she taught prisoners at the brooklyn house of detention. Her brother was a professor at the university of iowa for 40 years, who taught constitutional law. [applause] mr. Steyer i have been coming to iowa for easter since i was two years old. My aunt turned 100 on december 15 in iowa city. [applause] mr. Steyer my father did prosecute nazis at the nuremberg trial. He was the first generation in his family to go to college. My grandfather was a plumber. My father went to law school. He quit the law to go into the navy in world war ii. Here we are in a museum about five brothers who went down on a navy ship. Everybody in my parents generation wanted to be in the war. My father quit being a lawyer so he could go into the navy. Because he had been to law school, after the war, he became the assistant to the chief prosecutor of the nazi war criminals. Big he always told my two brothers and me was, if you see something wrong and the United States, it is your job to fight it as early and as hard as you can. You have to stand up for what is right. That is why i started the need to impeach campaign. I thought, there is something terribly wrong at 1600 pennsylvania avenue and the American People we have to raise our voice. 8. 5 Million People signed the petition. What happened in impeachment, it was not me and not the argument. If you are a congressperson and 35,000 constituents sign a letter saying, do something about this, it is hard to say no. The American People said to the people in d. C. , do what is right, stop thinking about political expediency and think about what america stands for. That is what happened. [applause] mr. Steyer look, i started a business from nothing. I never inherited a penny from my parents. I walked away from the business, i took the giving pledge to give my money away. I have spent 10 years organizing people, like the people in this room, to take on Corporate Power. I think this government has been bought by corporations. It is broken. It is not trying to serve you, the fact that it is not working for you does not mean it is not working, because it is working for corporations perfectly. I spent 10 years trying to organize people to take on and beat corporations and we had been successful. We beat Oil Companies and Drug Companies, tobacco companies, utilities. They are not that smart. There are millions more of us than there are of them. But we have to be organized and we have to stand up to them. For 10 years i have done that and organized people to come out and vote. I started something called nextgen america. We had been in iowa since 2014. I have been coming here not only to see my aunt. Nextgen is on 41 campuses in iowa. We did the largest youth vote mobilization in the history of america. We more than doubled the turnout of young people. 33 republican districts went to democratic districts. [applause] mr. Steyer i want to tell you two more things. One, i am the only person in this race, democrat or republican, who will say climate is my number one priority. [applause] mr. Steyer i have been fighting on climate for over a decade. When i had been taking on Oil Companies and utility, it is to push for clean energy. When i push on climate, i will start with the communities where you cannot breathe the air safely or if you drink water out of a tap, you will get sick. If we solve climate, we will clean up the air and water including in iowa. And we are going to rebuild this country to save ourselves from climate. We have to rebuild the country. We are talking millions and millions of good paying, union jobs in the United States. When you think about i know we have to do it. After 12 years of studying it, we can do it. We can do it in a way that cleans the air and water and creates millions of good paying jobs so americans are better paid and better employee than better paid and better employed than they have ever been. This is the biggest work project in american history. [applause] mr. Steyer i want to say one more thing about climate. We cannot do it alone. This is a global problem. There is only one country on the face of the earth and one people that can lead immorally on this, one people that can lead morally on this morally, financially, technologically, commercially. The United States of america. If we do not do it, there is no second choice. It sounds like a big challenge. It is also the best thing that will ever happen to us. If we have to stand up and do the right thing and lead the world in doing the vita thing and succeed, lead the world in doing the right thing, that is a reinvention in the spirit of america. We are in this museum, we have the plane, the five sullivan brothers, it is about the idea of america leading the world to do the right thing. We have to do it again. We can do it in a way that makes us healthier and richer and will restore what we have as a common purpose for morality and doing the right thing and standing up for what it means to be an american. I feel great about it. [applause] mr. Steyer i want to say one more thing before questions. We are getting close to the iowa caucuses. I think everyone in this room realizes that whoever the democrat is who is the nominee will have to beat donald trump. It is becoming clear i want a sweeping victory. I believe we will have a sweeping victory and we need a sweeping victory. The first thing that happens is the democratic nominee will have to go onto the stage and take down donald trump in a debate in september and october. It has to happen. Lets talk about what that is going to look like in the real world. We know what mr. Trump is running on. He said it couple of weeks ago in washington to a group of americans at the americanisraeli conference. I am going to be pretty close to what he said. He said, you do not like me, and i do not like you, but you will vote for me because if you do not, the democrats will destroy the economy in 15 minutes. That is his stump speech. Let me reinterpret that and a and in large on what he is trying to say in the nicest way i know. Here is what he is saying to americans. I am a criminal. You know that. I despise 80 of you. You know that and you despise me back. You know something . If i were in waterloo, your mother would not invite me into the house or allow me to eat dinner with your family. True. My mom would never have let him eat dinner with us. We all know that. And you are all going to vote for me because the democrats are a bunch of socialists who do not know anything about prosperity or business or job creation or success. Even though i am a criminal who , and you loathes you loathe, people vote for me because the democrats will destroy the economy. That is his speech. That is what he is running on. Whoever the democrat is going to have to go on the stage and expose him as a fake. He is a fake. He was a fake businessperson. He played a businessperson on a reality tv show. He failed as a businessperson. But he was a terrific reality tv star. He has been a terrible steward of the american economy. He did two things we are in iowa. The first thing he did was a tax plan that was the biggest giveaway to rich people and big corporations in american history, when it falls apart, the people in this room and other People Like Us are going to be paying for it until we get rid of that giveaway. The other thing he did was start a trade war. Which has hurt american workers, hurt consumers, and it has killed american farmers. It is terrible for iowa. The other thing he has done his other spectacular idea, give waivers to Oil Refineries so they do not have to use biofuels. They dont have to use corn ethanol. When this guy is on the state saying what a great job he has done on the economy, someone has to take him down. I did start a business. I did grow a successful business. No one has been able to call me a socialist. That is the most ridiculous thing ive heard in my life. Seriously. I can say, if the country is growing, and all the extra income goes to only the richest, that aint success. If you have a 1 trillion deficit that the working people will have to pay back one way or another, that aint success. If you are not giving americans a chance to succeed by helping educate them, keeping them healthy, delivering decent wages to working people, that aint success. What we have is a fake, hollow success that is not reaching the working people, 90 of americans. Someone has to say it. [applause] mr. Steyer trust me, there is nothing other than being with you guys, there is nothing i would rather do than take on a loudmouth bully who is hurting americans across the board. I promise you that. [applause] mr. Steyer i really would love i will try to answer questions as briefly as i can so we can take as many questions as possible. I would love to answer whatever you have to ask. Ok . Whatever you got, lets get going. We will bring around a microphone so people can hear the question. These identify yourself so people know your name. My name is joe. I am a waterloo native. I have been looking at your website and there is so much information and you articulated so many things that you are going to do, but what is the elevator pitch for someone who does not know that much about you and your story that you are better than donald trump on the economy . What is the elevator pitch so the undecided mr. Steyer here it is. The government is broken, it has been bought by corporations, i am someone who spent 10 years fighting corporations and beating them and trying to push power to americans through more democracy. I am someone who is an outsider, i am not beholden to any interest in d. C. , i am for term limits of 12 years for congresspeople and senators, i believe we need new people in charge. [applause] mr. Steyer i say to people i will interrupt my pitch. Six arguments for term limits. Mitch mcconnell, lindsey graham, chuck grassley. Lets have term limits. [applause] mr. Steyer i am the person who will make the climate my number one priority and i will use it to rebuild and reimagine america in a good way. I built a business on my own, i know what it takes to grow an economy, i know what it takes to have Economic Growth and economic justice. I will take mr. Trump down because i am not scared of a bully who is a big bag of wind. [applause] jim, retired marine and artist. This is the third time we heard you speak. I have been disappointed that the campaign does not seem to have caught fire like i think it should. Your message, when i hear you speak in person, is very fired up and critical. Yet, the tv ads are almost we see so many tv ads. Mr. Steyer i know you do. I would like to see the fire in the background and the inspiration, fire coming across somehow, because they reach a lot of people, but in my opinion they are not standing out. I appreciate your running for office. Mr. Steyer let me say this. If you look at the four early primary states people think of this as a national primary. I think everybody in iowa knows it is a series of state caucuses and primaries. Which is why iowa is important. It sets the stage for every other state. People in iowa take their responsibility it is a saturday night and you are here. You take your responsibility seriously in terms of choosing the next president. In the four early primary states, i am better than 10 . In the rest of the country, they do not know who i am. The thing you should know about me, i started nextgen america. I believe in grassroots. The most important thing someone running for president can do is look americans in the eye and hear what is concerning them. I wasnt kidding. This is my favorite thing to do because i think it is the most important thing to do, hear what people are saying like what you are saying. My goal is to get in front of as many people directly so i can listen to them and hear what they are saying and tell them my elevator pitch. I can respond to them and they can respond to be. That is my goal. I think we have 15 offices in iowa. The person running our campaign in iowa is a grassroots person. The person running the campaign nationally built nextgen america. We believe in talking directly to voters knocking on doors, calling people directly i was on the phone yesterday saying this is not a recording, this is me. [laughter] mr. Steyer i agree with you. Mr. Steyer i agree with you. My goal is for people to understand who i am and what i stand for because i am running for a simple reason. I was so disappointed, i thought no one was leveling with the American People. That basically we are not getting Affordable Health care, we are not getting the green into deal, the education we deserve, unless we take back this government from corporations. If we take it back and stabilize the climate, we are in great shape. But if we blow those challenges, we are in trouble. I was worried people keep talking about policy things we cannot get until we get back the government of, by, and for the people. That is my pitch and that is what i want people to hear. I asked my kids, do you want me to do this . They were like, go take your stand. Someones got to go take the stand. That is what i am trying to do. [applause] i am a retired resident. Mr. Steyer nice to meet you. Pleasure to meet you. I have two tough questions. The first is probably the hardest. Term limits. Congress is run like a union. The longer you are there, the more authority you have. The more times you get reelected, the better off you are. It does not matter what party you are in. That is the rules of congress. I am not sure if they are in the constitution that way. Mr. Steyer they are not. They are set up in the laws of the country. With term limits, how do you answer the question of how you pick the leaders, how you pick the second placers, how you pick who is on the committees . That is the first question. The second question is, we have all worked. We all pay Social Security tax. Fica. Now that i am older, i got smarter. I got a pension. I even have a 401 k . I started Social Security a couple years ago. One of the biggest insults this country has ever made to me was how much do you want out of your Social Security to go to income tax. How can you stop double taxation on Social Security . It is not deductible in the beginning. It has not been for decades. Now, 20 years ago . 30 years ago . Maybe reagan did it . Im not sure. But some president , some congress said, we needed to tax Social Security as your income. This is my own money they are giving back. My honest opinion is, the government can shove it up their ass if they are going to keep it. [laughter] mr. Steyer let me first talk about term limits and the structure of congress and then talk about Social Security. In terms of term limits, what would happen is the majority leader and minority leader, the speaker and minority leader, would choose who leads the committees, which happens now, but there would be less seniority. There would be numeral people running committees, and people would have less if you look at what the chairs of committees get in terms of corporate giving, it is crazy. You can understand there are mixed loyalties. That would break. People would be in a shorter period of time in a given job. There is a tension between people know enough to do that job well and not having congress be a lifetime appointment where you get the support of the people you are trying to regulate. I know in california, we put in term limits. They were too short. We lengthened them. It seems to be working well. I tried to come up with 12 years as something that would be workable. If someone was doing great, they would run for another office. They would not come out of government, they would run for another office. In terms of Social Security, i want to tell you a story. You remind me of my mom. [laughter] mr. Steyer she would not have said it that way. [laughter] mr. Steyer my mom was a teacher. She came out of college, she wrote for newsweek because they hired a lot of women and did not pay them anything, and then she wrote the nbc evening news, then produced the nbc evening news, then she quit and was a mom and went back and got her masters and was a teacher and taught prisoners. After my father died my mom always worked, always got paid, always paid Social Security, and fica, saved her money, after she was 65, i said, what do you think about taxing Social Security . My mother was also extremely religious. She really was a devout follower of jesus christ. She was a giving person. She did not have a greedy bone in her body. She would give you the shirt off her back. I said, what you think about taxing Social Security . She said, that is my money, keep your hands off it. [laughter] mr. Steyer let me talk about Social Security. For 75 of seniors who get Social Security, it is their number one source of income. For 40 of seniors who get Social Security, it is their only source of income. I know you have others. But im saying this. The idea we do not take the promises of Social Security incredibly seriously is an insult. We, a great country, lives up to its promises to its people, particularly people who have worked their whole lives and paid into a system. I do not forget what my mother said, because she never said anything like that to me her whole life. Toust 2 goodness honest goodness. When people talk about Social Security, i take it as a solemn pledge to people who depend on it and paid into it. That is exactly what my mom said to me, exactly what you said to me, and i agree. [inaudible] [laughter] i do. Yer your attitude is my attitude. My name is cindy. I am a retired teacher. My question is, when i went to college, i paid 300 a semester to go to school. I worked while i went to school, paid tuition out of my pocket, did not have to borrow money. 30 years later, my children are going to school and all of them have huge student loans. My youngest daughter i am particularly worried about because she is single. She is a teacher. She has this huge debt that is difficult to pay back. I would like to know, what your views are on education and kids borrowing this huge amount of money to go to school. Mr. Steyer let me start with the general question about what i think about education. I do not think of education as an expense. I think of education as an investment. When i think about a prosperous america, i think about productive, capable americans that we invest in so they can live up to their potential so they country can live up to its potential so we have broadbased prosperity that is shared with people. That is my idea of what prosperity looks like. I think about teachers completely differently from the way republican electeds think about teachers. They are the stewards of the future. They are underpaid. I believe they do the job of preparing younger americans to be prosperous for our country. They are the stewards of the future. Part of it is about teachers pay. Lets from ever one of the reasons teachers are poorly paid. It was originally a womens profession. It had lower pay to begin with because that is how it used to work and never fully caught up. That is one thing. The second thing about education, it is not just about pay. It is about support, having a broadbased educational goal that you manage, but also about having nurses in schools, having Mental Health professionals in schools, librarians, and giving teachers the time to prepare their lessons and continuing education so as professionals, they continue to stay at the cutting edge of their job. That is what education is. Prospers. And where you have mobility for young people who do not come from rich families to be able to go as far as they want and to get progress in life. That is the american dream. Mobility. Which is largely gone from our society. Lets talk about the cost of college. Obviously, we have 44 million americans with college debt. Half of them had postponed getting married or having a kid because of the debt. It is sitting on peoples heads in a serious way. The debt held by the government has Interest Rates of 6 on average, and 11 of it is held by a bank. We are in effect trying to make money from kids who are not rich, who are borrowing money so they can be more productive people and better citizens. It makes no sense. We should be making it as easy as possible for kids to be productive, better themselves, to get an education, do what every parent asked their kids to do. Let me explain what i am offering and why i am doing it. Two years of free college, and an Interest Rate of 1 so you pay it back one time. If you go into a job that serves your community or country, like a teacher, or being a nurse or social worker, you get what people in the Armed Services get. At the end of 10 years, your debt is forgiven. That is part of what you do. You have chosen to do something that helps everybody else out. [applause] mr. Steyer but let me tell you what i am not doing and why. There is something going on you should know. I want free education. I view this as a chance for people to do what my dad did, which was be the son of a plumber and go to law school. I want that for every kid and america, and i believe that is how america prospers. For a kid in iowa to get that, for a kid in compton, for a kid and appalachia. If they succeed, the country is better off, everyone is better off every time a kid succeeds. It helps us all. There is Something Else that i really care about in terms of education. We mostly pay for k12 by local property taxes. What that means is, if you are from a rich neighborhood, you have high property taxes, more money for school. And if you are from a lower income neighborhood, there is less money for school. The federal government does something, title i, to equilibrate that, give money to School Districts in low income neighborhoods, but it is 500 a kid. My goal is to restore the idea that every kid is going to get a real chance. We spend 70 billion at the federal level on education. We should be spending more. In my heart of hearts, i think every kids needs universal prekindergarten, because you cannot start early enough on kids. That is the best investment we will ever make in young americans. And in my heart of hearts, especially given the Racial Disparities in our country, i want to give kids a chance across the board by taking federal dollars and giving them to people who would not have a chance to move up. That is the only reason i am not saying but suspended all in lets spend it all on college i want to make sure we get the young kids too. You should know, i am the son of a teacher, i am from a family that believes this is how america prospers, this is how individual people get to move up. You know the expression, where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. I want to invest inequality, mobility, and success of young people. [applause] i am a retired waterloo schools teacher. Also president of the regional audubon chapter. Climate change is my number one thing. Thank you for making that noise. Yours. There are a lot of people that i agree. My question has to do with Affordable Health care. Weve retired from the school system, i can opt in to what i had for basically for free for all the years or get own until i discovered when i added up my insurance premiums for that and for car, for home, you are looking at 1 3 of my net income going to insurance for average insurance. I do not know how people can make it, or a young person Getting Started off, paying 30 added up, you have to buy their own. I never heard a politician in all the decades talk about what health care is affordable. For me, when i set my budget or a bank, you get a loan, they want to look at if you have more than 30 in debt, you do not get a loan for a home. But we do not talk about insurance and the cost. You do not know if you are going to get covered or not, even if you are paying for it. Mr. Steyer let me ask a question. I can talk about Health Insurance. Do you want me to talk more broadly than Just Health Insurance . The insurers, sure. And Health Insurance. Mr. Steyer lets talk about Health Insurance. There has been discussion on the debate stage, i have had the current the same conversation i have heard the same conversation seven times between the same people. The basic thing they have been arguing is, should we have medicare for all or a public option where you countries medicare, but where if you get insurance through your employer, which is 160 million americans, you can continue to do that if that is your choice. So lets move back and talk about what we are trying to do in making this choice, what the goals are. The first thing is, Affordable Health care is a right in america in the 21st century. We have to get over the idea of whether that is open for discussion. It is not. Every american has a right to a formal health care. The second thing we have to recognize is we pay too much for health care. We pay more than any other country, probably twice as much as other advanced countries. Sometimes it is three times. For some drugs, we pay 10 times as much for insulin as canadians. For some drugs, we pay 100 times more than australians. Literally. The second thing is the government has got to go after i am saying the government is owned by corporations. It includes Drug Companies, the insurance companies, and private hospitals. They are being us off. It is critical for the government to use its muscle and buying power and negotiating leverage to drive down costs so it costs less so people do not pay as much for insurance for health care. The question comes back to, medicare for all or public option . I will tell you why i import dashcam further why i am for the public option. I believe it gives people the right for every american to have Affordable Health care and you can use the buying power of that public option plus medicare plus the v. A. Plus medicaid to go to every one of those companies, you will be the biggest buyer and force down prices. I do not like the idea of telling 160 million americans, i know your life better that you, i will create something new that will be great, trust me, do what i say or you are breaking the law. I hate when people say that to me. I do not like to say that to americans. If the public option works well, choose it. Tell your employer i want the money you are spending on my health care to be put into my wages and i will buy the public option. We have a system a flawed system, but a system. Why not build on the existing system in a way that is not risky instead of blowing up the system if you look at the projections of what medicare for all looks like, they are all over the map. A bunch of consultants have told us what it will be, but they do not know. If we can get a portable health Affordable Health care as a right for every american, use the government to drive down prices to a public option with choice, why not do it that way . Simpler, cheaper, less risky. Let me say this about insurance. There are huge margins in insurance. When it comes to health care, that is a right. We have got to make sure in the other markets in the United States that there is competition and people fighting to drive down price for americans. There is a theory that markets are efficient, markets drive down price and they keep things cheap. If that is only true if there are a lot of competitors. What we have seen in the United States this is true at the farm economy specifically. There is concentration, there is market power, they use market power to get higher margins and beat up on small competitors, beat up on suppliers and consumers. That is happening in insurance. The government has allowed a concentration of Corporate Power across the board. What that means is there is less competition, fatter margins, people are paying too much and it has to stop. You can see it in the farm economy because the amount of money farmers keep out of the dollar has gone down every year for a decade. Part of this is about market concentration. When you think about health care, there are not a lot of buyers, not a lot of suppliers. What you learned in your econ class is not true. That is a theoretical world with 100 suppliers, 1000 buyers, a perfect market. That is not what is happening in the United States today. I am retired from john deeres. My question is about health care. You said 160 million americans have health care through their employers. Wouldnt it be easier if we made laws that made every corporation, every company ensure their people . The dignity of work, everybody works for a living, you sacrifice your body in one way or another for your employer, why not make the people that you make profitable cover your Health Insurance . It seems like a fair trade to me. Mr. Steyer it does to me too. The question is, there are a bunch of businesses the first thing i think there are two things i think when i look at working people. Lets step back one second and look at what is happening to working people over the last 40 years, including health care. Wages have not gone up in 40 years in the United States of america. When you look at what people are making, it has not moved up for four years. If you look at the minimum wage in america, 7. 25, if you took the minimum wage in 1980 and inflationadjusted it to today, no more buying power, it is flat, just inflation, it would be 11. If you included productivity gains americans get more productive every year. We invest there are better, more machines, that is shared between employers and working people. If working people got our share of a productivity gains over the last four years, the minimum wage would be 22. All of the increase in money has gone to the richest americans and the biggest corporations, and you can see it in terms of the relationships of what people get paid. The other thing that has happened to working people, and i know it from walking on picket lines and going through what unions are negotiating with employers is this. The cost of health care has gone up much faster than the cost of inflation. I will talk to people and they will say, i am offered a 1. 5 annual rate of the next three years, that is an offer. They are asking me to put more money into the Health Care Plan to pick up a bigger percentage of my health care. And that increase in health care costs, when we do the math, is more money than the 1. 5 increase in wages per year. The real question i come back to on this, i am not disagreeing with you. I am saying something different, which is this how do we drive down the cost of health care in this country . Is it better done just to the doesnt the government have to do this . My answer is yes. If every employer covered insurance for everybody, every time you bought a product, whether it was walmart, wherever you went, the gas station, that cost would go up a little bit. That company would pass the cost on. They do not pay it, pass it on. At john deere, we put a tractor on a flat car to ship it out, the cost of labor was 6 . Insurance was 6 , which would be equal to the labor cost, on a five dollar purchase, that would make your purchase what, 5. 30 . It would be a minor cost and a good part would be that would be everybody would pay for it. Mr. Steyer i understand that, but i am making a different point, which is this. Health care in 1970 was 5 of the economy. Health care now is 20 of the economy. What has happened i do not know if you noticed i looked last year on january 2. On january 2, the cost of drugs got raised. The cost of producing drugs did not change. Those companies said, we would like to make more money. We will raise the cost of the drug. The question i am asking is this. I was an investor for a long time. The whole secret to investing in my mind is this. Compounding of interest. Compound interest is like magic. I say to people, be a stuyvesant bought Manhattan Island for 28 in 1628. 28. If he compounded it 7 until now, he could buy Manhattan Island and all the buildings on it. Compounding is magic. The problem we are having with health care is it is compounding against us. Just the way it compounded in terms of Manhattan Island. When it goes at 6 , which is what it has been compounding at, it doubles every 11 years the cost of health care. That does not seem like a big deal. But the next time it goes from two to four. Then from four to eight. We are in a situation where we have to drive down the cost and the government has to fight these corporations, but the corporations own the government. In effect, they are negotiating with themselves. If you think about Drug Companies, not only do they charge us 10 times what they charge canadians, but they wrote a law that said you cannot drive to canada and buy drugs. Who would write that law except a except a drug company . If you look at this, you can see they own the government. To me, the question is, how do we get back the government to represent us . I am telling you, i do not have divided interests in this. I have been fighting companies for 10 years and beating them. I am not wondering what team i am on or if it will help me if the Drug Companies raise prices. I am on a simple team. I am on the team of the people of the United States. And they are kicking our know. Ust so you and it has to change. To go back and take back the government for all of us so it represents us, not the corporations. [applause] hi, tom. Mr. Steyer here we go. I have been in the health field from the time i was 14, i was minnesotas first male candy striper. They said i did not look good in the dress and they changed the name to junior volunteer. In my field i have been in, medicare is what i find to be getting ripped off. If they had somebody and their who was taking a look these people had no idea. I could buy a knee brace for 60 and medicare allows that company that i am working for to charge 600. It is ridiculous. And medicare pays it. Mr. Steyer i know. Why cant that change . If that would change, medicare would have enough to take care of everybody. Mr. Steyer exactly. If we drive down the cost, we have availability for everyone. Mr. Steyer we have a cost problem which leads to an availability problem. I want to talk about knees. I had nine knee operations. But, look. For the last seven years, fulltime, i traveled around the United States. I have talked to people like this, but often in smaller groups, sitting around a table, with them telling me whats going on in their life. What i have seen, and the reason i am determined on this, is i have seen americans suffering due to Inadequate Health care. I see them suffering due to Expensive Health care. I have had a mom say to me, what should i do . Pay my rent or take my daughter to the doctor who had a lifethreatening illness . I said, i know you are taking your daughter to the doctor. She said, i am, but i do not know where im living next month. What i have seen going around this country i have seen it in iowa, talking to nurses working in mental care facilities in iowa, for the them, i have seen underpaid, refused care over time, mistreated, beat up at work, and fired for not getting back to work fast enough. But i have seen is suffering by americans because the system is not working for them and because the people running the government have cut taxes for the richest. There is not money for diana to take her daughter to the doctor. People cant afford their meds. And honestly, nurses are mistreated by the state, and those are union members. The reason i am so hard on this is we talk about these systems in sort of academic terms. Health care, pollution, wages. What i am seeing personally from americans is suffering. Unnecessary, needless suffering because of this system is failing and not representing the American People. I listen to these nurses talk about how they are treated. There are two things i can do. Get in a fist fight or cry. What do you want me to do . It is not right. That is my point. We use these fancy terms. Its really going on is people arent refusing to pay their fair share and as a result, 90 of americans are suffering needlessly in this country. If we take back the government and it represents us, it is not going to happen, and that is why i want to be president. I want to make that fight for everybody across this country so the needless suffering and pain stops. [applause] my name is tim. Mr. Steyer you can change it. Nothing personal. Just a letter. My comment is, when i was a ustle boy, my mom would walk back from school, what did you do today to make the world a better place . I would share graham crackers or whatever. Now, what am i to do today to make our climate better . I know i cannot by an offshore wind farm. Maybe you can. You are a billionaire. What do you want us to do . Mr. Steyer let me tell you a story. I learned everything that does not work over the last 14 years. I can tell you why i ended up doing this, and why i think we need to do this together. I started thinking i thought about 12 years ago, there is this unintended consequence of fossil fuel energy, Climate Change, and this country has to solve it. And it will. I spent some money investing through universities, not trying to invest to get money back, but funding programs are technology, thinking, if we get better solar, wind, batteries, it is a technology problem. To californians, everything is a technology problem. Wrong. Then i thought, people do not understand the truth. I invested in nonpartisan research to show that if we go to clean energy, we will have more jobs, pay people better, have cheaper energy, grow faster, clean up the air and water, everything will be better. Also, if we dont, here are the costs in terms of the different climate costs across the board. We did this work, i did it with republicans and independents. We got famous ceos of Big Companies to sign on and agree that what we did was reasonable and true. It did not make any difference at all. I do not think we changed a vote. I said, what the heck is going on . Why is this not working . It is the politics, the money. There are corporations that are making a ton of money as a result of selling fossil fuels. We are going to have to change it politically, and that is what i have been doing, and that has worked. When i say to people for us to take back the power from these corporations, on Climate Change and drug pricing and gun violence and pretty much across the board, we have to win politically. I did everything else. I now believe the only way we will succeed in getting back government for the people is huge turnout by americans politically. We are going to have to take back to government and that means being organized politically, the things i had been doing. Find them in propositions, registered young people, communities of color, and make sure the vote total so their voices are heard proportionately with other americans. That is what i have been doing. Only democracy will save us. Honestly, i will tell you a story, this is my answer. When i was growing up, we used to go to northern minnesota. My grand parents bought a cabin in 1929 on a lake. Did not have running water. There were four cabins on the lake. By the time i was a kid, we would go up there, my uncle had a cabin and cousin had a cabin and they had running water. There was one tennis court. Everyone would walk around the lake to the tennis court. There were probably 100 cabins at this point, and they would take their turn. The guy who ran the tennis court would give everyone turns and everyone else would sit around and gossip, like the town square. You would want people play bad tennis and gossip. If you ask my mom who is dave brat, someone she had grown up with since she was two, she would say dave flew a plane in the italian theater in world war ii. That is who he was. When the chips were down, what did he do . That is kind of what you are asking. If you wanted to play tennis on 10 mile lake and have any respect, you had to do something when the chips were down. You did not have to fly a plane. You could drive an ambulance, work in a factory, you could be on a naval ship. You had to do something if you wanted to have selfrespect at the tennis court. That is how i feel about this. Everybody has to show up so we can take back the country and save the world. You can choose what you want to do. But you have to do something. It is not going to work unless we all do something. That is my answer. It is a political fight. They are organized in kicking our ass, and i am working to get everyone to join, because there are more of us than there are of them. If we show up, we win. If we show up, we save the world and we have a life that is meaningful again. That is what i am pushing for. [applause] hi. My name is heather. Im going to switch and talk about Foreign Policy. I have two kids in the military, a daughter in the air force and a son who just finished his fifth tour overseas in the army. [applause] mr. Steyer thank them. I know with this current president , he has done a lot of flipflopping on things. He has gotten out of nafta and then started Something Else. I know he pulled troops out of syria and kept some of them in just to protect the oil, and now with this latest thing in iran, killing soleimani, i was wondering what you would do to put confidence back with the other countries so we are not a laughingstock, we are not a joke. I do not think i can take another tour of my son. Mr. Steyer ive got it, heather. First of all, i think everyone is grateful for what your kids are sacrificing, for all of us. [applause] mr. Steyer and i know how nerveracking it must be to be a mom in these circumstances. Let me say this. I want to talk about general foreign color general Foreign Policy and then military Foreign Policy. In terms of Foreign Policy, we have a president whose policy is america first, which by the way was a pronazi organization in the late 1930s. It is not a coincidence. His policy is that we dont have allies, dont have values, dont have coalitions, dont even have strategy. Everything is a confrontation and a competition, and it is bilateral and we try to bully people into doing what we want them to do. And it hasnt worked. And it is never going to work. If you think about what the United States has done when it has worked, i can give you a recent example, president obama negotiating with six of our allies to get iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, to make that part of the world safer, to make americans safer and to show that america actually leads from a moral and diplomatic standpoint in the world. That is what we are supposed to do. That is going back to the marshall plan, what we have done around the world. We have led on a valuedriven basis with other freedom and democracyloving countries to create a more stable and prosperous world for americans and everybody else. We are a trusted partner. By the way, on climate, this is the only way we can possibly succeed, by leading a moral coalition, where we provide financial and technological leadership, and moral leadership, to create a safer world in a better world. And show the United States is a valuedriven country created to lead the world in freedom and justice and equality. Literally, he does the exact opposite of what i think is smart. And part of what he does is, he doesnt have a strategy. He leaps to confrontation, as he has in the trade war. But if you look at the way he has treated iran, he pulled us out of the treaty that president obama led, and then escalated the confrontation with iran ever since. And was this guy who just got killed, an enemy of america and looks like a straight up bad guy . Yeah, absolutely. But strategically, what are we trying to accomplish . What does it say to the rest of the world about who we are and how we accomplish our goals . And why have we gutted the state department and our relationship with every other country, so that we jump to military action and put our Service People in harms way as a first response, instead of a last response . I am deeply troubled that the idea that we are acting in the opposite way president obama acted and in the way america has created success for itself and the rest of the world in pursuing democracy and freedom and prosperity. And you ask me, how will we change it . If i am president , i have a huge advantage. Im not being funny. I started the need to impeach movement. If i say to people, as president this guy was a fouryear blip or mistake, they dont wonder whether i think that, they think, he started the need to impeach movement, he must think he is a jerk. So i will say this. We will overcome this by actions and better words. Winston churchill said about americans, americans always do the right thing, after they try everything else. [laughter] donald trump is the last stop. Now we have to do the right thing. And we will. [applause] my name is maria perez. I am from columbia originally. I want to thank you for leading Climate Change, Environmental Issues are my main concern. I have been a teacher in environmental science, and once you understand what Climate Change can be, the only thing we can do now is solve it. Priority, noin doubt, including political issues, health issues, all these things are important but Climate Change is the main one. When you say im not sure what happened, but when the ethanol removed, or the biofuels, biofuels are not good anyway. I know i am in iowa, but they were not efficient. I dont want people to think biofuels were good. But my main question is for immigration. I am an immigrant. I am an engineer, i had a masters degree, so i did it through work visas, and they were really expensive. Then i got married and it was really expensive to do all of that, so i came here with a lot of education, but it was hard and expensive. I know that we need the workers, the immigrants. Latino immigrants are in such a need here, and they are the ones that are helping this country keep going. So what is your plan to really welcome these immigrants and make it better for them . Because they are not robbers and rapists and all that stuff. Tom maria, we are going to talk about biofuels afterwards. Im going to answer immigration right now. I have said this on the debate stage. Donald trump is using immigration to talk about race and to be a racist. And he is talking about it that way, has talked about it in racist ways, vilifying latinos specifically, but this is really an attempt to divide americans based on racial and ethnic lines. And as part of that, he has both broken International Law in the way we have treated people seeking asylum, and he has in my mind broken the laws of humanity in our name, in terms of torturing kids. Just so you know, when they were dividing kids on the border from their parents, kat and i went to mcallen, texas, to work with catholic relief services. Do i think i did a good job . No. Did she do a good job . Probably. [laughter] stier but what we could see was that americans were sending money, clothes, medicine, food, everyone knew this was a crime. End it was wrong and it continues to be wrong. So the first thing is, we cannot be a country that breaks International Laws that we agreed to. We cannot be racists. We cannot torture children. We have to obey the laws of humanity and the International Laws, and treat people seeking asylum humanely and decently. [applause] and i promise we will, on day one. I am for giving the dreamers a straightforward path to citizenship. I am for tps. I am from a majorityminority state. About 12 Million People living in the United States without documentation who have been here an average of 15 years. They are working here. They are doing a lot of jobs. They are paying taxes. They are not what mr. Trump describes. There is not an attack on the United States. I am for comprehensive immigration reform, to give those people a legal status, come out of the shadows, and a path to citizenship. The last person who did it, Ronald Reagan in 1985. When we talk about a broken government, having 12 Million People here, Everybody Knows they are here. They do jobs, the country depends on them. The idea that we dont know it and we are going to leave them in this limbo is wrong, so i am for comprehensive immigration reform. But more than that, what maria says is true. I am looking at this group. America was built by immigrants. This has always been the best place to come if you are persecuted, or in danger, or you want to work hard and make something of your life. You go back to every american story, the majority of americans came here to work hard, and the ones brought here as slaves probably worked the hardest. This is a country that has been built by people who came here, and will continue to be. So it is our country, we can control our borders, but we should get over the idea that we have run out of space, that we dont need hardworking young people who are ambitious and want to come here and create things. And what is going on, as i like to say, there is no wall on the canadian border. This is not about immigration. If you remember the 2018 election, do you remember the cavalcade of women and children who were invading america on fox news every night . Thousands of people coming to invade america . Have you heard one word about the invasion of america by women and children since the election . This is political stuff to rile people up about race, that is what is going on. It is not right and we should stand up to it. We should not allow this president to use race to divide us. And when someone says something racist and we dont say anything back, that is not right and that is why i talk about it as straightforwardly and honestly as i can. [applause] this will be the last question. Tom i think we can fit in some more. [laughter] hello, my name is bridget. Mr. Steyer hey. Im a nurse in this community, so thank you for speaking up on behalf of nurses. I also run a program called focus on diabetes, where i advocate for patients and families who suffer from diabetes, a disease i experienced in my own family. My question is, in waterloo we have the highest concentration of africanamericans, at about 16 , in the state of iowa. What are you doing in the waterloo Africanamerican Community to engage . This campaign has come down to that for me. The candidates who are more engaged specifically in the Africanamerican Community is very important. Like you said earlier, we count in this election, and it is important to get us out voting in numbers, to kind of swing what is happening in this country, i believe. So i would like to know what specifically is your plan for the Africanamerican Community in waterloo . Tom bridget, let me say this. I want to talk about race in general, what i have done and what i want to do, if that is ok with you. One thing you should know is, kat and i started a Community Bank about 12 or 14 years ago. We started a bank to try and answer the needs of people who werent served by the regular banking system. It is a Community Bank. It is mission driven. We will never get any of the money back, we put in the equity and we continue to fund it. It is devoted to economic justice, environmental sustainability, and supporting businesses owned by women and people of color, because they have not had access to capital. And now it is over 1 billion. We have supported over 6600 low Income Housing units. We run that bank to answer the question of the racism that has been in the banking system, legally and illegally, forever, where people redline. I dont know if you know. There was a policy in banks to literally have a map, there would be a map of waterloo, iowa, and the africanamerican communities, and they would draw red lines and say you could not loan in those areas. Which means you would not get a chance to buy a house, would not get a chance to build equity in a house and create the engine of prosperity for most american families, you wouldnt be able to get support for a business. It was legalized discrimination. When i think about where we are in america, one thing i believe is policy comes out of narrative, that if you want to discriminate against someone, and if you want to have laws that mistreat latino immigrants, tell an untrue story about latino immigrants. They are rapists and murderers bringing drugs to america. That justifies whatever you want to do in the policy area. We have had 400 years of not telling the truth about the Africanamerican Community in the United States of america. And what ive said is, on the first day of my presidency, i would start a formal commission on race and retail the first thing we would do would be solution oriented, but the first tellg we would do is re the story of the last 400 years. I have had africanamerican friends say, i know the story. And i say, i know you do, but the rest of america doesnt. And where i am from in california, they do not know what jim crow was. If i said, whats jim crow, they would say a cheap bourbon. [laughter] mr. Steyer really. But it is not just about discrimination. The other story that has to be told about the Africanamerican Community is the moral leadership that the people in that community have provided to the United States, not for years and not for decades, but for generations and centuries. I want that story to be told publicly, so that we get the right policy. Because we didnt just get here. We got here, in a way, with discrimination and contribution, and then i want to talk about solutions. Let me give you an example. People are asked on the stage, argue for reparations . In the last president ial debate ked it,dy duct it duc and i had my hand up and said, i am for reparations. I am for reparations. And i will give you an example of something i proposed in this election. In the Southern States there are historically black colleges and universities, and they have provided over half the africanamerican doctors and engineers and judges and teachers in this country. That is were black kids went, when it was illegal for them to go to the mainstream universities. And they have been incredibly important as a leg up for kids who were discriminated against and from low income families to succeed. And they are starved for money. Federal funding for hbcus has gone down 14 in the last decade. They are very expensive. They rely on tuition, and the kids come out of them with very high debt levels. I have said, in the next 10 billion to hbcus. We have to fail these kids. We have to not fail these kids. They got to a place for a reason, and we have to make sure that story starts differently today. When you ask me about what do i think about this, look, we are not going to be the country we want to be until we start telling the truth about what happened over the last 400 years. I dont know if you have ever been to berlin, germany, but in berlin, they have a square, and in the square is like, the congress and the president s house, the center of the government of germany, and it was the center of the nazi government too. And one block from there is a memorial to victims of the holocaust, with an apology. That is in berlin, germany. Where is that in the United States of america . So when i talk about what is going on, we have got to tell the truth. The contributions, the discrimination, how we got here, and then we have to talk about why africanamericans dont have the same kind of assets, why the schools in africanamerican neighborhoods dont have the money, how we can make this better, address criminal justice. It is hard to talk about issues in the United States, education, criminal justice, climate when i say environmental justice, to me it is a racial issue. Who doesnt breathe the air that you can breathe . Who lives in flint, michigan . Who lives in newark, new jersey . It is not a fluke. Telling the start truth on race and deal with that explicitly and not be scared to talk about it, we are not going to be the country we want to be, and we will not address prejudice and discrimination that was legal and terrible for 400 years. [applause] ok, this will be the last question. I will stick around, but i want to hear from people. Joanne im joanne from cedar falls. Im concerned about our democracy. With the erosion of the Voting Rights act, we see more and more restrictive laws suppressing voting. Iowa has passed a voter id law, as have many states. Gerrymandering has been a huge problem for a long time and that has affected minorities greatly. Other things now that we are seeing with foreign countries, being invited to mr. Steyer hack our elections . Joanne exactly. And social media is manipulating news clips and things to make us more divisive and influence our elections. I wondered what plan you have to deal with these . Because there seems to be so many Different Levels of this issue. Thank you. Mr. Steyer that can be a great last question, thank you. I will never say a disrespectful thing about republican voters. I wont, because i dont feel it. As far as i am concerned, if americans tell the truth and put the American People first and we disagree, that is fine. That is a chance for both of us to learn more and be better afterwards. But the Republican Party has been cheating. You are telling a number of ways. I mean, the president invited russia to cheat. He invited ukraine to cheat. He hasnt spent the money to protect our democracy from cyber warfare intentionally, because he think they will cheat for him. We have seen Voter Suppression, particularly of africanamerican voters struck from the rolls in the hundreds of thousands, in a way to jimmy elections. It goes on across the board. Where polls are. Refusal to get paper ballots so that we can check if there has been cheating. And, of course, there is gerrymandering. Republicans literally use a Computer Program to maximize gerrymandering. What are we going to do about it . Democrats will be out there and will be part of it, pushing as hard as possible to oversee elections as if we were a third world country. Do i think there will be attempts to cheat . I am sure there will be. There are a ready attempts to strike votes by the hundreds of thousands, so we know it is happening. Americans struck from the rolls in wisconsin. Trump won by 22 thousand votes. If there had not been Voter Suppression in georgia, Stacey Abrams would be governor of georgia right now. So we are going to have to win by turning out. We are going to do everything we can to make it as fair as possible and once we are in, we have to make sure it is fair. And i will say this. The thing that gets me, as you can tell from the last question, the idea people would go into a room and conspire to take away the basic right, political right, of africanamericans, that has taken hundreds of years and blood, sweat, and tears to get, and take that away, to conspire to prevent africanamericans from voting, i will go after on a criminal basis. That is wrong on a level that is absolutely unacceptable, and if people think that they can do that and not get prosecuted and go to jail, they dont understand who i am. [applause] one of the things that has been going on in this country i dont understand is this. Democrats lie for republicans, and i dont know why. Republicans have been denying Climate Science at the behest of Oil Companies, and democrats never really call them out. We have a president who lies all the time, and i remember the debate about, should we call it lying . It is lying. What are we supposed to call it . Why would we lie for him about his lies . People dont like to call the president a racist when he is being a racist. I think democrats think it would be rude and republicans wont like us if we tell the truth. But what is really rude is striking people off the polls and being a racist. That is not rude, that is telling the truth. We are close to the iowa caucuses. I am a team player. I played on sports teams my entire life. I was captain of my College Soccer team. I relate to people as partners and team members, that is how i was brought up and that is how i like to relate to people in every instance, business, organizations, everything. My team in this is the American People. I am not wondering whos side i am on. When i said, i dont like to be on a team and have someone kick my teammate, i wont put up with it. And i am pledging to you, that is my team, that is my promise. I dont have any divided loyalty whatsoever. I am here to fight as hard as possible to get this Government Back to serve the people of the United States. I have seen things i dont like and will not put up with, because i feel like my team members are being kicked in the face, and it is my job to stand up for them. And i am asking you guys to stand up with me. [applause] thank you. It wont work if we dont do it together. If we dont do it together, it is not going to happen. Thank you, very much. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you all, so much for coming. [indiscernible voices] republicans and democrats you get it. [indiscernible] look this way, 1, 2, three. Awesome. Thanks. Thank you. I cant believe you only get one every five years. Now im a member. [indiscernible] [indiscernible chatter] tom where are you guys from originally . Iowa. Tom have you guys met my wife, catherine . Yeah. Tom matt, how are you doing . 1, 2, 3. Mr. Steyer did you see the murphy . At, eddie americas dad. That the most fun i could think of on saturday night was being here. [indiscernible chatter] mr. Steyer thank you very much for coming. What is your name . Barb . Barb, tom. I was at Drake University in des moines at the beginning of 2016, on the campus. Iowa, they take it seriously. It is incredible. I am with the college. We also got to see the candidates back then. 1984. Mr. Steyer i am 1979. I am an emergency medicine doctor. I was 27 when i started medical school. Tom my son is 26 and as a firstyear medical student batch and is and is a firstyear medical student. He worked in a clinic for farmworkers. He is very excited about med school. Does he know what he wants to specialize in . I think he wants to be a gp. America needs them. If anyone on your campaign once a physicians perspective on health care. I really enjoyed it. You spoke very well. Mr. Steyer thank you, guys. It is really important for me to hear what people are thinking about. If you dont, you dont deserve to be president. These are your bosses. Thank you for coming. What are your guys names . How are you doing . 1, 2, 3. Mr. Steyer oh my gosh. Anything you can do to prosecute nazis, im a jew, so i love it. I start to think we are going to be ok again. This is the most important election of our lifetime. I have 4 kids, 31, 29, 28, boy, boy, girl, boy. He has tv stations that help him out. Sinclair. We are counting on you. You are my choice. Mr. Steyer i totally appreciate it. 1, 2, 3. Mr. Steyer hawkeye power. Glad to meet you sir. May i call you tom . Mr. Steyer everybody calls me tom. [indiscernible chatter] i am with him, but i want to shake your hand. Mr. Steyer what is your name . My name is marcia. Thank you. Mr. Steyer want to take a picture . 3, 2, 1. Im a retired physician. I appreciate your comment. Obamasee with you on treaty with iran. Mr. Steyer tell me why. It is a 10year time until they it is a 10year time until they develop Nuclear Weapons. They couldnt do anything further with intercontinental ballistic missiles. They are in syria, iraq, north africa, they are arming hamas, they are in lebanon, they are in jordan, they say death to america, they say death to israel. They are genocidal, death to the jews. Morally reprehensible. You wanted to court to quote churchill. We learned from munich about the appeasement of evil regimes. You were quoting churchill. Do you know what churchill said after munich . Britain and france had to choose between war and dishonor. If they chose dishonor, they shall have war. The same person was the lead negotiator for the Korean Nuclear pact as for the iranian. How good did that turn out . Wendy sherman. Mr. Steyer we had iran in a place where they werent developing Nuclear Weapons for a period of time. I have a different attitude. I hate violent, theocratic regime. Strategically is to end they to d regime. I called an iranian friend, amongst other people. Sanctions are destroying the regime. The sanctions that trump put in our destroying the regime. Anyway, it is good to talk to you. Thank you. Mr. Steyer what is your name . Steelers fan. A [indiscernible chatter] this is a good looking pair. You dont want to miss this pair. Thank you very much. What is your name . Virgina. Virginia. Can we take a picture . Mr. Steyer do you spell your name mason . [indiscernible chatter] thank you. Mr. Steyer how are you doing . Which part of california are you from . On three. Cattle, chickens. I worry about your knee. I went hobbling around. It is all good. Be careful. We had one thinking he was really good, then they had to cut him off again. Mr. Steyer i got mine in 2011, nine years ago. Im expecting it. He did it three months after. In chicago. Thisis why people ask me all the time. My number one guy on climate. Have you been reading the stuff about australia . Thank you very much. Where are you from . I am from a sanctuary state. What is your name . Shirley. Mr. Steyer robert . Thank you. Do i make it out to shirley and robert . [indiscernible chatter] x we are going to do one more photo. Do onee are going to more photo. Got it that time. If i may say, i have your bandana. Thank you. Mr. Steyer what is your name . Caleb. Mr. Steyer caleb. Connor. Mr. Steyer connor. Are you friends or brothers . Friends. Mr. Steyer are you from waterloo . Independence. Small town nearby. Side of thes family has a cabin on 10 mile. Mr. Steyer no way. What is your last name . Who is the owner of the cabin . 10 mile lake. That is so funny. [inaudible] a lot of this came through when trump mr. Steyer so corporations can develop national forests. And a lot of those corporations have no financial responsibility. Mr. Steyer they dont pay for it, they declare bankruptcy after they have taken all of the let me say this. Just so you know. Camped on my honeymoon. I was trying to climb all the 14,000 foot mountains in california. Sleeping on the ground is a hell of a lot more fun than sleeping in a fivestar hotel. National parks are the crown jewels of American Society that we will protect. I am not a climate person without loving the outdoors. I get this whole thing. I had nine groomsmen in my wedding, including my two brothers. If you wonder about why i care about open spaces and preserving nature, what i would love to do when i get some time off, im going into the woods, i am going up to the fjords in scandinavia to kayak around because i want to know what is happening. That is what i care about. 1, 2, 3. Thank you. Mr. Steyer what is your name, sir . Calvin. Mr. Steyer calvin, nice to meet you. I have a question. What is your policy on energy and oil . Basically wenergy, have got to move to clean energy. The reserves of all of the different fossil fuels, we are not going to be able to develop them. If we do, we are dead. Do you think there will be a push to develop them . Mr. Steyer of course i do. Do i think we should let them get away with it . I havewe want to survive had senior reporters and editors from washington, dc, tell me, you are naive to think he the Oil Companies will ever let you move to clean energy. That theelling me safety of the American People has to be put at risk forever for the quarterly income statements of exxon mobil. I think the American People are going to choose survival. Offow soon do we have to be of oil . Mr. Steyer what i have said about Energy Generation is that we need to be 100 clean by 2040. With cars and stuff . Mr. Steyer im talking about Energy Generation. In terms of evs, theres the question of when we sell the last internal Combustion Engine and when the last internal Combustion Engine is on the road. Those are two different things. The other thing that i think is this. Specifically in iowa i like to emphasize that we are also going to have to do carbon sequestration. It is a fancy word for planting things. Where are we going to do that . Open spaces. People are going to come and partner with Rural America and plant things. For everybody. N it is for my wife. Mr. Steyer what is her name . Sandi. Mr. Steyer ok. X with less than a month from liveirst votes, cspans 2020 coverage continues from the state Historical Museum of iowa in des moines, with a look caucuses, iowa discussing the first in the nation caucuses and the history and impact on races. At 1 45 p. M. Eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Coming up, were going to
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