Transcripts For CSPAN2 Bernie Sanders Guide To Political Revolution 20170916

[applause] we want to get him out here i would like to welcome you here tonight the largest event we have never hosted. [cheers and applause] it is very different in size with that subzero winter evening nevertheless we have 350 people from a wide demographic with the straightforward prescription to return us we are thrilled by the overwhelming response and theyd you for letting his hold pickier. [applause] Bernie Sanders is here tonight to talk about his new book. November 2016 wrote about a future to be the then at the same time he launched a Political Organization to get people involved in the political process the died to Political Revolution address is young people eager to be involved in politics and those that turned out in the of unprecedented numbers with guidance Going Forward he has double down to american democracy and tonight he is here to encourage us all if to say a few words about his policies. [applause] senator sanders will not tell you this he is now the most popular political figure in america. [cheers and applause] nobody else is coming close when he first came to iowa in a few years ago he was strong 5 in the National Polls and wanted to know how he would do in the Iowa Caucuses because he had ideas teapot were urgent and did not want a pour showing he was not running to become a celebrity or the best politician but the of policies that he would face he ran without the support of a single democrat with the label of socialist. [applause] and overwhelming and unexpected support any the iowa caucus is made National News and he went on and we will talk about those tonight so please welcome him back to you iowa. [cheers and applause] thank you. Thank you. Thanks for the introduction i do remember the wonderful even dad jans bookstore and there are few more people here tonight than there were then and there want to thank jeff for his early support one of the early fears about running i had was that the ideas we were fighting for would be discarded in save nobody supports the us so let me begin a discussion about a book i would be remiss to think the people of iowa and iowa city for their tremendous support during that campaign. [applause] during the course of the campaign with the need of a Political Revolution in that we be very clear from the electoral point of view the revolution is spreading all across the country began right here in the great state of iowa. [applause] and what i love was about the people of this day or the United States to accept ideas that many people were thinking they were wild and crazy and fringe idea is but we had the opportunity here in in iowa to go into dozens and dozens of town meetings and iowa city and all over the state so that if we stood to gather to focus on the most important issue facing the country for have the guts to stand up to the greed of the billionaire class, there is enormous things we could accomplish and the people of iowa said yes. [applause] in the country woke up and said this isnt San Francisco it is iowa. So one week later we went to New Hampshire and did very well and went around the country getting 13 million votes. [applause] and we did that to take on us a democratic establishment. [applause] and what was the result of the campaign . It is called our revolution. For school board and city council with the mayors and city council and all the way up the United States. So that the time with a handful of billionaires have power over the political process as a result of Services United Disastrous Supreme Court decision in the only way we can fight back is when millions of people get involved in the political process the way we have never seen in the history of this country. The campaign was part of that. That progressive ideas are a majority of the American People these are not fringe idea is. Should we wait raise the minimum wage to a living wage . Yes. [applause] should we have to pay equity limit so women dont make 0. 79 on the dollar . Yes. [applause] on and on and the what the show in the campaign and all across history to create an economy not just for 1 for more than was ever dreamed possible. [applause] so now i will be to work for just a moment for what is happening in houston and our condolences to the families who lost their lives and help eight negative rescue operation but the Property Damage is unbelievable i can tell you in vermont 2011 we went through that and i was with people who lost their homes and is incredibly painful and dramatic. If there is any Silver Lining that takes place in texas that we are one nation and one people of people coming together whether black or white gay or straight or born in america they will help each other. [applause] greasy incredible self sacrifice that is what we have seen time and time again. We will reach out to do whatever we can in the save the exact way we would expect the people of texas or vermont to help iowa in our times of need that is what the nation and is about. To come together. [applause] that he live impulses to reach out and help the impulse is to help but i make this point for this moment in history to have a president of the United States who was trying to do exactly the opposite based on the color of our skin or where we were born or sexual orientation. I disagreed with donald trump and almost everything. [applause] but what i detest more than anything trying to win cheap political points by dividing us up. Anybody who has read history understands those struggles to overcome discrimination and prejudice and the should be proud of the progress that we have made to do Everything Possible from undoing our struggles to fight bigotry. [applause] so i will lay this out. And right now it upsets the immensely me be as early as tomorrow donald trump will leave cuba Dreamer Program the daca programmer 800,000 young people who came to this country whose parents were undocumented at a very young age who always lived in america and only know america as their home we hear that he may as early as tomorrow to take away the legal status of those young people. It is shameful and disgraceful to prevent that from happening as Congress Passes legislation to protect those young people. [applause] so when we talk about trump the africanamerican in community the Jewish Community with the outrage to have a president commenting on nazis and white supremacist that there are nice people on both sides. Mr. President there are no nice not cease nazi. [applause] our job is to stand with the Minority Community africanamerican and a latino or muslim. [applause] and once and for all today the Gay Community would deny a transgendered people the right to serve as they have served briefly in and of military and to put as with the trans gender community. [applause] and to fight all forms of homophobia. So that is why i am here tonight to talk about the book. [laughter] it is based on the but called our revolution. But we expand the definition for anybody in his prepared to stand up and fight. Why did i write the book . In the preface i speak directly all over the country to 47 states if anybody is pessimistic about the future there is a beautiful generation out there. [applause] and what i write in the preface and let me quote Bernie Sanders, you are in the ways you have oppose racism and sexism and oligarchy with that grotesque level of inequality is not with United States is about. Year ago climate changes real bad we have a responsibility to take on the fossil fuel industry in to get away from fossil fuel and sustainable energy. So if converting that idealism into political activity but no doubt you and others like you will create a better world. [applause] in other words, said to have the need for a political devolution with the need to ruth transform this country economically and politically and socially and environmentally that the young people in this country play a leading and interpol role sova hardest part of politics and has to do with courage and thinking outside the box and a big and not small and too risque pour the limitations and the constraints of a status crow the status quo of the we see every day but then indeed to maintain a strong sense of outrage to understand the emperor has no clothes. [applause] and to have the courage to provide the analysis with the Mainstream Media and i have always believed it is more important to ask the right questions and to provide the right answers it is more important of those issues for a variety of reasons to be swept under the rug that may not be that important so with those issues of the enormous magnitude that are rarely discussed one of those has to do globally around the world six people now own as much wealth as the bottom half of the bottom 3. 7 billion people. Six people own as much wealth of those 3. 7 Million People hundreds of millions of them have hunter and malnutrition children are dying by the of millions because their families cannot died of medicine they need to cure their disease children and families do not have drinkable water and people are living in substandard housing. For 30 billion given the wealth of the world we could end hunger and malnutrition on this planet so to have a new set of priorities we will not turn our back on hundreds of people around the world who are dying and suffering. [applause] how often have you heard that . Day want to see a tv program . It does not appear. It doesnt mean it isnt one of the most important issues and there is another issue it is suggested global issue but the American Issue and here is the reality again you will not see this much on television that we have in America Today more income inequality that any time since the great depression. We have seen a massive redistribution of wealth trillions of dollars from the middleclass to the top onetenth of one per cent prior they owned about 7 of the wealth in America Today that same onetenth of 1 bonds 22 and is now more than 90 percent of the American People and the gap is growing wider and wider it is time we stood up to say that love love to come in 12th and e quality is unacceptable and is now with this country is supposed to be about. [applause] but again for a wide variety of reasons but it is time to ask ourselves if the 20th 20 well is americans with one the family, the the Walton Family having more wealth whether we are satisfied at at a time with 43 billion People Living in poverty in a middleclass that is shrinking in the last 17 years the tenfold increase in the number of billionaires in this country. It is high time with an economy and government not just the billionaire class. [applause] i am often asked by the media how did it happen that donald trump won the election . I will give you a view on that. He won the election and because there is an enormous amount of pain throughout the United States of america that Many Democrats refuse to acknowledge this and on television or the newspapers. Take on the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, it was a strong and effective speech. Only problem was he lied and he lied and he lied. [applause] but the fact that he lies does not mean his analysis was incorrect. The truth is that right now, Median Household Income is almost 1400 less than it was in 1999. The Median Income of a male worker today is 2100 less that it was 43 years ago. What trump picked up on was people are hurting, people are angry, people all over the country are working two or three jobs, scared to death about the future of their kids, they cant afford childcare, healthcare, nobody is hearing that pain. It is not on tv, democrats largely ignored it and trump says i hear you. Sadly and tragically, it turns out virtually everything trump said was a lie. The day after he was elected, he became a president who works overtime for the top 1 . He told the American People we are going to have healthcare for everybody. Then he supports a republican proposal that thank god we did stop it. [cheers and applause] that would have thrown as many as 32 Million People off of healthcare. He brought a budget and a tax plan that would result in 3 trillion in tax breaks for the top 1 and yet massive backs on virtually every program the workingclass and low income people and middle income people desperately need. In my view, where we are right now politically is to recognize that there is a whole lot of pain and hurt in this country and we need a Democratic Party that has the guts to stand up to the most powerful special interests and make it clear to everybody the Democratic Party will stand with the working families of this country. [applause] i have said many times i dont believe that it was donald trump so much who won the election as the Democratic Party that lost the election. [applause] that is not just the white house. Please understand. Iowa is an example. Please understand in the last nine ten years, not only have democrats lost the u. S. House and u. S. Senate but 1000 legislative seats in statehouses all across this country, half of the states in america where the Democratic Party is almost nonexistent and what we need to do is bring fundamental reforms to the Democratic Party, open the doors, invite working people and young people with their energy and idealism into the Democratic Party. [applause] what this book is about, is saying today we have a corrupt political system. And the corrupt political system is about the fact that as a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires like the Koch Brothers are able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars every single year buying elections and buying candidates who will be there to represent the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. What this book is about and what i am here tonight for for is to urge each and everyone of you to understand the only antidote to bigmoney control over our political process is millions of people get involved in any and every way. We need to run for school board, city council, state legislature, we need to rally our communities, knock on doors, educate and organize. We do not need any more to have working people voting for candidates who want tax breaks for billionaires and want to throw them and their children off of Health Insurance. We got to turn that around. [applause] what we also have got to do is develop a Progressive Agenda which makes sense and means something to ordinary people. What is that agenda . What is the agenda, what should we be doing as a nation . If you have a middle class which is shrinking, millions of People Living in poverty and sometimes desperate poverty the first thing i think we have got to do is demand that if you work 40 hours a week in iowa, vermont or in america you are not living in poverty. [cheers and applause] and that means raising the federal minimum wage to a living wage, 15 an hour. [applause] during the campaign i was in des moines. There is a nice farmers market, i was Walking Around saying hello to people and bumped into a guy and we chatted for a while and turns out he worked for a church and what he did was take some of the produce that was not sold, took it to an emergency food shelter and i asked what percentage of the people who go to that food shelter are employed and was percentage are unemployed or disabled . He said the overwhelming majority of the people go to the emergency food shelter in des moines and vermont and all over the country. All working people but the fact of the matter is you can do the arrest as well as i can. If you make 10 an hour, or 11 an hour, you have to put gas in the car, pay for Health Insurance, childcare for your kid, keep your home warm in the winter time, no one makes it on 10, or 11 an hour. [applause] here is some good news. The good news is if i went before you five years ago, i was your five years ago and said we are going to raise the minimum wage to 15 you would say that cant be done. As a result of the incredible activism of people in the fight for 15 movement, the good job nation movement, especially people working at the fast food industry, mcdonalds, burger king and wendys, they fight back and told their communities they cant make it on 9, or 10 an hour. Communities are beginning to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour. We also tell you i introduced legislation a few months ago, for 15 an hour federal minimum wage. We have 31 cosponsors on that legislation. [cheers and applause] in America Today, our infrastructure, our roads and bridges and wastewater plants and Water Systems and levees and dams and airports are in massive disrepair, we had an infrastructure that was the envy of the world, that is no longer the case. I was in flint, michigan a year and a half ago and what i saw there, nobody should see, children being poisoned by letting the water and that phenomena in, worse in flint, is going on all over the country, people are Drinking Water that is not years ago, i suggested that we spend 1 trillion to rebuild the infrastructure and people said you are nuts, that is too much money. What is happening is people are beginning to stand up and fight back. Right now the position of the Democratic Party and even donald trump, we can create up to 15 million good paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. [applause] the point that i am making now is that we are making progress despite donald trump, in bringing forth the Progressive Agenda. It has to do with minimum wage raising, pay equity for women, has to do with a massive program to put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. I will tell you what else the Progressive Agenda we have been fighting for is accomplishing. When i ran for president , what i said is it makes no sense that right now we consider Public Education to be limited to the 12th grade. We are living in a highly competitive global economy, 20, 25 years ago the United States led the world in the percentage of people who graduated college, we were number one. We are far from number one right now. Our economy will not be strong unless we have a welleducated population able to do the new jobs being created, jobs which almost always require more education than used to be the case. When i began talking about making colleges and universities tuition free that was a radical and crazy idea. That idea is spreading across the country right now. [applause] new york state has passed legislation that will do that, other states moving in that direction, for a commonsense reason, and that is it makes no sense when young people need more education, to punish them with levels of student debt because they did the right thing in getting that education. [applause] we have legislation, we are going to be talking about it a lot in the next couple months, not only makes public colleges and universities tuition free substantially lowers the level of student debt millions of people are carrying right now. [applause] a couple years ago, i had a meeting in burlington, vermont, a young woman came up who just graduated medical school, practicing primary care, she said my debt is 3. I thought that was off the chart. I was here in iowa and a young woman came up to me after my remarks and said 300, i graduated dental school 400,000 in debt. Bottom line here, our job is to encourage not only young people but all people to get the education they need to do the jobs that are out there. That is what we as a nation have got to do. [applause] there is another issue where we are gaining significant momentum. The Affordable Care act, socalled obamacare has, in my view, done a number of goods. There are 20 million more people today who have insurance than was the case before the passage of the Affordable Care act. [applause] we now look back on something called preexisting conditions and cant believe that ever existed. Can you imagine an Insurance Company saying i will not cover an illness you had a few years ago because i will have to pay out, that is what insurance is, to protect you from what might happen to you. What Insurance Companies say, you had Breast Cancer 5 years ago, we wont cover you for that. It is insane and we did away with that. We made sure young people. [applause] we made sure young people 26 or younger could stay on their parents plans. We also ended this business of Insurance Companies saying theres a limit to how much we will pay out if you have a serious or chronic illness. We did some good but having said that, we have to also recognize that our Healthcare System today faces very serious problems. Today we have 28 Million People who have 0 Health Insurance at all. In this room and in this state and in this country there are many millions of people who have high deductible, high copayments, high premiums, the result of which is even though they do have insurance they cant go to the doctor when they should. The result of that, some dont talk about very much, every single year, tens of thousands of americans die because they dont go to the doctor wednesday should. Ive talked to doctors all over this country who will tell you people walk into their offices really sick and the doctor says why didnt you coming six months ago when you first develop your symptoms in the present said my deductible was too hi, couldnt afford it. Some of those people die, others end up in the hospital at great cost to the system. The Affordable Care act has done some good things, but it is time for us to go further. It is time for us to ask a simple question. Is healthcare a human right or is it not . I think it is. [cheers and applause] and if it is a human right, that means whether you are young or old, rich or poor, workingclass, middleclass, whatever, you have the right to go to the doctor when you need to go to the doctor without worrying about the cost of that visit, you have the right to know if you end up in a hospital you are not going to be socked with tens and tens of thousands of dollars in debt which could lead you to bankruptcy. As a nation, in my view, we have not only got to recognize that healthcare is a human right but we have got to ask ourselves another question, how does it happen in the great United States of america, a nation we are all proud of, how does it happen that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people . [applause] again, you are not going to see this on television. How does it happen that in canada, i live 50 miles from the border, they have had universal healthcare for over three decades. Go to germany, go to the uk, go different, go to scandinavia, go to every major country on earth and healthcare is regarded as a right. The system is different but healthcare is regarded as a right. The question we have got to ask ourselves is if every other major country on earth provides health care to all their people as a right, tell me why the United States of america cannot do the same. [applause] it is not only universal care. It is the fact that our current Healthcare System is enormously complicated, it is dysfunctional, and it is far and away the most Expensive Health care system per capita in the world. Why is it that we are spending twice as much as canada per person on health care. That is true for other countries. Why does it happen that we end up spending today over 10,000 per person on health care. I will tell you the answer. The answer is our Healthcare System today is not designed as a rational system would be to provide quality care to all people in a costeffective way. That is a rational system. People will argue that is the way to do that. It should be healthcare for all. Quality care in a costeffective way. The function of the american Healthcare System today is to guarantee enormous profits to the Drug Companies and the Insurance Companies. [applause] last year, two years ago perhaps, the five major Drug Companies in america, 50 billion in profit because we are the only country on earth that does not negotiate with pharmaceutical industry in terms of the prices that they charge. Today you can walk into your pharmacist and find out the price of the medicine you have been using for years doubled or tripled and you ask why did it happen . The answer is they can get as much as the market will bear and we have seen that. Prices of particular medicines doubling and tripling. We pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and people are dying because one out of 5 people who get a prescription from a doctor cannot afford to fill that prescription. The insanity of a system by which people are sick, go to a doctor, the doctor recommends a prescription and cant afford to fill it because the price of the drugs are so high. Meanwhile the pharmaceutical industry has spent billions of dollars on lobbying and Campaign Contributions to make sure they can continue to do anything they want. I was involved in a campaign in california where the people wanted to limit the prices the Drug Companies could sell to the states for medicaid etc. What the Veterans Administration pay, the va pays the lowest prices. The pharmaceutical industry spent coming in one state, on one campaign, 130 million to defeat the initiative. 130 million to defeat an initiative to control their prices, one out of five americans under 65 cannot afford the medicines they need. What we need is to take on the pharmaceutical industry and lower prices and the best way to do that is to finally finally make sure that in america we have a medicare for all singlepayer program. [cheers and applause] medicare has its problems. It is not a perfect system. We have got to improve it. Right now medicare is doing what it was designed to do when Lyndon Johnson signed the bill in 1965 and that is to make sure every person in this country 65 or older has access to good Quality Health and the result of that if people are living longer, they are happier and they are more secure. If medicare can work for people 65 or older there is no rational reason why it cannot work for every man, woman and child and i will be introducing is at legislation, medicare for all, within the next two weeks. [cheers and applause] again, the good news is more and more people are moving in that direction. There was recently a well done poll that suggested 60 of the American People believe the federal government should take responsibility providing health care to every man, woman and child in this country. Those ideas are gaining momentum. When you take on the pharmaceutical industry which has unlimited, and i mean unlimited amounts of money, when you take on the insurance industry, when you take on wall street, that makes all kinds of money, you are taking on the most powerful special interests in the United States of america. This is going to be a very tough fight. What im asking the people of iowa as i am the people of every state in this country we have got to get involved in this struggle, we have got to confront our elected officials and ask them if they want to continue our system which makes the ceos of the Insurance Companies rich but is harming so many people throughout our country, now is the time, we have been talking about it long enough. Now is the time to guarantee health care to all people at a right. About what that means. Being able to go to the doctor when you need to. Think of Something Else we dont talk about, there are millions of people in this country staying at jobs which they dont like. Why are they staying in those jobs . Because they have good Health Insurance for themselves and their families. Think what it would mean to this economy when people dont have to stay in a job they dont want, get out and do the kind of work they really want to do. [cheers and applause] by the way i also say to the business community, you are competing against countries all over the world that guarantee health care to all of their workers. I have seen in my own state and all over this country Small Business people spend half of their lives trying to figure out how they are going to provide Health Insurance for their workers, they changed policies, they have people working on it, it would mean for business in this country when Business People can focus on their Business Mission is not have to worry about health for their employees. [cheers and applause] donald trump in the next couple weeks i suspect will be coming before congress with some ideas regarding tax reform. I know that i will shock you when i tell you that his definition of tax reform means incredibly large tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country and large, profitable corporations. Right now we have corporations making billions of dollars a year in profits who are paying 0 in federal taxes, in the cayman islands, bermuda and other tax havens. We have millionaires, Warren Buffett tells us there are billionaires who pay an effective tax rate lower than middleclass workers because all of the loopholes that exist for dividends and capital gains. Now is the time, we have to stand together on this issue to say to trump and the Republican Leadership we are not giving more tax breaks to billionaires and large multinationals. We are going to demand they start paying their fair share of taxes. [cheers and applause] another issue very much on my mind which i think is an embarrassment for our great country. That is today we have more people in jail than any other country on earth. Think about it. China is a communist authoritarian country that does not tolerate dissent. They are four times our size. We have more people in jail, disproportionately african american, latino, native american, than any other country on earth. We have got to begin focusing on real criminal justice reform. [applause] this is an issue that should bring progressives and conservatives together because we are now spending 80 billion a year the local, state, and federal level, locking up 2. 2 million americans. Maybe it might the time to rethink what we are doing and maybe it might be time for us to be investing in our young people, in jobs and education rather than jail and incarceration. [cheers and applause] let me conclude by saying a couple things. Number one, the media tells us how divided we are as a nation it in some areas we are. I am 100 prochoice, the American People i divided on the issue of abortion. [applause] in terms of that issue let me say this, where i see hypocrisy and i respect people who hold that view, they have their views from a religious perspective and i understand that but i regarded as hypocritical when you have a Political Party whose mantra is to get the government out of our life, to do away with all kinds of regulations, let people live their lives, why is the government intruding here, there and everywhere, and yet when it comes to the right of a woman to control her own body suddenly the federal government and state governments are there. [applause] i detect a bit of progress on the concern and demand for limited government except when it comes to a womans body. The other point i want to make is on virtually all Economic Issues i talked about this evening, and many that i didnt talk about, there is very strong support for the Progressive Agenda. Our job is to understand in politics you are not going to get people who agree with you 100 of the time. My wife disagrees with me more and you would think and that is true. I agree with you on that but not that. Politics is not having 100 support on every issue. What politics is about and must increasingly be about his progressives going beyond their comfort zone politically. I know it is very easy, i am guilty of this myself, to make jokes about donald trump. That is pretty easy to do. But you know what . That is not going to win us the struggles we need to win. We have got to respect people who have different points of view and we have got to talk to those people. [applause] most importantly, in this very Pivotal Moment in American History when we are fighting for so much, dealing with the issue of climate change, when if we do not transform our energy system, i have serious concerns about the planet we will be leaving to my kids and grandchildren, etc. Etc. The stakes are enormous. The message i want to convey to you, what this book is about, you can go home and it is too much, i cant do it, we cant take on the whole world, i am depressed and i understand, i feel that every other day myself. But what we have to understand, what we are fighting for is much more than our own lives. We are fighting for our children and our grandchildren. We are fighting for the future of this planet. I do not believe that we have the moral responsibility of simply throwing up our hands in despair. The truth of the matter is, speaking to you as someone who has been all over this country, the vast majority of the American People are good and decent people, they want their kids to grow up to have good jobs and good education, drinking clean water. Of course we have our disagreements. But our job is to get involved in the political process, to take on a billionaire class which is buying elections. Our job is to run for school board, city council, support candidates, get involved in the important issues facing this country and one of the things the establishment and the system does consciously or unconsciously, it says you are going to run for school board, what do you know . You run for city council, what do you know . You want to run for congress, what do you know . Let me respond to that criticism of people not knowing enough. I work in the United States senate. [applause] if you think you dont know much about what is going on check out what goes on in washington [cheers and applause] that is my point and it is not a complicated point. The future of the economy is at stake, we have become an oligarchy and a nation controlled by billionaires. The future of democracy is at stake in our political system dominated by the Koch Brothers and other billionaires. The only way we turn that around is at the Grassroots Level and the way we do that is when people fight back. I am here to employ you please do just that. Thank you all very much. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] here is a look at the martyrs recently featured on booktvs afterwords. If you have a system of strong authorizer is weeding out the worst schools and replacing them with schools operated by the best operators and bringing new blood to bring new schools and watching these numbers, that kid has a much better chance being in a decent school. In new orleans, 60 of the kids at the time of katrina statewide. Mostly test scores. Now 10 do just like the rest of the state, there are not many bad schools left because they have a system their father for now. There are some and they need to keep weeding them out. It is not perfect but but far better for the kids to have that. The constantly improving system. A static, neighborhoodbased school system. Afterwords airs on booktv at 10 00 pm and sunday at 9 00 pm eastern. The afterwords programs, booktv. Org. We want to introduce you to firsttime author he