Accountable. We are very honored to have as our guest today, senator brown, the senior United States senator from the state of ohio in the Ranking Member of the Senate Banking committee. Somebody who cares passionately about that we focus on and care about. I first met senator brown almost a decade ago in an aftermath of the Global Financial crisis part in fact the faculty directors, myself and my colleague testified about banking regulation before the subcommittee, senator brown shared in 2011 to 2015. Our country once again faces great many challenges. Looking forward to the perspective on how we go here where we go from here. Senator brown has dedicated his career to restoring what he, and a reference to doctor Martin Luther king, calls a dignity of work. Let me give you a few examples of how he puts his mantra into practice. The senator often wears a pin of a canary in a cage as a symbol of the day went minors brought canaries with them into the coal mines before we had any rules protecting Workers Health and safety. If the canary dies the miners knew they were Dangerous Levels of toxic gas and it was time for them to get out. He said that canary is an important reminder of just how far the country has come from the days of workers when they can only dependon on one another for protection. But also how much it needs them. Also note his zip code a in cleveland has the most foreclosures of any of the nation leading up to 2008 financial crisis. This symbolizes both the dire fate of homeowners lending practices in the Manufacturing Base in the cities of the industrial midwest. It also encapsulates the various efforts with trade and labor to housing. The Committee Hearings you can also find senator brown recommending the banking regulators read books with law. How forgotten history of how our government segregated america. When he organize the fellow senators until the workers raise. D a all of this is to say that despite being a member of an elite club that only emits 100 americans, the senator maintained a level of empathy for anna connection to working people that is still all too aware in our most powerful leaders and institutions. Wewe are again honored and grateful to host you, senator brown, today. To discuss the role of the federal government and this pandemic and related issues, senator brown will be joined by savannah, nba 21 and one of the cochairs of the event committee. After theen conversationaf they will open it up to some questions for all of you which you can submit using the q a function. With that i turn it over to susanna and senator brown. Thank you again for joining us. Thank you so much and thank you so much for being here with us today, senator brown and forgiving all of us and excuse to put on some real close for a change. I havent worn a suit jacket in several months now. So thank you. I hope your family and dogs are all well. And i know we dont have a lot of time, there is a lot to discuss if you dont mind i would love to dive right in. t sir thank you. We heard that you have been a longtime advocate for workers rights. Youve been vocal about the need to raids wages and benefits across america and with the context of the pandemic you been advocating for stronger protections for workers. I was particularly moved by statements he made just one week ago in a hearing with secretary mnuchin and Federal Reserve chair powell on the outrage that the senate is still in session putting workers at risk on capitol hillo brad left to start the discussion from hearing from you about the longterm impact of this pandemic will be on laborol rights and policy in the United States. Thank you for your work. You mention the book i recommend, i also recommend to other books that people should read to understand better our society and this treatment of so many. And for the most privilege i mentioned in the book called evicted and also a book called the bankers new close, that happen to be written by a notable stanford professor. Those three books together tell you a lot about 20th century america. I also want to do a call back a call out to Graham Steele who is one of the best Public Servants i know. Graham worked with me and my office and worked in the Senate Banking committee. Graham was the one the senator always gets the credit, the staff person is usually into what a jet intellectual driving force. Also does so much else in terms of an inside outsideh strategy. Graham, back after the financial crisis, hed been in our office not that long then he and i advanced the idea that members of the senate and house should not be allowed to own corporate stop. Any ownership of corporate stock is a conflict of interest when you consider the things that we vote on in the senate. That amendment was defeated about two to one. It has now come back as one senator, the chairman of the senate, former chairman he resigned over this with the Senate Intelligence committee, is believed to have alleged to used information about the coronavirus early, he got it even earlier because of his intelligence briefings. We all had this briefing sometime later pretty may have bought and sold stock based on those briefings. The people who have the trust, the responsibility we are entrusted with, that would be a step you take. Im not saying hes built guilty i do not know part i know the temptation is there for far too many of my colleagues. We are not giving up on grahams idea in my idea from almost a decade ago. Thats how things look work for to difference for workers . I do Conference Calls so many days in so many privilege people ineo usaid those of us whoo are lucky enough to stay home, work safely and get paid as opposed to the million workers in ohio, the 3 million i suppose even more in california that are unemployed and the millions of worker that go to work every day in generally moderate and low wage jobs, putting themselves at risk to the public and coworkers so they are not protected well enough. And then they go home with the anxiety and mind affecting my family . We call those people essential workers, one Grocery Store worker said to me, from cincinnati she said they call me essential, but basically im expendable they dont pay me much ande they dont protect me at work. Thats 12, 14, 16 and our workers that drive buses, clean hospital rooms do security and they stocked shelves and Grocery Stores they do check out at drugstores there paid so little but we call them essential. That in a nutshell who are and what we are in a nation far too often. Ill try to get to a broader view of where we are, that when you look at this sepandemic, you see the great revealer has shown us, it shows our faults. It shows Racial Disparities you know whos dying from this you know whos going to work. The people who are working are in the 12, 14, 15 hour job they are not protected and not paid well the hourly workers, more women than men are more likely people of color. Theyre the ones most disadvantaged by the economy this way. Look at the president s actions when hundreds of workers, many of them were vets, not entirely many are people of color but not entirely. Theres a big outbreak in sioux falls south dakota hundreds of people were diagnosed with coronavirus. After couple of weeks they had the defense production act of the protective equipment, he used it to reopen the president said nothing about protecting workers about protecting equipment for the workers, nothing about food safety. Nothing about slowing down the line if you know anything about manufacturing you know a Faster Assembly line means more workplace illness sometimes workplace death. Understand thats what we are as ae nation. We happen in the future we go back to now the whole country has issued this stanford students probably do that they want to make social change recognize this. There are no excuses in the country not recognizing these Racial Disparities. The disparities are income, we know the mortality rates housing to redlining to gym close trying to lockin by regulation the discriminatory practices that occur in housing, all of those things. Its really what we make of it. Are we going to use this newfound information . Are we going to do what we did ten years ago and no bankers went to prison, bankers did not pay much of a price and homeowners and my own zip code, so many were foreclosed on paid the price. Just speaking about ten years ago, what you think we failed to learn during that crisis in 2008 . That you hope we learn and particularly act on today. I dont know that we failed to learn. I think the people, ill illustrate this way. The first big recovery act, the first big stimulus package introduced in the senate essentially by the president and the secretary of the treasury and Mitch Mcconnell, i was the same kind of corporate bailout. Is good for the airlines, is good for wall street, it was good for bankers who generally particular from large banks operatively small banks and credit unions. It did pennies on the dollar from the hospital. It did nothing for state and local government. It did a little bit to keep people from being victim and may be a little bit and being foreclosed on. Did nothing for state and local government, did not do any real money for helping homeowners or people about to be evicted. 5 of renters in the company pay more than half of their rent more than half their income and rent. One thing goes wrong in their life there on the streets. I dont know that we didnt know that ten years ago, i do know we got a new president who was under the gun to get the economy back on its feet. One of the things, when Obama Took Office we were losing 7000 jobs a month. And as we began to do what we should have done, not in the quantity wee should have done it, the tea party form is basically phony astroturf, Grassroots Group it wasnt really grassroots it was founded by the Koch Brothers and wealthy people to push back. So when we spend money on people, budget deficits are a terrible thing. When we spend money on tax cuts for the ritzy will grow out of these by 2000 its a wall street journal way but what we learned is just that we cannot do with the same way. Nobody went to prison. While the bankers clause wasnt written yet, it was soon to come. That would help if people certify im chairman of the german Banking Housing Committee the bankers should be required reading as should the color of law and evicted be required learning. I will sate a different way, the committee, been referred to me is the Ranking Member of the senate committee. The name is banking, housing and affairs is called the banking committee. The committee does very little in housing. If im chairman of that committees going to minimally be called the banking and Housing Committee of not just the Housing Committee. The banks take care of themselves, we have a financiala ice economy. We should learn from what happened ten years ago if thats the case. What were doing doing differently from ten years agore is reporting real dollars into real peoples pockets at 1200dollar check, 600 a week unemployment benefits. The largest congress is ever done. And putting money into local and state governments. We did not do that in 2009 i think if we would have, it might have had a different political outcome. We might have launched our economy, not just ten years of growth as we had perhaps ten years of wage growth. We had wage growth for ten years and donald trump says its best in history of the world but the fact is it was not a good economy for so, so many people who saw stagnation. Our focus has to be on wages, it has to be on workers that has tott be in putting money in peoples pockets. And then you go from there. So lets talk a little bit about the cares act. The context of the statements he recently shared a plan with senator warren for addressing this concern about getting relief directly from consumers and workers who need it most. Can you talk a little bit about the provision and protection are most important for ensuring the stimulus fundingus gets to mainstreet and not just wall street . We know that companies try to garnish the wages. We know that whenever there is a big transfer of money as there has been in the last several weeks from the federal government individuals. 1200. Person was five for adults again there is an income limit. But for the great majority of the public, as it should be, 500. Child so some families will get a check of 3400, two parents and two kids. Or more or less. We know that calls out the vultures it gets the payday lenders excited and the Check Cashing people excited to gets the people those are just the legal ones pretty gets people are going toet pray on just like if you go to a military base, that could be in california, ohio or anywhere. You will see all of these financial vultures for lack of better term, right outside the base ready to pounce on vulnerable military people. The wife g two kids. Struggling, they dont have a lot of money there lonely the financial predators, thats why the Consumer Protection bureau so important because of the financial creditors add to their chairs swoop down. Set senator warren and i are working to protect those workers. Weve also got to do many other things with the cares act started to do. We can talk about it later to put dollars in peoples pockets so when they are ready they wont be foreclosed on so they can take care of their kids. Hunger is a significant problem in this country now. So many people do not have the wherewithal to feed themselves because of this pandemic buried there is so much we need to do. Lvlv there is certainly so much we need to do. I am curious, what are your biggest priorities for securing these protections with the next is going to look like . Sort of very near term, what are the biggest opportunities for the government to act within the next few months to solve some of these problems . No ones Credit Rating should be dinged during this period you lose your job and you miss a rent payment comments coming up on the first of the month again, the first of april number people couldnt pay the rent in the first of may never coming up on the first of june. You miss a rent payment mortgage payment, you should not get your credit dinged. We thought we had that in the last stimulus, one very powerful conservative republican in the state line i do not mean Mitch Mcconnell, he signed off on it. But they stopped it. We want to build Consumer Protections like that. We also we are rich t country still. We will be a very rich country in the future. We need a tax system that works for working families better. One of the things we hope we can do in this legislation is expand the earned income tax credit. Again something Speaker Pelosi and i did we worked on a four and five years ago. We need to do refundable tax credits. Right now if you are making 80000,0 you get a bigger tax credit for your children than if you make 20000. So we wanted it to be fully refundable. Rso the poorest families in their country of more money in their pockets. I noticed this over the years with conservatives they represent their Interest Groups love to talk about local control. They fundamentally dont really trust people or trust local governments to do the right thing. Thats why president mcconnell does not want to send money to local governments whose budgets have cratered because of lost tax revenue. He doesnt want to send money but if hes forced to doubt he wants attach strings to it and how they send it. He doesnt really want money to go to low income people. Once work requirements he wants it to be only spent on this or on that. He wants to tell them you cant do this you cant do that. I trust what local governments and individuals. If we really believe in the human spirit and believe in freedom, you help them financially and you allow them to make the decisions, whats best for your community, whats best for your family. That is why the Child Tax Credit is so important. Were saying you are low income person for a few get an extra 3000, we trust you to spend it youre going to spend it right. Going to spend it to do the bestr thing to give your children a Better Future whether its close, maybe upgrading to a little better apartment, maybe its a better used car so your car doesnter break down when he missed work too many days. Its all of those things. Mitch mcconnell and donald trump dont trust people to do much of anything right. But frankly you need to. They just might surprise mcconnell and trauma doing the right thing. Host there is a related question that just came in from the audience, it is a perfect segue into another topicc id like to discuss with you which is can we expand benefits like that are healthcare to eve central workers what are your thoughts on the Way Healthcare is structured in the United States and the opportunity we might have withe this pandemic to change that . Asked the first part of the question again, i didnt quite hear. Can we expand and if its like better healthcare to central workers are another thing that has come up is separating healthcare from employment altogether. Ar yes, one of the things i haveth advocated, i was on a stage with senator kennedy in the late 90s we announce, i was a member of the house then and president clinton i think Vice President gore was there in a congressman from northern california, pete stark who is since passed away he was there. We unveiled the first medicare 55 billet people would have the option to buy into medicare at 55. I met a woman once who told me that she was in a hotel and youngstown, ohio. She said i am 63 years old. My goal in life, she said my goal in life is to live two more years so i can get on medicare. Not my goal in life is to get to go to london or my goal in life is to help raise my grandchildren my goal in life is the live another year end a half sonon finally get insurance. Some had been working two jobs at low wages. And so the medicare 55, she would have been helped by the Affordable Care act for sure. She was the purpose of thinking about essentially. People who are 58 years old, six years old, often when they lose their jobs they have so fewew options for their few options going back into the workplace. And they have few options on healthcare. That is the group of people we most want to focus on. So allowing medicare by and at a reasonable price, we had that in the Affordable Care act and one democratic senator, Joe Lieberman essentially said im not voting for we need 60 votes and we lost it. That wouldve changed everything. It wouldve been a whole lot of people getting insurance, the political opposition Affordable Care act. Just been cut off at the knees frankly in terms of healthcare helping people with the pandemic for essential workers, i o think one of the most important things we do is our pandemic pay proposal. Those workers were talking about where the Grocery Store workers, bus driver, person changes the linen at the hotel, they make 12 or 15. Hour and have the fears of coronavirus and anxiety when they go home at minimum affair penciled and paid more support we have in our legislation the house passed much of these ideas, many of these ideas to the senate has something called pandemic pay or heroes bonus. Those workers will get 13. Hour additional pay, up to 10000 for the year. And it is something, we are going to call them essential we ought to treat them like they are essential. Im hopeful if we do that that could also embarrass some corporations to actually pay these workers more. If we are going to continue to say essential workers are only worth 12 or 15. Hour, i know that 12 or 15. Hours even less where you live the more i live its not a whole lot to live on in cleveland either. Let alone rural ohio. Then weve got to actually act like we need it. A few companiesea have paid our giving pandemic pay bonuses, hazard bay, caught whatever. They are shortlived and they are too minimal and we need to do better. On that subject of doing better, a topic that comes up all the time here at the Stanford Graduate School of business is the business roundtable, stated commitment to capitalism. We see that now, jb diamond is calling for more inclusive economy in response to covid19, it appears we might be in a moment to galvanize a Business Leaders too move in a different direction. Im not showing my own handle too much im trying to be an unbiased interviewer here. I think at the same time theyre saying these statements have been sort of reveal the hollow by all of the actions you just described. Im curious your thoughts on this. Nd what can and should businesses do to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to stakeholder capitalism and how can we turn this into a moment of change in the corporate community. Select the factor x but stakeholder capitalism is a good sign when i grew up in ohio there is about 50000 people. The local plant manager, there is a gm plant all kinds of iconic american corporate nicknames had plants there. It was probably 20 times the average worker made in the ceo of the Company Either in cleveland or some city somewhere else, maybe made 40 times what the average worker made. Now the numbers and how you calculate at a ratio of ten times 200 or three under times with the average worker makes. For whatever reason, the reason is pretty obvious, selfinterest for the whole idea to put the manager and executives owed something to theiv community besides their stockholders. It was sort of a way we did capitalism in those days. Youu owed something your employees were important, your community was important, your customers were important. Maybe not the environment we didnt really think that much about that. Based on some executives did. Today, blame it on milton freedman. But more blame it on the greed of an restricted capitalism. Or unleashed capitalism where why should you think about anybody else when you dont have to . That has become the mantra for corporation after corporation. Im encouraged when jamie dimon says that ive heard them say many things i like. But i have not seen, jamie diamonds, giving them to credit it was the first pig operations that raise their pay including i believe their foodservice custodial and security staff to 15. Keep in mind, lots of Companies Contract outs. The say we pay, heres our average pay but then they contract out foodservice, custodial and security to some other company. U. S. , today payco question makes it i dont know i dont know what theyre paid i contract with them. Will you sign the contract, you could figure it out really easy. It really is holding then among glad there saying that, would change our country if they really believed in being environmentally responsible andre responsible to workers and responsible to the communities. It doesnt slow down, those comments do not slow down the lobbying efforts to get more. So we will see. I dont count on them to do it. I think you make them do it. Good point about contracts workers make me think about the giga economy and the myriad of companies that have come from right here in our backyard to sort of promote this mode of working as a contract worker, a gig at worker. What are some of your biggest concerns or ideas around how we can better protect workers who are part of these less formal parts of the economy with some of the less formal you have been advocating fordv throughout your career . Has been a battle forever. There are all kinds of companies especially in construction, but in many businesses that want their employees to work off the clock and they pay them cash to the 22yearold worker, sounds like anll okay thing its cash but im not paying into unemployment, im not paying into retirement im not getting healthcare and 22 live forever i dont need it. Thats part of the way theyve gotten away with it. One of the things we did to fix that, very much a temporary fix but its important because it could be a template for the future for it i think in january we will have a new president i think love a Different Senate in january. If we do, there are some really big things may be thinking about, especially in climate andnk especially with Racial Disparities, income, wealth, race, class disparities. One of the ways we address that, while two months ago is when the Unemployment Compensation bill, workers who are not laid off get 600. Week, that is in addition to the state for the problem is with the state, there are a few, relatively few workers are up from employment. Maybe its bit too much of the economics History Lesson but congress over the last has paid three Insurance Program Social Security in the 30s, medicare in the 60s, insurance,t medicare and Social Security are sensually run out of washington, it is a bit onesizefitsall mostly peertopeer eligible you pay in a certain amount, youre eligible to get this much out thats why its called social insurance and you paid outward unemployment on thehe other hand was turned over to the states. So alabama minimum payment or maybe average i payment is like tuna 50. Week. New jersey is three times that come ohio was in the middle. Not just what the payment has been ratcheted down over the years, the length, the numbernu of weeks you can get unemployment has been shrunk. And the eligibility has been narrowed. So gig workers dont get Unemployment Insurance in most states maybe any state. Parttime workers dont get it, selfemployed barbershop, salon owners dont get it. We did the 600. Week we included all of them. So if you are in regular unemployment in the state of ohio or california you will get that plus the 600. If you are in one of those other categories youll get just the 600. But 600 still, 15. Hour essentially. So its not nothing. Its more generous than i believe in government has ever been on Unemployment Insurance. Think when you start thinking that way. What do videocon up and the evolution or the devolution of these benefits . Are doing it with unemployment i dont know that we will everil get 600 permanent. I think we might get the broadening of eligibility for permanent. Thats a really good thing. In ohio right now, prior to the pandemic only 25 of people who were unemployed were getting Unemployment Insurance. That is how narrow they have been a we are not an outlier we are about the average on that. That is not what fdr and people who pushed Unemployment Insurance 100 years ago were really thinking of. That makes sense, make sense. Minna switched to some questions from the audience and just a little bit. Theres one more topic i really want to cover with you before we go there. You already brought up the 2020 president ial election. I am curious how you think cofer 19 and its Ripple Effect stands to change dynamics in the general election in november . Very specifically written questions around the audience on how we can bolster Democratic Institutions and this time when they are being constantly challenged and undermined. We have lots of external challenges tot democracy. Guest i think it changes things in unpredictable ways. Them always will annoyed when its on t television or speaking to stanford classes that speak with some certainty about predicting the future, thats not redundant because i dont know. I think it is increasingly likely that the president ial outcome is a referendum one on the president s handling of the virus. That may give to really good quick examples. We are 5 of the worlds population, that something you probably know. We account now for about 31 of the coronavirus deaths in the world. That doesnt tell you a lotot but even more, illuminating an example is the last time i got on an airplane was midmarch. I flew out of Dulles Airport and flew home almost no one had amassed comfort within days the governor of ohio shut down the schools in ohio was a first state in the country to do that bread we have a republican governor handle this well and saved lives. I would say the republican president is clearly killed people because of his action and inaction part i picked that date of midmarch. The republic of south korea, about 90 diagnosed cases of coronavirus. The United States had about 90 diagnosed cases. [inaudible] there were six princess ours, a Good Public Health system, that better scientist than you, they have better doctors than we do, that better leaders than we do, at least their top leader. They went to work with very extensive testing contacts racing, 265 koreans have died in this virus but as of today 100,000 have died prayed the Unemployment Rate in korea is under three and half percent. The on employment in this country i dontoy think we quite know yet if its 15 and up. That tells you a lot about trumps t lack of leadership. You cant really put that anywhere else. One of the things i loved about and i dont usually in hail my introductions was talk about the canary pen eyewear. Most of my colleagues where suit which i havent for a while most of my colleagues where jewels or diamonds or whatever it is, i wear this canary pen because it means so much to me. It symbolizes Public Health, essentially one of the best things about this country as we lead the charge. We led the effort to eradicate smallpox who killed literally hundreds of millions of people in the first half of the 20th century. Wewe eradicated, almost polio. Irem are kids i went to school with were partially, partially crippled by polio. Some died but they would have died before i went to school. We eliminated diphtheria, we kept a ebola out of the country we are to keep that in check. Where the best Public Health system in the world yet it is one of the best things about our country h and one of the great feels to go into. Taking your mba inn appliance a Public Health and getting it Miles Per Hour or whatever you were going to do with their lawful degrees from yale to stanford to wherever. I think about that week created in Office President obama hired an admiral who used to work for bush. His job was to essentially help to eradicate malaria around the world. About 2 Million People died from malaria around the world. Much better control than it used to be. And then President Trump took the same admiral, Timothy Ziemer and installed him in running an office of 40 people who, Public Health experts who jobs was security his job was to j survey it was to survey the whole world and look for illness outbreaks whether it was france, nigeria, new zealand, or cambodia. Look for potential health outbreaks. And then marshal the forces of the world health organization, the cdc and the United States or Public Health service in france and britain and the rich countries and go into those countries and figure out how to eradicate that disease or at least to contain it. So his job potential epidemic way before they become pandemic. Pandemic is a whole world. He was fired in the spring of 2018. I sent a letter to trump the next week and asked him why hd asked them to reinstate it, still no answer. We also saw the last ten years extensive, not exactly health but flatline budgets. We went from the worlds of best, most admired, most principled Public Health country, i would send the history of the world, to sort of back of the bus. Look at the cdc, what are they doing . They should be leading on ahe this. Who is at the cdc . Know. T he should be better known than bill gates hit the head of the cdc because of what bill gates is essentially doing part of his job. Just breaks my heart because Public Health, it shows so much the heart of our country and who we are, or at least who we were before trump in this pandemic. Host gosh, i could talk to about that all day, fascinating topics. I think our audience would be remiss if i did not ask some of their terrific questions coming through. Here is a great question from the audience pretty can you talk about any companies or industries that are modeled for how you would like to see the private sector engagement Public Institutions . Are great examples of responsible Business Leadership you would like to see Stanford Graduate School of business graduates as they start their organizations . Not sure i want to call it individual companies or nays for reasons, and perhaps embarrass the ones i mention. There are all kinds of companies who do the right thing. All kinds of Companies Going back to stakeholder versus w have realized there are Better Things out there. I will do what name, disguise a really good friend of mine in a political friends. He is in ohio his name is joe can ford. He runs a company that makes puerile. He has devoted much of his life to Public Health and figuring out what to do. He is a big thinker, i just know how he runs that company. Also his companys gotten very famous because Everybody Knows what puerile is now and they may not have known a year, two or five years ago. Think there are plenty of companies that serve your purposes, serve stanford students to really study the really good cases. Me and where they take you. And so is to learn i guess, you can align with shareholders, not just stakeholders and not just shareholders and have a company. L starting from the top only release that stage and set the tone, thats kind of a wimpy answer. Host hate will take what we can get at your knowledge. Here is another question from the audience on a slightly different topic with not talked about yet the question is you have supported tariffs in the past bit of also been critical of President Trumps implementation. What is your ideal tariff regime look like . I think it a trade policy has done immensera damage to this country but i found with every president since i have been in office, clinton, i was in office for one week with senior bush, one or two weeks. , clinton, bush, obama, trumper forest i have disagreed president on trade but because frankly none of them put workers first. We were successful, i wrote against every trade agreement because i saw with the trade policy has done especially important for Stanford Business students is what our trade policy has done has essentially said shut down production, because of our trade policy you should adopt this business plan. You should shut down production in cleveland, and you should move overseas and lay off workers, move overseas, exploit weak environmental laws, enjoy cheap labor and sell those products back to the United States. That is essentially with the trade policy has done. I blame it on government, blame it on each of the president s i blame it on my colleagues in congress i blame it on the media and employment on schools like the Stanford Business school who all say that freetrade is the greatest thing. While freetrade is all about business, its never about workers. So when you pass a trade agreement, lobbied by these corporations and the result is well i have got to move overseas i cannot compete unless they shut down production to move down production sets back in the United States. Thats one reason we were illprepared for this pandemic because why . We did not have enough we did not have enough Companies Make cotton swabs. We didnt have enough companies to do all the kinds of things you need that gives us a pandemic we do that for national defense. We dont want Foreign Countries making airplanes and tanks you dont like Foreign Countries particularly when it will be the lowest wage exploit it of workers a country like china generally want them making the equipment to combat a pandemic so it is morally bankrupt it simply says its all about the shareholders you could not have passed these tradet agreements for about stakeholders and hurts committees and workers the last point i will say the first trade agreement was with mass fear was the renegotiated enough and adopted the language that senator whited from oregon and i wrote with nor in my office. It essentially said that workers need to come first with these tradeag agreements we need protections for workers the environment is contaminated. Is doing a reading last night or freetrade has essentially exported deflation from Different Countries and the buck is going to stop is coming up running out of places to outsource. Protecting the context of a business school. Scott back to the 2020 election ohio specifically on the countrys efforts for safe Fair Election in 2020. I am convinced the majority of the country against donald trump. I am a also convinced that this president will try to cheat will be the russians, it will be Voter Suppression, republicans have institutionalized Voter Suppression. Budget to read district in always by vote of five to four and the most partisan in my memory always come down with the powerful against workers, come down against Voting Rights. The opposite side of people of color, especially import people. I think weor went anyway i think we win because we are organized now. There are more of us than there, they are them. We need to shine a light on what they are doing with Voter Suppression breadwinning too make sure everyone can vote by mail. We need three things in the election said we havey heightened ohio elections we need three things, you need people can vote by mail, voting by mail is safe, trump is just a liar, again about that. He makes up about voting by mail it is safe, we should have the polls open, we should have early voting at least three weeks should be a month before the election where you go to your local a local Voting Center at least one in every county. In big cities or should be more. Then you have the polls open on election day. We do those things, we win. I think will win anyway, but we are going to win by a big enough margin, we shine the light on them and we still have free press in this country that will shine the light on any kind of shenanigans and misbehavior applied by people who dont think Voting Rights are sacred. Host vote by mail just triggered in me a thought of the u. S. Postal service, which is been in the headlines recently. I understand from graham, actually its a bit of a sticky topic in congress. What are the thoughts on bailing out the Postal Service the continued operation of the Postal Service . The Postal Service for years its done to the Postal Service it did not do anywhere else in our economy. That is they force the Postal Service to finance on its pension systems may way more generously than they needed to, and number of years. That puts them in a financial bind to begin with, under from which i they also, we know the competition actually the Postal Service gets from companies from all kinds of package delivers an mail delivers, Postal Service is a public utility where they must deliver to the most remote places, north dakota, they must deliver to madison the small sound in the biggest city in the most dangerous neighborhoods or whatever. They do things, its typical oft privatization. That always skims the most profitable routes, the businesses, the most entities and leaves the government to do the rest. That is why privatization of medicare, all of those end up hurting the public t and enriching the companies that privatize but always undermine the service. That is what has essentially happened to the post office and now with the pandemic, the post office is a big big trouble. There is simply no reason there are two reasons Mitch Mcconnell does not want to put money in the Postal Service number one iss he really does think a crippled service will make vote by mail even more treacherous and difficult. The other thing is there are hundreds of thousands of postal workers, letter carriers, postal workers that work in the mail sorters there are several different hundreds of thousands of Postal Worker Union employees Mitch Mcconnell, one of his goals is to attack the Union Movement and weaken the Union Movement. Because he knows they push back on his Interest Groups, the nra, the drug companies, wall street to whom mcconnell is sworn to obey is. Host make sense we are coming up on time, this hour flew by. Senator brown, i want to thank you again for taking the time to speak with us this afternoon. Y and give you an opportunity to share any final thoughts for our audience before we leave . Just thank you. I was going to say i applied to stanford along time ago and got weighted listing and ended up atta the school, but anyway i got over it. Sort of. It is an honor to speak to all of you. I hope so much that you listen to some of the questions that were asked clearly from the viewpoint of pursuing a life, and occupational life if you will of justice. There are so many things had the privilege of going to stanford, the privilege of going to Stanford Graduate School, not knowing what the background were of course to get that privilege and earn that privilege the great majority of you. I hope you will use that for Public Health and making this country a fairer better place and help us eliminate Racial Disparities in class disparities, help us deal with the issues of climate and the great issues of our time you are some of the best situated young men and women of america to do that. Thank you for having me, thank you especially to grandma my friends at stanfords is its great to be with you. Host clearly was stanfords loss that we did not get you. Thank you again for joining us in spite of all of that. And thank you everyone for joining us, have a great rest of your wednesday. Thanks everybody. coming up tonight on cspan2 from minneapolis the funeral for george floyd. Then from todays Senate Session debate on an anti lynching billboard after that a hearing on Racial Health disparities in the coronavirus pandemic. A Memorial Service for george floyd was held in minneapolis today paired family members and the reverend al sharpton spoke to the gathering but this is just over 90 minutes
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