17 educated in indonesia and a remarkable mother and father tell us i know we will talk about immigration and the policy issue with your Public Service lets start with what that was like. You are right is to nice to have an indepth conversation with a colleague and something we just dont get to do. And landed here a few minutes before i turn 17. I came by myself. My dad had 5000 in his bank account and used all of it to send me here because he really believe this is a place i would get the best education with the best opportunity. I showed up at my two suitcases thats all i could bring without having to pay for more baggage so i write about this in the about how strange it was that we were used to seeing even though its diverse in the grand scheme of things and the smells at mcdonalds and burger king and the smells you a dream about they had not made it yet and a completely new place with a completely new environment. I went to georgetown undergraduate here in the nations capital. Landing in georgetown to get the information and they said something about being a foreign student but not getting my rooming assignment and the guys who was wellmeaning he just heard foreign student and said do you speak english . I was so surprised and jokingly i said i do but only if you talk very slowly. [laughter] that was the beginning of my entry into the United States. I dont think i could have her dream speaking to you as a member of congress. Absolutely. I would encourage people just how somebody arrives for the first time ever. As a high profile leader of the progressive ring on wing of the Democrat Coalition one of the things that is fun about the book with the stereotype progresses have to grapple with the fact you went to Business School work for wall street and a medical device corporation. And the rich portrait and much more than the political stereotypes. Talk about that how they work for the private sector and those that affect the private sector. To be the ceo of ibm you had other be a doctor or lawyer or engineer politician was not one of them. And i went to college i got a degree in economics somewhere along the way i decided i wanted to be in english lit major and calling my dad i could call one time a year to be an english major and he screamed at me to say i did not send you to the United States to learn you how to speak english you already know how to speak english. I promised i would get the same job that i would have with an economics degree and in the med eighties wall street was a place you wanted to work if you are smart and competitive. So thats what i did. I worked for painewebber. I do something that no 20 oh that ever should have done. I realized it wasnt for me but its really important to to find out what you do want to do anybody camp but spreadsheet in front of me complex 300 read page spreadsheets back on the lotus 123 days and to understand Financial Statements to get a masters in business and work on economic one medical equipment. And that has made me better prepared and to think of a progressive and then to be completely divorced from business but to help inform my view wall street accountability to make good economic sense and its based on how i think about what the future looks like from an Economic Perspective and a social perspective. I like data bank for a while and i was 22 doing that. [laughter] i agree 100 percent i felt like i was learning a lot with those negotiations and i related to that with the private sector and hope this allows us to transition you are not satisfied you dont feel that soulful engagement. And the whole concept of immigration and then to say that so much that story and it is the core not the policy debate then we play defense against the president to create a red hot core of baloney quite frankly and this book with the immigration debate with morality and here we are at a moment at the most dysfunctional non conversation that i can remember. I know 9 11 was important but walk us through what gets you so passionate about moral immigration policy. When i was in thailand the summer between graduate school i was working for three months with the largest nonprofit which was the largest refugee camp at the time mostly from cambodia and then to still a very active camp in that sense. And then to get permanently settled and you can just see the resilience of people have how difficult it is for terrible situations throughout war and i dont think about it as i thought the immigration and migration at the moment but just experiencing and then related to the issue of immigration. But as hard as it was i spoke the language and then to be a lot easier with those that i worked with. Switching from the private sector and looking all over the world india and africa and asia, latin america, everywhere. And those are the root causes of migration and thats my orientation how do people get here and then i start thinking about it from the perspective of a us citizen and an immigrant here in the United States what does that need to be . And to be ensconced in that with the largest immigrant Advocacy Organization and many policies for immigrants to live and a lot of that is because over the last two decades so to know that policy detail and i talk about jen in the book about how there is such a lack of new wants to the debate of immigration in this country when in fact the system is so unbelievably complex and everybody has a story to tell. Africanamerican and brought on a slave ship unwilling is a very different situation. But everybody else has a story to tell. And the moral core of the identity that forms United States as a nation of immigrants. And then to explain to the American People to have a system of immigration laws. And then the congress has managed to move a complete overhaul but it has been decade there is no major change in that is untenable for a country was such deep Economic Needs and then to be focused on the roles of immigrants building the country. Yes. That is right. And for all of us that are not subscribers to the president s point of view and how morality subdues and its built on lies as you point out its a nation of immigrants and not to take the moral approach absolutely essential to our economy to have a more robust immigration and that is the agriculture and seen a seed and the restaurants is not hard from the current mess and then in moral terms but so describe what you think and has been for decades if you could wave a magic wand and policy would change overnight what would it look like compared to the bill over five or six years ago and then with the path of citizenship and with identification and verification so tell us what your view of a good immigration policy would look like with very strong bipartisan manner five or six years ago. I was on the outside pushing for that bill and frankly not all of us like and then a lot of americans say and then the political football and to demonize immigrant something no other president has done before him in history. But understand there is no line in the United States and for people to even kindly here and take me 18 years to get my citizenship. So the first thing we need to do is rectify with a process that is easy to navigate and what you are coming here to work temporarily or be a student those quotas and also have to be completely updated. That allows you to have a functioning system you have to provide a pathway citizenship to those undocumented immigrants these are those that are primarily been living here between 15 and 17 years it is hypocritical to say that the entire economy would collapse. And then to do the work we need them to do. And then give them a path to citizenship to allow them to be full contributors so that is exotic talking about the undocumented and then to have substantial republican support. That the Food Supply Chain for the meatpacking plants it doesnt work without that population. In spite of what trump has said there is still substantial support with the demonization that he has done but my goers are all staunch republicans for the chamber of commerce and a clear sense that we need a path to citizenship just as it is clear for human rights activist and to fix the system. Third to have humanitarian ways and with that beacon of hope and light. And traditionally to be bipartisan support Speaker Pelosi calls the Refugee Resettlement program the crown jewel of humanitarianism. But donald trump has destroyed everything that has to do to shut that down shut down the Asylum Program and barely taking any and shut off all legal ways. We should be clear donald trump opposition is not just to undocumented immigrants but all Legal Immigration thats why he tried to ban student visa and shut down legal immigrant programs spousal visa and rollback all of that. With the agenda of the White Nationalist is no immigration in this country will die without immigration and that is clear. I agree with your statement no president has made immigration such toxic part of the approach but at some level is same old same old in the late 18 hundreds absolutely to brutalize and dehumanize the mediterranean were very different that is very strong team unless we are indigenous and at some level that says value is all about to get a beacon and to the world and has been brutal to the latest wave of immigrants how do we change that because if we dont add demagogue in the future with the latest round of immigrants how do we change that . We have to fix the policy and in spite of what people say every Immigration Reform has happened with tremendous resistance and then to oversee that has moved forward despite any concerns he might have what the reaction might be. It is what is good for the country its what for civil rights and then pulling to the right place and from the field because lets be clear and america has had a very complex history with immigration. And that has to do with the fact and then as the playbook so our work has to be to reconnect the policy is not hard if crafted this over and over again in 2013 i would change some things about it today but the way that you secure the United States and preserve the National Security is to have a functioning immigration system we can keep track of everyone was easy for people to come in and go out those that are very popular earlier decades and to have borders that are security because it allows people to come in and go out not the other way around. And where donald trump fires up people based on immigrant base. And we need to pass this policy the thing that donald trump can go back to her any president frankly go back to over and over again and we should not be a divided country we do have a history. We do have the identity we do have the policy. And then we have spent so much less taxpayer dollars and we would have had a far more secure country instead we just pour money into walls and painting the black it doesnt make a bit of difference. Even in southwestern connecticut coming to town Hall Meetings using just brutal language with the undocumented despite the fact that the area that i represent so when the things that can be quite helpful is to reframe and remind people of those values. And that concerns and people are not wrong to say the system is broken with 12 Million People living in the shadows on the illegal basis it is the affront to the rule of law so when the general meetings immigration policy we have to acknowledge who we are. And then to dehumanizing people all immigrants are drug dealers and subhuman. Its not different from what your grandparents are greatgrandparents. And then i find that appeals to the core human value. O come in. Ken you stress that . Hispanic i go on fox news quite a bit and have to laugh sometimes because im never talking to the anchor. The anchors job is to get as explicit as possible but im talking to the people that watch because they are looking for a new way to think about things and what i say is listen, i understand if you are frustrated because you havent been able to find a good job before kobe behaved we had the worst income any coffee and wealth inequality to have decent opportunities, then i talk about how in that moment it is easy to blame somebody. Weve all been in this situation before but dont blame the immigrants. Lets talk about and think about your immigration story and family history, just getting people to connect back on how they came to this country and then the third in terms of the border i find that so funny because we are talking about creating a system so that you could go through is coming in and out and allow people to have the beauty of being with their family. Family. I see fox news hosts all the time, you used to be the party of family values. Would have been a values when you walk kids in cages or segregate a child from their parent for 16 years if youre filipino or 22 years if you are from some other country. The amount of time that if they stew allow a parent to be with a child even separate from teachers so if we had a system that functions that isnt about open borders its about saying the United States has the right to do the sam but at the same tu dont have that, that is when you need to worry because not only do you not have what you need for the economy or for security, but you also dont have what you need for the heart and soul of america, the moral value of america as a nation of immigrants in the country that shined a beacon of light around the world for people that like me come here and for so many ancestors and generations of people to come to the United States. So i find when i go through that little litany of things quickly, i may not get the fox news posts but those who say to me i didnt realize Social Security taxes so that i can go and retire as a u. S. Citizen. They are paying my Social Security taxes. Great, great, good conversation. Lets go even deeper and talk about morality and politics. We talk about the areas and your story is infused with an awareness and advocacy. And i really enjoyed reading it because i spent years thinking about the morality and politics. What ive been able to figure out over time is politics without phone morality is a sort of insane notion. We are here because we have values morality, everything we do there is a downside for morl framing which is on the extreme that will make us. Sometimes when we are aggressive and framing things in moral terms said very hard to compromise a. Something we are not known for in the Congress Today because you can compromise with a libertarian so im really interested in where and when morality is key and then we need to draw back. No human can look at family segregation, and i saw this at the border as you did, too mac. If that doesnt fly for five years of moral outrage outside of you, im not sure if you are alive. On the other end of the spectrum, it is immensely technical. So what is the proportion that kind of stuff doesnt really lend itself to the kind of clarity family segregation does. Where is it essential and at what point do you pull back and closed the door and get a deal done kind of way of thinking about this. Host one of the said im so depressed that your first is called politics and the second is moral vision. Do they not go together and i think this is the question you are asking. I think that for me, it is clear to me morality is infused in everything. I dont know what you fight for if you dont know what your own values are and we can use the term values because i actually think that we share regardless whether you are republican, independent or democrat, we share some core human values which is we want the right to be respected. We want opportunity and to be treated with dignity and respect. Those are the kind of things that i talk to universally with republicans in my district as well. And so, i think that the thing we have to remember is our system is not a representative system. It has led to an unrepresentative government. Now its represented in the sense 750,000 People Choose you and choose me and we call that a representative democracy. But if you look at so much of the institutionalized racism and sexism that has pervaded the system for so long, the reality is that people who are in power making decisions have a particular perspective of what may be moral or not and many of the details of the policy, even though it doesnt sound like it, lays the groundwork for a continuation of that racism and sexism or whatever it is, so when you look at these policies, i do think that its very important to keep a northstar there and i think that our colleague who just passed away, or Elijah Cummings who also just passed away, both of whom were so welcoming to me when i came into congress and i remember saying in my fighting too hard on family separation and immigration and other. And they both sort of took me and shook me by the shoulders and said you keep fighting with the urgency because i think sometimes politics gets reduced to the lowest common denominat denominator, the thing that is easiest to move forward as quickly, but that isnt actually the thing that gets at the root causes of what is happening that requires a much deeper analysis and fix to the solution. So, is it do we need people to agree with us 100 on everything, of course not. Definitely not. Are there technical pieces where you can argue about how many people here or how many get covered for health care, sure. All of those things are real but what happens is the characterization for example the criminalization of the poor or the criminalization of the immigrants have happened with welfare reform, those are detrimental to any progress moving forward, so that is often the thing i think we have to fight it out and we dont. When we are on the floor and the republicans want to divide us, what do they do . They use the motion to reconnect, for people who dont follow every piece of what we do. Thats focused on the criminalization, criminalization of immigrants, of black people, brown people, and we dont we are too afraid to take that on and say go ahead, you want to talk about criminalization, lets talk about these people are. We are too afraid of the 32nd ad that might come for top districts. I am not i understand not every district as a democratic district like fine, but i do think that is where leadership comes in, because if we dont fix those underlying pieces of recognizing the worth of all human beings, then that is going to hurt us on any policy we try to put forward. Host you made me think about the republicans didnt you write they are designed to split a party and designed for individual motions to reconnect. By the way, we did when we were in the minority. We need to be a little more humble about the fact both parties bear the blame they never split though. They recognized them as completely ridiculous and they didnt worry about it. Host but they were remarkably disciplined. As long as we are talking about republicans, in my opinion today, when i won in 200801 in th2008 i wonin the republican dt because its in england, its gotten gradually more believe that prior to the Court District of connecticut, it was generations of republicans. Lets talk about very briefly because theres s there is so mr book we need to get to, you know, what are the things that are disheartening to me about Politics Today is republican colleagues that we should say both of us have republican friends and relationships but its remarkable to see this party gets over its values and its loyalty not to a set of principles with which we made this degree, but to one man whos actually taken advantage o is actually taken advantage of the fact that i think democrats, and to talk about this in your book, isolated themselves from some of their traditional constituencies. Without thinking too much of a cartoon stereotype there, the fact is i think that the justice of the bulk of the Labor Movement supported donald trump or at least it was very closely split. How in the world does that have been . By the way i see this when i go to the union halls in connecticut, a modest estimate. There is a correlation between education and support for donald trump, and again i know these are complicated issues and you have very strong feeling about dividing people on the winning segment, not in the winning category in the United States, but it does feel to me like you look at the devastated communities in ohio and the industrial midwest, the south, it does feel to be like democrats dropped the ball and if donald trump figured that out and played to those communities in a way that we bear some blame for doing whether you agree with that . Guest yes, we totally agree on that and i talk about it in my book and i talked about it quite a bit. Donald trump is both a symptom and a cause. Hes a cause of tremendous pain and divisiveness and racism and xenophobia and everything else. But hes also a symptom. He was elected because there were too many people across the country, including those in White Working Class neighborhoods, but also black folks and brown folks across the country who were disenchanted with democrats and didnt believe we fall for them. They were confused about our stance on trade. Donald trump went right in there and im not talking about what he did later when he ran for president he said im going to the things on fair trade agreement and im going to make sure working people across this country keep their jobs. You know, he talked about opportunities for working people. Democrats took so long to get onboard for a living wage. One of the most popular policies across the country, health care. We ran and won on healthcare and 2018 because they continued to destroy healthcare. But donald trump has made all kinds of noises about what he believes in making it sound like hes going to fight for the little guy. Democrats havent you done enough to either show that we really are on the side of regular working people, collective bargaining rights. They should have expanded the collective bargaining rights ten years ago, but we didnt. We passed the act in congress that w they should have done tht a long time ago. We should have said listen, we are with you. We want you to have a powerful voice for democracy on the job. I think that this is the hold he came into. Later on top of that, racism and many other things hes xenophobia, fear of the other at a time when so much of the country is suffering. If the country was doing while, none of this would have worked. But the country wasnt doing well. 60 of americans didnt even have 400 in your bank account before covid hit. So this is where he came. And i think for us as democrats, we have to remember two things going into the next election. Number one, that a base is critically important. I saw the polling. You and i are pulling for joe biden to be president of the United States. I saw the polling on this and it looks like joe biden has a big lead on donald trump but id say be extremely careful, because when they take out likely voters and they factor in for enthusiasm, that lead drops substantially. So, dont think that we dont need our base with us. We need young people. We need folks of color in all places, because michigan, we need everybody to turnout. Turnout matters in these places. And then secondly, you know, i think that when biotin is elected president , we have to be bold. We have to recognize austerity spending, that if we dont invest in people and education and housing an opportunity of transportation, that we will ultimately worsen these inequalities and there will be an opportunity for another donald trump to come and when. So we have to be bold and step up and invest in our communities and hopefully we keep the white house in 2024. Host i agree there is a great deal of commonality and agreement across the political spectrum particularly on economic issues. You and i would have the agreement on Economic Policy because they come from different tribes within the Democratic Party, but there is no doubt that those things consistent and universal availability of healthcare and reasonable shot at an education i dont care where you come from or what your socioeconomic circumstances are. If you can be persuasive around with, you are going to appeal to everyone. I draw the distinction and theres an interesting part i want to highlight. I think its a little harder in the realm of social issues, and because republicans recognize that we win if we had an honest economic debate access delivery the 3 to the top 5 , whatever policy committee realize if we win the economic state is that the debate but instead they try to paint the democrats as coastal elitists that are obsessed with genderneutral pronouns and, you know, they use a lot of dark language about people who worship differently and love differently, and i think that is a little harder conversation and i see that in the own district sometimes. Because we have made incredible progress in this country. Sorry, theres a light going off in my office. [laughter] with technology we have a long way to go. Ten years ago or 11 years ago, the delegation i dont think anybody was for Marriage Equality. Barack obama was famously kind of al did for Marriage Equality by joe biden. We have seen dramatic change and with some of the changes i think it is scary for people to come from more conservative areas that you and i live and there is a wonderful page in your book where you talk about you have a non binary child who wishes to be referred to as [inaudible] the republicans make all sorts of condescending comments about pronoun into this sort of thing and then there is a thing where you say i should kiss pregnant people instead of women to acknowledge the transient non binary people who identify with the term women can still be pregnant. That shows a great deal of caring for people whove traditionally been at best marginalized and at worst, targeted. But i think that you would agree, i read that page and thought this is beyond even when ive gone. Ive done a lot of thinking about non binary [inaudible] my question at the end of that long speech is how do we make sure we are bringing people in and saying to ourselves perhaps humanity far along on the journey but we want to help you rather than be condescending or attacking you or calling you a bigot because quite frankly that isnt what the republicans say about us bu that a president ial candidate calls people to portable, when we call somebody struggling with these issues bigoted, thats to explain for how we talk about these things, too. So a remarkable page in the book. How do we get to people in a graceful and constructive way on social issues . Guest i have a phrase i say approach with generosity and abundance, not with scarcity and fear. I think about that when i talk to people about having a non binary child. Many of my friends are confused with these pronouns. My mother is an india and you know, she took a whole course and still cant get the pronouns right and its okay because she loves them and so i try to come at it with the love of a parent and to talk about how we kids do you want our kids to be free to express who they are and when people have trouble with that it doesnt necessarily turn me off of them or make me judge then, because i am i so have to go through my own process. I still sometimes referred to jonathan as he because for years that is a pretty wise. But i think everybody wants to be seen. Everybody wants to be seen as visible for who they are and those identities are so critical and fundamental to somebody being able to be seen. So i think we should continue to be strong about it and be loving and generous and call people in. I try not to judge people. Thats why i have a problem with republicans talking about non binary people. It wasnt just saying i dont understand this, somebody explain it. They were talking in the humanizing ways and that is my child. That is unacceptable so i have thad tospeak out. I also think the other thing is there are so many points of connection, and we dont have to agree on everything in order to respect each other. I am in a very democratic district that i am in a state that has the top two primary which means the top to go on to the general election so most of the time im facing another democrat in my election. When i was running for the state senate i decided, i was running for another democrat in the general and thought i should talk to republicans because they are 20 of the district and they dont have a republican to vote for so why not me. So i went to talk to them and i have this story in there. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I went out to these republican households and they were identified as republican and i go up to this one guy and hes out there cleaning his harley, big guy with tattoos and i have maybe some stereotypes about how this conversation is going to go, but i love talking to people no matter who they are. We end up getting into the wonderful conversation and guess what, he agrees with me on 15dollar minimum wage and he agrees on collective bargaining. He agrees with me on a whole bunch of things, even on immigration. Then he asks me about guns and said how do you feel about guns and i said honestly, i dont like them, but i understand second amendment. My husband used to hunt. I dont tell him that hes now a buddhist, but my husband used to hunt and used to have guns in his home, and we have a conversation and it becomes clear we are not going to agree on this issue of guns. I say it should just be responsible like if you drive a car you need a license. You need to be responsible and they said you are one of those democrats are going to take my guns away from me. So its time to move on and i say can i have your vote and he says i was ready to give you my vote but then we got the gun is conversation and i just dont think i can do it, i disagree with you on that. I said i understand. His wife was standing there and i said how long have you been married. He said the 23 years. I said thats amazing. Do you agree on 100 of issues and he laughed and said of course not and i said but you married her. Im just asking for your vote. And he absolutely is still for a moment, cracks up, takes my hand and says you are a different kind of politician because at least you tell me. Im going to vote for you but you try to take my guns away and im going to be on your behind. And he did vote for me. So i think we dont have to have everyone agree that we should be authentic and real and we should be okay with men disagreeing with us just as we might disagree with them. Host thats a wonderful story i really enjoyed it and i chuckled to myself. Its a good thing that it broke the way it did with him voting for you instead of telling his wife after 23 years sorry its over. Guest that would have been bad. I dont want to be a marriage breaker. [laughter] host a couple of questions. I spend a lot of my time thinking about the cohesion of. People often ask questions how is your message clear like the republican message. Think about what they are as a a party. We are a party that includes the proverbial educated coastal elite business, plus he knows, you name it, still a lot of Labor Movement. All you need to do is come and look at us sitting on the floor of the house of representatives. The other party is not stereotyping and i will put it this way, the other party on the floor of the house of representatives we spent a lot of time thinking about cohesion in the party because we dont win if we dont embrace our different points of view. Whats fun is your attitude as you described as one of being open and welcoming and graceful with people with different views. There is one area i would say the tone changes a little bit in the area of medicare for all and this is a difficult topic. I think that we mishandled the Democratic Party. Why did i say that, pretty much every industrialized country they have it universal and switzerland has private insurance but wages subsidies, a nationalized system where everybody works for the government, japan has a hybrid system, canada has a hybrid system to rid the world the woodle demonstrates lots of different Healthcare Systems. On the discussion of medicare for all, i came away from it thinking something that i feel sometimes that the progressive wing thinks that medicare for all is the way. In your discussion here you say that there are spreading lies that medicare for all. I got the impression, and i guess it is internal discussions and the Democratic Party that the supporters by the way i should say that i spend a lot of my time even though i have some issues with it because we use it. Its hardly a radical idea, but i did sense a littl didnt sense in the tonality when you talk about medicare for all. Is that because this is such a critical issue and we fall short or is it because, and you are more of an expert on health care than i am, is that the system that works for the United States . Guest i think its two things. I do believe it is a system that should work and by that im not saying everything in my bill, 1384, is the only way. People would say to me how come you have a twoyear transition, you should have a four year transition. Everything in politics you put the legislation forward and theres got to be changes. If we get to the point we are talking about the transition, fantastic. Im ready to have that conversation. But i do believe that a universal Healthcare System that is paid for by the government and that is coordinated by the government, but the government as the main conduit for which health care is guaranteed and that its not tied to employment or any other factor, that is absolutely what the United States should do and in fact what most other countries do. There are some changes here and there and countries that are starting to change, but most countries do that and maybe they have a little bit here and there for the private sector. That is not our system today. And the reason, ive been very frustrated by the attacks on medicare for all from our own party so it isnt that people are saying that is absolutely the goal we should get to and lets talk about some of the issues that are here and debate them. People say its absurd. You cant get rid of an Employer Covered Health Care because they offer so much choice. For years i kept saying how much choice do you have when you lose your job. What choice do you have when youre an employer picks were healthcare and or Insurance Company tells you which doctors to go to and which procedures are covered that doesnt sound like much choice to be. But the program of the greatest choice is medicare. But now nobody is making that argument at 45 million americans that file jobless claims and 27 million lost their health care because they lost their job. Its a lot of frustration. Theres the sense that somehow we are naive and idealistic and then the cross discussions drive me absolutely crazy because i do have a clear sense of economics and i can tell you we keep going with this system and we are going to be paying 50 trillion over the next ten years. Nobody wants to talk about that. They only want to talk about the cost of the medicare for all system. Thats the reason for my frustration i feel that people within our own party for whatever reasons i wont attribute reasons. I have my thoughts about it, but for whatever reason, they refuse to acknowledge that our system of healthcare Wa Health Care waa system and we are seeing it right now with this pandemic and the fact that africanamericans four times as likely to die as white americans. Latinos nine times as likely to be hospitalized as white americans partly because they never had healthcare and they were never able to pay for the treatment which they needed that left them exposed to all the other underlining conditions that caused covid to take hold. It is a travesty and i get worked up about it and you know, and i am happy to have the discussion with anybody that i find people dont even want to have the discussion and that bothers me. Host i tell my constituents we are the definition of inefficiency and immorality because they dont cover everybody. We spend far more money for far worse results and so obviously something needs to be done. Anyway, guest one hopeful note i just finished cochairing the Biden Sanders health unity task force. I didnt get medicare for all. I didnt turn joe biden into bernie sanders. However, we made tremendous progress on what we can achieve as a party for our platform. Its not sufficient. I havent changed my mind, but we did make tremendous progress in terms of the platform for the Democratic Party on achieving universal health care. Host thats how we won in 2018. Our Healthcare System is a mess. We fought tooth and nail against the Affordable Care act that is regarded today as incremental and something we need a lot of work. I think we need to be humble about the notion and in some circles you suggest we will get there. We need to be humble about the notion that there are a lot of endpoints. Japan, britain, japan, france, they all do it differently. They all do a better, but i think that if we can overcome the socialism we can overcome the lies and this is how the Democratic Party reconnects an awful lot, not even marginalizes but a lot of populations behind. I think we are way over time. Ive never done this before because im a talk show host not a talk show host. But with the power we have, thank you for the good conversation. Thank you for having such a wonderful conversation and for everything that you do. It is a pleasure to serve with you. Host thinks. Weeknights this month we are featuring booktv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan2. Th the president s, available in paperback, hardcover and ebook from publicaffairs presents biographies of every president , inspired by conversations with noted historians about the leadership skills that make for a successful presidency. In this president ial election year, as americans decide who should lead our country, this collection offers perspectives into the lives and events that forged each president s leadership style. To learn more about all our presidency of the book is featured historians, visit cspan. Org the president s. Available in paperback, hardcover and ebook, wherever books are sold. Joining us now on booktv is senator joni earnst, republican from iowa. Shes written a new memoir its called daughter of the heartland. Senator, what prompted you to write this book at this time . Guest than