Areas that we are going to touch upon today that we think you should be aware of. You dont have to be somebody who sits behind your computer all day. Being an on line activists are helping on any of these fronts but i think you should at least be aware whether you are a donor and activist a supporter and elected official or candidate if you work at a nonprofit. You should know that the impact of these tools have an importance that they hold when you think about strategies or you think about ways not just freeze up to get involved but for those organizations and other efforts that you are aligned with. So i want to talk about politics and advocacy aint quickly about campaigns and elections and the shifting tide of media and journalism as well. The biggest thing i get when i talk to people about this topic is okay so you are on twitter him on facebook and have a blog you are preaching to the choir. I hear about things like obamas big date and thats what makes a difference. I want to give
Employees. We work very hard on a variety of issues. One of which, of course, has been has been the way we wanted to serve our veterans one of our greatest accomplishments in this bill is what we do for them. Veterans Services Organizations came to me and many of the members right here this evening and said, we not only need funding to implement the reforms that were passed by the congress, but we also want you to do this year and a year in advance. We said, we dont do that. They said, you have got to do that. We are concerned with the dysfunction and delay as a strategy in washington that creates chaos for veterans and their survivors. Guess what . We were able to do it. For the First Time Ever we provided funding for this year and one year in advance veterans veterans can count on the disability check, their pension check, a check to help fund the g. I. Bill and that their health care we will be paid for. We also deal with the incredible problem of veterans backlog and put in the mon
I think that polls have shown us that americans the people no longer want to see these numbers and these institutions built. Theyre looking at other ways in order other ways to handle people with Mental Health issues and drug addictions, which really drive the numbers in our prisons and in our jails, but i think that what we have done over the last three decades is really built this mass incarceration vehicle that has driven and driven and driven the numbers of men and women and children into the systems and now were realizing that its not working, its broken, its too costly, its taking lives that we could handle differently. So, thats where we have landed. But the system keeps churning away. And i am very happy to see a proposition in california like proposition 47, that the people can go and cast their vote, and this machine will have to downsize. So, i think that its out of control. Irregardless of what we the people are looking at and wanting for our communities. Also i want to poi
Englander to serve with him in the United States senate. And while it is not the most, sometimes you feel like youre in the graveyard shift on a friday night presiding over the senate. I must tell him after decades here, it is extremely important to have somebody of his integrity, his ability, his competence, his experience presiding over the senate should make every senator, republican and democratic, proud. Mr. President , after latenight thee theatrics house yesterday i hope well soon vote on the spending bill. I support this comprehensive spending package. Chairwoman mikulski has done an outstanding job. She has been a giant of the appropriations process. She should be congratulated for her perseverance in bringing us to this point right now. Now, mr. President , i spoke yesterday about the funds included in the bill for the state department and foreign operations. I commended members of my office who worked so hard on that. We put important funding for the environment, for aids pr
For representative government. When people at the bottom of the economic ladder feel that the government is not helping them, and in fact may be stacked against them, they will cease to vote or they will turn to the siren song of extreme elements in our society. History proves this to be true. Now, i dont have a cookie cutter answer or solution, but it must include more fair tax laws and trade laws, more job training and restraining, rebuilding our physical infrastructure and manufacturing. And i believe it must include some things seemingly unrelated like quality, free Early Education for every child in america. The answer to closing the inequality gap must include rebuilding labor unions and collective bargaining. If you trace the line over the last 40 years of the growing economic quality in america and also put that over another line showing the loss in the number of union workers, they are almost identical. I do not believe it is a stretch to say that organized labor, unions, buil