the united states senate a satisfying place from which to make the arguments. part of the reason i want to play the old tape of you, to embarrass you. part of it to show that you have been making the case in a different line of work, as an academic, expert, ultimately as an activist before you got into the u.s. senate. i think about joining the u.s. congress as the most frustrating thing in the world because it doesn t do anything. no. no, no, no. i talk about in this book. a whole chapter about fighting to get the consumer agency. another chapter about setting it up. and sure, there were tons of frustration. but remember where we were, four short years ago. no agency to prevent them from cheating consumers on mortgages and credit card. the banks said we will kill the agency. in financial reform, they were spending more than $1 million a
very proud of that decision and the country ended up being proud of john adams for doing it. a hundred years after the boston massacre, in 1870, they reprinted the account of the trial with the addition of previously unpublished documents and explanatory notes from john adams. john adams, the hero of the boston massacre trial. because he stepped up to defend the unpopular british soldiers. he didn t have to side with the british empire against the american colonists in order to recognize that john adams did the right thing as a lawyer when he took that case. this is a basic and fundamental american value that persists lo these many centuries. i m sure there are clients that i have represented in court that you would agree with. you would say that s the right side of the cause to be on whether it s the environmental interests i represented in the tahoe case. whether it s the welfare recipients i represented pro bono in the bivens case, whether it s the environmental interests
with the $1.2 trillion in student loan debt that its outstanding. this is the high interest rate debt. high for undergrads. even higher for nose wthose who graduate student loans, plus loans. the idea is we are going to propose taking all of the debt and refinancing it down to 3.86%. which is the interest rate that congress said less than a year ago is the right interest trait for student loans. so bringing all of the student loans, the interest rate down. and then paying for it. because you got to have a pay for it on this. paying for it by saying we are going to close one of the big tax loopholes. and that is, let s pass the buffet rule. it shouldn t be the case that billionaires pay less in taxes than their secretaries. but the reason i put it that way is because here is another way, now new look at that debate. the united states government can invest, it can invest in billionaires by saying keep
interests i represented in the tahoe case. whether it s the welfare recipients i represented pro bono in the bivens case, whether it s the environmental interests in glacier bay that i represented or in the grand canyon on a pro bono basis. i m sure i could go down my list of clients and you d say that s the right side. and there are others with whom you disagree. my point is simply this. that in representing clients in serving as a lawyer, it s not my job to decide whether that s a good idea or a bad idea. the job of the lawyer is to articulate the legal arguments on behalf of the client. the vote to confirm john roberts as chief justice was 78-22. he remains today the chief justice of the speemt. he was nominated by george w. bush. and during the george w. bush administration, the marquee legal issues of that era were obviously on national security
and work for the naacp legal defense fund and asked to sign an appeal for someone convicted of murder, what the message said today is don t do it. don t do it. there was backlash by conservative attorneys when right wing activists and the media tried to say any lawyer who worked on a terrorism case by definition was a terrorist or at least a terrorist sympathizer. there was no conservative backlash against the right wing effort to do the same thing to this obama administration nominee for his work in criminal defense. president obama issued a statement after the vote calling it a travesty based on wildly unfair character attacks. the president said in his statement, quote, the fact that his nomination was based solely on his legal representation of a defendant runs contrary to a fundamental principle of our system of justice. true. but that nomination was defeated and now we ve got one more test case as of today as to whether or not the american right does