I want to work with democrats and republicans. My favorite president was the first republican president. This is not a statement about partisanship. This is a statement about america and what we are fighting for. Im not going to let gridlock and inaction and willful indifference and greed threaten the hard work of families like yours. We cant afford to wait for congress. I am moving ahead without them wherever i can. [applause] thats why i required federal contractors to pay 10. 10 an hour. That is why i made sure more women had the protections they need to fight for fair pay in the workplace. [applause] that is why we launched more hightech manufacturing jobs. Some of you may have read that when we take these actions and now republicans are mad at me for taking these actions. They are not doing anything. Now they are mad that i am doing something. Im not sure which of the things i have done are most offensive. Theyve decided theyre going to sue me for doing my job. In the heat of the moment i may have said i wanted to raise the minimum wage so sue me when i do. I did not think they would take it literally. Giving more working americans a fair shot is not about what i can do. It is about we can do together. When congress does not act, i have tried to rally others to help. I have talked to ceos and the governors. They dont have to wait for congress to raise the minimum wage. Just raise it right now. 13 states have raised theirs, including minnesota. More than 460,000 of your neighbors are poised to get a raise. [applause] job applications went up to the roof. I got a letter from a proud mother in minneapolis who wanted me to know that her son starts his employees at 15 per hour at aarons green cleaning here in town. [applause] there they are. We are just proud of his people centered business centered model. We dont have to wait for congress to do some good stuff. On monday we held the first ever summit on working families. We heard from a lot of other families like ben and rebecca. They count on policies like paid leave to juggle everything. We had Business Owners who said they became more profitable when they made a family life easier for their employees. More companies are deciding that Workplace Flexibility and higher wages is good for business. More cities and states are deciding it is good policy for families. The only holdout standing in the way of change for tens of millions of americans are some republicans in congress. I want to be blunt. If you watch the news, you just see that washington is a mess. The basic attitude is everybody is crazy. If you actually read the fine print, it turns out the things you care about democrats are promoting. We are just not getting enough help. My message to republicans is join us and get on board. If youre mad at me for helping people, join me and we can do it together. [applause] we will do it together. I am happy to share the credit. [applause] theyre mad at me for doing some things to raise the minimum wage. Lets pass a law. Lets give america a raise. If youre mad at me for taking executive action for women to find out that theyre not getting treated fairly in the work place, lets do it together. You can share the credit. Youre worried about me fixing a broken immigration system, lets hold hands and make sure that the country continues to be a nation of immigrants. I want to work with you. But you have to try to deliver something. [applause] anything. [applause] they dont do anything. Except block me. And call me names. It cant be that much fun. It would be so much more fun if they said, lets do something together. If they were more interested in growing the economy for you and the issues that you are talking about instead of trying to mess with me, we would be doing a lot better. That whats make this country great, when we work together. That is the american way. More than ever, with the fourth of july next week and team usa moving on in brazil [applause] we should try to rally around some economic patriotism. We rise and fall as one nation and one people. Lets rally around instead of giving tax breaks to millionaires, lets give tax breaks to families. Instead of protecting companies are shifting profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share, lets put people back to work rebuilding our roads and airports. Lets create good jobs and making progress here in america and america and minnesota. Lets not stack the deck in favor of those who have a lot. Lets help people who have ingenuity but needs a hand up. This is not rocket science. There is some things are complicated. This is not one of them. Lets make sure every for old america has access to highquality preschool. So that moms like rebecca know their kids are getting the best quality care and getting a head start on life. Lets redesign our high schools to make sure their kids are better prepared for the 21st century economy. Lets follow the lead of senator franken. [applause] lets tell every american that lost a job because it was shipped overseas, we will train you for an even better one. [applause] lets rally around the patriotism it says our country is stronger when every american can count on Affordable Health insurance. And medicare. And social security. And women earn equal pay and a family can make ends meet if their kids get sick. When nobody who works fulltime is living in poverty. Let me just wrap up by saying this. I know sometimes things get discouraging. I know that our politics looks profoundly broken and washington looks like it is never going to deliver for you. It seems like they are focused on everything but your concerns. I know that when i was elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012, so many of you were hoping that we could get washington to work differently. Sometimes when i get stymied you think maybe not. Maybe it is just too tough. Maybe things wont change. I get that frustration. From the cynics in washington, they have written me off more times than i can count. Im here to tell you to not get cynical. Despite all of the frustration, america is making progress. Despite the unyielding opposition, there are families who have Health Insurance now that did not have it before. [applause] there are students in college you could not afford before. There are troops home with their family after serving tour after tour. Dont think that we are not making progress. [applause] it is easy to be cynical. Today it is trendy. Cynicism passes off for wisdom. Cynicism doesnt liberate a continent. It doesnt build a transcontinental railroad. It doesnt send a man to the moon. It doesnt invent the internet. It doesnt give women the right to vote. It doesnt make sure that people are treated equally regardles of race. Cynicism is a choice. Hope is a better choice. Everyday i want you to receive thousands of acts of hope. Every time someone sits down and picks up a pen and writes to me and shares a story just like rebecca did, she said in her letter there is a silly thing to do to write a letter to the president. On some level i know that staying silent about what you see and what needs changing it makes any difference. I am writing you to let you know what it is like for us out in the middle of the country and i hope you will listen. I am here because rebecca wrote to me and i want her to know that i am listening. [applause] i am here because i want you to know that i am listening. I ran for office to make sure that anyone who is working hard to meet their dreams has some in washington who is listening. I am going to keep listening. I will always keep fighting. Your concerns are my own. Your hope for your kids are my own. I am always going to be working to restore the american dream. I am not going to get cynical and i will say hopeful and i hope you do too. Thank you. God bless you. God bless america. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] next, cspan looks at the impact the new colorado law legalizing Recreational Marijuana has. Of robotics. Ion of theve review of some Big Decisions from the supreme term. Washington journal focused on the impact of the legalization of medical marijuana in colorado. This is two hours. The skyline of denver, colorado. That state is the first in the nation to allow marijuana sales. Toy are taking the lead learn about their experience since the beginning of the year. Joining us, early this morning, is ben markus. Thank you for joining us. Pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me. Host how did colorado come to agree about pot sales . Guest four years, there was a very small caregiver model. People grew medical marijuana for patients in basements. Very small operations. Not many people were registered as patients. Around 2009, dispensaries took off. They were shops, like what you see today. They just exploded throughout the state. The state created some of the strictest regulations in the nation, statewide and local levels, requiring background checks for owners. Plant counts, inspections of buildings, and all of these things. Some people say that because we have normalized medical marijuana in that way this guy has not fallen despite all these dispensaries. It made people more comfortable passing Recreational Marijuana laws. Argumentse of the big for Recreational Marijuana is that we should not spend so much time and money locking up people for marijuana offenses. We should not be wasting money on montfort memphis everything. Those messages resonated with voters. Barack obama was in colorado mobilizing a lot of voters and passed overwhelmingly. So, since the law went into effect, what has changed . What changed for them when they wanted to sell Recreational Marijuana . So, the loss sets it up the medical dispensaries that existed before january 1 could switch to recreational marijua na. No new businesses in the first year. In denver, no new businesses for the first two years. Dispensaries that had been open for a long time got first crack at it. Only dozens open on the first day, out of 500 statewide. Those businesses that opened in early january were the ones who sell tons of sales. Lots of people coming from wyoming and kansas in germany all over the world. As we have gone on, we have more than 100 recreational dispensaries. Theyre selling medical and Recreational Marijuana. There are still 500 medical dispensaries. 400 of those have yet to switch. We still do not see the full realization of this market and probably will not for a couple of years. It takes time for them to decide to sell Recreational Marijuana. You have to know where this is coming from. These businesses do not have Traditional Bank accounts. Getting loans is difficult. Getting building inspections. Replacing a Sprinkler System in your building before you could switch recreational. There are so many hurdles. We are only seeing about 1 5 of the shops that could open actually doing it. Host what we have learned is that Recreational Marijuana sales brought a new series of taxes as well. Guest yes. The tax rate on Recreational Marijuana is more than 30 . Certain cities have different tax rates. Marijuana sold in denver can be taxed upwards of 35 . Contrast that to medical marijuana, which only has a state sales tax less than 3 . The price of recreational isijuana versus medical substantially different, mostly because of the tax rate. It is also a supply and demand issue. So, you have a limited amount of stores and a limited amount of supply. You see these dramatic race differences. Price differences. That is one of the reasons that medical marijuana is likely not going away. The price is significantly cheaper. Than 20 to keep your medical registration. If you are a happy user of marijuana, it makes a lot of sense to stay in the medical market. That is why, when you step into one of these dispensaries come easy to counters. One is for medical marijuana. All you need is an id, photo id, passport on the medical side, you need a red card that shows that you have an actual ailment covered by the medical statute to get that marijuana. It is significantly cheaper. Almost half off. Host ben is with us to talk about colorados experience. We will ask him more questions. You may have question about colorados experience. If youre in the eastern or central time zones, dial the number on your screen. Ben markus, a recent story looks at sales so far. In january, 14 million in wreck regional marijuana sales. In april, 22 Million Dollars of Recreational Marijuana sales. Talk about those figures and what is expected as far as revenue for the state. Guest i think that the states revenue projections are still off. The full market is not here. We do not have all of the stores that will eventually be open. It is almost impossible to know, by the end of the year, you cannot extrapolate multiply that by three and that is how much sales we will have. Every month, more and more stores are coming online. More people are coming to colorado, realizing that there is Recreational Marijuana for sale here. I think that the growth can be exponential. We see some months where it goes up by 15 or 20 in sales. April is a big month because there was a big 420 smoke out. Ry year, peopleer ye come and smoke marijuana in public. It is a huge sale stay pretty stable. It is like christmas for marijuana. The lines outside are huge. April may have been a spike. There are four months of tax data in this program. We cannot draw a trend we know that every month it is getting bigger. Host as far as public smoking, does the new law address that at all . Guest yes. It is in the constitution that you cannot smoke in public. That is the one thing that is difficult for people who are new. They come to colorado to smoke hermana. That may be the most surprising aspects for them. This is not an amsterdam type of environment here. There are smoke clubs where you can buy marijuana and sit down and smoke it. In denver, the king of marijuana in colorado 189 recreational dispensaries, 200 medical dispensaries. The smoke clubs are banned. People buy their marijuana and walk out of the shop. Now what do they do it . They probably smoke it in their hotel or on the down low. On the street or in a park. All of that is against the law. Cops say it is the lowest priority. They will not handcuff people for smoking marijuana, but it is still against the law. You could be fined up to 1000 for smoking in public. That may be part of the reason that people are drawn to animal. Edible. You come in from outofstate and see an incredible selection of edible brownies and candies, cakes, cookies Peanut Butter cups. The options are endless. People are likely drawn to the edibles. Be a different expense for people who are not accustomed to edibles. We are saying issues of people who are not aware of how powerful edible marijuana can be. Columnistw york times wrote about her experience with edible marijuana and taking it and the effect that had. You probably heard about that. Guest yeah. It is unfair that people have been mocking her for that. It is not an atypical experience. When you eat marijuana, it can take so long to have an effect on you. People will feel like it is not happening, so that you more. Once it is in your system, you cannot get it back out. When you smoke marijuana, the feeling is almost instant. You can kind of regulated for you get too far or too high. Les, you put that in its system and you have to work its way out. I think she is not completely she gets mocked for not paying attention to directions, but it is easy not to. Even if youre a seasoned marijuana smoker, your reaction to them edible marijuana may be different than if you smoked it. You may feel overconfident that you can handle large doses. I think it takes time for people to learn this new market. We do not hear a lot of problems with medical edibles. We are hearing problems from people from out of state. They eat the whole cookie and have issues. Host we will talk about these issues. Ben markus will talk about colorados experience and answer questions on it. There are three lines set aside regionally. Our first call of the morning comes from d. J. From chesapeake, virginia. Caller good morning. I am working on the efforts in virginia for medical legalization. I have worked across the country as a veteran for posttraumatic stress and i worked with mike elliott. That is something they try to add to colorados red card program. I want to address a few issues. The fact that you do not see increased use in adolescents with legalization. You see a reduction in traffic fatalities. Colorado atty of denver analyzed fatalities nationwide between 1990 and 2009. They saw the traffic fatalities in males 20 to 29 went down, resulting in fewer deaths. It also reduced the suicide rate. Would be, door ben you think the colorado is doing is going to far as the way of regulations go . It seems like theyre almost relating some areas completely out of the program, as opposed to allowing for a lot of freedom with marijuana. You have to understand the marijuana is not the typical product. You have to be very careful that the federal government feels comfortable with the system in colorado. Yes, some people may look at this market and say it is not a freemarket system. You have hundreds of pages of regulation. That iss is a substance still against federal law. The federal government is concerned about the movement of this product out of state and into kids hands. It is extremely highly regulated. It is for a reason. You are setting a strap extending. Traffic study. Echoes up to 2009. In 2009 is when the centuries became widely spread. That study does not encompass one of the most important time periods, when you have the medical marijuana as it exists todfay, which is storm fronts where people can easily buy it. People should start setting after 2009. That is when you have Recreational Marijuana like we have today. Host bill is up next. Bill is from florida. Go ahead please. Guest caller i have a question for you. Medical marijuana will be on the ballot here in november. Taxesch money from these is going back into researching for the medical purposes or doing research as to what is recreational . Whether it is harmful or not . Guest that is a great question. Budget, thereors is millions of dollars for research into medical marijuana properties. This is not from text money, but from red card registrations. When you register to become a patient with the state, you have to pay a small fee. They did not quite know what to do with all that money. So, they direc