Everything. But as mordecai reminded her, we all are are an obligation to do our part when danger gathers. And those of us with power or influence have a special responsibility to do whats right. As ellie elie said, silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented. So, my friends, let us never be neutral or silent in the face of bigotry. Together lets defend the shared values that already make america and israel great. [applause] let us do the hard work necessary to keep building our friendship and reach out to the next generation of americans and israelis so the bonds between our nations grow even deeper and stronger. [cheers and applause] we are stronger together, and if we face the future side by side, i know for both israel and america our best days are still ahead. [cheers and applause] thank you so much [cheers and applause] 234rb. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our morning program. Please turn your attention to the screens for an important programming update. Finish. We will leave this here, and if you missed any of the speeches from this mornings aipac conference, you can find them all online in the cspan video library. Go to cspan. Org. And we will be back at the conference this afternoon for republican president ial candidates john kasich, donald trump and ted cruz. We will have their remarks live starting at 5 p. M. Eastern here on cspan2. And also live today a discussion on Monetary Policy and how the u. S. Might respond in the event of another recession. The Brookings Institution is the host of this event. Speakers include former Treasury Department officials. Thatll be live at 2 p. M. Eastern also here on cspan2. Booktvs in prime time on cspan2 starting tonight at 8 30 eastern. Each night well feature a series of programs on topics ranging from politics and education to medical care and national security. Plus encore presentations from recent book festivals. Tune in for booktv in prime time this week on cspan2. Go to booktv. Org for the complete schedule. And this week on the communicators, a discussion of the federal governments Lifeline Program which is administered by the federal Communications Commission. Joining us are two guests to discuss this, Amina Fazlullah is policy director at the Benton Foundation, and daniel lyons is with American Enterprise Institutes Center for Internet Communications and technology. Hes a visiting scholar there from boston college. Amina fazlullah, what is this Lifeline Program . How did it come about . Guest so the Lifeline Program actually came about during the Reagan Administration in order to provide a subsidy to make sure that low income persons that have access to voice service, Telephone Service. And, you know, this comes from the notion that having everyone on the network, having access to public safety, having access to each other in commerce is incredibly important. And for low income persons, making sure that they had Additional Support to do that seemed necessary, and so thats where the program began. Host and how many people participate in this program . Guest as of this past year, about 13 million. Host and whats the cost . Guest well, so the cost of the program is, so its a 9. 25 subsidy per household host 9 at any. 25 . Guest thats right. Host okay. Guest so its a relatively minimal subsidy, and the cost has gone down over the past few years in terms of the overall cost for the Lifeline Program within the total universal service fund. Host and is it specifically for wire phones . Or is it now wireless as well . Guest so currently, so as i said, president reagan, during the Reagan Administration the telephone voice wired service began, and then after the Bush Administration they introduced wireless. And so as it stands today theres wired and Wireless Voice available within the program. Host daniel lyons, has it been successful n your view . Guest so its not clear what the successful, what the success rate of lifeline is, and i think thats part of one of the problems with the program as it exists now. More or less as a political compromise between the carriers and the fcc when the government broke up the at t monopoly. And part of the concern was were going to establish this amount that were going to give to low income consumers with the goal of making sure that low income consumers can get access to Telephone Service. But no ones ever really done the study to figure out whether the amount that were giving is actually going toward people who would otherwise not fall off the telecommunication grid. Right . So the gao issued a report just last year that criticized the fcc for this purpose. So i think theres a bipartisan support for the idea that low income households should have some assistance to make sure theyre not falling off the grid and make sure that they take advantage of the latest telecommunications systems. The concern is whether lifeline is actually achieving that. When the gao asked the fcc for some evidence that lifeline is successful, the fcc pointed to an academic report that suggested it might be as much as 88 of lifeline dollars are flowing to households that would have Telephone Service even without the subsidy. Host how is it funded . Guest its funded by the universal service charge, right . The monthly tax on your wireless bill or your landline phone bill. And the way its calculated is that the fcc estimates how much its going to need per year and then divides it over interstate telecommunications revenue, so Long Distance revenue largely. And so the numerator divided by the denominator gives a percentage that then gets charge today the carriers and is passed to you and me, the consumers. Host amina fad lula, has it been successful in your view . Guest i think the program has been successful. I agree that it would be better for the fcc to take steps, i think, to understand the population better and understand the impact of the program. And not have to rely on third party reports. But i do think the program is successful, and id like to step back just for a moment for us to understand who were talking about in terms of who the users are. So the Lifeline Program is restricted to folks who earn about 135 of the poverty line or lower. So for a family of four in the contiguous 48, thats about 32,000 a year. And if you live in a city like des moines, so this isnt san francisco, its not new york, it costs about 63,000 a year for you to meet your average expenses for a family of four. So they are struggling. Theyre definitely well below, theyve got well below what they need per year in terms of income, and to there are times where theyre going to make decisions like should i pay the phone bill or should i get food . Should i get food or should i get medicine . So folks do fall on and off. I think everybody understands today low income or high income, that broadband and Telephone Service is incredibly important, so people try to make that work because its a necessary be tool for their lives. Necessary tool for their lives. But when youre looking at the numbers, its really, really difficult to even conceive of how these families are going to be able to meet their needs and stay on, you know, a high cost Subscriber Program like broadband or like Telephone Service without the support. So i think that, you know, understanding the struggles that these families are facing, lifeline has done a really great job of stepping in, providing a support thats going to be there for them continuously. Host well, the fcc in their march meeting will be talking about the Lifeline Program, and to get some more perspective on that, lets bring Brendan Sasso of the National Journal in on the conversation as well. Thanks, peter. The fcc is set later this month to vote on big changes for the Lifeline Program, the biggest that theyre going to include the Broadband Internet service so that people with can use that subsidy not just for their cell phone or landline, but for Internet Access at home or a data package for their cell phone. My question is whether you both think that the 9. 25 is enough. I mean, i know that most people, it costs a lot more than that to get Home Broadband connection or a data plan for family. So is that enough to encourage people to adopt broadband if they werent otherwise . Guest i mean, i think that its a good first step. And i think that the fcc is going to be making a lot of changes to this program and moving in a deliberate fashion makes sense. There are programs that are out currently that are not part of usf that are available to low income families that are coming in right around that 10 mark. There are a lot of other costs that are required to be able to access the internet, so youre going to have to have a device, potentially access to training and support. And there are programs out there to support low income families so that they have access to all those pieces. So 9. 25, i think, is a good place to start. But i think its yet to be seen whether or not9 thats going to be enough going forward. Guest and my concern is path dependency, right . So where the 925 comes from is what we 9. 25 comes from is we give that to telephones, why not extend that out. They havent done a real study to suggest that these are the drivers that are keeping low income people from adopting Broadband Service, and this is the amount were going to need. We dont know if we need 9 million a month for ten Million People or 45 a month for two Million People, right . The fcr simply hasnt done fcc simply hasnt done that level of an us. We had a series of trial that is the fcc adopted in 2012, and the goal was to try to provide some data but, unfortunately, they were not designed in a way that had measurable output results and the sample sizes wound up being too small. The one thing we did learn, i think, from those trials is that the higher the subsidy, the more the uptake rate which suggests that, in fact, 9 a month is probably too low when you talk about broadband prices at 50, 60, 70 a month, its not clear that giving a 9 discount is going to be enough to incentivize people to suddenly make that room in their budget. One thing that i think the interesting about the fccs proposal is that it would phase out support for mobile voiceonly. So im wondering maybe there are some people, maybe elderly especially, who maybe just dont want to get broadband and maybe they like the fact that theyre able to get Free Cell Phone Service right now. Is it a concern that those people wont be potentially supported under the program anymore . Guest there is a, i think as of right now it looks like a threeyear phaseout. And theres definitely concern how this Consumer Population is going to shift from having a product that was focused on voice and now a product that theyre used to using to a product that might have some component of voice as well as some component of data or a different device completely. So from a feature phone to a smartphone. So its going to take, i think, a careful approach by the fcc to transition those folks. But i think we all understand the benefits of making sure that everyone has access to broadband. So its a difficult, i think its a difficult role for the fcc to play. You know, they want own courage the modernization to encourage the modernization of the program, and they definitely dont want anybody left behind because theyre not quite ready go ahead. Host in a especially, is this a back door reform of the universal service fund . Guest well, its one step among many that the fccs taken over the years to try to transition the universal service fund from a telephonebased program to a broadbandbased program. Theres Additional Support that the fcc provides for rural areas in what are called the High Cost Fund to help cover carriers that provide service in places with not a lot of people. And the fccs transitioned that slowly to broadband as well. But i think part of the problem with taking the old telephone system and simply moving it to broadband is we replicate some of the errors and some of the difficulties that we had in the old system. I think what makes more sense is for the fcc to rethink this from ground zero rather than have this evolutionary change of universal service to think from the ground up. If i was starting at zero and designing a system today to provide broadband support, how would i do it . Host and how would you do it . Guest so with regard to lifeline in particular, i think what makes sense is some sort of a voucher system, right . Something that is direct and portable which is a language that president obama used in his recent Connectall Initiative. And i think it makes a lot of sense for the fcc to figure out, first of all, what are the drivers of low broadband adoption. Unlike Telephone Service, right . Its not just the monthly fee that is a problem. You can have free broadband, but if you dont have a computer, for example, thats problematic, right . So i think a holistic approach would involve not just a subsidy for monthly service, but some type of subsidy to get computers in the hands of eligible recipients. And also some digital outreach so when we do surveys about why people who are not on broadband have chosen not to, a lot of them say we just dont think we need to be on the internet. Theres going to be groups of people that are never going to adopt at any price, right . But for those that simply dont appreciate everything that you can get from a broadband subscription, a Digital Literacy Outreach Program is, i think, a critical component. And i would fund them in very different ways as well. Host and you would fund it how . Guest so rather than use the universal service Fund Mechanism which is problematic, a, because until recently there wasnt a budget on the program and, b, its growing exponentially so that the usf surcharge was 3 investor in 1998, its now 18 now which is pretty close to that tax that they put on hotels for suckers who are coming in from out of town, right . I think what makes sense is it for simply to be a line item in the federal budget just like any other subsidy program, something thats subject to congressional oversight, that has a hard cap, that forces the program to figure out how you use these dollars most efficiently to get people on the grid. And maybe even, dare i say, move it out of the fcc and over to Something Like hhs or another agency that has a better understanding of poverty issues. One of the critiques of the universal service fund over the past 20 years is that its focused much more on the needs of carriers than on the needs of the consumers its serving. And its not a surprise given the carriers are a large constituency for the federal Communications Commission as an agency. Host Amina Fazlullah, has the usf worked, in your view, as a funding mechanism . Guest i think the usf program has worked for many years now. I think its at a crossroads where were going to have to consider, you know, how we contribute to that program as more consumers migrate from traditional Telephone Service which is sort of in voice service, the traditional base of where the usf dollars come from and go to broadband and voiceover ip and start to migrate to other types of services. So thats got to be considered, and i think thats sort of the next step for the fcc. So they, you know, as you said, you know, weve seen each piece of the usf fund get upgraded and modernized. So it began with high cost which turned into the connect america fund to be focused on broadband. I think that was the right step to take. I think the laws that are written around usf are flexible enough to allow for these changes to occur, and is so they are actually taking the initiative to make that happen. We saw the upgrade of erate. I think that was a really exciting moment. And we saw the president come out with connect ed to support the steps that the fcc was taking. But they also pushed for steps from department of education as well as the fcc. So it wasnt, you know, this onestep process where, you know, we hope that erate can do it all. We understand sort of the limitations of erate, and now were looking at lifeline. And lifeline, you know, i think is very focused on a cost subsidy for service. Its not going to be the program thats going to provide us with equipment or with digital training, and while these aspects are really important, you know, the fcc might not be the place to do all of those things in one setting. And lifeline is definitely not the program thats going to be able to handle all of those pieces as well. So i think what weve seen with the Connectall Initiative from the white house is acknowledgment that this is going to take many aspects of government working together to be able to actually close the Digital Divide and close these gaps. Glx next question, brendan saws toe. You had mentioned potentially where whether to expand broadband. I wonder if the goal is to encourage adoption, is there a certain element thats counterproductive, and also do you think that would be a politically explosive issue . I think when were talking about usf fees it can be kind of confusing, but basically its a tax on the internet. Is that something the fcc would be hesitant or a little gun shy about doing . Guest i mean, i think contribution reform is long overdue. I know that the fcc is already looking into that, and theres a report thats supposed to be released on an assessment of this particular issue. So i think its up, its aware. Everyone who works on universal service fund issues is aware that this is coming. I think it will be tricky. Theres no doubt, you know, its going to be a big shift. And, or its going to be a big shift for what the program can do if contribution reform doesnt actually change much. So, you know, i think, i think itll be a tricky issue for the fcc to tackle. Guest and to add a little bit of meat to that skeleton, right, the primary issue with the universal service Fund Contribution mechanism right now is that the only base that the usf can be attached to is currently internet, interstate and International Telephone charges. So Long Distance, right . The thing we used to call Long Distance. The problem is that not a lot of people are making a lot of Long Distance calls anymore, right . So the base that you can tax on is shrinking, and at the same time lifeline and the High Cost Fund and these other usf programs are growing, so you end up with a larger fraction. That preempts any type of attempts to attack Internet Access. So it do fcc has to thread the needle to argue that universal Service Reform universal phone Service Charges are okay under the statute. And if the political consequence. Host wife is happening now . Guest i think it is happening now because more and more of our life is migrating online. I think the industry itself is looking at sunset and the traditional Telephone Network over the next five to 10 years. There is a sense in which the programs that use to support telephone access. I probably need to be updated as well. We are moving to a world where you dont have a dedicated Telephone Network or rather voice services, one of many things carried over the internet. The 21st century winner to worry about the same issues about access to that network as they did in the 20th century. Fcc are the isps telecom supporting this proposal . Guest yes, there is an interesting combination of folks who support lifeline organizations. The publicinterest advocate, but also industry. That has been heartening to see. Everyone across the board understands and supports the modernization of the program. I think where there are differences in the details and how you approach it. But i do want to step back for a moment to sort of think about what it means to dismantle the program completely or to start a new modernist lifeline, you know, going a congressional route. You know, i think income consumers need access to broad and now. It is unclear to me that congress would be able to pass a support that is directly aimed at lowincome users. This congress has not been particularly supportive of folks who are in poverty. The conversations that went on the hill have been hard to decipher. Sometimes it appears they are supportive of initiatives like rabin for low income folks. But then simultaneously at their separate conversation about a support, traditional support like snape or like any other subsidy that the federal government provides, theres a lot of pushback and the word entitlement at israeli flags on the hill. At the idea that we be able to develop a brandnew program, that we be able to combine elements of equipment, support as well as the cost i think its hopeful in rational thinking, but i dont know if hes actually got the vote in congress to do some thing like that. Lowincome folks need access now. Modernizing lifeline is a step toward that and gets us closer to that goal today. Host i guess is a law professor i suggest that if the problem with this service fund is that they can before congress would vote it down. That is suggesting may be a problem with the program as far as support by the American People. The critique for universal service fund for years has been operating on a hidden tax is a soft budget, selfsustaining and arguments by people like me that we need to move are inevitably met with but if we actually acknowledged the cost of this on the budget, people would vote it down. That is something with the existence of the program itself. That said, this is one of the issues you could get bipartisan approval for. Maybe too far up in the ivory tower. But it seems to me that it makes more sense to reform if we are going to do this and the sec and the president has said we need to make sure we do it. If we are going to have broadband reform and bring bought been serviced at lowincome consumer. Really there do at the right way or the wrong way. It seems to me that a comprehensive approach would read that encompasses all the drivers causing low income people not to get onto the grid. Its much more intelligent than simply taking a 9 speak it to people and throw them that broadband providers about an offense if its going to work or not. Host i wonder if you talk about getting Cable Companies to participate in this because it seems like a big question whether comcast and starter and they might be the only highspeed Broadband Home option available. In same sort of unclear at this point whether they will actually participate. Do you think the proposal as its crafted by chairman wheeler would get them involved . Right now the proposal is taking steps to introduce new providers into the program. So providers who are currently not Eligible Telecommunications carriers are looking into streamlining the process and making the program more open to traditional broadband carriers like cable. And i think that is a great step forward. If you are going to focus lifeline on broadband, you will need providers primarily providing broadband. I think theres been a lot of attention paid to how to bring in these providers into the Lifeline Program in a way that ensures consumers are still getting treated fairly and have access to a substantial service. Host something one Cable Provider as a condition of the comcastnbc merger, comcast has been offering internet essentials program, which is a basic Broadband Service for families with children on the school lunch program. In addition to get in on the program in some debate in academia about as simple as spam. It is not their and provides at least a model with an day that with an data weekend have to figure out how successful how it may successfully well decide to cable broadband as well. Host daniel lyons, what is the pushback from the fcc from the commissions . Part of it is simply justifying figures we throw out now. As i understand it, the proposal is to add a budget to increase 50 above what lifeline currently has. I think its 1. 5, 1. 6 billion going forward. It makes sense if youre expanding to broadband and want to increase the amount of subsidy, but its not clear what number is striving 50 rather than 25 or 75 . Its not clear what happened if the fcc hit that goal. Is it a goal. If it is often asserted aspire to . Postcode is having a potential increase in u. S. Have . Guest unless they have contribution reform, in its universal service will grow and so the surcharge is likely to grow as well. Host im wondering if you talk a little bit about the program criticized by people in both parties that of waste and fraud in the sec is taken some steps to bring that in. Its also a reason to become politically charged even though youve mentioned the Reagan Administration. Whether its enough and i understand the proposal also would send new measures to try to clamp down on the fraud. Guest yeah, so we were part of the reform a few years ago and i was very focused on fraud, waste and abuse. Really tighten the program up since the inclusion of Wireless Voice. There was one of the biggest drivers. Part of that was the actual consumer usage. Theres a popularity to Wireless Voice. There is also the usefulness to Wireless Voice within the low income population today be renters who might be in homeless shelters, having that kind of mobility is critical. I think there was an update in the program that could be due to just having a useful service. But that said, im the fcc thought it was important to preserve the integrity of the program by instituting reform. They put in a duplicate base. They also put in a special task orders to address any kind of issues around fraud, waste and abuse in terms of enforcement. And since they put in those changes, there is bad significant amounts of savings that the program has seen since the changes have been put in place. In addition to being doing that, the fcc is imposing a thirdparty administrator to do eligibility for the program. The reason this is so nice because there have been unscrupulous providers who have been left with the job of confirming eligibility for the program and they are the main sewers have some of the visiting fraud waste and abuse that had occurred. And so, by removing the eligibility role away from providers, you have two things. One, you address the biggest driver of fraud, waste and abuse. And two, you ensure that new providers in the program have less of an administrative burden. So there is one step onestop shop thats a thirdparty administrator will handle all eligibility. That will take time to put in place. Its not going to happen right after the order comes out. But it does do two critical things. The last thing that i think will help move the program in the right direction in terms of efficiency is also minimum standards. Ensuring that the fcc lifeline dollars are being used for a substantial service. So you know, in part the minimum standards that we say, out around Wireless Voice are trying to address these issues, making sure lifeline consumers are given access to a substantial service they can actually use that they dont need to ration, you know, they can use in a way that is going to be comfortable that they are not worried is going to run out before the end of the month and theyve got to hold onto a handful of minutes and have access to Emergency Services to all of those changes combined will put the Lifeline Program in the right setting. Host daniel lyons, you have 30 seconds to close out the program. Guest the fccs intent is a good one. The idea of making sure lowincome people dont fall off the grid is tremendously important ,com,com ma something we should all care about and we need to rethink the way we approach replicate the problematic programs from the telephone area and carry them forward. Host daniel lyons, visiting scholar at aei and Amina Fazlullah with the clinton foundation. Guest the Benton Foundation is an operating foundation that focuses on telecommunication access for population. Host and Brendan Sasso is that the National Journal. Thank you. Guest thank you. The New York Times is reporting that president obama is making up this hour with president Sproul Castro of cuba ,com,com ma holding talks that constitute the first initial make another two governments in the communist revolution that led to more than a halfcentury of estrangement and megyn at the palace of the resolution will be a Pivotal Moment to mr. Obama and mr. Castro agreed to set in motion 15 months ago. The president is not traveling alone. Cspan capitol hill producer to read 39 members of congress are traveling with the president to cuba appeared 34 democrats including six members, 20 past members and five republicans. Two senators and three representatives. Coming up live today a discussion on Monetary Policy and how the u. S. Markets on an event of another recession. The Brookings Institution is the hope of the event from speakers including Treasury Department officials live at 2 00 p. M. Eastern the criminal Justice System and drug addiction. The arizona primary will be held tomorrow along with caucuses in utah and idaho. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] thank you. [cheers and applause] let me let me thank all of you. [cheers and applause] latinate let me thank all of you. This is a fantastic turnout. Let me thank senator does not know for his warm introduction and his touching on some of the major issues. As i look around here, i see a lot of energy. I see a lot of beauty. I see a lot of enthusiasm. [cheers and applause] mse abydos people who want to transform the United States of america. [cheers and applause] we began this campaign about 10 months ago. When we began, we were at 3 in the polls about 70 points behind secretary clinton. Who had no money. We have an addition to we didnt have much name the ignition. [cheers and applause] but in the last 10 months, a lot has changed. [cheers and applause] and the reason i think that we are doing so well, that we have so much energy, that in state after state we win people over 45 years of age or younger, and the future of america. A report just came out yesterday and it says sanders has viewed more opposed from people than Hillary Clinton and donald trump. [cheers and applause] and i get my inspiration. I get my energy from you. [cheers and applause] i got inspiration from people who have an idealism, who want to transform this country and make it a lot better than it is today. [cheers and applause] now, the reason i believe we have so much energy and we are doing so well is because we are doing something very unusual in american politics. We are telling the truth. [cheers and applause] as you well know, the truth is not always pleasant. Sometimes its hard. Sometimes it is hurtful. But unless we understand the reality in front of us, unless we are prepared to deal with that reality, and there is no hope for change. [cheers and applause] and here is some of that reality. For one. Today we live in a country in which our Campaign Finance system is corrupt and it is undermining american democracy. [cheers and applause] this is the concept of democracy is not complicated. What it means if you have one vote and you have one vote and you have one vote. What it does not mean is that people with unlimited amount of money should be able to buy election. [cheers and applause] it does not mean that billionaires like the Koch Brothers and others [booing] should be able to spend 900 million in this Campaign Cycle to by politicians who will represent the rich and the powerful. That is not democracy. That is oligarchy. [cheers and applause] and together, we are going to stand firm. This country will not become an oligarchy of society. [cheers and applause] but it is not just a corrupt Campaign Finance system, which is undermining our democracy. What we are seeing now all over this country are cowardly republican governors trying to suppress the vote. [cheers and applause] as a nation, we have one of the lowest voter turnout rate of any country on earth. Our job is to increase voter turnout, and make it easier for people to vote. [cheers and applause] and yet today, we have republican governors who are trying in every way imaginable to make it harder for poor people, for people of color, for young people, for old people to participate. [cheers and applause] and i say to does cowardly governors, if you dont have the guts to participate in free and fair election, get another job. [cheers and applause] [chanting] is the lack of president you you can beg your Bottom Dollar that we are going to have a department of justice, which will vigorously take on every one of these governors. [cheers and applause] what i want to see ms contrary is something simple and straightforward. That is if you are 18 years of age or older, you are registered to vote. [cheers and applause] but in addition to the fact that we have a corrupt kid came finance system, there is something out that we have got to address and address in a very straightforward way. And that is that we have a rig economy. [cheers and applause] now, and the television stations in the Corporate Media do not deal with this issue very much. But let me tell you what a economy is about. What a economy is that today the top 10 of 1 on does much wealth as the bottom 90 . [booing] it means at the 20 wealthiest people in this country now own more wealth than the bottom 150 million half of our country. [booing] and let me give you another example. It turns out that the wealthiest family in this country is the Walton Family who owns walmart. [booing] many of you know walmart pays wages that are so low that many of its workers are forced to go on medicaid, food stamps, subsidized housing. But a rig economy is about his working people are paid more in taxes to provide food stamps for the employees of the wealthiest family in america. [cheers and applause] that is a rigged economy. I say to the Walton Family. Get off of welfare. Pay your workers a living wage. [cheers and applause] and here is another truth that we cannot is to avoid. In this country today, we have more people in jail than any other country on earth. [booing] i understand in your state, incarceration is a very big and profitable system. Well, we are going to add that in a number of ways. Number one, number one, we are going to do away with private prisons. [cheers and applause] it is unconscionable that corporations are making money by locking people out. That is wrong. Number two, we are going to do our best to make sure when young people in this country cant find a job or cant stay in school, we are going to invest in jobs and education, not jailed in incarceration. [cheers and applause] i want this country and what this campaign is about is outside of the box says. Do not allow the media or anybody else to do fine for you what is possible. You do that. [cheers and applause] and what is possible is having the best educated country in the world, not the country with more people in jail. [cheers and applause] and together, we are going to demilitarize local police department. [cheers and applause] Police Departments should not look like occupying armies. They should be part of the community, not oppressing the community. [cheers and applause] we are going we are going to make Police Departments look like the diversity of the communities they serve. [cheers and applause] all of us are tired of looking at tv and seeing images of unarmed people being shot. [cheers and applause] i am a former mayor, arlington, vermont. And i have worked with Police Departments for many, many years and the vast majority of Police Officers are honest, hardworking and they have a very difficult job. [cheers and applause] but like any other public official when it leaves officer breaks the law, that officer must be held accountable. [cheers and applause] and a president Justice Department will investigate every death that takes place in Police Custody under apprehension. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] criminal Justice Reform means that we have to take a hard look at the failed war on drugs. [cheers and applause] over the last 30 years, millions of americans have received Police Records for possession of marijuana. And if you have a police record, it is sometimes very hard to get a job. Out right now right now under the federal controlled substance act, marijuana is listed as a schedule one drug. [booing] alongside trim 11. Everyone here knows that tran 11 is a killer drug. Now, scientists can argue about the pluses and minuses of marijuana. Marijuana is not tran 11. And that is why introduce legislation to take marijuana out of the federal system. [cheers and applause] as all of you now, and the decision about whether or not marijuana becomes legalized is a state decision, not a federal decision. But i believe that possession of marijuana should not be a federal crime. [cheers and applause] and when i talk about drugs, in my state of vermont nearby New Hampshire and in states all over this country, we are facing an epidemic and the crisis of addiction, of opiate addiction, of people dying everyday from overdoses. In my view, we have got to treat Substance Abuse not as a criminal issue, but a health issue. [cheers and applause] [chanting] grenada revolution and Mental Health care in this country. [cheers and applause] when people are going to Mental Health crisis or with addiction, they should be able to get the treatment they need today. [cheers and applause] now let me just take a moment on the secretary Hillary Clinton. [booing] let me just take a moment to ask why in some of the strong differences we have. First, when i began this campaign, we had no money and we have to make a very important decision. Should we establish a super pac . Well, we agreed with you. [cheers and applause] disk and then does not represent the interests of a billionaire class for wall street. We dont want their money. So we did it another way. And what we did is we reached out to middle class and working families and what happened is literally mind blowing. I could never in a million years will leave this would have been. But as of today, we have received well over 5 million individual contributions. [cheers and applause] [chanting] that is that is more contributions than any candidate in the history of this country. [cheers and applause] does anyone know what the average contribution . Now this in itself is revolutionary because it shows that we can run a Winning National campaign without being dependent on wall street and big money interests. [cheers and applause] to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln at gettysburg, this is a campaign of the people, by the people and for the whole. [cheers and applause] now what that means when youre not dependent on big money interests, you can do what is right for working people. I dont have to worry about some billionaire or wall street guy because we dont have their money. We dont need their money. Now secretary clinton has chosen to go another route and how she gets money. [booing] they have several super pacs. The largest one raised 25 million in special interest money. 15 billion from wall street alone. If some of you may also know, secretary clinton has given wall street under 25,000 a speech. Now what ive said is if you are going to be paid 225,000 per speech, it must be an extraordinarily brilliant speech. [cheers and applause] it must be a speech that could transform our country and the world. It must be a shakespearean type speech. [cheers and applause] and if that speech is so great, that the American People see a period [cheers and applause] back in issue. All of you now that Foreign Policy is a very important part what a president does. The most important foreignpolicy debate, the modern history in this country to place in 2002. I listened very carefully to what president bush and Vice President cheney and all these guys have to say. [booing] and they were going to say weve got to invade iraq, invade iraq, invade iraq. I didnt believe them. [cheers and applause] and i voted against that disaster vote than senator clinton heard the same argument, read the same information you she voted for the. When we talk about why the middle class of this country has been disappearing for 30 years, millions of workers today are working longer hours for lower wages, a lot of that has to do with horrific trade policies britain by corporate america. [cheers and applause] since the year 2001, this country has lost 60,000 factory millions of decent paying jobs. [booing] i have opposed every one of the trade agreements. Nafta. Secretary clinton has supported virtually all of those corporately produce trade agreements. Now one of the reasons that our campaign is doing so well is that we are not listening to big Money Campaign contributors. We are listening to the American People. And this is what the American People are telling me. They cant make an eight or nine or 10 bucks an hour. They are tired of working im not going anywhere. And that is why we need to raise the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. [cheers and applause] now i understand that you have a governor here is trying to make it harder to raise the minimum wage. [booing] that is exactly the wrong thing to do. This campaign is listening to Senior Citizens and disabled veterans. And i know that arizona has a whole lot of men and women putting their lives on the line to defend us and we thank them all. [cheers and applause] but here is the true. No Senior Citizen or a disabled vet can lead an 11 or 12 a year social security. Unbelievably, we have republicans in congress who want to cut social security. Ive got bad news for them. We are not going to cut social security. We are going to expand social security. [cheers and applause] this campaign is listening to young people. [cheers and applause] and what color may not is burned were told that it was the right thing to do to go to college or graduate school. You told us how important it is far less to get the best education we can. Why is it that when we leave school we are 30 or 50,000 in debt . Anybody here with student debt . Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Now i want you to think outside of the box again. Think outside of the status quo. You all know that we live in a very good tentative global economy. We need to have the best educated workforce and the world. And you well know that many of the new jobs being created today require a lot more education than the jobs of the past. Now for a very long time, we thought about public version, but we talked about was first grade through 12th grade. And that was great 50 years ago. The world has changed. The economy has changed. Technology has changed. They might feel when we talk about public education, today what weve got to be talking about is making public colleges and universities tuition free. [cheers and applause] this this is not a radical idea. The world has changed our educational system has to change with it. Other countries, i know you on notice. Other countries, germany, scandinavia know that. They provide Free College Education because they know investing in their young people is what will make their economies drawn. [cheers and applause] in the other issue is that millions of people, some young and some not so young are really being crushed with high levels of student debt. While we have got to do is say to those people, you will be able to refinance that debt at the lowest Interest Rates you can find. [cheers and applause] now, i have criticized by the establishment and my opponent. Ernie, this is a very expensive proposition. You want a public colleges and universities tuition free. You want to significantly lower student debt. About 70 billion a year is a lot of money. How are you going to pay for it . I will tell you how we are going to pay for it. Remember eight years ago when the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior of wall street drove this economy into the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, congress bailed out wall street. [booing] well, it seems to me that now is the time to impose a tax on wall street speculation. [cheers and applause] the middle class of this country build out the crooks on wall street. Now it is wall streets time to help the middle class of the country. [cheers and applause] already. This campaign this campaign is listening. [laughter] [chanting] this campaign is listening to our brothers and sisters in the Latino Community. [cheers and applause] and what the Latino Community is telling me is that they are tired of 11 Million People, 11 Million People in this country who are undocumented who are living in the shadows or who are living in fear, who are living with a great deal of expectation. And what the Latino Community is telling me that now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform. [cheers and applause] not in a democracy in a democracy, people can agree or disagree with immigration reform. But what people cannot do, what donald trump cannot do [booing] is engage in bigotry, engage in vicious insult against our mexican neighbors. [cheers and applause] that is not acceptable and we will not tolerate it. [cheers and applause] and and if congress does not do its job, i will use the executive order and the powers of the president being to do everything i can to see that families are united, not separated. [cheers and applause] in our department of justice will take a very hard look at what sheriff r. Pio and people are doing. [cheers and applause] [chanting] i am i am the son of an emigre. My father came from poland. He came to this country not knowing one word of english, so i have some mixed area with the immigrant family situation. I am proud of seeing young people running down, worried that their parents or brother or sister will be deported. Weve got to put an end to deportation. [cheers and applause] this campaign is listening to our brothers and sisters in the native american community. [cheers and applause] and now, there is no room of people in our country today who have contributed more to our culture, to our respect to the environment then have the native american community. [cheers and applause] and i dont have to tell anybody here that from the first days when they came to this continent, they cheated the native American People. They lied to the native American People. They broke treaties with the native American People. And today, what we are seeing in community after community of native americans is outrageously high level of unemployment, of poverty, of alcoholism, of suicide, of kids dropping out of high school. It is time for the United States government to treat the native american tribe with respect. [cheers and applause] and that is what i will do as president of the United States. [cheers and applause] i am a member of the u. S. Senate committee on the environment. And let me tell you what virtually no republican will tell you. And that is that the debate is over. Climate change is real. Climate change is caused by human activity and Climate Change is already causing devastating problem in this country and around the world. [cheers and applause] and let me tell you what the scientists are also saying. And that is if we do not get our act together, if we do not transform our Energy System away from fossil fuel to Energy Efficiency and through sustainable energy, a bad situation today will become a lot, lot worse. [cheers and applause] what the scientists tell us we do not act boldly by the end of this century, this planet will be between five degrees to 10 degrees fahrenheit warmer. That is catastrophic. And what that means what that means is more drought, more flood, more extreme weather disturbances, more rising sea levels, with edification of the ocean and more International Conflict as people fight for limited natural resources. [applause] and that is why together together we are going to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and tell them that their shortterm profits are not worth the future of this planet. [cheers and applause] and by the way, by the way, while we are talking about environmental issues, and we have got to win franking and tracking. [cheers and applause] it was a piece in the paper the other day. It is not just flint, michigan that is suffering from severe water problems. It is hundreds and hundreds of communities all over america. Tracking will make the situation worse. End fracking. [cheers and applause] i have been criticized by my opponents for sameness. So so let me say it again. And that is health care is a right of all people. [cheers and applause] now, the Affordable Care act has done some very good things. But we have a long way to go. Today in america, 29 million americans have no health insurance. Many of you are underinsured with high deductibles and copays. [cheers and applause] and everyone in this country is being ripped off by the greed of the drug companies. [cheers and applause] other country on airport. And that is why in my view, we have got to move toward a met carry for all healthcare system. [cheers and applause] everybody here tonight knows that in our history as a nation, real change always takes place from the bottom on up, not from the top on down. Real change takes place when millions of people look around and say, the status quo is not working, it has got to change. [cheers and applause] change took place 100 years ago when workers were being treated as if they were animals, said we are going to form a union whether the employer likes it or not. [cheers and applause] real change take place when over the last hundreds of years, africanamericans and their white allies said, racism and segregation and bigotry is not what this country is about. Were going to change it. [cheers and applause] bernieber, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie, bernie. 100 years ago, women in america did not have the right to vote. Boo but when women and their male allies said, in america women will not be treated at secondclass citizens. [cheers and applause] and by the way, what they said is that women will be able to control their own bodies. [cheers and applause] ten years ago, if there was somebody in this room who said jumped up and said i think gay marriage will be made legal in 50 states in this country by the year 2015, the person next to them would have said, what are you smoking . Which raises a whole other issue, but but, what happened . What happened is the gay community, against ferocious hatred, and their straight allies [cheers and applause] what they said is that in america, people should be allowed to love each other no matter what their gender is. [cheers and applause] that is how change takes place, and we are at that profound and Pivotal Moment in American History today. Where millions of people are looking around them and saying, is it right that so few have so much and so many have so little . Is it right that the United States of america, this great country, is the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all, or paid family and medical leave . Is it right that when we have seen in recent years a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires that we have today the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. Is it right that in this nation, the men and women who defended us, our veterans, some of them are sleep out on the streets. No so what the American People are saying is, we can do much better. [cheers and applause] and what the American People, by the millions, are understanding is youre not going to do much better if we go back to the same old same old establishment politics and establishment economics. Now, i am the only candidate for president who will tell you this truth. And its not a happy truth, but it is the truth, and that is, no president , not Bernie Sanders or anyone else, can do it alone. We need the people who have the power in this country and that is wall street, who has endless amounts of money, corporate america, whose god has done us so much damage. The Corporate Media which determines what we see, hear, or read, wealthy campaign contributors, they have enormous power. The only way that we transform this country and take them on is when millions of people stand up and say, enough is enough [cheers and applause] and that is what this Political Revolution is about. It is involving people, many of whom have given up on the political process to get involved, to stand up to fight back, for justice. [cheers and applause] and on tuesday, there is going to be a very, very important primary here in arizona. [cheers and applause] so, please, on tuesday, make sure that you, your friends, your family, come out to vote. Let us see arizona help lead Political Revolution thank you [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at aipac this morning. You can see her remarks at cspan. Org. This afternoon shell be in phoenix, arizona to speak to supporters ahead of at that time states primary tomorrow. Live coverage at 6 30 eastern on chance 3 cspan3. Live today, discussion on Monetary Policy. Were back at the aipac conference this afternoon for john kashich, donald trump and ted cruz. Well have their remarks live at 5 00 p. M. Eastern here on cspan2. And donald trump currently meeting today in d. C. Several members of congress. That meet arranged by trump supporter, republican senator jeff sessions. Scott wong, the senior staff writer says donald trump is inside the Jones Day Law Firm near the capital meeting with republican lawmakers. Motorcade waiting outside. And a run president ial candidate trump trump held a Campaign Rally in fountain hills, arizona, ahead of the states primary and talked about his priorities as president , including immigration, local control of education, system for veterans and preventing corporate inversion. Youll hear first from introductory remarks from former governor jan brewer and sheriff joe arpaio. [inaudible conversations] look at this crowd. What a great group of americans we have today. The establishment has called us the silent majority. And they try to give us their candidates. But we are not silent anymore, are we . [cheering] thank god that we have been given the gift of one of our brightest minds in our country, a true business success, the man who is going to make America Great again. This is the proof of why more people have already voted in this election than all the people in 2008 and 2012. Already. With 20 states to go. This, and donald trump. [cheering] we are so lucky to have him. I dont want to waste too much time before we get to him but im going to introduce somebody else who will talk to you today. It is my pleasure to introduce to you the author of scorpions for breakfast, the one we know who gave the wag to obama, everybody say hello to governor jan brewer [cheers and applause] hello, everybody this is so fabulous. I am so honored to be here today with you in support of the next president of the United States, donald trump. Ive known donald for a long time, and he is a man that i know has so much integrity and is such a thoughtful, kind person. I would tell you, when you sit down with donald and talk to him, he listens and he has listened to all of you. [cheers and applause] we have a president who has failed the American People. And its time for a change. And we here in arizona are going to propel donald trump to that seat. [cheers and applause] and you know, donald has a terrific agenda. He has great initiatives for bringing our economy back, hes going to grow jobs, and he is going to look out for the small business, he is feeling to restructural the tax structure and is going to build a fence [chanting] and we, all of us, we are the people. We are the people. Our votes count. And donald trump has over two million more votes than any of the other candidates take us into the primary. So were going to have a big victory on tuesday. And President Trump will be back to visit us. And we will be happy and protected. Thank you all so very, very much for all your support, and i tell you, being here is this not dropdead gorgeous . Its beautiful. And today we have with us the toughest sheriff in america [cheers and applause] joe, joe, joe, joe, joe, joe, joe, joe, joe. And sheriff joe is going to come up here and talk to you in his home town. Please welcome, sheriff joe arpaio. [cheers and applause] all right. Thank you. America is now going to realize where fountain hills, arizona, is. And isnt it great that our next president picked this great town . Actually, dont tell anybody for security reasons but i you can see my house from here. So, you know how close i am. My wife can see me on the porch. So, thank you. Thank you for coming. I know we had a little problem. Some demonstrators were trying to disrupt boo disrupt and because of them you had to get a little more sunshine but we made it. And three of them are in jail. [cheers and applause] so if they think theyre going intimidate you, and the next president of the United States, not going to happen. Not in this town issue tell you right now. So, let me just i want to do this quick because our next president is waiting to come here. But i want to just say a couple things about donald trump. Ive been involved in a lot of president ial campaigns. You know that. But i met donald when he was here the first time in july. Thousands of people came out to see him. Thousands. And thats when i first introduced him, and something gave me my gut feeling told me that he is different. He is going to do things differently. And also im im a Senior Citizen. Im not a psychiatrist or anything, but i do have gut feelings, and from day one, i knew this was the guy. This is the guy. Day one. And ive done some introductions of him across the country, and im so proud of him. I know all of you are. Because at least we got somebody that is not afraid to speak out. Or is politically correct, or doesnt have some great issues like illegal immigration. And he says he is going to build a wall. Yeah, its going to be built. And i tell you what, if they dont pay for that wall, then we should take away their foreign aid in mexico. Then theyll pay. And another thing, since i live in mexico as a diplomatic attache and been overseas fighting drugs. Guess who the most important person is next to the president to deal with International Affairs . Thats the secretary of state. So where was hillary how many times has she gone to mexico, and the president to stop the drug traffic in the illegal immigration problem. Why would a former president , vincente fox, make vicious, vicious comments about someone running for president in our country, which happens to be mr. Trump. I didnt see anybody get excited about that. But when he makes a couple comments at a rally, they make it a big issue. But anyway, ive got enough to say right now but i want to introduce donald trump, our next president of the United States. Thank you. Whoa, whoa oh, thank you, folks. Thank you very much, folks. Wow. What a crowd this is. [cheers and applause] thank you all very much. What great honor. Sheriff joe, i want to thank you. You have some sheriff. Theres no games with your sheriff, thats for sure. And, jan, thank you so much, and jeff. We have such great support, and tuesday is so important. We have a movement going on, folks. We have to make that movement go forward. The establishment dont know what theyre doing. They have no clue. They dont know how to win. They havent won in a long time. They pick the people that they absolutely will never win with the people they talk about. Go out on tuesday and vote. I will never let you down. Remember. [cheers and applause] trump, trump, trump, trump, trump, trump, trump, trump, trump, trump, trump. [cheers and applause] and i want to tell you, so much about illegal immigration and so much has been mentioned about it and talked about it, and these politicians are all talk, no action, theyre never going to do anything. They only picked it up because when i went and when i announced im running for president , i said, this country has a big, big problem with illegal immigration, and all of a sudden we started talking about it, and th you had lots of bad things happening, crime all over the place, and for the first time, people saw what was going on. You had the killing of kate, you had the killing of jim neil, you had so many killings, so much crime. Drugs pouring through the border. People are now seeing it, and you know what . Were going to build the ball and were going build the wall and were going to stop it. Its going to end. [cheers and applause] [chanting] i only wish these cameras theres nothing as dishonest as the media. That i can tell you. I only wish these cameras would spin around and show the kind of people that we have, the numbers of people that we have here, i just wish that for once do it, because you know what . We have a silent majority that is no longer so silent. Its now the loud, noisy majority, and were going to be heard. Were going to be heard. So, today, on dredge, one of the very big stories was the border agent, they say they support trump. That trump is the only one running that has their back. Okay . And they can do the job. But they dont get support from the politicians. Why . Im selffunding my campaign. Im putting up my own money. These guys are all i look at them all up and down. We start off with 17, were down now to three. Dont we love that . Dont we love it . We lost the future of the run party last tuesday, in florida. You know that. He was the future. He was the future of the republican party, except i won florida in a landslide because people are tired of what the politicians are doing to our country. Remember that. Theyre tired of it. Theyre sick and tired of it. So were going to make change, but its not going to be obama change. Remember obama . Change. Boo this is going to be real change. And were going to have a border, and also you have a border, you dont have a country, folks. You dont have a country. Remember that. Now, in addition we go through a list of things quickly because, frankly, doesnt take a long time. Were going to end common core. Were going to bring education will we local. Everybody wants it. We dont want our children educated by bureaucrats from washington, dc. So we end common Core Education local. Were going to terminate obamacare. Were going to repeal and it replace it with great healthcare for far less money. Thats going to happen. That is going to happen. We are going to protect our second amendment. Our second amendment
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