Iowa Democratic Steak Fry - Sept. 21, 2019

Hello Iowa! I'm here today to stand up for the Constitution of the United States of America. No one is above the law, not even the President of the United States. When the Muller report came out, it showed three things. First, that a hostile foreign government attacked our 2016 election system in order to help Donald Trump. Second, that Donald Trump, as a candidate, welcomed that help and third that, as president, when our federal government tried to investigate those activities Donald Trump did everything he could to obstruct justice. I read all 448 pages and when I got to the end I called for the impeachment of Donald Trump. Congress failed to act and now Donald Trump has shown that he believes he is above the law. He has solicited another foreign government to attack our election system. It is time for us to call out this illegal behavior and start impeachment proceedings right now.

So, not in a million years did I think I'd be standing on a stage like this with all of you. I was born and raised in Oklahoma. I have three older brothers, they all went off and joined the military. Me, I've had the same dream since I was a little kid and that is to be a public school teacher; can we here for America's public school teachers? My family didn't have the money to send me to college but, my big chance was a commuter school that cost $50 a semester and for a price I could pay for on a part-time waitressing job. I had a chance to finish my four-year diploma I became a special needs teacher; I've lived my dream job. I loved it but, I got here today because I see in America that isn't an America of expanding opportunities. I see in America that just keeps working better and better and better for a thinner and thinner slice at the top. When you see a government that works great for the rich and for the powerful and isn't working for anyone else that is corruption pure and simple and we need to call it out for what it is. An America that works great for giant drug companies but, not for people trying to get a prescription filled that's corruption. An America that works great for giant oil companies that want to drill everywhere but doesn't pay attention to the climate crisis that is bearing down upon us that's corruption.

So, I got good news I got a plan for that. And it starts by taking the corruption head-on, end lobbying as we know it. Make everyone who wants to run for federal office, everyone, have to put their tax returns online. And when we attack the corruption when we start to beat back the influence of money we can make some big structural change in this economy and here's where it starts, put more power in the hands of workers. Make it easier to join a union and give unions more power when they negotiate. Unions built America's middle class and unions will rebuild America's middle class. And there's another way we can restructure this economy; it's time for a wealth tax in this country. Oh so here's how it works, your first 50 million free and clear. You feeling relaxed about that? Good. But, your 50 million and first dollar, you gotta pitch in two cents, two cents and two cents for every dollar after that. And here's the question, two cents on the top one-tenth of one percent in this country and what can we do with that two cents? We can provide universal child care for every baby in this country aged zero to five. All of them. Universal pre-k for every three-year-old and four-year-old in America. Raise the wages of every child care worker and preschool teacher in this country. Make college tuition free for everyone who wants an education. All of it, two cents. Truly level the playing field, put fifty billion dollars into historically black colleges and universities. We can do all of that with a two-cent wealth tax plus, we can cancel student loan debt for 95% of the folks who’ve got it. We can do that for two cents. We can do all that and one more, we need to protect our democracy. We need to have a constitutional amendment to protect the right of every American citizen to vote and to get that vote counted. Get rid of all political gerrymandering in this country. Roll back every racist voter suppression law that has been passed and one more overturn citizens united; democracy is not for sale. This is what we can do together. We can attack the corruption, we can restructure our economy, we can protect our democracy. And whatever issue brought you here today, whether it's gun violence or climate or healthcare, whatever brought you here, you're here because you believe down deep somewhere in your heart that we can make our democracy work. Not just for a thin slice at the top, we can make it work for everyone. I'm Elizabeth Warren, I know what's broken, I know how to fix it and we're building a grassroots movement to make it happen.