A Conversation on Poverty in America hosted by Elizabeth Warren and Elijah Cummings

so want to thank you all for being here today before beginning our opening statements and turning it over to our panelists we'd like to see a brief video from the Poor People's Campaign so could someone hit the lights please we must be honest about the foundations of the political and economic systems we call America I love America because of her potential but I know that America will never even get close to being a more perfect nation until we are honest about the politics of rejection I want to tell you about some of the leaders who are building the Poor People's Campaign cally Greer from Selma Alabama who had to bury her daughter Venus because she didn't have health care I'm here today this year my daughter's Venus a story Venus discovered a small lump in her breast and she wasn't insured Venus had to be approved for every prescription and every piece of medical equipment that she needed I'm standing here today in solidarity with the Poor People's Campaign because no one should have to bury their child in America because they don't have health care I'm 46 years old I've lived in poverty here in West Virginia every day of my life and I'm working I am a working poor with a bachelor's degree I'm doing the best I can with what I have I'm a second-generation fast-food working I've experienced a cycle of poverty firsthand growing up I watched my mother into a long hours of back-breaking labor doing everything she could to feed me and my sisters my employer barely pays me enough to pay rent and utilities let alone with the medical expenses with my mother I work 41 years from the coal mines I have black lung and it's just unfathomable what these poor coal miners I have to go through in order to get what they have worked for and desert I'm a bit nam veteran my only chance to go into college was joining the army it was one thing to know that you didn't have water and you couldn't afford your water it's a whole nother to find out that they shut off your entire community and none of you matter poor it's not a sin poverty is the end homeless is not a sin homelessness this is the largest encampment in Aberdeen there's about a thousand people in a town of sixteen thousand who are homeless in my community who are all set up for the day because none of us can afford our water bills in the past my family was able to afford electricity in the winter is very hard at office when there are 38 million poor children when 60% of African Americans are poor when 65% of button xr4 when 40% of Asians are poor when there are 67 million poor white people we must say this is [Music] follow that breaking news in Albany where large group of protesters have moved into the street Washington Avenue between City Hall and mark Street closed down protesters with the Poor People's Campaign of the east coast two o'clock in the middle two o'clock on the west close a wave and historians tell us has never happened our communities Muslim communities will have joined the poor people's campaign you can count on us [Music] we are demanding that we stop the war on our poor this wall is wrong it is sinful 40 billion dollars going into this wall not into healthcare what we're trying to preserve and what we're trying to do is to protect the water it's to protect the lands protect the environment I'm trying to get my generation involved we are in a fight for our lives our March protests I will plant my seeds and good ground [Music] our vote so again thank you all for being here I would especially like to welcome our panelists Reverend barber you have blessed me on many occasions with wise counsel and with words of encouragement we thought we would also have Reverend Theo Harris with us today but unfortunately she is being detained in jail for praying yesterday on the front steps of the United States Supreme Court that's a moment when we know that we're starting to have an impact that people are starting to fear because they know that the people's march will make change I've to all our witnesses who are here today welcome we realized that you took away time from your jobs from your families from other commitments to be here with us you honor us by your presence we're grateful that you're here 50 years ago the Reverend dr. Martin Luther King called for a mass mobilization of America's poor and disenfranchised his vision was to convene thousands of suffering and outraged citizens from across America and to bring them right here to Washington DC to demand that the United States government confront and addressed the evil of poverty the evil of poverty in his letter announcing the mobilization dr. King warned that America was at a crossroads of history and that it was critically important for America as a nation as a society to choose a new path and to move upon it with resolution and courage dr. King didn't make it to Washington DC he was assassinated just a month before the March but his vision lived on thousands of poor people energized by the vision of a new America that set up camp in Washington DC to demand that the government look listen and act it was a movement that challenged Americans to come together across racial and ethnic and geographic lines for the cause of justice fifty years later America is at a crossroads progress remains even more elusive for tens of millions of struggling and hardworking Americans our safety net has a hole in it the size of a monster truck millions of Americans are without basic health care babies drink water laced with Linh forty percent of US adults don't have four hundred dollars to cover an emergency and many have nowhere to borrow it over one in four Americans describes themselves as quote just getting by or quote struggling to get by nearly half of all Americans don't have a single dollar put away for retirement the list goes on and on and all the while corporate profits in America are skyrocketing there is a crisis in America it is an economic crisis it is a social crisis it is an environmental crisis it is a moral crisis this government works well it works really well for the rich and the powerful but it turns a deaf ear to the cries and the voices of the hurting this is a moral crisis and we're here today because there's something happening in America the poor and the marginalized and the suffering are taking to the streets and our capitals across this country to reclaim our government and demand a government for all the people the Poor People's Campaign is the tip of the spear in this fight it has launched a season of direct action to unite tens of thousands of people across this country to fight for the soul of America and the campaign has called on Congress to hear directly from those people we are here to respond to that call we are honored to have our participants with us today I am glad to be here to have the chance to hear your voices and I'm glad to be joined by so many of my colleagues in Congress before I conclude I want to thank my co-chair congressman Cummings you are a fearless fighter for justice and a fighter for all Americans you have devoted your life to a deeply moral battle I am grateful for your leadership I am grateful for your partnership and with that I will turn the microphone over to you thank you very much senator Warren and I want to thank you so much for organizing today's event to shine a bright light on the poverty in America I also think our colleagues who are joining us from the Senate in the house most of all I want to thank our panelists and all of you who have taken a moment out of your lives to be here today Reverend doctor barber and I'm gonna thank you for your leadership and your dedication to speaking up for those who too often cannot speak up for themselves for those are in so much pain they don't even know they're in pain - our esteemed panelists Christopher all of Pamela's who rushed and make Smith Vanessa noise and Amy Jo Hutchinson your courage is inspiring and I'm truly thankful for what you all have done and I thank you for traveling here to be with us today one of President Obama's most significant accomplishments was putting our nation out of the Great Recession under his leadership we experienced 75 straight months of job growth over this his two terms and our unemployment rate was cut in half despite this accomplishment our work was not complete far too many people are still not participating in our growth for benefiting from our nation's success on September 12 2017 the Census Bureau issued its latest annual report on poverty in that report the Census Bureau reported that in 2016 there were more than 40 me Americans living in poverty even as the stock market soars we see what has been called an epidemic of deaths of despair these deaths from drug overdoses alcohol-related liver failure and suicide are preventable but they are increasing so rapidly that life expectancy in the United States has actually fallen over the last two years some of the most significant increases in preventable deaths have been in middle-aged Americans with no more than a high school education to Princeton University researchers and case and Angus Deaton wrote in a paper published last year by the Brookings Institution that there may be a quote cumulative disadvantage from one birth cohort to the next in the labor market in marriage and in chaol outcomes and in health and the quote according to these researchers this disadvantage is being triggered by progressively worsening labor market opportunities unfortunately rather than prioritizing policies that will help reverse these trends by expanding educational opportunities helping families afford the staggering costs of higher education or ensuring that more Americans benefit from our economic growth president Trump signed into law massive tax cuts for corporations and millionaires while at the same time hurting many hardworking families an analysis produced by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that by 2025 the Republican tax law will increase the incomes of households making more than a million dollars by more than $25,000 while at the same time reducing the after-tax incomes of households making less than $30,000 these attacks against the poor and middle class are not limited to this Republicans have been trying to gut the Affordable Care Act for the past decade now the Trump administration is going on the offensive in court arguing that the Affordable Care Act prohibition against discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions should be ruled unconstitutional by the way if you don't have a pre-existing condition just keep on living one of the most heartbreaking causes of bankruptcy in America is the inability of families to pay for exhibiting medical costs if Republicans succeed in eliminating this protection of people with pre-existing conditions we will go back to the old days before the Affordable Care Act when insurance companies could jack up prices for specific diseases or specific people and as I close or worse insurance companies could simply deny coverage altogether remember that of course things do not have to be that way we can adopt positive policies that will create new jobs and opportunities we can expand access to health care we can give tax breaks to working families we can make college more affordable we can expand job training and we can expand treatment for the millions of Americans currently suffering from substance abuse and so I hope today's forum will help make clear why it is so urgent that we begin and actually policies to ensure that everyone that everyone benefits from our nation's growth not just those at the top and with that I thank you Thank You congressman Cummings it's my honor to introduce our first guest the reverend dr. William Barbour the second Reverend dr. barber is co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign which has staged rallies at state houses now in over thirty states with six weeks of direct action that kicked off on May 13th he is also pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church disciples of Christ kated in Goldsboro in North Carolina and a bishop with the College of affirming bishops and faith leaders from 2006 to 2017 he served as president of the North Carolina n-double-a-cp the largest state conference in the south and he currently sits on the National n-double-a-cp board of directors the Reverend dr. barber is the president and senior lecturer of repairers of the breach and the architect of forward together moral movement I can tell you much much more about dr. barber and his many accomplishments in the fight for justice but in the interest of time and because I want to hear from him directly I'll stop here and I'm going to turn the microphone over to the Reverend dr. barber for his opening statement testing all right thank you so much senator Warren and representative congressman Cummings and all of my friends here senator Sanders in the book of representative Lee I do want to make a slight adjustment on Reverend dr. Liz Theo Harris who was our co-chair on the Poor People's Campaign a national call for moral revival is in jail fortunately because her and eight other people along with more than 80 of us nearly a hundred of us yesterday were arrested in the streets and they chose to pray on the steps of the Supreme Court on June 11 which was the 50 55th anniversary of when John Kennedy declared that civil rights was a moral issue that was the same day this court in a 5-4 vote rolled back voting rights again and today we're here on June 12th which would be the night mega Evers would be being shot 55 years ago Corina Gore has come in her stead they've been in jail all night long actually but Corina Gore is here she's with the Center for Earth access at Union and I want to ask her to present Reverend dr. listy or Harris's presentation first thank you so much well I've been asked to read a statement on behalf of my friend teacher and colleague Reverend dr. Liz Theo Harris and I'm very honored to do so senators members of Congress thank you for inviting us to speak with you today did you know that a quarter of a million people die in the United States from poverty and related issues every year Kelly Greer from Selma Alabama does her daughter Venus died in her arms five years ago because she couldn't afford health insurance after the Alabama legislature refused to expand Medicaid Venis had breast cancer a disease that if caught early has a ninety-nine percent survival rate did you know that nearly 3.5 million Americans live in shelters transitional housing centers and tent cities and did you know that a significant number of those people are veterans christopher olive from Grays Harbor Washington does after serving our country for four years during the Iraq war with the Air Force Christopher was homeless off and on for eight to ten years did you know that thirteen point eight million families in this country cannot afford water and that poor rural communities face the additional problem of lacking access to piped water and sewage systems to begin with just to ask Pamela sue Rush from Lowndes County Alabama Pamela has to live with mold in her trailer while her nine-year-old daughter has to use a CPAP machine ladies and gentlemen these are the faces behind the statistics these are the men and women directly affected by the laws passed in these hallowed halls you'll hear more directly from them shortly but I'd like to address you from my position speaking as Reverend dr. Lewis Theo Harris in her stead as a member of the clergy and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign for over 20 years on nearly a weekly basis I have heard people quote Matthew 26 11 the poor will be with you always to blame the poor for their poverty to justify inaction in the face of growing poverty and misery and to claim that if God wanted to end poverty God would do so this passage led me to seminary and biblical scholarship and eventually to write a book on these myths interpretations some of the only preachers I hear talking about poverty are those who condemn the poor as sinners very few people talk about poverty itself as a sin against God that could and should be ended indeed that line from Matthew 26 11 is what evangelical leader Jim Wallace calls the most famous Bible verse on poverty I hear echoes of this verse when I read dr. King's statement on true compassion from his sermon at Riverside Church on April 4th 1967 when Jesus says the poor will always be with you he is actually quoting Deuteronomy 15 which says that there will be no poor person among you if you follow God's commandments to forgive debts release slaves pay people fairly and lend money even knowing you won't get paid back Deuteronomy 15 continues that because people will not follow these Commandments the poor will never cease to be in the land thus in this passage and throughout the Bible Jesus isn't condoning poverty he is reminding us that God hates poverty and has commanded us to end poverty by forgiving debts raising wages outlawing slavery and restructuring society around the needs of the poor he is reminding the disciples that charity and hypocrisy will not end poverty but keep poverty with us always he is reminding his followers that will soon leave them and is their responsibility to continue the quest for justice that he will see soon leave them and it is their responsibility to continue the quest for justice for anyone who claims to be a person of faith this is our charge the Poor People's Campaign a national call for moral revival is continuing this quest for justice after two years of traveling to some of the most impoverished communities we've met men and women like the ones you will hear from today who are fighting for change in their communities we've been organizing in these places to build a movement for the poor led by the poor by listening to us today you are now moral witnesses to our movement and we hope you will see that poverty is not a constant it is not a necessity poverty is a political creation that can be eradicated if we have the will to do so the men and women sitting behind me and beside me today give me the will to keep fighting toward justice and I'm certain they will inspire you to do the same thank you so much Corina and a certain again we remember the nine persons that are still in jail being arraigned this evening including dr. Harris and gralen and Roz peles and norm and Rob Stevens and an Episcopal priest Hershey who are all there and Jimmy Hawkins with the National Presbyterian Church I want to first thank you senator Warren and some of the Cummings excuse me represent Cummings we sent this letter asking for this hearing to Senator McConnell and took on congressman Ryan and to all others and we did not hear anything until we heard from you about wanting to do this joint hearing so thank you let me also begin by thanking God the God of love and justice and truth for being here on today and let me also lift up the poor people the clergy the activists in more than 40 states more than 40 states who are engaging in the Poor People's Campaign a national call for a moral revival for a 40 day launch not an end but a launching of a multi-year campaign just over the past four weeks more than three thousand Americans have engaged in moral fusion nonviolent civil disobedience at 48 state houses around the country and here in the United States capital tens of thousands have been witnesses to this more than a hundred people were arrested here just yesterday and nine of them as I said itself some who are religious leaders from three different faith traditions shally who's a Hindu lives and others were Christians and another brother who was Jewish were arrested for exercising their right of freedom of religion the same court that just last week said religion 4-barrel it because of religion you can deny cake from a gay person didn't allow people to pray on the steps of the Supreme Court our teas folk I would have been there but I drew the card to lead those who took the street and to make sure we had at least one person to be here this morning this evening tomorrow I'll leave for Kentucky where governor Matt Bevin has blocked citizens and coal miners from even entering their State House they're known to Detroit and Chicago for a Chicago poverty tour to stand with our organizers there before heading on Saturday to the global labor council in the unity council in liverpool england where workers from a hundred and one nations are acknowledging their unity with the Poor People's Campaign a national call for a moral revival this campaign though let us be clear is not a commemoration of what happened fifty years ago it is a declaration that poverty still threatens of the American democracy today it is recognizing that it was not just the king that dr. King was dr. King's the child is it was heschel it was others welfare right workers who all called for this poor people's campaign and they didn't in in some ways it was assassinated both King and Robert Kennedy were killed over the period of time of the Poor People's Campaign today we have in order to quantify and qualify our legitimate discontent we commissioned an audit called the souls of poor folk auditing America 50 years after the Poor People's Campaign because oftentimes we even misquote we we we really don't tell the full story of what's going on in America this was done by the Institute for Policy Studies with the help of the Urban Institute and numerous scholars theologians and impacted people senator Sanders and I talked about this one he was in North Carolina Duke University and these this policy groups they found they quantified five interlocking in justices systemic racism systemic poverty ecological devastation militarism and a distorted moral narrative that continued to cause great moral and material injury to the soul of our democracy to the people of this country and to the quality of life of many in our world and our campaign is not Democrat or Republican we understand that neither the doctrines of trickle-down economics are going to lift the poor and neither is neoliberalism that it tries to deal with poverty without dealing with the issue of race and systemic racism we understand that both parties have had struggle even saying the name poor for nearly 50 years this is why we have launched this movement these are not for us left issues and right issues they are justice issues moral issues love issues that cannot and must not be ignored just like John Kennedy on June 11 1963 he said the civil rights issue was not a sectional issue it was a more issue and we're gonna have to reclaim that kind of language in our discussion and dealing with these issues these are issues that impact all people black white brown Native gay straight trans Republican Democrat independent people if a people not of faith this is not a liberal or a conservative movement it is a deeply moral movement the people who are hurting the most have linked up to say we won't be silent anymore and coming to this hearing today our goal and the folk told me to say this is not so much that they get applause but that people cry we are trying to make this nation weep and see what is being done and how people are having to live the first goal of this movement is to change the morrow narrative in this country for the last 50 years since the civil and human rights movements that call this nation to a moral reckoning extremists in our public life have worked tirelessly to do at least two things one they wanted to shift our attention from governments moral responsibility to debates about tax cuts so-called entitlements states rights and they've been successful to the extent that we no longer in a massive way even discuss issues like poverty and militarism and and systemic racism as moral issues even in the last cycle we had 26 presidential election debates and if you check the record we have there was not one hour on poverty there was not one hour on systemic racism and and restoring the Voting Rights Act not one hour out of 26 debate in the primary and in the general and it's what we have allowed is extremists to make abortion pray on the school and human sexuality the force of a moral discourse which is counter to the Bible that many of them put their hands on the fact I brought this senator warren hoping that maybe you'll get them to replace all the Bibles in this place with the poverty and justice bar but it has every scripture all 2,000 that talk about the poor and the stranger and the and what we ought to be doing since there are some people that love to bring up the Bible we want to hope that they read it and really know what's in it number two by narrowing our scope of moral concern these extremists have tried to pit black brown and poor white people against each other which is not a new thing especially in some parts of the country where the balance of power could change and the nation could change radically if black brown and poor white people became allies this is why we are launching a fusion movement this is why this table looks like it does we are it's intentionally uniting people who were who've been divided by the divide and conquer tactics of the southern strategy that's been going on for 50 years but not just in the south so from Alabama to Alaska from California to the California Carolinas from Arizona to Arkansas from Maine to Mississippi from the coal mines of Kentucky to the bayous of LA from Milwaukee to Martin Wisconsin to Mark's Mississippi people are coming together to say that if the extremists are cynical enough to work together to take health care to take resources to block living wages we ought to be smart enough to come together and change the nation's moral narrative now we've launched this movement with three tactics first moral fusion nonviolent civil disobedience to drive attention because right now you can look at the TV for a whole month you can read the paper for a whole month and never see anything about poverty anything about the poor you can hear about the middle class the military but never about the poor number two we're going to do mass targeted voter mobilization all of the people that are organizing across the country and then mass power building from the bottom up we know what we want to focus on our agenda is clear it is clear here is the agenda number one under systemic racism we demand the immediate full restoration and expansion of the Voting Rights Act and into racist gerrymandering redistricting we want early registration of 17 and 18 year olds we want registration to vote at age 18 if we can be drafted for Ward 18 we ought to be able to vote automatically at 18 early voting in every state same-day registration and the enactment of Election Day as a holiday now why because that's racism voter suppression racism is not just Roseanne Barr and her words racism is about policy and too often in this country we start talking about race if we get stuck on words and not the works of racism the words of racism is what bar is doing the works of racism is trying to appoint Thomas far from North Carolina to the sort of federal bench who has a history of racism we have a little map that we like to show real quickly and I'm almost through us it when they bring it up because it shows something on this map that we have that we are showing around the country that's helping people understand why you can't deal with poverty if you don't deal with systemic racism that map shows all the states that have participated in the voter suppression law since 2010 note that this is before the current administration because all our problems didn't just start with this administration that's 2010 next map that shows the states that have the highest child poverty if you go back and we'll give it to you and look the same states that have the worst voter suppression have the worst child poverty next one the same states that have the worst voter suppression have the worst poverty rate next one the same states that have the worst voter suppression have the states living without living wage law the states without living wage legislation next one the same states that have the worst voter suppression also have the lack of LGBTQ non-discrimination laws so what do we learn from those maps quickly it is that there are people who are engaging in massive racialized voter suppression they get elected by using racialized methods of voter suppression but then when they get in office they hurt mostly poor white people mostly people white people because there are more poor white people than there are numerically then there are black people and brown people not as a percentage of rate a race but as in terms of raw numbers we demand an end to placing persons on the federal bench who have a record of standing against voting rights we demand clear and just immigration system that straight our democracy because denying just immigration is racism we demand that the first nation Native Americans and Alaska Native people retain their tribal recognition as nations not races and and and that they are protected and we are we finally fulfill our promises to First Nation people because not to do that is racism we demand an end to mass incarceration and the continuing inequalities for black brown and poor white people and we demand that we fight the resegregate of our public schools that doesn't just resegregate bodies but resegregate budgets and also rosetta gates curriculums under systemic poverty we demand the immediate implementation of a federal and state living wage laws 15 on a union as a minimum we won't guarantee they succeed and your income full employment for and the right of workers to join unions we demand an end to anti-union anti worker laws and one of the reasons we're doing it is because brother Sturgill where's he brother Stanley Sturgill who was a coal miner from Kentucky said we better do it where is he got a cherry come on up here brother start he's a coal miner from Harlan County USA and he said if dad's gonna be a poor you have to demand that we in anti-union anti worker rights law we demand fully funded welfare programs for the poor and an end to the attacks on snap and heap and other vital programs we demand equity and education ensuring that every child receives a high-quality well-funded diverse public education we demand an end to reach segregation of our schools we demand the expansion of Medicaid in every state and single-payer health care for all now why is that why is that it's just because it's an idea from rám bába or an idea from Senator Senate no Margie starts who's a Republican where she's Margie Marge is here got arrested last week her brother-in-law died because the lack of health care he was a cook in a in a in a facility taking care of older people and he died and Marge's our public uterus seat up there well okay well they said you were okay somebody somebody told a story on you anyway but anyway they but anyway Marja said that she wants he want but we can we also do have in our movement even Republicans and others who are saying that health care should be a fundamental right we also demand fully funded public resources and access to mental health professional and addiction recovery programs and we demand public infrastructure projects and sustainable community based and control economic initiatives for the poor we also demand the end of the rolling back of fair housing protections that hurt those are the very protections that we passed at the death of dr. King that's the only reason they got passed and we demand a repeal of the 2017 corporate welfare federal tax law and we demand it not only do we challenge how it will hurt the poor but that we labor that as a form of racism because we have not seen that level of money taken from the backs of working people since slavery took the amount of money it did from the backs of slaves that's where you got to go back to see a two trillion dollar cut we demand that our nation and our lawmakers turn their media attention to passing policies and budget allegations that would end child poverty and would work with Mary Wright elderman who was originally with the Poor People's Campaign and and the children defense front we demand a 100% clean and renewable energy public jobs program to transition to green economy that will put millions of people in sustainable living wage jobs we demand fully funded public water and sanitation infrastructure why because Audrina Hawk is here when sister Hawk from Flint Michigan her son is the baby that's on the front page of Time magazine she's in the Poor People's Campaign his name is sincere Smith he was exposed to lead due to her inadequate water system come up and just sit beside us you all can ask them questions if you so desire but we also know we can't fix this and fracking and mountaintop removal coal mining and coal ash ponds and and and and protection of public lands we can't do that unless we deal with our war economy and militarism so we demand an end to military aggression and we demand a stop to the privatization of military budget and any increase in military spending we spend now over 600 billion dollars in war that's 2 times more than we spent during the days of Vietnam and the CEOs of weapons manufacturers make an average of 19 million dollars a year while combat soldier doesn't make $30,000 a year and that's why chris is here to talk we demand an a ban on assault weapons and the easy access to firearms that has led to the militarization and weapon nation of our communities we demand the demilitarization of our communities on the border and the interior we demand and cease to the building of a wall and we demand an immigration system that instead of criminalizing people for trying to raise their family and prioritizing family unity unification tears families apart and that's why my sister where is she who's here from California there she Audrina Kenya she's here from California and she'd be glad to take any questions you have my brothers and sisters as I close our commitment is deep we need a moral budget we're writing one we're gonna come back after the summer that focuses on how do we help the poor and the least of these that should be the focus of government because if you lift from the bottom everybody gets lifted our commitment is as sincere as dr. King when he said there are in 68 there are two Americas one is beautiful full of milk and honey but the other America is ugly is ugly and people die and starve every day not 40 million but a hundred and forty million people forty three point five percent of our population are poor and low wealth now for courage sake let me close by saying people are gonna call you everything they'll call you socialists communists they'll call you one of those way off leftist but eighty years ago extremists dismissed many of the things now that we assume they call it socialism compulsory insurance against employment they call that socialism employment agencies being free to the public they call that socialism old-age pension for men and women sixty years old they used to call that socialism abolition of child labor aid to farmers and homeowners against foreclosure everything we believe in today a hundred years ago was seen as impossible but these policies proposals that was seen as impossible became a part of the deal of the nineteen thirty because of the bonus' marches the social gospel movement the black labor movement the n-double-a-cp they push FDR to a new deal and it in some ways saved the heart and soul of the nation even though didn't help everybody cut black folk didn't written in Social Security to 1954 because the agrarian culture and the domestic culture was was kept out we believe we need a movement to push Republicans and Democrats to come together it's not gonna happen within it's gonna happen without but it's got to be affected by in by those of you that have a conscience we know what the Bible says as they attend says woe unto those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their rights amos 5 says it is the responsibility of hurting people to fill up the streets and empty the factories and cry until justice rolls down like water dear my 22 says you got to go down to the palace and tell the powerful to stop hurting the poor and the weak Luke 4 says that the gender of God is first the poor know whatever use you claim about being a person of faith it is terribly suspect unless you are preaching good news to the poor the pataw cost those who've been made poor by economic exploitation and jesus said there's one two impala see questions not charity question that represent diddly she know these are policy questions that every nation is gonna have to ask answer when I was hungry did you feed me when I was thirsty did you give me drink when I was sick did you care for my n if that and if that's socialism then Jesus was a socialist the fact of the matter it's not it's common sense it's right it's the moral thing to do we are also launching this movement and this is it because we believe what our Constitution says taking health care from people is not the establishment of justice not allowing people to have a living wage does not promote domestic tranquility destroying people's lives does not promote the general welfare so a lot of things that people are doing they swore to uphold the Constitution but evidently somebody was lying and so let me close with a hymn of our initial you can hear from these great people over the next hour America the Beautiful if we are truly gonna be a justice just nation we got to sing that second verse a lot of people get stuck on that first verse America the Beautiful oh Beautiful for gracious God but at that second verse it says oh Beautiful for pilgrim see whose Stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness AMERICA AMERICA God mend thy every flaw we have to mend the flaw of poverty we have to mend the flaw of even with the Affordable Care Act 37 million people not having health care we have two men the floor of 13 million children being in poverty and 4 million families not even have lead in their water they can buy unleaded gas and can't buy unleaded water we have to mend every flaw that's the only way we're gonna be one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and the Poor People's Campaign is committed our mantra is before this campaign fails we'll all go down in jail before this campaign fails we'll all go down in jail somebody's hurting my brother somebody's hurting our sisters and it's gone on far too long and we won't be silent anymore that is my opening remarks for today let me call on these dear people who are so much more powerful as they come at this time and I want to start with my sister Amy Jo Hutchinson and then Pamela sue we'll follow her and then Christopher olive and then my dear sister heavens Vanessa nosy and then brother Nick Smith will speak and then we will take questions all of them are prepared who came around to answer the questions thank you so much Amy hi thank you for this today my name is Amy Jo Hutchison and I come from West Virginia I'm I'm identify as being the working poor but I also spend my life organizing around low income moms in the state of West Virginia for a grassroots organization whose mission and commitment is to end child poverty I think as I look back on my life I'm 46 years old and I've never spent a day of my life without poverty on some level and I think it's really easy for us as human beings to punish people or didn't dismiss people because we don't love them and we can't love them we say if we don't know them so I want to take a little bit of time today to bring some West Virginia's in the room with me I want to talk about our governor who was the richest man in the state of West Virginia who recently signed a bill into law to put these work requirements on snap recipients although DHHR had their own study released that said it did not work requirements does not increase employment and then he turns around he needs takes millions of dollars from our state Medicaid funding he considered to be excess to pay for our teachers wages you may have heard of the West Virginia work stoppage that with the teachers that took place over there over the spring so today I want to turn your attention to Ashley who was 21 years old and she has autism but Ashley is so high-functioning autistic that Social Security says that she doesn't qualify for disability but yet Ashley's not able to work because her mania prevents her from being allowed large crowds loud spaces she's tried several times and she hasn't been able to keep a job because of her disability with autism and so Ashley is one of those able-bodied adults without dependents those facing losing or SNAP benefits that this farm bill gets passed I want to talk to you about Frank who was a Vietnam veteran who sat and told stories to me about elderly people eating cat food to survive I want to talk to you about Megan the single mom who told me I've sold my blood to feed my kids I want you to talk about think about Donna who runs a food pantry in a rural county in the middle of West Virginia and her neighbor lady has no one so she went to the emergency room one night and she said my neighbor lady coded she was dead on the table and the nurse came out and got me instead Donna's she wants to speak to you and she said I just know this woman because she comes to my pantry and she gets a box of food she said when I walked into that room she said Donna I don't think I'm gonna make it to the pantry tomorrow to get things someone could bring my food box to my house and she said that woman was dead on the table and the first thing she thought about when she came back to life was the fact that she might miss the pantry and the next day I want you to think about my own children I have two daughters and they traveled with food pantries with me and they helped me to organize and collect stories and even my children at the ages of 11 and 14 know enough to know that if you don't eat you die I talked to a junior in high school this year in rural County and she was telling me that there have been three suicides in her high school within this year and over a hundred and forty fistfights and I said why and she said everyone's angry I said why are they angry and she said you can't be poor and you can't be happy at the same time and I don't know about you but in my experience living in West Virginia that young lady as a junior in high school just described the opioid crisis and ten words so I want you to tell me I again I had Medicaid and so without any notice DHHR sent me a letter they told me I'd forgotten to send a foreman in February so this is April 1 I get the letter and by the time I received the letter I had just a couple of days notice that I no longer have health insurance so please tell me as a poor person what I'm supposed to do I have a bachelor's degree I'm trying to heal a medical condition now with essential oils and prayers while I work full time I take my kids to the softball games I'm doing everything that I can I'm organizing around other poor people predominantly low-income moms and so I just don't think that we should have to give this much of ourselves in order to have a good quality of life in America the richest country in the world that's all I have to say thank you thank you so much Amy thank you so much Amy and what we if you all were joining a little thing with us today because it's hard for us to clap sometimes so what we say is forward together not one and that's our applause line to people that they're not gonna be alone I got the clarification she grew up in a Republican family she'll tell you that if you ask I knew I was a little bit right and also Dominique Blake who's a McDonald's worker fight for 15 and my dear sister I met this morning who is disabled who's handicapped who is working every day and the company in this in Maryland and Unitel economy he knows about this said that because she has a handicap she doesn't deserve a union and they're fighting her called dis Lake it's fighting him get her kidding and you did Lake and I'm here this it met her today Samantha right Samantha Pamela would you share your story from Alabama hi my name is Pamela Rose I'm from Lowndes County Alabama and I live in him mobile home with my two kids 14 thousand love old mobile home they're falling apart pause oh crap got trapped by a possum in my house can't sister and I got raw sewage I don't know man and I had to travel back your father to by my hand to take my daughter with the CPAP machine don't have my car don't have nobody to take and then we have how you chill to be you and I paid I was paying like 300 sitting sitting in dollars a month on the trailer and her half-hour like 270 so not like being it's becoming something like it is summertime and and the trailer don't hold no air and stuff in it so it's just the power will be just they like the we have the unit it just roam you don't cut out doing the daytime and it's hard I can't I couldn't buy my children Pamela let us come in her house courageously it was hard she said I want the nation maybe to help somebody else a predator Linda raped her literally they made her pay $120,000 for a single white house that she's still paying for mold is on what that's why I had naught has seen in a 10 years old in the house yep she can't get out of the loan because of the predatory lender she's in the Poor People's Campaign she said I have no place else to go but fighting her daughter's in the room I believe she's 10 years old and she's his owner c-pack machine pre-existing condition because of the mold as in this trailer that she can't get out of because of predatory lending in Alabama Christopher that's right yes sir hello ah thank you everyone for being here my name is Christopher olive I currently live in Grays Harbor County which is in Washington State I am 33 years old and a veteran of the US Air Force I received an honorable medical discharge in 2007 after four years of service due to complications from pancreatitis which the VA ultimately can determined to be a service-connected condition upon my discharge I knew essentially nothing about the science of addiction and how it works in and ultimately changes the brain I quickly went from taking my opiate based pain management meds as prescribed to first slowly overusing them and then moving on to taking as many as I could handle while at the same time watching everything I thought to be a value in my life slowly slip away not just material possessions but really valuable things like relationships with friends and loved ones alike and my own morals and values this led to a 10-year period of drug addiction and periodic homelessness of which the majority I was homeless I came here today because I saw this as an amazing opportunity to shed some light on the overall lack of education and understanding of most mental and behavioral health issues from drug addiction to misdiagnosed mental illness there seems to also be a lack of compassion and humility or very least the turning of a blind eye to problem areas in our society allowing this to happen has paved the way for things like city ordinances where I live that ban the act of sitting on a sidewalk which results in a fine I believe this type of legislation to be nothing more than a poorly veiled attempt to criminalize homelessness there is little to no access to treatment facilities transitional housing or even affordable housing in Grays Harbor County this is not because the Great Rivers behavioral health organization that serves Grays Harbor County cannot afford it to expand the treatment services and housing but due to the fact that they are sitting on 50 million in taxpayer dollars their official statement is that they are saving the money for a proposed future administrative building because the powers that be would rather spend that money on the formation of a behavioral health administration in roughly two years time if this 50 million were spent between the five counties in Washington State that great river serves that would be 10 million per county and I can only begin to imagine the lives that might have been saved or could be saved if this money were being used for things that it is already authorized to be used for and in an inpatient treatment facility a community center affordable housing and rental assistance to name a few thank you for your time grace Harbor is an arbor deand as a forward together there's a thousand homeless people in a 16,000 seat County County a city of Aberdeen and most of them are white and millennial and we've been there and also members of the indigenous community that are there former Marines people who fought in our wars they fly the flag we went there they said well said why are you flying the flag she said we hope that people will look under the flag and see what's going on underneath Nick excuse me Nick no miss nosey taco - even Sno seconds says she choked out in there thank you my name is Vanessa nosy I'm a Chiricahua Apache I'm enrolled in the San Carlos Apache Tribe I'm from the Apache stronghold which is protecting Oak Flat firm resolution copper today I stand here United with the Poor People's Campaign and standing here with my brothers and sisters as we are trying to fight what we're all fighting for is justice the Apache stronghold has started a caravan that it started in Northern California and is going to be here on June 23rd for the water for the action here with the Poor People's Campaign before I tell you a little bit about my own people I want to tell you about the journey that we started we started analemma mo Indian colony which when you enter the reservation before you enter the reservation it says hazardous area enter at your own risk by the County Lake of Clear Lake California they're been mining mercury since 1957 and have left it open with heavy metal leaking into the water in the land they stopped fishing in the 1970s and have a high rate of cancer in the community I worry because I have family not only just my family there but the indigenous people in the surrounding communities already been affected we talk about health care we talk about worrying about the environment but yet when they're allowing open pit mines and letting it leak into the land into the water the high rate of cancer and the high bills of health is going to continue to raise because of corporations and Greed's and politicians that don't want to listen we went to Oakland California to Berkeley and they met with the halona tribe there they went to the shell Mountain there's 425 Shell Mounds one of them that they approached went to was a parking lot they're trying to stop more construction of homes and shopping centers on these sacred sites that they're an ancestral has direct connection to theirs there is nothing in this place and in those places and no laws or treaties that protected indigenous people they're the hollow knee and other tribes in California so they're hurting because when they look at their holy mountains in the holy sites they're covered with asphalt and buildings how are they can connect themselves they have to try is really hard spiritually to ground themselves through those concrete's to reach their holy people in LA they stopped in LA and this is the most famous urban and urban public place for indigenous people in 1970 for the most population of relocated indigenous people known as Indian Ali the United American Indian involvement a space is a perfect example of systemic racism and poverty there are rip from their homelands over a hundred tribes living in LA this is still an ongoing of how homeless impacts indigenous people they hurt for their sacred sites because it is concrete the strongholds way in La Jolla with the loss you'll see an Indian ban and blessings at the river and water of essential part of cultures of India as people our caravan is gonna come out come throughout the country I stand here representing not only my EMI Apache people but all indigenous people because when we talk about environmental impacts we talk about systemic racism we talk about mill tourism right now the stronghold is in sells Arizona which they are touring the border of where their immigration where Trump wants to build a wall and that's gonna come back that's going to directly impact a la awesome people and the Pasco Yaqui people because that is their ancestral homeland that's where they conduct ceremonies and so that is going to be deeply affected to them so today as I stand here before you before Congress before Senate I'm asking you to hear us all I'm asking you to hear our cries because what indigenous people are doing what we are fighting for the land the water is for everybody in this world how are we going to be able to turn on your water faucets how are you gonna be able to feed your children how are you gonna be able to walk outside and breathe clean air because as indigenous people we have been fighting colonization's over 500 years our fight still exists we are still considered as prisoners of war as I protect Oak Flat which has been given to a foreign mining company called resolution copper owned by Rio Tinto how I'm going to continue to take my children to pray and to pick their medicines and the food and to bathe in the water that is Who I am as an Apache woman how am I going to continue on my tradition in my culture if I can only tell stories and my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids cannot see the places that I'm talking about so I thank you I thank you for listening to us and here in our stories because what impacts us impacts all you no matter if you're rich or poor if you have a home or if you don't so thank you here forward together and that is a form of racism because the policy that allows this multinational company to do what they're doing to their land was done right here in the Senate I was right here in the Capitol we want to we want we're fighting you may ask what do we want we want a change in language we're fighting for folk to talk about these issues as moral issues to lift up these five areas together systemic racism systemic poverty ecological devastation war economy militarism and the false moral narrative of so-called Christian nationalism we want to see legislation that we can fight for and we want to lift the poor no more hearings that do it when you have issues that do not have poor people talking in those hearings impacted people not another season of debates when you people are running for office and the only people asking the question are Talking Heads from TV we need impacted people asking the question so that when politicians look at them they're having to talk to the face of the reality of what's being asked Nick is from Appalachia testin my name is Nick Smith I'm from southwestern Virginia in the coal fields at Central Appalachia I'm the son of a Coal Miner's Daughter that's two generations have not having access to the good union jobs I guess is the way to put it the history of my region at least you know for the past hundred fifty years has been shaped by the coal companies these out-of-state companies who have bought up the land and who have over specialized the economy so the economic diversity has lost we they've created dependency and as the coal jobs have disappeared nothing's really come in its place and it's created chronic poverty poverty generational thing you know you're if you grow up poor your upward mobility to become not poor is stunted and I don't even live in the coal fields anymore and I still feel that the thing is even as the coal jobs leave the impact of the coal companies does not I grew up around mountaintop removal sites natural gas hydro fracturing the water that ran into our house that we bathed in we couldn't drink we couldn't drink the water we bathed in it seems like every year so a relative of mine is dying from cancer because this ecological devastation and you know I can't get off work to go to go to the funerals you know that happened just a couple weeks ago and it's gonna keep happening it's gonna keep happening and you know the options were left with if we want to get out of poverty is either go into debt go in the military which many people are not fit to do physically they're disqualified that's you know 75% of military age US adults can't enlist and you know we're left with really nothing there and when we try to fight when us poor low-wage workers such as myself try to organize together we our abilities taken from us - cause of anti-union legislation such as right-to-work you know I've worked union jobs I've worked non-union jobs and I see the difference the instability in scheduling the arbitrary punitive things that happen to workers who just upset their boss one day really haven't done anything I mean in the state of Virginia you could be let go for no reason at all and you know I'm I'm here because my papaw he was a union coal miner he was there the pits and coal strike in 1989 when the company decided to cut the health care benefits for retired miners you know my parents were in high school during the pits and coal strike 89 and they were part of the UMW student auxiliary and had walked out transported that sort of sense of community around the Union and labor doesn't exists in Appalachia anymore it's just about gone that's all share with them real quickly what you told us last week about the voting piece and how you because you taught me how people in Appalachia understand the connection between systemic racism photo suppression and your experience well one thing I gotta say on the matter of voter suppression is it impacts rural communities as well as urban communities but the thing is what prevents us really on a community-wide level and as on a national level from finding these poverty issues many the poor people are divided by race we're intentionally segregated and voter suppression laws are pushed and what we found is that we're even powerless to come together to address the issues even and it hurts poor whites as well as poor black and brown folks it's an across-the-board thing as long as we're divided they can conquer you know and we've been having this conversation that this is the racism we want to be talked about the words we want about policy systemic racism that has to be challenged as we conclude dominique is here she's a fast food worker and my dear sister Kenya Kenya they have a quick comment and then the others are here you can ask them questions about no brother Sturgill no sister margie my sister they're here to sit with them I want them to be able to answer any question but Dominique you had a quick word you want hello my name is Kenny al qussair and I'm undocumented and in 2009 when I started working with immigrant youth groups we were all shouting out of the lungs we're out of the shadows were undocumented and unafraid unfortunately today most immigrants are afraid but we're not just afraid of getting deported we're now afraid of having our children ripped from our arms while we're crossing borders and the fear it's not just as an immigrant with deportations the fierce displacement I come from Los Angeles where herb rents are going up every time we used to rent a one-bedroom apartment with $800 now it's up to $2,000 minimum wages aren't going up public housing it's getting attacked on a daily basis whether it's to privatization or now what they're trying to do which is a 20% rent increase all of these policies that are coming not just from this capital from but from our state capitals are affecting our communities and what we're seeing is and at least speaking for myself and for the community that I work with a piece of paper it's not gonna solve the issues that happen in my community on an everyday basis that piece of paper it's not gonna take away the contamination that we're getting from companies like excite that are polluting our community's water with arsenic and lead a piece of paper it's not gonna change the conditions in my home country and other home countries where there's a war economy going with policies of free trade agreements that are affecting those communities and pushing them to come here those things are happening on an everyday basis this country moisturizes our communities as well with guns and tanks that are going through our street and are killing US citizens not just undocumented folks but also US citizens we are seeing this on an everyday basis and this is the reason why our undocumented community is here saying that we're joining the Poor People's Campaign because this is not about a paper this is not about citizenship this is about human rights basic human rights we all have the right to live and we are fighting because this is my child right here he mana and I want her to grow up in a society where she's able to meet her grandfather who's in Mexico I want her to grow in a society where she's able to get access to higher education without getting herself in debt I want her to be able to breathe good quality air we get the notices from Google don't go out tonight or don't go out today or limit your exercise today because your air quality is bad in Los Angeles I want her to have clean water something that in a lot of the communities we don't have Central Valley in California people can't drink water and those are the folks that are working to feed America I want to be able to say that this campaign and you along side with us were able to change the direction that this nation is going towards and I want to be able to look at my daughter in the face and say we did this because of you and we continue to change because our children need this change thank you so you hear incentive the Warrens are coming in all others these are the voices from this campaign this launch we understand it's going to be workers we're committed to multi-year but we aren't going back not one step back and folk here are seriously committed to mass non-violent moral civil disobedience massive motor voter mobilization building power among the poor we've got other documents coming out I hope that you ain't ass brother Sturgill sister Margie sister Kent Kenya it's nuts Kenya excuse me I keep saying wrong all right Arianna if they would have a word I don't want to and Kali who's here whose daughter literally died because Alabama refused to expand Medicaid and actually hurt more white people than they did black and she's out here now saying my daughter is not gonna die in vain and she's bringing all different kinds of people into this movement so I hope you all if you have time would ask them they may want to say a minute or two I love the coalmine and Margie and them just to say something but I just wanted to recognize them because I knew we had a time frame but I'll let you if you want to ask them questions to do so well thank you very much thank you for ever and Barbara and thank you very much for bringing the Poor People's Campaign here to Washington we need to hear from you and I'm grateful that you're here and thank you all for telling your stories for giving voice to millions of people that you represent you offer a vivid testimony of pain and of determination and deeply moving statements about the impact of poverty I am also grateful to my colleagues who have come here today to listen to your testimony it is important that they're here congressman Cummings and I ordinarily at this point we'd start the questioning but in the interest of time we're gonna yield and let our colleagues have a chance to go first I'm just gonna ask everybody just hold it to five minutes so that we'll be able to hear from everyone who's here and if we can we'll start with congresswoman Lee thank you very much let me Thank You senator Warren and Congressman Cummings for putting this very important form together on poverty and poor people's campaign and to all of my House and Senate colleagues I want to just thank you all for your consistent work each and every day to really make the American dream real for everyone and I mean everyone and to Reverend barber thank you for leading the charge for a national call for moral immoral revival because your moral clarity is so important in this day and time and our panelists I just have to say to you thank you for your bravery your courage being here to share your real-life experience it's so important because your lives and listen to your stories they're the clarion calls for justice and for morality I chair the Democratic whip Task Force on poverty inequality and opportunity we have an over a hundred members in the house on this task force we establish this task force because a few of us said look we have got to start talking about not only the middle class but people who live below the poverty line the poor so we have like I say over a hundred members on this task force and Steny Hoyer our whip we're conducting now throughout the nation poverty listening tours we went to Dallas last week we'll be going to Milwaukee pretty soon and it's so important because we have to underscore how important it is to eradicate poverty which includes robust funding for job training raising the minimum wage all of the issues and policies that you laid out Reverend barber but also we shouldn't have one person living below the poverty line in the wealthiest country in the world and now we're looking at possible SNAP benefits in this hateful farm bill passing an executive order on poverty which is the goal is to push more people over the edge and into poverty and so we know that our anti-poverty programs have worked since President Johnson's war on poverty in 1964 we began to reduce poverty but we abandon our commitment to the poor and and so I just want to say to you that we've got to do more and your voices your work will help us begin to close this gap as it relates to economic and racial inequality because these are moral issues which are issues that unify us and I'm reminded of again dr. King speech April 1967 he said the three evils are racism poverty and militarism well we still have to conquer those three evils and I think with this fusion movement I'm optimistic that we can do that reven Barbour you laid out the goals and agenda I don't know why we just can't accept that as what we need to do in terms of our work here and in Congress from our various committees from our caucuses and I sure am gonna take back to the house this agenda and have more discussions through our task force so I just wanted to say thank you thank you for your voices thank you for your courage and just ask one question about raising the minimum wage because we know now yes we need to raise the minimum wage but we need a living wage because now with the cost of housing the cost of healthcare the cost of transportation what do you think that would do for your families if in fact we talked about not only raising the minimum wage but moving to a living wage so people can truly truly live the American dream which everyone deserves in the wealthiest country in the world other Sturgess you want to take that question I'll give you this mic the coal miner have something to say what you asked right now there's a move on especially in Kentucky with this new right-to-work law that's gotten rid of ever United Mine Workers Union in the state of Kentucky there's none anymore in the state of Kentucky I've been a union member since 1968 I have black lung I work 41 years in the coal mines but to get back to your question when you introduced laws like that you're not looking at and minimum wage you're looking at going backwards we have an administration right now in place that is doing everything they can to set us back as much as they can the world poverty supposedly started 50 some years ago we got an old saying in the coal mines it's rough at the face well where I live in southeastern Kentucky it's rough at the face because the poverty in that area hasn't gotten better it's worse today than it's ever been and it's not looking any any promising at all until something is done and I am just I feel so blessed to be here today to bring my message what I can say to represent the people from where I live especially the coal miners and they're suffering with this black lung and I feel so blessed that I just got to come up here and try to get to talk to you guys the last time I was here I was in my fifth district congressman's office mr. Hal Rogers and I wanted to talk to him about coal mine safety I wanted to talk to him about the health of the coal miners black lung he didn't want to talk so he had me arrested right there in his office there was a whole group of us and all we were doing was singing Amazing Grace and they just didn't like that evidently but anyhow he had us carted off to jail I won't go into all that I spent all day in jail though and had to come back to three different rivers but my message is if we don't straighten some of these issues out especially the the pensions for the United Mine Workers that's that's on the table right now my senator Mitch McConnell oh we've got plenty of time we'll take care of that you know things seem to disappear in plenty of time they forget we need to take care of that we need you need to delight afar in them and get them on the ball and get get to taking care of some of these things this deal to take care of the Black Lung benefits it's already been appropriated it's in the abandoned mines land deal but you know why can't we get on the ball and make sure that I've got medicine to take and I've got neighbors that live right around me I'm blessed I'm in better shape than some of my neighbors and and I know they're hurting and then I got my neighbors that can't get their black lung and they've worked their lives in the coal mines it took me seven years going to see doctor after doctor after doctor to get a settlement on my black lung and I found it got it and I think the good Lord for that but I'll hush I mean you know I just wanted to get to get my message thanks ray thank you very much this is about restructuring society my colleagues that's what it this is about so thank you 15 and a union and even more than that and we're talking we're gonna put a policy out about guaranteed link in kumbhak basic because dr. King say if you don't deal with income and health you really haven't dealt with the issues of poverty okay let me let me so I'm gonna go to our next one so that we're gonna try to stick to five minutes here for each one and if I can I'm gonna ask congressman Khanna if you'd speak please thank you senator Warren representative Cummings for your moral leadership in having this hearing I have to tell you finishing my first term in Congress and I've now been to a lot of committee hearings but I've never been as moved not as a politician just as a human being hearing your testimony and your statements I was more struck by your statement that you won't let this campaign fail and would go to jail before you let it fail and I was able to look up something Reverend barber you said that really struck me you said I would rather die trying to change the moral direction of this nation than to live and die and it be written on my epitaph lived in the time when moral dissent was necessary and he and they said nothing I would rather die than to say nothing and that's in the extraordinary tradition of people like Nelson Mandela and dr. King it reminded me of my own grandfather whose life was far greater than mine would ever be he spent four years in jail during Gandhi's independence movement and I remember him telling a story of how Indians during the colonial rule were marching and they would get beaten by British soldiers and a new row of activists would don't knowing they were getting going to get beaten that type of moral courage is the only thing I believe that has ever changed our nation or world for the better and it's really humbling to see that kind of courage with all of you I guess my question is on the militarism aspect that congresswoman Lee and so many have spoken out against we have spent trillions of dollars on these wars and what would all of you say to that military spending and that money they could have gone for so many of these causes to help our nation and ordinary people we've had some Christian others at on our policy we say we cannot continue 15 cents for education and healthcare infrastructure and 53 cents of air discretionary dollar going into a war and militarism and if Trump would have his way up to sixty some percent dr. King said any nation that spends like that in military is only wishing for death is it's like a death wish it is so off and it's not that we have to choose either/or I think that we we've had some scientists that are working with us and they said that they came in they can't even conclude whether it's we can blow the world off five times a 50 time where once is pretty much enough and and the point we're saying is we get this false narrative it's between protection and and not protect well what would protect our people more than to have a real war on poverty to have the sick lifted and under and the poor lifted as well there's a real war one that I want Callie Callie to tell you about a real war the battles that says she's fighting and my daughter name is Venus close up look so that was Venus she found a little lump in her breast and so she wasn't employed and didn't have any health insurance so she started using the emergency room that's what we do and so they just kept turning her in and out of the emergency room telling her you know maybe something bathed in where I've just given her giving her medicine so she went once and when the doctor walked in the room he's like what's that smell and she's like it's my breast it's Rodney so then they sent her to the Cancer Center and she was in the fourth stage of breast cancer she's had a radical mastectomy chemo and radiation she was in remission for about four months and then when she went back the council had spread through her her body she had spots on her lungs or liver on bones every piece of equipment that Venus had to have she had to wait to be approved for it even though she's yeah for state councillor hey have her chest cut off so she she she she she was waiting at the latter part of her life Vitas was waiting to be to qualify for her breathing equipment and for yes so she came to the house when what's the heritage she's hit to the emergency room and Venus lapsed into a coma and so she got the Cascadia to one hand and one had rough shirt and she was brain-dead and so uh we they put on the machine and everything you know we left that that night and went and prayed and came back and said she got some fries on our own we let her go and so we unplug the machines she so you know I I tell me that story never stop crying because I have to take I see this woman sitting there crying I did if I were her because no I I don't waste my pain I fight for other people's children because Venus is already go trying so I do not waste my page and I will not be quiet and I would tell her story wherever I go because this is not right see this is supposed to be alive Venus had a little lump in her breast little long Venus is supposed to be here what does and Congressman the reason I would take that question I give it to her because we don't separate the overfunding of war and the funding of healthcare see that's that's what we're saying then we're not gonna be separated we're saying there five interlocking and justice you can deal with poverty in health care if you don't deal with the war economy and militarism so it's directly connected thank you thank you very much congressman Khanna senator Booker thank you very much I want to thank everybody for being here one of my biggest frustrations in my adult life has been how we in this nation send seem to render so many people invisible who are them really represent the majority of our country who are struggling I made a decision back in my 20s I would move into a community a low-income community I live in a neighborhood with a median income is $14,000 per household where I've lived for the last about 20 25 years and and I get angry on a regular basis that that my community experiences things that most people don't realize goes on on a daily basis and that there's a sense of a lack of urgency about a lot of the issues that we're struggling with and dealing with I spent about a decade of that time living in some high-rise public housing projects and saw senior citizens have to struggle for years and years and years roach and mice infestations elevators that don't work that strand people in lobbies I've seen the challenges people who work full-time jobs who still have to rely on food stamps who still have to rely on public housing who still have to rely on public assistance but yet work hard as hard if not harder than my parents did one of the biggest challenges that I see is that people don't understand the intersectionality of all of these issues and all these folks and they benefit from separating folks in urban communities like mine from folks in rural communities from folks that are living poor across our country and I think that weakens the movement but another issue that weakens the movement for me is that we are failing to see how economic issues are tied to environmental issues or are tied to issues of racism which are tied to issues of the challenges we're having with it with a criminal justice system run out of control and I know from living in a community where we have shrines up to children on our street corners what one shooting can do a friend of mine Natasha who works at IHOP makes two thousand thirteen cents an hour plus plus tips she couldn't leave her her job to go across the street where her son had asthma my community hasn't rates are three four times higher than communities of privilege on top of that one shooting in front of that IHOP meant the IHOP had to cut a shift which meant she couldn't catch extra shifts to try to help her family meet ends meet and I see that these issues are so interwoven there's a study that came out I think Vanderbilt University said we'd have about 20% less poverty in America if we had incarceration rates the same as our industrial peers I've challenged cameras to come into my community and just ask every african-american male we stopped had they ever been arrested and and often they're arrested and for doing things that two of the last three presidents admitted to doing and so the questions I want to say is to two questions is first and foremost you know as a guy who lives in a community where my kids drink out of bottled waters because there's contamination in the water where the soil is contaminated where you can't plant tomato Gardens in your backyard where the air is contaminated where we have Superfund sites where which in our neighborhoods which caused birthday rates of birth defects and autism and I've been down to to Pamela to your County and seeing the raw sewage running through I've been to Duplin County to see what the Capo's are doing there I've been to cancer alley in Louisiana and see what's happening there there's often a lack when we talk about poverty a lack of talking about environmental urgencies and the high rates of cancers the high rates of respiratory diseases the high rates of medical conditions that often disproportionately affect communities like mine where you have you know infants being lost at birth we have children dying of cancer rates as you see with african-americans ten times higher death rate from cancer and I'm wondering as a guy who's pushed forward environmental justice bill at a time that everybody wants to talk about climate change what could we be doing collectively to bring to bring these issues out of the shadows to help people understand they just you cannot solve a lot of these other problems unless we're willing to have a candid conversation about the millions tens of millions of Americans that live like my community in environmental disaster zones often made from corporations who have left these legacies of toxic areas my name is Arianna hawk and I'm from Flint Michigan as many of you know the water crisis in Flint it remained national news that was four years ago I stand before you here today because four years later our kids are still suffering we don't have clean water our government has turned their back on us and we're left to just depend on each other I can't afford to pay the highest water bills in the nation and on top of that provide clean water for my kids I didn't poison them my government poisoned them the people in my community we are all suffering we are all poor not because of decisions that we chose to make but decisions of our government our government let us down you know so this is like it's a difficult thing to talk about because you can't imagine being in my footsteps I have children who have never had the experience of drinking from the tap using regular water they all they know is bottled water all they know is not to go near the faucet not to use that faucet so I just it's just difficult so well and the only thing I'll say leave is that I actually can't understand where you're coming from my community has higher blood lead levels then in my children's blood in Flint Michigan and and it is there are there's cording to Reuters as a thousand jurisdictions in America with children with blood lead levels where Flint Michigan is are higher and and we've got a fine we have a common pain in this country but we've got to find a sense of common purpose so why do we let that go on why do we keep allowing these cities to keep popping up after Flint made national news we study allow these cities that are poor to still be left in the dirt and in the ground like we're literally begging for clean water in your city my city other cities are we're begging for a necessity that we deserve to have we shouldn't be begging for clean water we shouldn't be asking our government to provide us with clean water when you poisoned our water agree amen and if we speak with one common voice that it gives us much more power and the fact that Nestle now doesn't have to pay out anything to get war to in dollars a year and that's why our policy is we demanding clean water with demanding infrastructure redone and people who have to be prosecuted if this was done in high wealth communities people would already be in jail thank you senator Booker senator Sanders oh thank you very much Warren and representative Cummings um I think representative Khanna made a point a little while ago that this was perhaps the best hearing that he has been to since he's been in Congress this morning I was at a hearing with a representative the Secretary of HHS who was there to represent the drug companies and continue a process by which we paid the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs and this is an important hearing because what you are all talking about and you have to understand this it's not just ten or twelve people here you're talking for over a hundred million Americans and all across this country what people are asking themselves there's not much that I can add to what Cory or Elizabeth or anyone else's Saudia what people are asking is we are not a poor country for the richest country in the history of the world today there's a guy who I'm the own owns Amazon his wealth increased today by two hundred and seventy five million dollars and it increased yesterday by 275 million dollars and a few months ago the Congress voted to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest 1% and Congress is right now voting on expanding military spending by 716 billion dollars in one year we have three people on more wealth than the bottom half of the American people so you are speaking for people all across this country you are speaking for people who are dying every who was seeing their family members die because why because we are the only major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people all right do you think many people in America understand that this wealthy nation the only one your daughter would not be dead today if she lived in any of the major country on earth now you ask where was the woman from Michigan from Flint all right I went to Flint and I will never forget the meaning that I attended was a quiet meeting no media there and I heard a mother talking about the brain damage that our baby her little girl suffered all right I don't know how families deal with that and we're talking about the water crisis all across this country in the richest country in the history of the world and you asked how does it happen all right let me say two things I will tell you exactly how it happens because most of the members here in Congress are not here to represent you all or the vast majority of the American people they here to represent billionaires who fund their campaigns that's how it happens all right what is important that I think the point that Reverend barber is making and all of you on making when we talk about a moral revival is what you are doing which is so important so difficult so painful is you are speaking from your heart and with enormous courage talking about your lives now you know today I understand that I was told could be a hundred thousand people in DC to talk about a hockey team that won the Stan think up that's great okay I'm not much of a hockey fan but I suppose that's okay but we need hundreds of thousands of people all over this country not to worry about some billionaire team that won a game but to start talking about the reality of their lives how you can't make it on $9 an hour and why we need to raise the minimum wage how we can't have our kids drinking polluted water so I just want to ask a question to all of you is you have shown incredible courage not only being here today by by willing you know and I think Cory and Elizabeth made this point all over this country people in your condition are invisible they're pushed under the rug they are ignored Reverend Bob talked about I was you know in these things poverty is not an issue all right well poverty must be an issue how do we get people here's my question to any and everybody how do we get people to have the courage that you have had to come out of the shadows and say you know what I'm working 50 hours a week I'm working in the coal mines I'm a retiree I don't have a pension and I can't make it and it's wrong then in this country I should be able to live in dignity all of our people should be able to live in dignity how do we get people to have the courage because when millions of people begin to stand up and talk about their lives you know what change is gonna come they're gonna vote they're gonna throw out people who represent the billionaire's so that's my question how do we get people to have the courage that all of you guys have shown today my name is Margie Storch I'm from Charlotte North Carolina I'd like the people in the room who have performed civil disobedience and gone to jail as a result to raise their hand you know we are standing up and we are telling our stories and we're going to continue to do that it's very important that we talked to our neighbors our families about these issues we all must vote and I want to share the story of my brother-in-law who is no longer with us I brought a pitch of him right here with two of his nephews he worked as a cook in a nursing home he loved to cook he loved to serve our elderly he served mostly Medicaid patients but he himself although he was working did not qualify for Medicaid he did not qualify for the Affordable Care Act subsidies because he didn't make enough money and he was too young to qualify for Medicare so he was in a health care gap and I'm sorry to say that once again the North Carolina legislature failed to expand Medicaid and I think we know in this country with all of our riches we can afford to provide health care for everyone when we set up separate health programs like chip and Medicaid and Medicare and everything else we divide people and we pit them against each other everyone needs health care we can afford health care we can spend less on health care and cover everyone so we're here today asking for improved and expanded Medicare for all and every other developed country in the world does this you know this is a matter of national security we're spending way too much on weapons and not enough on health care for our families and my brother-in-law Jeff Moore didn't deserve to die he was serving people that had health care and he had none for himself so we will continue to tell those stories and thank you very much for this opportunity the people that are suffering from wrongheaded policies are the ones that have the solution so I encourage you to ask other members of Congress when they have hearings to listen from the people affected by the problems thank you thank you so much how are we gonna build it all of us gonna be building it twenty-third we're having a massive call to action here in DC and we're not stopping this is just the beginning if we can spend just a few minutes more Senator Durbin [Music] thank you so much for being here and I want to thank Senator Warren congressman Cummings all my colleagues for calling us together I've served in the house and in the Senate for over 30 years there was a time when we had regular hearings people like yourself coming to talk to us it's now very rare very rare that we actually hear from people across the United States about the struggles and challenges they have so the fact that you would come today and we would set up this forum is refreshing to me it gives me some hope I hope it gives you some as well that there are people who are listening up here who are determined to make a difference 19 months ago there was an election remember I think we all do remember and it changed a lot in America a lot of people open their eyes and said I didn't think anything like that could ever happen and it did and it changed this government pretty dramatically from the administration of Barack Obama to this administration and we have seen changes in terms of this president's priorities and sadly they don't include them almost anything that we talked about today decent wages health care for everyone decent housing just the opposite is true but what's happening across America I want to tell you is gives me some encouragement here's what it is 40% of the American people today say - your observation 40 percent say that in the last year and a half they have participated in a protest or a march that they've never done before in their lives so many people are opening their eyes and realizing that the solution to the problem we face is personal it's a matter of what we do about it and what can be done about it that's why I want to make one point and then one issue the point is this a few years ago when I chaired a committee on the Judiciary Committee and went out to look at voter suppression I went to Ohio and I went to Florida both of those states have just made a tougher to vote ID cards limited opportunity in advance to vote and in each of those states I convened election officials from both political parties put him under oath and said what was the incidence of voter fraud that led you to make it more difficult to vote and the answer was none there was no incidents of voter fraud what I heard in both of those states convinced me that what's at play here is not voter fraud it is suppressing the vote of people just like those who've gathered here today and I will tell you we have one little road map that gives us hope that road map is called the Constitution and the Constitution not only gives us rights but it gives us opportunities and responsibilities to vote more than anything else we need a massive registration effort across America of people who are not going to take no for an answer and are determined to show up to vote in 19 weeks from you have that chance the last point I want to make to Kenya and your beautiful little girl what is her name Eve Anna boy is she pretty 17 years ago I introduced the DREAM Act the DREAM Act was put into consideration in the Senate to say that young undocumented people who came here as babies and infants and toddlers and little children would have a chance to become legal in America to become citizens in America I've been struggling in this battle for a long time and I'm sorry we're not any further than we are today but I never dreamed never ever dreamed that I would be up against a president like this I never dreamed that I would have an experience like I did just yesterday in my office in Chicago Illinois where a woman came to see me she's 40 years old from the Democratic Republic of Congo they threatened to kill her child her baby and she grabbed her baby and ran somehow she got to Brazil in South America and somehow she got to Mexico on a bus and somehow she presented herself at the border of the United States asking for asylum and protection for her and her daughter and you know what they did they took her daughter away took her daughter right out of her arms the reason I know it as they moved her daughter out of California to Chicago 2,000 miles away that's what I heard about this case and then she went before a hearing she was not given a lawyer her English she was using a translator her English is very limited and she gave up all of her rights to stay just to get her baby back just to get her baby back that is what's happened in America that is who we are that is the official policy of this administration to snatch these babies out of the arms of mothers that is what they stand for and so what I say to you is I'm glad Reverend barber that we're together here black white and brown young and old women and men people who are documented people who are not documented and their children because that's the only way we can survive and the only way we can prevail so please help me to help you by registering to vote give me some more senators and congressmen who would be here at this hearing and really care that's how we make the change thank you congressman Cummings thank you all for being here today and I want to thank you again and Senator Warren and all my colleagues for being a part of this you know as I listen Reverend Barbara I could not help I'm always telling my office that I want to be effective and efficient I don't know how much long girl I'm gonna be on this earth I don't know how long I'm gonna be in his job but while I'm here I want to be effective and efficient and I'm gonna ask you a question in a second is it'll be very brief Allah know we're running out of time but how what is the best way for us working with you to effectively and efficiently get to where we gotta go just let me make these loops to savings and I'm finished to you and to many of the people who have spoken here I have a concept that I truly believe in and that is so often out of our pain comes our passion to do our purpose out of our pain out of the pain comes our passion to do our purpose and as I listen to you talk I could not help I mean the pain just etched in your soul that will not leave you and then to hear the mother who wants to make sure that our daughter is does not snatch from her arms I mean we've got on and all the stories and you when you talked about your daughter in the mold-infested trailer with CPAP why you see Pat and I can tell you I mean that's a tough situation when you cannot breathe when you cannot breathe and then and then to be burdened with all kinds of the bills that you you have that's rough and so we are we are truly committed to working with you the other comment that I wanted to make is Reverend barber I am so glad that this this movement is a diverse movement you know a lot of times when I talk to my constituents I say to them I wish I wasn't an elected official because all of a sudden when I talk about things that are meaningful they say oh he's just saying that because he's a Democrat or he's a progressive or whatever it's about what is human and what is right and so I like rather than like you take the labels off and go for the results to allow people to live the best lives that they can and so I'll go back to my question since I want to wrap it up but but please tell us how you think we can be most effective and efficient in accomplishing the things that you all have set out I'm probably gonna say something's gonna be a little strange and part of it is going to be that just having Trump itis isn't enough we got to understand that if Barack Obama had four more terms we'd have still had 37 million people without health care and 140 million people if Hillary Clinton had been elected it does not mean that his ignorance has an exacerbate I'm not what I'm talking about but we've got to look at the fact in her own that we've had a 50-year push toward this we have to own that Democrats and Republicans committed the sin of taking poverty out of the political discourse and we got to the place where you default we're talking about middle class or military and not the poor and we allowed folks to take the moral language and put it only on personal moral issues and we did not continue to talk about civil rights and whether as moral issues and I'm saying is even as a progress I'm an independent but even it you know we've struggled that so we've got number one to be effective and efficient we got to change the language 140 million people that we're talking about voting that are poor and low wealth if they never hear their condition they not move to vote they have to hear their names they have to hear poverty they have to hear it they can't just hear middle-class is gonna fix it voting if we've got to have legislative priorities not just what we can get but stuff we can fight for bills that we can fight for we know that the compromise has to come here but there has to be a movement that demands some things are not about compromise you know some people in this country black folks Native America we know a lot about compromise we always came out on the wrong end of the stick and then thirdly we've got to have a situation where as I said we lift the poor we have stages where the poor can talk debates where when we set the rules of debate in a presidential election make sure that they're at least two or three of them where poor folk ask the questions not just talking heads we've got we happened you cannot change the narrate narrative unless you changed an area or the narrator excuse me and on the question of right now for instance I want to challenge us on one area you know everybody's taught my Russia Russia Russia we don't know exactly what Russia my baby y'all do cuz y'all been it's a meeting but we don't know it just happened what Russia did or did but we know what voter suppression has done and yet that's the most under talked about story even among our friends even when our friends we've had we've got we haven't heard talking about we gonna fight for full restoration of the Voting Rights Act we're gonna fight for I mean for not as a major issue and we get tricked into talking about racism when Roseanne Barr says something and we don't deal with the systemic racism and how it connects to this timid power and then I my friend from Harlan County when I went there they said nobody comes to see us how are we gonna be effective and efficient we got to go to Harlan County they told me not to go there why they said you go to Harlan County it's 89 percent voted for a Republican you can't organize in Harlan County did we come to Harlan County we had over 450 people in Harlan County the Hatfields and the McCoys sat in the same room now you know that's a miracle and as we said we've got to be efficient by people say you can't bring Jews and Christians and move them together what we're doing it you can't bring gay folk and straight black we're doing it you can't have a mama from West Virginia connect with a black woman from Alabama yes you can in fact that's the only way and then last that we've got to talk about these issues as interlocking and justices and that requires an intersectional response and it has to be as I said earlier a moral issue that's why we have 120 partners now we can't wait lastly until election year to organize we've got to have a movement not a moment but a movement we can't have an election year everybody come out then after the election we go home we're talking about building a movement because one of the things the senator to your point and and and we've got to fight in two places they've said like the South now I don't know how many people but they're 171 electoral votes from Maryland to Texas and right now today if you register 30% of the unregistered black votes and they connect with progressive whites and Native Americans and Latinos you could change the south or fundamentally change the country but that's not going to happen if people just keep trying to find a path to victory rather than fighting in the whole country and we believe that's what a movement has to do our job I think it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt that toe a philip Randolph go make me do it when dr. king came to Lyndon Baines Johnson he said go out and make me do it he creates Selma to Montgomery that's what this movement is going to do is going to push that's why we're not in any party but push the issues push the faces make the connection we're gonna agree going to Roger to people in poor and impact the community we're building power we're going to show people that a brother from Appalachian can hook up with a Apache from Arizona and and and and not just hook up for his issue but the brother from Appalachia can say I haven't won until my sister wins on the Apache that stronghold and she can say my Apache people haven't won until my brother in Appalachia that's the kind of movement that we're committed to bill and that's why people say before this movement fails we'll all go down in jail we this is I want Ford understand this is just the launch and what you've helped us do today and 68 they didn't get to talk in here so we're one of the things we can help to be efficient is help us this video put it everywhere let America see it and anytime you have an issue that you want to put a face on it we got two faces and we got the facts you got the force of political power let's put all that together and make some things happen [Applause] [Music] so thank you what what can I say you know I you make notes when you get a chance to listen to people and I think the one that said still my heart from today is do not waste my pain do not waste my pain do not waste my pain how many times each of you said do not separate us I haven't won until my sister wins that this is a moral issue that's an economic issue it's a political issue it's a policy issue but it is a moral issue first last and in every space in between I I think about the change in America the change in America is not poverty we've had poverty for far too long in this country the change in America is not the environmental catastrophes that our giant corporations are wrecking on this nation that's been happening for a long time now the change is not even that this government works better and better and better for those who are rich and leaves everyone else further and further behind you know the change right now the change at this moment is the number of people who are coming off the sidelines it's the number of people who are saying my voice will be heard the number of people who see citizenship differently you know I talk to people all the time who say I vote I used to you know I keep up the way that occasional I'm watch the news a little bit that made me a good good American citizen who now say that's not enough that's not nearly enough and the number of people in the last year and a half we've started to ask the question what does it mean to live a moral life what is the requirement put on me as a human being what is it I owe to my fellow human beings you know that's the change in America as I see it people are coming off the sidelines and what you tell us today is about what we see it's about what we hear most of all it's about what we feel and what has to come out of this is don't waste my pain we're gonna make change from this don't waste my [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Senator Elizabeth Warren

Views: 15,550

Keywords: elizabeth warren, senator, senate, poor people, campaign, reverend, barber, bernie sanders, cory booker, dick durbin, kennedy

Id: Y5wvRHBX16w

Length: 126min 0sec (7560 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 01 2018