Transcription
First, it goes without saying that we must hold Donald Trump, his administration, and the entire Republican Party, who control the White House, control the Senate, control the US House, we are going to hold them accountable for their disastrous policies. >> [cheering] >>
These policies have devastated working families in Texas, in Vermont, and all over the country. We are going to hold them to account. >> [cheering] >>
This administration, among many other actions, decided, if you can believe it, that it was appropriate to provide a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 1%. And then to use that money to throw 15 million Americans off the health care they desperately need. And let me tell you something that has not been talked about much. When you throw 15 million people off health care, when people can't get to a doctor when they should, people by the thousands are going to die from that horrendous decision. And that is why, together, we're going to roll it back. >> [cheering] [applause] >>
But it's not just health care. Trump administration made the largest cuts to education in American history. As a result, 7 million Americans will be forced to pay $4,000 a year more on average on their student loan payments. >> [cheering] >> And one in four student loan borrowers are expected to go into default by the end of the summer. We want our kids to have a great education. >> [cheering] >> Not to be able not to be forced to default on their loans.
At a time when millions of kids are going hungry in America, Trump made the largest cuts to nutrition assistance in American history, literally, taking food out of the mouths of hungry kids. >> [cheering] >> You don't take food out of the mouths of hungry children and give tax breaks to billionaires. That's not what this country is about. >> [applause] >>
Trump ripped up the union contracts of a million federal workers. He denied overtime pay to over 4 million workers. Trump abolished humanitarian aid that will lead to the deaths of millions of the poorest children on this planet by 2030. And here in the US, Trump's domestic army, ICE, >> [cheering] [applause] >> has acted brutally and illegally, tearing parents away from their kids and deporting millions of people who lived and worked in this country for decades. He has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of people, and we're going to address that issue as well. >> [cheering] >>
And then after all of the cuts, all of the cuts in health care, in education, in nutrition, he wants to spend another 500 billion dollars on a bloated military budget. Those are not the priorities of the American people. Trump Trump, during his campaign, promised no more endless wars. Remember that? And then started an unprovoked war against Iran in which thousands of innocent men, women, and children have been killed. Gas prices are now the highest in years and taxpayers are going to have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on this disastrous war. >> [cheering] >>
But it's not just Trump's terrible policies. The American people are tired of a president who is a pathological liar, >> [cheering] >> who is an authoritarian personality who wants more and more power in his own hands, as he ignores the Constitution and the rule of law, who is building who is a narcissist, who if he had his way would probably name every building in America after himself. >> [cheering] >> Who is a kleptocrat, corrupt kleptocrat, who who a 400 million dollar luxury plane from Cutter and then makes deals with countries in the Middle East and around the world which benefit his family's wealth. >> [cheering] >>
My friends, it is important that we hold Trump and his administration accountable for the disastrous policies they have imposed on the American people. But but I have to tell you that is not enough. >> [cheering and applause] >> It is not enough to be anti-Trump and to simply campaign against Trump. The American people are hurting. They want to know what in fact is going on in this crazy and unprecedented moment in American history. They want to know what the Democratic Party stands for and what the Democratic Party is going to do to improve their lives when it gains power. >> [cheering] [applause] >>
And by the way what I have seen is I have traveled this country and we have held dozens and dozens of rallies from one end of America to the other. And what I have seen in recent primary elections is that the American people do not want establishment status quo policies that tinker around the edges. [cheering] The American people understand that this country is facing major crises and they want bold proposals to improve their lives and the lives of their children. >> [cheering] [applause] >>
So, let me do something this evening that is radical. You ready for a radical idea? >> [cheering] >> All right. Are you really ready? >> [cheering] >> I'm going to tell you the truth. >> [cheering] >> I'm going to tell you some stuff that you don't see in the corporate media and you hear very rarely in the halls of Congress. And that is that while the vast majority of the American people are struggling to put food on the table, pay for health care, pay for housing, pay for child care and education, the wealthiest people in our country have never ever had it so good. In fact, never before in American history have so few people held so much wealth and so much power. >> [cheering] >>
A quick history lesson. You all remember we studied in high school the Gilded Age. You remember that? It was the age of Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, Jay Gould, and Carnegie. And these guys were very, very, very rich. It turns out that today when you look at the people at the top of the economic ladder, the very few, the concentration of wealth in America today is four times greater than it was during the gold gilded age. Four times greater. And that disparity is getting worse. After receiving the largest tax break in history from Trump, some 900 billionaires in our country became 2.2 trillion dollars richer. 900 people since Trump is in office, 2.2 trillion dollars richer. >> [cheering] >> In other words, the gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is getting wider and wider. Never before in our history have we had as much income and wealth inequality as we have today. Today, the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. >> [cheering] >> Today, one man, Elon Musk, a trillionaire, >> [cheering] >> Elon Musk owns three times more wealth than the bottom 50% of American households. >> [cheering] >> Do you understand what I just said? One man owns three times more wealth than the bottom half of American society. CEOs of American corporations, big corporations now make 350 times what their average worker makes.
But, it is not just income and wealth inequality. Never before in American history have we had as much concentration of ownership in our economy as we have today. Handful of giant corporations control one sector after another sector and their monopolistic practices drive up prices.
But, it's not just income and wealth inequality and concentration of ownership. Never before in American history have we seen so much billionaire and corporate ownership of our media. >> [cheering and applause] >> In the US today, six large media conglomerates control about 90% of what the American people see, hear, and read. Trump supporters have recently bought up CBS and they will soon own CNN. >> [cheering] >> Musk and his fellow billionaires own many of the major social media platforms.
And as bad as all of that is, let me tell you what is even more dangerous. And that is today the billionaires and their super PACs are undermining our democracy and increasingly control the political process in our country. >> [cheering] >> Here's the truth. You want to run for office, you want to run for local office, you want to run for state office, you want to run for Congress. And you get involved in a campaign you say, "I'm going to stand up for the working class in this country." And you run a good campaign, you know what happens to you? The billionaires and their super PACs will spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat you. That is not democracy. And that is why together not only are we going to end this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, >> [cheering] [applause] >> but we're going to get super PACs out of the political process. >> [cheering] >>
Bottom line, we are now living in a moment in American history where a tiny number of billionaires are exerting unprecedented influence over our society. And let me tell you something, these are not nice guys. They are extremely greedy and ruthless, and will do anything they can to accumulate even more wealth and power. You might think that if you had $10 billion, not might be enough. Not for these guys. They want more and more and more, and they will step on any way anyone in order to achieve their goals.
And while the very richest people in this country become richer, what is going on with the American working class? And I think all of you know the answer. >> [music] >> Mhm.