Fighting Back: “Democrats believe that America should invest in our children”

 
 

The Weekly Democratic Party Address was delivered by Representative Bobby Scott of Virginia.

(Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia delivered the Weekly Democratic Address. In this week’s address, Scott highlights Democrats’ Aim Higher Act, which gives every student the opportunity to earn a quality, debt-free degree or credential that leads to a rewarding career.)

“In 1965, when President Johnson signed the Higher Education Act, he said that it meant – and I quote – ‘that a high school senior anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or any university in any of the 50 States and not be turned away because [their] family is poor.’

“But fifty-three years later, the promise of an affordable education is out of reach for millions of students. And in May of this year, America’s outstanding student loan debt surpassed $1.5 trillion. We can and must do better for America’s students.

“Last month, I was joined by House Democratic leadership in offering a solution. It’s called the Aim Higher Act.

(CSPAN link to Weekly Democratic Address: here)

Transcript: Congressman Bobby Scott Delivers Weekly Democratic Address

“Hi, I’m Congressman Bobby Scott, representative of Virginia’s Third Congressional District, and the Senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Today, I want to talk to you about Democrats’ vision for the future of higher education.

“In 1965, when President Johnson signed the Higher Education Act, he said that it meant – and I quote – ‘that a high school senior anywhere in this great land of ours can apply to any college or any university in any of the 50 States and not be turned away because [their] family is poor.’

“But fifty-three years later, the promise of an affordable education is out of reach for millions of students. And in May of this year, America’s outstanding student loan debt surpassed $1.5 trillion. We can and must do better for America’s students.

“Last month, I was joined by House Democratic leadership in offering a solution. It’s called the Aim Higher Act.

“Under the Aim Higher Act, every student will have the opportunity to earn a quality, debt-free degree or credential that leads to a rewarding career.

“Here’s how it works: First, we provide two years of tuition-free community college to every student through a federal-state partnership. We also address the rising cost of public four-year schools by pushing states to reinvest in their public colleges and universities. This will help reverse the persistent trend of states cutting higher education funding and shifting the costs to students and families.

“Second, we make student financial aid more generous to keep pace with the rising cost of college, and we allow students to use Pell Grants for quality, short-term programs that provide an accelerated path to the workforce.

“And third, for students who do take on debt, we make student loans easier to understand and cheaper to repay. The Aim Higher Act eliminates the confusing web of repayment programs and establishes two, straightforward plans with generous plans that help students get out of debt sooner.

“In response to the nationwide teacher shortage, we also preserve the popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to encourage talented individuals to pursue careers in the classroom.

“The Aim Higher Act isn’t just focused on cutting the cost of higher education, it’s focused on improving the quality of higher education. Our proposal cracks down on predatory institutions that waste student and taxpayer money by peddling expensive, low-quality programs. Our veterans – who have earned their GI benefits through sacrifice and service – are frequently victims of fraudulent schools.

“Accordingly, we eliminate the perverse incentives that lead for-profit institutions to aggressively recruit student veterans with deceptive marketing and false promises.

“Under the Aim Higher Act, all schools will be measured by their students’ success in both completing their college education and entering the workforce.

“And finally, the Aim Higher Act gives students the tools they need to graduate on time. We invest in campus child care for student parents, subsidized housing for homeless and foster youth, faculty training for students with disabilities, and community centers to help student veterans transition to civilian life.

“Our plan for higher education – in which we invest in students, focus on quality, and crackdown on predatory schools – is dramatically different from the proposal advanced by our Republican colleagues.

“Last December, House Republicans supported the PROSPER Act, a bill that actually cuts $15 billion from federal student aid and diverts taxpayer money to low-quality programs. Later that month, President Trump signed a tax bill that primarily benefits corporations and the wealthy. It costs nearly $2 trillion over 10 years.

“Policy is defined by priorities. Instead of spending limited resources on a tax cut for those who don’t need it, Democrats believe that we should invest in our children and in the future of our economy. That’s what the Aim Higher Act does.

“My district is home to exceptional public colleges, public universities, community colleges and apprenticeship programs. And education and training available at these institutions should be available to all students. I hope you will join us in pushing for a higher education system that puts the promise of a quality debt-free degree and rewarding career within the reach of all Americans.

“Again and again, hard-working families have been given a raw deal by the Republicans in Washington – driving an agenda that hurts students, workers, seniors, people with pre-existing conditions, just about everyone outside of big corporations and the wealthiest 1 percent.

“Democrats are fighting to advance an agenda that’s For The People: Lowering your health care costs and prescription drug prices, increasing your pay through strong economic growth by rebuilding America, and cleaning up corruption to make Washington work for you.

“Together, we will deliver A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages and a Better Future for every American, everywhere.”

Any bolding has been added.

~

Congress is not in session and there was no weekly press conferences by House leadership.

From Nancy Pelosi’s newsroom, a letter to her colleagues about owning the August recess:
Dear Colleague on A Call to Action: A Better Deal For Our Democracy

August 9, 2018

Dear Democratic Colleague,

A key part of our For The People agenda is to CLEAN UP CORRUPTION to make Washington work for the American people. The most recent revelations of corruption among the Trump Administration, his friends and the GOP Congress are a call to action that present an opportunity for change to happen now.

In the election of 2006, Democrats pointed out the Republicans’ pattern of corruption, cronyism and incompetence, under the frame “Drain the Swamp.” In the Majority, we acted on that promise by passing a strong ethics package. Donald Trump hijacked the name and totally betrayed the mission.

The brazen corruption, cronyism and incompetence of the Trump Administration is reflected in the conduct of House Republicans. Congressman Collins was the first Member of the House to endorse President Trump and is one of his closest allies. Now, the indictment of Congressman Collins shows that Republicans have turned the already swampy GOP Congress into a cesspool of self-enrichment, secret money and special interests. Congressman Collins revealed Republicans’ true corrupt purpose behind their GOP Tax Scam for the rich, when he admitted, “My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again.’”

This connection between money in politics and exploitation in policy is clear to the American people. House Republicans are wallowing in the swamp that they have enabled and deepened at the expense of working families everywhere.

To honor the pledge of our For The People agenda, a Democratic Majority will swiftly act to pass tougher ethics and campaign finance laws and crack down on the conduct that has poisoned the GOP Congress and the Trump Administration. We are grateful to Congressman John Sarbanes and the Democracy Reform Task Force for their leadership on A Better Deal For Our Democracy. We urge members to highlight it in events in August, as was suggested by our DPCC co-chairs on yesterday’s conference call.

In district events and on social media, we must drive home the clear contrast between the corruption of the GOP Congress and the Better Deal that Democrats are offering the American people. We must OWN AUGUST with our pledge to deliver action.

Democrats are For The People:

– Lower your health care costs and prescription drug prices;
– Increase your pay through strong economic growth by rebuilding America;
– Clean up corruption to make Washington work for you.

We will OWN AUGUST with strength, confidence and clarity, as we make our case to the American people.

Thank you for your leadership.

Leader Nancy Pelosi

Any bolding added.

~

4 Comments

  1. From Monday, Pelosi Statement on the 53rd Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act

    San Francisco – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released this statement to mark the 53rd anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act, which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965:

    “Fifty-three years ago, our nation took a momentous step forward toward a future in which every person can enjoy their full, equal right to be heard at the ballot box when President Johnson signed into law the landmark Voting Rights Act. As a core pillar of our democracy, the VRA has been instrumental in our nation’s fight to overcome generations of oppression, and has set us on a course to fulfill our promise of freedom and equality for all.

    “Yet, today, in the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and state capitals across the country, the right to vote is under dire threat from the GOP’s mass disenfranchisement agenda, disproportionately impacting communities of color and working families who already face suppression of their voices. From day one of this Administration, Republicans have waged a nationwide voter suppression campaign and created pernicious new barriers to the ballot box. The Republican Congress must end these cruel attacks on the sacred right to vote and immediately bring up for a vote on the Floor the Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore full protections for voters in states with a recent history of discrimination, and the Voter Empowerment Act to expand access to the ballot box and ensure that every vote is counted as cast.

    Democrats are committed to protecting this foundation of our freedom and will continue to stand firm against any assault on this key pillar of our democracy. We will continue to fight for the people, and offer A Better Deal for Our Democracy to empower American voters, protect and expand access to the ballot box and ensure that Washington once again works for everyone.”

    Without the vote, the people are powerless against those who want to destroy our democracy.

  2. Nancy Pelosi was on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show on Sunday pushing back against the media’s attempts to gin up a Speakership controversy.

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) claimed that NBC News is attempting to “undermine” her efforts to again become Speaker of the House, after the network reported that at least 50 Democratic candidates wouldn’t back her for the leadership position.

    Pelosi responded to the report on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” on Sunday, saying that “NBC has been on a jag of this, this is one of their priorities, to undermine my prospects as Speaker.”

    The network reported Friday that 51 Democratic candidates, including nine incumbents, running in November’s elections said they would not support Pelosi for Speaker if the party were to win back control of the House.

    Pelosi said on Sunday that she has “not asked one person for a vote.”

    “What’s important, and I know better than anybody, is to win this election because I see up close and personal what the Republicans and this president are doing,” she said.[…]

    “I say to the candidates, ‘do what you have to do, just win baby,’” Pelosi said. “When the caucus decides, it will decide whose name they will send to the floor. Then, only then, after the election, will I ask people for their support.”

    • From Leader Pelosi’s newsroom on the TV appearance:

      On Democrats’ Bold Economic Agenda A Better Deal For the People:

      “Democrats are for the people. It means we are for the people having lower health care costs, reducing the cost of prescription drugs. Democrats are for bigger paychecks by building the infrastructure of America, creating good-paying jobs.”

      “Democrats are for making government work by reducing the role of big dark money in politics. All of these are connected because the culture of corruption, cronyism and incompetence that is prevalent in this Congress, in this Administration, impedes the ability for us to raise the minimum wage, to clean the air, to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.”

      On Republicans’ Culture of Corruption:

      “The water our kids drink, safety of the food they eat, stopping the increase in prescription drug prices. The list goes on so there’s a real clarity now in the obstacle that their culture of corruption is doing to impede better policy.”

      “Members of Congress should not be sitting on boards of companies, especially those whose are impacted by policies – policy decisions and the government – so this is appalling but it shows the brazenness of it all. You have to give Republicans points for brazenness. Look at the Cabinet, look at Pruitt, look at what he did every day.”

      On One Year Since the Acts of Hatred that Took Place in Charlottesville, Virginia:

      “We’re going backward and the President with all of his statements, he is the master of the dog whistle. Everything he has done, whether it’s taking babies out of the arms of their moms, whether it’s issues that relate to health care in our country, access to services and the rest is – his whole thing is Make America White Again, that’s his thing.”

      “He can say a nice thing today in a tweet but the fact is his actions speak louder than his words and every day in the Congress we have to fight those initiatives. I’m proud of our House Democrats on different committees who fight those initiatives, again and again.”

      On President Trump’s Attacks on Women:

      “He’s afraid of [Congresswoman] Maxine [Waters]. He’s afraid of me. He’s afraid of women who will be coming into Congress. He talks about there’s no place for racism and then he speaks that way. It’s really disgraceful. It’s disrespectful to Maxine, of course, to women, to minorities.”

      On Democrats’ Agenda to Protect our Democracy:

      “When Democrats take the House we will seek the truth. We will have the power of subpoena. We want to get to the bottom of how the Russians undermined our elections, we want to protect the integrity of our electoral system. We have to know the truth.”

      “The Republicans refuse to seek the truth by Committee assignment, by establishing an outside independent commission and the President, of course, kowtows to Putin rather than respecting the consensus of his own intelligence agency, so we will seek the truth and where the truth takes us, well then we’ll see.”

      “We have a responsibility for oversight of the executive branch, not to protect the President as Mr. [Devin] Nunes says, ‘we’re there to protect the President.’ No, we’re there as the first branch of government, Article One, the legislative branch with our own responsibilities. So I think you will see a seeking of truth, fact, evidence, data. Truth and then we can make our decisions as we go forward.”

      On Leader Pelosi’s History of Advocating for Working Families:

      “I do not think our opponents should select the leaders of our party. The Republicans are spending millions, tens of millions of dollars, against me because they’re afraid of me. Because I outraise them in the political arena, because I outsmart them at the negotiating table, and because I’m a woman who is going to be at the seat of that table. That for me, is very important.”

      “I think I’m the best person for the job and I won’t let the Republican ads which are just flooding these districts and I say to candidates, do whatever you have to do. Just win, baby. One in five children in America lives in poverty. We must win this. When the Caucus decides, it will decide whose name to send to the Floor. Then, only then, after the election will I ask people for their support.”

      “I have made some very powerful enemies. Challenging the fossil fuel industry in terms of clean air, clean water, food safety and the rest. Wall Street with Dodd-Frank reform. Health care, bringing in all of the anti-government ideologues. Name any subject, whether it’s the environment, whether it’s a woman’s right to choose, whether it’s gun safety, whether it’s immigration fairness and the rest, labor rights. There’s big money that comes in against the role of government, because many of them are anti-governance, and specifically to these issues, so it’s big money out there against me.”

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