Challenges and Tasks - Remarks to Senatorial District Conventions

The video may be found at http://youtu.be/wi8RlyK6elw

We live in a time of great challenges:

• First: A contest between those who believe government should be used to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us, as is reflected in the Ryan budget proposal adopted by the House and supported by Pete Sessions, that sacrifices Medicaid, Medicare, higher education, and key elements of the social safety net to provide even more tax breaks for the very wealthy, and those who believe, as I do, that government is the way we work together to enhance opportunity for all who want to work hard, play by the rules, and succeed; to provide a safety net for those cannot provide for themselves; and to ensure the blessings of liberty for us and those who come after us;
• Second: The challenge of balancing the needs and opportunities of the present and future, young and old. Will we use our resources to create a more prosperous future, or will we consume more now? Will we pay our own bills, or will we burden our children with debts incurred to pay our bills?
• Third: A decision about the scope of government and how we will pay for it.

I believe we can meet these challenges.

We have had 30 years of destructive and deceptive policies. Those who have grabbed nearly half the cake, want the rest too. I have had enough. Have you?
The path to that future will require courage, compassion, and sacrifice. There simply is no free lunch. It will require that we set aside a portion of our individual interest for the greater good.

For 30 years, we have been on the wrong path, a path that is increasingly destructive, a path that increasingly says “You’re on your own,” not “We’re in this together.” It is time to stop, and set out for the right path.

Will we choose to create a better future for the vast majority of Americans? I say yes. Will you join me on that path?

To do so, we must first face the facts of our situation.

The Dallas Morning News labeled me as “too extreme” because I talked about facts no one likes to hear. If recognizing the realities of our situation is “extreme,” then I welcome the label.

What are those facts?

• First: We must pay our bills.

To do so it will be necessary to increase taxes. In order to balance the budget without tax increases, we would need to eliminate two of the following four, completely: national defense, social security, Medicare and Medicaid, and all other federal spending. This is simple arithmetic, based on tax receipts and expenditures. I have yet to have someone tell me which two they would eliminate. To speak of solving this problem by cuts alone, ignores the simple math of the situation, attempts to deceive us into believing that simple, cost-free solutions are possible, or fails to disclose a true agenda of leaving everyone on their own by destroying programs that the vast majority of Americans depend on.

The taxes raised must also amortize the debt we have accumulated.

I believe we should increase the tax base, make rates much more progressive, and increase the highest marginal rates. Income from wealth should be treated the same as income from work.

Those who claim such changes will harm the economy have simply been proven wrong over the past thirty years, as wrong-headed reductions in tax rates have enriched the few, reduced resources needed to create opportunity for the rest of us, and led to stagnation in real wages.

Such changes will allow us to maintain and increase spending needed for prosperity: affordable education, basic research, infrastructure improvements, and continuing safety net programs.

In addition, appropriately progressive rates will begin to mitigate the past 30 years redistribution of wealth from hard-working Americans to the wealthiest few. I will work to keep them from grabbing the rest of the cake.

• Second: We, or our ancestors, are all immigrants. My folks came from England with the very earliest settlers, and Germany in the late 1860’s; you may know when yours arrived.

It is not possible to control immigration without creating a police state, and is not in our best interest to do so. I was shocked to be required to wait for nearly half an hour in order to drive through a permanent checkpoint on I-10 in southern Arizona. I was astounded that one of my students from Japan who had received his law degree in the US could not become a permanent resident.

Anyone who wants to immigrate to the United States to work hard and succeed in a way they cannot in their home country should be encouraged, not shunned. We face disastrous demographic trends as a large part of the population ages, similar to those Japan is now dealing with, that can only be ameliorated by encouraging immigration, increasing the working population and lowering the average age of the population. Immigration helped make America great, and we should return to the policies reflected in the words of Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty that we’ve all heard many times:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

• Third: We must sacrifice now to create a better future. We must forego current consumption in favor of creating physical, human, and knowledge capital for the future.

We must provide the opportunity for excellent education for all, without regard to ability to pay;

We must broadly expand basic research;

We must invest in roads, other transportation infrastructure, communication infrastructure, and technologies such as alternative energy sources that are not currently economically justified but may be needed in the near future.

For our children\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s sake, we must find the vision to focus not only on short-term questions, but on long-term goals, and how to accomplish them.

• Fourth: We must zealously guard our civil liberties, including the right to privacy, control over our own bodies, and equal protection for all — no exceptions – and the rule of law.

I believe we can meet the challenges we face. We can find the courage and compassion, and make the needed sacrifices, to work together to create a better future for America. We can choose the right path. Now is the time to start; I ask you to join me.