In a House floor Special Hour last week, Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA) led House Democrats in discussing their "economic patriotism" plan.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for all members to have five legislative days, revise
00:03and extend their remarks, and include extraneous material on the subject of my special order.
00:07Without objection, so ordered.
00:09Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
00:11I am honored and proud to represent the people of Western Pennsylvania, good, hardworking,
00:15patriotic people who are pretty frustrated.
00:18We are not living in normal times.
00:21This should not be a normal run-of-the-mill special order hour.
00:24What I will convene today, my colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle, who you'll
00:29hear from, these are people who know how to fight for their people, they know how to win.
00:33They're not shy or afraid about a righteous fight.
00:37They are members of Congress in this chamber from across the country, across the ideological
00:42spectrum and may not agree on everything, certainly we don't, but we agree that too
00:46many in our party have lost their way and it's time to wake the heck up.
00:49Now don't misunderstand me, this administration and those helping them are wreaking havoc
00:54on so much of our country.
00:56We see Social Security under attack, Social Security Administration workers, their ability
01:00to deliver the hard-earned benefits that seniors have worked their whole lives for.
01:06See VA employees on the chopping block, fired, contracts scrutinized and then cut.
01:14The promise of this country to care for veterans betrayed.
01:18We see cancer research, life-saving medicine trials, clinical trials interfered with, threatened,
01:24spending on the chopping block.
01:26American people are mad.
01:28They should be mad.
01:29And look, this administration's approval ratings, they're in freefall.
01:33American people are rejecting so much of what we see.
01:36But too many on my side of the aisle aren't giving a strong enough alternative, a bold
01:41enough alternative.
01:42And while the president's numbers may be in freefall, we also see favorability of the
01:47Democratic Party at record lows.
01:49The lowest CNN has seen since 1992.
01:52There has not been a strong enough vision from Democrats on this side of the aisle.
01:56We have something to say.
01:58Our party needs to change and economic populism and patriotism should be where we go, standing
02:03up for people to revive the American dream.
02:07Democrats should be fighting hard against corruption, corruption and the giant corporations
02:11who fund so much of that.
02:14We should be fighting against anyone else, any force, any company, you name it, that
02:19has made life a ripoff for our people.
02:22Folks are mad and they should be.
02:24It's justifiable anger.
02:25The American dream is gone for too many people.
02:29People who work hard, who play by the rules and yet can't catch a break, who see life
02:34as too expensive.
02:36People are right.
02:38The American people understand that our economy has been rigged against so many.
02:43And I say the American dream hasn't slipped away.
02:45It has been ripped away.
02:46I'm 40 years old.
02:48My generation and those younger than me, the first generation in a long time since
02:52the second world war, who now grows up and don't expect to be better off than their parents.
03:00That's what the American dream is all about.
03:03It didn't just happen on accident.
03:05There are villains here.
03:06Corporate power and corruption have been eating away at the American dream.
03:11Hedge funds, speculators, buying up houses, jacking up the cost of that housing, becoming
03:16lousy landlords, pricing people out of what could be a nest egg for their retirement,
03:21their home.
03:22Monopolies, jacking up prices and killing small businesses every chance they can get.
03:27Pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs, raising the cost of medicine, killing local pharmacies.
03:32The list goes on and on.
03:35This president and others on the other side have capitalized on this anger, used it to
03:39get power, lift up their efforts now to let robber barons plunder this government, to
03:44attack the fundamental bargain with our seniors and veterans and so many others.
03:51Democrats need to wake up and stop defending elites and the establishment.
03:55They have failed the American people.
03:58Across both parties, those who have been in power have failed at the fundamental task
04:03of protecting and strengthening the American dream.
04:05So today a group of us are coming forward, coming to the floor, proposing a new way ahead
04:10for Democrats, a new way ahead for this country.
04:12We need a fighting spirit of economic populism.
04:15It is patriotic.
04:17We need this patriotism to be at the heart of this fight and our fight against corruption
04:22and anyone else who is in the way of our people and who has wrecked the American dream.
04:25So what does this mean, this economic populism?
04:28In a sentence, it is fighting for a life that people can afford.
04:33It's bringing corporate power to heel.
04:35It is taking on the corruption that pervades this town, Washington.
04:39The economy and what life costs people should never be an afterthought for anyone who serves
04:44in a chamber like this.
04:46It ought to put the people who work their butts off front and center of what our government
04:50does and who we think about every day and every action.
04:53It is fighting for a life that people can afford and it is bringing corporate power
04:59to heel.
05:01We know that out of control corporate power leads to higher costs.
05:05It leads to worse safety.
05:08It leads to lower quality and we see it play out across so much of our economy.
05:13It's weakened our defense industrial base and thus it's weakened our military.
05:16It's hurt small businesses across Main Streets, all over our districts.
05:21It has crushed workers.
05:22It has led to rising costs that we all live with.
05:27And we should take on corruption no matter where we see it, no matter the party.
05:32The last thing that we need is a bunch of wimps looking for a win-win every time.
05:37Not every fight is going to have a win-win.
05:41There are villains in this story, in the society of ours, who have made life miserable for
05:45so many.
05:46You call them robber barons, you call them oligarchs, whatever you want.
05:49We've got to be willing to take them on.
05:51And this embrace of economic populism, it might sound and look different depending on
05:56where in the country or who the messenger is.
05:58For me, I'm a Navy guy.
05:59I served at sea.
06:00I served in Iraq.
06:01To me this is a patriotic and righteous fight.
06:05And I'm from Western Pennsylvania, the Rust Belt, a place where we saw a rich and powerful
06:10plot to strip us for parts.
06:11And we're the people who made the steel to build America.
06:14We've always answered this country's call.
06:17Those efforts to strip us, to wreck our way of life, no more.
06:23You'll hear from members, again, across the ideological spectrum on the Democratic side
06:26today.
06:27But we're united in this.
06:29The era of a spineless Democratic Party must end.
06:33Now is not the time for wimpy concessions and then call it a win-win.
06:38Not when the American dream has been killed for so many people in America.
06:42And now is not the time to shy from a fight against corruption.
06:46Our people see it and they know that our government has allowed the economy to be rigged against
06:50people.
06:53Those villains, that corruption, they want you to think the problem is some woke college
06:59kid or some trans kid who wants their liberty, wants their freedom.
07:02That's not why your prescription drugs are expensive.
07:04It's not why housing is expensive.
07:06It's that corruption and those villains who want you thinking that when they're the ones
07:10who've made life terrible for people.
07:12We know the real root of the problem is corruption and corporate power run amok.
07:16And too many have been pathetic at talking about corruption and showing that they're
07:20up for this fight.
07:21And some on this side of the aisle have been complicit, helping corporations plunder this
07:25country.
07:26That should end.
07:27And we have to be willing to go to the mat for an economy that works for people who work
07:29hard, who play by the rules and want the American dream back.
07:35The roots of this party that I'm proud to be a part of go back to the New Deal.
07:38It is a working class party at its core.
07:41Allowing somebody else to fake economic populism and win power is real and dangerous and we
07:46are living through the cost of it right now.
07:48But again, the people you're here from today, they work hard and fight hard for their districts.
07:53They get this.
07:54They're not faking populism and they know how to win in places where you got to win.
07:59So I'm proud to start to introduce my colleague from the great state of Connecticut, the gentle
08:04lady from Connecticut, Ms. DeLauro.
08:05And yield five minutes, Mr. Speaker.
08:08Let me just say thank you to my colleague from Pennsylvania, who at his roots understands
08:17the plight of working Americans, middle class families, working families, and the vulnerable.
08:24And stands tall on their behalf and wants to utilize the good offices of this institution
08:32to make sure that it does what the founding fathers intended it to do.
08:37And that is to provide opportunity for people in this nation.
08:41That's what my friend, Congressman Deluzio, is all about.
08:46And one thing about this current administration is clear.
08:49They are doing nothing about the cost of living crisis in this nation, which is getting
08:53worse.
08:54President Trump said he will fight for the working class, but instead put Elon Musk and
08:59billionaires in charge of our government.
09:02I applaud again Representative Deluzio for hosting this special order, economic patriotism,
09:09taking on corporate power, as well as for all his work supporting the right to organize,
09:15creating well-paying union jobs here in America.
09:19High prices are devastating the middle class, working class, and the vulnerable.
09:24Since my very first day in the Congress, I have been focused on lowering the cost of
09:28living for Americans who struggle to get by.
09:31And I am appalled by how many families who are struggling to afford basics, while corporations
09:37get bigger, richer, and more influential over our lives than ever.
09:44President Trump, as I said, campaigned on lowering prices.
09:46He pledged to, quote, bring food costs down on day one.
09:50Instead, the opposite has happened.
09:53Food costs are rising.
09:54His own USDA, Department of Agriculture, recently reported egg prices could rise 41 percent
10:00over the next year.
10:02Since taking office, he has done nothing to help families struggling at the grocery checkout.
10:09As a result, big corporations are consolidating, creating monopolies, and making unbelievable
10:16profits.
10:17Cal-Maine, which controls about a fifth of the domestic egg market and is the largest
10:22producer and distributor of shell eggs in the United States, has reported that its profits
10:28through the second quarter of 2025 fiscal year are 342 percent higher than the same
10:37period last year.
10:39Instead of doing anything to address this cost-of-living crisis, the President has stacked
10:44his Cabinet with billionaire after billionaire, empowering them to slash the programs American
10:50families rely on, with no oversight, no disclosures about their conflicts of interest.
10:57Elon Musk, the unchecked billionaire leading the efforts to end Social Security as we know
11:03it, owes the success of his companies to billions in federal contracts and huge factories in
11:12China.
11:14Yet he refuses to answer any questions from the Congress about his investments.
11:21These issues concern every American.
11:23Democrats are standing up for them, standing up against the blatant corporation of this
11:27administration, the giant corporations padding their profits at the expense of the middle
11:33class and the working class.
11:36And the Republican focus is to rip away programs like Social Security and Medicaid.
11:42The fact is that American families today are living paycheck to paycheck, and some of the
11:49biggest corporations in the country are taking advantage of it, all while Americans are paying
11:56more for less due to corporate price gouging, shrinkflation, and while the CEOs of the nation's
12:03largest grocery stores and supermarkets rake in record salaries.
12:09I just came from a Congressional hearing, our Steering and Policy Committee, Democratic
12:17Steering and Policy Committee, on food prices and food stamps, and listening to the stories
12:26of working Americans with families who are hard-pressed and who are frightened to death
12:33of a $230 billion cut to the food stamp program, which would end that lifeline for themselves
12:41and for their families.
12:43And last year, the FTC identified the large grocery store chains exploited product shortages
12:48due to the pandemic by raising prices significantly, more than needed to cover their added costs,
12:56and they have continued to increase their profits.
12:59What is the Republicans' response to this cost-of-living crisis, driven by corporate
13:04consolidation in power?
13:06Why?
13:07To give out even more corporate tax cuts, of course, $4.5 trillion worth of them, to
13:13be precise, paid for by slashing Medicaid, which serves nearly a third of all Americans.
13:21Enough is enough, and it is time for this Congress and it is time for Democrats to act
13:26to rein in this habitual price gouging from massive corporations, rein in the unchecked
13:32billionaires enriching themselves while Americans suffer, and rein in the Republican spending
13:38cuts targeting Social Security and Medicaid.
13:42If the Trump administration continues to prioritize tax cuts for the rich over price cuts for
13:48the middle class, then I will continue to stand with my colleagues as we call out their
13:54broken promises and fight back against their disastrous policies.
13:59There is another path forward, one which Democrats and Republicans could take together, a path
14:05of economic patriotism, where we take on corporate monopolies and the self-serving billionaires
14:12who are squeezing the middle class, the working class, and the vulnerable, a path that listens
14:17to the American people, protects programs like Medicaid and Social Security, while lowering
14:23the cost of living through proven policies like the expanded child tax credit, which
14:30lifted half of our children in this nation out of poverty, lowered the hunger rate, and
14:36provided a path forward in economic security for millions of families in the United States.
14:41That's the path that I am taking.
14:43It's the path that I know my colleague, Congressman DeLuzio, is taking, and I hope that my colleagues
14:49on both sides of the aisle will join us in this effort.
14:53And I thank you for organizing this effort.
14:55Thank you, General DeLuzio, not just for joining us today, but for your long commitment to
15:00dignity of work, for fighting for people, for better trade policy, and so much else.
15:04I'm honored now to welcome in a colleague from California, but who has strong Pennsylvania
15:10roots, which lends great credit to him.
15:13The gentleman from California, Mr. Khanna.
15:18Thank you, Representative DeLuzio, for your leadership, for convening this group and focusing
15:26us on an agenda of economic patriotism.
15:32The reality is, in this country, and as you know, in western Pennsylvania, we have watched
15:39industry after industry leave the country for China and Mexico.
15:46Western Pennsylvania won us our freedom.
15:48They produced more steel than Japan and Germany combined in World War II, and yet today, we've
15:55got 4% steel.
15:57China, 50% of the world's steel.
16:01Aluminum left, paper left, textiles left.
16:06Town after town in this country was hollowed out since 2000.
16:1090,000 factories have closed.
16:13And that doesn't just mean jobs leaving.
16:16We've all heard the stories.
16:19People whose families were destroyed.
16:25The chair will receive a message.
16:28Mr. Speaker, message from the President of the United States.
16:31Mr. Speaker.
16:33Mr. Secretary.
16:34I am directed by the President of the United States to deliver to the House of Representatives
16:38a message in writing.
16:41The chair recognizes.
16:44The gentleman from California.
16:45I thought the President was going to endorse our plan here on economic patriotism.
16:52The reality is, these factories left, and you've had people who faced suicide.
17:00One of the folks in Warren, Ohio, told me about 13 people, because of these plant closures,
17:09took their lives or faced severe depression.
17:14Our country for 50 years watched.
17:17Rosa DeLauro didn't watch.
17:18She was speaking out against these bad trade deals.
17:21For the most part of American history in the last 50 years, we watched the hollowing out
17:28of these communities.
17:29We watched wealth pile up in districts like mine, in Silicon Valley, in New York.
17:34My district has $14 trillion of wealth.
17:38But the income inequality in this country soared.
17:42What this group wants to do, one of the things we want to do, is to renew economic revitalization
17:49and manufacturing, advanced manufacturing in these communities.
17:52To have a real plan for new semiconductors, new robotics, advanced steel, advanced automobiles,
17:59and have new factories, new industry come up.
18:03The President and J.D. Vance understood that the country was hollowed out, and they understood
18:10that people were angry, legitimately angry, and they understood that the ship of America
18:16had a huge hole in it.
18:18The problem is they get there, and their plan to solve this is to hand the reins to a number
18:27of headstrong billionaires who are libertarians.
18:31I've known these folks.
18:32I've known Elon for 15 years.
18:34I don't know what Elon knows about Johnstown, Pennsylvania, or Feral, Pennsylvania, or Youngstown.
18:40He's going to go out, and they're making deals with UAE, and they're supercharging the private
18:45sector deals.
18:47The problem is that's not going to build the communities that have been hollowed out.
18:52We know what builds communities, from Hamilton to Lincoln to FDR.
18:58We need a government that says, if you make it in America, we will buy it.
19:02That's what we did, by the way, for SpaceX.
19:05That's what we did for Intel.
19:06That's what we did in World War II.
19:08We need a government that says, if you scale the factories here, we'll help finance it.
19:13We need a government that says, we're going to work to invest in the plumbers, and electricians,
19:18and machinists, so that we can actually have a workforce that builds the new factories
19:23we need.
19:25We need to say that we're going to have housing in this area to have economic revitalization.
19:30We need a national economic development strategy.
19:33Senator Rubio and I actually coauthored a bill on that, but that's not what the White
19:37House is doing.
19:38Instead, they think that just having these billionaires cut deals with the private sector
19:42is going to help the working or middle class.
19:45It'll help my district.
19:46We'll make more money with AI.
19:48It'll help more of the financial and technology elites.
19:51I'll tell you what it's not going to do.
19:53It's not going to rebuild the communities that have had a raw deal in America.
19:58What economic patriots believe, even though we have different ideologies, is that it is
20:03ordinary Americans who built this country.
20:06It's working class Americans and middle class Americans who built the country.
20:09The genius lies not with the billionaires and the technologists.
20:13It lies with hardworking Americans, and we're going to build this country back from the
20:18bottom up.
20:19That's our belief.
20:20And I appreciate Representative DeLuzio's leadership on this.
20:25If you give me, am I out of time, Representative DeLuzio?
20:28One more minute, because my friend Fareed Zubkaria had this whole spiel on how manufacturing
20:33doesn't matter.
20:35I don't like Fareed usually, but on this, he's dead wrong.
20:38He cited Japan and Germany as countries that did manufacturing and missed the tech boom.
20:44And so he said, well, we should do the tech boom and the finance boom, and we don't need
20:47to do manufacturing.
20:48Well, he didn't cite one country that did a bit of both, China.
20:55China did a lot of manufacturing.
20:56They took all of our manufacturing.
20:59And America needs to understand, if we're going to innovate, yes, we should innovate
21:03on technology.
21:04Yes, we should innovate on finance.
21:06But we also have to have advanced manufacturing in this country to remain the world's superpower.
21:12People say comparative advantage, but comparative advantage, you get to choose what your comparative
21:17advantage is in.
21:18If China had just done comparative advantage, they would have been growing rice for 30 years.
21:23That was their comparative advantage.
21:25They said, no, we want to build things.
21:27Well, it's time America realizes we want to be building things and realizes the value
21:32of advanced manufacturing.
21:34And Representative DeLuzio certainly gets it.
21:36He's one of the brightest voices in Congress.
21:38I also want to recommend his op-ed that I thought was the best piece written on trade
21:43policy, fair piece, in the last 30 years of anyone that I've read.
21:47So I appreciate your leadership and appreciate your convening us.
21:51Thank the gentleman from California who understands this deeply of what we need to do, this economic
21:56patriotism, what it means for manufacturing, what it means for communities who saw these
22:01jobs not leave, but taken away, taken away by this ideology in Wall Street and the politicians
22:08around here who helped them, which said that all that matter was chasing the cheapest labor,
22:13the weakest labor rules, nonexistent environmental rules, made them citizens of nowhere.
22:18They didn't care about this country or the communities and the people who worked hard
22:22to make them rich, whether they made the steel or anything else, as we did in America.
22:27It's a stain on our story in this country, and frankly, it's not too patriotic.
22:32We think our side of the aisle, our party, ought to be dominating the fight to supercharge
22:37American manufacturing and jobs, not peddling this crap of telling industrial workers, go
22:42learn to code or something.
22:43That's nonsense.
22:44Let's invest in the jobs here to make stuff.
22:47Let's have a more muscular trade industrial policy.
22:50That's how we get back on the road to economic freedom for people.
22:55Members on both sides of the aisle here, both parties, have long embraced this wrong-for-decades
23:00neoliberal disaster of unlimited and free trade.
23:03I think it's been a failure of government across the board.
23:08We should push back on these lousy trade deals.
23:10We trade.
23:11We trade with our friends.
23:12We trade with others, but we do it on fair terms.
23:16What's not fair is seeing American workers undercut by governments like Communist China
23:21that use the power of the state to dump artificially cheap products in our markets, that circumvent
23:28our trade rules, that let their workers be exploited.
23:32We've got to beef up trade enforcement on Communist China and others like them.
23:35There have to be meaningful consequences.
23:38Let's have tariffs be part of that, but be smart and strategic.
23:41What we've seen this administration do has been chaotic.
23:43It's been reckless.
23:45Businesses cannot plan.
23:46There is no certainty day-to-day of what the trade environment will be, and it is absent
23:52from any full strategic industrial policy that is at the heart of economic patriotism.
23:58To make more stuff in America, you've got to have a full policy that is centered by
24:03workers' industrial policy.
24:05One of my colleagues who gets this deeply, this idea of economic patriotism, I'm proud
24:10to yield to Mr. Ryan of New York, a West Point graduate, who I won't hold that against you
24:14too much, but deeply understands this, understands the fight that we need, and understands that
24:19our core economic patriotism ought to be what we're all about.
24:22I yield to the gentleman from New York.
24:24I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Deluzio, for your leadership on this, for bringing
24:28this group together, for reminding us that as Americans who love this country, we need
24:35that strong, muscular economic patriotism to serve my constituents in my district, which
24:41is the Hudson Valley of New York State, and across this country.
24:45And Mr. Speaker, I rise today because I love this country.
24:50I believe it is the greatest country in the history of the world, and I believe it is
24:55worth fighting for, and we must fight for it now.
24:59I also believe when you see something that isn't working, you stand up and you do everything
25:03in your power to fix it.
25:06Our country and our party are at a crossroads, and it's up to us, the people with the incredible
25:14honor to stand on the floor of the United States House of Representatives in this chamber,
25:19to forge the path forward.
25:22Unlike some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I won't try to deny the
25:26outcome of the election in November 2024.
25:30Too many Americans felt Democrats had become the party of the elites and had stopped meeting
25:37people where they are, the pain that they're feeling in their lives and their families
25:41at their kitchen table when they get up in the morning and go to work and come home exhausted
25:45at night.
25:48Democrats need to learn from our mistakes.
25:50This moment is not ideological.
25:53It's about who fights for the people and who fights for the elites.
26:00I believe, first and foremost, if you're using labels like moderate or progressive,
26:05you're missing the entire point.
26:09I gave former President Biden hell for failing to secure our border.
26:13I think that's a nonpartisan issue.
26:15That doesn't make me a, quote, moderate.
26:18I campaigned with my colleague AOC against big corporations screwing over my constituents
26:23and polluting the Hudson River in my district.
26:26That doesn't make me a progressive.
26:29If the last election made anything clear, it's high costs and economic pain are first
26:35and foremost on our constituents' minds.
26:39Donald Trump promised to help with that.
26:42He has not, unequivocally.
26:45In fact, everything he's done in office has helped his billionaire cronies, who, by the
26:49way, gave hundreds of millions of dollars to his campaign at the expense of families
26:54like the ones that I represent in my district across the Hudson Valley.
26:59Trump's failure to bring down costs is handing Democrats the answer on a silver platter.
27:04Our response cannot stop at Donald Trump works for the wealthy, though, which is true.
27:10It must go further.
27:13Donald Trump works for the wealthy, and Democrats work and fight for you, the working class
27:18and middle class of this country, the economic patriots of the United States of America.
27:24Just over a year ago, I stood on this very floor and ultimately, successfully called
27:29on the CEO of a local utility monopoly in my district, which had been screwing over
27:35my constituents, robbing them blind, literally emptying their dwindling savings accounts
27:42due to a failure of their billing practices.
27:44I called on him to resign, and he was held accountable and did.
27:48That company ultimately paid $62 million back to my constituents in form of accountability.
27:56Now Optum, a healthcare company, which is a subsidiary of United Health Group, the single
28:02largest health insurer in our country, and really one of only three companies in the
28:07United States of America that controls the entire healthcare market, has been buying
28:10up medical practices across my district.
28:14Just a few weeks ago, I launched a community inquiry.
28:18Thousands of my constituents and my neighbors and friends who have been hurt by Optum have
28:22responded detailing horrific stories of declining healthcare quality, erroneous billing, and
28:29we're continuing to gather this evidence, the voices of the people, the American people,
28:34and to ultimately hold this big corporation who's been making record-breaking profits
28:38quarter after quarter accountable.
28:41Another example, for months, broadcast companies, big telecoms in New York, were in a deadlocked
28:46fight over streaming rights that left over a million New Yorkers paying customers, staring
28:53at blank screens trying to watch sports games to take their mind off of all the pressures
28:57in their lives.
28:58Knicks fans and Rangers fans who'd paid couldn't see.
29:01As one of those fans, I was mad as hell that I had paid and couldn't watch a game while
29:05a multi-billion dollar corporation kept raking in more profits and didn't seem to care at
29:11all about their paying customers.
29:14Thankfully, under pressure, that blackout has ended and we're now demanding Optum, the telecom,
29:19the main perpetrator of this, pay back the customers who were harmed.
29:24I've also introduced something called the Stop Sports Blackout Act, so if this ever
29:29happens again, there won't be a question that a company has to pay and give customers to
29:33refunds for games they couldn't watch.
29:36Whether in their utility bills, their healthcare bills, or just trying to watch a sports game,
29:40that's putting money back in people's pockets when pressure is so high and that matters.
29:47In closing, before I yield the balance back to my colleague, there is so much power now
29:53in the voices of our communities, but only if we, their elected representatives, listen
29:58and act and elevate it.
30:00That's economic patriotism.
30:03I'm proud that as a Democrat, our party stands with law enforcement and police officers,
30:08stands with small businesses, stands with veterans, stands with hardworking families,
30:12with nurses, teachers, truck drivers.
30:15Democrats stand with our constituents, whether they voted for us or not, and yes, we stand
30:19against Donald Trump and his harmful policies, but we stand for so, so much more.
30:26A group of patriots, unyielding and unwavering in their dedication to fighting for the people
30:33and against anyone who would do them harm, that's the Democratic Party that I am proud
30:37to be a part of, and that is our path out of this moment.
30:41Thank you, and I yield the balance of my time to Mr. Deluzio.
30:43Thank you, Mr. Ryan.
30:44I thank the gentleman from New York for his fight, his stiff spine in this.
30:50I now want to recognize a colleague from Rhode Island who knows how to take on a good fight
30:55and win one.
30:56The gentleman from Rhode Island, Mr. Magaziner.
30:59Thank you to my friend, Mr. Deluzio, for bringing us together and helping us have an important
31:04conversation about how we restore the mantle of fighting for working people.
31:10I was born and raised in the most patriotic town in the country, Bristol, Rhode Island.
31:16We have the oldest and longest-running Fourth of July celebration in the country.
31:21So I learned from a young age to be patriotic, but I also learned that patriotism is not
31:26just about parades and parties and barbecues, it's about believing in a country where anything
31:34is possible for those who are willing to work hard.
31:37And I know that because it's my family's story.
31:40At the turn of the last century, my mother's family came to America from Ireland and Poland.
31:45My grandfather fought in the Pacific, then came home and worked in a factory that made
31:50airplane parts.
31:52His wife, my grandmother, worked in a department store.
31:56Their jobs weren't glamorous, they weren't anything special, but they earned enough to
32:00buy a house, to raise four kids, and to build a stable middle-class life.
32:07My father's side of the family had a similar story.
32:09They came from Eastern Europe and settled in New York City.
32:13My great-grandfather got involved in labor organizing, and my grandfather was a bookkeeper
32:18at a company that sold fruit.
32:21They all came of age during the New Deal era, and they voted Democrat because they knew
32:26that the Democratic Party had the backs of working people.
32:30And then my parents met, they started a small business together, they were successful, and
32:34now here I am in the United States Congress, thanks to the hard work of the generations
32:41that came before me.
32:43Today in Rhode Island, I meet working people every day who remind me of my grandparents.
32:49Factory workers, house cleaners, nurses, kitchen workers, grinding out a living, believing
32:55that if they work hard and do the right thing, that better days lie ahead.
33:00But the more I hear from the working people I represent, they are frustrated with politics.
33:07They don't think either party represents them.
33:09They're working harder than ever and are having a hard time paying their bills.
33:13They certainly can't afford to save money.
33:16They see billionaires on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley get richer while they can't
33:21afford everything on their grocery list.
33:23They see Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, gleefully cutting services for seniors
33:29and veterans, and Donald Trump pushing yet another tax cut for the very rich.
33:36They see a Republican party hell-bent on taking away people's health care and a Democratic
33:41party that means well, but tries to be all things to all people and too often fails to
33:48deliver.
33:49Our grandparents knew a Democratic party that not only had good intentions, but that knew
33:55how to get things done.
33:58The working people I represent don't want a handout, but they do expect a level playing
34:02field and a fair shot, and they want a Democratic party with a real plan.
34:08So what does that look like?
34:10It looks like making billionaires like Elon Musk pay their fair share so that we can give
34:14tax relief to the middle class.
34:17It looks like passing the PRO Act so that workers in retail and fast food can join a
34:22union and earn a ticket to the middle class, just like my grandfather did in his factory.
34:27It looks like universal preschool and affordable child care, not just because it's good for
34:32kids, but because it helps parents work and build their savings.
34:36And it means passing my bill to guarantee 10 days of paid vacation for all workers because
34:43Americans work hard and they deserve to take some time off every once in a while and enjoy
34:48their lives without losing their jobs or their income.
34:52For too long, the system in this town has been rigged for the wealthy and well-connected,
34:57but that does not have to be our future.
35:00There is a new generation rising, people who are tired of being left behind and are
35:06ready for something better.
35:08We don't need the Democratic Party to be all things to all people.
35:11We just need to reclaim our position as the party for working people.
35:15That work begins now.
35:17And I want to thank my colleagues who are here tonight who get it.
35:20I want to thank Representative Deluzio for bringing us together.
35:24I am ready to roll up my sleeves alongside all of you, and I yield back to Mr. Deluzio.
35:29Ladies and gentlemen, for Rhode Island, he gets it.
35:32And this is not some hypothetical problem.
35:34We're living through the cost of losing.
35:36And what it is to see the chaos and harm that comes from it, the Democratic Party has to
35:40do better.
35:41And so I'm very honored to introduce a colleague from the other side of the country who has
35:46been a bulldog in the fight against monopolies and so much else, a former chair of the Progressive
35:50Caucus, a gentlelady from Washington, Ms. Jayapal.
35:54Thank you so much, Congressman Deluzio, for leading this conversation about how we can
36:00stand up for our people and unrig the economy.
36:04That is economic patriotism.
36:06I want to be very clear.
36:08Our economy has been rigged by giant corporations and the wealthiest for way too long.
36:13And as these corporations consolidate more power, the rich get richer, and everyone else
36:19is just struggling to get by just on the basics.
36:22They need groceries, housing, health care, basic medications.
36:27Private insurance companies are now buying up your local health care clinics and doctor's
36:31offices.
36:32In my home state of Washington, a handful of health care systems control 90 percent
36:38of hospital beds.
36:40And what does that mean?
36:41It means that people are seeing their costs triple while the quality of care goes down,
36:46all so that big pharma and corporate CEOs can pad their already overflowing pockets.
36:51Mergers are pushing independent grocery stores out of business.
36:55Today, just a few supermarket chains control all of the grocery stores in the country.
37:01Albertsons and Kroger's, two of the big grocery chains, actually tried to merge.
37:06And I was so proud to lead the amicus brief with other members of Congress to actually
37:11oppose that merger.
37:12And thanks to Democrats and the FTC, under Lena Kahn, we were able to stop that merger.
37:18Because we know and we've seen that when these mergers happen, corporations shut down
37:23stores, they fire workers, and they raise prices.
37:27Look at the housing market.
37:28When rents are sky high and there literally is not a single place in the country where
37:33someone can afford rent on the minimum wage, private equity is coming in to buy up the
37:38apartments and colluding to drive up the rents so it's even more unaffordable to keep a roof
37:44over your head.
37:46It wasn't always this way.
37:48From World War II to the late 1970s, we actually rigorously enforced our antitrust laws to
37:55ensure that mom-and-pop businesses had a chance to compete against these mega companies.
38:02Consumers had choices and workers had good jobs.
38:05And you know what?
38:06Our economy actually grew.
38:09But starting with Republican President Ronald Reagan, that antitrust enforcement dwindled
38:14down and large corporations took over.
38:17And today, income and wealth inequality are higher than they have been in a century.
38:22And two months into the Trump administration, wages are still low and prices are still high.
38:28Does not need to be this way.
38:30We do not, in the richest country in the world, we do not suffer from scarcity.
38:35We suffer from greed.
38:37And we have to be willing to take that on.
38:40Take on corporate power and corruption and make a meaningful difference in the everyday
38:45lives of working people.
38:47We have to lower prices so that everyone can have a roof over their heads, put food
38:51on the table, send their kids for an education, and retire with dignity.
38:56We have to have living wages for every worker and we have to tax the billionaires so that
39:01they just pay a little bit more of their fair share like everyone else is doing.
39:07We can and have to break up the largest corporations so they can't keep screwing regular people.
39:13We got to stand up and fight back against corruption, against greed, against consolidation,
39:19and for the American people to have that American dream.
39:25That is economic patriotism.
39:27That's what we're going to fight for.
39:29And I'm so grateful to my colleague from Pennsylvania for making sure we put that out there.
39:34I thank the General from Washington, spot on.
39:37And I'm reminded of a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt, who faced the same kind
39:42of complaints from then who he called the economic royalists.
39:44We can call them robber barons, oligarchs, you name it.
39:48They complained that they said FDR was trying to overthrow the institutions of America.
39:52And I'll quote President Roosevelt.
39:54What they really complained of is that we seek to take away their power.
39:58Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power.
40:03Here we are again.
40:05I think we can no longer allow anyone over here to play footsies with the corporate overlords
40:09and robber barons who have their heels on the necks of the American people.
40:13We need to restore competition and break the monopolies.
40:17My colleague from the Granite State gets this, having worked in the Justice Department to
40:21take on monopolies, has been in the trenches in the fight against this kind of corporate
40:26power run amok.
40:27So I will yield, Mr. Speaker, to the General Lady from New Hampshire, Ms. Goodlander.
40:33Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
40:37Many thanks to my colleague from Pennsylvania for bringing us together this afternoon.
40:43Economic patriotism.
40:44We're coming from all across the country.
40:48We're coming from different backgrounds with different ideas, but we're united by things
40:53that are really powerful.
40:54We're united by a love of our country, by a belief in our country, by a belief fundamentally
40:59in the American people.
41:01I was born and raised in the greatest state in the nation, the state of New Hampshire,
41:06the state that made the nation.
41:07We were the ninth to ratify the Constitution.
41:10And I was born and raised down the road from the family farm that my great-grandfather
41:14built when he came to this country.
41:15He was 16 years old, he didn't speak a word of English, but he believed in the American
41:20dream and he raised my grandfather, Sam, on that farm.
41:25He was an economic patriot, my grandfather, Sam.
41:29He really believed your word is your bond.
41:31He believed that hustle was the name of the game.
41:34He milked cows.
41:35He baled hay.
41:37And he got his start as a businessman selling airplane rides at the Nashville airport.
41:42His slogan was a million-dollar thrill for a one-dollar bill.
41:45He went on to become a door-to-door salesman for Electrolux vacuum cleaners.
41:50He worked hard because he believed in the American dream.
41:53He was a lifelong Republican who loved with his whole heart one of our great presidents,
41:59I think maybe the greatest economic patriot we've seen in the White House, President Franklin
42:03Delano Roosevelt.
42:05And I was reminded today of a great speech that President Roosevelt gave 81 years ago,
42:12the Economic Bill of Rights, it's been called.
42:15He talked about economic rights that are self-evident, but as with all self-evident rights that we
42:23know in this great document, our Constitution, they aren't self-executing.
42:29I want to focus for a moment on one of the rights that President Roosevelt talked about.
42:35He said that there's a right of every businessman, businesswoman too, large and small, to trade
42:42in the atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
42:49Monopolies, it's been said on the floor of this House, on the floor of the United States
42:55Senate, that monopolies are inconsistent with our form of government.
42:59It's true.
43:00The anti-monopoly spirit is as old as America.
43:03It's rooted in a simple idea that power has got to be checked.
43:07Just like political power, economic power has got to be checked too.
43:09But the fact is, big corporations, monopolies have too much power in America today.
43:15I see it everywhere I go.
43:17You know, I come to Congress having worked in the Department of Justice in the Antitrust
43:21Division.
43:22And it's a division full of patriotic men and women, many of them nonpartisan, who come
43:27to this work with the basic belief in this country and in the power that must be checked
43:35by government.
43:36So what do we mean?
43:38What kind of power are we checking?
43:40Every day on this job, as I've traveled around the state of New Hampshire, I hear about big
43:46agricultural corporations that are screwing family farmers, like the family farm I grew
43:51up down the road from.
43:53Big health insurers who are charging you more for less.
43:58Big health insurers who are rolling up the entire industry, from providers to hospital
44:04beds, to the prescription drugs that people rely on for their lives.
44:09Big tech companies that are using your data, your valuable data for their own gain.
44:15The list goes on.
44:16When we look across our consolidated economy, we see that corporate power has reached its
44:21apex in industries big and small, from door locks to the defense industrial base.
44:28We've always found common ground in this country around the basic idea that just like political
44:33power has got to be checked, economic power has got to be checked too.
44:37And I'm so grateful to my colleague from Pennsylvania for bringing us together today.
44:43What I'd say is our antitrust laws are alive and well, but they could use an update, and
44:47I look forward to working with everyone here today and in the days ahead to make that dream
44:53a reality, because it's part of the American dream.
44:55So with that, I yield back to my friend from Pennsylvania.
44:57Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from New Hampshire.
45:01And this corporate power we feel in so much of our economy, it's also what we feel that
45:05corrupts this place, our nation's capital.
45:09We see it with the unlimited money that runs through our elections, unlimited super PAC
45:14spending that corporations can dump in to buy the favors they get from politicians,
45:20people who we represent, Democrat, Republican, independent, you name it.
45:24They hate this corruption.
45:25They see it.
45:26They smell it.
45:27They know it's crooked.
45:28It is why you have pharmacy benefit managers extracting profits on the backs of people's
45:34medicine, killing chain pharmacies.
45:37It's why you can't even fix your own stuff, that we even have to fight for the right to
45:41repair.
45:42I mean, what could be more American than the idea that you could fix your own stuff, whether
45:45it's a tractor, a car, an ice cream machine, you name it.
45:49This right to repair goes to the heart of this.
45:51It's why you see housing costs out of control with Wall Street buying up housing and then
45:55buying influence down here.
45:57It's also why you see the obscene practice of people getting rich in Congress, trading
46:03stock and information they may learn in their job serving the people in Congress.
46:08It's corrupt.
46:09We ought to end it.
46:10I'm proud to yield now to a colleague of mine who gets this fight against corruption, who's
46:15organized workers, who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
46:19Gentleman from Texas, Mr. Kassar.
46:21Thank you, Mr. DeLuzio.
46:23I'm Greg Kassar.
46:24I'm proud to represent the heart of Texas in the United States Congress, to chair the
46:29Congressional Progressive Caucus.
46:32Before all that, I started my career as a labor organizer.
46:35I saw up close how corporate lobbyists and corrupt politicians would trade campaign contributions
46:43for corporate tax breaks, and how they would trade lower wages for workers for fatter paychecks
46:50for CEOs and their political friends.
46:53They thought that working people could do nothing about this.
46:57They thought their workers were too divided to push back.
47:01But on construction sites, guys who spoke different languages and who came from different
47:06places were pissed off, and they were willing to put their differences aside to come together
47:11and fight back, stop the corruption, and demand a fair paycheck.
47:17We didn't win by going on bended knee and begging big corporations for better treatment.
47:22We did it by unifying working people around some central ideas, that Americans deserve
47:29a good pay for a full day's work, and that taxpayer dollars are meant for the common good.
47:35They are not for corporate welfare.
47:37Those ideas brought workers together to win historic wage increases and better benefits
47:42in the heart of Texas.
47:44And this is what we need today in America.
47:47And this is what we need the Democratic Party to be all about.
47:51The central goal of the Democratic Party should be to break the unholy alliance between corporate
47:56greed and corrupt government.
47:59We can't just beg CEOs to please bring down prices.
48:03We have to break up the giant monopolies that are screwing over consumers and small businesses alike.
48:09We can't just beg big CEOs to say, please be nicer to us.
48:14No, we have to get big money out of politics so that the ultra-rich don't have a bigger
48:19say in this country than the everyday person.
48:23And we cannot just beg corporations to give people a raise.
48:26We have to unionize workplaces and pass laws that protect the American worker and the American
48:33worker's wages.
48:34And to get there, we have to transform the Democratic Party into a party that fights
48:39for working people first, no matter what.
48:41And into a party that is willing to stand up to the powerful special interests that
48:46are screwing over working people.
48:48Because if we love our country, we have to be willing to fight for the people who make it work.
48:53I yield back to my friend, Mr. DeLuzio.
48:56Thank you, gentlemen from Texas.
48:58You want to respect hard work, you've got to respect the people who do that hard work.
49:01That's at the core of this.
49:02And respecting the labor movement is so central.
49:05I'm from Western Pennsylvania, which is sacred ground in that labor movement, where people
49:08bled for the right to organize.
49:11That fight continues.
49:12I recognize now a colleague from Oregon who gets this, who understands about the dignity
49:16of work and fighting for our people, a gentlelady from Oregon, Ms. Hoyle.
49:23I'm Mel Hoyle, and I represent the Central and South Coast of Oregon.
49:26I'm a proud third-generation union member with a background in sales and international
49:31trade, and I came to Congress to fight for working people.
49:35My family's path to the middle class was made possible because of the labor movement.
49:40My grandfather immigrated from Ireland and worked as a union laborer building bridges.
49:45It was hard work in unsafe conditions, conditions that are significantly better because of the
49:52building trades unions.
49:53My father was a firefighter and became president of his union to fight for better wages and
49:58safer working conditions.
50:00The contract he and his team negotiated while management tried and failed to break his spirit
50:06took his members from poverty wages to a family wage job.
50:10IAFF Local 789 is still working under that contract 40 years later.
50:17I grew up going to union halls and picket lines, and with my father fighting to elect
50:23pro-worker candidates, so naturally I became a member of Unite Here Local 26 as a union
50:29waitress during the AIDS crisis, where fellow union members had the dignity of health care
50:34and death benefits when they needed them because we belonged to a union.
50:40And I'm proud to say my son's a Teamster.
50:42I understand what's at stake for the working people of this country in my district because
50:47it's my story too.
50:48And I came to Congress to fight for everyday people to have a fair shot, to live in dignity,
50:54and make a fair wage while they work hard and provide for their families.
50:59That's why I believe in economic populism, which is not just about talking at people.
51:05It's about listening to them and truly representing them.
51:09The fact is workers feel left behind and that the two-party system doesn't represent them.
51:15Republicans have tied in with billionaires and restricted the rights of workers to organize
51:19and have union representation wherever possible, and while they're telling them that their
51:25enemy is their neighbor.
51:29And too many Democrats show up on a job site seemingly from a sense of noble obligation
51:34with wonky academic explanations about why everything's fine, even when everyday Americans
51:40can't make ends meet.
51:42I had an operating engineer tell me last week that he thinks both parties are pissing on
51:47his leg and telling him it's raining.
51:49We have to understand that working people do not want a handout.
51:53They want a good job and a pathway to the middle class and a comfortable retirement.
51:59And those opportunities have slipped away for too many people.
52:03When people tell us they're struggling to afford prescription medications, we can't
52:08turn around and tell them that they're wrong.
52:10We need to listen to them and hold Big Pharma accountable.
52:14When people tell us they see government as overly bureaucratic and complex, we can't
52:19dismiss that experience and say it's all fine.
52:23We need to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly, so of course addressing
52:28waste, fraud, and abuse is important.
52:31We also need to make sure our veterans, our seniors, and the most vulnerable among us
52:36receive the benefits they've earned and not break government under the guise of efficiency.
52:43Democrats are the party that champion and protect the things that working people rely
52:47on like the Affordable Care Act, Social Security, stronger unions and workplace protections,
52:52the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, public education, and strong consumer protections.
52:58However, we need more Democrats whose filter for what they do in Congress is, will this
53:06help working people, as opposed to giving lip service in some disconnected way.
53:12We should all be fighting hard against corruption.
53:15And for a real path to the middle class, young people want to be able to work one job and
53:20afford to buy a home and raise a family.
53:23And that is not the reality for too many Americans.
53:26That's what Democrats should stand for and be working for every day.
53:30Our party must embrace economic populism and fight to revive the American dream, standing
53:35up for working people and giving them a chance to succeed.
53:38I yield back.
53:39I thank the gentlelady from Oregon, Mr. Speaker.
53:44Tonight we've heard from members from my side of the party, Democrats from across the country,
53:49representing a lot of different districts, but are all speaking out on ways that we're
53:52fighting corruption and the excess of corporate power and the ways the Democratic Party ought
53:57to move forward, not for Democrats, but for everyone in this country.
54:01I want to thank my colleagues for joining me here today to say loud and clear that things
54:05need to change.
54:07Economic populism and patriotism ought to be where we go.
54:12Standing up for our people, without apology, to revive the American dream.
54:17I have the honor of representing a battleground competitive district in Western Pennsylvania.
54:21My time here in Congress, I've been dead set on lowering costs, battling corruption, confronting
54:27corporate power.
54:28That means promoting competition and taking on monopolies, giving small businesses a shot
54:33to compete, fighting against these lousy trade deals that stripped communities for
54:38parts.
54:39It means making more stuff in America, cracking down on junk fees and price gouging, and standing
54:45up without apology for the union way of life.
54:49These are economic priorities to bring down costs, and they are good policy.
54:53The American people support them.
54:55We know that.
54:56Everybody hates getting ripped off.
54:59Everybody hates working hard and yet still not seeing a life that you can succeed in.
55:05If you want American capitalism to succeed, you've got to have competition in our economy.
55:10There's a tendency by some in politics to try and please everybody.
55:14You should take pride in when the bad guys and the villains who are screwing over your
55:19people are your enemy.
55:20It means you're doing something right.
55:22I'm sick and tired of folks in Washington or the think tanks or wherever else looking
55:26for a win-win when there is a villain hurting our people.
55:29If a railroad sends a toxic fireball into the sky over a community, you don't look for
55:34a win-win.
55:35You fight them for your people.
55:36When PBMs are killing pharmacies and jacking up drug costs, you fight them.
55:42Sometimes there's a bad guy.
55:43There is not a win-win.
55:44Because our way of life is on the line, our safety is at risk, we have to stand up for
55:49our people.
55:50You don't cower like wimps.
55:51You don't go beg for donations from the people hurting yours.
55:55The goal is simple and popular here.
55:56It's to make life better.
55:59Less of a rip-off and to take on the corporate power and corruption that's hurting people.
56:03That is the path back to the American dream.
56:05This is our vision of economic patriotism and populism.
56:09And it's a winning one.
56:10It's one that can resonate from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt and everywhere in between.
56:15Everywhere in this great country.
56:16I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your patience and time.
56:19I yield now to my time.