Watch the speech here.
Download the speech here.
Key Excerpts and Summary:
The shrinking middle class is the existential national security threat to the U.S.
- “As a CIA officer and Pentagon official by training, I believe that the single, greatest security threat to the United States is *not* coming from abroad. It’s the shrinking middle class here at home.”
- “This is the existential threat. And as a national security professional by training, what do you do when there’s an existential threat to your country? You get to work on a war plan. You face up to what’s not working, change course, and ruthlessly pursue the economic security that’s at the heart of so much happening in our world.”
- “Government has the responsibility to set the conditions for success, and the American People have the responsibility to work hard to achieve it. That deal is failing because politicians from both parties strayed from ruthlessly expanding the middle class. They’ve been lured by special interests, their own re-elections, and niche issues that have more to do with themselves.”
- “And this is the thing that many Democrats have lost touch with—when you can’t provide for your kids what was provided to you, you feel anger. You feel shame. You lose your dignity. And you look for something—or someone—to blame. That anger, that suspicion among Americans — that right there is what I mean when I say an existential threat.
Slotkin is proposing an Economic War Plan that ruthlessly prioritizes the middle class.
- “Today, what I want to lay out is an Economic War Plan. Because any successful vision of America must start with an economy that works for everyone.”
- “…back during my war planning days at the Pentagon, the first thing we did was lay out the specific problem we were trying to solve. The middle class is shrinking. That’s not a political statement, it’s a fact. This core issue unites moderates, progressives and everything in between.”
Slotkin believes Government isn’t working for the average American, and we need to re-build the fundamentals to make it work for the middle class.
- “And to me, those fundamentals are the following: Jobs that pay enough to save every month. Schools that prepare our kids for those jobs. A home you can call your own. Safety and security from fear. Energy to power our lives, and an environment to pass on to our kids. Health care you can actually afford.”
- “This Economic War Plan aims not just to “fix” these systems or nibble at them around the margins – but to rebuild them.”
No more nibbling at the margins. And if we need to slaughter some sacred cows to get there, so be it.
- “We need to get serious about bringing our critical supply chains home. We need an aggressive 10-year plan that prevents any foreign nation from having a veto over America’s economic security. This is what we call good old-fashioned industrial policy.”
- “We need to move past the talking point of “comprehensive” immigration reform. For the past 20 years, politicians in both parties have abandoned immigration deals—either because they were good but not perfect, or because they preferred to use the immigration issue as political ammo.”
- “…Too often as Democrats, we have the habit of vilifying success. Yes, we want everyone in America, including the President of the United States, to play by the same set of rules. Yes, we need a fair tax code to ensure all Americans are paying their fair share. But this is America. No matter who you are or where you come from, Black, white, Latino, first generation, if you play by the rules, we want you to be wildly successful.”
- “The government shouldn’t give tax breaks to big companies and then have to pay again to keep their employees from going hungry. That’s double-dipping—it makes the taxpayer pay twice for corporate greed. And it’s got to stop.”
- “…we should ban cell phones in every K-12 classroom in America.”
- “We need to declare a housing emergency and spur the building of about 4 million homes to catch up with need.”
- “What we need is not a renewable plan or a fossil fuel plan. It’s an all-of-the-above energy plan…”
- “[We need] a true public option. That means any American, at any age, has the ability to buy into a nationwide public insurance plan… Medicare and this new public insurance plan should have the ability to negotiate prices for all drugs.”
- “My Economic War Plan also means *doing* some no-brainer stuff to regain trust. First, full-on ban corporate PAC money… Beyond that, we also need to ban Members of Congress from trading stocks and cryptocurrencies, so Americans know politicians aren’t personally profiting from their access.”
- “The middle class doesn’t have a lobbyist. They don’t have a super PAC. They don’t have a corporate PAC. But they should have the Democratic Party. You want to re-focus elected leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, on middle class issues? Own up to the role of money in politics, and gut it.”
- “Look, I know it’s a fractious time. Democrats are stuck playing constant defense against what is coming out of the White House. But it’s simply not enough. We need to offer a different vision, and demonstrate our affirmative, positive plan for the country. That’s our responsibility and what the moment demands of us. And given the stakes – and the existential threat of a shrinking middle class — an Economic War Plan is what I know how do. We need to treat the moment with the seriousness it deserves. And be relentless in protecting the country we all love.”
Read the remarks as prepared here.
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