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Commentary From Robert Reich Robert Reich Interviews Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2018 PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIgn0RTHhaE Peter Burgess COMMENTARY This is a Reich / Warren interview from 2018, but it could be just a few days old! The content is very good ... and very much aligned with my own thinking then and now. Today, Donald Treump has been sworn in as President of the United States for a second term! This is an insane outcome for the United States and the world ... but the established rules of the (political) game in the United States means that Trump won the election and now gets to be Presdent. The American system of government has degraded significantly during my adult lifetime ... now more than sixty years ... and it is likely that even worse is to come. Sadly, I do not really see much of a silver lining, rather I am expecting the worst, which is very depressing. Back in October, during the Harris / Walz campaign, I was very optimistic that there would be a solid win for the Democrats. Why the vote went the other way and Trump / Vance won by a relatively easy margin is difficult for me to understand. After considerable thought, I have concluded that the Democrats are really not one single big party but a rather loose aggregation of many different mini-parties with a wide range of 'agendas'. In most elections, only about 60% of voters who describe themselves of Democrats will agree with the party and vote, while and the others will stay home. In recent years, though the GOP in many ways has been in disarray and dysfunctional, Trump's MAGA supporters all vote ... as do a substantial number of GOP stalwarts who fear the impact of left wing polieies on their incomes and wealth! In this scenario ... the Republicans win ... as they did with Trump I in 2016 and now again in 2024 for Trump II. I am hearing TV commentators talk about how much politics has changed during the last 8 years ... but I don't really see that. Rather I see a disastrous decline in the quality of the analysis of the TV commentators AKA 'talking heads'! Of course, when I talk about TV commentators, I refer also to the way social media has become a significant part of the news flow with a big part of this news flow being misinformation promulgated by a wide range of anti-social actors! When I watch Robert Reich today ... about 7 years after the conversation in this video ... I am sad, and to some extent scared! I grew up in the UK where the BBC was a trusted souce of information. When I migrated to North America in the 1960s, there was CBS with Walter Cronkite that delivered reliable news together with NBS and ABC. The information landscape has changed. News is being reported faster, but it is not being reported better. Shakespeare talked about people in high places 'strutting on the stage' and for some reason this line came to mind today and Trump did hist 'strutting on the stage' at his inauguration! Peter Burgess
Robert Reich Interviews Senator Elizabeth Warren electron media group inc. Re-published Jan 19, 2025 ... Original from 2018 68.6K subscribers ... 36,124 views ... 2.1K likes Robert Reich Interviews Elizabeth Warren before the start of the mid-term elections in 2018. As her seat in the senate is secure, Warren is able to speak freely on issues that put her at odds with the incoming President. However, her words on Trump from 2018 still remain true nearly 7 years later. Warren spoken about what shaped her ideals as a child, her economic policy views, and what lead to her becoming interested in politics. Join this channel to get access to perks: / @electronsinc Transcript 0:00 guest today Senator Elizabeth Warren and we're going to talk about power the Progressive Movement and how we reclaim our democracy okay I'm ready when you're ready Senator Elizabeth Warren thank you so much for coming here and and talking to me thank you it's so good to be here with you we'll just pick up one of these conversations that we've had for years and years and years just another string of another string of convers I I'll tell you one one thing I really wanted to get from you is a kind of Insider view of how it feels seriously to be in Washington now and be in the Senate now with you know Trump and the Republicans in charge of everything I mean how bad when you get up in the morning how do you feel you know it has two parts to it okay let and let me do both parts one part it's a little bit of a Shaggy Dog story but but an important one 40 1:02 million people in America suffer from hearing loss and fewer than one in six actually gets a hearing aid and the principal reason is because of cost the darn things cost thousands of dollars they're not covered by Medicaid they're not covered by Medicare they're not covered by most private insurance and most folks don't have the money for them um it turns out that the hardware for those hearing aids is really not very expensive I mean like some scientists tell me it's within the range of 25 30 40 bucks right for the actual Hardware so why is the price so high this is going to be a markets question right and could it have anything to do with Monopoly oh could it have something to do go that's right you get an A on this and the way that this handful of hearing aid manufacturers worked it out is state by state by state they've got these complex rules in place that frankly protect from any competition from the 2:02 outside so I talked to a bunch of scientists about this talked to some folks in the healthcare field and basically the question became why couldn't you sell hearing aids over the counter the same way you can sell glasses over the counter and yeah there could always be a fancier version that costs more money but what about the 1999 version you know the the $100 version of a hearing a or $200 version a lot of people could get a lot of help at a price they could afford and this is a nice thing about federal law as you know federal law could come in and override state law and simply prohibit the States from saying nobody can do over the- counter sales FDA can put out some regulations and we could open up a whole new market 40 million Americans so I had this idea I talk to a bunch of scientists I get it all written up and I placed my first call to Chuck Grassley republican from Iowa 3:01 and Chuck says tell me about that again what and I through he I can't hear you I need a hearing he walks through this and he says you know that's a fine idea Count Me In and next call goes to Johnny Isaacson republican from Georgia Susan Collins republican from Maine all under the political radar screen and you put one person and another person and another person it's just you on that's right just it's this is Tiny this is totally ret one offs and finally build a big enough Coalition before the industry gets wind of it and by golly introduce this thing now the industry learns about it at one point the NRA opposes it that's another whole crazy story I know I know the NRA doesn't want counter hearing oh because of the loudness of guns so we do through all 4:00 this and at the end of the day there's a you know how this work there is a bill that has to move an FDA reauthorization we take our bill hook it on to that like the little you know car on the last the Caboose on the terrain the thing goes through it passes let me interrupt you for a second is Grassley a co-sponsor oh yeah he is the co-sponsor these are co co sponsors signed on the dotted line and so this bill with with Grassley gets hooked on goes through passes the Senate passes the house and a few months ago Donald Trump signs it into law and that means in within a year or so we should start seeing over the counter sales of hearing aids see I thought this was going to be a terrible story I was getting ready I was stealing myself you're stealing yourself for the hearing aid industry and the monopolists and big money here here's the point that's fabulous you asked me about can 5:00 Washington work and the answer is sometimes shall sometimes that's the place we're in and by golly you make a difference and you know you want to ask me what keeps me you know how do you stay in the game it's when you get to make changes of course of course but wait keeps you in the game but that that raises a whole host of questions I mean Donald Trump signs this into law why I mean this is the exception that proves the rule why did the hearing aid industry and all the Rel Industries and all the monopolists that could be you know that have been making it's not just hearing aids that are raking off money obviously it's all of the sellers of the hearing aid why were they caught off guard why did they let this through why didn't they get to the Republicans why did they get to Trump they didn't hear about it fast enough they thought they were under hear people didn't hear about it that's right they thought they were under no threat and we managed to get this thing in under the radar screen before anyone was able to 6:00 politicize money and do all the things and it's not a huge monop it's a monopoly that's huge for that sector but it's not a monopoly like Comcast which keeps lobbyists on the ground every day listening to every word it's not that that big when you started off on hearing did you do a little map did you say okay I can get this done even if I can't get done this stuff because they're big money and there's big monopolists here I can just sort of Wiggle this through yep that's exactly what it was about and here's the point you had asked me about how Washington works sometimes you can actually that's a wonderful story that's a wonderful story that's an uplifting I had no idea and now you want to do the other stories me the bad stories well look it monop you know we have a a a one of our videos coming out on Monopoly and I want to send it to you good um because you've done a huge amount and this is something the Democratic party is picking up but why aren't the 7:00 Republicans if you're concerned about the free market working I mean even Adam Smith was talking about you know producers getting together and monopolizing if you don't watch them and we have more and more concentration of Industry now than we've had in 40 years at least and the antitrust laws are not really working nobody's enforcing them they didn't even enforce them under the Obama Administration and what's why aren't the Republicans why are they making themselves so vulnerable Able by not looking at antitrust corruption I I I actually that's how I see it I think this is an issue of corruption here's how I see this you start back in the 1930s and of course you study this all the time but coming out of the Great Depression and you watch how Franklin Roosevelt you know we always think of Teddy Roosevelt as the trustbuster which he was and helped get the laws through but Franklin Roosevelt is he's trying to put the economy back on a functioning basis 8:00 he calls in help and boy they start enforcing the antitrust laws and the whole idea behind that is by enforcing the anti trust laws they create the openings for small businesses to grow for innovators to come in they create the opportunity for workers to have more power in their negotiations after the NRA first of all he goes with the NRA and he monopolizes but this is after that but he's here he is on antitrust laws Department of Justice starts bringing action comes in and starts fighting and that continues let's be clear through both Democratic and Republican administrations through or Al Alcoa case the Alcoa case ex I mean you know we know about the Alcoa case nobody watching this has any idea what we're talking about but the point is a giant Monopoly case and it really put the question to the United States government are you strong enough to fight back against one of the most powerful corporations not just in in America but 9:00 in the whole world and the answer was yes a justice department that had that was so determined that said yes we will come in and we will fight this fight and that was important in my view not just with Alcoa but important for the signal it sent everywhere huge and then came Robert bour now he was my law professor and I even worked for him in the Justice Department I think to I admit it yes yes uh but but you know there's an example of how a really big bad idea can be utilized politically by the Reagan Administration y but then why didn't you know the subsequent Clinton or Obama administration so I think of it as BigTime periods 1935 to about 1980 there are differences between Democrats and Republicans but the basic thrust is everything gets measured through that doesn't help America's middle class 10:00 right does it help create more opportunity does it help create stronger middle class and think about it uh GI Bill uh uh the national highway system the right the investments in public education the investments in research that help keep this economy robust and Innovative all that it was all measured through this lens of America's middle class create opportunities for the poor by strengthening and expanding America's middle class set a minimum wage at a place where it could support a middle class life because because of the cataclysm of the Great Depression the crash and the Great Depression creates this political Demand right to restore and enlarge the middle class that's right in a sense of we're not going to let giant corporations scoop up all the value take advantage of their workers take advantage of consumers and it doesn't matter whether they're in rail whether they're in steel we're not going to let them do this so that's kind of the heart of how antitrust goes forward and sure there's some differences 11:01 between Democrats and Republicans but that's the direction Ronald Reagan gets elected and think about the the two big parts of what he sells the first one is the polite word is deregulation what it really means is fire the cops not not the cops on Main Street the cops on Wall Street the antitrust Regulators the bank Regulators back them off move them back guard all the guard RS that's exactly right all of those so the big can get bigger and bigger and use that power to build up their profits and then the second thing was let's change progressive taxation let's cut taxes for those at the top and once you cut taxes for those at the top there's less money to make those investments in education in infrastructure in basic research there's also more money at the top to influence 12:00 politics and now you get to the heart of it and that's where I see much of this when you ask the question about why why don't the Republicans stand up against these monopolists why don't the Republicans push back against them a big part of it is money in politics now and it's it's money in every way sure it's money that's campaign contributions but so much more it's money to hire all those lobbyists it's money so you know lobbyist let me just do one off to the side during after the financial crash and Congress is trying to rewrite the banking rules the banks who had just taken $700 billion in bailout money right Congress had had to pass a law to make that money available to them they were taking money from the FED at you know out the back door in basically these free loans to to keep them afloat those Banks instead of saying thank you American people we are deeply grateful 13:00 that you kept us in business when we were in solent and thank you also for not sending any Executives that's right ja that's right than let us letting us go home at night and sleep in our expensive homes while other people go to jail but we don't go to jail when we break the law instead of saying that they got together and said whoa someone's going to be write rewriting the laws to keep that crash that kind of Crash from happening again I know what Let's do let's spend more than a million dollar a day lobbying against Financial reforms oh and let's put right at the center of that let's Lobby against that little Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that oh I remember we had for an idea you remember that I remember you remember that had Elizabeth war on let's make that the center of what we definitely are going to kill off before that idea takes hold and becomes law that's so my point is it's camp pign money it's lobbying money it's Think 14:02 Tank money it's taking Bob bork's paper and spreading it all a dele of money but our Democrats now this is a delicate question and I am a Democrat and I was in a democratic and I was in I was a cabinet officer but listen if we're talking about monopolization and the diminution of antitrust and money in politics Democrats have been not as bad as Republicans arguably but hey and look that's why we got to have real change in Washington the way I see this Bob is that we got to get out there and be real clear about what we're running on we are running to try to make this government work again not for the richest Americans not for the ones who have enormous power and can spend a million a day 15:00 lobbying but make it work for Working Families make it work for the poor but but here's the deal Bob we not only got to say it we not only got to talk the talk we got to be willing to walk the walk if we are blessed to get power again well it's all about power I mean can you get power I mean I think you can you can get power without uh sucking up to the moneyed interests uh but the moneyed interests are so overwhelming and Y is the Democratic party as a party capable of biting the hand that feeds them I mean it's not as big a hand that feeds the Republicans it's still a hand that feeds them and are we going to field and be able to field candidates in 2018 and also I don't want to get make you in put you in an awkward but are we going to be able to feeli candidates that really do have that sense that power has got to be shifted in this country okay so let me do it 16:00 both ways the first is this is a question that keeps me up at night I am deeply deeply worried about this I'm worried about it because boy if we don't get out there and do it I guarantee nobody else is and this country fundamentally changes and we're going to have trumps as far as the I can see it's not just Donald Trump that's right it's and then and then and then but let me tell you the part that makes me optimistic here's what makes me optimistic I I went to the inauguration I wanted to see up close I I no it's now burned into the backs of my eyeb no no no and I wanted to see this and I believe when the history of this time is written they'll talk about that dark speech they'll talk about the first fight that man chose to make the the the emblematic of his presidency was how big were the crowds that came to adore me right but when you write the history of 17:02 this period it will also be about the next day the day when women in their pink hats and Friends of women and little kids and seniors people came out we had the biggest protest March in the history of the world and and from there look where it went people said e yeah but you know the sophisticates will they still be here in a week and the answer was oh yeah will they still be here in a month and the answer was yes and will they still be here in a year more than ever will they vote will they vote well I'll tell you this the largest the largest party in America is not the Democrats or Republicans it's the party of non-voters that's right especially in midterms yep and the real question is turnout and are people who are fed up with not just Trump but also big money and the moneyed interests are are they going to actually get out and vote so I 18:02 think that voting is an act of optimism you do it if you believe that your vote combined with a lot of others will actually make a difference so to the extent that Democrats in these races in 18 stand up and say here's what I stand for here's what I will be held accountable for I'm going to make it clear what I'm willing to do I think we pull people in who are ready to vote well I think you're right I think you're right uh you know in 2015 I was out in red States this is the start of 2015 and I was talking to people who were angry they weren't getting ahead they were just working harder than ever the game is rigged and I said well who are you thinking about voting for and I kept on getting back the same two names from the same people well I'm thinking about either Donald Trump or ber Bernie Sanders and I said how can you put those two names in the 19:01 same sentence that's but they said we want somebody who's going to stand up to the money and stand up to the power and stand up to the rigged game and the question we're now talking about is whether in 2018 and in future years Democrats are willing to do that yep and you think they are well look it's we're talking about I mean it's it's a huge power shift it is it is the powers shift this is everything that's broken you can tie back right into this it's the seizure of government our government by the rich and the powerful and that they are making it work for them and what we've got going on our side it's a whole lot more of us than there is of them and if we will actually use the power of the vote we have the capacity to take this historic moment and to turn this democracy into 20:02 something that truly represents the people well we have to I mean we have to we don't have a a chance but you know in 2000 Al Gore when he was running uh the only time in the last it was only the last month where his polls started really sore was when he said we've got to take on the privileged and the powerful and that phrase and he was kind of surprised you know how did that what's going on it was the first inkling that I had well I sort of had inklings during the Clinton Administration but first inkling I had that taking on the privileged and the powerful that there was a sense in this country that things had got off track in some very very fundamental way but he didn't follow through the Democrats haven't followed through Obama I love Obama I mean I thought he was even if Trump was not such a horrible person Obama would still 21:00 in my books be a hero but he you know I wish he had been more aggressive about a lot of these things so you know for me it was the work I I studied families who went broke and I did that in in big part because that was my family I I'd grown up in a family that was a paycheck to paycheck family my Three Brothers Big Brothers all go off and join the mil milary and when my daddy had a heart attack it just turned our family upside down and it felt like to a kid in no time at all we lose the family station wagon and every night when I go to bed I hear my mother cry we're going to lose our house we're going to lose our house and I watched my family struggle I watched my mother she was 50 years old she never worked outside the home I remember the morning that she she's in 22:02 her bedroom their bedroom and she's crying and talking to herself she we're not going to lose this house we're not going to lose this house and she dries her eyes and blows her nose puts on her lipstick and pulls on this dress her high heels and she walks to the Sears and she gets a minimum wage job a minimum wage job in an America where a minimum wage job would support a middle class family not easy but three of us and she could still make a mortgage and put groceries on the table and keep us stitched together till Daddy finally made it back to work and that happened I always heard that story in my you know this is so woven into me it's about tough women who do what need to be done but it's also about a government on your side a government that said I'm going to set a 23:00 minimum wage we're collectively Congress is going to set a minimum wage where it works for a working family today I I've been through these hearings Congress wants set a minimum wage for a working family it's for the restaurant industry comes in and says well it's the other n that's right we we don't want to see any changes we're happy with things where they are but I think you put your finger right on the heart of it's who this country really is going to work for is it really only going to work for a handful of employers a handful of big businesses a handful of big Banks a handful of you know Comcast and cable providers the Giants who just keep sucking up more value or are we going to be able to take this democracy and turn out enough people enough people who who come off the sidelines enough people who say you know I used to vote but that's all I 24:01 ever did enough people who say but now I'm in this I have a group I'm I'm making I'm knocking on doors I'm making phone calls I'm I'm posting on Facebook I'm tweeting I'm I am in this fight if we have enough people who do that we get to take this country back but the we in your sentence has got to be presumably um a Democratic party or a set of leaders who have big ideas andity put ideas into PR and it's not just raising the minimum wage it's not just antitrust it's also dealing with stagnant wages for the last 35 years dealing with this huge onslaught of money and politics dealing with you know things that people care about at the r at the kind of scale yeah that it has to be I mean I I again I 25:01 personally have a great deal of affection for Hillary Clinton but her policies were were I mean there were so many of them they were well thought out I thought they were terrific but nobody heard them because they were so small so my sense of where we go next is that voters are actually pretty smart and that they kep things not always the way I want it to come out I don't always like like parts of it but I think the the question that people are going to ask going forward is do you care about people like me and are you actually willing to get up and fight for me because if we can answer that yes and yes when care and we will fight and then truly 26:03 deliver we can change this country couldn't agree more good I couldn't agree more and I'm going to let you go because you have to go change the country um but let me just end with one of my favorite quotes from Louis brandise oh the great Justice who said we have a choice we can either have great wealth in the hands with few or we can have a democracy but we can't have both yes and that's really what you're saying is at stake and indeed there could be nothing I don't think larger at stake I think I think that's right Louie knew what he was talking about he did he was coming off the last guilded age yeah he didn't anticipate this Gilded Age but here it is but we're back yeah so so good to see you thanks so much for coming soad to I really appreciate it

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