Vice President Biden was on fire earlier today in front of 9,000 or so National Education Association members – representing 3.2 million members – about the “new Republican Party,” its strategy of “madness by design,” and its perpetration of one of the “biggest scams in American history.” For a transcript of the entire speech, click here; a short excerpt is below. Oh, and THANK YOU Joe Biden, for saying what so many of us have been thinking!
Yesterday, you said:
“I know of no family of means in America who would deny their own children preschool, child care, good nutrition, health care, and other opportunities, from soccer to music to dance to art.
So, if a nation wants to remain strong and prosperous, why would we perpetuate a system that denies these opportunities for any child?”
Well, the answer, Dennis, is that the other team doesn’t think we can afford it, and they don’t think it’s a priority.
This new Republican party has a different philosophy.
I don’t think they really believe in public education, as we do.
Public education is as much about poverty, lack of health care, and unemployment, as it is about what goes on in the classroom.
To quote Dennis again, “part of the madness of this country is an economy that is out of balance”.
To the new Republican Party, it is madness by design. They don’t think it’s out of balance; they think it’s reestablishing balance.
They believe:
• A CEO making 260 times what their workers make is a honest reflection of their respective value.
• That one percent of wage earners controlling 24 percent of wealth will spur economic growth.
• That hedge fund managers making billions of income should paying a 15% tax rate while teachers making tens of thousands in income should pay 25% or more- because it will encourage investors to take risks for economic growth.
Dennis, as you said, you are under attack.
The Republican party has undertaken the most direct assault on labor not just in your lifetimes-but since the 1920s.
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