Democrats are turning on Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi is leading the charge.
Schumer announced Thursday he would vote to pass Trump’s disastrous budget bill to avert a government shutdown, flipping on his own party just 24 hours after he signaled he would vote against the bill. Pelosi issued a statement the next day urging Senate Democrats not to follow his lead.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across American,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable,” Pelosi continued, referencing Schumer’s betrayal. “I salute Leader Hakeem Jeffries for his courageous rejection of this false choice, and I am proud of my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus for their overwhelming vote against this bill.”
U.S. President Donald Trump will sign a long-anticipated executive order on Thursday that aims to shut down the Department of Education, acting on a key campaign pledge, according to a White House summary seen by Reuters.
Even before it was signed, the order was being challenged by a group of Democratic state attorneys general, who filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump from dismantling the department and halt the layoffs of nearly half of its staff announced last week.
The NAACP, a leading civil rights group, also blasted the expected order as unconstitutional.
"This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
WA STATE FACT SHEET on how Department of Education supports WA students and schools
ICYMI: Murray, Top Appropriators Demand Detailed Answers on Trump Admin’s Sweeping Mass Firings at Department of Education
***PHOTOS, B-ROLL HERE***
***WATCH HERE***
Shoreline, WA — Today, as reporting indicates President Trump will sign an Executive Order aimed at eliminating the Department of Education tomorrow, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, held a roundtable discussion with Seattle School Board President Gina Topp and parents and educators laying out how President Trump’s moves to dismantle the Department of Education are a serious threat to students, educators, and public schools throughout Washington state.
Last week, the Department of Education announced that it was firing more than 1,300 workers as part of Trump and Elon Musk’s indiscriminate mass layoffs across the federal workforce. This and other administration actions to date will cut the Department’s workforce in half and effectively gut the agency. While outright abolishing the Department would require an act of Congress, President Trump has said repeatedly that he intends to do everything possible to achieve that goal and is expected to issue an executive order tomorrow that seeks to eliminate the Department and move its functions to other agencies. On Monday, Senator Murray led a letter demanding detailed answers from the Department about the mass firings it has conducted and how it is carrying out requirements of federal law and its critical responsibilities despite the sweeping reductions in force.
“Trump and Musk are taking a wrecking ball to the U.S. Department of Education and firing half its staff—we’re talking about the people who make sure federal funds get to our kids and schools, help students fill out the FAFSA and get Pell Grants and financial aid, protect students from predatory for-profit colleges, enforce our civil rights laws, and so much more. What’s the end goal here? Destroying public education in America—and robbing our students and families of critical funding while Trump and Musk enrich themselves,” said Senator Murray. “The effects of Trump and Musk’s slash and burn campaign will be felt across our state—by students and families who suffer from the loss of Department staff working to ensure their rights under federal law, school districts who have to lay off teachers, students who can’t get the help they need to get financial aid, and families who get ripped off because the watchdogs were fired. This issue is personal for me, and for every single family. We cannot relent in this fight—and we should never underestimate the power of our own voices.”
The Department of Education provides critical funding and support to students, teachers, and schools in Washington state, including providing $301 million annually in IDEA funding for 152,000 students with disabilities—15 percent of Washington’s student population—and $307 million annually in Title I funding for schools enrolling 511,000 from low-income backgrounds—reflecting 46 percent of Washington’s student population, among so much else. Another central responsibility of the Department is to identify, investigate, and resolve school violations of civil rights laws. A record number of civil rights complaints (22,687) were filed in Fiscal Year 2024; 35 percent of cases were based on disability discrimination. Trump’s plans for the Department of Education are extremely unpopular; 58 percent of voters across the political spectrum oppose eliminating the Department.
“Seattle Public Schools, like districts across the country, depends on federal funding to ensure every student has access to a high-quality education. These funds aren’t extras—they provide essential support for students from low-income families, English learners, and students with disabilities, breaking down barriers that stand in the way of opportunity. Cutting these programs doesn’t just hurt students today—it weakens our entire community and our future. Any cuts to these programs would undercut our collective future,” said Gina Topp, Seattle Public Schools Board President.
“ED enforces civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in the educational environment. These three main laws are Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination; Title VI, which prohibits racial discrimination; and Section 504, which prohibits disability discrimination. These laws help students in Washington State and across the county every single day…I help represent the Office for Civil Rights when offices are sued for how they’ve handled a discrimination complaint or when the office is sued over a new regulation or piece of guidance that OCR has published. I work with incredible, dedicated, hard-working public servants. Many of them have spent decades, or for some their entire careers, working for ED. The level of experience and knowledge that they bring to their work is simply irreplaceable,” said Rebecca Yates, an attorney for the Department of Education, Office of General Counsel, participating in the discussion in her personal capacity. “Last Tuesday night, like hundreds of ED employees across the country, I received an email informing me that my entire division was being abolished, and my position was being eliminated. I’m upset about losing my job, but I’m devastated about what’s happening to the Department of Education, and deeply concerned about the future of the Department—and the future of public education in this country.”
“Because my children received appropriate early intervention, IEP services, and accommodations, my oldest son was able to graduate from college and secure his first job. That success would not have been possible without federally funded programs that helped level the playing field for students like him. I once believed I could provide all the necessary support on my own—I even earned a PhD in my effort to do so—but I quickly learned that specialized services, trained professionals, and a strong federal commitment to disability education are essential,” said Lanya McKittrick, PhD, a special education researcher and family support professional, and the parent of four kids with special needs. “As a family support professional working with parents of children with low-incidence disabilities, I see the impact of these programs every day. Families are already struggling with devastating budget cuts that have stripped away services. If we allow this to continue, we risk undoing over 30 years of progress in disability rights and education.”
“I am deeply concerned about the administration’s recent staffing cuts and plans to dismantle the Education Department,” said Heather Schwindt, an advocate for kids with special needs and parent of two kids with disabilities, one of whom relies on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) plan to succeed in school. “This decision will set back public education and harm students with disabilities. A primary concern is the potential loss of funding for essential services and programs supporting students with disabilities. These services, mandated by federal laws such as the IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, are crucial for ensuring that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education. Reduced staffing, larger special education caseloads, and reduced capacity for delivering specialized services will result in a reduction of federal funding for Special Education… 60 years ago, children with disabilities were often denied the right to attend school. We’ve made progress with Section 504, IDEA, and the Department of Education and there is more progress to be made. The Department of Education is vital with the investments it makes in providing research to practice models, providing data on student outcomes nationally, and helping our state and others continue to push to do better for all children.”
A senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray has championed students and families at every stage of her career—fighting to help ensure every child in America can get a high-quality public education. Among other things, Senator Murray negotiated the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), landmark legislation that she got signed into law, replacing the broken No Child Left Behind Act. As a longtime appropriator, she has successfully fought to boost funding to support students and invest in our nation’s K-12 schools, and she has secured significant increases to the Pell Grant so that it goes further for students pursuing a higher education. Senator Murray also successfully negotiated the FAFSA Simplification Act, bipartisan legislation to reform the financial aid application process, simplify the FAFSA form for students and parents, and significantly expand eligibility for federal aid.
On Monday, Senator Murray led a letter demanding detailed answers from the Department of Education about the mass firings and other detrimental actions which risk major reductions in support for and oversight of federal investments in our nation’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education and threaten vital support for students with disabilities, access to Pell Grants and other financial aid, oversight of student loan servicers, scrutiny of for-profit colleges, and more. The letter follows an earlier March 6 letter Senator Murray sent alongside colleagues demanding answers about the chaotic, harmful actions taken by ED since January—which the Department has yet to respond to. During Secretary Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Senator Murray pressed McMahon on whether she will ensure approved funding gets out to serve students as the law requires and whether she would protect students’ data from DOGE. She also asked McMahon to name a single requirement of ESSA—and McMahon couldn’t name any. Ahead of McMahon’s confirmation, Senator Murray spoke out on the Senate floor against her nomination and sounded the alarm over President Trump and Elon Musk’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
A fact sheet outlining how the Department of Education supports students in Washington state is HERE.
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Today, March 17, 2025, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) joined local leaders at Memorial Elementary School to announce new steps in his “Stop School Hunger Plan,” which include new action and legislation to protect school meal programs from far-right extremists so that no child goes hungry. Gottheimer is fighting back against a new tax the Trump Administration is imposing on our families: a $1 billion cut in federal funding for fresh fruits and vegetables at schools and food banks, including a $26 million cut hurting Jersey children and families.
Video of today’s announcement can be found here.
Trump Administration’s Dangerous Cuts to School Meals:
- Last week, the Trump Administration announced they
were slashing more than $1 billion in federal funding provided by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture for schools and food banks to purchase
fresh, locally sourced food.
- New Jersey is losing $26 million in previously committed funding that would have supported 46 local farms and food producers across the state — including 11 farms in New Jersey’s Fifth District alone.
- $9.9 million cut for NJ from the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program.
- $16 million cut for NJ from the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement.
- The Administration’s cuts will gut school meal programs and help lead to higher local property taxes for hardworking Jersey families across the state.
Importance of School Meals:
- According to Feeding America, more than 44 million people in the U.S. face hunger, including one in five children.
- In Jersey, nearly 10% of the population is food insecure.
- More than a quarter of Americans are skipping meals because they cannot afford their weekly grocery bill.
- Studies show that three out of five public school teachers have students who regularly come to class hungry.
- Hunger in the classroom decreases a student’s ability to focus, worsens their physical activity, and causes stomach aches, headaches, depression, and anxiety.
- A Tufts University study showed elementary school students who eat breakfast listen better and have better spatial memory and short-term memory than students who skip breakfast.
- Students who skip breakfast generally make more errors, have slower memory recall, and are more likely to be absent, tardy, and to repeat a grade.
- Food-insecure families spend $2,500 more a year for health care than families with enough to eat.
- Studies have shown that addressing hunger can lead to drops in violent crime.
Gottheimer’s Stop School Hunger Plan:
- This week, Gottheimer is sending a letter to the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, urging the Administration to reverse these vicious cuts to school breakfast and lunch programs and demanding answers on why these cuts were made while stressing the disastrous impact they will have on Jersey children, families, and farmers.
- Gottheimer will introduce the Expanding Access to School Meals Act,
which allows any child who qualifies for reduced meals to receive them
at no cost.
- This legislation also expands the poverty threshold for free school lunch from 130% to 224% of the federal poverty level — which Jersey currently does.
- Gottheimer has long championed strengthening school meal programs so no child goes hungry:
- Last Congress, Gottheimer helped introduce the
No Hungry Kids in Schools Act, which would eliminate requirements to
collect bureaucratic, hard-to-manage applications from individual
households that prevent many children and families from receiving
assistance.
- Students will automatically qualify for assistance based on the needs determined by the State.
- Last Congress, Gottheimer helped introduce the Universal School Meals Bill, which would provide meals to all schoolchildren, eliminate burdensome application paperwork, increase reimbursement rates for participating schools, and reduce the stigma associated with meal programs.
- During the pandemic, Gottheimer fought to claw back federal dollars to help feed children who were food insecure.
- More than 9 million meals were provided in the Fifth District, compared to more than 6 million meals before the pandemic.
- Last Congress, Gottheimer helped introduce the
No Hungry Kids in Schools Act, which would eliminate requirements to
collect bureaucratic, hard-to-manage applications from individual
households that prevent many children and families from receiving
assistance.
“You can’t propel a rocket without fuel – the same goes for a growing student. They are rockets ready to take off to a successful life and career. Yet, the Trump Administration is slashing a billion dollars of food assistance for America’s children and the most vulnerable in our communities, which will lead to higher taxes on Jersey families. I simply don’t get it. Not only are far-right extremists sticking it to our farmers and the local economy, they are so dead set on cutting federal spending without a plan that they are willing to literally snatch fresh fruits and vegetables out of the mouths of hungry children. It’s shameless,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), a member of the Congressional Hunger Caucus. “There is nothing red or blue about feeding our children and educating the leaders of the future — it’s why school breakfast and lunch has always been a bipartisan issue. Not only is it the right thing to do for our children’s health and wellness, but they are key to our long-term competitiveness as a nation.”
Gottheimer was joined by Bergen County Commissioner Tracy Zur, Maywood Mayor Richard Bolan, Maywood Councilwoman Katherine Bennin, Maywood Councilman Douglas Herrick, Maywood Superintendent Michael Jordan, CFA Executive Director Nicole Davis, NJ School Nutrition Association Sal Valenza, Hunger Free America CEO Joel Berg, and Lisa Pitz of Hunger Free New Jersey.
Below: Gottheimer with local leaders at Memorial Elementary School in Maywood.
Gottheimer’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are below:
Good morning. It’s great to be here with so many friends and leaders at Memorial Elementary School in Maywood. You can’t propel a rocket without fuel — the same goes for a growing student. They are rockets preparing to take off to a successful life and career. But they won’t reach their dreams without fuel in the tank.
Unfortunately, too many children in New Jersey are showing up at our schools every morning with the tank reading empty. It’s a nationwide problem, and we’re not immune. In fact, studies show that three out of five public school teachers say that students regularly come to school hungry. Every day, about 500,000 school age children in Jersey depend on school breakfast and lunch.
It’s often the only time of day they get to eat, and, in many cases, the only time a child gets fresh fruit and vegetables. And I don’t mean ketchup, which technically qualifies as a vegetable in some school meals. I mean actual vegetables, like the ones you want your kids to eat so they grow up strong and healthy.
Yet, just this past week, in a shockingly heartless move, the Trump Administration announced they were gutting the school meals program, slashing federal funding at the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provides fresh, locally sourced fruits, vegetables, and food to schools and food banks.
This includes fresh fruits and vegetables from 46 farms and food producers across our state — 11 farms in my District alone. New Jersey farms alone will lose 26 million dollars. With this draconian move, the Administration is slashing a billion dollars of food assistance for America’s children and the most vulnerable in our communities. I simply don’t get it.
Not only are far-right extremists sticking it to our farmers and the local economy, they are so dead set on cutting federal spending without a plan that they are willing to literally snatch food out of the mouths of hungry children. It’s shameless.
That’s why I’m here today, as part of my, Stop School Hunger Plan, to ensure that no child in New Jersey ever has to sit in a classroom hungry, focused only on how they might get their next meal instead of what’s on the blackboard.
The facts couldn’t be clearer: For those students who eat breakfast and lunch, we see much better performance in the classroom, and they perform much better when they graduate. Hunger in the classroom leads to a decreased ability to focus, decreased physical activity, stomach aches, headaches, depression, and anxiety.
Studies show that students who skip breakfast generally make more errors, have slower memory recall, and are more likely to be absent, tardy, and repeat a grade. Meanwhile, students who eat meals at school are less likely to be hyperactive and have fewer behavioral and attention problems than their hungry peers. A Tufts University study also showed elementary school students who eat breakfast listen better and have better spatial memory and short-term memory than students who skip breakfast. Students who aren’t hungry have better vitamin and nutrient intake, healthier overall diets, and less susceptibility to obesity.
According to Feeding America, more than forty-four million people in the U.S. face hunger, including one in five children. Here in Jersey, nearly ten percent of our state’s population is food insecure. More than a quarter of Americans say they’re skipping meals because they simply can’t afford their grocery bill. That’s especially true in this environment of surging food prices, that’s made it extra hard to afford food on the table. Egg prices are still up 53% from where they were a year ago, up ten percent from January this year. The USDA predicts that egg prices will continue to rise 41% more this year.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, beef prices are up ten percent since last year and are expected to rise even more.
Food insecurity doesn’t just lead to poorer health. Food-insecure families spend $2,500 more a year for health care than families with enough to eat. And these statistics just scratch the surface: food insecurity is a public safety issue. Studies have shown that when we address hunger, violent crime drops. By making sure everyone has enough to eat, we can make our state safer, healthier, and more successful.
That’s why today, I’m sounding the alarm on the Administration’s draconian cuts that will hurt our children, and I’m announcing new steps to strengthen the school meals program, and protect Jersey students and families.
First, no child in our District should start their days hungry — and fail in school — because we fail to act. We can’t let a single child go hungry. I’m sending a letter to the new U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, urging the Administration to reverse these vicious cuts to school breakfast and lunch programs, and to stress the disastrous impact they will have on Jersey children, families, and farmers.
Second, we know that many families who can afford school meals never sign up because the paperwork is too confusing or burdensome, or they can’t even afford the reduced meals price. Too often, some schools don’t provide any meals, even if some kids qualify. Either they don’t like the stigma of having kids on the school meals program — or they don’t want to deal with the administrative burden of signing kids up — even though it’s fully paid for by our tax dollars.
That’s why, last Congress, I helped introduce the No Hungry Kids in Schools Act to streamline the school meal program with less paperwork — eliminating requirements to collect bureaucratic, hard to manage applications from individual households that prevent so many from receiving assistance. Schools will instead automatically qualify based on the needs determined by the State. That’s how we increase efficiency to ensure fewer children go hungry — not by haphazardly cutting programs that help our families.
The Universal School Meals Bill we are also planning to introduce will provide meals to all schoolchildren, if any kids in the school qualifies; it will eliminate burdensome and costly application paperwork for parents and students, and help reduce the stigma associated with meal programs. Before the pandemic, there were more than six million meals provided to students in need across the Fifth District. So, I fought tooth and nail to help claw back our federal dollars to help feed our children who needed it. And, during the pandemic, more than nine million meals were provided — a substantial increase, showing that we are capable of providing school meals for all.
If the administration goes ahead and guts the school lunch program, and takes food out of the mouhts of hungry children so that they don’t perform as well, this will not just be a tax on them personally, but this will be an additional tax on New Jersey. Because, were not going to not feed our kids, so that means someone’s going to have to make up the difference. It’s going to result in this Administration raising taxes on Jersey families by leaving this huge gap.
Finally, I’m announcing new legislation, the Expanding Access to School Meals Act, to allow any child who qualifies for reduced meals to receive them at no cost. New Jersey has already done this, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be a national priority. My legislation also expands the poverty threshold for free school lunch from 130 percent to 224 percent of the federal poverty level — which Jersey currently does.
We can’t just let another day go by and another child go hungry in the morning. With the tremendous benefits that science tells us eating breakfast provides for our children, shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to ensure that no child is hungry in school and that they can achieve their full potential? New Jersey has some of the best schools in the country, and providing our children the resources they deserve to succeed is critical.
There is nothing red or blue about feeding our children and educating the leaders of the future — it’s why school breakfast and lunch has always been a bipartisan issue. And the Hunger Caucus, which I’m a member of, is bipartisan for a reason. This is all common sense. Not only is it the right thing to do for our children’s health and wellness, but they are key to our long-term competitiveness as a nation. In the greatest country in the world, if we work together, and put the health of our kids first, we can solve this problem, and I know that our best days will always be ahead of us. Thank you. God bless you, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
###
Boston, MA – At a town hall in Lowell, MA on Tuesday, March 18th, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) laid out her strategy to fight Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s dangerous government takeover hurting Massachusetts families and invited neighbors from Lowell to join her in the fight.
Transcript: Senator Warren’s Opening Remarks
Town Hall in Lowell, MA
March 18, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: It is so good to see all of you. So, look, I’ve got to start out in a pretty hard place. And that is: our country is under assault right now, assault from within.
Donald Trump ran for office, promising on Day One to lower costs for American families. He repeated that over and over and over — ran ads on it, talked about it at every rally, said that one thing he could promise: on Day One, he’d lower costs for American families.
After he got elected, the very first interview he gave, he said that was why he won, because he made that promise to lower costs for American families. Are your costs any lower?
Audience: No!
Senator Warren: No, in fact, look at what Donald Trump has been doing since he was sworn in. Here we are going into the third month. Oh, Lord. Going into the third month and what is he doing? He’s trying to end entire agencies in government.
We’ve got the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – woohoo! The cop on the beat so you don’t get cheated on your credit card, on your mortgage, on your car loan, just tried to sweep that completely off the books. Elon Musk tried to kill the CFPB — just take them out. Take them out.
The Department of Education, there for our little children, there for people trying to get a college diploma, there to make sure that a good public education is available for all of our kids — and they’re trying to take them out.
And as co-president Musk comes through with his chainsaw, he’s getting rid of the “fat” that we don’t need in government. You know, like the nuclear scientists that take care of fissionable material. Getting rid of air traffic controllers, who keep us safe while we’re on airplanes. Getting rid of the people who do the testing to make sure that we can drink the water and breathe the air. Getting rid of the people who inspect food that comes from foreign countries to make sure that we can safely eat it. That’s what he thinks is cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.
And understand, they don’t stop there. They also were out trying to cut off our future – end the money that goes into medical research, into scientific research. End the money that goes into higher education. End the money that goes into building the very foundations of our future. That’s what they’re trying to do and they’re throwing it up. They’re throwing up tons of it, every minute.
People say to me, “I can’t keep up. I can’t keep up with the headlines. There’s too much going on every day.” Understand this: that is exactly the plan. That is the plan. Because their hope is if you feel overwhelmed, if you can’t keep up with every piece of it, that you will simply cover up your head, give up, and let them do whatever they want. Well, I have to say to them: Not on my watch. Not on my watch.
So you look at the list of things they’ve done, and it may feel random to you. It’s like what? And they’re over here doing what? I didn’t even know that thing existed and they did what? There’s a whole lot of that going on, but again, that’s the hope. When you’ve got a really ugly plan that nobody much likes – Democrats don’t like it, Independents don’t like it, and the majority of Republicans don’t like it, you’ve got to find a way to ram it through, with nobody seeing it until it’s too late.
So what are they really doing with all those cuts? What is that chainsaw really about? Why shut down these departments? Why take down money that we invest in pediatric cancer research? I’ll tell you what it’s really for. What the Republicans in Congress and Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to do is they want to have a $4.7 trillion giveaway to a handful of billionaires and billionaire corporations, paid for on the backs of seniors, veterans, public workers, little kids, and we are here to say no to them. No.
So this is really important: the next time you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, the next time you’re thinking, “I’m not sure I’m following this next piece,” stop and say to yourself, “Oh wait, that is the plan. That is the plan. And we are the people who are fighting back.”
Here’s why I’m here tonight: I want to tell you three things I’m doing – and you know I come with an ask – I’m going to ask you to do three things, and then we’re going to do some questions, I want to hear from you, and want to talk about other things going on.
So what are we doing? What am I trying to do? I’ll tell you what I’m doing. I’m doubling down on the Constitution of the United States of America.
I’m putting my chips on the table and let’s just remember — Constitutional Law 101, three parts to government. It is the job of Congress to write the laws and enact the laws. That’s our job. It is the job of the administration to administer those laws, to carry them out faithfully. And it is the job of the courts to go after the administration and hold them accountable if they fail to follow the law.
So, Part One for me right now, for a whole lot of folks, is we’re taking Donald Trump and Elon Musk to court. Not once, not twice, we are in over a hundred lawsuits now. And they’re not through, because understand this: what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing is illegal. They are violating the law. We’ve just got to say it right out loud.
And listen, for any of you who run into your buddies who may have voted for Donald Trump because they thought he was going to lower prices – they say, “Well, he got elected.” Yeah, he got elected, and Republicans control the House and the Senate. If they want to change the law, the Constitution tells us how to do it. You start in Congress, you write new laws, then the administration can administer those laws. But no unelected guy with a chainsaw gets to come out here and shut down agencies and fire people that are working on behalf of the American people.
So that’s Part One. We are in court. And the early decisions – look, they’re not all perfect, not every case is going to line up the right way, but it’s looking hopeful. The courts are doing what they should be doing. They’re calling people out who are not following the law. And the latest sign is it’s moving all the way up to Elon Musk by name. So Part One.
Alright, Part Two: job in Congress. Go back to what I was talking about earlier. All the noise, all the sand in the gears, all the terrible things they’re trying to do, underlying all that is trying to hand over our government to the billionaires, to a handful of billionaires and billionaire corporations. This is going to be the fight over taxes, and that may sound boring – it is not. It is fundamentally who this government works for. Donald Trump, Elon Musk, a handful of billionaires who stood up there on the podium when Donald Trump was sworn in, they say that the United States’ people, the people of this country, should give them $4.7 trillion in giveaways and make everyone else pay for it. Because that is their vision of America. An America that works even better for the billionaires and even worse for everyone else.
I am a Democrat, and what it means to be a Democrat is every one of those guys needs to pay their fair share and we need to invest in Americans. So this fight is the big fight, and this is the fight in front of us. This is the one coming up right away. So that’s going to be the second thing. We’re going to be in this fight everywhere we possibly can.
Part Three is I’m doing everything I can, along with others, to help raise a movement. Ultimately, we’ve got the courts, we’ve got Congress, but real power in this nation is the American people. Real power is here, right here in Lowell, Massachusetts. Real power are the people who continue to pay attention, the people who continue to reach out, the people who continue to make their voices heard.
That’s why so much of this fight is trying to get people just to give up. Trying to overwhelm them so they’ll just cover up their heads. Trying to say it’s all too complicated, trying to do it all with the emojis, and let’s do this, make fun of people, let’s try to take them down. Because they want you to give up. Because you are the true source of power.
So last week, I was not here in Massachusetts, I was in Texas. Bernie is in Iowa. Where was Tim Walz — we’ve got a bunch of people out — Wisconsin, that’s exactly right. But that’s the idea, we’ve got to raise it, we’ve got to raise it together. So those are three things that I’m working on, trying to get all of my friends in the Senate and friends everywhere to work on.
But I’m here to ask you to be part of this as well. And here are my three asks for you: the first one is tell the stories. We build a grassroots movement one blade of grass at a time. And you can say cut federal employees and it may sound like cutting waste, fraud, and abuse. But when you talk about that you have a child in a pediatric cancer trial that is supported by federal dollars, and taking those federal dollars away can threaten that child’s life, that’s a story that everybody else in America needs to hear.
When you're ready to talk about your neighbor down the street who is trying hard to be able to live independently — serious accident has got to have some home health care — and Elon Musk, the richest man on this planet, thinks that the way we save money is we tell that person, “You don't get a home health aide, you have to move into a nursing home. That's all that's going to be available for you.” And then turns around it says to people who are in nursing homes, there's not going to be enough support for you. I don't know what the plan is there. We're just going to set people out on the corners? Tell those stories. Tell them real. Tell them from your family, tell them from your neighbors, tell them from your cousins, but tell those stories. That's number one. It is the best possible way to meet people where they are and get them to understand the importance of this fight.
Second part: do not underestimate the power of organization. Have I got some Indivisibles here? Power of organization. Any other groups that we’ve got in here? How about unions? Have we got anybody that works with unions? I don’t have to persuade you about the power of organization, right?
Organization, but I mean this in every way you can magnify your voice. You got a Facebook group? That's organization. You got a bunch of friends you went to school with 22 years ago and you still keep in touch? That's organization. And if some of them don't live in Massachusetts, that's even better organization, because this is how we keep moving these stories out. We're going to push these stories out the door. And organizing keeps us going. So that's the second part. One voice is loud, but two voices are more than twice as loud, so lots of organization.
Third point: take care of yourself. We’ve got to do some self-care and some care for each other. So there's a reason on the airplane that they always do the little thing about adjust your own mask before trying to help anyone else. You've got to keep breathing oxygen.
You've got to stay in this fight. And there are a lot of ways that we can do this, each of us will find our own. I have a very large golden retriever. He might be a little too large. Bruce, however, always just describes him as he's large-boned. He does like spaghetti, though. Patting a Golden Retriever is part of health.
I do a lot of self care in this, and I want to say this for all of you, it also fits with the point about telling stories and organization. If you've got more people in the fight with you. You've got more people to keep you going when you're kind of in the down part of this to remind you of the good parts.
We have a rule in our office, and that is when anything good happens – and I get it, kind of few and far between sometimes – but when something good happens, when we get a good court decision that comes down, when we see an agency where somebody stands up and says, “Well, I'm just going to have to fire me then, because I'm not leaving without you.” We pass that around and we all stop and feel good about it for a minute, reminding each other that we are in this fight together.
So three things I'm working on, three things I'm asking you to work on, because now we get down to the bottom part of this, and that is: this is hard. I never thought our nation would face something like this. An unelected billionaire with a chainsaw is making decisions to get rid of thousands of people that we count on every day to keep this country going.
I never thought I would be at a time when a President of the United States would be saying, “Yeah, recession, it worked out fine.” I never thought I would be in a place where the Republicans in Congress would be so spineless. But despite all of that, despite what we are up against, despite it all, I am fundamentally optimistic and I am optimistic for this reason. I know what it means to fight a righteous fight.
This is a righteous fight, and we are in this together. There is no one I would rather fight alongside, but the good people of Lowell, Massachusetts, of all of Massachusetts, and of the United States of America.
Thank you.
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