Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden, Vt.
Thank you, Mr. President. In the last couple of weeks,
I've had the opportunity to travel in many parts of our
country and I have been able to talk to folks in Nebraska, in
Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.
And what I am hearing from in all of these States and in fact
all over the country, is that our nation right now faces
enormous crises, unprecedented crises in the modern history of
our country. And how right now, at this
moment, we respond to these crises will not only impact our
lives, it will impact the lives of our kids and future
generations, and in terms of climate change, the well-being
of the entire planet. And, Mr. President, what I have
to tell you is that the American people are angry at what is
happening here in Washington, DC, and they are prepared to
stand up and fight back, in my view.
And what I have heard from many, many people is that they will
not accept an oligarchic form of society where a handful of
billionaires control our government.
Where the wealthiest person on earth, Mr. Musk, is running all
over Washington, DC, slashing the Social Security
Administration so that our elderly people today are finding
it extremely difficult to access the benefits that they paid
into. Where Mr. Musk and his friends
are slashing the Veterans Administration so that people
who put their lives on the line to defend us will not be able to
get the health care that they are entitled to or get the
benefits that they are owed in a timely manner.
Slashing the Department of Education, slashing USAID.
And why is all of this slashing taking place?
It is taking place so that the wealthiest people in this
country can receive over $1 trillion in tax breaks.
Now, I don't care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an
Independent, There are very few people in this country who think
that you slash programs that working families desperately
need in order to give tax breaks to billionaires.
Mr. President, I am the former chair of the US Senate Committee
on Veterans Affairs, and I've had the honor of meeting with
veterans in my own state of Vermont, all over Vermont, but
all over the country. These are the men and women who
put the uniform of this country on and have been prepared to die
to defend our nation and American democracy.
And these veterans and Americans all over our nation will not
accept an authoritarian form of society with a president who
undermines our Constitution every day.
Every day There's something else out there where he's undermining
our Constitution and threatening the very foundations of American
democracy. That is not what people fought
and died to allow to happen. Mr. President, I am not a
historian, but I do know that the founding fathers of this
country were no dummies. They were really smart guys, and
in the 1780s they wrote a constitution and established a
form of government with a separation of powers, a
separation of powers with an executive branch, the President,
a legislative branch, the Congress and a judicial branch.
These revolutionaries in the 1780s had just fought a war
against the imperial rule of the King of England, who was an
absolute dictator, the most powerful person on earth.
And these revolutionaries here in America, forming a new
government, wanted to make absolutely sure that no one
person in this brand new country that they were forming would
have unlimited powers. And that is why we have a
separation of powers. That is why we have a judiciary,
a Congress, and an executive branch.
In other words, way back in the 1780s, they wrote a Constitution
to prevent exactly what Donald Trump is trying to do today.
So let us be clear about what is going on.
Donald Trump is attacking our First Amendment and is trying to
intimidate the media and those who speak out against them in an
absolutely unprecedented way. Mr. President.
He has sued ABCCBS, Meta, the Des Moines registrar, His FCC is
now threatening to investigate NPR and PBS.
He has called CNN and MSNBC illegal.
In other words, the leader or the so-called leader of the free
world is afraid of freedom. He doesn't like criticism.
Well, guess what? None of us like criticism.
But you don't get elected to the Senate.
You don't get elected to the House.
You don't become a governor. You don't become a president of
the United States unless you are prepared to deal with that
criticism. And the response to that
criticism in a democracy is not to sue the media, is not to
intimidate the media. It's to respond in the way you
think best. But, Mr. President, it is not
just the media that Trump is going after.
He is going after the constitutional responsibilities
that this body, the United States Congress, has.
And I will say it amazes me, it really does, how easily my
Republican colleagues here in the Senate and in the House are
willing to surrender their constitutional responsibilities,
give it over to the president. Trump has illegally and
unconstitutionally withheld funds that Congress has
appropriated. You can't do that.
Congress has the power of the purse.
We make a decision. We argue about it here.
Big debates, voter Ramas, the whole thing, make that decision.
That money goes out. The president does not have the
right to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated.
Trump has illegally and unconstitutionally decimated
agencies that can only be changed or reformed by Congress.
You don't like the Department of Education?
You don't like USAID? Fine, come to the Congress.
Tell us what reforms you want to see.
You do not have the right to unilaterally do away with these
agencies. Trump has fired members of the
independent agencies and inspectors general that he does
not have the authority to do. But Mr. President, it is not
just the medium that he is trying to intimidate.
It is not just the powers of Congress that he wants.
Now, in an absolutely outrageous, unconstitutional,
and extraordinarily dangerous way, he is going after the
judiciary. His view is that if you don't
like a decision that a judge renders, you get rid of that
judge. You try to impeach that judge.
You intimidate judges so that you get the decisions that you
want. You know, I'm thinking back now
as someone who is not a supporter of the Roberts Court,
and I'm thinking about one of the worst Supreme Court
decisions that has ever been rendered, that as Citizens
United. I'll say more about that in a
moment. And I'm thinking about the
Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe V.
Wade, taking away American women's right to control their
own bodies. In my view, these were
outrageous decisions, unpopular decisions, but it never occurred
to me because maybe I'm old fashioned and conservative, and
I believe that you live by the rule of law to say, hey, look at
the decision Roberts made. We're going to impeach him.
No, we try to elect the new president, who's going to
appoint new Supreme Court Justice.
That is the system that people have fought and died to defend.
But it's not just the movement toward oligarchy, which is
outraging millions of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, by
the way. And it's not just the movement
toward authoritarianism that we are seeing the American people,
especially with Mr. Musk and 13 billionaires in the Trump
administration, running agency after agency.
The American people are saying as loudly as they can that they
will not accept a Society of massive economic and wealth
inequalities where the very richest people in our country
are becoming much richer while working families are struggling
to put food on the table. I've been gone all over this
country. I can tell you that the American
people are sick and tired of these inequalities.
And they want an economy that works for all of us, not just
the 1%. You know, Mr. President, we deal
with a whole lot of stuff here in the Congress.
And, you know, virtually all of it is important in one way or
another. But let's do something, you
know, fairly radical today. Let's try to tell the truth, the
real truth about what is going on in our society today.
Something that we don't talk about too much here in the
Senate, we don't talk about too much in the House.
We don't talk about it too much in the corporate media.
But the reality is that today we have two Americas, 2 very, very
different Americas. And in one of those Americas,
the wealthiest people have never ever had it so good in the whole
history of our country. The people on top have never
ever had it so good as they have it today.
Today we have more income and wealth inequality than there has
ever been in the history of America.
And I know we don't discuss it. You don't see it much on TV.
You don't hear or talked about here at all.
But the American people do not believe that it is appropriate
that three people, 123, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos and Mr.
Zuckerberg, three Americans own more wealth than the bottom half
of American Society, 170 million people.
Really, three people owe more wealth than 170 million people.
Anybody here think that is vaguely appropriate?
And by the way, those very same three people, 3 richest people
in America, all right there at Trump's inaugural, standing
right behind the president. So you want to know what
oligarchy is? I know there's some confusion
out there. What is oligarchy?
Well, it starts off when you have the three wealthiest people
in the country standing right behind the president when he
gets inaugurated. The top 1% in our country now
own more wealth than the bottom 90%.
CE OS make 300 times more than their average worker.
And unbelievably, real inflation accounted for wages today.
The average American worker, if you can believe it, despite a
massive increase in worker productivity, is lower today
than it was 52 years ago. And during that period, there
was a $75 trillion transfer of wealth that went from the bottom
90% to the top 1%. That is the reality of the
American economy today. And you know what?
Maybe we might want to be talking about that.
And in our America today, in that top America, that one
America, the 1% are completely separate and isolated from the
rest of the country. You think they get on a subway
to get to work, Think they sit in the traffic jam for an hour
trying to get to work? Not the case.
They fly around and The Jets and the helicopters that they own.
They live in their mansions all over the world and their gated
communities. They have nannies taking care of
their babies. They don't worry about the cost
of child care and they send their kids to the best private
schools and colleges. Sometimes they vacation not in a
Motel 6, not in a National Park, but on the very own islands that
they have, and on occasion for the very, very richest, just to
have for a kick, have a little bit of fun.
Maybe they'll spend a few $1,000,000 flying off into space
in one of their own spaceships. Sounds like fun.
But it is not just income, massive income and wealth
inequality that we're dealing with today.
We have more concentration of ownership than ever before,
while the profits on Wall Street and corporate America saw a
handful of giant corporations dominate sector after sector,
whether it's agriculture, transportation, media, financial
services, etcetera, etcetera. Small number of huge
corporations, international corporations, dominating sector
after sector. And as a result of that
concentration of ownership, they are able to charge the American
people outrageously high prices for the goods and services we
need. President, we don't talk about
it too much. Maybe we should.
But there are three Wall Street firms, BlackRock, Vanguard and
State Street, that combined are the major stockholders in 95% of
our corporations. Got that?
Three Wall Street firms, 3 are the major stockholders in 95% of
American corporations. So, Mr. President, that is one
America. People on top doing phenomenally
well. Not only do they have economic
power, they have enormous political power.
That's what's going on there. They live by kings.
That's one America. But there is another America,
and in that other America, 60%, six, zero, 60% of our people are
living paycheck to paycheck. And millions of workers from one
end of this country to the other are trying to survive on
starvation wages. And unlike Donald Trump, I grew
up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck.
And I know the anxieties that my mom and dad have living in a
rent controlled apartment. Can we afford to buy this?
Why did you buy that? And that's the story taking
place all over America. What does living paycheck to
paycheck mean? It means that every single day
millions of Americans worry about how they're going to pay
their rent or their mortgage. All over the country rents the
skyrocketing and people are wondering what happens.
What happens to me and my kids if rent goes up by 20% and I
can't afford it? Where do I live?
Do I have to take my kid out of school?
Where do I put my kid in worst case scenario?
Do I live in my car? Let's be clear, there are many
people who are working today who are living in the back of their
cars. How do I pay for childcare?
Talk to a cop, a guy the other day, a police officer spending
$20,000 a year for childcare. How do I buy decent food for my
kids when the price of groceries is off the charts?
What happens if I get sick or my kid gets sick, or my mother gets
sick and I got a $12,000 deductible and I can't afford to
go to the doctor? How at the end of the month am I
going to pay my credit card bill?
Even though I'm being charged 20 or 30% interest rates by the
usurious credit card companies, people are worrying about simple
things. What happens if my car breaks
down and the guy at the repair shop says it's going to cost
$1000 and I don't have $1000 in the bank?
And if I don't have a car, how do I get to work?
And if I don't get to work, how do I have an income?
And if I don't have an income, how do I take care of my family?
Those are the crises that millions of Americans are
experiencing today. But it's not just working age
Americans. Today in our country, half of
older workers, older workers have nothing in the bank as they
face retirement and they're watching TV and they're saying
miss the bus, firing Social Security workers and actually
worrying whether Social Security will be there for them.
And it's not just older workers with nothing in the bank
wondering what happens when they retire. 22% of seniors are
trying to survive on $15,000 a year.
I dare anybody in this country, let alone somebody who's old,
who needs health care, needs to keep the house warm, try to
survive on $15,000 a year. And there are people here, by
the way, talking about cutting Social Security.
Mr. President, it is not just about income and wealth
inequality. It is about a healthcare system
which everyone in the nation understands is broken, is
dysfunctional and is outrageously expressive.
I hear my Republican friends, you know, I don't know where
they are today, wanting to destroy the ACA.
And my Democratic friends say, oh, we got to defend the ACAACA
is broken. It doesn't work.
My state, the cost of Healthcare is going up 1015% in America
today, got 85 million people uninsured or underinsured.
Function of the healthcare system today.
It's not to do what a sane society would do, guarantee
healthcare to all people in a cost effective way.
Something which by the way every other major nation on earth
manages to do. The function of our healthcare
system is everybody knows it's to make billions of dollars in
profits for the insurance companies and the drug
companies. So I say to my Democratic
friends, it's not good enough to defend the Affordable Care Act.
It's a broken system. You got to have the guts to
stand up and allow us to do what every other major nation does,
guarantee health care to all people as a human right, not
allow the drug companies and the insurance companies to make
massive profits every year. And Mr. President, I want to
touch on an issue that gets virtually no discussion, but I
think it is enormously important and it says a hell of a lot
about what's going on in our society today.
In America, according to International Studies, our life
expectancy, how long we live as a people, is about four years
lower than other countries. Most European countries live
people, they live longer lives. Japan, they live even longer
lives than in Europe. So question #1 why is that
happening? We spent $14,000 a year per
person on healthcare, almost double what any other country
spends, and yet people around the world are living on average
four years longer than we do. But here is the really ugly
fact, even worse than that, and that is that in this country, on
average, if you are a working class person, you will live
seven years shorter lives than if you're in the top 1%.
If you're a working class person, your life will be 7
years shorter than if you are wealthy.
In other words, being poor or working class in America today
amounts to a death sentence. Mr. President, it's not only a
broken health care system. We have got to ask ourselves a
simple question. And the Biden administration
began a little bit of movement in this direction.
And that is, why are we living in a nation where one out of
four people can't even afford the prescription drugs their
doctors prescribe? Why are we in some cases paying
10 times more than our neighbors in Canada or in Europe?
How does that happen? And the answer, of course, has
to do with the greed of the Pharmaceutical industry and
their power right here, all of the campaign contributions that
they make, which has prevented us from negotiating prices.
But it's not just healthcare or prescription drugs.
When we look at what's going on in America, in Vermont and
throughout this country, we have a major housing crisis.
Here we are the richest country on earth, 800,000 people
sleeping out on the streets, and 20 million people are spending
more than 50% of their limited incomes on housing.
Can you imagine that? You're a working person spending
50% of your income on housing? How do you have money to do
anything else? And the cost of the housing is
soaring. Do not tell me, Mr. President,
that in a nation which could spend a trillion dollars on the
military, a nation that give massive tax breaks to the rich,
that we cannot build the millions of units of housing
that we desperately need. So, Mr. President, why is all of
this happening? Why do we have a healthcare
system, has broken prescription drugs that are the most
expensive in the world, the housing system, education in
deep trouble. Talk to educators in Vermont,
all over the country. Talk to a principal the other
day from Vermont. They're starting salary at a
public school, $32,000 a year. But don't worry, they can't
afford to even bring people in because they can't afford the
housing in the community. Why have we let education sink
to the level that it has? So I think the bottom line of
all this, the American people, I think are catching on.
And Mr. Musk, I must thank him because he has made it very
clear we are living in an oligarchic form of society.
If anybody out there thinks that Mister Musk is running around
out of the goodness of his heart trying to make our government
more efficient, you have not a clue as to what is going on.
What these guys want to do is destroy virtually every federal
program that impacts the well-being of working people.
Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service, public
education, you name it. So they can get huge tax breaks
for the rich and eventually make government so inefficient that
they will have the ability as large corporations to come in
and privatize everything that is going on.
So, Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in American
history, and I sense that the American people have had it up
to here. They are prepared to fight back.
They do not want a government run by billionaires who have it
all, who screed is uncontrollable.
You know, we have in Vermont and I think all over this country,
serious problem with addiction, with drugs, people drinking too
much alcohol, people smoking too many cigarettes.
But the worst form of addiction that this country now faces is
the greed of the oligarchy. You might think that if you had
ten, $20 billion, it would be enough, you know, kind of enough
to let your family live for the next 20 generations.
But it's not. For whatever reason, whatever
compulsive reason they have, these guys want more and more
and more and they are prepared to destroy Social Security,
Medicare, nutrition programs for hungry people in order to get
even more. That to me is disgusting.
So, Mr. President, we are at a pivotal moment in American
history. But having been all over this
country or many parts of this country, I am absolutely
confident that the American people, and I'm not just talking
about Democrats who are as complicit in the problems that
we have right now, is all Republicans because we got a two
party system which is basically corrupt.
You got Mr. Musk over on the Republican side saying, so any
Republican who dares to stand up and defy the Trump agenda, we
are going to primary you. And on the Democratic side, you
got 8 pack and you got other super PACs saying you stand up
for working people, you're in trouble as well.
We got a corrupt campaign finance system in which
billionaires are able to buy elections.
And that's why all over this country people are not happy
with our two party system, the Republicans and the Democrats.
So, Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in American
history. But we have had difficult
moments before. And I am confident from the
bottom of my heart that if we stand together and we do not
allow some right wing extremists to divide us up by the color of
our skin or our religion or where we were born or our sexual
orientation, if we stand together, we can save this
country. We can defeat oligarchy.
We can defeat the movement toward authoritarianism.
And in fact, we can create an economy and a government that
works for all, not just a few. Thank you very much.
Listen. Listen.
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