El-Sayed, AOC in Northern Michigan: FULL Town Hall

For our incredible State Representative. Where you at, Kevin? Little sweeping vista. One job is enough. Shouldn't be this hard to afford a bag of groceries. Shouldn't be this hard to forge a mortgage. Shouldn't be this hard to see a doctor. Kids 15 minutes from where I grew up. Either way, across 10 years difference in life expectancy. It shouldn't matter the color of your skin. It shouldn't matter whether you live in an urban or suburban or a rural community. It shouldn't matter what you or your parents do for work. You deserve to have a long life in the United States of America. We're interested in a program that's got $600 million for 300,000 fans. After his two terms in the U.S. Senate. Current Senator Gary Peters is not seeking re-election. He's going to be an open U.S. Senate seat. I ask myself, where is the fight for the public's health? See, if I were to be elected, the first Democratic doctor elected to the U.S. Senate in nearly 60 years, he said the same thing. You can see me on Twitter. You can see me in person. You can see me on TikTok. You can see me getting a non-consensual colonoscopy from CNN. The corporations love to lose shield. The consumers need to hear it. Born and raised here, I love Michigan. Through our winters, the best makes the best. Mitch, have you seen that CERB announced that this vendor is investing in AI brands to replace them? I'm terrified the next step is going to say that our agency is no longer solvent. Privatization addresses so many fires. Let me jump in The federal government is not a workforce that I'm public service. I have agencies, and my last agency was about 500. And you realize that it's easy for an elected official sometimes to dodge an issue if they want to. But when you're responsible for keeping the lights on, whatever it is that you do, bureaucracy is not like a Thursday job, It is a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and also Saturdays. And they do work in certain circumstances that oftentimes people in the private sector, you have that to serve of the federal government. What they did with DOGE to just gut and cut whatever it is that they wanted to do. I want folks to understand the game. The goal here is always somebody making money. Always. So you DOGE out parts the federal government that are mission critical with the goal of them being able to say well you know it's not functioning the way it needs to i got a guy who runs a company who we could contract this out to who happens to be a donor to the politicians who made the decision it is always about lining somebody's pocket and we have to stand up and push back on that right when i think about the public health bureaucrats right cdc fda uh nih you don't necessarily know what they're doing until of course you're dodging lettuce in the United States of America being like damn what happened why do we have ---- lettuce you got ---- lettuce because the people who were supposed to make sure that you didn't that the lettuce had not been shat on people got ---- lettuce and guess what here we are 8,000 cases later the worst thing about it is the CDC couldn't even count and that's just one example one little example imagine it wasn't just ---- which is annoyingly terrible but not usually deadly right it wasn't that imagine you're talking about counting something like people you really want the CDC to be able to count and trace and all the work that goes into figuring out what happened so let me just say this number one i believe in the unions that support and empower our federal workers five trillion a dollar so before that to me is insane so i really appreciate your question a nice point that you made around around automating out the federal workforce that's a really dangerous thing because the problem with it is that when people are chatting with an AI bot they can get a lot of right answers but it doesn't get the crucial answer in the moment that you need. And it turns out that that is not going to be able to show up for its neighbors up here in the UP when it's mission critical to you. And so we've got to resist that. For a service into your job, most people do not understand what it takes and the scope you do, whether you're a teacher, whether you are veterans into their VA benefits, and administer their care. Because at the end of the day, all of this boils down to the top Washington unskilled Because these folks, what they said, all of these inspectors, the grocery store, every single week, beef is getting recalled, chicken you can't eat, yes you can't eat, blueberries you can't eat, you can't even, you can't even, you can't even sit or not, which is because they said, I feel like they're almost done. Okay, cool. Your money to give you how much it is nowadays, hundreds of dollars in our groceries, and you have to throw half of it out, do you get the return? No. Is about, to your point, how do we get out of this? I'll be the first one to tell you that neither Abdul nor I are going to be able to turn this ship around. The damage that this administration has done, and what this larger movement has done, in order to turn it around, it calls on all of us going to have to respond to this time with a generational call to service you to serve the largest amount of raised hand workers good valuable strong work and have been treated in such undignified ways she's not somebody who shows up to take a student loan system where she pays in a thousand dollars off just to make it worse or today that you open to that when you graduate. And this is the hard part, is that it becomes sustainable for people. Profession is mission critical to providing people health care in this area. You shouldn't have to go into debt to get a higher education period working in your profession. And so something has to be done. Now look, under the last administration, they tried to address this problem. And the Supreme Court, which has in effect become a bunch of politicians in robes, right, got in the way. But I think we have to figure out how to address this system in every possible way we can around the absurdity of what the Supreme Court has done, because it is keeping folks like you from being able to provide critical service in communities like this. To pursue years out of the workforce, I cannot afford a lifetime of debt because I have to support my family. And so I dream to become an OB/GYN. That's what I want. When we are communities only, should we not be charging interest rates? Public colleges should be tuition-free. The utility of indentured servitude their entire lives for seeking an education. Not only that, but I want to be very clear that what the Trump administration is doing specifically is attacking women's ability. Social workers, we have to understand what the deal is here because then what happens is that the UP doesn't have doctors. You do become a doctor, you're in so much debt, you have to go to a big city to get a really high-paying job just to pay off your loan. So, once we address this issue, we're able to expand our ability to have health care for everybody. I'm planning for the Army Corps of Engineers. So, we play a part in building an infrastructure that will be tested and take precautions on the toxic waste that would result in contaminating the likes of your waters. Thank you for the question. So, look at our ecosystem in Michigan. Our water is 21% of the world's fresh water. We owe it to the world to protect that incredible water source. Flip water crisis. Or, it's in the city of Detroit. The issue with water is a function, as you talked about, of water infrastructure. And I'm a treaty writer, so shut this down. Right? Many, many reasons. But in the end, in the end, the idea that we ever built a pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac is an insane thing. But I want to talk about what we actually can do, what needs to be done. We need a comprehensive water bill that addresses the degradation of our water infrastructure across the country. Because the fact that Michigan has water issues should tell us a lot about the fact that there are water issues all over the country. You got it? You got it? You got it? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Heard you. Got you. Yes. So, but all I'm saying is we need a federal water bill. A federal water bill that would pay for, and this is what I want to guarantee, 50 gallons per person of water free for everybody in this country. And that means that we are upgrading our water infrastructure. We are getting leaded pipes out of the ground. We are forcing corporations to pay for the cleanup of all of the PFAS that they've bled into our water sources, put under the ground and under these red legs. And we're invested in waterworks all over our country. Because the fact that we have not figured out drainage, that we have not figured out piping, that we have not figured out how to provide clean, fresh water for every country, every community in this country, is itself a moral failure, particularly in a state with as much fresh water as we have. First of all, so I'm getting the, you gotta know, I'm so sorry. I would love to hang out with you all all day. I know I see so many questions out here. But I want to tell you how grateful I am that you all showed up at 12 o'clock on a Thursday in a conversation that we all share about who we are. In a democratic society, that's what's supposed to thrive in this discussion. Who are we and who takes to be dictated to us by corporations and special interests who spend millions to buy elections in 30-second glossy ads. You've seen the ones they've run against. When we win this race, God willing, in November, it machines you. So they are trying to make this race of anything but the fact that we deserve good health care. The fact that we deserve to be able to afford our gas and groceries. It says a lot, but we need you to show up for those next 19 days. If you're not signing, I'm going to ask you to show up for those next 19 days if you're not Chances are you've got somebody in your life with whom you have not had a conversation for, say, two weeks. Or maybe six years. Or maybe even ten years. I'm asking you to reach out to those people. We need to show up and rebuild the bonds of humanity that Donald Trump is so good at destroying. He's forcing you to double down on the crazier and crazier stuff. And soon enough, you're out here signing on to a bunch of things that like three years ago, you're like, that's insane. And you're not. Face down on that one friend who's going to tell you, I told you so. And so what happens is that you find yourself so far gone up that tree. You've got to help people. Because guess what? They say diesel too. They can't see a doctor either. And so we've got two folks who can make a decision they have yet to make. We'll follow our average country, not just one. We have an opportunity, not just this one, but the others in the future, to make each other, and we need each other. And the best thing that we can do is not push back on the people we need, but to invite them into the future. Because in the words of a truly great American president, a house divided against itself cannot stand.