IPTV Presents Conversations with Presidential Candidates Hosted by DMACC | former Rep. Beto O’Rourke

>>> IPTV presents "conversations

with presidential candidates" hosted by DMACC, funded by

Goldman Sachs, delivering its 10,000 small businesses program

in Iowa to help entrepreneurs across the state create jobs and

economic opportunities. Additional funding has been

provide bit Arlene McKEEVer endowment fund, a fund that the

Iowa Public Television foundation established by a gift

from the estate of Arlene McKEEVer, and by friends, the

Iowa Public Television

foundation.>> The future of the American presidency and our

nation's economy are key factors in the 2020 race.

In Iowa, the nation's first test

for presidential aspirants, from Des Moines area community

college in Ankeny, Iowa, IPTV presents "conversations with

presidential candidates," hosted by DMACC.Here is Iowa Public

Television's

David Yepsen.[ Cheers and Applause ]>> Welcome to the

latest editionof our IPTV "conversations with presidential

candidates," an in-depth focus on issues relevant to the future

of our country for candidates seeking the Democratic

nomination for president, all hosted here at the Des Moines

area community college.We'll dive into a series of issues,

many dealing with ways to improve the economic lives of

Americans.Our goal is to help people make

ahead.a crucial choice in the months The questions will come

from me and from Iowans seated in our audience of students,

business

owners, and caucusgoers.We're joined now by former Congressman

Beto O'Rourke.

He represented Texas after serving six years on the city

council in his hometown of El Paso.He ran a competitive

challenge

to Senator Ted Cruz.Mr. O'Rourke, welcome back to Iowa

and welcome to the Des Moines community college.

>> Good to be with you.>> A lot of serious issues to go

through, so let's get started. Gun violence.

How would your plan to do mandatory buyback of assault

weapons work?>> First, we need to make sure that we're sharing

with the American public what it is we'reup against.These are

weapons, the AR-15 or

the AK-47, that were originally designed, engineered, and sold

to the militaries of the world to kill people, expressly to

kill people, as effectively, as efficiently, and as great a

number as possible.For those of us in El Paso, those who live in

Odessa, those in any communities that has suffered a mass

casualty

shooting with one of these weapons of war, we understand

this is unlike what a handgun or a shotgun or any other weapon

does.When that high impact, high velocity round hits your body,

it destroys everything that's inside.It belongs on the

battlefield.It does not belong in our homes or streets.It

should not be used against usand our kids the way it is today.So

in addition to universal background checks, red flag

laws, and ending the sale of these weapons of war into our

communities, we would buy back each and every single one of the

more than 10 million that are out there.I would expect,

because I believe in this country, my fellow Americans,

that people will follow the law. I can't tell you how many times

someone has come up to me in an airport or the grocery store

after I've announced this policy to tell me they have an AR-15 or

an AK-47 and would willingly give it it the government.They

don't need it to hunt.They don't need it for self protection.It's

a toy at best, something they would be happy to give up if it

makes this country safe.>> You know, prohibition didn't

work with alcohol and it didn't work with drugs.What makes you

think it's going to work with guns?>> Yeah, I don't think the

burden should be on those who

propose a solution to this.I think we should ask the NRA or

the makers of these how they would condone the fact that

there are more than 300 mass single year.shootings in this

country in a The reason we're at this point with more than 10

million of these weapons in our homes and streets right now is

because we're afraid to take action, we're afraid of the NRA,

we're afraid of what this does to our prospects in the next

election.I'm confident that with fewer

weapons of war out on the street, we'll see fewer mass

casualty shootings, fewer Americans killed.We lose 40,000

a year every single year in this country.And we can look to those

countries, to answer your question, that have employed

this policy, notably Australia, who has prevented 16 massacres

or mass shootings in the years since they've implemented a

mandatory buyback.So we know this can work.We just have to

have the courageof our convictions and do something

that we knew was possible before but for the lives of our fellow

Americans, is very necessary for us to do now.>> As you know,

you've been criticized by some legislators and Democrats for

radicalizing the national rifle association.When you sigh we're

coming for your guns, that's exactly what they have been

scaring their members about for decades.So aren't you just an

organizingtool now for the NRA? >> Yeah, I don't know how much

more radical the NRA could be or

if any one man or woman could

make them even more radical.They have successfully purchasedthe

silence and outright complicity from members of

Congress, who prevent the Centers for Disease Control from

studying gun violence in the first place.It would be as if 50

years ago we prevented the Surgeon General

from studying lung cancer deaths

in America and tobacco.We drove down the number of smoking

deaths and lung cancer deaths as well.It's time we defy the NRA

and the very small minority of our fellow Americans who believe

more in their AR-15s and AK-47s than they do in our children's

ability to go to school without

fear, to go to Walmart in El Paso without feeling like you

have a target on your back, to live in this country and pursue

your potential, to fulfill your promise and not have to be yet

another death, another statistic, another number in

this country that has a rate of gun violence seen nowhere else

in the developed modern world.So I really could care less about

the NRA, I could care lessabout those who stand in the wayof

progress.I'm listening to moms demand action.I'm listening to

those students who marched for our lives.I'm listening to our

fellow Americans, Republicans, Democrats, independents alike,

who know this is the right time to do the right thing.One

interesting fact we learned this week, a poll came out in Texas

and it shows that 49% of my fellow Texans believe in a

mandatory buyback program.Only 35% opposed.That's in Texas.This

proud but responsible gun owning state, people know this is the

right thing to do.It's time for the politicians, those in

elected office and those who pursue these positionsurgency.of

public trust to reflect that That's what we're doing in this

campaign.>> Is there anything you would do on this issue

that's different than what other presidents have done?I mean,

calling for mandatory gun buybacks is something but

you've still got to over

come the political clout of the NRA.How do you bridge the

urban/rural gap on this issue?>> First of all, you don't allowthe

NRA to set the terms of the debate.That's what we've done

not only for Republicans but, disappointingly, for Democrats

as well.Our proposal for buybacks, mandatory licensing

and gun registration, our proposal to

raise the age to buy a firearm to 21 years old, to save the

lives of those who take their lives with firearms, we lose

22,000 of our fellow Americans every single year.That's an

important first step.Second, we go everywhere, listento

everyone.The first place I visited after announcing this

proposal was a gun show in Conway, Arkansas.And I was

listening to those who

own AR-15s, who are selling

AR-15s and purchasing AR-15s at this gun show.Somewhat to my

surprise, many ofthem agreed with me.

They said, look, I shouldn't be able to sell weapons at this gun

show.If you were 18 years old I wouldsell you the firearm, which

begsthe question why the guy is selling them there in the first

place.A gentleman came up to me and

said, I have an AR-15, I don't want to sell it back, but I have

kids in school and they're worried every single day when

they go to school.At least we began the conversation there at

that gun show.Someone else identified him as atrump

supporter and said, I need it. would give my gun back, I don't

So I think what we saw in that poll in Texas, what I heard at

that gun show in Conway, Arkansas, what people are coming

up to tell me all over the country, shows me that the time

is now to move forward on it. There is the political will and

the popular sentiment to do the right thing.So let us seize it

at this fellow Americans.moment and save the lives of our>> I

want to switch gears, Congressman.Jobs and the economy

are always a big issue in the campaign.One of the things we're

trying to do with these conversations is focus a little

bit on the problems that small businesses have.What's your big

picture view on

what you would do to create more jobs and improve the American

economy?>> I was a small business owner when I moved back

to Texas more than 20 years ago. I started a technology business

in El Paso, Texas.It's the third poorest urban county in the

United States of America.It might be the last place or the

third least likely place that you would expect to find a

business like ours.But what we found was that we were awash in

talent.It just needs an organization, achannel through

which it could express itself.So finding the capital, which I was

able to borrow ultimately from my dad because I couldn't get a

loan from a small bank, being able to find the talent and

ensure that that talent had the skills and the education

necessary to deliver the

services to our clients, was fundamental to the success that

we enjoyed.Understanding that my story, and

frankly, as a white man, is exceptional in this country, my

father owned his home, could take a loan against it, and then

turn around and lend it back to me, it's not the same for black

families in this country who have been redlined out of the

ability to have equity in their home or have something to borrow

against.Our proposal entails doubling the size of community

development finance institutions, to get more

capital out to small businesses and potential small business

owners.African-American women in this country are creating and

growingsmall businesses at 14 times therate of the national

average.That's job creation where we want it and where we

need it right now.Let's get more capital to those black women,

wherever they are in America, to grow and start those businesses

right now.So that's important.

Investing in pre-K-12 education so you have the educated

workforce to hire into those buildings.And making sure

someone can afford to go to community

college here at DMACC or a four-year university or can join

a union and enter an apprenticeship where they will

learn a skill or trade they'll be able to command for the rest

of their lives.Investing in entrepreneurs, communities, in

people, in education, that's the key to growing this economy and

making sure it works for everybody.>> I've got a question

from the audience relating to both health

care and the economy, about maternity leave.>> Hi.>> Great.

So the United States is the only industrialized nation,

industrialized country, sorry, that does not offer paid family

or maternity leave at a national level.What is your plan to

create a

paid maternity and family leave program that does not take away

from Social Security like some have proposed and would be

available to all Americans regardless of the size and

business type of their employer or how long they've worked at

their current job?>> Thanks for the question.You know, when you

put it like that, it's hard to believe, and even harder to

explain to ourselves and to our kids, the way that we treat one

another inthis country.As president, I will make sure that

any one of us can take timeoff of our job to take care of

ourselves, to take care of a parent, to take care of a child,

without the threat of losing our income or losing our job in the

first place.Not only is that good for the employee, it's

going to be greatfor the employer.The morale within that

company.And then by extension, really good for this economy.

When you couple that with wage increases so that no one's

working a second or a third job, $15 an hour as the floor,

universal health care, so

everyone is well enough to go to work in the first place or to

finish their education or to start a small business if they

are an entrepreneur, and ending discrimination in the workplace,

in a country that in 2019, and this is also exceptional about

the United States, women are paid a fraction of what men are

paid for the same work, the same

value, the same number of hours.

African-American women, paid 61

cents on the dollar.Latinas, 53 cents.If we do that, all of us

will have a much better chance of doing better and this economy

asa whole truly will work for everyone.>> Another economic

issue, tradeand tariffs.

A big deal here in the midwest. What do you do with our

relations with China, and

specifically how would president O'Rourke keep the Chinese from

stealing American intellectual property?>> Day one of my

administration,we end this trade war.We end the tariffs which are

crippling not just the Chinese economy, but are thwarting our

economic advances and in Iowa are pounding the hell out of

farmers.Markets they have worked an entire lifetime or their

parentsor grandparents worked an entirelifetime to open up are

closed to them.And closed not only to them but to their

children.Many of those farmers tell me they're worried that

even when this trade war ends, those Chinese buyers are going

to find

other sellers around the world. Art Cullen in storm lake, Iowa

has made the connection that those fires in the Amazon that

are literally burning the lungs of planet earth right now were

set in part because of the trade war.Soybean farmers in Brazil

tryingto make sure they can make up

for the gap made by the trade war by soybeans can no longer

reach their markets.How can we hold China accountable for

stealing our intellectual property or dumpingsteel on our

or other markets atbelow the cost of production?

Former Governor Tom Vilsack was the first one to say this to me,

we go in with our allies, our

friends and trading partners. Governor Vilsack said to me,

when have we ever gone to a trade war or a shooting war

without friends and allies?

That's what President Trump has done.We have no off-ramp and the

American farmer and the American worker is taking it on the chin.

The average American household is paying $1,000 more related to

tariffs right now.So $1,000 tax per household.We've lost 300,000

jobs in the U.S. economy and we're on track to lose a million

by the end of the next year.So if we showed up to the

negotiating table with China, with the European Union, with

Canada, with Mexico, with Japan, there would be strength in those

numbers.And in concert, we would be ableto get China to play by

the rules of the road or face consequences that extend beyond

just the U.S. market.That is the way to get China to do what we

want them to do and to make sure that we end this trade war, end

these tariffs, and get these farmers back to being able to

make a profit on what they produce for us and therest of

the world.>> Another issue facing rural

Americans and farmers is ethanol production.A sensitive issue in

Texas too.What's your position on ethanol

and on renewable fuel standards? >> We've got to keep the RFS.We

have to end the waivers that are granted for refiners right

now, which are not only bad for Iowa corn farmers here, but

they're bad for our environment. They're bad for our goal of

getting to net zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than

2015, much sooner if we can. Getting halfway there by 2030.

Iowa showed this country the way, both to free farmers from a

dependence on a commodity market over which they had no control,

by adding value to what we grow right here in this state, and

taking about 10% of gasoline out

of the market and the exhaust out of the air.Let's build on

that lead that Iowa has produced but complementit with wind

energy, which you're a leader in as well, solar energy, which is

what we produce in El Paso, Texas, in myhometown, and the

high wage, high skilled jobs that come along with that.So as

president we won't grant those waivers, won't hand them out

like Halloween candy the way President Trump is doing right

now.We'll follow the lead of farmershere and those who are

pioneering in renewable energy and we'll add valuable to what

we grow and how can he conserve

and how we allow farmers in this state and every state in the

union to be able to add value to what they do and be paid for the

environmental services they provide.>> How do you deal with

the clout that the oil industry has on public policy in this

country?I mean, President Trump has beenon both sides of this

issue.He's in a real bind.He's got electoral votes in the

midwest and he's got a big pile of them in Texas too he needs to

get.How do you deal with -- how do you balance that out, what do

you say to your friends in the oil industry?

>> It's much like your question about firearms and, you know,

have we really upset the NRA. It's the same with oil and gas

and energy and our carbon

emissions and the fate of this planet.We shouldn't care whether

we upset the fossil fuel industry.What we should care

about is howwe're going to answer our kids.

What we should fear is their judgment in the year 2050.By

then we'll know whether we've made them proud or whether we've

lost their generation.So there is no real conflict or perceived

conflict, we don't take money from any PAC or

corporation or special interest. We've signed the fossil fuel

pledge to make sure there is no doubt that our focus is on

making sure that we meet our obligations to one another and

to every generation that follows out.

And I'll say this, forthe oil

and gas industry in Texas, it is being superceded by the Texas.

renewable energy industry in We generate rate more wind energy

in Texas than any other state other than Iowa.

Those high skill jobs are growing by the day in our state.

This is not just the right thing to do for the environment and

the planet.It's the right thing to do as wegrow our economy and

find high wage, stable jobs in America.It's a positive thing

for us.>> You're into the subject of climate change, the

climate crisis.What do we do?

>>marshal every resource in this country to confront the greatest

threat

we've ever faced, the threat which might produce our greatest

moment, allow us to fulfill our potential and promise to one

another.It's one of the reasons I reallylike the way the authors

or the framers of the green new deal talk about that proposal.

They call to mind the greatest generation, which in the midst

of the Great Depression, fought the greatest existential threat

that the United States of America and the western

democracies had ever faced.And in so doing, lifted tens of

millions of our fellow Americans out of poverty and created the

world's greatest middle class known at that time.And it was

every single one of us. Republican, Democrat,

independent, small town, big city alike, before we were

anything else, we were Americans first.And that's the kind of

challengethat we're up against here today.

So we mentioned what some of the solutions are, embracing

renewable energy, freeing ourselves from a dependence on

fossil fuels, and especially here in Iowa.I've been listening

to farmers like Matt Russell, who have been

telling me that if paid to do so, farmers are ready to provide

the environmental services that we need.

They're ready to keep more land

and cultivate every square inch

under their ownership and do far

more to capture out of air and soil.Precision till and no-till

farming.Regenerative agricultural and ranching is

something that couldallow the United States to pioneer a

solution for the entire world.So if every single one of us is

doing all that we can, every single part of this country, we

will be able to not only meet the challenge here in the United

States, but we will be able to establish the moral leadership

for the world.Convene the other powers of the planet to do their

part as well.Return to our role, harkening

back to the end of World War II, as the indispensable nation.We

alone can do for ourselves and the rest of the world what no

other country can.If we flip the switch right now and stopped all

emissions in this country, we will only have resolved 16% of

the problem.

So we need to take the lead here but then establish that around

the world to ensure that we

don't warm another degree and a half Celsius, after which, this

is over.So this greatest challenge couldproduce our

finest hour.I believe in this country and I know we can do it.

>> Is it too late?>> Some are saying it's too late?>> Is it

too late?>> If it were, we should all just give up and go

home.I cannot accept that.I understand and accept this is

the toughest thing we've ever been up against, so hard that I

don't think we know what we're in for yet.But if we were to

give up, then we're giving up on our kids.Ulysses, Molly, Henry,

they're counting on me, and it is their judgment I face and

fear, and I'm going to do everything I canwhile we still

can at this moment.

>> One of the reasons why the greatest generation was able to

succeed in not only fighting the depression but a war, was the

leadership of a president.What would you do as president to try

to lead and inspire the way Franklin Roosevelt did?Because a

lot of people would say, this generation, Americans today, we

don't have the grit ofour parents and grandparents, we're

not anywhere near the greatest generation.How do you lead on

that?>> I say baloney.

You know, I have been so struck

and inspired by young people who understand this is the most

important thing that we could possibly do.And they're not just

raising their hands to remind me of that.They're getting up in my

face tosay that if we're not going to do this, then we better

get out of the way because they are going to do this right now.

Yesterday, all around the world, young people walking out of

their classrooms, into the streets, to stand up for one

another for this planet, for the very best in us.And I've got to

tell you, when we come up against other intractable

problems in this country, it really has been the young people

who have shown the way.So all credit to Franklin Delano

Roosevelt and World War II, but who was storming the beaches of

Normandy?

in the White House.It wasn't 60 and 65-year-old menIt was 18 and

19 and 20-year-olds who for the first time in their lives had a

rifle in their hand, had just trained and were going to

sacrifice their lives for all of us.1960, February 1, four

African-American students from North Carolina, AMT, sit down at

a would like worth's lunch counter and have the audacity to

order coffee and were denied because of the color of their

skin and stayed at the lunch counter every single day until

it was integrated, shocked the conscience of this country and

forced it to act.

All credit to Lyndon Baines Johnson for signing the voting

rights act in '65, but the young people in this country forced

him to do the right thing.So my money is on the young people of

this country right now.They're going to ensure that we do the

right thing.I would be so lucky and so grateful to do that work

with them as president.

>> How do you deal with the "not in my backyard" syndrome?

Americans know, people know what needs to be done, but you start

talking about closing coal mines and miners go crazy.It's not

just in this country.In Germany, the green movement had a

setback, because when you start making it clear to the German

worker what happens, theydon't like it.You have Americans, you

know, off Cape Cod, they don't want tolook at windmills,

wealthy Americans.You have them here in Iowa that don't want to

look at them from their mansions, so they oppose wind

energy.How do you lead on that, what doyou say?

>> I was in Roscoe, Texas last

year.Small farming and ranching community.Initially resistant to

the idea of wind turbines in their community.They may now

have more wind turbines per capita than any other place on

planet earth.What I found when I was at Roscoe high school, home

of the plow boys and plow girls, almostevery single student there

now graduates with an associate's degree with high

school at the age of 18 just as you would herefrom DMACC at the

age of 20 or 22.Many of them are graduating withFAA remote pilots

licenses to fly the drones that perform the maintenance

inspections on thosewind turbines.They're able to afford

to do that because those wind turbinesare creating the tax

base that is generating the revenue that allows them to

invest in the next generation.So the people in Roscoe, Texas, and

this is in an oil and gas state, can tell you how become.

beneficial wind energy has I was recently in southwest Virginia,

coal mining country, Iwas in bland county, which no candidate

for the presidency hasever voted before, and I was

link to those in the coal industry.Here is what they told

me.They too have grandson and granddaughters and are just as

concerned as anyone here about the fate of our planet and our

contribution to the problem, our emissions.They just want to have

a seat atthe table.They want to be heard, they wantto be

respected.

They told me in bland county, we don't have broadband Internet.

Try looking for job, starting a business, finishing your

education, or finding a date on tinder if you cannot get online.

Partner with our community, invest with us, we'll have a

shot at the future.I know it won't be easy for everyone.But

by showing respect, having the common courtesy of listeningto

those most impacted, I've confident there's a solution to

this country going forward.>> Congressman, I have way too much

questions and not enough time, so I want to switch gears and go

to health care.Where do you come down in this debate between

Medicare for all and public option?You've got a plan.Why is

yours -- what is yours doing and why is it best?

>> We ensure that we're able to deliver guaranteed, high

quality, universal health care for America by rejecting the

false choice contained within your question.There are some who

say it is an all or nothing proposition, single pair,

Medicare for all, or bust.That means that nearly 150 million of

our fellow Americans would have to leave.Some would want to but

many would have to leave private insurance that works for them,

works for their families, in many cases members of unions who

fought for those health care plans.There are others who

propose kind of improving things at the margins, adding a public

option to the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.And while

that's an improvement over the status quo, it still leaves

millions uninsured.Here we are in a state that is 51st in

America to see a mental health care provider.largest mental

health care My home state of Texas, the provider is the

county jail system.People with schizophrenia, far too often

getting arrested on purpose to go to the one place they're

guaranteed to get the care they need, to make life okay

temporarily.So that's not an option for me either.Our

proposal is Medicare for America.

It says if you're uninsured, we enroll you in Medicare today.

If you're underinsured, meaning you're unable to afford your

co-pay or premium, we'll enroll you in Medicare if that's your

choice.But if you have a plan that you like, that works for

you and your family, you can keep it.>> How do you pay for

it?>> We make sure that everyone inthis country is paying their

fair share.

We roll back the worst of the $2 trillion trump tax cuts.So a

corporate rate that went from 35% to 21, we'll take it back up

to at least 28%.It generates hundreds of billions of dollars.

We will tax returns on capital at the same rate that we tax

ordinary and wage income, hundreds of billions of dollars.

We'll end the wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria,

in Yemen, in Somalia, in Libya, and so many other countries

around the world and invest that dividend in those who bore the

battle in the first place, make sure they have access to care

for their PTSD, and also make sure those savings are applied

to those who should be well

enough to live to their full potential here in this country.

We're going to ask the wealthiest to make sure that

they pay their fair share with an additional tax on transitions

into the next generation, to

make sure that not only do we not build up intergenerational

wealth but that there is some wealth equality in this country.

The nearly 10 million immigrants who are here undocumented,

that's hundreds of billions of dollars to the positive of the

U.S. economy.That allows us to make investments in ourselves.>>

Another issue you've been talking about is the

legalization of marijuana.How does your plan work?>> We would

end the prohibition on marijuana Federally.

Right now it is a state by state pursuit which means that in some

places you can legally go into a

dispensary, buy weed, and get perfectly legal.high, no

questions asked, In other states you can be buying marijuana for

recreation,

for your fibromyalgia, for your PTSD, because you don't want to

buy an opioid to which you may become addicted, and become a

criminal, be arrested, locked up.Although Americans of all

races,backgrounds, ethnicities use marijuana at the same rate,

African-Americans are far more likely to be stopped and frisked

and arrested and jailed.And after prison, forced to check a

box on every employment application form saying they

have a conviction.No longer eligible for student loans to

come here because of their arrest.Not only do we end the

prohibition, we expunge the arrest records for anyone caught

with possession of something in the country.that is legal in

half the states>> We have an audience question related to

this subject, Congressman, about felon rehabilitation.>> Great.>>

Hi, I'm Madison, a student atthe university of Iowa.I've debated

going into law so I

have a question about felon disenfranchisement.Do you

support giving convicted felons their voting rights back and if

so, how do you plan to do>> Thanks for the question.that?The

answer is yes.Everyone who has served time will not only be

able to be eligible to register to vote, and participate in our

elections, and ensure that their voice is heard and their vote is

counted, they will automatically be registered.Right now in those

states that

have opted to reenfranchise convicted felons, the onus is on

the person who is formerly incarcerated, to learn about

this program and sign up.

We would make it automatic.We would add to that voter

registration throughout the country automatically.That nets

us, we believe, 55 million additional Americans who

are not registered today, who by

2024 will be registered to vote. It will fundamentally and for

the better change our democracy.

If we couple that with a new voting rights act that ensures

there are no barriers to the ballot box, Texas up until

recently was 50th in the country in voter turnout not because we

like our democracy less than you do here in Iowa but because we

drew people out based on race.We gerrymandered African-Americans

and Mexican-Americans to diminish the power of their

vote.Stacey Abrams would be the Governor of the state of Georgia

right now if we had not purged hundreds of thousands of voters

from the voting roll.That's how we get our democracy back.I'm

grateful that you asked the question, thank you.>>

Congressman, we're on the campus of the Des Moines area community

college.

I want to ask you about issues of student debt and paying for

higher education.What are your thoughts?

>> Cost should be no object, no barrier to anyone who wants to

improve themselves.When they do this, they improve the rest of

us.Their earning potential is greater.What they give back is

greater.What they're able to do over thecourse of their life is

greater.But right now we have $1.5 trillion in outstanding

student loan debt, making it hard for those who have an

education to move forward in their lives.And telling those

who are in high school right now that maybethis isn't the best

path for them to take, especially when we

see a 10% default rate on that student loan debt, so how do we

meet this challenge?For those who hold student loan debt which

you can never shake

until you're in the grave, we'll refinance at the lowest finance

rates.And for those who do any kind ofpublic service, if you

teach in a classroom anywhere in America,we'll waive your

outstanding student loan debt completely, clean it, clear it.

You're focused on those kids in front of you.If you work in any

level of local, county, state, or Federalgovernment, we're

going to cleanyour student loan debt.If you are going into

school right now, we're going to guarantee that the first two

years of your education are completely free, not just for

tuition but room and board and books, the full cost of being

able to be educated.And in four-year programs, debt-free

for low income and moderate income Americans, debt-free for

every aspect of college life.And lastly, and I think this is

really important, for those Americans who do not want to go

to college, we're also going to elevate the role that unions

play, create 5 million additional apprenticeships to

ensure that at no cost and no accrual of debt, young Americans

can learn a skill or trade that they'll command for the rest of

their lives, which will allow them to command a living wage

for the rest of our lives.

So that's a comprehensive education plan that addresses

cost and outstanding debt and ensures we're rise to go our

full potential.>> Another issue younger Americans care about is

regulation of the Internet.A lot of older Americans do too.We

have a question from the audience about that.>> Great.

>> Hi, Beto, I'm a senior systems engineer at a large

cloud services committee.Our rights online are becoming

extremely important to everyday Americans.Would you support a

digital rights platform that includes net neutrality, online

privacy, and holding platforms

accountable for their content?>> Yes.And before I continue with

my

answer, let me just commend you

on your style and fashion, with that Beto shirt.The answer is

yes.

Net neutrality, meaning that all data and content flows at the

same speed, and no one for their wealth or their power or their

privilege is able to get their information or entertainment or

news or opinion or candidacy across faster than anyone else.

That's essential to our democracy.It's essential to

entrepreneurship.And a chance for the mom and popshop to

compete against the giant corporations.And it's essential

for our ability to create entertainment and arts and those

aspects of

our quality of life that define us as Americans.

You also mentioned these digital platforms and social media

companies being responsible for the content that they share.

Right now in this country, we effectively treat them as

utilities or common carriers,

when really they're publishers. Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter,

Instagram, they curate the content that I see based on my

likes or dislikes, my biases, my preferences, and my friends.So

they have some control over what I see.Therefore they should be

accountable, just like "the Des

Moines register" is accountable for what they public in their

paper.Removing the blanket immunity which they enjoy today,

holding them accountable and responsiblefor our privacy and

our data, our photos at a time that you and I have become the

products on their platforms, is essentialif we're going to

protect one another and also if we're going to give those small

businesses achance to compete as well.Thanks for asking the

question, appreciate it.>> Congressman, Iowa is one of the

oldest states in the country, an issue relevant to many is Social

Security.What are you going to do to keepit sound?>> I'm going

to make sure that we fulfill our commitment to every single

American who has paid into Social Security every working

day of their lives.And we know that within the next15 years

along this current trajectory, we will no longer beable to pay

100 cents on the dollar of earned benefits.So we've got to

make sure that we have the resources for everyone who is

counting on Social Security going forward.And we also have

to raise the earned benefit that is paid out so people can afford

to live in their older age on the earned benefit that they've

paid into.How do we do this?We raise the arbitrary cap on

income that is taxed for Social Security purposes right now.It's

at 131 -- >> 132,000.>> What's a thousand dollars between

friends, right?$132,000.And what that means right now isthat

every dollar, every million dollars, every billion dollars

more that you earn over that, is

free and clear from being paid into the Social Security fund.>>

You just raised the cap a little bit, or do you take it off

completely?>> We would take the cap off completely.That ensures

that we have the resources to pay well into the

next century, to pay a higher earned benefit for those who

paid in to Social Security, and to make sure that we're

addressing things like long term care, the ability to age in

place, and also, when I'm talking about long term care,

those caregivers right now who may have left a job or have not

gone to work to take care of a wife or a husband, a father or a

mother, we're going to make sure under our administration that

every quarter that you do that for family member counts as a

quarter paid into your Social Security earnings down the line.

Right now, women who are primarily the caregivers in our

homes are disproportionately penalized for choosing to be

there for their fellow family members.That's something we can

afford to do by lifting that cap.>> Another thing you could

afford to do is simply eliminate the Social Security tax on some

of the lowest income workers which would make the tax more

progressive.Would you entertain an idea likethat?>> You know

what, I hadn't thought of that before you askedthe question,

but it makes a tremendous amount of sense to me.You have the

greatest divide right now between the haves and have-nots,

whether measured on wealth or measured on income.And not only

is that inimical toa democracy where everyone ceasean economic

future for themselves and their kids, it isinimical to a

political democracy in this country.People are just going to

start giving up in participating in the Democratic process if

this country no longer works for them.So I like your idea a lot.

Anything that ensures that our tax code is more progressive,

that people can have a chance to earn enough to work just one job

instead of two or three, and then spend time with their kids,

read to their daughter before

the first day of kindergarten, do those things that so many of

us, myself included, take for granted because so many millions

of our fellow Americans are unable to do that, then let's

focus on those opportunities. thinking about the questions to

>> Congressman, as I was ask today, a theme kept coming back.

Crime and immigration.That's race relations, racism in

America.How do you feel about reparations as a way to help

heal the racial divides in this country?>> I think it's

essential.And I don't know that you're able to address this

issue.

And really address the future of America, without moving forward

on reparations.There's a very compelling case that I am

persuaded by, that the

foundation of this country is not the Fourth of July, 1776,

but August 20th, 1619, the first time that someone kidnapped from

west Africa was brought in bondage to this country and as a

slave, forced to perform work that would ultimately build the

greatness and the wealth and the success of America.And that

person's descendants, even today in 2019, not fully able to

participate in the success that their ancestor madepossible in

the first place.There's ten times the wealth in white

America than there is in black America today.I think in Iowa,

African-Americans represent 3% of the population.More than 25%

of the incarcerated population in this state.When you look at

health care, a maternal mortality crisis in America,

three times as deadly for women of color.And in Texas, in a

kindergarten classroom, a child is five timesas likely to be

suspended or disciplined or expelled if he is

a child of color, for the same

infraction, in front of the same

teacher, as a white child.We have to figure out how we got

here.And the reparations bill, as introduced by Sheila Jackson

Leeof Houston, Texas, in the House of Representatives, would

force a telling of the national story and ensure that everyone's

storyis brought to bear, so that we understand how we got here.

Brian Stevenson, who wrote "just mercy" and is an absolute leader

on this issue for this country, has talked about how in Germany,

after the Holocaust, everyday Germans were forced to go to

those concentration camps and gas chambers so not a one of

them could deny what their country had done.In South Africa

you had a truth and reconciliation commission.

In Rwanda, HUTUs and TUTSIs alike were forced to have this

conversation.A reparations commission is the right way to

start to do that.>> Another issue looming in thiscountry is

the national debt, it's exploding.

What programs will you cut, what taxes will you raise to do

something about the national debt?>> You have to ask yourself

the question, how did we get to $22 trillion in debt.Why are we

deficit spending to

the tune of $1 trillion annually, adding to that every

single year?You look back to the George W. Bush administration,

the first administration following the surpluses produced

by the Clinton administration, and you

see two unpaid-for tax cuts that ultimately added trillions.You

see wars that were started

in 2001, added to in 2003, that

we are still fighting today in 2019, added trillions of dollars

to the debt.You find the greatest bailout following the

greatest recessionsince the Great Depression, at the very

beginning of the BarackObama administration.And you

understand how we got here.So how do we get ourselves out?We

already talked about rolling back the worst of the trump tax

cuts which begins to help us.We talked about ending the wars

that we've been fighting without end, without a definition of

victory, without a clear

strategy, bringing those service members home, and focusing on

policy concerns instead of diplomacy to solve our foreign

putting them on the back of 18, 19, 20-year-old men and women

fearlessly serving this country right now, tonight, overseas.

We legalize Americans, meaning those 10 million undocumented

immigrants, able to contribute even more to our national

success and grow this economy and add to the tax base.And then

we have to make decisions about what we're goingto invest in and

what is important.In my administration, it's always

going to be people and communities, education, health

care.Our ability to rise to our full potential and to fulfill

our promise.We know that when we invest in achild at pre-K, there

is a cost up front but it's paid back six times over the course

of their lives.We know when someone can afford to go to this

college or other institution of higher learning or enters an

apprenticeship, their earning potential and what

they give back to this country is far greater over the course

of their lifetime.We know when health care isn't

delivered in the emergency room

or cell, our economy grows at an even greater right.Making those

investments while rolling back the worst of those tax cuts and

ending these wars, that gives us the resources overthe long

teller to grow our way out of this debt and to ensure that we

no longer deficit spend in this country.>> In the few minutes

left, are we headed toward another recession.>>

Unfortunately, many of the indicators point in that

direction.>> What would you do? Because in 2009, they cut

interest rates and they increased Federal spending.

Interest rates can't be cut anymore.And how much money do we

have inthe bank?The till is empty.Print more money?

I'm curious how our leaders will confront this next recession

because the same tools aren't in the toolbox as there have been

in the past.>> On your question about monetary policy, it's one

of thedangers of what President Trump is doing, haranguing and

bullying the Federal Reserve, trying to push them to negative

interest rates.Once you go below zero, there isliterally no more

room to go.When you're really in trouble, when you hit a

recession or God forbid a depression, your flexibility,

your room to maneuver, has been constrained.Your options have

been reduced literally to zero. But it goes back to the question

you asked about trade earlier.I mean, this is not an act of God

or a force of nature.This is a consequence of political

decisions that we've made as a country.And most economists

agree that

the helter-skelter trade policy of Donald Trump, these trade

wars, not just with China, but what he's doing to our

relationship with the European Union or Canada and Mexico,

that's having a real consequence and effect here in this country.

I mentioned the thousand dollars per household tax that that has

resulted in, the 300,000 jobs already lost in America.

Wages last year grew by .5% in America.

So this $2 trillion tax cut that was supposed to increase wages

paid by corporations really just funded stock buybacks for

investors who were already wealthy.Where we're headed is a

consequence of the direction, president has set.the course

that the current I think setting a completely different course,

ending these trade wars, paying the American worker enough so

they don't haveto work a second or third job, that's the best

way to avoid it or to bring us out should we go into a

recession.>> Congressman, I want to talk alittle bit politics

here.One issue I hear from Democrats,and you do too, the

most important issue to them is electability, they're looking

for somebody who can beat Donald Trump.We have an audience

question about that electability.>> Great.

>> Hi, Beto, Joe Cohen, Newton, Iowa, down the road on I-80.I

have Republican friends who are looking for moderate Democrat to

consider supporting.What specific policies and positions

do you have that could

appeal to these voters who don't wasn't to vote for Donald Trump

but also won't vote for a far left Democrat?>> Yeah.

To be honest with you, I don't know what moderate or what the

political labels or how the political spectrum works

anymore.

I was in Katy, Texas, a pretty conservative part of my state

last week.A gentleman approached me and said, I'm as Republican

as they come, never voted for Democrat in my life, I'm an

AR-15 owner, but what you said on that debatestage about taking

those AR-15s

and AK-47s back is exactly how I feel, and absolutely what this

country must do.So I don't know where that fallson the political

spectrum.But it's definitely struck a

chord and it's resonated with this country.Universal health

care, making sure everyone is well enough to go to school or

to work a job orrun their business or start of apunk rock

band or do whatever they were put on this planet to do in the

first place, that's something that people, regardless of party

affiliation,just seem to be able to agree upon.I'll give you one

example of working across the aisle when I was in Congress.We

learned that more than 20 veterans a day, every single

day, take their lives in this country.And the vast majority of

them have been unable or for whateverreason unwilling to go

into a VAand see that provider who could literally save their

lives.Veterans who have what's known

as an other than honorable discharge are twice as likely to

take their own lives.We wrote a bill to extend mentalhealth

access to those veterans.That bill is going absolutely nowhere

in a chamber controlled by the Republican party unless Ican

find a Republican with whom I can work.Found a guy in

California, different party, saw this issue differently.We

compromised, found a consensus piece of legislation,

introduced it to the house, implored our colleagues to vote

for it, although it will cost a little bit more, though it

changes how we treat veterans today, let's bear the burden and

pay the price for the people who put their lives on the line for

this country.It passed both houses and was signed into law

by someone with whom I agree with almost nothing, Donald

Trump.That may be part of the reason we were successful in

that bill,but in Texas, in that Senate campaign, going to each

one of those 254 counties, we won independents for the first

time in decades and won nearly half amillion Republican votes

in thatstate, including my mother who voted for me in that

election.So I know -- and it's personal for me, I know we can

do this, we just have to be open to bringing everyone in, taking

no one for granted.That's the way I'm running for president.

That's the way I'll serve as president.>> In the few minutes

left, I want to talk about the U.S. rolein the world.What is

your view of the U.S. role in the world?Are we the world's

cop?I've heard the saying, when somebody in the world dials 911,

uncle Sam picks up the phone.Is this a vision I would want to

continue?What's your vision of the U.S. role in the world?

>> I see the United States as the indispensable country.We can

do for ourselves, we can do for the rest of the world what no

other country is capableof.Pick the largest challenge, the

greatest threat that we face, climate change.We are right now

the only country that has exempted itselffrom the Paris

climate agreement.We have an administration that will not

even utter the words "climate change" nor believe thescience

behind it though we onlyhave ten years left within whichto act or

lose this place forever.As president I'll make sure that

climate is at the forefront of all foreign policy conversations

and policies.So if it's a trade agreement, the trade agreement

is going to be underpinned by our goals on climate.If it's

meeting with the G-7 as President Trump did a few weeks

ago and walked out of the only conversation they had on

climate, we're going to lead that conversation on climate.

It's going to extend to our other priorities.Nuclear

nonproliferation.Dealing with historic flows of asylum seekers

and refugees.Going to the places where people

are hurting like Guatemala and El Salvador and Honduras and

reducing violence there.And addressing droughts caused not

by the people there but in large part by first world countries

like ours.

What if we brought farmers and

agronomists from Iowa to Guatemala so no one has to flee

2,000 miles and show up at our border, they can stay in their

own.I want us to lead by example, tolead through

inspiration, to endthe wars that we're fighting, and see partners

and common cause throughout the world.That's how we establish,

after

the end of the Second World War, a world that has seen far less

conflict than the decades and centuries that preceded it, that

has been the century for this country, where we have excelled

and dominated the other countries of the world.We can

return to that rightful place but we're going to have

leadership that reflects the confidence and the courage and

the aspirations of our fellow Americans.And I want to do that

as president.

>> Congressman, always way too many questions and never enough

time.Thank you very much for taking time to be with us today.

>> Thank you very much.>> Appreciate it.>> Grateful.>> I

want to thank the former Congressman for joining us for

our conversations with presidential candidates here on

Iowa Public Television.For our audience of Iowans and our

entire Iowa Public Television crew here at the Des Moines area

community college, I'm David Yepsen, and thanks forjoining us

today.

[ Cheers and Applause ]

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