WEBVTT

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- I just wanted to say a few words, but thank you for coming to this afternoon. It's hugely important

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- that we use our voices and speak to a person who's not even here. But I would tell you I'm with a 50-51

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- group. We've been doing a lot of organizing the protests on the square. We have banner drops on the

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- bridge pretty frequently. And we use various topics, depending on what's happening.

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- issues with ICE or issues with voting irregularly are out there. I encourage everybody. I think what

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- gives me a lot of hope is that I bet all of you are involved with something and doing something. And

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- I think it's super important that we're doing it at this time. I just heard that Marco Rubio is now

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- blaming all protests

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- on Cuban influence. And that we are terrorists. Communists. And that's kind of frightening. That we

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- have a Secretary of State saying that we are working, Cuba is working with us. And he'll firstly say

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- there are paid protesters. Go wait for my check. And nobody, raise your hand if you ever got a cent

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- for protesting.

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- But I think it's super, super important that we keep this pressure on all the time, every day. There's

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- an organization called Five Calls that you can put on your phone. And it's a wonderful little app because

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- it's got many, many, many issues on it. And you can choose the issue that you want. And it puts you

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- right to your representation. So you don't have to bother dialing it.

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- or doing anything like that. Quite handy. So I just, again, we're going to be starting at 3.30, but

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- I just wanted to really thank you for all you do. And I know I was talking to somebody else and they

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- were saying how discouraged. She was feeling that all the study we do doesn't seem to have any impact.

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- My answer to her was,

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- Imagine what it would look like if none of us was doing anything. We have to reach out to our kids who

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- are in the older audience here. Our kids are young. My kids are in their 40s, and they're super busy.

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- And they have kids. So I think it's really important that just to know we are doing something. Our voices

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- are heard.

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- And keep the good work up. Don't give up. Thanks. This event was organized by 5051. And it's a nationwide

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- organization, primarily known for organizing demonstrations and banner drops.

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- We're past that point right now. We're into the election season. And town halls were traditionally a

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- regular part of American civil life. It was an important part of democracy that representatives would

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- come and face their constituents, explain their actions, explain their voters, explain their votes.

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- back to, even before we had the Constitution, back to colonial days. And in New England, they would

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- regularly have town halls where everybody came, and they made decisions collectively. But we're too

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- big to do that now. We can't just call a town hall and decide how we want to run things. But what we

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- have is a Constitution. That is the point of the Constitution, and that is

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- the great privilege that we have won for ourselves, the privilege of self-determination, the privilege

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- of self-government. And it only works if we take that responsibility seriously. So that's why you have

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- been invited here today. This is a very necessary part of democracy.

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- It's not just for publicity. It's not just for fun. It's not just to get together with friends and neighbors.

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- Although, that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. But this, we were the first, what those would

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- call, true democracy. In other words, it wasn't a parliamentary system with

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- a king that was in a system where the aristocracy ruled everything. No, this was the first, the first

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- in the world, true democracy. And that was reflected in our Declaration of Independence and also in

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- our Constitution. So it's up to us to defend those rights. No one is going to do it for us. It's up to us.

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- And we have to accept that responsibility as citizens of a free democracy. So I hope that you understand

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- why you have been invited here today. We have a serious problem in this country right now with a Congress

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- that does not take their responsibilities seriously. They become a rubber stamp. Amen.

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- for anything that we, okay, I won't get into too much, I'll pump myself. But it's up to us. It's not

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- enough to just get mad at the television, yell at the television, okay. It takes more than that. You've

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- gotta get off the couch, out of the living room, and talking to people.

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- and finding out everything that she can. Right now, our representative has not come to any town halls.

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- She has not heard from any of her constituents. Maybe she gets letters. Has anyone written her a letter

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- and gotten anything back that reflected a form letter? Send a form letter. That's all she cares about.

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- That's obviously what she thinks about you.

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- So just think about that for a while and why you're here and the power that you have in your vote. But

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- not just the vote. You're all part of a community. You know people. You know where you live. You know

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- your neighbors. You know your friends. You know the civic group that you belong to. So it's time to

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- get out of your shell, stand up, say, this is what I believe in, and this is what I think needs to happen.

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- We have representatives from various civic organizations here today. And I hope you can take the time

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- to talk to them, because they are all involved in some way. But all it takes is for you to step forward

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- and say, yes, tell me what you're doing.

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- Tell me what I can do. No one is going to do it for us. It's up to us to take on that responsibility.

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- And we'll be getting into just a few minutes. So think about what questions you have. We've all got

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- that pink slip. I know it's hard to get up in front of an audience and remember what it was you were

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- going to say. You get nervous, and the thought leaves your head.

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- So that's why you have a chance to write it down. I've had an extensive experience teaching, so I'm

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- used to doing this. But it wasn't easy to do this and to learn how to handle the attention of the classroom.

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- That was hard. So I know that a lot of people, when they get up here and they see the microphone, they're

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- going to freeze or forget what it was they were going to say, get nervous.

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- You can write it out. Think about what you're going to say. Take a deep breath. Collect your thoughts.

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- Relax and realize that everybody here is here to do something. And they really do want to hear from

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- you. The other reason to fill out those pink slips is that I'm going to collect them at the end. And

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- they're going to be sent to Erin Houch's office. So she will follow.

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- And this is what she was concerned about. It's not just paperwork. It's not just performance. This is

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- the only way to get through to her. And to do this more than once, OK? This congressional district goes

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- all the way now to the Ohio River. This is a template. This is a run-through for other counties

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- within the congressional district to step forward and do something similar. So this is being recorded

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- today on Community Action Television through the library. So it's going to be available on YouTube and

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- also local cable. It does matter that you're here today. So whatever you have to say, there's

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- communicated to many more people than just the people sitting here today. So I want you to think about

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- that. Yes, it may be hard to get up in front of a microphone, but it does matter. It will matter. And

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- it's what we have. We have our voices. They can't shut us up. They would like to. They would like to

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- tell you that you don't matter.

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- that what you think doesn't matter, that you're all being controlled by outside elements, that you can't

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- think for yourself. We know that's not true. We can see what's in front of us. We can see a never-ending

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- war starting right now. We know what's going on in the war. We know what's going on with his corrupt deals

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- Where he is making billions, his children are making millions, and yet we can't afford public services

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- like education, like health care, like housing. We don't deserve these things because we're not part

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- of the endowed. We're not part of the correct health structure. What do we do about that? We just can't

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- give up. We have to keep fighting.

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- We have to keep opening our mouths. We have to keep talking about what we see in front of our own eyes.

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- That's what matters. And thank you for coming today.

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- is going to be our kind of master of ceremonies today. Does everybody know about his podcast,

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- Who's Left? Anyone ever heard his podcast? OK. He's great. I love his voice. And he just has this really

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- wonderful, relaxed, humorous way of kind of viewing the people. So this is how it works today. You get

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- to come up and ask a question. It's two minutes. We have a timekeeper here.

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- And the yellow card means you have 30 seconds left, and the red card means that you have to stop, because

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- we have a lot of people here. It's going to take a while to get through all of this. So I hope you understand

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- those time constraints. Anything else I need to say? Go ahead. Oh, wait. Go ahead. You can go again.

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- Please. He understands the importance of speaking up

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- what you think and learning what other people know about and are willing to share. Anything else I need

00:14:04.839 --> 00:14:19.294
- to explain here? Hi, everybody. So as Carolyn was saying, and thank you for the lovely introduction.

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- as they thought of me Mr. Sears on Tuesday, and interesting for today's event. So, as Carolyn said,

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- my name is, yeah, my name is Scott Eric Rogers, and I am a host and creator of the Who's Left podcast

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- that is spelled H-O-O-S left, like who's your left, and also the founder of Progressive Indiana Network,

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- a independent media project dedicated to hosting and amplifying progressive voices by researchers, activists,

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- podcasters and other content creators here in the Hoosier State, and you can find out more about us

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- at progressiveindian.net. Now, as Carolyn was saying, the town hall is one of the oldest traditions

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- in American democracy. It's where citizens bring their concerns directly to those who represent them.

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- Whether we agree or disagree politically, we all deserve a chance to have our voices heard. Now, our

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- Our chair here today is with me, has been reserved for our Congresswoman Erin Houchin. We sent invitations

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- electronically and by certified mail, I understand, to both her DC office and her office down in Salem,

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- but have received no response. This is typical. Houchin was first elected to this seat in 2022, has

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- now completed nearly two full terms, and has never

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- held an open, in-person town hall where she takes unscripted questions from her constituents. In this

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- district now, that's not to say she doesn't come home to southern Indiana. She returns to visit safe

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- spaces, hobnob with donors, roll elbows with the very important people. Apparently, that's not us. But

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- she refuses to field questions from her constituents.

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- So listen, since she doesn't visit us, and you haven't met her, most likely, who is Erin Houchin? Well,

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- before serving in Congress, Representative Houchin spent eight years in the Indiana State Senate, where

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- she took a reputation as one of the legislature's most conservative members. And since heading to Washington,

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- she has continued that approach

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- by supporting the Republican leadership's agenda on issues including abortion, immigration,

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- taxes, environmental regulation, or lack thereof, and federal spending. Now, any of us believe those

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- priorities do not reflect the needs of a large number of Hoosiers. We believe government should protect

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- a woman's right to make her own healthcare decisions, strengthen public education,

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- expand access to affordable healthcare, invest in clean energy, defend social security and Medicare,

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- and create an economy that works for working families, not just the Epstein class. Representative Houchin

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- has consistently taken positions opposite those. She has supported strict abortion restrictions. She

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- has opposed many climate initiatives,

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- She has favored extending tax policies that primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans. She has backed

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- efforts to reduce spending on many domestic programs. And she has been a reliable supporter of President

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- Trump's agenda and that of the Republican leadership. And reasonable people can disagree about these

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- issues. That's fine. That's what democracy is all about. But democracy also depends on accountability.

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- elected officials work for the people, not the other way around. Instituents, that is us, should have

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- opportunities to ask questions, hear explanations for difficult, though it may express concerns face-to-face.

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- And since Representative Pouchin is not here this afternoon, we will do the next best thing. We will

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- talk about her record, discuss the issues that matter to our communities, and give participants

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- an opportunity to ask the questions they would have asked

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- if she had accepted our invitation. This isn't about attacking a person. It's about examining the decisions

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- that affect our lives, our families, and our futures. And whether you're a Democrat, a Republican, a

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- libertarian, independent, socialist, whatever, or simply a concerned citizen, thank you for taking the

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- time to be engaged. Democracy is strong when citizens show up, stay informed,

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- and hold every elected official, regardless of party, accountable. Now, Carolyn was explaining these

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- little big slips here, and you know, you see kids, back in the day, I'm sure most of you guys know this,

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- but we used to have this sort of thing before tax and emails and voicemails. They'd call in some of

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- those places of business and they weren't there. The person answering the phone, which was probably

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- attached to the wall, of course, wrote down a message

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- and maybe even cursive, to give the recipients a sense while you were out. And I'd like folks to go

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- ahead and fill these out. We will come up and cue up, raise your hands. And you will come up right here

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- so we get you on camera. We only got the one leg today, unfortunately. But let me give you a little

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- demonstration here to begin.

00:20:06.882 --> 00:20:15.720
- of Congresswoman. While you were out, over 90,000 Hoosiers lost access to food assistance. While you

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- were out, hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers saw their health insurance premiums rise by 25% to 30%.

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- Indiana's own insurance regulators approved an average 27% hike for next year. And for Hoosiers who

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- lost their subsidies entirely,

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- Some saw their rates double, triple, or worse. While you were out, hundreds of Indiana families have

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- seen loved ones rounded up and detained just by having no criminal record. And we put the bill. While

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- you were out, a dozen rural hospitals in Indiana, including the one in your hometown of Salem, were

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- officially classified at risk of closing. Senate Democrats put that list

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- directly in front of Congress, warning it would shove financially fragile hospitals over the edge. And

00:21:12.019 --> 00:21:18.626
- you knew. And you voted for it anyway. While you were out, Hoosiers saw the utility bill spike by 20%

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- to 25% while power hungry data centers multiplied across their communities, data centers that guzzled

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- tens of millions of gallons of water, gobbled up farmland and wetlands and paid next to nothing.

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- in return in Indiana has exempted them from state sales taxes entirely, a giveaway expected to cost

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- this state over $2 billion. Now, I just laid out a bunch of numbers, a high-level view of just some

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- of the damage that's been done on Mrs. Housh's watch, but this is a mere accounting, a skeleton with

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- no meat, a summary without emotion. You out there will bring these numbers to life.

00:22:01.570 --> 00:22:09.249
- Your stories will add color to this outline. Again, the purpose of today's event is to share your experiences

00:22:09.249 --> 00:22:16.369
- with the Congresswoman. Ask your questions, vent your frustrations. So again, I will invite you to do

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- just that. Fill out these forms. We're going to go ahead and collect them at the end of the day. And

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- we will send them on to her office. We might not be able to make her listen. We might not be able to

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- make her care.

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- We can't make ourselves impossible to ignore. We'd like to get us started today. All right. I have a

00:22:45.352 --> 00:22:59.021
- whole lot of questions. Hello, everybody. I have a lot of questions. Can you introduce yourself? Oh,

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- I'm sorry.

00:23:00.642 --> 00:23:08.116
- Rick Patrick, I live in Nashville in Brown County. Brad Meyer fan. Todd Blanch, Acting Attorney General

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- and Attorney General nominee hopeful, only recently and grudgingly met for a single hour with Epstein

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- Abuse Survivors. About a year ago, Mr. Blanch, in his role as Deputy Attorney General, met for nine

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- hours over two days with Delane Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker for Epstein and others,

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- and facilitated her move to a minimum security prison. Given your commitment to anti-trafficking legislation

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- dating back to your days in the Indiana State Senate, do you find this disturbing? As an advocate for

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- online safety and child protection, extended foster care, and vulnerable youth support, if re-elected,

00:23:48.573 --> 00:23:54.941
- will you commit to ending once and for all the continued stonewalling and cover-up of the Epstein files

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- and work to deliver justice to the survivors?

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- You know, Mrs. Houchin likes to tout her record as someone who cares for and protects children. She

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- was a case manager here in DCS in Indiana before being elected to the state senate. And as you said,

00:24:17.501 --> 00:24:24.429
- she championed this anti-trafficking legislation. And yet, and yet, now she would say, she supported

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- the release of the Epstein files. She was one that voted in favor of the Epstein files transparency

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- act, but I would note

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- only after it was apparent that there were not enough votes to keep these things under wraps. And it

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- was very clear that she had to, for fear of looking like, well, who else would like to come up and share

00:24:52.209 --> 00:25:01.598
- their story? Thank you. I'm Susan Davis. I live in the county of Wilmington. Representative Houchin.

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- Your vote for President Trump's 2026 budget, which has been described as the largest transfer of wealth

00:25:13.628 --> 00:25:24.374
- in our country, has meant the following in Congressional District 9. 1,708, 119 of your constituents

00:25:24.374 --> 00:25:29.694
- on Medicaid are at risk of losing their coverage.

00:25:31.682 --> 00:25:42.418
- 29,000 of your constituents who receive coverage under the ACA will see their average premium go up

00:25:42.418 --> 00:25:53.476
- by $720 a year. That's a 41% increase. 54,000 of your constituents count on the Supplemental Nutrition

00:25:53.476 --> 00:25:59.166
- Assistance Program or SNAP to put food on the table.

00:26:00.322 --> 00:26:13.135
- As a Christian with government health care provided to you, how can you ignore Matthew 25, verse 4,

00:26:13.135 --> 00:26:26.204
- where Jesus teaches that serving people in need is the same as serving him directly? There's knock-on

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- effects from this.

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- And again, this is someone who touts her support for children and with the reduction in the Medicaid

00:26:41.117 --> 00:26:47.166
- rolls, with the reduction in the food assistance.

00:26:47.362 --> 00:26:54.870
- can, you know, those numbers are used to determine the eligibility for free and reduced school lunches

00:26:54.870 --> 00:27:02.160
- in schools. And I want to say, somewhere in the neighborhood of 650,000 Hoosier kids are at risk of

00:27:02.160 --> 00:27:09.668
- losing access to free and reduced lunches in their school because of that reduction that's in addition

00:27:09.668 --> 00:27:15.646
- to whether they are using Medicaid or SNAP in their own home. Very disappointing.

00:27:15.810 --> 00:27:24.064
- Certainly not taking care of the least of these, as Susan mentioned. Who else would like to come up?

00:27:24.064 --> 00:27:32.400
- That's Gare. I know Gare. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, I go on my right side of Bloomington. Dear

00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:40.654
- Representative Alchin, a quote from your left side. Aaron is a committed fiscal conservative and has

00:27:40.654 --> 00:27:42.942
- a track record to prove it.

00:27:43.298 --> 00:27:49.769
- And as a champion for Indiana's balanced budget amendment, she's bringing that same fiscal discipline

00:27:49.769 --> 00:27:56.114
- to Washington. The big, beautiful bill that you passed was estimated to blow up the federal budget.

00:27:56.114 --> 00:28:02.458
- The nonpartisan congressional budget office estimates that the effect of the big, beautiful bill on

00:28:02.458 --> 00:28:05.694
- the federal budget is $3.8 trillion over 10 years.

00:28:06.594 --> 00:28:12.777
- If you take this and divide this by the number of Americans, that is $11,000 for each one of you in

00:28:12.777 --> 00:28:19.022
- the room and all the other Americans that live in this country. Since we're not planning to pay this

00:28:19.022 --> 00:28:25.204
- debt tomorrow, we have to think about our future generations. The estimated over the next 10 years,

00:28:25.204 --> 00:28:31.573
- 36 million Americans will be born. For each one of those 36 million Americans to be born over the next

00:28:31.573 --> 00:28:34.046
- 10 years, that's a staggering $100,000.

00:28:34.722 --> 00:28:41.643
- just for the privilege of being an American. Could you please explain to us how you can advertise yourself

00:28:41.643 --> 00:28:48.176
- as a fiscal conservative, and that you have contributed to blowing up the federal debt? What kind of

00:28:48.176 --> 00:28:54.839
- discipline have you shown by helping to blow up the federal debt? The congressional budget office also

00:28:54.839 --> 00:29:01.566
- estimates the distributional impact of the big, beautiful bill. The top 10% of incomers in this country

00:29:01.666 --> 00:29:07.484
- they will see their resources over the next four years go up by two and a half percent. At the bottom

00:29:07.484 --> 00:29:13.360
- percent, at the bottom 10 percent, the 10 percent poorest of our brothers and sisters, their resources

00:29:13.360 --> 00:29:19.235
- will go down over the next four years by three and a half percent. That's mostly because we're cutting

00:29:19.235 --> 00:29:25.396
- SNAP, WIC, Medicaid, and similar programs. There's a plethora of social science research projects, research

00:29:25.396 --> 00:29:30.302
- that shows that these are not just NANDOX, these are not just dollars blowing you in.

00:29:30.498 --> 00:29:39.954
- these are investments to help people have a better life over the long term. Thank you. You know, even

00:29:39.954 --> 00:29:49.595
- if you're not a fiscal honk like, say, myself, it is certainly rich for how she could call herself some

00:29:49.595 --> 00:29:59.422
- sort of fiscal conservative while voting for budgets like these. And it's not like the money isn't there.

00:29:59.746 --> 00:30:10.165
- The rich folks have it all. And she signed up on this bill, which gave massive tax cuts to the wealthiest

00:30:10.165 --> 00:30:19.993
- among us. Now, do I have any billionaires in here? The one big, beautiful bill is after them? Yeah,

00:30:19.993 --> 00:30:27.070
- I think so. Does anybody have a story about how the big, beautiful bill

00:30:27.234 --> 00:30:38.226
- has offended them personally, or maybe will affect them in the near future if everything goes through

00:30:38.226 --> 00:30:49.219
- as stated. Come on up. Share your story. I have a lookbook in a long-term care facility. Okay. Do you

00:30:49.219 --> 00:30:55.038
- have anything written down? Not in that regard. Okay.

00:31:06.050 --> 00:31:14.522
- Yeah, what you said, my concern is the Medicaid tests and what's going to happen to our nursing home

00:31:14.522 --> 00:31:23.078
- residents. Given Donald Trump's continuing escalation of the Iran war and his ever-increasing demands

00:31:23.078 --> 00:31:32.053
- for more funding, at what point would you demand a defined endgame and strict accounting for war spending?

00:31:32.053 --> 00:31:33.982
- Congresswoman Houchin.

00:31:41.314 --> 00:31:48.414
- A lot of folks here in this room probably aren't feeling the effects of this war the same way folks

00:31:48.414 --> 00:31:55.515
- in Iran are, maybe, exactly, or our troops in the Middle East. We've seen, we're up to 18 now, U.S.

00:31:55.515 --> 00:32:02.686
- service builders have been killed in this conflict that is illegal that they call for. They're lying

00:32:02.686 --> 00:32:04.958
- about the number of casualties.

00:32:05.186 --> 00:32:12.292
- Just this week, they got caught producing from 18 to 14 the number of war dead and then making up an

00:32:12.292 --> 00:32:19.468
- excuse about lying. They're also lying about injuries that have been sustained in this war. Equipment

00:32:19.468 --> 00:32:26.714
- losses, you name it, I don't know if we're going to get an accurate accounting of what has taken place

00:32:26.714 --> 00:32:30.654
- while Trump and Pete Exxon are overseeing the Pentagon.

00:32:31.106 --> 00:32:39.763
- And not to mention, the Pentagon struggles with accounting as it is. They haven't passed an audit in

00:32:39.763 --> 00:32:48.334
- years and are years away from doing so. We've got someone else who'd like to share their story. Why

00:32:48.334 --> 00:32:57.247
- don't you come on up? Hi, I'm Peg Houseman, also from Wilmington. Good afternoon, Representative Houch.

00:32:57.247 --> 00:32:59.390
- You want to go out, Peg?

00:33:01.218 --> 00:33:07.092
- I'd like to ask you about environmental policy and your support for the Lower Energy Costs Act.

00:33:07.092 --> 00:33:13.395
- For years, you've told us that this bill is a way to boost U.S. energy production, lower energy costs,

00:33:13.395 --> 00:33:19.575
- and rein in federal regulations that supposedly get in the way of economic growth. Of course, we all

00:33:19.575 --> 00:33:25.694
- like the idea of U.S. energy dependence, cheaper power, less rent, and pay. But would this law even

00:33:25.694 --> 00:33:29.182
- give us those results? And if it does, what's the price?

00:33:30.818 --> 00:33:38.688
- The bill focuses on reproducing more fossil fuel by, for example, mandating oil and gas leases on public

00:33:38.688 --> 00:33:46.482
- land, streamlining permits for mining pipelines, and making it illegal to ban fracking. But if you want

00:33:46.482 --> 00:33:53.977
- cheaper energy, why would you go with fossil fuels? Renewables cost a lot less, even though they've

00:33:53.977 --> 00:33:58.174
- gotten much less help from the government in subsidies.

00:33:58.786 --> 00:34:06.761
- Last year, solar power was 41% cheaper, and wind was 53% cheaper than the cheapest fossil fuels. And

00:34:06.761 --> 00:34:14.658
- even costs for battery storage, which is really important for nighttime energy, they have gone down

00:34:14.658 --> 00:34:22.554
- 93% since 2010. That's why the adoption of renewables keeps going up in the US, in spite of federal

00:34:22.554 --> 00:34:27.134
- attempts to discourage it. Can I have three seconds left?

00:34:29.026 --> 00:34:35.039
- Okay, well fossil fuels are really unhealthy, and they also raise the level of greenhouse gases in the

00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:41.285
- air, which means global warming gets worse year after year. So what does your support for this legislation

00:34:41.285 --> 00:34:47.239
- say to you about your priorities? Is it really a choice between cutting the protection so we can have

00:34:47.239 --> 00:34:53.194
- more fossil fuel production, or investing in protecting our air and our water, our public health? Why

00:34:53.194 --> 00:34:56.638
- should we believe that you've chosen the right priorities?

00:35:02.658 --> 00:35:10.711
- That actually ties in very nicely with the last question about that Iran war in the Pentagon. It's a

00:35:10.711 --> 00:35:18.684
- war fought over essentially fossil fuels, right? So it costs more than just our failure to innovate

00:35:18.684 --> 00:35:26.816
- in terms of renewable energy, in terms of adopting renewable energy. It's costing lives, it's costing

00:35:26.816 --> 00:35:32.158
- talent and treasure and love of our service members and, you know,

00:35:33.762 --> 00:35:41.006
- China is eating our lunch when it comes to renewable energies. You know, so much for a strong national

00:35:41.006 --> 00:35:48.108
- defense and a strong national profile that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi herself is supporting. And along the

00:35:48.108 --> 00:35:55.774
- lines, it's not just that she supports the fossil fuels. She would say that she supports carbon-free energy.

00:35:55.938 --> 00:36:03.727
- She's a big fan of nuclear. They want to have small modular nuclear reactors here in Indiana. We're

00:36:03.727 --> 00:36:11.671
- apparently being slated to serve as a gig thing for this unproven technology. Anybody want to own one

00:36:11.671 --> 00:36:19.070
- of these in their backyard? I think so. I think so. Just would like to come up here and share.

00:36:32.770 --> 00:36:39.787
- I live in Bloomington, Indiana. I have a question for Erin Houchin. She was a staffer for Dan Coats

00:36:39.787 --> 00:36:46.805
- in 2011 to 2014, and I'm going to address that here. Former Director of National Security Dan Coats

00:36:46.805 --> 00:36:54.243
- clashed with President Donald Trump over a Russian election interference, expressed deep private concerns

00:36:54.243 --> 00:37:01.822
- regarding Vladimir Putin, and was frequently sidelined on key diplomatic decisions. Coats publicly affirmed

00:37:01.954 --> 00:37:08.821
- Russian election medley? Coats was not informed of the details regarding Trump's private meeting with

00:37:08.821 --> 00:37:15.553
- Putin at the 2018 Helsinki summit? Dan Coats resigned in August 2019 and cited deep suspicions that

00:37:15.553 --> 00:37:22.420
- Vladimir Putin had something on Donald Trump. They are announcing you worked as a staff member to Dan

00:37:22.420 --> 00:37:29.758
- Coats from 2011 to 2014, while Coats was Indiana's U.S. Senator. Do you believe Putin has something on Trump

00:37:29.954 --> 00:37:42.458
- and that Russia meddled in the 2016 election to help Trump, and you believe that this assistance is

00:37:42.458 --> 00:37:55.211
- continuing today? Yes. Yes. Aaron claims to be a strong supporter of Ukraine. So we'll see. But alas,

00:37:55.211 --> 00:37:58.462
- we saw the president just

00:37:59.330 --> 00:38:06.422
- Within just the last couple weeks, talk about election interference. And he said that China was interfered

00:38:06.422 --> 00:38:13.314
- in the 2020 election. Venezuela interfered in the 2020 election. And he released all sorts of documents

00:38:13.314 --> 00:38:20.406
- that supposedly prove this news sledge they didn't. What these documents that he pointed to didn't suggest

00:38:20.406 --> 00:38:27.034
- is that Russia has and is still interfering in US elections. He conveniently admitted that, Eric, I

00:38:27.034 --> 00:38:28.094
- want your wife.

00:38:28.194 --> 00:38:40.356
- I believe you were next one to come up. Well, thank you Representative Halton for not being here. My

00:38:40.356 --> 00:38:52.518
- name is Susan Rennie and I'm from Monroe County. Today is the 36th anniversary of the Americans with

00:38:52.518 --> 00:38:54.686
- Disabilities Act.

00:38:56.098 --> 00:39:04.708
- And if you know anything about what's happening in Washington, DC, Representative Houchin, then you

00:39:04.708 --> 00:39:13.662
- know that it's under attack. A recent memo from the Department of Justice is signaling that the federal

00:39:13.662 --> 00:39:22.789
- government will no longer enforce the immigration mandate under the ADA, which puts thousands of Hoosiers

00:39:22.789 --> 00:39:25.630
- at risk of institutionalization.

00:39:26.050 --> 00:39:34.092
- something we've been working on for the last 40 years. People are now able to live independently in

00:39:34.092 --> 00:39:41.733
- their community with support. And now the federal government is going to allow states to start

00:39:41.733 --> 00:39:49.936
- institutionalization again. It's going to shift the burden from integrated care into costly state-run

00:39:49.936 --> 00:39:55.646
- institutions. Those institutions actually cost four to five times more

00:39:56.002 --> 00:40:04.931
- and support in the community. So, Representative, given your commitment to fiscal responsibility, how

00:40:04.931 --> 00:40:13.772
- can Congress support states in maintaining cost-effective community-based care for your constituents

00:40:13.772 --> 00:40:22.700
- with disabilities? That's a really important question. I actually did a podcast episode just the last

00:40:22.700 --> 00:40:23.838
- couple weeks

00:40:24.130 --> 00:40:31.383
- about this with a couple of advocates for disability rights. And one of the things we talked about is

00:40:31.383 --> 00:40:38.850
- if this administration keeps going down this path, what they're doing is repeating the eugenics policies

00:40:38.850 --> 00:40:46.174
- that we had in this country from the early 1900s and onward. Even Indiana, it turns out, was a leader,

00:40:46.174 --> 00:40:53.854
- a pioneer in eugenics, not exactly a proud in history. To Hamilton, we see Indiana history repeating itself

00:40:54.114 --> 00:41:01.859
- again and again, I don't know, next weekend up in Fishers, Michael Beckwith is hosting a, what amounts

00:41:01.859 --> 00:41:09.453
- to a modern day clan rally with former border patrol commander Greg Robino. There will be, yeah, who

00:41:09.453 --> 00:41:16.972
- was right, there will be a, quite a large counter protest, I understand, on that day. Did they find

00:41:16.972 --> 00:41:22.686
- a place to do it? Because I heard they were having trouble finding a place.

00:41:22.850 --> 00:41:29.229
- a place to actually host them. Well, they're not announcing it because it's a private gathering. They

00:41:29.229 --> 00:41:35.984
- don't want folks to know where they're going to be so we can protest. But there is a protest, I understand,

00:41:35.984 --> 00:41:42.238
- in a park out there. Lots of information for that available on Facebook. Is anybody coming up there

00:41:42.238 --> 00:41:46.366
- next Saturday? I am. It's very important for Hoosiers to make our

00:41:46.850 --> 00:41:59.931
- voices heard that we will not tolerate a return to the 1920s here in the 2020s. Who else wants to go

00:41:59.931 --> 00:42:08.350
- ahead and come up? I saw Dan back there. That's great sharpness.

00:42:19.682 --> 00:42:27.726
- My name is Daniel Siegel. I live in Bloomington here, and I'm also on the State Coordinating Committee

00:42:27.726 --> 00:42:35.692
- for Jewish Voice for Peace. Congresswoman, if you're not familiar with the Jewish Voice for Peace, we

00:42:35.692 --> 00:42:43.893
- have nearly three quarters of a million active members and supporters. We are the fastest growing Jewish

00:42:43.893 --> 00:42:49.438
- identified organization in the country, and we are the world's largest

00:42:49.602 --> 00:43:00.218
- and designs Jewish organizations. In Palestine and Israel, Congresswoman, some 14.5 million of our fellow

00:43:00.218 --> 00:43:10.233
- human beings live. Roughly half of them are Jewish and have full citizenship rights. The other half

00:43:10.233 --> 00:43:18.846
- are Palestinian. Two and a half million of them have second-class citizenship rights.

00:43:19.298 --> 00:43:27.183
- For instance, they live in the 48 borders, but are restricted from living in over 90% of the lands,

00:43:27.183 --> 00:43:35.226
- have restricted rights of movement and speech. The other five and a half million Palestinians are not

00:43:35.226 --> 00:43:43.268
- citizens and are daily denied their freedom and equality by the Jewish supremacist Zionist state. You

00:43:43.268 --> 00:43:49.182
- have always supported this Jewish supremacist state, and since October 23,

00:43:49.346 --> 00:43:59.172
- You have supported the genocide of this Jewish supremacist state against our Palestinian brothers and

00:43:59.172 --> 00:44:08.804
- sisters. How do you justify your support for genocide? My Jewish parents, may their memories be for

00:44:08.804 --> 00:44:16.318
- blessings, brought me up to know that never again meant for all human beings.

00:44:22.370 --> 00:44:30.695
- for everybody. How do you justify your support for the genocide? You have voted for every funding, every

00:44:30.695 --> 00:44:38.703
- weapon of mass murder to be distributed to the Israeli state to kill more and more Palestinians. And

00:44:38.703 --> 00:44:46.869
- that has taken money away from what we needed here for Medicare for all, low income housing, universal

00:44:46.869 --> 00:44:51.230
- low income housing. How do you justify your anti-life,

00:44:51.362 --> 00:45:02.299
- pro-Palestinian faith policies. It is a moral obligation to unequivocally defend Israel and I find it

00:45:02.299 --> 00:45:13.450
- ironic that she used the word moral there because it's clear to anybody on the set of working eyes that

00:45:13.450 --> 00:45:17.310
- what is happening there is immoral.

00:45:17.410 --> 00:45:25.482
- You know, it turns out, I've got an APEC tracker up here right now, our congresswoman has taken nearly

00:45:25.482 --> 00:45:33.476
- $35,000 in funding from pro-Israel political action committees. Her humanity can be bought relatively

00:45:33.476 --> 00:45:41.470
- cheaply, it appears. That's not that much for a congresswoman. Disappointing for sure. I'd like to...

00:46:02.978 --> 00:46:14.156
- question to the congresswoman, a politician who has been in politics for many, many years in the state

00:46:14.156 --> 00:46:25.118
- before going to federal. My name is Tommy Allison, also a retired politician. From one politician to

00:46:25.118 --> 00:46:30.110
- the other, I want to ask how you can send out

00:46:30.946 --> 00:46:43.151
- I am older, so I'm getting mailings from my congresswoman to seniors. And the latest one was how much

00:46:43.151 --> 00:46:55.116
- she has done for seniors, how much she cares about seniors. And there's something that has stuck in

00:46:55.116 --> 00:46:59.902
- my cross about that particular concern.

00:47:00.898 --> 00:47:12.245
- Because during COVID, there were many, many deaths in the nursing homes of our seniors, our parents,

00:47:12.245 --> 00:47:23.480
- the families could not get their parents out of the nursing homes. And it was not only the patients

00:47:23.480 --> 00:47:30.782
- that were trapped and had extreme deaths, but the staff as well.

00:47:31.906 --> 00:47:44.950
- And this is something that she wasn't aware of. It was something that she knew about. Most of the nursing

00:47:44.950 --> 00:47:57.379
- homes Medicaid pays for. That's our tax monies. It comes through federal to the state, and the state

00:47:57.379 --> 00:48:00.702
- must oversee that payment.

00:48:01.410 --> 00:48:12.807
- And part of that, it means that they must live up to staffing levels, or they can be sued. The state

00:48:12.807 --> 00:48:24.656
- had always obeyed that, had law obeying that the parents, the children that had people in nursing homes,

00:48:24.656 --> 00:48:30.750
- that they could sue if their staffing levels were not

00:48:30.946 --> 00:48:41.108
- kept up. She was on the policy committee for the Republican Party. Behind the scenes, they decide what

00:48:41.108 --> 00:48:51.566
- bills even go to the super majority. And they decide what goes forward doesn't go forward. So she decided

00:48:51.566 --> 00:49:00.446
- what went forward. And what went forward was that the state changed the law and said that

00:49:00.610 --> 00:49:10.424
- The people could not sue the owners of the nursing home. And that meant that there is no responsibility

00:49:10.424 --> 00:49:20.049
- in the nursing homes at all. Before that, the state looked the other way as far as the staffing. They

00:49:20.049 --> 00:49:28.542
- would notify, and when the state examiners came by, they were fully staffed for that day.

00:49:28.770 --> 00:49:40.037
- But now there is no recourse whatsoever. And so we have her to be explained why she can say she cares

00:49:40.037 --> 00:49:51.084
- about seniors when our seniors in the nursing homes are on Medicaid and there's no other choice. So

00:49:51.084 --> 00:49:57.822
- she's responsible. And she should stand and take that blame.

00:49:58.434 --> 00:50:09.077
- Thank you so much. I can attest to this personally. My wife is one of those nurses who will work in

00:50:09.077 --> 00:50:19.614
- a long-term care facility during COVID. She still works in one of those long-term care facilities.

00:50:19.778 --> 00:50:27.348
- Let me tell you about the staffing levels. They are running tight. They do never have enough hands on

00:50:27.348 --> 00:50:34.993
- deck, certainly not as many as they need on a day to day basis. And, you know, in certain states, this

00:50:34.993 --> 00:50:38.110
- is maybe not something this is an option,

00:50:38.370 --> 00:50:45.437
- change because she's a federal level, but a state like Indiana is a right-to-work state. And we do not

00:50:45.437 --> 00:50:52.092
- have much in the way of nursing unions like they do in states like California and Massachusetts,

00:50:52.092 --> 00:50:59.090
- for example, where they can collectively bargain for mandatory patient-to-nurse ratios. We don't have

00:50:59.090 --> 00:51:03.550
- that here. And along the lines of Organized Labor, I want to say

00:51:03.650 --> 00:51:13.579
- Congressman Mnuchin has a 0% lifetime record from AFL-CIO. And on the topic of seniors, I hope to be

00:51:13.579 --> 00:51:23.802
- one someday. And I hope to have social security available to me when I retire, if I ever get to retire.

00:51:23.802 --> 00:51:30.782
- And these cuts that she voted for in this one big, beautiful bill will

00:51:31.234 --> 00:51:39.461
- You know, they say they want to protect Social Security, right? Well, I understand that the Congressional

00:51:39.461 --> 00:51:47.300
- Budget Office, they themselves, not exactly a partisan think tank, said that the insolvency date for

00:51:47.300 --> 00:51:48.542
- Social Security

00:51:48.738 --> 00:51:58.261
- moved up about a year from the passage of this bill. Any folks here on social security know that are

00:51:58.261 --> 00:52:07.689
- currently a lot? Has anybody seen effects of this bill yet? And some questions? So far, so good. Or

00:52:07.689 --> 00:52:15.326
- any other social security questions? Anybody want to talk about social security?

00:52:26.754 --> 00:52:35.765
- No takers there? Anybody else want to share their story or questions for the Congresswoman? I see one

00:52:35.765 --> 00:52:44.599
- in the back. I see a couple in the back. See, that's how they pitch it. The people that are already

00:52:44.599 --> 00:52:52.638
- in it aren't going to mail it. They always put in the cuss, so they kick in down the road.

00:52:55.938 --> 00:53:05.559
- and I've followed your office so many times, they recognize my voice. But today, I want to talk about

00:53:05.559 --> 00:53:15.273
- ICE. No one disputes that our right to have secure borders and enforcement of immigration. But how you

00:53:15.273 --> 00:53:23.102
- solve them matters. I come to speak about my grandson who goes to Fairview School.

00:53:23.906 --> 00:53:33.700
- I went to the Christmas program this year. The principal there cares about diversity. He in fact celebrates

00:53:33.700 --> 00:53:42.951
- diversity. And it brought tears to my eyes when I saw all those kids there, some of them going to bed

00:53:42.951 --> 00:53:50.206
- at night, fearing that their parents might get arrested or taken away. No child

00:53:51.042 --> 00:54:00.770
- And my grandson should not have to fear for his classmates. Aaron Houchin doesn't seem to care about

00:54:00.770 --> 00:54:11.075
- that. No child should have to fear about their parents being arrested. We are now witnessing ICE murdering

00:54:11.075 --> 00:54:19.262
- American citizens on the street. This is not okay. There is nothing okay about that.

00:54:19.810 --> 00:54:28.431
- And the FBI has just come out and said, we're not going to investigate that anymore. What that does,

00:54:28.431 --> 00:54:37.309
- it gives a license to everybody, to kill anybody on the streets that they don't like. This is not okay.

00:54:37.309 --> 00:54:41.662
- Ms. Houghton, what are you going to do about that?

00:54:49.634 --> 00:54:57.023
- Now, Ms. Hutchins doesn't appear to do anything about that. She is a big fan of President Trump's immigration

00:54:57.023 --> 00:55:03.740
- policy and talks about how it's, you know, raining in these criminal aliens. You know, the majority

00:55:03.740 --> 00:55:10.525
- of the people they're bringing in has no violent criminal record. And, you know, crossing the border

00:55:10.525 --> 00:55:15.294
- illegally is a civil offense. It certainly doesn't warrant the kind of

00:55:17.250 --> 00:55:24.601
- Why are you with a nun? For a police officer. A nun. They, like, detained a nun. Yeah, yeah. Well, and

00:55:24.601 --> 00:55:31.809
- they're hiring whoever off the streets. We saw this recently in Maine, the guy that killed this man.

00:55:31.809 --> 00:55:39.089
- The wrong person, by the way. And they've got the wrong people many times, and they're trigger-happy.

00:55:39.089 --> 00:55:45.726
- They wouldn't pass a background check in any normal circumstances. And this stupid bill gave

00:55:46.050 --> 00:55:53.789
- The Department of Homeland Security, over $170 billion, they would be one of the most generously equipped

00:55:53.789 --> 00:56:01.455
- militaries on the face of the earth if they were their own military force. Concerning, to say the least,

00:56:01.455 --> 00:56:05.470
- I saw another hand over there. You want to come on up?

00:56:16.962 --> 00:56:24.226
- I'm going to have a hard time following two really good speakers, because Carolyn's comments about nerves

00:56:24.226 --> 00:56:31.285
- were about me. I am a constituent of Aaron Houghton's here in Monroe County. And I'd also like to talk

00:56:31.285 --> 00:56:38.138
- about an issue that is trying to find a solution to a made up problem. I have changed my name twice

00:56:38.138 --> 00:56:44.991
- due to marriage. How many women in here have changed their names due to marriage? Yeah, lots of us.

00:56:44.991 --> 00:56:46.430
- Never do that again.

00:56:47.682 --> 00:56:53.655
- Good afternoon, Representative Houghton. I'm going to talk to you about voting rights and your support

00:56:53.655 --> 00:56:59.570
- for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Save Act, legislation that you co-sponsored and voted to

00:56:59.570 --> 00:57:05.600
- advance in the House, including last week when Representative House Speaker Johnson tried to hide parts

00:57:05.600 --> 00:57:11.573
- of an increasingly separate House bill and resolution. Do you know about that? Yeah. So the bill would

00:57:11.573 --> 00:57:17.662
- require people registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship

00:57:17.762 --> 00:57:23.944
- such as a qualifying passport, a birth certificate, or other documentation, or other approved evidence

00:57:23.944 --> 00:57:30.125
- of citizenship. No one disputes that only American citizens should be voting in the federal elections.

00:57:30.125 --> 00:57:36.127
- That is already federal law. Supporters of the SAVE Act argue that it closes potential loopholes in

00:57:36.127 --> 00:57:42.129
- the voter registration and strengthens public confidence in elections. The bill also directs states

00:57:42.129 --> 00:57:46.750
- to verify citizenship and remove non-citizens from voter registration roles.

00:57:47.522 --> 00:57:54.261
- But in fact, documented cases of non-citizen castings, ballots, and federal elections is exceedingly

00:57:54.261 --> 00:58:01.267
- rare. And the bill will create new obstacles for eligible citizens who lack ready access to the required

00:58:01.267 --> 00:58:08.140
- documents. Roughly half of Americans do not possess a current passport. Some voters do not have access

00:58:08.140 --> 00:58:15.279
- to certified birth certificates. And others have changed their names through marriage or divorce, creating

00:58:15.279 --> 00:58:17.214
- doctor education issues that

00:58:17.474 --> 00:58:23.565
- complicate their voter registration even when citizenship is not a question. These burdens would fall

00:58:23.565 --> 00:58:29.657
- on lawful voters, not on individuals attempting to vote illegally. In fact, those who are less likely

00:58:29.657 --> 00:58:35.927
- to have access to paperwork or funds to maintain a passport are disproportionately low-income and people

00:58:35.927 --> 00:58:42.078
- of color. It is not a coincidence that this bill affects them most because guess how they vote, right?

00:58:42.722 --> 00:58:50.010
- Sorry, I know. I'll round it up. My question is this, Representative Thompson. If existing federal law

00:58:50.010 --> 00:58:57.510
- already prohibits non-citizens from voting and instances of non-citizens voting are exceedingly uncommon,

00:58:57.510 --> 00:59:04.868
- why do you support imposing new documentation requirements that prevent eligible Americans from voting?

00:59:04.868 --> 00:59:07.486
- And I would like you to answer that.

00:59:15.074 --> 00:59:28.466
- This woman isn't just a fan of the same act, she is a co-sponsor of the same act, which should more

00:59:28.466 --> 00:59:35.966
- accurately be the suppression in voter elimination act.

00:59:37.442 --> 00:59:44.651
- You know, put some numbers behind it. The Chair for American Progress said 69 million married women

00:59:44.651 --> 00:59:51.861
- whose current legal name may not match their birth certificate could be affected. And you mentioned

00:59:51.861 --> 00:59:59.142
- the hurdles for low-income folks. 60 million rural voters could face travel burdens under the bill's

00:59:59.142 --> 01:00:05.054
- in-person requirements, right? So what does this mean? You have to go to the DMV.

01:00:05.378 --> 01:00:13.956
- or wherever to get your ID, the post office, or a passport. You have to present all these various documents.

01:00:13.956 --> 01:00:21.904
- All of these things cost time and money. So what is the safe act in that case? It is a poll tax. And

01:00:21.904 --> 01:00:29.773
- a poll tax is a historical way to suppress the vote and suppress a certain kind of vote if you know

01:00:29.773 --> 01:00:32.606
- what we mean. Now, I know I saw it.

01:00:33.218 --> 01:00:43.092
- Why don't you come on up and tell us or ask the Congresswoman? Representative, why are you choosing

01:00:43.092 --> 01:00:53.854
- to ignore the reality that Trump and his family are using the office of the presidency to enrich themselves?

01:01:02.242 --> 01:01:10.201
- pulled up on that for a reason over the line of memory, but I want to say President Trump became something

01:01:10.201 --> 01:01:17.713
- like 2.2 billion dollars richer just within the past year. That is not normal. I want to say he made

01:01:17.713 --> 01:01:22.622
- more money in the last year than the last 18 presidents combined.

01:01:22.786 --> 01:01:30.051
- I think I saw that somewhere. It's clearly corruption. It is clearly self-dealing. Have you seen the

01:01:30.051 --> 01:01:37.388
- folks in the administration be accused of gaming the market with these prediction betting apps? Those

01:01:37.388 --> 01:01:43.358
- things should be legal in the first place, but they're very clearly used to engage

01:01:43.650 --> 01:01:51.614
- self-dealing when it comes to things like war, market manipulation. The man goes out and tells people

01:01:51.614 --> 01:01:59.812
- to buy a Dell computer after he bought up many, many shares of Dell stock. It is a bald-faced corruption

01:01:59.812 --> 01:02:06.526
- any way you look at it. Who else wants to ask a question of the Congresswoman Ringer?

01:02:11.938 --> 01:02:20.548
- My name is Pat, and I am in the room having a question. First of all, I have one comment on the questions.

01:02:20.548 --> 01:02:28.675
- I hate to go to the doctor and ask, when you go to the doctor, they say, not how you're feeling, but

01:02:28.675 --> 01:02:37.286
- what insurance do you have? Given the rising cost of health care, including mental health and medications,

01:02:37.286 --> 01:02:41.470
- do you consider health care a right or a privilege?

01:02:47.906 --> 01:02:55.394
- I know the Congresswoman says she's out to protect Medicaid and Medicare for people who truly need it.

01:02:55.394 --> 01:03:02.737
- She's very concerned about things like waste, fraud, and abuse. It turns out all the waste and fraud

01:03:02.737 --> 01:03:10.444
- typically occurs higher up the food chain. It's not the end users, it's the providers, the kind of people

01:03:10.444 --> 01:03:16.478
- who are donors to her campaign. Why don't you come on up and ask the Congresswoman

01:03:17.250 --> 01:03:26.864
- I don't really have a question for the congresswoman. I want to thank her. Because she is the reason

01:03:26.864 --> 01:03:36.953
- I am running for her seat. She ignores me like she ignores the rest of her constituents and I had enough.

01:03:36.953 --> 01:03:43.902
- Every draft legislation has solved most of the problems presented today.

01:03:45.218 --> 01:03:56.256
- She is a prime example of why the two-party system is broken. Accountability. I'm running as a writing

01:03:56.256 --> 01:04:07.402
- independent, and I will lose. Lloyd. Lloyd. Lloyd Taylor. We all know, despite what we want to believe,

01:04:07.402 --> 01:04:09.438
- that you will win.

01:04:15.522 --> 01:04:25.573
- I'm not the only one who thinks the two-party system is broken. Then somebody else might win.

01:04:25.573 --> 01:04:36.265
- Thank you. All right, I know I saw some more hands out there. Who wants to go ahead and come on up?

01:04:36.265 --> 01:04:40.542
- There we are. A man in a fantastic hat.

01:04:47.202 --> 01:04:53.319
- Great. Thank you so much for being here and participating in our interview. Good afternoon, folks. I'd

01:04:53.319 --> 01:04:59.556
- like to thank everybody for being here. Unfortunately, I think the guest might be playing hide-and-seek,

01:04:59.556 --> 01:05:05.436
- folks. I haven't seen her yet. I'm sure she's around somewhere though. I've only got three issues.

01:05:05.436 --> 01:05:11.434
- Number one, it's our bedroom. Yes. Number one, what can we do? What have we been doing? They need to

01:05:11.434 --> 01:05:16.542
- dig into it and inspect the big room right there. And we can see that a lot of times.

01:05:16.738 --> 01:05:22.529
- Maybe a service. Number two is our farmers. A lot of our farmers are having problems right now. Diesel

01:05:22.529 --> 01:05:28.208
- fuels have, fertilizers have, skis have. A lot of them are going out of business on the cover level.

01:05:28.208 --> 01:05:33.830
- What are they doing to help them? A third issue I have is the legalization and decriminalization of

01:05:33.830 --> 01:05:39.565
- cannabis. That's what it wants to do. That's right. It wants you to mess, and that's what it wants to

01:05:39.565 --> 01:05:45.694
- do. That's what it wants to do. And it's turning you back down, and that's what it's going to help you with.

01:05:46.466 --> 01:06:06.174
- And I wish you would have been here so we could talk during that speech for ourselves.

01:06:14.626 --> 01:06:27.393
- Who is next? You know, Rick, those topics you mentioned are all related in their own way. You know,

01:06:27.393 --> 01:06:40.798
- Houchin's support for President Trump and his illegal war in Ukraine is making more veterans who will be

01:06:41.026 --> 01:06:46.372
- started boiling when they come home if we keep doing things at the current rate. And this war is also

01:06:46.372 --> 01:06:51.613
- affecting our farmers very, very much so. You mentioned the price of diesel. Obviously, you need to

01:06:51.613 --> 01:06:56.959
- have to run a lot of your farm equipment to fertilize it. The prices are also going through the roof.

01:06:56.959 --> 01:07:02.306
- But it turns out a lot of that stuff passes through the straight-oers, or at least it should be. It's

01:07:02.306 --> 01:07:07.599
- not doing it right now. And we might not be seeing it this growing season, but come next spring. And

01:07:07.599 --> 01:07:11.006
- as things are resolved by then, our farmers are in real trouble.

01:07:11.362 --> 01:07:37.041
- My name's Kevin Craig, Carolyn's husband, actually. And chauffeur. I want to ask, first of all, good

01:07:37.041 --> 01:07:39.838
- afternoon.

01:07:40.482 --> 01:07:49.963
- I want to ask you about the Congress's constitutional responsibility in deciding when the United States

01:07:49.963 --> 01:07:59.261
- goes to war. Most Americans recognize that the federal government has a duty to defend the nation and

01:07:59.261 --> 01:08:08.286
- protect our allies. They also understand there are times when military force may become necessary.

01:08:08.514 --> 01:08:14.763
- to protect American lives and national security. But our Constitution deliberately divided the war-making

01:08:14.763 --> 01:08:20.658
- powers of government. While the President serves as Commander-in-Chief in the Armed Forces, Article

01:08:20.658 --> 01:08:26.849
- 1 gives Congress the authority to declare war. The Founders place that responsibility in the legislative

01:08:26.849 --> 01:08:32.921
- branch because they believe that the decision to send Americans into combat should never rest with one

01:08:32.921 --> 01:08:33.982
- individual alone.

01:08:34.850 --> 01:08:41.430
- In recent years, presidents of both political parties have relied increasingly on the executive authority

01:08:41.430 --> 01:08:47.638
- to conduct military operations without obtaining a formal declaration of war or a new authorization

01:08:47.638 --> 01:08:53.535
- from Congress. But Congress has gradually surrendered one of its most important constitutional

01:08:53.535 --> 01:09:00.177
- responsibilities. When Congress continues to appropriate military funding while declining to vote directly

01:09:00.177 --> 01:09:03.902
- on whether the nation should enter or continue hostilities,

01:09:04.130 --> 01:09:11.004
- election representatives avoid accountability. My question is this, Representative Pouch. What does

01:09:11.004 --> 01:09:17.878
- Congress's approach to war powers say to Hoosiers about your commitment to the Constitution? If the

01:09:17.878 --> 01:09:24.821
- United States is engaged in sustained military hostilities against Iran, why should Hoosiers believe

01:09:24.821 --> 01:09:32.382
- Congress has fulfilled its constitutional duty if it has not explicitly debated and authorized that conflict?

01:09:32.706 --> 01:09:40.954
- And how, as U.S. citizens, can we stand behind the executive branch of our internationalist,

01:09:40.954 --> 01:09:50.000
- interventionalist government when we're involved in a foreign conflict that has no foreseeable end in

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:57.982
- sight? This is what the Constitution says about war. What do they say about an excursion?

01:09:58.722 --> 01:10:06.616
- And if you listen to them, the first one was over. This is a whole separate conflict since the ceasefire.

01:10:06.616 --> 01:10:14.435
- You know, she had an opportunity to weigh in on this. Just this week, the House of Representatives voted

01:10:14.435 --> 01:10:22.031
- on another War Powers Resolution, which passed. It passed. Not through any helpers. She voted against

01:10:22.031 --> 01:10:28.510
- this War Powers Resolution. An handful of Republicans broke ranks. Not air and action.

01:10:29.314 --> 01:10:51.371
- Who else wants to come up and ask the brave Congresswoman a question here this afternoon? Hi, it's Andrew

01:10:51.371 --> 01:10:59.070
- Sherman. I assume that Congresswoman

01:11:00.994 --> 01:11:11.833
- Ocean wouldn't be here. But ask a question that maybe she could answer if she's privy to what happens

01:11:11.833 --> 01:11:22.565
- here. Can't hear you. Use your mic. In her July 24, 2026 letters from America, historian Heather Cox

01:11:22.565 --> 01:11:27.134
- Richardson relays a New York Times article

01:11:27.554 --> 01:11:34.456
- The litigation revealed that President Trump did not fund some appropriations to the states for the

01:11:34.456 --> 01:11:41.565
- sole reason those states did not vote for her. If this is not true, please address the information set

01:11:41.565 --> 01:11:48.536
- forth in that article. In any case, please indicate whether or not you support that approach towards

01:11:48.536 --> 01:11:49.502
- congressional

01:11:55.298 --> 01:12:02.693
- Specifically, I know just recently it turns out that they've been withholding Medicaid funding to blue

01:12:02.693 --> 01:12:10.016
- states because they don't like the way they vote. And again, they think they're going to blame waste,

01:12:10.016 --> 01:12:17.482
- fraud, and abuse. But you know where the waste, fraud, and abuse is coming from. And FEMA as well. They

01:12:17.482 --> 01:12:24.446
- are withholding FEMA funding from hopeful folks across the board. And it's not just blue states.

01:12:24.738 --> 01:12:33.913
- But especially... They need that money to clean up the disaster in the reflecting pool. Who else wants

01:12:33.913 --> 01:12:42.821
- to come up and ask a question for the congresswoman? Yeah, right there. Let's hear from her. I'm so

01:12:42.821 --> 01:12:51.818
- glad we got a chance to do this today. And hopefully the congresswoman will get a chance to hear our

01:12:51.818 --> 01:12:52.798
- questions.

01:12:53.474 --> 01:13:00.066
- Well, I'm sorry, because most people ask all the questions I have, but nobody's brought up the Department

01:13:00.066 --> 01:13:06.347
- of Education. My name is Donna Kincaid, and I've taught in Monroe County for 33 years. And we're the

01:13:06.347 --> 01:13:12.566
- reason all the rest of you have jobs. The Department of Education is slated to close by December of

01:13:12.566 --> 01:13:19.095
- this year. And it was established to make sure that all children in all states had the protective rights

01:13:19.095 --> 01:13:19.966
- and services.

01:13:20.098 --> 01:13:26.719
- And the dismantling of this Department of Education is now threatening the services. For example, all

01:13:26.719 --> 01:13:33.275
- of these services that begin being, sorry, dispersed over 14 different agencies. And just as a quick

01:13:33.275 --> 01:13:39.962
- one, the Department of Labor will now be handling adult education and higher education. The Department

01:13:39.962 --> 01:13:46.453
- of Health and Human Services will handle special ed and 504 plans. If you're a parent, you know 504

01:13:46.453 --> 01:13:49.374
- plans help your children get those services.

01:13:49.570 --> 01:13:57.394
- The Department of Treasury is handling FAFSA and financial things, and if you are not entering a profession

01:13:57.394 --> 01:14:04.855
- that is considered worthy, that means making money, you may no longer be funded. Let me tell you, that

01:14:04.855 --> 01:14:12.389
- includes nursing, teaching, and lots of other social services. Oh yeah, we're all women. The Department

01:14:12.389 --> 01:14:19.198
- of Justice is now handling any complaints about civil rights, and we know where that's going.

01:14:19.298 --> 01:14:27.222
- So I just want to ask Erin, you've supported, she was on the education workforce committees for the

01:14:27.222 --> 01:14:35.464
- 118th Congress. She supported the closing of this department, but she's also supported bills for making

01:14:35.464 --> 01:14:43.785
- states teach the science of reading and parental right bills, which actually are the prerogative already

01:14:43.785 --> 01:14:44.894
- of the state.

01:14:45.090 --> 01:14:52.348
- So I'm going to ask Erin, what is your problem? Do you know the difference between the federal department

01:14:52.348 --> 01:14:59.469
- and the states? Can you explain your thinking? Thanks for the email I got this morning. She said, thank

01:14:59.469 --> 01:15:03.646
- you for contacting my office. I'm so happy to represent you.

01:15:07.234 --> 01:15:14.749
- Thank you. Well, you know, I can't speak for the representative personally, but you know, the Republicans

01:15:14.749 --> 01:15:22.194
- in this country, in Washington, Indiana state, have been chomping at the bit to dismantle the Department

01:15:22.194 --> 01:15:29.496
- of Education. They want to privatize our public education system, you know, if you can make a buck off

01:15:29.496 --> 01:15:31.198
- of it or a favor of it.

01:15:31.330 --> 01:15:38.928
- But I want to address your point about why they're dismantling the Department of Education. The DOE

01:15:38.928 --> 01:15:46.678
- only goes back to the 70s. I want to say the Carter administration is actually one that was first put

01:15:46.678 --> 01:15:54.352
- in place. And one of the things they were most tasked with is equity in education. You mentioned the

01:15:54.352 --> 01:16:00.126
- ADA, the special ed, and how that is being dismantled. Hand it over to HHS.

01:16:00.322 --> 01:16:12.075
- But HHS is in good hands. Probably Kennedy, Jr. But the entire reason they attacked the education department

01:16:12.075 --> 01:16:22.966
- in particular, but public education in general goes back to the long backlash against desegregation.

01:16:22.966 --> 01:16:27.710
- And the Brown versus Board decision in 1953

01:16:27.938 --> 01:16:36.682
- They've been chomping at this mainstream public education ever since. Did you want to come up?

01:16:36.682 --> 01:16:46.254
- Come on up. Erin Houchet, as you know, this is a low percentage. 60 to 62% of Hoosiers aren't legalized

01:16:46.254 --> 01:16:54.814
- weed. Why are you not listening to us when the majority of us want this? Also, you know that

01:16:55.426 --> 01:17:02.240
- an estimation between the Fairbounce Foundation, Hoosiers spend between $1.2 and $2.6 billion a year

01:17:02.240 --> 01:17:09.189
- on cannabis. That's going to other states, by the way, because it says 96% of Hoosiers live within 100

01:17:09.189 --> 01:17:16.003
- miles of illegal out-of-state dispensaries. So we're losing hundreds of millions to tax revenue that

01:17:16.003 --> 01:17:22.951
- go to our state. Let's legalize this already. The majority of us want that. So Erin Hodges, please put

01:17:22.951 --> 01:17:24.638
- this on your list to do.

01:17:29.378 --> 01:17:37.393
- They have to live with their adoption as a relative. The least we could do is get high about it. You

01:17:37.393 --> 01:17:45.409
- would think this is something that can be monetized, that she would be in favor. And I can't explain

01:17:45.409 --> 01:17:53.662
- her reasoning why, other than certain donors want to keep the intoxication market cornered. Right here.

01:17:58.242 --> 01:18:05.843
- My name is Sandra Holman. I'm a retired registered nurse. I worked in the operating room for 45 years.

01:18:05.843 --> 01:18:13.296
- And this has fallen out of the headlines lately, but I really want to talk about reproductive health

01:18:13.296 --> 01:18:20.233
- and the fact that Ms. Huchin, you have daughters. God forbid any of them have had any problem

01:18:20.233 --> 01:18:24.734
- with pregnancies where you miscarried because in this state,

01:18:25.282 --> 01:18:34.389
- They're not allowed to even teach it in the medical school how to do a D and C for a missed abortion,

01:18:34.389 --> 01:18:43.318
- which can cause a woman to go septic and die for something that is not necessary. And I want you to

01:18:43.318 --> 01:18:53.854
- consider that and consider legislation for a national plan on how to address these problems with reproductive health.

01:18:57.346 --> 01:19:05.433
- I don't want to minimize it because a woman's right to choose is a fundamental human right, as I believe.

01:19:05.433 --> 01:19:13.292
- But she's such a supporter of women and children and mothers and giving birth, right? The policies she

01:19:13.292 --> 01:19:20.998
- supports, I keep coming back to the one beautiful bill act because it's the only thing this Congress

01:19:20.998 --> 01:19:23.134
- managed to pass, it has put

01:19:23.362 --> 01:19:29.687
- Indiana's world hospitals in danger. And because they're so starved for funding, what's one of the first

01:19:29.687 --> 01:19:35.832
- things to get cuts? It's their obstetrics and their delivery department. So I want to say we're up to

01:19:35.832 --> 01:19:42.097
- 10 Indiana hospitals now that have closed or dropped their labor and delivery services just in the last

01:19:42.097 --> 01:19:48.122
- several years. So I know a lot of folks, and particularly in the rural parts of the state, who took

01:19:48.122 --> 01:19:52.158
- a drab little power to get to a hospital, you know, to get burned.

01:19:52.674 --> 01:20:00.640
- was permitted in nature, because there are any complications in between their health and the hospital.

01:20:00.640 --> 01:20:08.607
- It doesn't seem a very pro-life. Who else wants to come up? We've got something to say. Did I see some

01:20:08.607 --> 01:20:16.419
- hands out there? Hey, got another question? Absolutely. No reason to limit to just one. I know. I've

01:20:16.419 --> 01:20:22.142
- seen some folks in there that haven't come up yet. And I bet you got one.

01:20:22.466 --> 01:20:41.225
- How do you feel about the decline of the Republican Party into a cult of personality that blindly obeys

01:20:41.225 --> 01:20:51.326
- the corrupt orders of a wannabe dictator, Donald Trump?

01:20:52.642 --> 01:21:04.236
- Representative Houchin, this is a very painful moment for me to see you sitting here like this. I remember

01:21:04.236 --> 01:21:15.072
- our Congressman of the 9th Congressional District, Lee Hamilton, and it makes it especially painful

01:21:15.072 --> 01:21:21.790
- to see what we've got. Representative democracy is in crisis.

01:21:22.594 --> 01:21:32.423
- What do you advise or what advice do you have for thoughtful, sincere citizens in this representative

01:21:32.423 --> 01:21:42.926
- democracy? Your voting record is 100% consistent with the MAGA agenda, which tells us that you are listening

01:21:42.926 --> 01:21:47.070
- to your king and not to your constituents.

01:21:51.042 --> 01:22:06.239
- Who else wants to come? I know we got Mr. Meyer, would you like to ask the representative? Hi,

01:22:06.239 --> 01:22:14.718
- I'm Brad Meyer, the Democratic nominee for Congress.

01:22:19.234 --> 01:22:26.598
- address her, I'd like to address you and say thank you all for being here. You showed up. She does not.

01:22:26.598 --> 01:22:33.820
- This is not unusual. I, on the other hand, have had 17 live town halls, four virtual town halls, many

01:22:33.820 --> 01:22:40.900
- meetings. In addition to that, I've been all over the district and I'm trying to represent you. How

01:22:40.900 --> 01:22:48.830
- many people here are worried about the future? Their future? This is the crisis that we're facing. We're facing

01:22:49.090 --> 01:22:57.232
- a crisis of confidence, right? When my wife and I lived the American dream, it wasn't easy, and it's

01:22:57.232 --> 01:23:05.536
- not supposed to be, but we started with nothing. Literally, everything we owned fit in the back of the

01:23:05.536 --> 01:23:13.840
- car. And we worked hard, we invested, we took risks, because we had confidence in the future, we built

01:23:13.840 --> 01:23:17.790
- a life together. You talk to young people today,

01:23:18.626 --> 01:23:24.695
- They have zero confidence in the future. 45%, only 45% of people 30 years old are doing better than

01:23:24.695 --> 01:23:31.127
- their parents were when their parents were 30. Less than half. That's why I'm running for office, because

01:23:31.127 --> 01:23:37.378
- we have, we've talked about a lot of things, and there's a lot of issues, but the big issue is we need

01:23:37.378 --> 01:23:43.811
- to have a future that we can all look forward to. A future where we can say tomorrow's going to be better

01:23:43.811 --> 01:23:47.998
- than today, and we can't say that today. And that's why I'm running.

01:23:48.194 --> 01:24:01.472
- That's the issue that I'm going to be driving on. So the question for Aaron Houchin is, what are you

01:24:01.472 --> 01:24:15.934
- going to do when I take your seat in Congress? Thank you so much. Well, that's a hard act to follow, but yes.

01:24:19.490 --> 01:24:27.416
- It's Bob now. Let me pick Houseman again. One thing we never mentioned is foreign aid. We haven't really

01:24:27.416 --> 01:24:35.192
- mentioned the world outside our borders to speak of. Louder. Oh, great. The world outside our borders.

01:24:35.192 --> 01:24:42.741
- I worked with the Agency for International Development for many years. And I think it did a heck of

01:24:42.741 --> 01:24:48.478
- a lot of good. And one of the reasons I know it did a heck of a lot of good

01:24:48.738 --> 01:24:55.292
- is that since it was shut down abruptly at the beginning of the Trump administration, reliable knowledge

01:24:55.292 --> 01:25:01.658
- and useful sources have estimated something like three quarters of a million people have died because

01:25:01.658 --> 01:25:08.149
- they were hungry, because they couldn't get medications that they needed. Thousands of babies have been

01:25:08.149 --> 01:25:14.453
- born with HIV who didn't need to be born with HIV if they'd only given a little shot to their mother

01:25:14.453 --> 01:25:16.638
- right before they were delivering.

01:25:17.218 --> 01:25:27.138
- that HIV has held the statistic. So this is not only incredibly inhumane and horrible and stupid, but

01:25:27.138 --> 01:25:36.864
- it's also bad for the US. We don't need a bunch of sick, starving people to try to do business with

01:25:36.864 --> 01:25:41.630
- or to try to have for allies. So why is this OK?

01:25:49.442 --> 01:25:56.010
- I don't know how much was real and how much was propaganda that we were watching to growing up, but

01:25:56.010 --> 01:26:02.709
- we always heard that the US was the good guy. We stood up to the little folks and took care of people

01:26:02.709 --> 01:26:09.736
- around the world. And USAID was a program like that. And even if you want to look at it just specifically,

01:26:09.736 --> 01:26:11.838
- it doesn't cost a lot of money.

01:26:12.002 --> 01:26:19.351
- and it projects soft power in the world. It's a way to make friends. You're not gonna make friends in

01:26:19.351 --> 01:26:26.773
- the world if you're taking food out of people's mouths. And here at home, it's a stimulus for farmers.

01:26:26.773 --> 01:26:34.122
- It is a source for a lot of grains and farm products that wouldn't otherwise get bought up, that they

01:26:34.122 --> 01:26:40.030
- buy and ship overseas for things just like this. A real cell phone, and that was,

01:26:40.258 --> 01:26:46.600
- Elon Musk and Doge that cut, I would say, in the first months of the second term of the installation.

01:26:46.600 --> 01:26:52.880
- What was the reason they gave for doing this? It was, well, we want to reduce the national debt. And

01:26:52.880 --> 01:26:59.160
- we saw a couple of his little toadies interviewed not too long ago. And they said they were proud of

01:26:59.160 --> 01:27:05.377
- their work because they thought, well, whatever they cut, it was more important to reduce the debt.

01:27:05.377 --> 01:27:09.854
- And then one asked, did you reduce the debt? They had to say, well, no.

01:27:09.986 --> 01:27:16.344
- We did, and we've talked about this previously today, that that has only gone up. As Garenhardt pointed

01:27:16.344 --> 01:27:22.457
- out, we are burning through money even faster than we were before Trump took office. Who else would

01:27:22.457 --> 01:27:26.430
- like to come up here and give a word to the Congresswoman today?

01:27:40.930 --> 01:27:50.175
- in Davis Monroe County. On February 6th, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding

01:27:50.175 --> 01:27:58.876
- resolution, House Resolution 1001, declaring that former President Trump, quote, did not engage

01:27:58.876 --> 01:28:08.121
- in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or give aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,

01:28:08.121 --> 01:28:09.118
- end quote.

01:28:10.498 --> 01:28:19.379
- Representative Houch and you were co-sponsor of that with other Trump hardliners such as Marjorie Taylor

01:28:19.379 --> 01:28:28.091
- Greene and Paul Gossor. As constituents we have to wonder why because we all saw with our own eyes how

01:28:28.091 --> 01:28:36.802
- our capital was stormed as well as what the bipartisan January 6th committee documented about it being

01:28:36.802 --> 01:28:38.494
- a presidential plan

01:28:38.882 --> 01:28:49.344
- of last resort, as well as hours of presidential inaction to stop it. It is noteworthy that you reported

01:28:49.344 --> 01:28:59.607
- raising over $1 million in your bid to be elected by losers in 2022 when that seat was vacated by Trey

01:28:59.607 --> 01:29:07.678
- Hollingsworth. Are we to believe that voters in Brown, Clark, Dearborn, Decatur,

01:29:08.322 --> 01:29:17.109
- Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lawrence, Monroe, Ohio, Ripley, Scott, Switzerland, and

01:29:17.109 --> 01:29:25.726
- Washington County supply that much money? Who's funding your campaign and what did you promise them?

01:29:32.674 --> 01:29:40.440
- politics these days ever since, and even before, but especially since the Citizens United decision in

01:29:40.440 --> 01:29:48.053
- 2010, what we have is legalized corruption. And to your point, you know, we can redefine corruption

01:29:48.053 --> 01:29:52.926
- as clean elections. We can redefine insurrection as patriotism.

01:29:53.250 --> 01:30:03.891
- War is peace, freedom is slavery. Either the guy Orwell, I think, was his name when he wrote about this.

01:30:03.891 --> 01:30:14.227
- Anybody else would like to share some words here with the Congresswoman back there? Yeah, you come on

01:30:14.227 --> 01:30:20.510
- up. Somebody asked just one question. No, no. Karen Houghton.

01:30:20.866 --> 01:30:31.567
- I'm talking to you about my friend Michael who's in hospice. He can't get on to Medicaid because he

01:30:31.567 --> 01:30:42.803
- makes $1,382 a month. That's too much. He doesn't qualify for Medicaid. Let that sink through your head.

01:30:42.803 --> 01:30:49.758
- And you're trying to kick off people who make less than he does.

01:30:52.098 --> 01:31:04.721
- the cruelest human VA that has ever represented the ninth district of Indiana. By the way, has anybody

01:31:04.721 --> 01:31:16.977
- seen him? Did he just slither off to Tennessee after he retired from Congress here in our district?

01:31:16.977 --> 01:31:20.286
- That man was a carpet bag.

01:31:20.642 --> 01:31:31.396
- Yeah, you know, I'm no mathematician, but if I can add correctly, that number you gave is certainly

01:31:31.396 --> 01:31:42.258
- less than $24,000 a year, if not closer to 18, which is certainly half the poverty level. I know the

01:31:42.258 --> 01:31:45.054
- Medicaid cap hasn't moved

01:31:45.826 --> 01:31:53.194
- And you see things like this, just to qualify for Medicaid, you have to tether yourself to poverty.

01:31:53.194 --> 01:32:00.120
- There is no other way to qualify at this point. And it's not right. It's certainly for people

01:32:00.120 --> 01:32:07.709
- with disabilities. It makes you choose between living in poverty or participating in the workforce and

01:32:07.709 --> 01:32:14.782
- having dignity in that way. It is, again, not very pro-life, despite what they call themselves.

01:32:15.010 --> 01:32:25.025
- Anybody else have any words for the congresswoman here? Yeah, why don't they? We've heard from you yet.

01:32:25.025 --> 01:32:34.655
- Good afternoon, guys. Hello, my name is Lucy Lumen, and I'm here. I'm with Indiana Normal. And as a

01:32:34.655 --> 01:32:44.478
- few of you already pointed out, which I thoroughly appreciate, that the importance of cannabis reform

01:32:46.018 --> 01:32:52.006
- It's really important. It's something that we are not actively talking about as much as we should. It

01:32:52.006 --> 01:32:57.935
- impacts our health care. It impacts over 50% of the drug arrests in Indiana currently right now have

01:32:57.935 --> 01:33:04.040
- to do with cannabis for absolutely no reason. Like someone mentioned earlier, within 100 miles of where

01:33:04.040 --> 01:33:10.027
- they live, they could get medical access on all surrounding states of Indiana. Our economy, our basis

01:33:10.027 --> 01:33:14.782
- is going out to the winter. We're talking about how we can save or how we can do

01:33:14.978 --> 01:33:20.536
- different social programs that are, we can start with cannabis reform. Even just not criminalizing it

01:33:20.536 --> 01:33:26.040
- in Indiana could drastically save so much money for losers. Let alone the idea of them being able to

01:33:26.040 --> 01:33:31.544
- have naturalized medicine that is meaningful, doesn't have all the side effects, isn't it tied to so

01:33:31.544 --> 01:33:37.484
- many different opioid-related deaths and work injuries that decrease in states that have legalized cannabis.

01:33:37.484 --> 01:33:40.318
- We take it for granted all the time in Indiana that

01:33:40.674 --> 01:33:46.418
- We're going to be the last state. No, we need to be the next state. And representatives from Indiana

01:33:46.418 --> 01:33:52.276
- need to realize the hurt it is doing at home, the hurt it's doing to Hoosiers. And whenever you travel

01:33:52.276 --> 01:33:58.020
- to those other states around us and you hear about the medical miracles, just the things that people

01:33:58.020 --> 01:34:03.992
- are experiencing that Hoosiers don't have that same access to and we need to, especially at the national

01:34:03.992 --> 01:34:06.494
- level, we need to have that representation.

01:34:06.594 --> 01:34:12.743
- We need to have somebody sticking up and realizing previously Reverend Hernandez said that because of

01:34:12.743 --> 01:34:18.772
- the schedule one and because of her lack of awareness of organizations that have already previously

01:34:18.772 --> 01:34:25.102
- supported that medical research, and now there are plenty more since she previously made that statement.

01:34:25.102 --> 01:34:31.311
- So now with the recent federal recognition of that medical advancements and of those medical benefits,

01:34:31.311 --> 01:34:35.230
- what do you say now? How are you going to advocate for Hoosiers?

01:34:42.370 --> 01:34:49.720
- She's a fiscal conservative, right? And certainly it doesn't make financial sense for Indiana to watch

01:34:49.720 --> 01:34:56.857
- its money go out the door to our neighboring states. Kentucky, for crying out loud. We shouldn't be

01:34:56.857 --> 01:35:03.993
- getting laughed by Kentucky. But the money that we forgo just in that tax revenue is harmful to the

01:35:03.993 --> 01:35:11.486
- state. But then think of the other costs that we're putting into incarcerating people that we arrest for

01:35:11.618 --> 01:35:20.998
- possession of cannabis. I suspect, but I cannot vouch for this, but I suspect there's at least one private

01:35:20.998 --> 01:35:29.939
- prison organization that probably could be found on the Congresswoman's donor list that is typical of

01:35:29.939 --> 01:35:39.582
- Republicans in Congress and at the state level. There's a financial benefit to be had from locking people up.

01:35:39.778 --> 01:35:51.293
- Good for her donors, good for Republican donors, not good for Hooters or anybody else for that matter.

01:35:51.293 --> 01:36:02.585
- Who else has some words they would like to share with Mrs. Houchin here today? Yep, I'd like to hear

01:36:02.585 --> 01:36:08.958
- from you again. I had something local I wanted to share.

01:36:09.282 --> 01:36:21.915
- I have to do it again representing Pascha. Following the death of Senator Lindsey Graham, Professor

01:36:21.915 --> 01:36:34.927
- Houston, who teaches at the IU McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis. This was reported in the HT and

01:36:34.927 --> 01:36:38.590
- also other media in Indiana.

01:36:40.418 --> 01:36:50.555
- Professor Houston delivered a congratulations call to Lindsey Graham's former Senate office, delivered

01:36:50.555 --> 01:37:01.184
- it to Graham's sister, Darlene, who is taking his place. And she wrote, he wrote, congratulations, Darlene.

01:37:01.184 --> 01:37:10.238
- Your brother is burning in hell for supporting Trump. And now you're working for the devil.

01:37:10.626 --> 01:37:17.685
- Again, referring to Toronto. In response, several Indiana Republicans, including Lieutenant Governor

01:37:17.685 --> 01:37:24.674
- Micah Beckwith, Senator Jim Banks, and you, Representative Houchin, called on Indiana University to

01:37:24.674 --> 01:37:31.943
- fire Professor Houston. Indiana Lieutenant Governor Beckwith also threatened that if IU refused to fire

01:37:31.943 --> 01:37:38.373
- Houston, the university should lose its state funding. However, distinguished law professor

01:37:38.373 --> 01:37:40.190
- and constitutional expert

01:37:40.994 --> 01:37:48.469
- Steve Sanders has publicly argued that because IU is a public university, firing Professor Houston solely

01:37:48.469 --> 01:37:55.874
- because of her protected speech would violate the First Amendment. He said the legal question is whether

01:37:55.874 --> 01:38:02.997
- her speech substantially interferes with her ability to teach food and drug law classes or interfere

01:38:02.997 --> 01:38:08.286
- with the university's operations. He concluded he sees no such connection.

01:38:09.538 --> 01:38:16.954
- My question is this, Representative Halston. Do you believe Professor Houston should be fired? And do

01:38:16.954 --> 01:38:24.370
- you believe Indiana University should lose taxpayer funding if it follows the First Amendment? If so,

01:38:24.370 --> 01:38:32.222
- how do you reconcile defunding a public university for adhering to our constitutional right of free speech?

01:38:38.658 --> 01:38:46.460
- they like to claim that they're free speech absolutists, that they're very concerned about the First

01:38:46.460 --> 01:38:54.649
- Amendment, yet when they hear speech they don't like, then consequences abound. But they can say whatever

01:38:54.649 --> 01:39:02.374
- hateful, racist, sexist, dishonest word they want. Would anybody else like to share some words here

01:39:02.374 --> 01:39:04.382
- with Congresswoman today?

01:39:04.514 --> 01:39:12.053
- I know we still got this room for a little bit of time, and we would like to get everything on the record

01:39:12.053 --> 01:39:19.520
- sweep in for us to get things on the record. I didn't just do a quick cursory search of any ties between

01:39:19.520 --> 01:39:26.845
- Junction and the private prison corporations. I didn't want to make sure I corrected myself there, but

01:39:26.845 --> 01:39:33.246
- that's a direct connection they have with us. Any other folks want to jump in here today?

01:39:41.282 --> 01:39:50.121
- Thanks, everyone, for showing up. We have many groups at the back, so we'd love to talk to you. We have

01:39:50.121 --> 01:39:58.874
- the room, actually, until 5.45. That's when the library closes, so don't feel like you have to run out

01:39:58.874 --> 01:40:05.758
- just yet. So hang around, reach for the mingle with fellow voters, and have fun.

01:40:11.586 --> 01:40:18.318
- I want to thank you all for coming today. This is one thing to be angry at your kitchen table, but it's

01:40:18.318 --> 01:40:24.855
- another thing to stand up here in front of the room and be what you don't know, spend some time with

01:40:24.855 --> 01:40:31.458
- us on a Sunday afternoon, and say out loud how our government here has affected you. You know, you've

01:40:31.458 --> 01:40:36.830
- told us about your medical situations, and you've told us about your band members,

01:40:37.090 --> 01:40:44.057
- about Social Security. So you just need to listen. And that is okay. Now, every one of those notes,

01:40:44.057 --> 01:40:51.025
- yeah, those pink slips, make sure you save those. Give those to Carolyn right here. Those are gonna

01:40:51.025 --> 01:40:58.271
- go to Erin's office. Because, you know, she doesn't get to pretend that we don't exist and this doesn't

01:40:58.271 --> 01:41:05.447
- happen. We're going to put it right there in black and white or it's rather in pink. What we came here

01:41:05.447 --> 01:41:06.910
- to talk about today,

01:41:07.042 --> 01:41:16.990
- Thanks for getting me one here for organizing this. And thank you all for coming. Everybody's here.