Remarks of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at ACORN's 2006 National Convention

Remarks of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at ACORN's 2006 National Convention

That was so nice, oh, thank you all, thank you. Good Morning ACORN.

My goodness, this place is filled. All of you coming together on behalf of a progressive agenda for our country; and I came first and foremost to say thank you. You know, I am one of those who remembers the beginnings of ACORN in Arkansas all of those years ago. The headquarters for ACORN was near the Governor's mansion. And I started a group called Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and we worked on a lot of important issues and I noticed just the other day that the minimum wage was raised in Arkansas thanks to ACORN and the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

I also came to thank you for what you did and are doing for the victims of Katrina along our Gulf Coast. It is still hard to believe that our country, our government, would turn its back on the people who were in need. You know even Noah got some notice. He got to build his Arc. Our poor people were left to themselves, left to die, left to wade through water, sitting up on rooftops waiting for rescue. But ACORN has been there from the very beginning, helping people, rehabilitating housing, standing up for the dislocated.

And as my friend and our leader of ACORN in New York, Pat Boone said, we didn't have as many people in New York as you had in Texas or other parts of Louisiana or Georgia, but we had some who made their way to New York, and I want to thank ACORN from New York for standing up for the victims of Katrina in New York.

I also want to thank you for the work you've been doing with my husband's foundation on the earned income tax credit to give people who deserve that tax credit the opportunity to claim it.

When we talk about poverty, one of the best anti-poverty programs we've had in this country is EITC. And the ACORN tax centers have been there to help people apply for that. We lifted millions of people out of poverty; 2 million children in working families because of the earned income tax credit. So thank you for standing with us to make sure that working people got that benefit that they are entitled to.

But now we've got to look forward. We have a big agenda, and I want to thank you for your help in putting these issues on the agenda in so many states. But more than that, putting them on the national agenda. Thank you for the work you've already done to raise the minimum wage from Florida all the way across the country.

And I know that you're going to have a great march and a great victory here in Ohio raising the minimum wage.

But I've got to tell you, it is disgraceful that the federal government, the Congress of the United States, has not raised the federal minimum wage. It has been more than nine years since the minimum wage has been raised which is why what you're doing is so important. I have worked on it, I have voted for it, and finally I got fed up. So I have introduced legislation which says no raises for Congress until Congress raises the minimum wage.

You know, let me tell you. Let me tell you what we need your help on. You know, when you think about it, the minimum wage has not been raised. You know because many of you are the people who do the work that makes this country what it is. With all due respect to my friends on the other side of the aisle, it is not rich people who made America great is it. There are rich people in nearly every society. But what made America different and what made America great is that people who worked, people who raised their children, people who have had a better opportunity because of the ladders that we provided in this society were able to lift themselves out of poverty. Well how can you lift yourself out of poverty when the wage you work for, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year doesn't lift you out of poverty; $10, 700. Well, the Congress has not seen fit to raise the minimum wage but they sure have raised their own salaries in the last nine years.

I want you just to guess how much Congress has raised its own pay. Just guess. Not $10,000, not $20,000; $30,000. So I think it's time we say no pay raises for Congress until Congress raises the minimum wage and what the Democrats in the Senate have said is that we will block any effort to raise Congressional pay until Congress does raise the minimum wage.

But we also have to worry about so many other issues that affect the people I represent, and that all of you are here representing as well. You know when Maude Hurd, the president of ACORN, goes out and speaks to all of you about what's on your mind, I know what she hears because I hear it from Pat, I hear it from Bertha Lewis, I hear it from our New Yorkers, I hear it across our country. When are we going to get health care for every American and make sure its affordable, accessible, high quality.

And you know we've got to change who makes decisions in Washington and in state capitols in order to make progress on health care. But until we get that done there are specific issues that ACORN's been working on that I salute and work with you. Asthma is a horrible disease that affects so many people, particularly our children. In New York in some neighborhoods we have 25, 35 percent of our children with asthma.

There's another horrible condition that I want your help on, and I know some of you are leading on this, and that is lead paint poisoning. You know, some people think that the problem is over. I was in Rochester, New York a few weeks ago and Rochester, New York has one of the highest rates of lead paint poisoning in our country because we have a lot of old housing and a lot of it hasn't been cleaned up. I have legislation to give landlords and owners of property a tax credit so that once and for all they will clean up their property and remove the danger of lead paint poisoning.

And you know, if people won't do it for the right thing to help our children, please tell them there is overwhelming evidence that children who ingest lead, they have trouble learning, they have behavioral problems, there is a direct connection between those with high levels of lead in their blood and people in our prisons. So if you won't do it for the right thing, do it for your self interest to make sure we take care of these kids, keep them off the streets, keep them in school, give them a chance at a decent life and future.

Now, we also know that we need a new housing program in this country. We do not have enough decent, affordable housing and it's another issue that I stand with ACORN on. We also need to stand with people who want to organize unions in order to have a better chance to bargain collectively for pay and benefits. Whether they are steel workers or childcare workers, people deserve the right to organize in our country.

And I thank ACORN for standing up for comprehensive immigration reform. And I want to thank Eliseo Medina who is here, who is a great organizer, who has done so much on behalf of the right kind of immigration reform. We're going to keep working on that because we know it's the right thing to do in our country.

There is so much to be done in education. You know, education is still the entryway to so many opportunities in our society, and look what we're doing - we're cutting Head Start, we're cutting preschool, we're cutting childcare, we're imposing new mandates with No Child Left Behind with no money to pay for those mandates. And then, to add insult to injury, we're making it more expensive for young people to go to college. You know, there are hundreds of thousands of young people. And you know the older I get, young means a lot. We're talking 40 year olds, 50 year olds. But there are so many people who cannot afford to go to college now, or they have to drop out. It is more expensive for the average American family today to send a child to college than it was 25 years ago. So what do the republicans in Washington do? They cut the aid programs and they increase the interest rates on the loan program. That is just so short sighted. We should be throwing open the doors of college to every person who's willing to work hard, take responsibility, educate themselves, improve their lives.

Now there's so many important issues that we've got to tackle in our country, isn't there? But the only way we can do that is if we get people in government who will actually listen. So I want to add another item to your agenda which I know you're already working on across the country - let's make sure that we count every vote in our elections from now until we finally get people elected who represent the will and interests of the American people. I have legislation called just that, Count Every Vote Act. My good friend Stephanie Tubbs Jones whose going to be with you at the minimum wage rally. She and I held a hearing in Cleveland last year. It would have broken your heart. People were lined up to tell us how they showed up to vote and they had to wait hours. No machines. You know, you could drive down the road however and there were plenty of machines. It depended on who lived where and what their potential voting patterns were. That is not America. I don't care whether you're a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent or hate politics, this country deserves to have an electoral system that has integrity, that has the trust of the people, whose results we can believe in.

And I know that's been a problems here in Ohio. And I hope that everybody in Ohio, you watch this election like a hawk. Don't let them pull anything over your eyes again. I mean, I find it amazing that one of the people running for high office is actually running the elections. That should not be permitted, that is a conflict of interest. You know, it used to be we would look at other countries and we'd say, oh gosh they can't run an election. Well wow, they're putting us to shame a lot of other countries are. We've got to take back our democracy. You know our democracy doesn't belong to any one political party. It doesn't belong to people who are already are privileged or powerful, it belongs to everyone. And we've got to reassert that now. And the only way we can is by electing people who believe as we believe that America's values are worth standing up for, America's ideals are worth standing there and fighting for. And we have to begin in this November electing people to Congress and state offices who will listen to the people and will begin to get America back on track so that we can make the right decisions going forward. We're going to need your help in these elections in November, because unless we take back one or both houses of Congress, we will not be able to stop the agenda of the right wing Republicans, the Bush Republicans, in Washington.

And I've got to tell you. You know I believe in our Constitution, and I believe in checks and balances, and I believe that we need accountable government. And we don't have any of that right now. We don't have a Congress that stands up and asks the hard questions. We need new people in Congress who are unafraid to ask the hard questions and willing to work with us to raise the minimum wage, to reform FEMA, to have an independent commission to find out what really happened with Katrina; we need people who will stand up and say, we want to find out the facts, who will make decisions based on evidence. Because ultimately what this is about is the ongoing march toward justice in America.

You know, we find it in our scriptures when we ask, what are we to do? You know the answer, do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. We find it in our Constitution, we find it in our laws. Two months before he died, Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech at Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta. And he talked about how when the roll was called up yonder he wanted to answer and say, I was a drum major for justice. He may no longer be with us, and others who led the march toward justice may be gone, but we have all of you. We have a great band. We have legions who will be drum majors for justice. And so when that role is called, ACORN can answer, we were drum majors for justice, we looked out for the vulnerable, we worked to give people fair pay for the work they did, we took in the stranger, we tried to fulfill the responsibilities as Americans we were called to meet.

I thank you for being part of that great movement, that progressive tradition that has rolled across our country. Let's move it forward, let's be drum majors for justice. Thank you and God bless you.

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=258524&&