International Association Of Firefighters Association 2008 Bipartisan Presidential Forum - Transcript

International Association Of Firefighters Association 2008 Bipartisan Presidential Forum - Transcript

MR. EDWARDS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

By the way, when we do this, we don't mean it. (Laughter.)

It's wonderful to be here with all of you. And I have to start by saying a word about your president, who not only is a great leader for you and a great leader for firefighters, but in fact is one of the great leaders in the United States of America today. And I'm very proud to be on this podium with Harold. (Applause.) Thank you, Harold.

And I want to thank all of you for your service; for your brothers and sisters who have served this country heroically for a long, long time, most notably on September 11th; for those who have lost their lives, those of you who put your lives on the line for us every single day.

It really is with great pride that I'm able to be here and talk to you today, talk to you about some of the issues that I think are important to you, some of the issues that I think are important to America, because the truth is that somewhere in America today -- and I talked about this actually just a few weeks ago, right here in Washington -- somewhere in America today, a mother will go to bed, wake up at 3:00 in the morning with sick 5-year-old and have to take her 5-year-old to the hospital, to the emergency room, and beg for health care. It doesn't have to be that way.

Somewhere in this country that we love so much, today, a housekeeper who works in a hotel will be walking a picket line with her union brothers and sisters, trying to stand up for decent health care, trying to stand up for her family and her children having a better life than she's had. In fact, she'll leave that picket line and go to work a second job in a diner, all for the hope that her child's going to have a better life than she's had. It doesn't have to be that way.

Today, somewhere in America, a mother will be standing in the kitchen with a cloth in her hand, working, and she'll hear a knock on the door. And she'll go to the door, and she'll open that door, and standing there will be a chaplain and a man in uniform with the name of her sweet son on their lips, who served this country patriotically in Iraq.

It doesn't have to be that way.

You know, I talk about these things happening somewhere in America. The truth of the matter is that they are happening to you, every single day. And I want to say something, and I want to say it directly. I just heard your president talk about this. I am proud of the fact that since the last election -- and by the way, God bless you and thank every one of you for what you did in 2004 and in 2006 to help get good candidates elected. Everywhere I went in 2004 and in 2006, as a candidate and campaigning, I saw you there. I know what you did. I saw it personally. I didn't watch it on television. I know firsthand what you did. And I was proud to be there with you, and I'm proud of what every single one of you did. (Applause.)

But I want to talk for a minute about what your president just spoke about. You know, say anybody who comes before you and asks you for your political support -- they ought to be able to say the word "union." They ought to be able to say the word "union" proudly. They ought to be proud to stand with you and your brothers and sisters and what you do every day. (Applause.) I have been, since the last election -- 2004 election -- I have been all over this country, organizing workers into unions. Because I believe in my heart and soul if we want to grow the middle class in this country, if we want to strengthen the middle class, if we want to lift millions of Americans out of poverty, the most important piece of that, certainly one of the most critical pieces of it, is to grow the union movement, to grow the organized labor movement in this country.

You know, people seem to forget, when they talk about all the great jobs and jobs that have been lost in America -- and we're all worried about that -- but people seem to forget that those jobs weren't great jobs before the union. It was the union that made them great jobs. It was the union that went out there and fought for good wages, good health care, good benefits. (Applause.)

And I want to say to all of you, you know, I have a really simple test about all this. I'm proud to have walked picket lines. I am proud to have organized workers into unions. And I have a really simple test: if somebody can join the Republican or Democratic Party by signing their name to a card, any worker in America ought to be able to join a union by doing exactly the same thing. That is democracy, and that is what we believe in. (Cheers, applause.)

So, I don't just walk the walk -- I don't just talk the talk, I walk the walk. I have been out there every day working on the things that you care about. Always will. It's part of who I am. My mother and father have health care today because of the union. My younger and only brother and his family have health care today because of the union. I have seen personally the effect and the impact that organized labor has had in this country, on my own family, not at a distance. It's why I've been proud to -- (inaudible -- to walk picket lines, it's why I've been proud to go across this country and help organize workers into unions.

And I'll tell you one last thing. You and public safety employees across America deserve the right to organize and deserve the right to collectively bargain -- (applause) -- which is why we need to pass the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act into law and make it the law of the land. (Applause.) That's what we should do for this country.

And the other thing that we shouldn't do is we should not eliminate SAFER, especially in the circumstance where we are today, where two-thirds of our fire departments in America don't have adequate staffing, don't have the people and the personnel to be able to do their job and be able to do their job safely. Some of you may know this already, but unfortunately, the administration is talking about eliminating SAFER, which was passed in 2003. We should do exactly the opposite. Not only should we stand up against eliminating it, we ought to increase funding for SAFER. (Applause.)

And we have so much work to do in this country. I talk about strengthening the middle class and lifting families out of poverty. I'm proud of the fact that among all of the presidential candidates, including the ones that you'll see here later today, I'm the only candidate, at least until now, to have a specific, substantive, truly universal health care plan.

I think America desperately needs universal health care. We should not have men and women in this country who have to go to the hospital and beg for health care. We should not have millions of people who work for a living, who work hard every single day to take care of their families and lift their families up, having to go to the hospital and beg for health care. We need universal health care in America. One reason we need universal health care is so when you collectively bargain, that's not at the forefront of every single negotiation, so that you know you're going to have health care. But everybody in this country ought to have health care.

So I'm proud of the fact that I've laid out a universal health care plan. I hope the others will do the same. I hope they'll step forward and do what's responsible and talk about health care in America, but not talk about it in a little way, talk about the transformational change that America needs. And one of the areas in which we need transformational change is universal health care.

We should have health care for every single man, women and child in America. If not, I want them to explain to me what child in America -- they believe it's okay to go without health care. What family in America should go without health care?

And I want to say a word or two about something that's been on the forefront of the news in the last few weeks, which is what's happened at Walter Reed and what's happened to our veterans. You know, I don't know if you all heard this, but a few years ago, there was a registration fee put in place for veterans. Veterans were supposed -- required to pay a $250 fee, registration fee, to get the health care that they were entitled to.

This is an amazing thing: Men and women, including some of you in this room, who have served this country, who have worn the uniform of the United States of America, asked to pay a registration fee to get the health care that they're entitled to? Let me tell you my view of that. They paid their registration fee when they put on the uniform of the United States of America. That's my view of that. (Applause.)

And what's happened at Walter Reed is just symptomatic of what's happened throughout our Veterans Administration system in this country. You know, we have men and women coming back from Iraq -- recent estimates are as many as one out of three are suffering from some form of mental illness. We've had an extraordinary number of traumatic brain injuries.

We all worry about those who have lost their lives there and their families. But look at the thousands and thousands who come back literally scarred for life. Don't they deserve our support? Don't they deserve the health care that they're entitled to?

One of the things that I'm going to be talking about in this presidential campaign is a homefront redeployment plan, so that everyone who comes back from serving this country in Iraq has a real plan to get the health care that they're entitled to, to make sure they have early screening for any mental illness and any kind of mental problems. And by the way, my universal health care plan provides exactly the same coverage for mental health that it does for physical health. There's absolutely no excuse for treating mental health different than we treat physical health in this country.

But we have got to stand by the men and women who have worn the uniform of the United States of America, including many heroes in this room who have worn the uniform of this country. We have got to stand with them; we've got to provide them the health care that they're entitled to. They served us, and America has to be there for them when they come home. (Applause.)

So, brothers and sisters, I want to say -- leave you with this thought. You're going to have a series of presidential candidates come up here during the course of the day today, and they're going to be talking about you, about your right to organize. But I want you to ask yourselves some questions.

First -- Harold raised this question just a few minutes ago when he was introducing me -- when they're not talking to you, do they talk about organized labor? When they're not talking to you, do they use the word "union," and do they use it proudly? Have they walked picket lines? Have they helped to organize workers across this country? Because I can only speak for this presidential candidate.

Whether I'm elected president of the United States or not -- and I believe I will be -- no matter what happens and whoever you support -- and I ask for your support. I came here today to ask for your endorsement and to ask for your support. But whoever you support and whoever is elected president of the United States, the one thing you can take the bank: as long as I'm alive and breathing, I will walk picket lines with you and I will help you organize and I will stand with you, because I believe in you. I believe in your service to this country. I think you are heroes, and you deserve people who will stand with you and walk the line with you.

God bless you all very much. It's my great privilege and honor to be here with you. And thank you, every single one of you, for what you do every day, every day for America, every day for all of us. God bless you all. It's a great privilege for me to be with you today.

Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)

END.

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