 Bernie Sanders has received a tremendous amount of credit and attention for his student loan debt cancellation plan and Rightfully, so you know, it's well deserved because this is something that doesn't just help Americans like you wouldn't just Fundamentally change people's lives for the better by cancelling their student loan debt But you're also helping to shift the Overton window to the left, which is desperately needed in this day and age However, I want to take some time here to Spotlight the legislative allies that make this possible because Bernie Sanders can introduce as many bills as he wants to in the Senate But if you don't have an ally in the House of Representatives that will co-introduce this legislation It's gonna basically be dead on arrival And there's a lot of people who are key players here who I also want to take some time to highlight because what they're doing is absolutely Phenomenal so the bill is HR 3448 It's sponsored by Ilhan Omar and co-sponsored by Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib, Barbara Lee and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Not only have these individuals co-sponsored this legislation But they also made a really powerful case as to why we should cancel student loan debt first I want to show you Ilhan Omar and what she had to say because what she said here Honestly, it gave me chills. It's so powerful. It's so profound that I I just I had to share it I stand before you on behalf of 45 million Americans 45 million people who feel they can't purchase their first home 45 million people who feel like they can't start a family 45 million people who have dreams of opening up a business or going to a public service But are held back by a mountain of debt. We are told going to college opens a world of opportunity But far too many it's accompanied by a world of anxiety stress and never-ending death We are told by some politicians that did to this debt is our fault That if we want to achieve the American dream, we have to lift ourselves up by our bootstraps Well, we're here today to say the student debt is not the result of bad choices or behavior It is the result of a system that tells the students to get an education and go to college in order to have a stable life But then does not provide the resources to award that education The scourge of student debt does not affect all Americans equally Students of color face a higher risk of devoting on their loans and struggle to find jobs To pay off these loans due to discriminatory hiring practices First generation and immigrant college students thought face much higher rates of Reforced and women who already face a wage gap and workplace discrimination over two-thirds of the total student loan gap What my bill does is simple as it is revolutionary at senators Andrew says it cancels all 1.6 trillion Student loan debt no exceptions. No questions as full cancellation Americans will no longer wonder if they can buy a home or start a family or open the business or retire America does not suffer from scarcity. We suffer from grief So we can ask the speculators on Wall Street to pay small financial Transaction tax which would fully fund the student loan forgiveness over 10 years The American people bailed out Wall Street. It's time for Wall Street to bail out the American people Ilhan Omar is a national treasure. I absolutely love her That was great and what she's saying is true Like this is going to change people's lives if you were spending $900 a month on student loans Guess what now you might be able to afford a mortgage now. You might be able to afford a car payment I mean this really is a game changer for a lot of people. It's going to pull people out of poverty in some ways and The fact that there are people who are fighting for it and being vocal about it that really is inspiring We are changing the country slowly, but surely, you know, we're shifting the overton window So that was what Ilhan Omar said I want to show you what AOC says because she also made the case and she made a very powerful case for it that alone Illustrates it because what we tell 17 year olds all the time is that you are not old enough or Responsible enough to drink you are not old enough or responsible enough to vote You are not old enough or responsible enough to serve in our military But you are old enough and responsible enough to take on a quarter million dollars worth of debt and that is wrong It is not right Not only is that what we are telling Children now minors now, but that's what we have told them for decades And it has resulted in a crisis that we have seen today Now people are in their 30s and an older that have taken on insurmountable amounts of debt Because we have sold them an empty bill of goods and what we need to do is make it right And that is why we have to both make public colleges tuition free and forgive all student loan debt at the same time So that was absolutely great and as usual I agree with everything she had to say Now I've talked about some of the counter arguments that we've seen when it comes to people saying you know We shouldn't cancel student loan debt because reasons x y and z they're all bullshit reasons But we all know what third way thinks about this They say that free college is quote-unquote Regressive which is hilarious and they say that blanket debt forgiveness could actually increase inequality Well, here's what AOC had to say about that It's wild to think that third way has gotten along with its sensible damn charade as long as it has I've met Trump voters independent voters, but I can't recall a single voter I've met in the United States that identifies as a third-way voter Just admit you're a Wall Street advocacy group and move on That's so true Nobody identifies as third way who does this group is Comprised of beneficiaries of Wall Street campaign contributions many of them just came from Wall Street straight up So third way is a joke, but yet they're taken seriously They're taken to be this you know this sensible wing of the Democratic Party. That's more moderate, but they're not moderate They don't really have a core political ideology. They're not left right. They're pro Wall Street That's what they are. These are the quintessential corporate Democrats who progressives have been fighting against So the fact that anyone takes them seriously is absurd and quite frankly It's an abomination But the good news is that not many people take them seriously go to their Twitter feed almost every single one of their tweets are Ratioed if it goes viral. It's because they were ratioed now That's not to say that people in mainstream media don't take them seriously But that's something that we expect because corporate media has advertisers that also happen to donate to members of third way So that's not surprising at all. They're all in bed with the same people You know, it's a big circle that we're all not a part of but with that being said the way that AOC and progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders Keep shitting on third way. It's giving me life. I'm absolutely loving it So this is what we need to do whenever this this type of legislation I think that positive reinforcement is incredibly powerful because it's really easy to be cynical and only focus on the negative and the bad Whenever, you know, a lawmaker fucks us over or does something corrupt or stupid or duplicitous But when lawmakers do things that are good I think we also need to take the time and commend them for it because understand that if you come out in favor of something like Canceling student loan debt, you're gonna be a target of Wall Street. Third way immediately attack this If you come out in favor of something that helps the people But it's to the detriment of a special interest like Medicare for all for example You make yourself a target. So to the people like Ilhan Omar Alexandria Ocasio-Casio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, of course, who make themselves targets of special interests I think we need to go out of our way to applaud them whenever they continue to fight for us in spite of the attacks because if Everyone else is too afraid and only a select handful of people like Barbara Lee from a legit Paul are willing to fight for us then Less people in Congress will be inclined to act now We shouldn't have to hold their hands and put pressure on them They should just instinctively want to do the right thing and represent their constituents But of course, you know, that's not the real world So we have to make sure that our lawmakers do the right thing. That's incumbent on us So we've got to do two things. We need to definitely have positive reinforcement to make sure that people like Ilhan Omar and AOC know that we are pleased with their performance But we also need to put pressure on those who aren't speaking out. Now, how do we do this? Well, it's easy. You just call your lawmaker call your representative and tell him or her to co-sponsor this legislation I'm gonna lead by example and call my representative Susan Bonamici her number is 202 225 0855 and please don't call my representative call your representative because if we all just call one representative That's not gonna really make a difference But if you call the person who's representing you specifically then your voice Matters or at least it should matter and even if they reject what you want them to do What matters is that you get the word across you vocalize your desires as someone who is the boss of these politicians So I'm gonna call the bill is HR 3448. Let's do for this bill what we did to HR 676 back in 2017 And I just dialed the wrong number 202 225 0855 Please leave a detailed message including your contact information Alternatively, you can contact the local district office at five zero three four six nine six zero one zero. Thank you Record your message after the tone when you finished you can hang up or press one for more options Hello, my name is Mike Figueredo. I'm calling with a message for representative Bonamici I just would like her to co-sponsor Legislation HR 3448 this is legislation sponsored by representative Ilhan Omar And it would cancel all student loan debt as someone with a tremendous amount of student loan debt myself It would really mean a lot to me if my representative who serves me in Congress would put her name on this Legislation because that tells me that you're looking out for me and you're definitely trying to fight to improve My life and the life the lives of other people So I would really appreciate it if she co-sponsored HR 3448 Thank you And look, it's as simple as that a lot of people tell me that they often feel intimidated You know, they don't like calling people first of all nine times out of ten. You're just gonna leave a message second of all There's no perfect way to say anything like you don't need a script for yourself You just tell them what's on your mind if you have a bill name or a bill number That's gonna make things easier, but there's no perfect way to do this Understand that you are the boss of your representative you pay the bills for them, right? Your tax dollars are going into their paychecks. They are your subordinates So you need to realize the power that you have and exercise it call them and let them know that you want them To co-sponsor this legis legislation that would cancel student loan debt. It's that simple You don't have to word it perfectly. You can stumble over your words. We're all human beings It's not scary, you know, just just do it and once you make one call I promise you after that future calls are less intimidating and less scary I've never really worried about making calls to Congress people because I have a big mouth And I am not afraid to share my opinion, but understand that it's not anything to be worried about so we need to make sure that if lawmakers keep doing things like this and proposing these types of phenomenal pieces of legislation that we Let people know in power that we want to see more of this And you do that with positive reinforcement force them and by getting your representative to get on board with this And I'll leave that there Subscribe if you like this video folks Mike's tremendous and he's doing a really really good job Many people are telling me about how wonderful the humanist report is Bigly