00:00You have a lot going on with policy that you have started in Stockton, and you've also brought it
00:08down to California. But even though you've been doing city and state policy today, I want to start
00:14us off talking about some federal policy. So we know Build Back Better, this huge plan for social
00:20infrastructure was supposed to have passed. We were expecting it to pass this year, and it did
00:25not. One of our senators, Joe Manchin, said that he would not support it. Do you have any thoughts
00:29about that? So many thoughts. I think the first thought is, it just makes no sense to me that
00:37we are so, we got so much support, even bipartisan support for roads and bridges and things that are
00:45important. But when it comes to like, literally children, like the future, like caregivers,
00:51the world in which the roads and bridges are built upon, we can't even get unanimous support from the
00:57Democratic Party. And I think it just reminds me of the work we have to do as a country and how sort
01:03of it's an issue of power. And we just don't have enough of it in terms of how do we organize and
01:09build the power so that it's a foregone conclusion that, oh, yeah, we want to cut child poverty.
01:14Oh, yeah, we want to make sure we breathe clean air and water. Oh, yeah, we want to make sure
01:17there's doulas for people. Oh, yeah, we want to do what Black maternity health issues. And I think
01:23it's also like, for me, the child tax credit was like a federal manifestation of the basic income
01:29work we did in Stockton, at least for families. So I was really proud of that. And part of my
01:34retirement plan was that this child tax credit will be permanent. And I can say, well, look,
01:39we didn't get universal basic income, but at least families with children have a guaranteed income.
01:44So it's just a reminder of the work we have to do. But I know you've been thinking a lot about this
01:49even before it built back better. But what does this mean for 2022? I don't know how hard it was
01:55to organize in 2020 to get people to vote. Because they're like, well, nothing's going to change.
02:02It doesn't matter who's in office. And I mean, there has been some changes, but like on the big
02:06things, it still feels like it's going to be hard for me to go to the barbershops or it's going to be
02:10hard for me to do what people have asked me to do in all these communities and talk about, we need you
02:16to vote. We need you to vote. And I can tell them some things that happened with their vote,
02:20but I can't tell them like this big thing that seemed like was so necessary, particularly because
02:26we're in a pandemic. These are also not normal times. It's like extreme times. So the lack of
02:32urgency and response is troubling for me.
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