@Campus Progress Conference: John, Bill and Nancy

This organization does an AMAZING job of getting really cool and important people to speak at their conferences.
Already today I’ve heard from Van Jones, Kathleen Sebelius and right now I’m sitting here listening to John Oliver of the Daily Show. I really appreciate his humor and thoughts about the role of humor in news coverage. Laughing can be so cathartic.
Next up are Nancy Pelosi and Bill Clinton. I’ll try to share some of their remarks as well. Sorry for not posting a lot of commentary, I’m just amazed to be able to hear them speak live and in person. The fact that they are all here shows their dedication to young people, and there are some amazing young progressive activists here today.
Thanks to all the feministing readers who came and said hi. You all rock!
Remarks after the jump.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House:

Let me tell you what is happening on Capitol Hill. I promised the President we would have a bill for health care reform out of the house before the August recession and I will deliver. And it will have a public option.
What we are trying to do is take the insurance companies out from between you and your doctor. It’s pretty exciting to think you don’t have to stay locked in your job because of your health care benefits.
I’m willing to take the heat as long as we get the bill.

President Bill Clinton:

I find it hilarious that members of the other party are not supportive of health care reform and climate change legislation because they are worried about leaving debt on our children. In the last eight years I saw the surplus I built blown away and the debt doubled. These same people, it didn’t bother them a bit to pay for a billionaire’s tax cut. Our debt is a problem, but it’s one that we will have to deal with after the economy is dealt with.
Don’t you believe all these claims that we should put off health care, put off dealing with climate change. It will only make it worse.
It’s a good time to be young in America. We’re seeing this explosion from young people. What I want to say is that this is a very different world. The reason I think we’re going to get health care reform and make progress on climate change is because of you. You look different than any previous generation of young people. The way people think now is different.
Just look at this crowd, it’s incredibly diverse. Unless we shut off immigration, by 2040 or 2050, there will be no majority race in America. We will be a “communitarian” society.
The modern world basically has three huge problems:
1) It is inherently unstable. When there are no borders you are vulnerable to terrorism, swine flu, economic crisis. It’s a very interdependent world that is very unstable.
2) It is way too unequal. Half the world’s people are still living on less than $2 a day. A billion people live on less than $1 a day. Before the financial crisis, 2/3 of people in america had incomes (adjusted for inflation) lower than they had the day I left office. You cannot sustain a movement toward freedom with that kind of inequality.
3) Climate Change. There are a few respectable climate skeptics, but they are less than 5% of scientists. It could spark an economic explosion that could enable us to be more stable and more equal.
What does all that mean for you? 21st century citizenship requires more than 20th century citizenship. Now you also have to be a public servant as private citizen.
One of my proudest moments was being there when Obama signed the bill to expand Americorp. (More about this here. Awesome!)
On health care reform, I believe that the last plan that the Senate is talking about is pretty good. But there still is a lot of debate and a lot of people don’t want the government to offer a so called public option. One of the problems is GM was paying $1400 a car on health care. I’m for the public option cause I think there needs to be some competition. I think we’re going to get a bill. But you should care a lot about the how. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we went to universal coverage and then five years from now we lost it because we couldn’t afford it.
Diabetes is the biggest public health problem your generation will face. I favor organizing the society so that old people stay healthier and young people don’t get type II diabetes.
Why shouldn’t every college campus in the US become a carbon neutral campus? The utilities savings alone could pay for the retrofitting of buildings to make them carbon neutral.
It’s great to go to meetings and clap for people who you support, but what you should be doing is making your college campus college neutral.
College affordability. College costs have gone up 75%. We used to rank 1st in number of people from 24-35 with a four year college degree. Now we’re 10th in the world. Community colleges have been gaining accreditation as four year schools.
I want you to come back to these meetings when you’re my age and see a more diverse, more prosperous world. You’ve got to think about the delivery systems for energy, health care and education. Success or failure is going to be determined by that.
We’ve got our hope back, our mojo back. These are mind numbingly complex problems. America works well when we’re all sort of stumbling together in the right direction. It isn’t enough to cheer from the sidelines.