During Wednesday's 'Fight Oligarchy' tour in Folsom, CA, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) spoke about Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA).
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00:00We know that a better world is possible, and we are willing to do something about it.
00:10But to get there, we need to be honest about how we got to where we are right now.
00:17Because this moment did not come out of nowhere, Folsom.
00:21It has been a long time coming.
00:24The destruction of our rights and our democracy is directly tied to the growing and extreme wealth inequality that has been building in America for years.
00:40It is not a coincidence that billionaires like Elon Musk have dumped billions into this election to support Donald Trump.
00:54He sure is as hell is not doing it for charity.
01:00For years, we have known that our political system has slowly but surely become dominated by big money and billionaires.
01:10And time after time, we have seen how our government and laws are more responsive to corporations and lobbyists than everyday people and voters.
01:22And we also know that the agenda of dark money to keep our wages low and to loot our public goods like Social Security and Medicare to give to the rich.
01:36We know that this is deeply unpopular with the American people, Republican, Independent, and Democrat alike.
01:44But just look at what Republicans in Congress have been quietly doing.
01:52They have been voting to advance cuts on hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and veterans' benefits so that they can take that money and give it to their donor class.
02:04All in the form of tax cuts for the rich and sweetheart government contracts for their companies like SpaceX.
02:14And Folsom, you know who voted for that, by the way, the man who represents you right here in Congress, Kevin Kiley.
02:26But you know, you know how many people are here in Folsom today?
02:3526,000 of you have gathered to tell Kevin Kiley, hell no, hands off our Medicare, hands off our Medicaid, hands off our Social Security.
02:55Kevin Kiley knows that this is not what you want.
03:00He knows that it is deeply unpopular.
03:03He knows that it hurts the people of Folsom.
03:07But he is not there to serve working families.
03:11He is there to serve himself and the billionaire class that put him there.
03:19But he knows that the only chance that he has to get away with such unpopular and destructive decisions
03:29is to stoke deep divisions along race, identity, and culture to keep all of us fighting and distracted.
03:40This has been the big money playbook, not just now, but for decades.
03:46And we are not going to fall for it anymore.
03:49And we are not going to fall for it anymore.
03:49And we are not going to fall for it anymore.