All-American Presidential Forums on PBS" Moderated by Tavis Smiley

FORUM RESPONSES

"Thank you for that question. It is abundantly clear, especially today, that race and racism are defining challenges not only in the United States, but around the world. We have made progress. You can look at this stage and see an African American, a Latino, a woman, contesting for the presidency of the United States, but there is so much left to be done. For anyone to assert that race is not a problem in America is to deny the reality in front of our very eyes.

You can look at the thousands of African Americans left behind by their government with Katrina. You can look at the opportunity gap, the cradle to prison superhighway that the Covenant talks about, and you can look at this decision today which turned the clock back on the promise of Brown v. Board of Education that was resting on the fact that children are better off if they are part of a diverse, integrated society.

So, yes, we have come a long way, but, yes, we have a long way to go. The march is not finished and I hope that all of us, the Democratic candidates, will demonstrate clearly that the work is yet to be done and we call on everyone to be foot soldiers in that revolution to finish the job."

"Well, I really believe that it takes a village to raise a child and the American village has failed our children. We have heard absolutely the right prescription. I have fought for more than thirty-five years for early childhood education, for more mentoring, for more parent education programs, to get our children off to a good start. I have fought to make sure that schools were fair to all children. That's the work I did in Arkansas to try to raise the standards particularly for the poorest of our children and most especially for minority children.

Certainly in the White House years and now in the Senate, I've continued that effort because I don't think there is a more important issue. But I also believe we cannot separate the education part from the economic part. There is still discrimination in the workplace. There are still people who are turned down and turned away who have qualifications and skills that should make them employable, so this is a broader issue that we have to address."

"You know, it is hard to disagree with anything that has been said, but let me just put this in perspective. If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four, there would be an outraged outcry in this country.

So let me quickly say before I get compared to Paris Hilton (laughter) that, yes, we have to do all of this and I'm working on this. I'm working to get Medicaid to cover treatment. I'm working to raise the budget for Ryan White which the Bush administration has kept flat, disgracefully so, because there are a lot of women particularly who are becoming infected in poor rural areas as well as under-served urban areas in states where frankly their state governments won't give them medical care.

So this is a multiple dimension problem. But if we don't begin to take it seriously and address it the way we did back in the 90s when it was primarily a gay men's disease, we will never get the services and the public education that we need."

"Well, I clearly think that our economy was working a lot better in the 1990s. We had the creation of twenty-two million new jobs, a balanced budget and a surplus. Certainly, when the Bush administration came in, they were determined to tilt the balance back toward the privileged. We are paying a very big price for this because middle class and working families are paying a much higher percentage of their income.

That was Warren Buffett's position that he pays about seventeen percent because, don't forget, it's the payroll tax plus the income tax. When you cut off the contribution at $90,000 or $95,000, that's a lot of money between $95,000 and the $46 million that Warren Buffett made last year. He's honest enough to say, look, tax me because I'm a patriotic American and I want to make sure our country stays strong and is fair. So, yes, we have to change the tax system and we've got to get back to having those with the most contribute to this country."

"In order to tackle this problem, we have to do all of these things. Number one, we do have to go after racial profiling. I've supported legislation to try to tackle that. Number two, we have to go after mandatory minimums. There are mandatory sentences for certain violent crimes that may be appropriate, but has been too widely used and it is using now a discriminatory impact.

Three, we need diversion like drug courts. Nonviolent offenders should not be serving hard time in our prisons. They need to be diverted from our prison system. We need to make sure that we do deal with the distinction between crack and powdered cocaine and ultimately we need an attorney general and a system of justice that truly does treat people equally and that has not happened under this administration."

"I have proposed a ten-point Gulf Coast recovery agenda because it sort of is a chicken-and-an-egg issue, Michel. First, we've got to get the hospitals back up. We've got to get the law enforcement and the fire departments. You know, right now this administration has basically neglected with all criminal indifference the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, in particular New Orleans and the Parishes.

So even if we were to give people a right, there is nothing to return to. We have got to rebuild New Orleans and it's not only the protection from the levees. It is all the infrastructure and until very recently, the administration would not give the people of New Orleans the same right we had after 9/11 which was to get FEMA money without a ten percent match. We finally got that changed, but it was outrageous that it took so long."

"Well, outsourcing is a problem and it's one that I've dealt with as a senator from New York. I started an organization called New Jobs for New York to try to stand against the tide of outsourcing, particularly from upstate New York and from rural areas. We have to do several things. End the tax breaks that still exist in the tax code for outsourcing jobs. Have trade agreements with enforceable labor and environmental standards.

Help Americans compete, which is something we haven't taken seriously which goes back to the very first question about education and skills. Let's not forget that sixty-five percent of kids do not go on to college. What are we doing to help them get prepared for the jobs that we could keep here that wouldn't be outsourced? And find a new source of jobs. Clean energy, global warming, would create millions of new jobs for Americans."

"There are three things we have to do immediately. Move the peacekeepers that finally the United Nations and the African Union have agreed to into Sudan as soon as possible. In order for them to be effective, there has to be airlift and logistical support and that can only come either unilaterally from the United States or from NATO. I prefer NATO.

Initially, we should have a no-fly zone over Sudan because the Sudanese government bombed the villages before and after the Janjaweed come and we should make it very clear to the government in Khartoum that we're putting up a no-fly zone. If they fly into it, we will shoot down their planes. It's the only way to get their attention."