Senator Elizabeth Warren at The Depot Wednesday night. Photo courtesy of Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke before a crowd in Salt Lake City Wednesday night at the performance venue The Depot. The Democratic party presidential candidate joined by her son Alex revved up the local crowd right from the start.
“I can think of two great reasons to be here in Salt Lake City. One is great hiking, the other is great Democrats,” roared Warren.
On the hot regional topic of public lands, Senator Warren says if she is elected president, she will restore broader protections for two of the state’s high-profile national monuments – Bear’s Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Many Utah Republicans and the Republican National Committee have said that means more government control, which would hurt the economy.
In 2017, The Trump administration moved to shrink the monuments in order to allow more land-use flexibility and local control, which left voters in Utah divided.
She says one reason she is running for president is to see that middle-class American workers get better-paying jobs. She says today in the U.S., a current minimum wage job wouldn’t come close to supporting a family of three and that the government should be in the business of supporting working families instead of propping up giant multinational corporations.
“We have a government that works great for giant drug companies, just not for people getting a prescription filled, a government that works great for giant financial institutions, just not for families trying to get by paycheck to paycheck without getting cheated,” says Warren.
On the topic of health care, she says it is a basic human right. She says the U.S. has one target, and that is that every American is covered by “affordable, high-quality health care at the lowest possible cost to all of us.” She says Medicare for all is the best way to get that done.
Another issue touched on Wednesday night included the climate change crisis in Washington, which she blamed on politicians dependent on big money support from the Koch Brothers and big corporations dependent on carbon-based fuels for profits.
Senator Warren toured Storm Mountain Wednesday afternoon.