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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 2017)
oireet Moots • Jan, 20-26, 2017 i ^ i c w o FRANK, from page 4 Or appointing people who think we should undo the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? I think we should be able to win back some of the people who voted for him by pointing out how much he is going the opposite direction, and I think we need to do more as well to show it. Particularly, the single biggest thing for us to do is to propose a significant cut in military spending. To deal with it, you need to do a number of things, but really, the most important is to get more funding for the federal government so you can help people with some of the impacts of inequality. Trump’s right: We don’t have to be sb militarized; other countries should be doing more. Let’s free up over $100 billion a year, which we can then use to expand Medicare, and to really fund higher education and vocational education, etc. E.G.: I began o u r last interview a skin g you about how yo u ’ve seen the rules o f the political gam e change throughout y o u r career. I t seems to have changed drastically again this past election cycle, with Twitter a n d sm all donors m a kin g big impacts. Would you say the political gam e is changing fo r better or fo r worse? B.F.: Let’s put it this way: Some of the changes were good; some of them were Online Behind the public figure who authored sweeping financial reforms and tirelessly pushed for gay equality and increased housing for low-income Americans is the story of a man who purposefully put his political career before his own personal happiness for many years. Read Street Roots’ 2015 interview with Barney Frank and a timeline of notable moments from his career and personal life at news. streetroots.org/barneyfrank2015. bad. You can’t characterize all of them. I think people were insufficiently skeptical of the Internet That was very negative: the great misinformation that people, including the regular media, were not aware of. I think we have some correction there. I think there will be less susceptibility to misinformation from the internet going forward. E.G.: A fter reversing their attem pt a t g u ttin g the independent Office o f Congressional Ethics, House Republicans gave congressional s ta ff subpoena power What do these prelim inary moves tell us about w hat to expect over the next fo u r years? B.F.: One of the things that has helped Page 5 people on the right - they were able to kind of blame everything bad that happened on us. I think that’s reversing.:... They’re in charge now. If people get cut off of Medicare or lose their medical care because of what they do, that will be their problem. So I think what will happen going forward is they may try to continue their model of blaming other people, but they have the House, they have the Senate, they have the presidency, they have the nominee to the Supreme Court; I think it’s going to be hard, given that, for them to blame things that go wrong on the Mexicans. E.G.: D onald Trump told “60 M in u tes” that same-sex marriage is a settled issue. Does this m ean i t ’s safe under a Trump presidency? B.F.: Not entirely. Yes, it’s a settled issue, and the chief justice is much too reasonable, albeit a conservative, to want to undo it. But here’s the problem: I think that he will go along with the congressional Republicans, especially with Pence in there as vice president. They’re going to make if easier for people to ignore our rights by saying religion trumps our rights. That’s what they are going to do. emily@streetroots.org; on Twitter @GreenWrites LAUGHINGPLANET.COM
