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
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