Eighth Congressional District Candidate Forum at Alden Theatre ... >
May 15, 2014 - Don Beyer.
Closing Statement:

Just to wrap up quickly on welfare reform.  The poverty commission had these five very important structural changes.  The two were structural was we changed in that law the 100 percent tax on welfare mothers and we changed in the law that the father had to leave the home to qualify for welfare.  The other three were budget items.  We funded in that '94-'95 or '95-'96 budget child care money, training money and transportation money.  As my good friends who serve in Richmond know no General Assembly can bind future General Assemblies and I'm sorry that it's not funded now.  Politics is the art of the possible.  We funded it when we could.

By the way I am a Hillary Clinton Democrat.  I betrayed her once for Barack Obama; I'm not going to do it a second time.  And she was my boss when I was ambassador and she was the most gracious of bosses and a very good Secretary of State.

Thank you all for inviting me here this evening.  My mother and father actually grew up on farms in McLean.  They weren't farmers; their parents were all New Dealers.  So I'm a biological Democrat, and I have been taught from birth to work for poor, for workers, for those who suffer from discrimination and hatred, and I was always trying to address the challenges that we had before us, to be a change agent, to be a leader.  So I'm going to fight to raise the minimum wage, I will always protect a woman's right to choose, I will fight for new gun safety laws and I will celebrate all that Obamacare's already done for millions of Americans, and I will be the strongest voice I can be for climate change. 

We all have good candidates in this race.  There are differences.  I was lieutenant governor for eight years with Doug Wilder and George Allen and made the real difference in the lives of families in poverty, of those with disabilities, of the victims of sexual assault. 

I've grown a business right here in Northern Virginia; in fact today is my 40th anniversary at Don Beyer Volvo, and in that we've created hundreds of jobs, served millions of cust--no, hundreds of thousands of customers and really invested deeply in the community. 

And I was proud when the president asked me to be his ambassador to Switzerland. 

Proven experience.  Tested leadership.  Please vote for me on June 10th.
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