YouSaid · the spoken record

Patty Murray

lines on the record
73
first
2017-09-07
most recent
2017-09-07
sittings or episodes
1
sources
podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “And every one of these young people had such an impression on me that they had chosen or were sent to a war, fought for a country, came home, and our country should have been there for them. They shouldn't have been on a locked ward. They shouldn't have been told they weren't important. We should be doing everything we can for them. And that had a huge impression on me because I saw a lot of people who didn't go to war who were lucky that they didn't have to go to war. And they needed to be participating and taking care of the people it chose to go.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “The policy public anger about the policy. So I was in college and volunteered to do my senior work at the Seattle VA because I just felt like I need to see what is happening to these people that everybody's protesting, the real people. And I worked on the psychiatric ward and it was powerful. I mean, I was dealing with young men and women my age coming home from Vietnam, mental health problems that had no names at the time. We didn't have PTSD. We didn't have the kinds of research. We had it. We just didn't know what it was. Right. And they were being put down for being veterans. Yeah.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Yeah, exactly. Well, what happened to me at the VA was part of my life story that I never thought, well, this is going to get me into politics. But it's part that now that I am in politics, I think about every day. Because I was in college during the Vietnam War, and many people I knew were going to war a very unpopular war and unpopular when they came home. They were put down. Veterans were really dark.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “So, this is important for a number of reasons. People often say, what do I do right now if I want to run for office? And I think the question should be, what have you done that's made an impact, an impression on you that makes you want to run for office? And what I did at that point is...”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Absolutely. And you know, it wasn't that they just went to those town halls and said, I mean, there's been so many parallels between this year and what I feel like I did many years ago that got me started in politics. Because when you're not paying attention, things happen to you. But when you're paying attention and you go out and you get involved and you talk about what's important and what's real and tell a story, that's what changes the policies in this country. It made a difference for me then and it made a difference in health care this year and I'm just delighted because that's what I think our forefathers wanted.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “And we won. And it wasn't easy, but I will tell you for the next three months, those state legislators did not have any hearings without a row of moms with little kids in the front staring at them. And they knew it. And we held rallies in Olympia with our kids. And finally, they overturned the procedure and reinstated the money.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “I think by anger is what I would say, that they just could not get away with this because it was. It was a put down to me that I couldn't make a difference because I was a mom in tennis shoes. But it was a put down to every single person in the state by saying you don't make a difference. You're not important. Well, I grew up believing that everybody is important and that we all contribute in different ways. And I thought our voices are just as important as yours. I don't care if you're a tall guy in a dark suit with a red tie and you look important or if you're just a mom and tennis shoes. You have a right to have a say. And that's what we did. And we fought back.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “For better and worse. And people would say, Oh, you know, there's a program like this in Moses Lake or in Vancouver or Tacoma. I think I know a parent whose kid went here and pretty soon I had put together a list of over 13,000. And dads, whose kids had been or were enrolled in this preschool program. And I organized tree charts and got people to be in charge of different legislative districts and we formed an organization. So you became an organizer.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I was mad. I mean, I put my two kids back in the car and I drove home for 100 miles saying this guy is not going to get away with this. He just isn't. And I got home and I just started calling other parents whose kids had been in the program and they put me in touch with other parents and this was pre cell phones and pre-faxes and all those things that allow communication and I just started.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Been there before? Never been there before. Ever. And drove in, parked my car, and hauled these two little kids into the capital looking for somebody to talk to to say, you know, you've got this program you can't cut. And I ran into people and told them my story, told them about the preschool, and finally I had one person say, well, who you really need to talk to is this one senator that is in charge of this, and I asked who he was, and they told me, and I went to his office. I mean, okay, he's no different than me. I went to his office with my two kids, and he kindly listened to me and then just looked right at me and said, you know, you can't make a difference. You're just a mom in tennis shoes. Which I was. But that's not all I was. I was someone who cared about my community and my family. I cared about my country. I wanted this program and I thought that is so wrong.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I had no idea. I mean, I voted, but it wasn't part of my consciousness. I went through life. I knew there were people that made laws and things like that, but I didn't really focus on it. And when she said they did this, I thought, oh, well, they just don't know what they're doing. I just need to go tell them how great a program this is, and they'll turn around tomorrow. Put the money in. And so I put my two kids in the car. They were one and three at the time, drove 100 miles to Olympia with my two kids in the back car.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Well, you know, I never envisioned being in politics, never thought about it. There were people who made decisions, and I just wasn't quite aware of it until I had a family of my own, two small kids, and they were enrolled in a co-op preschool program that we have here in the state of Washington that is partially subsidized by the state and the parents pay some tuition. It's run through the community colleges. It was a great program. I have a college degree, but I didn't know how to raise kids. So this parent education program was a great program, a preschool program, and a parent education program so that you could learn alongside your kids about what's best for them and how to handle situations and, you know, all the things that go into parenting. One day our instructor told us that the program was going to end, and I was just like, why? You can't do this. This is obviously really a great program. And she said, well, the state legislature cut the funding.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “But I wouldn't be here today. They wouldn't have those jobs today if our country hadn't been a support network for a family that hit some hard times.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “That's amazing. But we had a country Believed in investing in people, no matter who you are or what happened to you, or where you come from. And we all had work study programs that helped us get jobs. We all had Pell grants and student loans and the support we needed to make it through. And I look at families today who are struggling, and I think my country has to be there for you. That's part of our obligation as a nation. And I look at those seven kids now, all adults, all giving back in various ways. I have four brothers from an attorney to a firefighter to Microsoft ingenious innovator, and sister who is a teacher and a brother who's a sportswriter. I mean, we all contribute back to that.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Getting welfare is not easy when you are a prideful person. And when I hear people put down people on welfare today, I just think about the look in my mom's eyes. When she had to go apply for that, but she needed it. And you know what that little bit of help got us back on our feet. My mom got her degree. She worked hard, we all pitched in, and she got her degree, got a job, and was somehow able to get us all through school. All seven kids in my family went on to college and got their degrees.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Well, my mom, a brave soul, and I had to swallow her pride and courage and applied for welfare and food stamps that got her by for a few months and applied for school. And fortunately, she got into a program at Lake Washington Vocational Tech School, which is what it was called at the time, and to get an accounting degree, which would be two years. And meantime found a part-time job at another small store that she could put a little bit of food on the table. My dad was a veteran, so he got a little bit of money from the VA. And we struggled. I mean, when the time I was early teenager, I worked. I worked at stores. I worked part-time. I worked in the summer. I worked Friday nights when everybody else was, and so did all of my brothers and sisters because we all had to contribute. But it was a tough time because, you know,”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “And later on in my life, my mom limped badly because she'd had a broken ankle at one time and didn't get it taken care of. So healthcare wasn't something that, you know, that was easily accessible or affordable, especially with a big family like that. And I think that's one of the reasons today I feel like it's something families should have. You shouldn't have to give up basic health care. My parents shouldn't have struggled. I remember when my parents, my dad, of course, had MS and we were out of the house by then, but he didn't go to the doctor very often. And my mom had arthritis and then heart problems. And I distinctly remember my mom saying to me one time that they were crawling to Medicare. And I thought, this isn't what my country should be about. It had a huge impact on me. Now today, years later, when I never expected to be thinking about it again.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “But we didn't go to the doctor very often. You didn't go to the doctor unless it was really bad. I mean, I remember my mom falling one time and breaking her ankle. She knew it was broken, but she didn't go to the doctor because they didn't have the money”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Well, my dad worked for a bit, but not for very long, and the man who owned the story that he ran told them that he just wasn't capable of doing it anymore. So all of a sudden my family, when I was a teenager, and again, I'm one of the older kids in my family, my sister is thirteen years younger than I am, so we ranged a broad range. All of a sudden he didn't have a job and he didn't have an income. And my mom who'd stayed home, she'd had a few years of college but quit to get married and didn't have any skills, hadn't been working, had to all of a sudden take that responsibility of seven kids taking care of my dad who was ill and making sure we were all okay. It was rough.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “You know, I remember it well. From the time I was an early teenager, my dad would fall down very easily. I remember one time he fell down and somebody walking towards us looked at him and called him a drunk in my dad. Dad didn't drink. And so you know, as a kid, you're kind of this just doesn't feel good. But it was at a time when healthcare was expensive for families. They didn't go check it out. And so it took probably three or four years before they finally did, and he got the diagnosis. And MS is not easy to diagnose. Certainly wasn't then. So it took a while. And, you know, but that was life-changing for a family.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “As a veteran of the war and came home, and he'd been injured. It wasn't a big part of our lives. And my mom stayed home and raised us. Actually, most moms did at the time. And I think like a lot of people, they just thought, this is our life and nothing else is going to happen. And we'll just plod along and things will go okay. Well, that wasn't the course that my family ran into. My dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was 15.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Yeah. You know, we were a typical family then, well, I don't know how typical. There were seven kids in our family, several cats and dogs. And I think we didn't have a lot. My dad had a pretty middle class, probably lower middle class job, rent a 5 and 10 cent store in Bothel.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Never ever occurred to me actually. Never. I mean, I grew up in a big family, seven kids, didn't have a lot. My dad ran a dime store on Main Street of Bothel. 1,000 people in the town. And my mother and dad always made us believe that we could achieve whatever we wanted to, but certainly politics, certainly not being in the United States Senate ever occurred to me as something that I would go for.”

    2017-09-07 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 170 - Sen. Patty Murray · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source