YouSaid · the spoken record

Thomas Perez

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60
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2015-12-28
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2015-12-28
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  1. “Well, the dignity of work is what we're talking about. And to end with upon it has been excellent. Thank you. You're the first”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Because I am trying to get out the door, it's because it goes back to the beginning of this conversation. I live my life with a sense of urgency, and I think the worst thing in the world you can waste is precious time. And so my singular focus is on making sure we take to the finish line a number of initiatives that we've put in place, all of which are designed to address the fundamental challenges of our time. And I'm proud of the fact that so much of what we're doing, whether it's paid leave, wage issues, investment in skills, that's what folks are talking about on the campaign trail. At least that's what Democrats are talking about.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “In the future. Yes. My wife works with homeless people. And we both have modeled for our children and we wouldn't trade anything we've done. But with the choices we have made in our career, the opportunity costs in terms of things we didn't do. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. But as I said before, I think that looking for the right job is a full-time job. And as long as we have the people that I meet who are looking to upskill or the veteran who's out of work or the person with a disability like the one I just met today in this conference I was at who is counting on us to deliver for them. I feel like I need to give twenty four seven. I literally have a piece of paper on my desk that marks down every single date until the end.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “I always want to make a difference, and there are many different ways in which you can make a difference. I've got three kids, nineteen, seventeen, and thirteen in September. As of September of 2016, I will have two children in college. And my expected sounds like the private”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Well, I'll be honest with you, I focus very little on that question because I feel like if I go out for a two-hour lunch with David Axelrod to talk about my future, that's two hours I can't get back. And by the way, I do want to go out for a two-hour lunch someday with David Axelrod.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Memorial service in Pat in Orange Hatch, John McCain. I worked on a hate crimes bill with Locke Faircloth, who couldn't have been more of an ideological opposite, but they found common ground. And it was fun to watch. Yeah, it's fun to watch”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “See Yeah, and I'm proud of that. That's what Ted Kennedy taught me as much as anything, was that idealism and pragmatism are not mutually exclusive. And you look at the number of Republicans that he worked with, whether it was... Yeah, no, it was amazing.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “The existential crisis of the nation was hanging in the balance and they did something which is absolutely treasonous in the year 2015 for some, which is they reached principled compromise. And as Walter says, Ah compromisers may not make for heroes, but they sure as heck make for great democracies.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “Associated with Washington. Yeah, well, I mean, we live in a world of seldom right, never in doubt. And when what we really need right now is, you know, we need Ben Franklins of the world. The leather apron club that he started, we could use a little bit more of that because we talk past each other, whether it's conversations about what we should do in the disability community, whether it's conversations about what we should do on immigration. It is really hard to get things done in Washington. And, you know, if there's one thing that Ted Kennedy taught me above anything, and he was a tireless champion for the rights of people with disabilities, among others, Taught me that idealism and pragmatism are not mutually exclusive. And Walter Isaacson's biography of Ben Franklin, he talks about how...”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “This is one of the many reasons why I love the work that I do because I think it was, I used to work at HHS in Hubert Humphreys. Bust was on the Humphrey building there with one of the things he often said, which was the moral test of our strength as a nation is how we treat those in the dawn of life, our children, how we treat those and the twilight of life, the elderly and how we treat those in the shadows of life. And I've had the privilege of working with people in the dawn of life, the shadows of life and the twilight of life. It has been an unmitigated privilege. And what I have learned is that the most important enterprise I can bring To bear, regardless of the context is a good listening ear and a healthy dose of humility. And in Washington, there's a lot of folks who believe that they know those qualities.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Well, and I think that's why we have attended to this with, I think, a singular sensitivity that is appropriate in this circumstance. And again, some of the results that I've observed. Where we've seen individuals working for two, three dollars an hour and now they are literally living independently. They're making twelve dollars an hour again there was a case in Rhode Island where this couple just got married. Both of them were in sheltered workshops making sub-minimum wage and now they're living together. They're both married. They're married. He has a crime. And that worked for him. And that may not work for others. Exactly. And so that's why it requires a sensitivity.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Well, and the legal standard is, you know, what is the most integrated setting appropriate to the individual's needs? It's not a standard that says here's a one-size-fits-all approach for exactly what we're doing.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “People with disabilities that we were able to help who was exceedingly and understandably and appropriately skittish about what we were doing because her daughter had been doing this for many years and she thought that was her ceiling. And it was remarkable to her to watch her daughter thrive. and any parent. I mean, I have three kids and I will do anything for them. That's why I'm so thrilled with my...”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Because this is a concern to me. Well, and the doctrine of unintended consequences is something that we're always mindful of. At the same time, as I was listening to you, I was thinking about a case we did recently in Rhode Island. There were a number of young adults with disabilities who were in sheltered workshops making sub minimum wage. And there were a number of folks that we interviewed who said, you know, I can do more and I want to do more. And I haven't been able to do more. And so working with all the key stakeholders, we were able to forge a solution in that situation. And the thing that I remember the most about that case is the mother of one of the”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Well, I've had the privilege of working with a lot of various stakeholders in the disability rights community on this issue. And I think the most important thing we can ever do in this is to make sure we listen and bring a healthy dose of humility. Well, that's why I'm raising it.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “But you know what? I'm not resting on my laurels because I'm not comparing Maryland to New Jersey. I'm looking at Maryland versus Korea or Maryland versus other countries that we're competing against. And that's what we have to do nationally is look at the United States against the rest of the world. And that's where I see real optimism because I've seen these partnerships, the recognition that we are indeed all in this together. And I'm heartened by the fact that I think we're going to get a reauthorization, a bipartisan reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act. And again, and that's a partnership that in that particular bill includes labor unions, includes management, includes all the stakeholders in the education arena. I think there's an understanding that we need to make changes as to how we do things.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “I'm happy for Montgomery County. Well, I'm not just talking about Montgomery County, but I mean, I was up in New Jersey recently because, as you said before, the educational continuum, I end up meeting a lot of folks in the secondary school level, and I have great admiration for the work that's being done there. And so I've seen innovation in various high schools and middle schools across this country because so many of our investments are actually going down to that level because we're trying to prepare people for the careers of tomorrow. And I've been struck by the fact that folks in the labor movement understand that, you know, yesterday's battle might have been union against management. Today's battle is we're competing against the world. I'm proud of the fact that Maryland has one of the highest ratings on K-12 education.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “And I agree with everything you just said, but I would add one more sentence to it, which is in my own experience, I have seen that partnership in action. And I think we are a better school. Do you think that's the norm?”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Well, we've been able to, you need to have fairness as well because part of what this lawsuit. And the argument is that there shouldn't be teacher tenure. What teacher tenure means is that you can't be fired unilaterally, that if you've been there two or three years, I forgot what the period of time is, that before somebody fires you, you need to have an opportunity to defend yourself. I think that's fundamentally fair. And so in these conversations, I think we have the thing.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “Well, again, we're all a function of our own experience, David, and I've seen in my neck of the woods that we have been able to work through a lot of these issues. And that's one of the reasons why. So you think there's”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “One of the partnerships that we brought together there at that event was the Montgomery County, where I grew up. The teachers union there. And the school system. And one of the reasons why I'm a proud public school parent in Montgomery County is because the partnerships that have been in place there have not simply resulted in fair treatment of teachers on the issues of wages and pensions, etc., but have resulted in remarkable innovation. There's an entire peer review process so that if you have an underperforming teacher, there is a structure in place to deal with that because the union recognizes that nobody benefits when you have an underperforming teacher. The whole reauthorization of ESEA in no small measure is being helped by the AFT and the NEA who have said, I think correctly.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “You're obviously a master of alliteration. Let me say that. Well, thank you, sir. I'm thinking of other alliteration that come to mind.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “If my neighbor, the school teacher, if I manage to hollow out his or her pension, I don't have a pension, but that doesn't make me feel any better. I think the solution to that is to help lift wages and prosperity for everyone so that we can all enjoy that basic pillar of the middle class. Because retirement security is one of the five pillars of the middle class. And the notion that the solution here is to effectively unilaterally pass laws, which is what is underway in a number of states, I don't think that's the answer.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “Why, I think you see across the country places like California where there have been negotiations around this precise issue that the key is to make sure that you do it in the context of collective bargaining. And what I see in a number of states is efforts by Republican governors, some, I don't want to paint with an unduly broad brush, but all the ones doing it are Republican, to use this issue as a wedge to achieve what their real goal is, which is to eviscerate public sector labor unions. That is the real goal. That's the goal of this Supreme Court case is to basically do away with this. And, you know, we live in a nation right now where there are some folks who think that the Gilded Age was a golden age and they think that if I blow out my neighbor's candle, it's going to make my candle shine brighter. And I don't believe that if...”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “States always could and in fact are doing more of that now because the Republican leadership in Congress has been so intransigent in not raising the minimum wage. And so more and more people are falling further and further behind and you've got to win either the geographic lottery to get an increase in the minimum wage or you got to win the boss lottery to earn a decent wage. And that's not who we are as a nation. Let me”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “I think we should have both 12 and 15. I think we need a federal floor of $12 an hour so that you can reflect the fact that $12 an hour is what it takes for a worker to be just above the poverty line. And I think that states should be able to go above that, like Seattle and elsewhere, to reflect the cost of work. Because states always could, right?”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “that we're not defining success anymore by the number of union members we were able to increase last year, we're defining success by the number of people we're helping. The fight for 15 movement, they have not gained thus far any new union members, but they build a movement two, three years ago, if you had said $15 minimum wage in a city, people would have laughed you out of the room. Now the fight for 50 minimum wage should be.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Of their company's progress. I've had a lot of conversations with labor leaders about the existential threats. And to a person, they understand that if we're going to regain market share, we have to be smarter. And again, I think the examples of these recent contracts embody that shared sense of we're all in this together that have helped unions succeed. You look at the fight for 15 movement. SCIU is playing a critical role in that. And I think that is a remarkable movement. And what it illustrates is, you know, I think labor leaders like Mary Kay Henry, Lee Saunders of SEIU and AFSME respectively, they understand.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Helped hundreds of thousands of workers, and that's why collective bargaining to me is so important. But there's some folks out there on the far right who want eviscerate, and there's some governors who get a lot of traction doing the same.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “On labor unions, and I was taught that when we speak collectively with one voice, we all do better. And this assault on the labor unions and there's a Supreme Court case right now that is nothing less than a direct assault on public sector labor unions. And I think that's a big part of the hollowing out of the middle class. Because when you're in a workplace and you're alone, your voice isn't nearly as strong as when you're together and some of the best evidence of that is these contracts that have just been negotiated with the big three US automakers in the depths of the recession. They came together around a vision of shared sacrifice. People took a haircut. And now that as a result of some of the president's leadership, American automakers are doing better, they've just negotiated very generous contracts for these workers. They have collectively”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “I think labor unions brought us the middle class and collective bargaining brought us the middle class. And when you look at the strength of the middle class, you start with the post-war period. America's best, greatest generation that fought and won that war, came home, and many of them were labor leaders. And the link between labor union density and middle class strength, I think is undeniable. And as we have seen density go down, it's still about 11.7%. But you're correct. Private sector labor union density is in single digits, 7%, something like that. Public sector labor union density is higher, but there is an unmitigated and undeniable assault”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “And I looked at, we did that because I would looked at the workforce investment act and I said, why is it being administered by two state agencies? And the answer was Because that's how it's done at a federal level, to which I said, well, if there's dysfunction at a federal level, does that mean we have to mimic dysfunction at a state level? And so we combine the two at a state level, and I think we're better for it because it's easier to serve people.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “government work is about. And the thing that I love about my job, David, is I did this workforce stuff at a local level and I did this workforce stuff at a state level. And actually the question that you asked about combining education and workforce, we actually did that in Maryland because I looked at what was happening.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Well, here's the reality we work closer together than ever before. And here's an example. The workforce innovation and opportunity act was the reauthorization of all the workforce programs. Half of that law is administered by the labor department and half is administered by the education department. And now we require states to submit a joint plan. In the old days, we were stovepiped. And so people don't have a disability, they don't have a disability problem that's a DOJ problem or a DOL problem or a HUD problem or an education problem. They have a challenge. I need a better job. I have a disability and I need help. And so our job is to implode stovepipes and build one big sandbox to make sure that there's no wrong door for any person coming in. That's what making God.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “Yeah, well, thank you. I thought you were asking Arnie to disband his. Well, he'd probably be willing since he's leaving in a”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Minimum wage and overtime protections. And these are basically women of color who are working eighty hours a week and making $400 a week. That's not who we are as a nation. We're working on a retirement proposal. People think that when you go and get advice about how to invest that hard-earned 401k plan, that that person has an obligation to put your best interest first. Some do and most don't have that obligation. And literally tens of billions of dollars of money that should be in consumers' pockets is being lost. That's what we're doing at the Department of Labor, making sure that we are helping folks. And then finally, one of the best ways to get ahead in life is to upskill. And there is, you know, a silent movement that we are helping to build to help people get.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “Well, we're the Department of Opportunity, and what we're trying to do every day is swing the bat on behalf of working people. And here's how we do it. We have a proposal right now, a regulation that would help people who make overtime. When I was a kid growing up, David in Buffalo, if my friend's dad or mom was a manager, that meant they were in the middle class. But the rules were changed and manipulated in the prior administration. And so what happened is the rules for governing eligibility for overtime were changed. And they were changed to give all the leverage to employers and take all the leverage from workers. So I meet people working 70, 80 hours a week and making 25,000 dollars a year, which is basically the minimum wage. We're working on that. The 2 million home health workers who were making sub minimum wage, we closed a loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act so that they can get”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “I agree that it is. Building shared prosperity, making sure that this rising tide lifts all the boats and not the yachts exclusively. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning. And it seems to me that prescriptions are a lot of things we need to do. And we're doing a number of these at the Department of Labor. And one of the reasons I love working there is because we're at the center of so much of what the president is trying to do.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “And so you have this on-rand movement, and you have the xenophobia that you see. When the reality is, I think, quite different, we have to build an economy of shared prosperity. This president's made tremendous progress. People lose sight so fast of where we were when he took over. You don't. Yeah, it was there. The two million jobs that were lost in the three months before he got there, I'm constantly reminding people of that. And this whole issue of stagnant wages is a big part of the unfinished business or this recovery, but that's not something that started at the Great Recession. That's been going on for decades. Right.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “Again, this is not the first time we've seen this movement in world history or American history. And the social compact is fraying for many. The basic notion that I'm going to do better than my parents generation. That's an article of faith. We could put that in the Constitution because it's such an ingrained part of who we are as a nation. And for so many, they're not feeling it. And the diagnosis of the root cause that people like Trump tap into is the social compact is fraying because immigrants are taking those jobs. The social compact is fraying because we're letting too many people get access to food stamps.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “I hear everything that is not America. I'm thoroughly offended, and I wonder how it is that somebody can continue to command the percentage of support he can. I mean, he is the modern day incarceration of the know-nothing movement. And the good news is that the know-nothing movement fizzled. And it fizzled because this is a nation that summons our better angels. This is a nation in which the ark of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward those who seek to expand opportunity, not toward those who substitute cynicism for optimism.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Who had the privilege of working for it all always said that civil rights is the unfinished business of America. And we've still got a lot of unfinished business. There's a lot of people out there who feel in tough times they're always looking for someone to blame. And so immigrant blaming immigrants is not new. The know-nothing movement was about blaming immigrants. And the racism that we see.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “I think it's important to never lose sight of how far we've come and the sacrifice, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice that so many people have made. I mean, you played an indispensable role in electing the first African American president, this United States. I never thought I'd live to see that day. And you look at where we've come on things like marriage equality. Never thought we'd see that. You look at where we're going in a number of other areas. And there's been undeniable progress. But at the same time, we say as a society that zip code should never determine destiny, but the reality is there's way too many opportunity gaps, whether it's Baltimore City, where I've spent a lot of time in the aftermath of the unrest. There's way too many efforts afoot to make it harder rather than easier for eligible people to vote. And”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “The ultimate infrastructure of democracy which is voting. And it's so sad to me that on this the fiftieth anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we find ourselves playing so much defense. And I think that's uncomfortable. I want to ask you about that.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Well, those two disciplines are all about opportunity, and those two disciplines came together in the march on Washington, which was both a march for labor rights and a march for civil rights. The I am a man campaign for the minimum wage and the efforts for voting rights and other civil rights. And so they seem to me to be flip sides of the same coin. And that coin is opportunity and dignity. And that's why working at the Department of Labor at a state level. And now what I do here, we deal with so many people who are seeking dignity. And at the Justice Department, I dealt with what I call the infrastructure of democracy, making sure that police departments function in an effective way, making sure that we reject false choices. It's not about you either keep your streets safe or you protect the Constitution. You can do both. And the ultimate...”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “And I'm proud of that because when you are expecting a child, you should be treated with dignity, period. End of story, no other questions asked. And that's what we did.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Well, you can't afford to be ideological in local government, and the person who turned out to be probably one of my closest, if not my closest ally on the council was our lone Republican. A guy named Howie Dennis, who to this day is a good friend. And that's because we understood that the definition of service is moving the ball down the field. And we got so much done together. And I look at a hospital that I drive past with regularity. It delivers more babies by a factor of two than any hospital in Maryland, Holy Cross Hospital. And there's a remarkable partnership between county government and the hospital, wherein immigrant women, most of whom are undocumented, get access to free prenatal care. And that is such a sensible policy because when somebody is pregnant, she needs that care. And we invested money as a county and the state, the hospital invested money, and then we got emergency Medicaid funds for labor and delivery.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Its first governor, since Spiro Agnew, who was Republican, and local government where I was serving was a remarkable opportunity to make a difference. And we have a richly diverse community. I represented the most diverse part of a diverse county. And the work that we were able to do to help vulnerable people in our schools, vulnerable people get access to health care. The bread and butter of”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “A couple intermediate steps there. In the mid 90s, I had started out as a career person. I then had the privilege of working on Capitol Hill in'95 on a detail for Senator Kennedy. At the end of my two plus years there, I was offered a job being the number two person in the Civil Rights Division, which required me to give up my civil service protection. So I became a non-career person, and I did that for a little over a year, and it was an unmitigated privilege. And then I got the opportunity to work at the Department of Health and Human Services for the last two years of the administration as the head of the Office for Civil Rights. And then on january twentieth, two thousand one, at about noon I became unemployed. And for me, Life has always been the search for how do you make the biggest difference in the world? And I believe, I always believe that life is a chapter book, and timing is everything. In 2002 was the perfect time for progressive Democrat to be in local government because it was a tough time to be a progressive in Washington, DC. In 2002, Maryland elected”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “So politicized it that my predecessor was recommended for a criminal prosecution by the IG. They violated all sorts of principles of governance that had been in place from Republican and Democratic administrations for literally decades. I mean, they kept a file on applicants and who they were donating to in political campaigns.”

    2015-12-28 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 19 - Sec. Thomas Perez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source