"This is our moment": US Sen. Elizabeth Warren visits Chatham

'This is our moment'

In Chatham visit, Warren urges Cape Codders to stay involved and push lawmakers on climate change, child care, student loan forgiveness

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, met a packed room of Cape Codders with questions to spare at a Saturday meet-and-greet in the Chatham Community Center.

On hand were state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, who introduced Warren.

"I feel a little bit like the opening act," Peake joked. "But I don't need to tell anyone in this room what a hero Elizabeth Warren is."

"One of the things I love about Massachusetts is that people actually show up for events here," Warren remarked after a standing ovation from the crowd.

Warren urged the crowd to let the government know the people are paying attention.

She launched, in her words, into a "speed-dating" update of what she's been working on and her projects for the future, including climate change efforts, economic recovery in the face of the pandemic and recent inflation, universal child care, the housing crisis and student loan forgiveness.

"We are at a fork in the road going into 2022," she said. "This is our moment. Send an email to your representatives, call the White House, text your friends, raise these issues. Hearing from you is what makes democracy work."

Warren said the nation has made great strides since Joe Biden became president.

"Remember where we were about a year-and-a-half ago," Warren said. "Donald Trump was still president, vaccines were impossible to find, economists were saying it was going to take four to six years to dig out of the pandemic. So, we roll forward."

Since the beginning of the Biden administration, COVID-19 vaccines and testing are now "free and available to all" and despite recent problems with inflation, low rates of unemployment suggest a "strong underlying economy" in the country, she said.

"On the economic front, we are working on bringing prices down for families," Warren said. "I am tired of corporate price-gouging."

The senator made sure to touch on topics that she and her colleagues weren't able to deliver on as well— particularly voting rights and abortion access in health care.

Even with these setbacks, Warren isn't deterred.

"Get us some Democrats and we'll get it done," she said. "I am staying in the fight."

What the Cape wants to know

People from across the Cape attended the event and questions from the audience covered a range of topics.

The Q&A opened up with Warren's thoughts on the politicization of the Supreme Court.

"We have an extremist Supreme Court, one that is way out of mainstream American thought," Warren said.

Despite a challenge to Roe v. Wade being one of the biggest cases the Supreme Court will hear this year, only a marginal percentage of Americans are in favor of its repeal, she said.

"Back in the day, some of the court was liberal, some conservative, but that is just not where we're at right now," she said. "There's nothing sacrosanct about the court. It's been changed seven times, and I'm in favor of changing it for an eighth."

Resources for better elder services

One woman who identified herself as Deb asked the senator about care services for the elderly.

"There is a crisis in elder care and home care, and here on the Cape we're really struggling," she said to Warren.

More: Abuse and deaths at Cape nursing home spur police investigations. Why recourse is limited

Warren said that alongside her work on more funding for high-quality universal child care, she also sits on the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

The committee is working on a bill that is "lined up and ready to go" according to Warren that sends federal funding to both home- and community-based elder care.

"We need to get the wages up for both home- and community-based care so we can get the money to the states who can then get it down to the local level," she said. "We cannot ask caregivers to subsidize this work. It has got to be a federal thing."

Environmental issues and climate change

The environment was on the minds of attendees at the meet-and-greet as well.

Rosemary Shields from the Cape Cod League of Women Voters asked Warren for her thoughts on plans to potentially dump one million gallons of radioactively contaminated water from the now-closed Pilgrim power plant into Cape Cod Bay.

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs to be on someone's side besides the nuclear industry," Warren said in response. "It's been been slow to get people in place, but you've done a wonderful job on the Cape in pushing back and saying to the NRC that their job is to watch out for us, not industry."

More: Cape town leaders oppose radioactive water release in Cape Cod Bay, in letters filed at hearing

Another man who said he lives in Chatham made the point that the town is "one Category 3 hurricane away from devastation."

"What can happen at the federal level to address climate change?" he asked.

Warren said while funding to start addressing the climate crisis was included in the now-defeated Build Back Better bill, she has not given up hope.

"The infrastructure package has pieces for climate change, like electrification of school buses or public buses and trains," she said. "There's $9 billion available in infrastructure for Massachusetts, with $1 billion of it for bridges, but the rest of the money is so this can be done at a local level."

Student loan forgiveness on the horizon?

Becca, a Northeastern University graduate, asked Warren what her back-up plan is if President Biden does not forgive more student loan debt.

"There is no plan B. You need to do this, Mr. President. There is no exit door for him on this," she said. "He has the power. Trump forgave student loan debt, as did Obama, and Biden has already forgiven $18 billion already, but now is the moment for him to make a real difference in the lives of millions of people."

In an interview with the Times prior to Saturday's event, Warren said she is optimistic the president will grant further student loan forgiveness.

But while Biden has said he is taking a "hard look" at student loan forgiveness, Warren conceded it will likely be less than the $50,000 she has pushed for.

"We are seeing that a post-high school degree is becoming increasingly a necessity," she sad. "Public education helps to close the opportunity gaps in the country, but every kid willing to work hard and to work more, that opportunity has disappeared."

Warren feels further loan forgiveness will help rather than hinder the Democrats in the upcoming midterms, and many Republicans are trying to block debt forgiveness because they know it is popular.

"Americans want to see student loan debt eliminated," she said. "We don't build a future for rich kids to go to college and come out debt-free, and kids that are not as fortunate to have to start the adult race 100 yards behind the line."

What's next for Democrats and uncertainty for 2024

Many of the questions for the senator followed a similar theme: uncertainty for the future of the country and the prospects of Democrats in 2024.

One man named Simon brought up President Biden and Vice President Harris' low approval ratings, and wondered what Warren thought of the Democrats chances going into the midterms.

Another woman named Jane noted that she found a book in her living room from 1965 about world hunger that she said sounds like it could have been written today.

"When are Democrats going to get tough?" one woman finally asked Warren.

Not soon enough, says Warren.

"I'm sick to the teeth with what's going on in D.C.," Warren said. "We need to be and needed to be tough, but as your senator, I feel torn. I only have 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week, and I want to get all of this other stuff done."

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Elizabeth Warren visits Chatham, Cape Cod