Senator Reverend Warnock: “We’re just trying to lower people’s costs. You shouldn’t have to choose between food and prescription drugs, we’ve got to lower the price of prescription drugs. That will help a lot of people.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Warnock (D-GA) held his first-ever in-person town hall in Decatur, Georgia to answer questions from local constituents and hear about issues important to them. The Senator highlighted his leadership in working to lower costs for Georgia, passing the biggest tax cut for middle-class Georgians in a generation, helping Georgia businesses keep their doors open by securing relief in the America Rescue Plan, and creating good-paying jobs repairing Georgia’s roads, bridges, ports and airports by passing infrastructure legislation.
***A live stream of tonight’s’ event can be found HERE***
READ key excerpts from tonight’s town hall below:
On lowering costs: “We’re just trying to lower people’s costs. You shouldn’t have to choose between food and prescription drugs, we’ve got to lower the price of prescription drugs. That will help a lot of people.”
On supply chain issues: “People are struggling, and so we’re working to lower costs… There are supply chain issues, from my seat I was able to loosen up $8 million dollars for the Port of Savannah, where they were experiencing congestion so that we could set up a fix to ease the congestion down there. Those are the kind of things that help.”
On the Child Tax Credit: “[The Child Tax Credit], which has helped 2 million children in the state of Georgia. Experts say it cut child poverty 40%-50%. And I’ve called a lot of these parents, and I’ve talked to them in July when they were starting to get these resources in their bank account. Let me make it real clear so you know what it is, it is a tax cut for ordinary people. That’s what it is.”
On the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package: “The bipartisan infrastructure bill is a jobs bill. In that bipartisan infrastructure bill, we got resources to repair our bridges, and our roads, and our highways, and our ports, and our airports.”
On the Covid Relief Package: “We literally put shots in people’s arms…. We put resources in people’s bank accounts, we supported small businesses, we provided PPP for small businesses, we helped our municipalities to make it through the pandemic. $11 billion of support to small businesses in Georgia alone.”
On broadband: “We are providing resources [in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill] to support broadband, because broadband is in the 21st century what electricity was in the 20th century. You can’t thrive in a modern economy without a broadband connection. It’s an issue of accessibility and affordability.”
On student debt: “Our children shouldn’t have to have a mortgage before they have a mortgage… We ought to wipe out the first $50,000 [of student debt]. We ought to do it because it would lower people’s burdens, it would spur entrepreneurship, it’s investment in our people.”
On coming together: “My job as a Senator, and I believe all of our jobs, particularly in the midst of a pandemic, is to find the road that runs through our humanity, find ways to connect to one another, to get the things done in order to prepare a future that is worthy for all of our children.”
On kindness: “We’ve got to find a way both interpersonally and in terms of public policy to be kind to one another… Regardless of your orientation with respect to faith, or if you claim no faith at all, I think we could all use some more justice and kindness and some humility, enough humility to hear one another, even those who not share our views.”
###