Thank you @NCPERS for inviting me to speak to your conference. Now, more than ever, we must work together as public employees to protect pensions and our democracy. 
While people are struggling from the effects of #COVID19 and racial inequality, they’re also facing another crisis: The prospect of retirement insecurity. It’s up to us to ensure every American has the #FreedomToThrive.
We must also make sure we’re not funding lawmakers and organizations trying to destroy our democracy. It’s prudent that public pension funds investigate whether their members’ deferred wages are invested with firms that enabled this attempted coup.
We must also tackle income inequality. Since #COVID19, 45M Americans filed for unemployment, 1 in 5 households reported food insecurity, and 8M more are in poverty. In December, 100% of the jobs lost in the US belonged to women.
This pandemic has taken existing racial & economic inequality and magnified it. Wealthy corporations like Amazon have made record profits as working people scrounged for crumbs. We can – and must – do better.
We as public employees are consistently blamed for budget problems because of our pensions. In truth, we can’t afford not to make sure every American can count on a secure retirement.
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