Elizabeth Warren was elected to the U.S. Senate to represent Massachusetts on Nov. 6, 2012. She is a tireless and courageous advocate for working families. Throughout her career dedicated herself to the creation of programs and departments that protect consumers and promote the growth and security of the working class. Warren is leading voice for reform and oversight of the financial industry and alleviation and expansion of student debt relief programs. She began her career as a teacher of special needs students and went on to teach at Harvard Law School. Sen. Warren is the author of three national best sellers, A Fighting Chance, The Two-Income Trap, and All Your Worth.

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Many in the country see the banking/financial crisis as something that has already happened, a problem solved. Is this the case? Or are we facing serious problems ahead because of the lack of political will to take on Wall Street?

Dodd-Frank took important steps toward addressing sources of risk in the financial system, but it did not end Too Big to Fail – not even close. It has been six years since the financial crisis, but the big banks that wrecked our economy keep getting bigger and taking on new kinds of risk. The biggest banks emerged from the crisis with record-setting profits, while ordinary Americans continue to struggle. The regulatory system is so besieged by lobbyists for the big banks that it takes years to deliver watered-down and ineffective rules. It’s time to fight back.

We are told that we’re in an economic recovery because corporations are making profits, yet many working people can’t find jobs or make ends meet, do you think we need to employ different standards to measure the health of our economy?

The stock market and GDP continue to go up, while families are getting squeezed hard by an economy that isn’t working for them. From 2010-2013 incomes are up about 10 percent for those in the top 10 percent. For everyone else they are flat or dropping. Minimum wage workers haven't had a raise in over seven years.

People are ready to work, ready to fight for their futures and their kids’ futures, but the game is rigged for big corporations and billionaires who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers – not for working families. We need to focus on leveling the playing field and building a strong middle class, so that everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a fighting chance to get ahead.

You have been a leading voice for expanding student debt relief. Tell us about some of your ideas for reform and why they’re critical for the progress of the next generation.

Student loan debt is exploding, and it threatens the stability of our young people and the future of our economy. There are 40 million Americans who have student loans, and the total debt in this country is now $1.2 trillion and growing bigger every day. The FDIC, the Consumer Agency and the Federal Reserve Bank have all issued warnings that this debt is keeping borrowers from buying homes and cars or opening small businesses. It is keeping them from making the purchases that get their economic lives started and help our economy grow.

To tackle the student debt crisis, it’s time to bring down the cost of college and deal with the existing debt. That includes allowing borrowers to reduce their debt by refinancing their high-interest loans to much lower--and much more manageable—levels. In addition, the practice of the federal government profiting off the student loan program must stop. The government is raking in billions of dollars in profit each year from federal student loans. In fact, just the loans from 2007 to 2012 are on track to produce $66 billion in profits for the United States government. This is about economics, but it is also about our values. These young people saddled with student loan debt didn't go to the mall and run up charges on a credit card. They worked hard and learned new skills that will benefit this country and help us build a stronger America. They deserve a fair shot at an affordable education.

One of your most-often repeated quotes is that “nobody got rich by themselves.” Can you expand on that and what we need to take away from it to change the current course of our society?

We build the conditions for success together. We build roads, bridges and power grids together. We educate our children together. We invest in research together. And all those investments help create the conditions so that innovators and entrepreneurs will have a fighting chance to build something extraordinary. People with a special spark work hard and start some amazing businesses, but those businesses need roads to get their goods to market, they need an educated workforce to help them produce, and they need a pipeline of ideas that comes from basic research. That’s the real point: We’re in this together. We contribute together and we build a future together—a future that should include good jobs here in America.



As you see it, what’s labor’s role in resetting the country’s course? How can labor activists implement change in their communities?

Throughout our history, powerful interests have tried to capture Washington and rig the system in their favor. But we didn’t roll over. At every turn, in every time of challenge, organized labor has been there, fighting on behalf of the American people.

When I was growing up, the labor movement was a powerful and effective advocate for the working men and women of America. About a third of the American workforce was dues-paying, card-carrying union members. Labor negotiations on wages, health care benefits and pensions helped lift the floor for everyone. Wages went up and families got stronger. And as workers’ incomes and benefits were rising, our GDP kept going up too. In other words, as our country got richer, our families got richer—and as our families got richer, our country got richer.

But for decades, labor has been under attack. If we’re going to get back to the days of tackling big challenges together, we need to make sure workers can organize and that they can continue to be a strong voice for hardworking families.

Powerful interests have waged a coordinated campaign in Congress, in our courts, and in our state houses to make it harder to for workers to unionize. But labor is fighting back. Now more than ever, the United States needs a strong labor movement to do what it has always done: advocate to improve the lives of all workers in this country, and to ensure that all middle class families get a fighting chance to make it.

What changes need to be made to hold the big banks and Wall Street accountable to everyday citizens?

We can keep making the rules tougher and tougher, but it won’t be make an ounce of difference if regulators don’t enforce the rules. Strong oversight and real accountability keeps consumers safe, ensures our financial markets function effectively, and can help prevent future financial crises. But many recent settlements don’t hold a single executive accountable and don’t include any admissions of wrongdoing. Until that changes, bank executives will continue to act like they’re above the law.

One very positive step has been the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was passed as part of Dodd-Frank. I wanted it to be a new kind of regulatory agency – one that would stand up for America’s families, not for the big banks or credit card companies.

This little agency has the tools necessary to protect consumers against the tricks and traps hidden in the fine print of mortgages, credit cards, and student loans. The consumer agency has already forced big financial institutions to return more than $4 billion to consumers they cheated. It has put in place rules to protect consumers from a range of dangerous financial products and to make sure that companies can’t put out the kinds of deceptive mortgages that contributed to millions of foreclosures. Go check it out: cfpb.gov and, if you have a problem over a credit card or mortgage or other financial product, make sure you file a complaint. They can’t fix every problem, but even knowing about the problems helps and, in many cases, the consumer agency is helping people get their money back.



How do we disentangle government, regulatory bodies and private industry to ensure that consumers and the public are being protected by the agencies that are supposed to represent them?

It’s important that our regulators remember they work for the American people, not the financial institutions they oversee. But right now, the relationship between regulators and the financial institutions they oversee is too cozy to provide meaningful oversight.

As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, I’m focused on working with other senators to make sure our regulators are doing their jobs. If regulators had been more willing to protect Main Street over Wall Street before the financial crisis, we might have averted the financial crisis and the Great Recession that hurt millions of American families. So long as our regulators are unwilling or unable to dig deeply into dangerous bank practices and hold the banks accountable, our economy—and our country—remains at risk.



Do you feel that women in elected office are held to a different standard than men? How does that play out? How do you handle it?

It’s important that more women are willing to run for office and make their voices heard. We’re up to 20 women in the Senate now. That’s great news, relative to where we were. But we should be near 50. Women are half the country, half the adults, half of the voters and should be half of the government.

Others have said it before me: if you don’t have a seat at the table, then you’re probably on the menu—so I urge all women (and friends of women) to run for office or help out on a campaign. We make change together.

What advice would you offer an 1199SEIU activist who wanted to run for office to make a difference?

My advice is to get out there and try. I never planned to get into politics. My daddy was a janitor and my mom worked a minimum wage job at Sears. I spent my whole career as a teacher, first as a special needs teacher and then in law school, where I work on issues affecting America’s middle class families. But I knew what I believed in, and running for the United States Senate was the best shot I would have to fight to build a future, not just for some of our kids, but for all of our kids.

So, get out there and try it because if you try for it, you might succeed. And if you succeed, you will have the opportunity to fight for the things you believe in --the opportunity to build a more secure future for all our families.

- See more at: http://www.1199seiu.org/the_last_word_with_sen_elizabeth_warren#sthash.UyS3LTYm.dpuf