Elizabeth Warren

As I see it, the economy turns on transportation infrastructure.

It is extremely important that workforce development at all levels is not an afterthought

Mr. Chairman, thank you, and thank you for calling this hearing. I have questions for the next two witnesses, so I will just hold until then.

Actually, I should add to that people who are trying to work two jobs and how impossible that becomes for many.

It's time to talk about where we could make changes that would help families.

As you know, women hold a disproportionate number of low-wage jobs, making up about 76 percent of the workers in the 10 biggest low-wage job categories in America.

We could change this if Congress would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

Minimum wage workers have not received an increase in their wages in 7 years.

If we would raise the minimum wage, it would be good for the economy, that it would reduce Federal spending at least to the tune of $46 billion, that it would affect one in five working mothers, and from the data we already know, it would…

Increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would save $46 billion in food stamps and would lift a lot of women, obviously, out of poverty.

We've heard today how the deck is stacked against women, particularly working moms, and about how it's getting worse.

Young people whose parents can afford to write a check for college pay one price, and young people whose parents can't afford to pay up front for college and have to borrow that money pay a much higher tax in order to go to college.

The rising cost of tuition is causing more and more students to have to take on more and more debt, and students of color are being hit the hardest.

We cannot afford to leave any student behind.

I do not believe the Federal Government should be making a profit off the backs of our young people who are trying to get an education.

The Federal Government is making a profit from the student loan program.

If confirmed, I looked forward to continuing to work with the committee to achieve these important goals.

In fact last month, the CBO projected that Medicare spending for 2014 to 2020 will be $500 billion less than they originally projected after the bill was passed.

But they should not forget that we passed major entitlement reform just 4 years ago as part of the Affordable Care Act and that it is already working to reduce Medicare spending.

The Affordable Care Act gave us tools to help reduce the cost of healthcare and improve outcomes, and I am glad to hear that you plan to use them.

The implementation already of the changes of the Affordable Care Act are reducing the deficit and providing great savings.

These programs make sense if we are helping workers learn skills that will help them over the course of their careers.

Community colleges can play a valuable role in closing the skills gap.

The five largest financial institutions which we were told back in 2008 were too big to fail, had to be bailed out, are now 38 percent larger than they were when they were bailed out in 2008 and 2009.

I think that is a very, very good point, Ms. Erickson. I think Americans get this.