Skip to main content

Congresswoman Maxine Waters Delivers the First Speech Ever On the House Floor Comprised of Posts from Her Social Media Accounts

October 26, 2011

Congresswoman Maxine Waters made history today when she delivered the first-ever speech on the House floor complied entirely of posts from her Twitter and Facebook accounts. Two weeks ago, Congresswoman Waters took to Twitter and Facebook pages to ask her "followers" to send her what they would say to House Republicans if they had the opportunity to make a speech on the House floor. We received thousands of comments from people all over the U.S. The highlighted and under-lined names are the people whose posts we used to create the speech. We've reviewed these comments and compiled the best of them into the speech below:

Aaron Parker: To the people that sit on Capitol Hill:

Tawanda Johnson-Gray: As Members of Congress in the greatest country in the World, you are very well aware of the concerns expressed by the American constituency (Jobs, Stable Economic Environment, Education, Crime, War, etc.).Aaron Parker: You are not republicans, you are not democrats, you are not an independent, you do not belong to any faction. @lmsweets: Stop worrying about party and do something for the people, @easynan2: pass the jobs bill, we all need to work. E. Joyce Moore : A child with no food doesn't care about your power struggle with those who are across the aisle. You must represent the most downtrodden people in your district, not the most successful business nor any special interest. Virginia Ferguson: Big money donations from corporations and the financial industry have purchased our democracy. @dakotathenifty: American elected the house not corporations. It is time they represent us. Aaron Parker: You have an obligation as a public servant, to ensure that the underprivileged of our society will be protected. @aonarat: don't forget the poor a group that continues to grow while the rich get richer. Aaron Parker: We have to trust you to make the right decision for us, @abridgeforth: support and pass the American Jobs Act. Yvonne LaRose: We labor to right our small, overturned coffers to replace what was lost. We labor and pay three and four times over for substandard services. We are forced to stand in lines and then shoved aside because we have become the disenfranchised while billionaire executives live and work in very comfortable environments. We are bludgeoned with partisan rhetoric that distracts from the real American issues and representatives who feel they may act without giving heed to the desires of their constituents.

Put partisan politics aside; start serving your citizens with measured focused on supporting the people. @emdoyle Congress must support jobs. We need jobs so that we can pay our reasonable share for life activities and services. We want the right to realize the promises of our founding documents.

@sizzlene: the middle class have been the legs this country has stood on. The lack of meaningful action in DC has crippled us.

Rogelio Cruz: We have not been able to save for our children's college education as we live paycheck to paycheck. We worry about the more immediate dilemma-will we be able to keep our home? We are two months behind in our mortgage. Bank of America, our lender was bailed out with our tax money. Now who is going to bail us, who played by the rules and worked hard, out? @sugarscoutc: please don't give another dime of our money to save the banks, they do not care about us.

Lisa Rivera: Americans are sick of hearing Congress bicker about whom is to blame for our issues. While Congress pontificates and filibusters, Americans are starving, losing their homes, working multiple jobs, if they can find them, and puzzling over ways to balance our incredibly, shrinking budgets against the rising costs of tolls, gas, food and corporate thievery in the guise of bank fees and loan rates. @Somerexpress: Good hardworking American's shouldn't be rubbing nickels together and shouldn't have to pick food over medicine.

Lisa Rivera: We wonder how we will pay our taxes and student loans, avoid answering our phones, leave our mail unopened, as we struggle. The system, if it ever was for us, has failed at this critical juncture in history to safeguard us. The global Occupy Wall Street movement illustrates beautifully the consciousness of the people which has been missing from the political landscape. @emdoyle Congress must support jobs, education and healthcare. @westlamike: people are hurting out here. Lisa Rivera: Our silence has finally and irrevocably been broken. Those of us who have been awakened are now willing soldiers in the fight. @monoteus1: The voice of the people occupying around the nation will not go unrecognized. Our strength, our passion and our vision can, and should be, harnessed to power change.

@toebin: Old policies don't work. Lisa Rivera: Suggestions:

  • Rod Hernandez The first thing to do is to abolish any budget committee discussions that do not happen on the floor. The existence of these secret negotiations by super committee validates #OWS and all of the people's concerns. All budget talks should be done in full view of the American people so that come election day we know who is working toward the greater good and can make our choices accordingly.
  • Lisa Rivera Revise the tax code and raise the taxes for the rich and corporations and pass the American Job Act. @toebin: If tax cuts created jobs we wouldn't have millions unemployed now.
  • Lisa Rivera Close the loopholes, which allowed corporations to skirt the system and create the mortgage crisis.
  • Cheryl Hammerlindl Get money out of politics.Lisa Rivera: We need citizen funded elections to limit corporate influence. @bubbadutta: Citizens united must go. @oversightoftheGOP: If politicians were freed from endless fundraising, they would focus on jobs, not favors.
  • Lisa Rivera: Enact a National Foreclosure Moratorium
  • Lisa Rivera: Waive 401K tax withdrawal penalties for the unemployed and underemployed as discussed during the 2008 campaign. How can people get back on their feet if they are in debt to everyone incl. the IRS?
  • Lisa Rivera: Determine what can be done to repeal the recently enacted Voter id laws which will have a direct impact on the 2012 election.
  • USAgainstAlzheimer's: We need to make a cure for Alzheimer's a national priority, otherwise it could add $2 trillion in debt to the US economy in the next 10 years.
  • National Voting Day: Election Day should be a National Holiday!
  • Sheri Jefferson: LEAVE EDUCATION FUNDING ALONE. Yvonne Ellett America needs a strong, learning-focused Public Education System.
  • Gregory Bryant: (E)nd…Outsourcing and Off shoring. Lucy Merks: Globalization has moved our jobs overseas. We must start to think and act locally, by making things here again. Tim Fowler: If the huge corporations want their tax cuts, they can have it, just as long as 99% of their workforce is employed inside of the United States.

###