2018 State of the Union address: on Welfare & Poverty

Joe Kennedy III: The world's greatest nation shouldn't leave anyone behind

For this administration, dignity isn't something you're born with but something you measure. By your net worth, your celebrity, your headlines, your crowd size.

[The American ideal that we are all equal]--today that promise is being broken. By an administration that callously appraises our worthiness and decides who makes the cut and who can be bargained away.

They are turning American life into a zero-sum game. Where, in order for one to win, another must lose. We can cut taxes for corporations today if we raise them for families tomorrow. Coal miners or single moms. Rural communities or inner cities. The coast or the heartland.

So here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: we choose both. We fight for both. Because the strongest, richest, greatest nation in the world shouldn't leave any one behind.