Kennedy sees Democratic led house as a benefit to communities like Fall River

With the House of Representatives more blue than red, cities like Fall River could see more progress on urban issues largely ignored by a Republican-led Congress, said Rep. Joe Kennedy III on Friday.

FALL RIVER — With the House of Representatives more blue than red, cities like Fall River could see more progress on urban issues largely ignored by a Republican-led Congress, said Rep. Joe Kennedy III on Friday.

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of economic focus on Baltimore, on Roxbury, on Mattapan, on communities like Fall River, on Flint.” he said.

While some leaders tout stock market gains and an increased gross domestic product, many Americans still struggle to make ends meet living in a country marred by income inequality, he said.

Republicans passed a tax bill without Democratic input has helped balloon the federal deficit and prompted billions in stock buybacks by some of the nation’s largest corporations.

Meanwhile, workers earning minimum wage cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country, and one in four American families will skip a doctors visit to avoid expensive medical bills.

“It has become increasingly clear to me that we as a country, as a government, as a community as a society, need to address some of the fundamental inequities that we see in the midst of a badly broken economy,” Kennedy said.

He spoke to business and civic leaders gathered at the Fall River Country Club for an annual luncheon hosted by the Bristol County Chamber of Commerce.

Reforms must focus on tax policy, health care, education and policy “that focus on middle class families.” The economy once “empowered workers, families and communities, and (is) now one that has tilted toward profit and capital and shareholders.”

He condemned Philips Lighting, who moved the bulk of it’s Fall River manufacturing jobs to Mexico, for practicing a strain of capitalism that hurts workers.

“If you’re the CEO of Philips Lighting, you’re doing great. If you are one of the workers who worked at Philips Lighting for those 30 or 40 years when they called Fall River home, you have been devastated,” he said.

But Kennedy said businesses can’t be totally faulted for responding to a market that incentivizes profit making and achieving the greatest possible return for shareholders. Many young adults, understanding a college degree is the key to the middle class, are graduating saddled with debt.

“The economic impact of how our economy is structured and what’s that’s going to mean for the youngest generation of the workforce in America is devastating,” he said.

Democrats, come January, have a chance to chip away on matters like climate change, health care, education and economic investment, said Kennedy.

“I think we have an opportunity as a newly empowered Democratic House to actually put a different narrative around a number of these issues,” he said.

In contrast to Republicans, who presided over a roll-back of Obama-era fuel standards, Democrats, newly in charge of the House, believe that climate change exists and can begin addressing it via spending bills.

Massachusetts, he said, is a prime location to develop a fossil fuel alternative, offshore wind farms. “By any stretch the land that we have right out here, the waters that we have right out here are as robust for it as almost anywhere else in the world,” said Kennedy.

Investing in clean energy will cost money, but maintaining the status quo is too, with floodwaters rising and damaging coastal communities, Kennedy said.

In response to a question on whether he sees the bitter partisanship in Washington, D.C. letting up any time soon, Kennedy said Democrats have to work with a Republican-led Senate and conservative president.

But, referencing a televised meeting on Tuesday when Trump told Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer he would happily shutdown the government over funding for his border wall, he said just how much Democrats will be able to move their agenda forward will on the degree to which the president wants to govern.

“What I saw out of that thing on Tuesday was that he wants to fight,” said Kennedy.