The president is also largely at odds with Rhode Island’s congressional delegation on fast-tracking a potential trade compact with 12 Pacific Rim nations. Of the Ocean State’s four elected officials in Congress, three have now spoken out against giving Obama fast track authority. Only Senator Jack Reed is still holding his cards close as the Senate Finance Committee considers granting the president trade promotion authority today.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said he opposes fast track authority for the TPP deal, he told RI Future exclusively today.

“It would be a mistake to provide fast-track authority for trade agreements that could further undermine American wages, manufacturing jobs, and our environment,” he said in an emailed statement. “We need the opportunity carefully review any proposed trade agreements to ensure we’re not repeating the mistakes of past free trade deals.”

In February, Whitehouse gave a speech against trade agreements in general on the Senate floor in February, saying: “I start with a state that has been on the losing end of these trade deals. People say that they are going to enforce the environmental and human rights and labor and safety requirements of these agreements. I haven’t seen it. And I gotta say I don’t like the process very much either. It is secret, we are kept out of it. Who’s in it is a lot of really big corporations and the are up to, I think, a lot of no good in a lot of the deals.”

Congressman David Cicilline is against it, too. He wrote this op/ed in the Providence Journal last month.

“Any agreement that promotes fast-track trade to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership without thorough review and Congressional input is a bad deal for Rhode Island workers,” he told RI Future yesterday. “Congress should play an important role in making sure trade policies are fair for American workers, businesses, intellectual property holders, and consumers. The fast-track model undercuts oversight of trade agreements and makes it more difficult to protect the interests of working families. We should be working to promote American manufacturing, implement flexible workplace policies that benefit middle-class families, and finally raise the minimum wage so everyone has an opportunity to succeed.”

Also yesterday, Congressman Jim Langevin reaffirmed his opposition to a TPP deal. In February he and Cicilline signed onto a letter opposing it and yesterday he emailed this statement to reporters:

“The United States has been working with TPP negotiating partners for more than three years. This agreement could greatly shift global trading patterns and accordingly deserves the highest level of scrutiny to ensure it does not displace U.S. jobs or undermine our country’s competitiveness. While I favor expanding global trade, it is important that any free trade agreement places American workers and companies on an enforceable level playing field with foreign trading partners when it comes to labor rights, environmental regulation, intellectual property protection and other critical issues. For that reason, I am opposed to passing Trade Promotion Authority legislation with respect to the TPP.

“Congress has the responsibility to set trade policy, and ‘fast track’ procedures largely circumvent this important review. There is a better way to make decisions of this magnitude that significantly impact America’s place in the global economy, and that must include robust debate and discussion from all partners, including Congress. I will continue to work to ensure that trade agreements protect American workers and consumers and do not undermine America’s ability to compete in the global market.”

Reed, on the other hand, isn’t as vocal, according to spokesman Chip Unruh, who said Rhode Island’s senior senator “will take a look at the Finance Committee’s proposal, but he wants to ensure any trade agreement benefits Rhode Island consumers, workers, and businesses.” Unruh noted Reed rejected such TPA authority in both 2002 and 2007.

According to the Washington Post “most Congressional Democrats are opposed” but Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is pushing for a deal that he says has benefits for liberals.

In March the New York Times reported the “ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurt their business, according to a classified document.” The Nation called the TPP proposal “NAFTA on steroids” in 2012.

“Social Security benefits are a solemn promise that our seniors have earned over a lifetime of work,” said Whitehouse, a founding member of the Senate’s Defend Social Security Caucus. “Sadly, Republicans have made it their mission for decades to dismantle that promise, attempting to turn it over to Wall Street and cut benefits through misguided ideas like the so-called ‘chained-CPI.'”

Republican Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming raised a point of order, calling Wyden’s amendment non germane to the budget resolution being debated. The Democrats rallying 51 senators to vote yea, but 60 votes were required to wave Enzi’s point of order.

Although his attempts to protect Social Security in the Senate budget have thus far failed, Richard Davidson, Whitehouse’s Rhode Island press secretary, tells this columnist that the senator plans to continue his efforts to keep Social Security off the GOP budget chopping block and from being privatized by supporting legislation like the Keeping Our Social Security Promises Act, legislation that would raise the income cap on the payroll tax to ensure the program’s solvency.

The Social Security trust funds are projected to be fully solvent though 2033; there’s no immediate funding crisis, said Davidson. But, in the longer run, Whitehouse believes the program must be bolstered by applying the payroll tax, which currently only applies to income up to $118,500, to higher levels of income, he says.

Protecting SSDI

One month before the Senate budget debate, the GOP-controlled Senate Budget Committee put a spotlight at a hearing on the impending insolvency of the nation’s Social Security Disability Trust Fund (SSDI). The federal government has predicted that SSDI fund reserves will run low by the end of 2016, at which point millions of disabled beneficiaries could see up to a 20 percent cut in benefits.

At the Senate hearing, entitled “The coming crisis: Social Security Disability Trust Fund Insolvency,” Democrats called for an easy quick fix to the problem, specifically the shifting of a small percentage of the Social Security payroll tax from the retirement trust fund to the disability trust fund. No big deal, they say, because these transfers have occurred 11 times in the past with bipartisan support without political bickering. But, from this hearing it seemed clear that GOP senators see things differently and are threatening to block the infusion of funds to SSDI.

Approximately 10.2 million Americans received SSDI benefits in 2013, including roughly 42,000 Rhode Islanders. In order to qualify, beneficiaries are required to have worked in a job covered by Social Security, and must have been unable to work for a year or more due to a disability.

The Plum Line blog, penned by Greg Sargent for the Washington Post, took a closer look a look at this SSDI entitlement debate in February.

In his opinion blog, Sargent says that GOP lawmakers claim that “restricting a fund transfer is all about forcing a necessary discussion on how to improve Social Security’s long term finances, rather than merely ‘kicking the can down the road.'” On the other hand, the Washington Post blogger believes Democrats see the Republicans as “exaggerating the sense of crisis to realize one of two political goals. Either they want to force immediate, and unnecessary, cuts – or they want to hold the disability fund hostage, in order to have another run at cuts to the broader program [Social Security].”

Gathering the Troops

At a March 23rd panel discussion hosted by the Providence-based Headquarters of Community Action Partnership , Whitehouse and Congressman Jim Langevin with Rhode Island Senator Donna Nesselbush, a disability attorney, along with SSDI recipients, disability groups, and the Social Security Administration, came to discuss the solvency of SSDI and its impact on the Ocean State. The lawmakers called for shifting Social Security payroll taxes to financially shore up the ailing SSDI program. Both lawmakers also supported a long-term solution, fully funding the federal retirement and disability programs by lifting the cap on the amount of income that is subject to the payroll taxes that fund the program.

“Right now, a millionaire hedge-fund manager pays the same amount of taxes into the Social Security system as someone who makes $118,500,” said Whitehouse. He called for “wealthiest Americans to pay a fair share into the program, so that it’s not funded disproportionately on the backs of middle-class workers.”

Congressman Langevin stressed “SSDI is not only a critical safety-net for disabled workers, their children and spouses, it is also a promise we make to everyone who pays into the Social Security trust fund that they won’t be impoverished if they are left with a debilitating condition or disability.”

Although Whitehouse’s efforts to protect the nation’s Social Security and disability programs were derailed in the Senate budget debate because of a GOP procedural call, it’s only the first of many political skirmishes to come. The upcoming 2016 presidential elections will firmly put this entitlement issue on the nation’s radar screen, hopefully to address once and for all.

But, here’s my message to Whitehouse: Even if you lose a skirmish, or battle, you can always win the war. Keep pushing.

During Whitehouse’s keynote address at Yale University’s “New Directions in Environmental Law” conference, members of the Connecticut-based climate justice collective Capitalism vs. the Climate interrupted Whitehouse with an action they called a “laugh riot.”

Each time the Senator suggested he was a climate champion, the demonstrators roared with hearty laughter.

“It’s a joke that Senator Whitehouse is an environmentalist,” said a protester when asked by an audience member what they found so funny. “He needs to stop supporting Spectra’s fracked gas pipeline expansion. He’s not a climate champion. He’s a climate clown.”

Activists then walked to the stage and held a banner reading “Fracked Gas Kills” in front of the Senator. Asked to leave by police, the protesters left the auditorium chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, ha ha, ha ha!”

Apparently, after Yale campus police had cleared the room of laughing rioters, Senator Whitehouse joked that he was glad that open debate was alive and well at Yale.  Police-moderated debate in the time of free speech zones! There you have it.

Prior to the senator’s speech, about 30 demonstrators from 350-Connecticut and Capitalism vs. the Climate protested outside the conference in opposition to his support of fracking.  Capitalism vs the Climate quoted several examples illustrate Senator Whitehouse’s record as a fracking champion:

• Spectra Energy’s website lists Senator Whitehouse as a supporter of their so-called “Algonquin” pipeline expansion in the Northeast states.
• Senator Whitehouse praised fracking as a “blessing” in a 2014 interview: “I think it’s been an economic and environmental blessing to have gas as a bridge.”
• Senator Whitehouse’s third largest campaign contributor in 2012 was Goldberg, Lindsay & Co., an investment firm that owns several natural gas distribution and pipeline companies. Goldberg, Lindsay & Co. also contributed $20,000 to the Senator’s “OCEANSPAC” that distributes money to candidates who support “ocean and environmental issues.”

Indeed, Senator Whitehouse —in the dedicated company of the other environmentalists of our congressional delegation— has consistently supported fracked gas a bridge fuel.

Early in January, I wrote to Lynsey Gaudioso, the `New Directions’ conference chair, to convey my dismay that Senator Whitehouse would be an honoree and keynote speaker at the conference.  Not that I ever received a reply, or expected to, but one of my arguments was:

A plaintiff in one of the suits brought by Our Children’s Trust sued the federal government “for making decisions that threaten our right to a safe and healthy planet.”  This right is enshrined in public trust law and demands that government act as a trustee in the management of essential natural assets. Building more fossil fuel infrastructure will delay developing a green power sector, while fracked gas has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than coal and oil. In other words, the policies Senator Whitehouse supports clash with his duty to protect the common good.

Regarding this last point, Bill Moyers recently interviewed Mary Christina Wood.  She argued that it is the responsibility of government to hold in trust the health of earth’s environment for present and future generations:

If this nation relies on a stable climate system, and the very habitability of this nation and all of the liberties of young people and their survival interests are at stake, the courts need to force the agencies and the legislatures to simply do their job.

Instead, our legislators support policies that are manifestly inconsistent with their fiduciary duties as trustees of Nature’s Trust.  In addition, the executive is in bed with the “stakeholders” it should be overseeing.  As a case in point, just think of the agency whose “oversight” was responsible of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster. Yes, that’s the famous Mineral Management Service of an ethics scandal, involving sex, drugs and graft.  Finally, we have a complicit judiciary that fails to enforce the general requirement that legislative trustees avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.

Oh, oops, I forgot; a $20,000 donation is free speech!

If not, that’s exactly what the corporate interests – like big pharma and Wall Street – who wrote this trade deal were hoping. The TPP would be the largest such multinational pact ever and it’s been crafted entirely in secret. “It’s a trojan horse in the global race to the bottom,” said Robert Reich, “giving big corporations and Wall Street banks a way to eliminate laws that get in the way of their profits.”

Thankfully, the progressives in the US Senate are finally starting to vocally oppose it – even though it puts them at odds with President Obama, who supports it. Elizabeth Warren had this op/ed in the Washington Post this week, and 8 senators spoke on the floor yesterday to oppose such “free trade” deals.

“I start with a state that has been on the losing end of these trade deals,” said Rhode Island’s Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “Rhode Island, not a big state, has lost more than 50,000 good paying manufacturing jobs since 1990.”

Whitehouse was joined by sens Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

“I don’t like the process very much either,” said Whitehouse on the senate floor yesterday. “It is secret, we are kept out of it and who’s is in it is some really big corporations and they are up to I think no good in a lot of these deals.”

So does Pascoag resident Chris Currie, a member of the RI Progressive Democrats who has been sounding the alarm about the TPP locally since before many in the beltway even knew it existed.

“As we have seen in the recent mid-term elections, multinational corporations have been collectively spending billions … to rig and/or otherwise determine the outcomes [of] elections, and they have succeeded in that regard in many ways,” he said in a recent email. “But they are well on the way toward achieving such objectives in the future without having to spend anywhere near that much money by financing the implementation of the so-called Trans Pacific Partnership (“treaty” and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) “treaty” which have the full support of President Obama, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and most our Republicans in Congress.   Once either of those two “treaties” are implemented, multinational corporations won’t have to worry about bribing our politicians anymore, because if our federal, state, or municipal government enact ANY KIND of legislation that impedes the “expected profitability” of multinational corporations.”

Currie has been sending warning emails about the TPP for years. Here’s an excerpt from one sent in August of 2013: “Promoting (and attempting to “fast track”) the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Trans Atlantic Free Trade Area (TAFTA) Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) treaties which will surrender our nation’s sovereignty to a cartel (world government?) of greedy multi-national corporations (that have no god but money) by empowering them to effectively nullify US federal, state, and local laws which “interfere with the profitability” of their corporations. It would be like surrendering our national sovereignty to greedy bastard (and deadly) corporations like Monsanto!”

He and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, both former state attorneys general, announced yesterday the CORRECTIONS Act, or the Corrections Oversight, Recidivism Reduction, and Eliminating Costs for Taxpayers in Our National System Act. This bill the, two senators say, will reduce both the cost of prisons and recidivism for inmate all over America.

“Our bill is built on the simple premise that when inmates are better prepared to re-enter communities, they are less likely to commit crimes after they are released – and that is in all of our interests,” Whitehouse said in a press release. This bill will be formally introduced today.

And what’s even better – the bill is based on a successful program run right here in Rhode Island.

“As a former state and federal prosecutor, I recognize that there are no easy solutions to overflowing prison populations and skyrocketing corrections spending,” said Whitehouse. “But states like Rhode Island have shown that it is possible to cut prison costs while making the public safer.”

The Whitehouse/Cornyn bill would allow some inmates to earn time off their sentences for participating in programs that reduce recidivism. Whitehouse staff says the concept is based on successful programs implemented by A.T. Wall, director of the department of corrections in Rhode Island, and shared this op/ed authored by Whitehouse and this article authored by A.T. Wall.

“In addition to the Buffett Rule the President’s budget also contains some pieces from Senator Whitehouse’s Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act,” said Whitehouse spokesman Seth Larson. Whitehouse is long the sponsor of the Buffett Rule bill in the Senate, and this year he inherited the Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act from retired Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, as previously reported on RI Future.

The Senate Budget Committee, of which Whitehouse is a member, will deliberate the president’s budget bill tomorrow at 10 am.

In a statement, Whitehouse said he supports Obama’s $4 billion budget plan – and noted it not only borrows some of his tax proposals, but also that it invests in infrastructure critical for Rhode Island.

“The President’s budget would take significant steps toward a fairer tax system while also making major investments in our nation’s transportation infrastructure,” Whitehouse said in the statement. “This is particularly important in Rhode Island, where we have some of the oldest roads and bridges in America and where new construction projects could provide badly needed jobs.  I’m also glad to see that the proposed budget would implement several policies I’ve been fighting for in the Senate, including the Buffett Rule for tax fairness and an Automatic IRA program to help millions of Americans save for retirement.  From tax credits for working families to paid sick leave, the President’s budget includes many bold proposals to help middle-class families succeed.  I look forward to debating the details of these and other provisions in the Budget Committee in the weeks ahead.”

Senator Jack Reed said: “The President’s budget blueprint contains quite a bit of good news for Rhode Island that could bolster our economic prospects.  No budget is perfect, but the President has proposed some smart investments in education, infrastructure, innovation, and workforce development that could lead to accelerated job creation, higher wages, and greater economic prosperity for all.  It’s a budget geared toward helping the middle-class by closing tax loopholes for special interests and the wealthiest Americans.”

The budget bill would end sequestration, and Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: “The President’s budget reverses sequestration, both in terms of defense and domestic priorities, in a fair and balanced way that will better protect the American people and strengthen our economy,” said Reed.  “We face a number of threats around the globe.  A failure to address sequestration and adequately fund national priorities could hinder the military’s ability to carry outs its missions around the globe and weaken our economy.”

Said Congressman David Cicilline in a statement: “Today, President Obama released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2016 that outlines his funding priorities for the year ahead. This proposal builds on the economic progress we have made by properly focusing on the middle class and supports initiatives that create jobs, educate young people, increase access to affordable childcare, and keeps communities safe. As we continue to reduce our national deficit, the President’s plan will help balance the budget by cutting inefficient spending and ending special interest giveaways for the very wealthy. This proposal is a strong starting point for Congress to work together to produce a smart and sensible budget that reflects the priorities of working Americans, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to reach a final agreement that ensures all Americans share in our country’s growing recovery.”

“I think the pressure is on to do something on tax reform,” Whitehouse said. “Now that the Republicans are in the majority they need to prove to the American people they can govern, that they are not just a bomb-throwing obstructive minority, so that changes their motivation on something like tax reform.”

Whitehouse has introduced the first two bills before. He inherits the third piece of legislation from former Michigan Senator Carl Levin the so-called “Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act” that would prevent corporations from shielding profits from tax responsibility.

“It would help us here in Rhode Island because here’s CVS, which like most of the retail industry pays the full freight, they pay the full 35 percent tax rate,” explained Whitehouse. “Meanwhile here’s Carnival Cruise Lines pays virtually zero because they pretend they exist only in offshore Caribbean destinations.”

The three bills would net more than $300 billion in ten years, Whitehouse said.

The Buffett Rule bill, or the Paying A Fair Share Act, would tax at 30 percent all annual income over $2 million and would net $70 million over ten years of missing revenue for the American people. The Offshore Prevention Act would end the corporate practice of deferring tax payments when a company moves jobs overseas and would net $20 million in 10 years. The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act would net $220 billion over 10 years and prevents corporations from creating overseas tax shelters.

Despite the GOP’s reluctance to help level the tax-paying field, Whitehouse thinks he’s in a good position because he envisions Republicans having to make some concessions with Democrats if they hope to get tax legislation passed this year.

“I don’t think they have 60 votes for their plan and I’m sure they don’t have 67 votes for their plan so if they want to actually have something that gets signed into law by the president and actually changes the tax code they are going to have to work with Democrats,” he said.

Whitehouse handed out this one-pager to reporters to explain the three bills.

Here’s the contents:

THE PROBLEM

Right now America’s tax code is riddled with costly loopholes that benefit some of the highest earners and largest corporations. These special interest provisions have created two sets of tax rules: one for middle-class families and small businesses, and one for wealthy interests and multi-national corporations. With President Obama and Republican Leaders in Congress indicating that they plan to make tax reform a priority in the 114th Congress, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is introducing a package of bills that would make the current system fairer while also raising billions of dollars in new revenue. This revenue could provide substantial resources for investments in infrastructure and education, or could serve as a fairer way to fund new Republican initiatives than cuts to benefits that people rely on.

SHELDON’S PLAN

Implement the Buffett Rule.

• Thanks to a number of tax loopholes, America’s top earners often pay a lower effective tax rate than middle-class workers. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has famously lamented he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.
• Senator Whitehouse’s Paying a Fair Share Act would require multi-million-dollar earners to pay a minimum 30 percent effective federal tax rate, regardless of the number of special credits, deduction, and rates they claim.
• The bill would generate an estimated $71 billion over ten years.

End tax giveaway for sending jobs offshore.

• Currently, U.S. companies that manufacture goods abroad for sale here at home are allowed to defer payment of federal income tax – waiting to pay taxes on foreign income in years that minimize their tax liability.
• Senator Whitehouse’s Offshoring Prevention Act would require companies that send factories and jobs overseas to play by the same rules as ones supporting jobs in the U.S., removing an offshoring incentive and helping local businesses compete.
• The bill would generate an estimated $19.5 billion in revenue over ten years.

Close loopholes that allow multi-national corporations to avoid taxes.

• Some of America’s biggest corporations are able to dramatically reduce their taxes by funneling assets and profits through complex networks of offshore corporations.
• The Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act, which was originally championed by former-Senator Carl Levin, closes these loopholes and requires large multinational corporations to pay a fair share in taxes.
• The bill would generate at least $220 billion in revenue over ten years.

“If Senator Whitehouse is truly a climate champion, it’s time he lives up to that title,” Nightingale said in a prepared statement prior to his arrest. “Senator Whitehouse sees methane as a bridge fuel, despite scientific evidence that it is, in fact, no cleaner than coal.  Continuing our reliance on dirty energy harms communities everywhere and the laws of nature require that we be well on our way to a transition to green energy within this decade.”

Nightingale was one of 10 climate activists who protested the potential expansion of the Spectra natural gas pipeline project at Whitehouse’s office today. The Spectra pipeline relies on fracked gas and passes through Burrillville, RI. The group calls themselves FANG – Fighting Against Natural Gas.

Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s junior senator, is the one of the nation’s most well-known climate activists and senate’s most committed member to addressing climate change. His spokesman Seth Larson said Whitehouse may support the pipeline expansion project because it would help lower local energy prices.

“While the Senator is still reviewing the details of the proposed pipeline project, he generally supports the short-term expansion of natural gas capacity in New England to ease winter price spikes on consumers as we transition to more renewable energy over time,” Larson said.

“Senator Whitehouse personally met with these Rhode Islanders earlier this year to hear their concerns about the Algonquin pipeline,” Larson said. “The decision about whether to approve this pipeline project ultimately rests with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Senator Whitehouse is committed to making sure that Rhode Islanders’ views are heard during the review process. Indeed, he and Senator Reed urged FERC to hold a public meeting on this project in Rhode Island, which happened on September 16 in Burrillville.”

In November, three Fossil Free RI activists were arrested at Senator Jack Reed’s office in Cranston.

“For years now, Rhode Island has been on the losing end of the fossil-fuel economy,” said Whitehouse, according to a press release announcing the legislation. “We suffer the effects of climate change caused by carbon pollution – from rising seas that damage property to warming waters that affect our fishing industry.  Meanwhile, the big polluters get to offload the cost of that harm without having to pay a dime.  Today I’m introducing legislation to put the costs of carbon pollution back on the shoulders of the polluters where it belongs, while also creating an even playing field for Rhode Island clean energy businesses to compete and generating much-needed revenue to benefit families in Rhode Island and across the nation.”

Coal, oil, and natural gas, no matter where it comes from, will pay $42 per ton of carbon pollution it creates. The fee is expected to raise $2 trillion in 10 years, according to the press release.

The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act is co-sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii.

Here’s more from the New york Times.

If you’re looking to make lemonade out of Democrats devastating defeats in Congress, you can do a lot worse than watch our own Senator Whitehouse really start to go on the offensive when it comes to calling out climate deniers.

“If you’re not a scientist, check it out,” Whitehouse implores. “Ask the responsible scientists ask the leading scientific societies. If you don’t believe them measurements, measurements confirm what the scientists know. Sea level is rising, and the rise is accelerating. You measure that. With a glorified yard stick. It’s already up nearly 10 inches at the Newport Naval Station… The ocean is warming. You measure that. With a thermometer. Narragansett Bay is nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer, mean winter water temperature, than 50 years ago. That is an ecosystem shift.”

15:41 if you want to fast forward to Sheldon quoting Micheal Corleone. He also quotes Pope Francis. But the best line is his: “Friends don’t let friends deny climate change.”

“And just so you know, I’m not going anywhere,” he closes. “My state is small and coastal, and worse, bigger storms put us in serious danger. I am not going to ignore that.”