Rep. David Morales on fighting for the working class, being pragmatic and what to do about income inequality

Political Roundtable

As a state rep, Morales has mixed idealism and pragmatism along with his advocacy for public education, labor rights and public benefit programs. His approach has won the respect of his colleagues and made him someone worth watching. So why did Morales pursue a path in politics when many young people choose not to do so? How much of a difference can he make at the Statehouse? And can lawmakers like Morales make inroads on complex issues like healthcare and income inequality? I’m Ian Donnis and this week I’m going in depth with state Representative David Morales.

Ian Donnis: Welcome to The Public’s Radio.

David Morales: Hi Ian, very excited to be here. This is definitely years in the making.

Ian Donnis: You are 25 years old and you’ve already been a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives for almost three years. How did you get interested in politics?

David Morales: So a lot of it has to do with my upbringing, and essentially just the way I was raised. So I was raised by a single immigrant mom in a small rural town in central California. And growing up, I watched her work, multiple minimum wage jobs. And I’m always very proud to say that I’m a product of public schools, product of public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps. So in other words, I have seen firsthand A: the low wages, people are getting paid, that forces me to be on these public assistance programs, while at the same time just recognizing the value of these public benefit programs into themselves. And it wasn’t until I got a lot older into my adolescence that I made the connections. And I quickly realized, the reason my mom works multiple jobs, even though it’s a single parent household, is because the wages she is earning are low. And the reason I’m able to go to the doctor is because the government funds a program that allows me to be able to access my primary care physician.

Ian Donnis: After you became a state rep, how did you figure out how to strive for your progressive goals while at the same time being pragmatic?

David Morales: I think ultimately, it’s about having an understanding within other legislators and stakeholders that exist within the realms of the statehouse. Where is there a common overlap in terms of our goals? Because I am a proponent for a single payer universal health care system. However, I understand we’re not gonna get there overnight. But how can we chip away at the issue? And how can I work with my like minded legislators who might not believe in Medicare for all, but believe that their constituents deserve lower prescription drug costs. And one example from this session, I was very proud that we were able to pass legislation to limit the out of pocket expenses for specialty prescription drugs. And the lead sponsor alongside me was Representative Mike Chippendale the Minority Leader. Similarly, I know Representative Chippendale does not necessarily believe in the single payer health care system, but he recognizes that his constituents within Gloucester and Foster deserve affordable prescription drugs.

Ian Donnis: Let’s talk about some other issues. We’ve heard for years about the growing problem of income inequality. It’s such a big and amorphous issue that making change seems really difficult. How do you see the way forward on that?

David Morales: So I don’t think these issues are complicated. To be frank, the situation is that people are being paid low wages, for incredibly stressful work, whether you are in retail, whether you are engaged in hospitality industry, those are the jobs where you’re earning less than $20 an hour. And it is incredibly hard to get by in terms of being able to pay your rent, which continues to increase every year, in addition to the cost of utilities and daily essentials like groceries. So the matter of the fact is, we’re just not paying our workers enough. And that also is connected to public service jobs as well. I don’t think we’re paying our public educators enough. And that’s why we have a high rate of vacancies, especially within the urban core within our public school districts. Similarly, we talk about a crisis going on at the Department of Human Services. The reality is people don’t want to work for low wages, especially young people, who more often than not either graduated from college or attended college and have accumulated some level of debt.

Ian Donnis: You mentioned your support a little earlier for Medicare for all. Big question is how to pay for it. What would you say on that?

David Morales: So a statewide universal single payer health care system is entirely plausible. The way it works is it would require the state budget to invest significantly in Medicaid. We increase reimbursement rates for our providers, we also ensure that we expand eligibility as it relates to people being able to qualify for Medicaid. And it’s a gradual transition. So what would happen thereafter, is we get more money from the federal government every time we invest in Medicaid through federal reimbursements and matches. Once that transition period has happened for a span of four to five years, the state government can then request to the federal government a waiver saying hey, all that money you are giving us in terms of Medicaid reimbursements, we’re going to shift to a single payer health care system. So we would ask that we get a waiver. So instead of giving us money for Medicaid, you’re giving us money to support a single payer health care system. So that’s how this transition would work in addition to other revenue sources as well.

Ian Donnis: Education has played a key role in your life. So I’m curious for your perspective on why Rhode Island has struggled for decades to improve public schools and what you think needs to be done differently.

David Morales: Lack of investment, both in terms of the infrastructure and the staffing. We have one mental health counselor or social worker for every 400 plus students. The national recommendation is one mental health caseworker for every 250 students. Needless to say we have not made the investments needed for mental health support. We have not made the investments necessary to have sustainable teaching workforce, especially with the vacancies you see in Providence you have over 200 vacancies as of right now. And that’s a lack of stability. So how do we expect our kids to be able to learn if they’re not even in a stable classroom, you combine that with crumbling school buildings as well. And that lack of investment. So I think a lot of this is just years and years of divestment within our public school systems that we’re now starting to see the results of it, which again, is lower test scores. You’re seeing kids come out of high school feeling like they have a lack of direction in addition to whether or not we’re graduating our students at a sufficient rate, especially students of color.

David Morales:We’re talking here with State Representative David Morales, A Providence Democrat, and obviously, we’re coming up on a presidential election next year. It seems like a lot of Democrats, particularly young people are not particularly enthused about Joe Biden, he’s probably not one of your top political icons. But I wonder, are you concerned that this lack of energy and enthusiasm among Democrats and young voters could help to foster a victory for Donald Trump.

David Morales: So this is why local politics is so important. Because naturally, everyone always assumes that the most important election is the presidential election, even though what happens on a day to day basis is most likely decisions based on what happens at city hall or the state house. So I think it’s up to down ballot Democrats to turn out the vote. And when you have down ballot Democrats, between school committees, city council races, House of Representative races, actively going and talking to voters and young people in particular, you’re going to see excitement for people to recognize, alright, Congress is not the end all be all, the White House is not the end all be all those races are important. But equally as important are the Democrats on the ground who are actively fighting for the issues I care about at the local level. And I think when you do that, we’re gonna see a bottom up approach. Well, there will be a turnout and more enthusiasm for President Biden and other top ticket Democrats than you would. And again, races where generally the idea has always been we’re going to focus on the mainstream races and not so much on the smaller races,

Ian Donnis: We see how some blue states like Massachusetts and New York are struggling with an influx of immigrants. What is your view on how the US should address the issue of immigration?

David Morales: One, we need a sustainable pathway to citizenship it is inaccessible in of itself just in terms of the requirements to become a legal permanent resident. And thereafter, the requirements to become a citizen, the cost of the exam continues to go up each and every single year, there aren’t sufficient resources for the nonprofits that are doing this work to support immigrants. So this requires federal reform, and most importantly, federal investments. Because the matter of the fact is, we need the federal government to provide more support to states like Massachusetts, to ensure that there are programs available that refugees and immigrants are able to benefit from that the state would then be responsible for actually putting out the expenditures and actually navigating it. Because the issue is right now is states are forced to use general revenues. And they’re very hesitant to do so because again, a state general revenue is a lot more limited than what you can get from federal support. So I think we saw more support from, again, respect to federal delegation members advocating for more refugee and immigrant based programs, than a lot of the states that are experiencing these issues will have a much smoother transition with their immigrant population.

Ian Donnis: In addition to being a state representative, you have kind of an alter ego in the professional wrestling world, you suffered a crushing defeat recently. Tell us a little bit about that and where your wrestling persona goes from here.

David Morales: Absolutely. So I serve as the Commissioner of the Renegade Wrestling Alliance, where I was previously the RWA hype champion for a record breaking 187 days that being six months and four days. And unfortunately, this past Friday in Providence, I did lose, I lost my championship and I’m still recovering socially and emotionally. However, the next step for Commissioner Morales, that’s a good question to ask. And that’s why fans keep on coming out to the shows we packed those venues with 200 plus people in attendance, and most particularly kids who are just jumping out of their seats and booing me. So as long as they continue to jeer me, I’ll continue to show up.

Ian Donnis: Well back in the world of politics, and speaking of next steps, I wonder if you one day aspire of running for higher office in Rhode Island.

David Morales: So generally, when I’m asked that question, I will often say that I do not have a particular ambition in mind, because I feel like the moment politicians start to think I want to be the next Governor, the next mayor, all their political decisions and calculations are based on that one sole goal instead of actually legislating and prioritizing public policy. I will say however, in the recent years that I’ve been introducing legislation, I have noticed that a lot of them are geared towards adjusting the budget. And I think there’s a lot of power within the executive branch, whether you’re looking at the city level, or you’re looking at the state level in terms of how We set the priorities and the negotiation table with other legislators. For example, if I was governor of the state, my budget would prioritize Health and Human Services, it would prioritize Medicaid reimbursement rates, it would focus on providing basic services. That way we have a functioning state.

Ian Donnis: You identify as a Democratic Socialist and the local chapter of Democratic Socialists ejected you from their organization after you supported Joe Shekarchi for speaker earlier this year, I wonder are organizations like that really marginalizing themselves by trying to remain so distanced from the Democratic mainstream at the Statehouse?

David Morales: I think there’s multiple schools of thoughts in terms of organizing, and I always think there needs to be a need for there to be some level of an antagonizing, right? Antagonizing leadership for not doing more or prioritizing the needs that we believe working people deserve. I will share that I don’t think it was a very controversial vote when I did vote for the speaker because the question I often ask myself in the chamber is are we making progress? Specifically, are we making progress to support working class families in need? And I would answer that my first two years in the legislature the answer was yes, we were raising the minimum wage. We’re making investments in the earned income tax credit that hadn’t been done for years. And so I understand that every organization is going to have a different political philosophy on how they want to organize. My priority is actually passing policy.

Ian Donnis: Love issues we could still cover but we’re limited for time so I’ll just ask what is your favorite restaurant in your state rep district?

David Morales: Machu Picchu II. Peruvian food, it’s delicious, especially the fried calamari ironically enough.

Ian Donnis: Mark it down. State Representative David Morales, Democrat of Providence, thank you so much for joining us.

David Morales: Thank you so much, Ian

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The payday lending industry is propelling a lawsuit aimed at eliminating the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As Nina Totenberg reported this week for NPR, the case could have wider implications for other federal agencies. She reports that most justices seem inclined to uphold how the CFPB is funded. A decision in the case is expected next year. The payday lending industry’s role in the case probably would not come as a surprise to critics in Rhode Island. Advocates have for years been trying to reduce the ability of payday lenders to charge the equivalent of triple-digit interest. There was a slight change this year when the Rhode Island House passed a measure to curb payday lending, although the measure died in the Senate. Will it be any different next year? Stay tuned. You can read more about this in my weekly TGIF column, posting around 4 this afternoon on what used to be known as Twitter and at The Public’s Radio dot org.

That’s our show for this week. Our producer is James Baumgartner.

I’m Ian Donnis and I’ll see you on the radio.

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