Jeff Merkley, U.S. Senator from Oregon, directly addresses some of the biggest issues facing the U.S. today — ranging from economic and geographic competition with China to the Opioid Crisis in America to politically-weaponized Immigration policies.

He notes how China already has surpassed the United States on a large scale in some respects such as in infrastructure and high-speed transit. Their bullet trains now cover 16,000 miles of routes, whereas in the United States, not a single plan has been greenlit. China’s ability to design and construct advanced infrastructure on a level far beyond the ability of the U.S. is due in part to the fact that the country’s government structure is authoritarian and can make unilateral decisions without the consent of its people and with no regard to individual property rights.

Here in the U.S., Merkley directly holds the members of the famed Sackler family responsible for the Opioid Crisis. A family known for years as major philanthropists — ensuring their name is on medical school buildings and art museums around the world.

Family members have plead ignorance and claimed no involvement with the dealings of their pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma, for years, but the release of emails and other documents have revealed the actual extent of their knowledge and involvement in the OxyContin scandal. Merkley wants to take on the entire lobby and pharmaceutical industry in D.C. and traces that high degree of corruption all the way back to insufficient campaign finance laws.

Merkley addresses Immigration and myriad of problems associated with making that process one that works well for immigrants as well as for the U.S. Economy. He posits that a properly-working Immigration process is necessary for the continued economic growth of our country. Merkley cites the fact that the U.S. population would actually be declining were it not for the immigrants we accept into this country.