Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen on the Economic Case for Democracy

As Prepared for DeliveryI. IntroductionGood afternoon. Thank you to the McCain Institute for the invitation to speak at this year’s Sedona Forum. This event brings people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives together around common values, which I know mattered deeply to John McCain.Senator McCain was an American hero, from his service in the Navy to the Senate. Yet perhaps his most important legacy is his belief in the unifying power of American democracy. He said of our country, “We are 325 million opinionated, vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each other in raucous public debates. But we have always had so much more in common with each other than in disagreement.” Today I will talk about how John McCain was right. It is impossible to overestimate how important democracy is to America. It is the founding idea of our country: from the Revolution itself.