[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            IMPORTANT ISSUES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Sanders] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, as the only Independent in the House, let 
me raise a few issues which I consider to be terribly important but 
which unfortunately do not get discussed all that much here in the 
House Chamber. For a start, I think maybe the most important issue as a 
country that we have to wrestle with is to what degree is the United 
States of America today a vital democracy.

                              {time}  2100

  Sounds like an easy question. We have the right to vote. But, really, 
to what degree are our people involved in the political process? To 
what degree do people have faith and expectations of the political 
process?
  Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleagues that just 4 years ago, in 
1994, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich] and his friends took 
over the House of Representatives. We had an election in which 38 
percent of the people voted. Sixty-two percent of the American people 
did not vote. And in that election and, today, we continue to have, by 
far, the lowest voter turnout of any industrialized nation on Earth.
  Why is that? And why do we not discuss this issue? Why is it that 
millions of low-income people no longer participate in the political 
process, no longer believe that this Congress deals with issues or 
makes decisions which are relevant to their lives? Why is it that young 
people, in leaps and bounds, no longer pay attention to what goes on 
politically and do not believe that the political process is relevant 
to their lives? We do not talk about that issue, and I think it is 
important that we do.
  And I think the answer is twofold. First of all, I think there is a 
great deal of discontent with the two major political parties, and I 
think that millions of Americans think that both political parties end 
up representing the wealthy and the powerful.
  Second of all, even deeper than that, I think there is a growing 
belief that real power does not lie within the political process; that 
it almost does not matter who gets elected, which party controls 
Congress or State legislatures, but real power rests elsewhere.
  In my State of Vermont and throughout this country we see large 
corporations saying, well, we would like to pay less in taxes within 
our city or within the State, and if the lawmakers do not give us a tax 
break, we are going to move to another State or, more likely, we will 
move out of the United States of America. And what does a mayor or a 
Governor do or a legislature do under that scenario?
  It does not matter what party controls the legislature. Essentially, 
what people understand is that real power rests with the people who 
have the money. And if the people who have the money are not pleased, 
do not get the tax breaks that they want, they are going to move 
elsewhere. When that happens, people say, why should I vote, it does 
not make any difference. Politicians really do not have the power.
  So I would argue that this country faces a major political crisis. 
During the 1960's the Beatles were talking about what happened if they 
started a war and nobody came, nobody fought in the war. My fear is 
that the day will come where we are going to have an election and 
people will not come out to vote.
  In 1994, we had 38 percent of the people voting in the national 
congressional elections. Last year, when President Clinton was 
reelected, I believe we had about 49 percent of the people voting. My 
guess is the next national congressional elections, in 1998, we will 
have about 35 percent of the people voting, and the voter turnout will 
go down and down.
  It is up to this institution, the U.S. Congress, to stand up and try 
to understand what is going on and figure out a way that we can 
reinvigorate democracy.
  We talk a lot about education. Everybody agrees, conservatives and 
progressives, on the importance of education. But if we are not talking 
about education for democracy, the right of people to control their own 
future, what are we talking about?
  The second issue I briefly want to touch on is the issue of the 
booming economy. Mr. Speaker, we cannot open a newspaper without 
hearing about how fantastic the economy is doing. Some of our Wall 
Street friends here say, my God, it has never been so good. We cannot 
imagine it getting any better.
  Yet, when we look at the fine print which appears on page 68, 
somewhere beneath the sports section, we find that the real wages last 
year for the American worker was up 3.8 percent when inflation was 
about 3 percent. And if we know that the low-wage workers got a boost 
because of raising the minimum wage and the upper income workers 
generally do better, what we conclude is the average middle-class 
worker continues to see a decline, a drop in his or her real wages. The 
economy is booming, but the average American worker continues to get 
poorer. That has been going on for 20 years.
  So I would suggest when we talk about a booming economy, let us look 
at the middle class and the working class of this country. And then, my 
friends, the economy is not booming so much.

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