[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 105 (Thursday, July 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1645-E1646]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 MINIMUM WAGE IN VERMONT; NATIONAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM; PEER COUNSELING

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 22, 1999

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to have printed in the Record 
statements by high school students from my home State of Vermont, who 
were speaking at my recent town meeting on issues facing young people 
today. I am asking that you please insert these statements in the 
Congressional Record as I believe that the views of these young persons 
will benefit my colleagues.

                        Minimum Wage in Vermont

       (On behalf of Brandi Russin, Tonya Boutin and Nicole King)

       Brandi Russin: We are here to talk about the minimum wage 
     in Vermont. We feel that it is a little bit low for the 
     price. The living expenses in Vermont are very high compared 
     to the minimum wage.
       Tonya Boutin: I feel that with the life that we are living 
     now, that the expenses are very high, and the minimum wage is 
     not enough. We have got car payments to pay, we have gas, we 
     have other things that we need to spend our money on, and 
     with the minimum wage, it is not enough. If you think about 
     all the stuff--
       Brandi Russin: I don't know if you are interested. We 
     brought some forms along for you to look at. Right here, I 
     have pay stubs from a job when I was earning regular minimum 
     wage, and this is the net amount. We just want to note the 
     small amounts on these checks. And we have all noticed, at 
     the jobs when we've been getting paid minimum wage, you get 
     like a $60 to an $80 check per week, and you are like, Oh, 
     you know, I can just spend this here, spend this here, and 
     you tend not to save as much money. And as we grow up a 
     little, we know we have a lot to save for. And this is also 
     another job where it is more than minimum wage, and, on the 
     bottom, you can see the amounts are much larger. And with 
     amounts like this, you think, Wow, you know, maybe I should 
     be setting some of this aside for something.
       We would like you just to see that. And we also made some 
     forms up on some expenses that teenagers do have in their 
     lifetime. And $5.25 is not adequate, we feel, along with most 
     other teenagers.
       We also made up a little tiny fact sheet saying that, if 
     you want to see a movie on minimum wage, the movie price is 
     $7.50 to get into a movie. So if you want to go to see a 
     movie, you have to work for an hour and a half at your job to 
     see one movie. And a lot of teenagers like to wear Levi 
     jeans, and those cost--we did an estimate of $45. If you want 
     to go buy a pair of jeans for yourself, you have to work nine 
     hours for a pair of jeans.
       Congressman Sanders: Anyone else that wanted to add 
     anything?
       Nicole King: When I started working, I started my first job 
     last June, once I got out of school. I was making $5.50 at 
     that job, but I didn't feel I was making enough to make care 
     payments, car insurance, and my other living expenses, so I 
     started working a second job. And between the two of those, I 
     was working between 50 and 65 hours a week. And I could only 
     do that for about a month and a half, and I had to quit my 
     first job because I was getting more hours at my second job.
       Congressman Sanders: Tonya, did you have anything to add to 
     that?
       Tonya Boutin: I was working at a job that was paying 
     minimum wage, and I found that, the more hours I got was 
     better, but my paychecks weren't satisfying. You know, I 
     just--I worked hard to get the money that I earned, and the 
     paycheck that I was getting just didn't satisfy me. And to 
     try to save up money is very hard, because you only get 
     a certain amount, and, you know, you pay your bills and 
     what you need to do, and you only like 20 bucks at the 
     end, and it is not enough.
       Brandi Russin: As both of these, I was working two jobs 
     also. I was working over 70 hours a week, and finally I said 
     to myself, I can't keep doing this. And when you become a 
     senior in high school, you realize all the college expenses 
     coming up, and you say, Wow, where am I going to get the 
     money from? So you start doing what we did, and panic, and 
     you start working 50 to 70 hours a week, and you say, Where 
     am I going to get all the money from? And you have to say no 
     to yourself, you have to say, I need to stop and realize what 
     I am doing to myself, and I am not getting enough sleep, and 
     I am just going to keep working, keep working for this money.


     
                                  ____
                      National Health Care System

            (On behalf of Zarina Williams and Melanie Campo)

       Zarina Williams: The United States should have a national 
     health care system. Nationally, Americans spent $1.2 trillion 
     on health care in 1998, and the amount is increasing each 
     year. Thirty-seven million out of 270 million people in 
     America do not receive adequate health care. Many Americans 
     cannot afford private medical insurance, but do not qualify 
     for Medicaid or Medicare. Some people who have private 
     insurance have to do without treatment because they cannot 
     afford the deductible.
       There are other countries that have national health care. 
     France has a national health care system, where the 
     government reimburses 85 percent of medical costs, and you 
     have your choice of doctors and dentists. Germany also has a 
     national health care system, where the government pays for 
     unemployed welfare recipients and employed people up to a 
     certain income. People who earn high income take out private 
     insurance, because the government does not pay for the health 
     care. Most hospitals in Germany are run by states and 
     municipalities, not privately owned.
       Melanie Campo: In the United States, government should 
     provide national health care. Financial means should not 
     determine the quality of the medical services a citizen 
     receives. If we had a national health care system, people 
     would want to become doctors to help people, not for the 
     money. Almost every industrialized country provides partial 
     health care coverage for its citizens. Why shouldn't America?
       A plan proposed in Massachusetts would eliminate four-
     fifths of the out-of-pocket health costs. Funds for this plan 
     could come from savings in administrative costs of the 
     system, money from the federal government, and money 
     employers and employees now contribute to health insurance 
     premiums. Additional money would be generated through new 
     taxes of 1.5 percent on income and 1 percent on payroll. With 
     this plan, everyone would receive the same coverage. This 
     plan would negotiate drug prices and regulate medical costs.


     
                                  ____
                            Peer Counseling

        (On behalf of Lee Knight, Anna Tornello and Gigi Craig)

       Anna Tornello: We have changed our topic to peer counseling 
     at Colchester High School.
       In the past several months, there have been bomb threats, 
     weapon threats, and many unfortunate deaths. When we were on 
     vacation, the Littleton, Colorado, incident happened, and 
     when we came back to school, we were all really scared.
       Lee Knight: And that is why we want to start a peer 
     counseling group. It's because we don't want the same tragedy 
     that happened at Columbine High School to happen here. One of 
     the reasons why students turn to violence was because of the 
     way that the society looked at them. Kids and students should 
     not be judged by the way they dress. It doesn't matter what 
     they look like; it is who they are on the inside. It is just 
     like philosopher John Locke said: People are not born good or 
     evil, but they are shaped by their surroundings. In which, in 
     our case, our surroundings are the society that we live in. 
     And we want to stop criticism that happens in schools all 
     around the nation.
       Anna Tornello: As we know, not one student can save a whole 
     school from the same kind of tragedy that happened at 
     Columbine High School. And students have guidance counselors 
     at the school, but most students

[[Page E1646]]

     are afraid to talk to their guidance counselors, and one 
     reason is because they are afraid that they might tell their 
     parents or they might tell other people. That's why we feel 
     that peers of your own age, you should be able to talk to 
     them. And that's what we think.
       Gigi Craig: What we need is full-time guidance counselors 
     to respond quickly to students' needs, if they are feeling 
     that they are going to hurt themselves or hurt somebody else. 
     We can't wait a week, because we don't know what will happen 
     by then.
       Anna Tornello: We have talked to Phillip Brown, who is a 
     licensed psychiatrist in Vermont, and he said that the peer 
     counseling would be a really good idea, because it will help 
     the kids be able to talk to other people better, and if there 
     is a problem like where somebody is going to hurt themselves 
     or somebody else, then you need to go seek professional help. 
     But we can help people with just little problems, and that 
     will help the students be able to talk and get out their 
     feelings.
       The group at Colchester High School, we hope, will someday 
     help the peer counseling, and maybe someday it will be able 
     to spread through Vermont, and maybe the nation. And we feel 
     that students should be able to feel safer at school, and 
     that every student needs to have somebody that cares, and 
     somebody to talk to when they need help. And we feel that all 
     these goals can be accomplished with the help of the 
     community, the government, adults, and other students. We 
     don't want to get this swept underneath the rug. We want to 
     make a difference in the community, and, most of all, we want 
     to help kids that are normal on the outside but are crying on 
     the inside.