[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 124 (Thursday, September 19, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6629-S6631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONFRONTING REALITIES
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, there is a lot of concern all over this
country about what is going on in Washington in terms of the
possibility that the United States, for the first time in its history,
may not pay its debts and what that means to the American economy, what
it means to the world economy, and what it means to the international
financial system. There is a great deal of concern about the
possibility that on October 1, the U.S. Government may shut down
because we have some rightwing extremists in the House who want to,
among other things, abolish legislation passed 4 years ago--the
Affordable Care Act--and throw something else in there.
Before I get to those issues, I wish to speak about the reality of
what is going on in the economy today. What I want to do is something
that is not done often enough, and that is to ask where some of our
rightwing colleagues are really coming from. What are their goals?
Fine, they want to shut down the government on October 1. OK, so they
don't want to, for the first time in the history of America, pay our
bills. But what else do they want? What is this rightwing ideology
which has taken over the House? That is an issue that we do not talk
about as much as we should.
I wish to begin my discussion by looking at the reality of what is
going on in the American economy and why people are so angry and
frustrated that the government is not responding to their needs--and
they have every reason to be angry.
The Census Bureau reported the other day a rather extraordinary fact,
a very depressing fact; that is, in terms of median family income--what
the typical American family right in the middle of our economy is
experiencing--that family made less money last year than it did 24
years ago. Twenty-four years have come and gone, people have worked so
hard, and after 24 years they are now earning less money as a family
than they did back in 1989.
Further, what the Census Bureau told us is the typical middle-class
family has seen its income go down by more than $5,000 since 1999,
after adjusting for inflation. So if people are angry in New Mexico and
if they are angry in California, that is why. They are working hard and
their income is going down.
The average male worker made $283 less last year than he did 44 years
ago. How is that for progress? Less money last year, male worker, than
44 years ago. The average female worker earned $1,700 less last year
than she did in 2007--going down. A record-breaking 46.5 million
Americans are now living in poverty. We have the highest rate of
childhood poverty in the industrialized world, at almost 22 percent. A
higher percentage of American kids live in poverty now than was the
case in 1965. In other words, we are moving but we are moving in the
wrong direction.
Meanwhile, the people on top, the wealthiest people in this country,
are doing phenomenally well. That is the major point that has to be
made over and over. This is not an earthquake or a tsunami that has hit
everybody, we are all in this together and everybody is struggling. Not
the case. The wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well.
Last week we learned that 95 percent of the new income generated in
this country from 2009 to 2012 went to the top 1 percent. That is a
phenomenal statistic. All of the new income generated--95 percent of
it--went to the wealthiest 1 percent. Earlier this week
[[Page S6630]]
Forbes Magazine reported that the wealthiest 400 Americans in this
country are now worth a record-breaking $2 trillion. My colleagues can
do the arithmetic. That is an extraordinary concentration of wealth in
this country that we have not seen since before the Great Depression.
The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom half of
America--over 150 million Americans. One family--and this is not what I
learned in the history books when I was growing up about what America
was supposed to be like--but one family, the Walton family, owner of
Walmart, owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of the American
people. Corporate profits are at an all-time high while wages as a
share of the economy are at a record low.
Wall Street, whose greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior caused
this massive economic downturn--their CEOs, their executives, are doing
phenomenally well. In fact, CEOs on Wall Street are on track to make
more money this year than they did in 2009. Believe me, they have
recovered, they are doing great, while the middle class of this country
is disappearing.
That is an overview of the reality facing our country: The middle
class is disappearing, poverty is at an all-time high, and the people
on top are doing phenomenally well.
Now I wish to go from that reality to speak about what rightwing
extremism is really about, and it is much more than shutting down the
government; it is much more than not paying the debts we owe and
causing a major financial crisis.
Let me suggest to my colleagues--and I think they already know--that
if we delve into what some of our colleagues here in the Senate but
mostly in the House believe, we will find what they believe is--forget
the Affordable Care Act which they want to repeal; that is nickels and
dimes--what they are really all about is repealing every significant
piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years which protects the
needs of the middle class, working families, the elderly, the kids, and
lower income people. You name the piece of legislation, they either
want to repeal it entirely or they want to make massive cuts in those
programs.
Let me name what those programs are. Social Security. Some of them
believe Social Security is unconstitutional. It is not just that they
want to cut Social Security; they don't believe in the concept of
Social Security.
The same thing with health care on the part of the Federal
Government; Medicare, Medicaid. Why should the Federal Government be
involved in those programs? That is not the role of the Federal
Government. Let's abolish Medicare, abolish Medicaid. If a person is 70
years of age and they don't have a lot of money and no health
insurance, which Medicare provides, what happens to them? My colleagues
can tell me. What happens if you are 70 and you are diagnosed with
cancer and you don't have health insurance? Everybody knows the end of
the story. You die. Well, that is the way life goes because we are all
in it for ourselves. We don't believe the government should provide
health insurance to all people.
If I am a multimillionaire and I get sick, my kids get sick, I have
the best health care in the world. But if I am a struggling, middle-
class person, working-class person, lower income person, hey, the
government should not be involved in those areas.
Minimum wage. Many of us believe, and the overwhelming majority of
the American people believe, that the minimum wage today, at about
$7.25 an hour, the Federal minimum wage, is too low. I wish to applaud
the Governor and the legislature in California for raising their
minimum wage to $10. But right now we are at about $7.25 for the
Federal Government. Do people know what most of our colleagues here
believe? It is not just that they are opposed to raising the minimum
wage; they want to abolish the concept of the minimum wage. That is the
fact. The American people don't know that.
What does that mean? It means if a person is living in a high
unemployment area where a lot of people are struggling for a few jobs
and an employer says, The best I can pay is $3.50 an hour--that is what
I can pay--I have to take that. People think I am kidding. I am not
kidding. A majority of the Republicans, to the best of my knowledge,
now believe in abolishing the concept of the minimum wage.
Environmental protection. We have made some real progress in recent
years--not enough, but we have made some progress. When we go to New
York City, California, Los Angeles, the air is cleaner. We have cleaned
up a lot of rivers. We have told companies they can't put their crap
and their toxins into rivers and waterways; they can't put it up in the
air so the kids breathe it. We have made some progress on that. Some of
our Republican friends say, It is not that we are just opposed to this
or that piece of legislation, let's abolish the EPA. Let's abolish the
ability of the American people to protect their health.
Let me quote something, and I can quote a lot of sources. I can quote
many of the statements made by some of our colleagues, but I want to go
to the platform of the 2012 Texas Republican Party. Why do I want to go
there? Because, in fact, Texas is a large State. The Republican Party
in Texas is very powerful. But, also, the ideas that come from Texas,
to be fair to the State of Texas, end up spreading all over this
country, especially in Republican circles.
I wish to read some of the proposals in the 2012 Texas Republican
Party platform. Texas, one of our largest States, controlled by
Republicans right now: ``We support an immediate and orderly transition
to a system of private pensions based on the concept of individual
retirement accounts and gradually phasing out the Social Security
tax.''
In English, what that means is they believe in the privatization of
Social Security, and people, if they have the money, can invest on Wall
Street and do what they want. That is the Texas Republican Party
platform.
What else do they say? I want veterans--and I speak as chairman of
the Veterans' Affairs Committee--to listen to this one: ``We support
the privatization of veterans health care.'' In other words, they would
abolish the Veterans' Administration. We have some 6 million veterans
today getting pretty good health care at the VA. Yet at the mainstream
of rightwing extremism in this country is the Texas Republican Party
that believes we should abolish the VA health care system.
Furthermore, what they are saying is: ``We support abolishing all
federal agencies whose activities are not specifically enumerated in
the Constitution; including the Department of Education and the
Department of Energy.''
Goodbye, Department of Education, goodbye, Federal aid to education,
title I, and many other important programs that are supporting public
education in America: Goodbye.
``We . . . oppose . . . mandatory kindergarten.'' Right now it is
widely regarded that the United States has the worst early childhood
education system of any major country on Earth. People can't find
affordable early childhood education. Their proposal is to abolish
mandatory kindergarten.
I spoke about this earlier: ``We believe the Environmental Protection
Agency should be abolished.'' No problem. If a company wants to put
toxins into the rivers and the lakes and the air, go for it because we
have no agency that is going to stop them.
``We recommend repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, with the goal of abolishing the I.R.S. and replacing it
with a national sales tax collected by the States.''
In English, what that means is, what they want to do is move to
regressive taxes, ending all forms of progressive taxation. So they
want working people, middle-class people, to pay more in taxes, while
the wealthy pay less.
``We favor abolishing the capital gains tax [and the estate tax],''
which, of course, falls most heavily on wealthy people.
Here is what they say--and I have to give these guys credit, they are
up front, they put this on paper--``We believe the Minimum Wage Law
should be repealed.''
So there we go. People in America will now work for $3 or $4 an hour
if that is what the circumstances require.
I point out, as I said earlier, this is coming from the Texas
Republican Party Platform, and I could have gone elsewhere. But the
ideas that come from them end up filtering among rightwing circles all
over America.
[[Page S6631]]
Now, interestingly enough, at a time when the middle class is
disappearing and the wealthy and large corporations are doing
phenomenally well, it is important to hear what the CEOs of the largest
Wall Street banks and corporations in this country--the Business
Roundtable--have to say on the economy. Wall Street--bailed out by the
middle class of this country--corporate America enjoying record-
breaking profits.
Earlier this year, the Business Roundtable--again, these are the CEOs
of the major corporations in America. Without exception, these guys are
making millions of dollars a year in income. They have wonderful
retirement packages, health care benefits for them and their families.
This is what they have to say. They came to Washington, and they called
on Congress to raise the eligibility age of Social Security and
Medicare to the age of 70--70.
Wall Street billionaires, CEOs making huge amounts of money, with
wonderful retirement packages--they now want Congress to raise the
retirement age of Social Security and Medicare to age 70; they want to
cut Social Security and veterans benefits, their COLAS; they want to
raise taxes on working families and, obviously, it goes without saying,
cut taxes for the largest corporations in America, at a time when one
out of four of these corporations does not pay a nickel in taxes.
That is the background: the middle class collapsing; the rich getting
richer. Then we have a right wing in this country, fueled by people
like the Koch brothers, and others, who are pushing a totally
reactionary agenda.
Let's talk about what that immediate agenda looks like in terms of
the CR, the continuing resolution, that, in fact--and this is what is
going to pass in the House, as I understand it--would lock in place
sequestration for domestic programs, while providing a $20 billion
boost to defense spending for the next 3 months. That is annualized,
looking from the year's perspective.
If we do that for a year, that sequestration level, according to the
Congressional Budget Office, sequestration will lead to the loss of
900,000 jobs and cause a seven-tenths of 1 percent drop in the GDP.
Real unemployment today is close to 14 percent. With sequestration for
a year, it would result in the loss of some 900,000 jobs--at exactly a
time that we do not need it. Many of the jobs lost will be government
jobs, but that should come as no surprise because the extreme right
wing really does not believe in the concept of government.
So when we lose jobs in the teaching profession, when we lose police
officers and firefighters and construction workers and VA nurses and VA
doctors and scientists and engineers, that is no problem for some of
these fellows.
Sequestration--we should be clear--has already caused enormous pain
for millions of Americans. As I mentioned earlier, this country is way
behind our global competitors in terms of childcare, early childhood
education.
As a result of sequestration, more than 57,000 kids are losing access
to Head Start and Early Head Start Programs.
At a time when food insecurity is skyrocketing, and when millions and
millions of parents are wondering how they are going to be able to feed
their kids, what the sequestration does is it literally goes after some
of the most vulnerable people in this country, who are elderly people,
low income, living on minimal Social Security benefits, who cannot even
leave their homes. They are served right now by the Meals on Wheels
Program, and I want to thank all of the Meals on Wheels volunteers out
there for doing a great job trying to help these seniors. Sequestration
will continue major cuts, throwing thousands and thousands of seniors
off the Meals on Wheels Program.
We have a serious housing crisis in America. Sequestration will make
it harder for over 100,000 families to get a variety of affordable
housing programs.
Everybody knows the cost of a college education is soaring. Working-
class families cannot afford college today. Yet sequestration would
result in 70,000 college students losing Federal work-study grants.
That is the means by which they earn some money to help stay in
college.
Sequestration will result in cutting back on chemotherapy treatments
to thousands of cancer patients because of a 2-percent cut to Medicare
providers.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program--very important in the
State of Vermont where it gets cold--massive cuts.
Long-term unemployment checks--unemployment remains high--a 10-
percent cut. That will be continued.
So that is where we are right now.
And it gets worse. It gets worse. If the Boehner CR is approved,
programs that millions of Americans rely on will be cut even further.
So everything I told you will get even worse.
I think what we are looking at right now is not just the immediate
pain of the continuing resolution or the threat not to pay our debts
and destroy the credit rating of the United States of America. Those
are enormous realities. But what we are looking at is a real effort to
dismember the U.S. Government and wreak havoc on the lives of tens and
tens and tens of millions of people.
To my mind, what we have to do is exactly the opposite of what our
rightwing friends are suggesting. They are suggesting that we should
raise unemployment. They are suggesting that we should cut back on
Federal funding for infrastructure. I believe we should be investing
billions and billions of dollars in addressing our crumbling
infrastructure--roads, bridges, water systems, wastewater plants, our
rail system. When we do that, we make this country more productive and
we create millions of jobs. I believe we have to invest significantly
in energy efficiency and sustainable energy. When we do that, we not
only protect the environment and combat global warming, but we also
create jobs. I believe we have to rewrite our disastrous trade policies
so that American jobs are not our No. 1 export. I believe, instead of
further deregulation of Wall Street, Wall Street has to be effectively
regulated so their greed and recklessness can no longer cause enormous
problems for our economy. Instead of lowering taxes for the wealthiest
people, I think it is high time they started paying their fair share of
taxes.
So what we are involved in here is a great debate, which goes beyond
the continuing resolution. It goes beyond the shutdown of the
government. It goes beyond whether the United States fails to pay its
bills for the first time in history. I believe what we have is an
ideology, a rightwing ideology which reflects, at most, the views of 15
percent of the American people. I think that is probably a generous
perspective. I think the vast majority of the American people do not
believe what rightwing extremism is doing, and it is high time we begin
to stand and say to these people: If you are going to continue those
efforts, you may not be back here in the U.S. Congress.
With that, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be able to speak
for up to 10 minutes in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. President.
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