[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 92 (Monday, June 3, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3154-S3155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                S. 1332

 Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, this afternoon we voted on cloture 
to proceed to a budget resolution written by my Republican colleague 
Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky.
  This is a budget that would lead to devastating cuts to Medicare, 
Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and education, while paving the way for 
even more tax breaks to the top 1 percent and large, profitable 
corporations.
  Make no mistake about it: Senator Paul's budget is an immoral budget. 
It is bad economic policy. While I am confident that this resolution 
will be defeated in the Senate, let me be very clear.
  Nearly half of the Republican Caucus in the Senate voted to advance 
Senator Paul's budget, including some of the most senior members of 
this body. The vision of America this budget puts forward--balancing 
the budget on the backs of working families, the elderly, the sick, the 
children, and the poor in order to make the richest people in America 
even richer--is the vision of the Republican Party as a whole.
  So let me commend Senator Paul for being honest with the American 
people in terms of what he believes and for putting down on paper what 
the Republican Party and billionaire campaign contributors like the 
Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson believe.

[[Page S3155]]

  And this is what they want.
  At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, Senator Paul and 
the Republicans who voted to advance this budget do not believe that it 
was good enough to provide nearly $2 trillion in tax breaks to the 
wealthiest people and most profitable corporations. The budget that we 
are debating would extend those tax breaks for the wealthy and the 
powerful.
  Two years ago, the Congressional Republicans came very close to 
passing a bill that would have thrown 32 million Americans off of 
health insurance. Senator Paul and those who voted to advance this 
budget believe that earlier effort did not go far enough. The budget we 
are debating would throw up to 40 million Americans off of Medicaid.
  A few months ago, President Trump proposed a budget calling for 
Medicare to be cut by nearly $845 billion. Senator Paul and the 
Republicans who support this budget do not believe those cuts went far 
enough. The budget we are debating would cut Medicare by up to $3.4 
trillion over the next decade.
  At a time when 40 million Americans struggle with hunger, Senator 
Paul and the Republicans who vote for this budget want to cut the SNAP 
program by $223 billion, cutting 16 million people off of the program 
by 2029.
  Overall, Senator Paul's resolution calls for slashing the budget by 
more than 51 percent by the end of the decade.
  Not too long ago, if someone proposed cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and 
nutrition assistance in half so that billionaires could get a huge tax 
break, that would have been considered a radical and extreme agenda. 
Today, it is the mainstream position of the Republican Party in 
Washington.
  The reality is that Republicans in Washington have never believed in 
Medicare, Medicaid, Federal assistance in education, or providing any 
direct government assistance to those in need. They have always 
believed that tax breaks for the wealthy and the powerful would somehow 
miraculously trickle down to every American, despite all history and 
evidence to the contrary.
  Needless to say, and I am only speaking for myself, I have a very 
different vision of America.
  In my view, we need to create a government and an economy that works 
for all of us, not just a handful of billionaires.
  What does that mean?
  It means that, instead of giving trillions of dollars in tax breaks 
to the top 1 percent and large profitable corporations, we must demand 
that Wall Street, the billionaire class, and large, profitable 
corporations start paying their fair share in taxes.
  Instead of trying to abolish the estate tax, which impacts less than 
one-tenth of 1 percent, we must substantially increase the inheritance 
tax not only to bring in needed revenue, but to dismantle the oligarchs 
that now control so much of our economic and political lives.
  Instead of making it easier for corporations to avoid paying U.S. 
taxes by stashing their cash in the Cayman Islands, we need to crack 
down on offshore tax haven abuse and use this revenue to create 15 
million good paying American jobs rebuilding our crumbling 
infrastructure.
  Instead of cutting Social Security, we need to expand Social Security 
so that every American can retire with the dignity and the respect they 
deserve, and we pay for that by making sure everyone who makes over 
$250,000 a year pays the same percentage of their income into Social 
Security as the middle class.
  Instead of cutting Medicare, we need to guarantee healthcare as a 
right to every man, woman, and child in America through a Medicare for 
all, single-payer healthcare program.
  Instead of slashing Federal aid to education, we must make every 
public college and university in America tuition free, and we pay for 
that by imposing a tax on Wall Street speculation. If we could bail out 
Wall Street 10 years ago, we can tax Wall Street so that every American 
who has the desire and the ability can get a higher education 
regardless of their income.
  Instead of listening to the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and other 
multibillionaire campaign contributors, it is time to start listening 
to the overwhelming majority of Americans who want a government and an 
economy that works for the many, not just the few.
  Let us not only defeat the Paul budget, but let us have the guts to 
take on the greed of Wall Street, the greed of the pharmaceutical and 
health care industry, the greed of big oil, and the greed of corporate 
America and break up the oligarchy that is destroying the social fabric 
of our society.

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