[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1001-1002]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, last night I listened intently to 
President Bush's State of the Union speech, and, frankly, I had a hard 
time understanding what country the President was talking about and 
what reality he was talking about. Certainly, if the State of the Union 
refers to what is happening to the shrinking middle class of this 
country and how we as a people are doing, the President had almost 
nothing to say that rang true. In fact, last night's speech just 
reminds many of us how far removed from the reality of ordinary life 
this President is and how little he and his administration know about 
what is going on in the lives of millions and millions of people in 
cities and towns across this country.
  In my view, the President's speech was lacking not just for what he 
said but, perhaps more importantly, for what he didn't say. Somehow, 
President Bush forgot to mention some of the results of his failed 
economic policies and how they have impacted the lives of ordinary 
people. So let me take a moment, therefore, to review the record the 
President refused to talk about last night.
  Since George W. Bush took office in 2001, nearly 5 million Americans 
have slipped out of the middle class and into poverty. These are mostly 
low-income working people whose wages have not kept up with inflation. 
These are people all across the country who are trying to make it on $6 
or $7 an hour without any health insurance, desperately trying to keep 
their families above water. These are, by the way, parents and kids in 
Pennsylvania and in Vermont who are now flocking to emergency food 
banks because they simply don't have the income to buy the food they 
need in the United States of America in 2008. It might have been a sign 
of decency on the part of the President to at least recognize that 
reality which is impacting so many of our people, and the reality that 
hunger in America is actually going up.
  Since George W. Bush has been in office, median household income for 
working-age Americans has declined by almost $2,500. That is a lot of 
money. Also, overall median household income has gone down by nearly 
$1,000. This is the shrinking middle class, and maybe as people are 
working longer hours for lower wages, maybe as people are working 50 or 
60 hours a week trying to bring in enough money for their families to 
pay the bills, maybe the President might have said a few words to them 
that he understands the reality they are experiencing. Maybe he might 
have said to the young people of our country that he is concerned if we 
don't turn around our economy, for the first time in the modern history 
of this country their generation will have a lower standard of living 
than their parents; maybe just a few words to those young people so 
they know he knows what is going on in their lives.
  But I didn't hear that. I didn't hear that at all.
  Mr. President, since George W. Bush has been in office, 8.6 million 
Americans have lost their health insurance, and we are now up to 47 
million Americans without any health insurance whatsoever. Meanwhile, 
health insurance premiums have increased during Bush's tenure by 78 
percent--a huge increase in the cost of health care.
  Last night, while the President gave us his usual rhetoric about all 
of the virtues of free market health care, he somehow forgot to tell us 
why we spend almost twice as much per capita on health care as any 
other nation, and why we are the only major country on Earth without a 
national health care program guaranteeing health care to all people. 
The President didn't even tell us why he vetoed legislation that would 
expand health insurance to millions more children; just the usual 
rhetoric about free market health care, which is failing us every 
single day.
  During his remarks last night, somehow President Bush neglected to 
mention that 3 million workers, since he has been in office, have lost 
their pensions--the promises that were made to them for their 
retirement years--and about half of American workers in the private 
sector have no pension coverage whatsoever. I didn't hear much from the 
President about that.
  What I did hear is the President's rhetoric about ``Social Security 
reform,'' which are code words for the privatization of Social 
Security. At a time when seniors are facing more and more insecurity 
than they have seen for a very long time, privatizing Social Security 
is the last thing this country needs.
  Last night, President Bush once again pushed for more unfettered free 
trade agreements, despite the fact that since he has been in office the 
annual trade deficit has more than doubled, and over 3 million 
manufacturing jobs--good-paying jobs--in this country have been lost. 
It astounds me that, despite the horrendous record of these unfettered 
trade agreements--NAFTA, CAFTA, and permanent normal trade relations--
we have a President who says: Look, we have failed year after year, we 
have lost millions of good-paying jobs, our trade deficit is soaring, 
and do you know what the answer is? We need more of this failed trade 
policy. In my own small State of Vermont, never one of the great 
manufacturing States in this country, we have lost, since the President 
has been President, 10,000 manufacturing jobs--25 percent of the total 
or one out of four manufacturing jobs. And President Bush says we need 
more outsourcing; we need corporations to throw more American workers 
out on the street so they can run to China and pay people 50 cents an 
hour there, and then bring the products back into this country.
  Last night, President Bush did say a word about gas prices going up. 
But he did forget to tell us that since he has been President the price 
of gas at the pump, and home heating oil, has more than doubled. For 
whatever reason, he also forgot to tell us that, year after year, while 
Americans are paying outrageous prices for oil and gas, the oil 
companies are enjoying record-breaking profits. I didn't hear him 
mention anything about that, not one word.
  A couple of years ago, for example, ExxonMobil--which has enjoyed 
huge profits while Americans are paying $3.15 for a gallon of gas at 
the pump--gave a $398 million retirement package for its former CEO, 
Mr. Lee Raymond. And our people are paying $3.15 for a gallon of gas. 
The President forgot to talk about that.
  Also, I found it interesting that President Bush neglected to discuss 
that for the first time since the Great Depression the personal savings 
rate in this country is below zero. This means that because of the dire 
economic conditions facing so many of our people, we as a people are 
actually spending more money than we are earning. In fact, today, 
millions of Americans are buying their groceries with credit cards. 
They don't have the cash to buy the food they need. They are going into 
debt to buy groceries. And our friends in the credit card industry are 
then charging them 25 or 30 percent interest rates for the groceries 
they are buying on credit.
  For some reason, last night in his State of the Union Address, the 
President also neglected to mention that home foreclosures are the 
highest on record, turning the American dream of homeownership into an 
American nightmare for millions of our fellow citizens.
  The reason I am raising these issues is because if we as a Senate, as 
a government, do not talk about and discuss the reality of life in this 
country for the vast majority of the people, if we

[[Page 1002]]

do not understand what is going on in the cities and towns across our 
Nation, then it will be virtually impossible for us to formulate the 
public policies we need to transform our economy so that it begins to 
work well for all of the people and not just the wealthiest people on 
top.
  Also, we do not do this enough. It is important to take a look at 
what is going on in our country compared to what is going on in many 
other industrialized nations. Very often, I hear people on the Senate 
floor say we are the wealthiest and the greatest Nation in the world. 
We are all of these things.
  Let's look at some of the facts as they apply to the lives of 
ordinary people. What country in the industrialized world has, by far, 
the highest rate of childhood poverty, where one out of five children 
are living in poverty? Is it France, Germany, or the U.K.? No. It is 
the United States of America. One out of five children in this country 
live in poverty. And shock of all shocks, we end up having the highest 
rate of incarceration--putting people behind bars--of any other country 
on Earth. If you think there is not a correlation between those two 
factors, I would strongly disagree with you.
  Unfortunately, the U.S. today has the highest infant mortality rate 
of any major country on Earth, the highest overall poverty rate, the 
largest gap between the rich and the poor, and we are the only major 
country in the world not to provide health care to all of their its 
people as a right of citizenship.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the period 
for morning business be extended until 12:30 p.m., with the time 
equally divided.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SANDERS. With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho is recognized.

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