[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16408]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BANK OF AMERICA

  Mr. SANDERS. I want to say a word on another interesting issue which 
took place today. You may have noticed that Bank of America has decided 
to withdraw its $5 fee for debit transfers. Let me tell you, the Bank 
of America, like the other banks that were going to go forward in 
imposing these fees, did not withdraw them because they were nice guys. 
They withdrew them because the American people said ``enough is 
enough'' in terms of the greed of Wall Street.
  Let us never forget that it was the Bank of America and the other 
huge financial institutions on Wall Street that caused the recession we 
are in, resulting in millions of people losing their jobs, their homes, 
their life savings. Let us never forget that when Wall Street was on 
the verge of collapse, it was the American people and the Fed who 
bailed them out. And now that Wall Street and the large banks are 
making very handsome profits, paying their CEOs some of the largest 
compensation packages they have ever received, their thank you to the 
American people was to charge them a $5 a month debit fee.
  But do you know what happened? The American people said thanks but no 
thanks. It wasn't the Senate that turned this around. It wasn't the 
House that turned this around. It was the American people. I applaud 
the people on the Occupying Wall Street campaign who focused attention 
on the greed of Wall Street, and the millions of other Americans who 
have said enough is enough.
  The point here, which is a very profound point--which is ultimately 
what politics is all about--is that if the American people at the 
grassroots level begin to stand up and fight back, profound and 
positive changes can take place in this country. If the American people 
stand up and say: No, we are not going to cut Social Security, we are 
not going to cut Medicare, we are not going to cut Medicaid, or 
education, but we are going to move toward a balanced budget by asking 
the wealthiest people in this country, whose effective tax rate is the 
lowest in decades, to start paying their fair share of taxes, we can do 
that. We don't have to cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.
  If the American people say maybe we have got to end these outrageous 
tax loopholes that allow oil companies--which are making huge profits 
right now--in some years to pay nothing in Federal income taxes, we can 
end those loopholes as well.
  If the American people say, well, maybe before we cut programs for 
the elderly, the sick, the children, and the poor, maybe we want to 
make sure those companies and individuals who stash their money in tax 
havens such as the Cayman Islands, where we lose $100 billion a year 
because of the tax havens--when we rally the American people and they 
stand up and say enough is enough, we can change that too.
  So today I congratulate the American people. You did it. You took on 
the largest financial institution in the United States of America and 
you beat it. And that should be step one. We should go on from there. 
The American grassroots has to continue to speak out in the fight for 
social justice in this country.
  I yield the floor, and note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. In my capacity as Senator from Minnesota, I 
ask that the quorum call be vitiated.
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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