[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 7013-7014]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                THE IRS

  Mr. SANDERS. In the Senate, I hear a lot of criticism of government, 
some of which is certainly justified. All of us, I would hope, are 
deeply concerned, embarrassed, and disagree with what the IRS did in 
terms of picking out one political persuasion in terms of tax-exempt 
status. That is clearly wrong, unacceptable, and must be dealt with.
  Many of my friends attack government day after day when government is 
trying to do the right thing in protecting middle-class and working 
families. There are some in the Congress, for example, who believe that 
government programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid 
should be significantly cut or that maybe government shouldn't even be 
involved in those areas. They believe these programs are 
unconstitutional.
  If you were to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, 
what would happen to tens of millions of people who rely on Social 
Security for their retirement, especially at a time when many private 
pensions have been cut severely? If you make cuts or eliminate Medicare 
for the old or you undo the Medicare system we know and turn it into 
the system our friends in the House would like to have, what will 
happen to elderly people when they get sick and need health care and 
don't have the money in their own pockets to pay for that? I will tell 
you what will happen.
  This year alone, it is estimated that approximately 45,000 Americans 
will die because they never made it to a doctor on time when they 
should have made it. If you make major cuts in Medicare or do away with 
the basic guarantees Medicare now provides, clearly the number of 
people who will die will simply increase.
  If you are 67 years of age and are diagnosed with cancer and Medicare 
is not there for you and you don't have a family who has money, what 
will happen to you? Some of my Republican friends will say: Well, go to 
charity. Charity is not going to be there to provide health care for 
millions of people.
  In terms of health care, what we must point out over and over again 
because many Americans don't understand it is that our Nation is the 
only Nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health 
care to all people as a right of citizenship.
  Today, although we hope that will change in the very near future, 50 
million people have no health insurance. Many others have large 
deductibles or copayments, which keep them from going to the doctor 
when they should.
  We have invited the Ambassador from Denmark to join us in a town 
meeting in Vermont on Saturday. He will explain to us how in Denmark, 
among many other countries throughout the world, they can provide 
health care to people that is virtually free from out-of-pocket 
expenses and yet per capita end up spending substantially less than we 
do. He will explain to us why the cost of their prescription drugs is 
substantially lower than it is in the United States.
  In terms of education, this is at a time when in my State the average 
college graduate in Vermont leaves school some $28,000 in debt--roughly 
the national average. This is at a time when hundreds of thousands of 
young people cannot afford to go to college, and we lose all of their 
intellectual capabilities and the genius they might provide for our 
society. In Denmark, college education is virtually free, including 
graduate school and medical school.
  At a time when in our country millions of people are overworked and 
underpaid; at a time when we work some of the longest hours of any 
people in the industrialized world, when people in Vermont are working 
not 40 hours a week but 50 hours a week, 60 hours a week; at a time 
when people are not working one job but two jobs, three jobs, trying to 
cobble together an income; at a time when some employers are hiring 
people and providing zero vacation time or maybe, if one is lucky, a 
week off, how does it happen that in countries such as Denmark people 
not only get 5 weeks' guaranteed paid vacation, but they get another 11 
vacation days?
  In this country, we talk a lot about family values. However, if you 
are a working-class woman having a baby, you will get some maybe. If 
you are working for a large enough employer, family medical leave may 
have an impact and you may get some time off to have the baby, but you 
can't stay home very long to take care of your newborn because you will 
not have any money coming in. Millions of folks have a baby and go 
right back to work, putting the child back in childcare when they would 
prefer otherwise. How does it happen in countries such as Denmark that 
women get 4 weeks off, fully paid before they give birth, and then 
months off afterwards to stay home with the baby, not to mention three-
quarters payment from the government for childcare, while we so poorly 
manage that?
  I think it is time we have a serious discussion about values, and 
that discussion has to include whether we feel good about the fact that 
in this country so few have so much and so many have so little.
  Do we feel comfortable with the growing imbalance in terms of income 
and wealth such that the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the wealth 
and the

[[Page 7014]]

bottom 60 percent owns only 2.3 percent, and the gap between the 
billionaire class and everybody else is growing wider?
  As the Pope asked: Are we comfortable with a financial system where 
the goal is not to invest in the productive economy but to make money 
for itself, such that the top six financial institutions in this 
country have assets equivalent to some 70 percent of the GDP of the 
United States--some $9 trillion--and enormous political power?
  This IRS business people are talking about on the floor of the Senate 
is related to the absurd campaign finance system we have where big 
companies can secretly put hundreds of millions of dollars into the 
political process. Are we comfortable with a political system where 
people can make contributions in secret that end up in the political 
process and then end up on a 30-second ad on our TV--money coming from 
billionaires who don't have to disclose their contributions?
  So when we talk about values, it is important to assess who we are as 
Americans and what we believe in. I believe most Americans believe we 
have to do a lot better job at focusing on the needs of the declining 
and disappearing middle class; that we have to create millions of jobs 
so our young people do not have outrageously high levels of 
unemployment and older people who lose their jobs have nothing to go 
back to; that we have to address the issue of high childhood poverty; 
and we have to, in fact, make sure government works for all of the 
people and not just the people on top.
  I would just conclude by recommending to the Members and to the 
American people they examine the remarks made this morning by Pope 
Francis, which I think raise some very important issues. I think there 
is a lot to be learned from those remarks.
  With that, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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