Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at a union rally in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin.
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NewsTranscript
00:00should all be proud of as a nation and that is over the last many years we have made some real
00:08progress in fighting bigotry in our country and that is no small thing you know i am old enough
00:16to remember i am old enough to remember that in parts of this country you know black people can
00:23drink at a water fountain or go to a local school so we have made progress in becoming
00:29a less racist society and that is no small thing we have made significant
00:35progress in becoming a less sexist society than we used to be
00:43that's right we have and that is to thank the women i can remember when i was mayor of
00:49Burlington Vermont not Burlington Iowa Burlington Vermont uh there were no
00:56police officers in the city who were women i mean just as one example uh women were not going to
01:03medical school then and so forth and there's really been a transformation in the understanding
01:08of the role that women can and do play in our society and we should be proud of that
01:13that is no small thing and we are much less we are much less of a homophobic society than we
01:20used to be and i think most people now recognize
01:27recognize that people have a right to live out their sexuality and love the people that they
01:32choose to love and clearly our goal must be to be a nation in which all people regardless of the
01:39color of their skin their religion their country of origin or their sexual orientation can have
01:45equal opportunity and i think we are making some progress in that direction but what i really want
01:49to focus on this evening is to tell you about one area where not only have we not gone forward
01:58we have actually fallen backwards way back and that is the economic condition
02:06facing the working families of our country and the class warfare that has been waged against them
02:15now you're not going to hear too many people use that expression but i do and i think it's time we
02:24got our hands around that issue and our minds around that issue and understand what's going
02:29on and that in many respects there has been a war being waged against the working class
02:34for a very long time here is the bottom line and it's a issue that is not talked about
02:46in congress very much i gotta tell you and not talked about in the corporate media
02:52and that is that for the last 50 years we have had an economy and a political system
02:59that has been working just great for the people who own the system the top one percent
03:09and here is the reality you're not going to see it on tv tonight the reality is that the status
03:16quo of today is exactly what the big money interests want to maintain because they have
03:24never ever this is true ever had it so good in the history of this country
03:30today we have an economy in which the very very wealthy people who are billionaires
03:38are getting much richer while 60 percent of americans live paycheck to paycheck you all
03:46know what i'm talking about paycheck to paycheck all right i grew up in a family live paycheck to
03:51paycheck lived in a rent controlled apartment many of you grew up in a living paycheck to paycheck
03:59and you understand that at the end of the month after working hard there ain't nothing that you
04:04are saving you can't afford to take a vacation can't afford to take your wife your husband
04:09out for dinner can't afford to pay for child care kid gets sick you may not be able to afford to go
04:14to a doctor so we have today let me say it clearly we have more income and wealth inequality right now
04:23at this moment than any time in the history of the united states further not only that we have more
04:31concentration of ownership than any time in the history of america you know what that means
04:36it means that in sector after sector whether it's agriculture whether it's financial services
04:42whether it's media whether it's the airline industry you got fewer and fewer large giant
04:48corporations controlling what goes on in that sector able to control prices control production
04:55today we have more corporate greed than any time in american history
05:04we have company after company making record breaking profits as they raise their prices
05:12to outrageous levels worried about what you're paying in the supermarket in the grocery store
05:19take a look at the profit margins of the companies in the food industry worried about the price of
05:25gas take a look at exxon mobil and how they are doing in sector after sector these guys are making
05:32record-breaking profits and charging us outrageously high prices and when we talk about
05:40class warfare and corporate greed i think you got an issue here
05:44with the case new holland company right here and we're saying is that right
05:50so let me say a few words about case as an example as an example of what corporate greed
05:57is about and it's important that we understand this we are talking about a company not going
06:03bankrupt in fact they made a record-breaking profit of more than 2.3 billion dollars last year
06:11not too bad we're talking about a company that is spending a billion dollars not to improve
06:18working conditions in wisconsin or iowa but on stock buybacks to make their executives
06:26and stockholders even richer we're talking about a company whose outgoing ceo gentleman named scott
06:34wine is receiving a 10 million dollar golden parachute after making 30 84 million dollars
06:44in compensation over the past three years we are talking about a company that after making
06:52massive profits is now laying off some 220 workers in racine as it plans to ship jobs
07:02to mexico where they can pay workers starvation wages that is the definition of corporate greed
07:12this is not a company that's struggling company making huge profits but they want more more and
07:19more and that is precisely what corporate america is doing all over this country
07:30today when we talk about the nature of our economy it's important to take a deep breath
07:37and realize what is going on today in america three people own more wealth than the bottom
07:45half of american society you got that 160 million people have less wealth than three people that is
07:56not what this country is supposed to be about and we've got to change that
08:03today in america the top one percent owns more wealth than the bottom 90 today in america got
08:16about 800 billionaires who have nearly doubled their wealth since the passage of the trump tax
08:24breaks for the wealthy and these 800 people have become almost three trillion dollars richer
08:33oh today in america ceos of major corporations make 350 times more than their average workers
08:46so stop and think about it do these ceos need more health care than their workers do they need
08:54more food do they need more housing what you're talking about is unprecedented level of greed it
09:00is this belief that i'm a ceo i'm very wealthy i can have it all i can shut down plants throw
09:08workers out on the street move to mexico and give myself a huge bonus a golden parachute
09:13and to hell with the people down below and this is the mentality that we have got to change
09:20if we're going to save this country and the economy for workers
09:24so
09:28you know there are a lot of angry people and people say you know
09:31why are people in america so angry i'll tell you why they're angry and you don't see this
09:36on tv you're surely not hearing it much in the congress and that is the average worker in america
09:44today makes almost 50 a week less than he or she did over 50 years ago after adjusting for inflation
09:58despite huge increases in worker productivity all right let's stop and think about that
10:0350 years coming on revolution in technology every worker in america now produces far far
10:12more than used to be the case and yet that worker that man or woman is making 50 a week less
10:22in inflation adjusted income and that is a disgrace that is why people are angry and that
10:29is why people have every right to be angry there was a study done a while ago by the rand corporation
10:36which is a pretty conservative group and what they estimated this is really incredible as well
10:42that over the last 50 years there has been an almost 50 trillion dollar transfer of wealth
10:51redistribution of wealth from the bottom 90 to the top one percent so you know a lot of the guys
10:58on top they say oh people like bernie sanders they talk about redistributing wealth well you're damn
11:02right i do but but the truth is there hasn't been a redistribution but it's gone in the
11:12wrong way it's gone from working families to the top one percent just take a look at what's going
11:18on in the economy today you got people i don't know of anybody here who have credit cards you
11:25know what half of the credit cards are right now on all new credit cards what half of the interest
11:30rates are 24 all right that's wall street making a fortune talk about our health care system how's
11:38it doing it's a broken and dysfunctional health care system the good news is that if you are a
11:47major stockholder in the insurance companies or the drug companies you're doing phenomenally well
11:51they're making money hand over fist but if you're an average american you can't afford health care
12:00and maybe you're one of the 85 million americans who are uninsured or underinsured i want to say
12:05a word about health care some chairman of the committee that deals with this stuff
12:10it's not just that we spend twice as much per capita on health care as the people of any other
12:16nation you got that twice we're spending over 13 000 for every man woman and child
12:22in canada which somehow manages to provide health care to all their people
12:26they're spending half as much but despite spending all of that money our health care
12:34outcomes are not good and there's one issue that we don't talk about enough and that is
12:40life expectancy you know what i'm talking about here is the reality the reality is despite
12:47spending so much money on health care we live significantly shorter lives than the people
12:54of other countries you all know that and then on top of that what we don't talk about this is really
13:00obscene it is obscene if you are rich in america you will live as long as the people in europe do
13:08on average if you're working class or poor your life expectancy can be 10 15 years lower than
13:17the people on top all right think about that for a moment in other words the stress of being in the
13:25working class today or being poor leads to physical deterioration and a host of diseases
13:32as well as mental health issues so we need to radically change our health care system
13:42in my view and i think in the view of most americans
13:46health care must be considered a human right not a privilege
13:59and i want you just to think what it will mean to this country when if you're sick or your mom's
14:06sick or your kids are sick you can take them to the doctor any doctor you want without having to
14:13worry about the cost you want to hear about obscenity obscenity is people dealing with cancer
14:21dealing with terrible illnesses who have to go to the hospital and they can't even concentrate on
14:27getting well you know what they're worried about is their family going to go bankrupt
14:32when they get a two hundred thousand dollar bill from the hospital can you imagine that
14:37half a million families in america face bankruptcy because they committed the crime
14:43of getting sick how disgraceful is that so our job when we look to the future is to say that yes
14:51we're going to take on the greed of the insurance companies we're not going to continue to pay by
14:56far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs yes we're going to
15:00guarantee health care every man woman and child is a human right not a privilege
15:13so got a lot of problems facing the country but here is the good news and i really see it is
15:22enormously good news and that is the trade union movement and thank you trade unionists
15:29is revitalized it's rejuvenated it is growing
15:37and if we're going to make progress in transforming this country
15:42let me tell you it's going to be the trade union movement leading the way
15:46and i say that not just because of the purity uaw hall i say that because we are taking on the greed
15:59and the unlimited money of a billionaire class and there is no other entity in this country
16:07that has the capability the strength the numbers to take on the billionaire class
16:13other than the trade union movement so it's imperative that we grow that movement we stand
16:19with that movement we get more workers into that movement and we see the gains
16:24that the trade union movement can bring us
16:32and what we have seen is that over the last couple of years something really interesting
16:37is happening we're seeing not just blue collar workers joining unions we're seeing
16:42white collar workers we're seeing those in between in my own city of burlington for example
16:49we had resident doctors at the local hospital formed a union for better wages and working
16:55conditions we're seeing graduate students at universities forming unions and winning strong
17:01victories and we're seeing young people at starbucks and amazon taking on some of the
17:08wealthiest the most powerful people in this country my committee held a hearing last year
17:17with howard schultz who was then the head of starbucks and starbucks was breaking the law
17:24every day trying to make it hard for workers to form unions but we just got news that actually
17:30they may be working right now on a the sciu and starbucks on a national contract for starbucks
17:38workers that's a big deal and i think all of us understand we understand why it is important for
17:49workers to join a union and that is nobody can do it alone you can't do it alone you can go to
17:56your boss and that's fine maybe he or she is nice or not nice but at the end of the day you got to
18:01stand together in solidarity and negotiate a decent contract and that's what unions do and
18:08there is a reason why union workers earn significantly higher wages have better benefits
18:15than non-union workers and that is they have stood together and fought for dignity and security
18:26but it is not just the economic struggle that we must engage in as important as that is
18:34we have also got to engage in the political struggle as well and we need to support
18:40candidates who support working people that's not hard to understand
18:46when donald trump was president he appointed vehemently anti-union officials at the labor
18:54department meanwhile president biden became the first president in american history
19:00to walk a picket line in support of striking uaw workers
19:10president biden is implementing a strong by american policy we need to produce our products
19:19here and have the government buy them here we are beginning to make beginning to make some
19:27progress in rebuilding our manufacturing base all of you know that as a result of disastrous trade
19:33policies nafta pntr with china we lost thousands of factories millions of good paying jobs we're
19:40beginning beginning to rebuild our manufacturing base we have created many many good jobs union
19:48jobs by making the largest investment in american history in rebuilding our crumbling
19:55infrastructure our roads our bridges our wastewater plants our water systems
20:03and for the veterans out there i'm a member of the veterans committee
20:07we have passed the pact act which will provide significantly increased benefits and health care
20:13to our veterans what the pact act was about is it says that if you were in an environment from
20:19vietnam to afghanistan to iraq where you were exposed to toxins in the air and you got sick
20:28you're going to be get the health care you need and get increased benefits it's a big deal
20:32for many many thousands of our veterans
20:35and i think the contrast is clear with what our friends in the republican party want they want and
20:47they advertise it you know they want more tax breaks for billionaires well i think when you
20:52have massive income and wealth inequality the last thing you want to do is give a tax break
20:57to billionaires and you got republicans all over the house and the senate who want to cut social
21:07security they want to cut medicare and they want medic to cut medicaid as well they want to
21:14privatize the va we're dealing with this every day and they want to privatize the u.s postal service
21:22they want to throw tens of millions of people off of the health care they can they have now
21:28by eliminating the affordable care act they want to make it harder for workers to join
21:33unions all right that is some of what our republican friends in washington stand for
21:40all right that is their vision it's a vision dominated and paid for by wealthy corporate
21:46interests it is important that we have our vision all right we're going to do we have to
21:53struggle day to day unions sit down and negotiate the best contracts they can
21:57but we have to do even more than that we have to think about what kind of world
22:01do we want for our kids for our parents for future generations what is our vision and i think most
22:08importantly in the richest country in the history of the world we need a government
22:15that works for all of us not just the few
22:25what does what does that mean it means that at a time when millions of workers want to join
22:34unions but are unable to do so because the companies they work for are putting them into
22:44captive audience meetings are intimidating them are threatening them are firing union organizers
22:52at the plant what we need to do is pass the pro act which gives workers the right to form a union
23:01without intimidation from the companies right now all over this country there are workers
23:15employed at companies who are paying them starvation wages and i am as a u.s senator
23:20i am embarrassed to tell you that the federal minimum wage remains seven dollars and 25 cents
23:28an hour we have got to raise that federal minimum wage to a living wage of at least 17 bucks an hour
23:37so that nobody in america works for starvation wages
23:45we need trade policies that benefit workers and not just large corporations i am sick and tired
23:53of seeing companies shut down in america and run to china run to mexico run to other low wage
24:00countries we need policies that say guess what you ain't going there
24:05you're staying here and pay your workers here a living wage
24:14and i want to thank sean fain and the uaw for raising another issue
24:19that i think has not gotten the attention that it deserves and that is we live in a nation today
24:26when half of older workers have no retirement savings a quarter of older people in america
24:34trying to get by on 15 000 a year half less than 30 000 i don't know how you do that
24:42what we must do in that reality is not what the republicans want which is to cut social
24:48security in one way or another raise the retirement age cut benefits whatever it may be
24:54what we have got to do is expand social security benefits by lifting the cap on taxable income
25:02so right now right now you have the absurd situation that a millionaire is paying the
25:13same amount into social security as somebody makes about 165 000 if you lift that cap you
25:19tax all of that income we can substantially raise social security benefits and make social
25:26security solvent for the next 75 years sounds good to me
25:33and i'll tell you something else that we should do and the uaw is beginning to put it on the table
25:38when they negotiate we should bring back defined benefit pension plans now younger people
25:49may not even know what a defined benefit pension plan is
25:52because they have been so wiped out all over america but it used to be the case that if you
25:58worked at a large company you not only got health care and other benefits you got a pension and you
26:06actually knew what that pension was it was guaranteed to you i think at a time when so many
26:14elderly people are living in great fear of their latter years a lot of years should be years of
26:20joy you know you work your whole life retire enjoy it but many people are living in fear
26:25so we need to bring back the fine benefit pension plans
26:37and let me say another a word on another issue which is enormously important and is is really
26:47a key factor i think in this campaign donald trump believes i'm you know the great scientist
26:55that he is having a phd in science and having studied this stuff for years
27:02he has concluded that climate change is a hoax created by china
27:08okay now people who hold that point of view are not only absurdly dumb and facing the reality
27:19but it is extremely dangerous all right i don't have to tell you because you're seeing it right
27:24now i just left washington it's going to be 100 degrees there today in india recently it was like
27:31125 degrees you saw what's going on in saudi arabia a thousand people died because of the heat
27:38if we do not get our act together as a world it's not an american issue it's not a chinese issue
27:44it's a world issue what you're going to see is warmer and warmer months and years and days
27:52you're going to see more drought more flooding more extreme weather disturbances in my state
27:58of vermont last summer you know you get scared you worry that it's going to happen again we had
28:03a terrible flood that did enormous time hundreds of people lost their homes businesses small
28:08businesses wiped out ours our state capital montpelier still has not recovered from that
28:12but that's what's going on all over this country and all over the world so when people go around
28:19telling you all climate change is a hoax they are literally endangering the well-being of our kids
28:26and future generations so what we have got to do is work with countries all over the world we can't
28:32do it alone work with countries all over the world in transforming our energy system and we are making
28:38some progress and there's some good news out there i got a bill passed i mean it's just one part of a
28:43whole lot of other stuff that would help working class families afford solar panels on their
28:49rooftops and you know what that's about that's a step forward we've got so my wife and i have
28:56solar panels on our rooftops you know what we paid in our electric bill last month not only
29:03we did not pay anything we got a credit of a hundred dollars all right so when you put panels
29:09on your rooftop you see a significant reduction 80 90 percent in your electric bill i think that's
29:17true nationally and when we do that we protect the climate we save people money on their electric
29:24bills and we create a lot of jobs and that's the kind of stuff we should be doing all over this
29:31country
29:39and when we talk about what we should be doing we should understand that education
29:46from child care to graduate school is a right that should be available to all of our people
29:52without the need to go deeply into debt
30:00and again take a step back and think about it how do we compete globally in a very competitive
30:07global economy if we don't have a well-educated workforce right we don't do it and yet i talk
30:13to people do you know how much when a lot of young people graduate medical school for example
30:18do you know what the debt was is anyone know yeah well four or five hundred thousand we desperately
30:24need more doctors and yet we they leave school deeply in debt we need more dentists they leave
30:31school deeply in debt i talked to nurse practitioners in vermont they're leaving
30:35school deeply in debt but it's not just college and graduate school you've got a lot of young
30:42people who are not academically inclined who want to go out and work with their hands and we
30:46desperately need them we need plumbers we need electricians we need welders we need in my state
30:53we brought billions of dollars in to vermont and it's true here as well in wisconsin tambi
30:58baldwin did a great job put money in here to read i agree to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure
31:07you know what in vermont we don't have enough workers skilled workers to do the work
31:12so what we need to do is to make sure that young people have the training they need you don't want
31:16to go to college fine you can make more money being a plumber today or an electrician than
31:21being a college graduate give them the training to do that we desperately need those words
31:29and there's another issue that's everything is tied into everything else
31:34and that is you're not going to have the economy that we need that works for working people
31:38so long as we continue to have a corrupt campaign finance political system
31:49so right now as a result of this disastrous citizens united supreme court decision
31:55and this is the simple truth billionaires and we got a you know growing number of billionaires
32:02are able to put as much money as they want into a super pack and that super pack then puts ads on
32:11television etc to defeat candidates they don't like and support candidates they do like you know
32:18when i grew up as a kid what i understood democracy to be about is one person one vote
32:25if you disagree with me that's fine that's good that's really i i really do love that stuff that's
32:30democracy we got to sit down talk about the issues working out democracy is not about
32:36billionaires buying elections that's oligarchy that's not democracy
32:46and we have got to overturn this disastrous citizens united
32:51supreme court decision and in my view move to public funding of elections you want to run
32:57for office and you're a working class person you want to beg rich people for funds you should
33:02be able to have the financial support you need to run a strong campaign
33:09so bottom line is we have we are living in a moment a pivotal moment in my view in american
33:17history you know our country over since its inception has gone through a whole lot i mean
33:25i think back and i really do about the guys who wrote the declaration of independence and
33:30fought in the revolutionary war you know that was a big deal they put their lives on the line to
33:34break away from british monarchy and some of them died and if you look at the declaration
33:39of independence and the constitution man hundreds of years later they remain pretty good documents
33:46and they were brave and that was a pivotal moment in american history and i think about
33:49the civil war period god you go around the state of vermont you go to these small towns and they
33:54have these monuments there of young people by the dozens who died in the civil war fighting
34:00to end slavery in this country six hundred thousand people died in the civil war that
34:05was a pivotal moment in american history and i think about the great depression that our
34:10grandparents went through where 25 of america was unemployed and the pivotal moment was fdr getting
34:17elected in 1932 and transforming what the role of the federal government was and when he said
34:24the federal government is going to work for working people and if the ruling class that
34:28was his words if they hate me so be it i welcome their hatred
34:39and now that was then and we are here now and this is again i think a pivotal moment
34:44climate change is existential we're going to get a handle on it or not
34:48are we going to remain a democracy of one person one vote or an oligarchy with billionaires
34:56by election are women going to be able to control their own bodies
35:01or you're going to have state legislatures telling them what they can or cannot do
35:07so there's a lot of issues out there we got a lot of issues and right we got a war going
35:19on right now in gaza which breaks my heart and right now the united states government
35:28is funding a right-wing extremist israeli government led by netanyahu who
35:35are have not only displaced 1.8 million people 75 percent of the population
35:42not only destroyed over 60 percent of the housing not only destroyed the health care facilities
35:48throughout gaza not only bombed every single university but now they have created the
35:54conditions where children are dealing with malnutrition and starvation now my view is that
36:01you know what hamas did on october 7th was an atrocity it was a war crime and israel like
36:08any other government had the right to respond to hamas terrorist organization
36:13but they did not have the right to go to war against the entire palestinian people
36:22and that is what's happening
36:25and then you got the war in ukraine and you got you got a lot of stuff that's going on
36:31so i guess i conclude by saying this it is very easy with all of these problems to say to hell
36:38with it all you know i'm going to stick my you know head in the sand i'm going to turn off the
36:43tv i'm not going to vote i'm not going to get involved in politics we can't do that not just
36:49for ourselves but i've got you know four kids and seven grandchildren all of you have kids and
36:55and grandchildren we have got to be involved in the political process we've got to stand up
37:03the corporate interest we have got to address the crisis of climate change we have to create a world
37:10in which people are not killing each other all over the place we can do it so i just want to
37:16thank all of you not only for what you do every day and those of you who are in the trade union
37:22movement for what you are doing but to say that now is not a time to turn away from the realities
37:31that we face no matter how difficult that they are that would be a disservice to future generations
37:38we can do it the country before has faced monumental moments in our history
37:43we've come together and we have done what had to be done so i'm begging of you now
37:50in this particular moment let us not turn to despair it's not an option let's stand up let's
37:57fight and let us create the kind of country you and i know that we can become thank you all very much