During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about rising wealth inequality and President Trump's attempts to dismantle federal agencies and freeze congressionally appropriated funding.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, in the last couple of weeks, I've had the opportunity to travel in many
00:08parts of our country.
00:12And I have been able to talk to folks in Nebraska, in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Colorado,
00:20and Arizona.
00:23And what I am hearing from in all of these states, and in fact all over the country,
00:33is that our nation right now faces enormous crises, unprecedented crises in the modern
00:43history of our country.
00:46And how, right now, at this moment, we respond to these crises will not only impact our lives,
00:56it will impact the lives of our kids and future generations, and in terms of climate change,
01:04the well-being of the entire planet.
01:08And Mr. President, what I have to tell you is that the American people are angry at what
01:19is happening here in Washington, D.C., and they are prepared to stand up and fight back.
01:29In my view, and what I have heard from many, many people, is that they will not accept
01:37an oligarchic form of society, where a handful of billionaires control our government, where
01:48the wealthiest person on earth, Mr. Musk, is running all over Washington, D.C., slashing
01:57the Social Security Administration so that our elderly people today are finding it extremely
02:04difficult to access the benefits that they paid into, where Mr. Musk and his friends
02:11are slashing the Veterans Administration so that people who put their lives on the line
02:17to defend us will not be able to get the health care that they are entitled to or get the
02:24benefits that they are owed in a timely manner.
02:29Slashing the Department of Education.
02:33Slashing USAID.
02:34And why is all of this slashing taking place?
02:39It is taking place so that the wealthiest people in this country can receive over one
02:46trillion dollars in tax breaks.
02:49Now, I don't care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent.
02:59There are very few people in this country who think that you slash programs that working
03:06families desperately need in order to give tax breaks to billionaires.
03:13Mr. President, I am the former chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.
03:21And I've had the honor of meeting with veterans in my own state of Vermont, all over Vermont,
03:26and all over the country.
03:29These are the men and women who put the uniform of this country on and have been prepared
03:38to die to defend our nation and American democracy.
03:44And these veterans and Americans all over our nation will not accept an authoritarian
03:53form of society with a president who undermines our Constitution every day.
04:02Every day there's something else out there where he's undermining our Constitution and
04:07threatening the very foundations of American democracy.
04:11That is not what people fought and died to allow to happen.
04:17Mr. President, I am not a historian.
04:23But I do know that the founding fathers of this country were no dummies.
04:29They were really smart guys.
04:33And in the 1780s, they wrote a Constitution and established a form of government with
04:42a separation of powers, a separation of powers, with an executive branch, the president, a
04:51legislative branch, the Congress, and a judicial branch.
04:59These revolutionaries in the 1780s had just fought a war against the imperial rule of
05:10the King of England, who was an absolute dictator, the most powerful person on earth.
05:19And these revolutionaries here in America, forming a new government, wanted to make absolutely
05:26sure that no one person in this brand new country that they were forming would have
05:36unlimited powers.
05:40And that is why we have a separation of powers.
05:43That is why we have a judiciary, a Congress, and an executive branch.
05:51In other words, way back in the 1780s, they wrote a Constitution to prevent exactly what
06:01Donald Trump is trying to do today.
06:05So let us be clear about what is going on.
06:10Donald Trump is attacking our First Amendment and is trying to intimidate the media and
06:19those who speak out against him in an absolutely unprecedented way, Mr. President.
06:28He has sued ABC, CBS, META, the Des Moines Register.
06:38His FCC is now threatening to investigate NPR and PBS.
06:45He has called CNN and MSNBC illegal.
06:52In other words, the leader, or the so-called leader of the free world, is afraid of freedom.
07:01He doesn't like criticism.
07:03Well, guess what?
07:04None of us like criticism, but you don't get elected to the Senate, you don't get elected
07:09to the House, you don't become a governor, you don't become a president of the United
07:14States unless you are prepared to deal with that criticism.
07:21And the response to that criticism in a democracy is not to sue the media, it's not to intimidate
07:29the media, it's to respond in the way you think best.
07:36But Mr. President, it is not just the media that Trump is going after.
07:43He is going after the constitutional responsibilities that this body, the United States Congress
07:49has.
07:51And I will say it amazes me, it really does, how easily my Republican colleagues here in
07:58the Senate and in the House are willing to surrender their constitutional responsibilities.
08:05Give it over to the President.
08:09Trump has illegally and unconstitutionally withheld funds that Congress has appropriated.
08:17You can't do that.
08:20Congress has the power of the purse.
08:22We make a decision, we argue about it here, big debates, voter-amas, the whole thing.
08:28Make that decision, that money goes out.
08:31The President does not have the right to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated.
08:37Trump has illegally and unconstitutionally decimated agencies that can only be changed
08:44or reformed by Congress.
08:46You don't like the Department of Education, you don't like USAID, fine, come to the Congress,
08:51tell us what reforms you want to see.
08:55You do not have the right to unilaterally do away with these agencies.
09:02Trump has fired members of independent agencies and inspectors general that he does not have
09:08the authority to do.
09:11But Mr. President, it is not just the media that he is trying to intimidate, it is not
09:18just the powers of Congress that he wants.
09:23Now in an absolutely outrageous, unconstitutional, and extraordinarily dangerous way, he is going
09:32after the judiciary.
09:36His view is that if you don't like a decision that a judge renders, you get rid of that
09:44judge.
09:46You try to impeach that judge.
09:50You intimidate judges so that you get the decisions that you want.
09:56You know, I'm thinking back now as someone who is not a supporter of the Roberts Court.
10:06And I'm thinking about one of the worst Supreme Court decisions that has ever been rendered,
10:12and that is Citizens United, and I'll say more about that in a moment.
10:16And I'm thinking about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away
10:23American women's right to control their own bodies.
10:26In my view, these were outrageous decisions, unpopular decisions.
10:32But it never occurred to me, because maybe I'm old-fashioned and conservative, and I
10:38believe that you live by the rule of law to say, hey, look at the decision Roberts made,
10:45we're going to impeach him.
10:46No, we try to elect a new president who's going to appoint new Supreme Court justices.
10:52That is the system that people have fought and died to defend.
10:59But it's not just the movement toward oligarchy, which is outraging millions of Americans,
11:08Democrats and Republicans, by the way.
11:10And it's not just the movement toward authoritarianism that we are seeing.
11:17The American people, especially with Mr. Musk and 13 billionaires in the Trump administration
11:24running agency after agency, the American people are saying as loudly as they can that
11:32they will not accept a society of massive economic and wealth inequalities, where the
11:42very richest people in our country are becoming much richer, while working families are struggling
11:51to put food on the table.
11:56Having gone all over this country, I can tell you that the American people are sick and
12:01tired of these inequalities, and they want an economy that works for all of us, not just
12:10the 1%.
12:11You know, Mr. President, we deal with a whole lot of stuff here in the Congress, and virtually
12:20all of it is important in one way or another.
12:24Well, let's do something fairly radical today.
12:29Let's try to tell the truth, the real truth, about what is going on in our society today.
12:37Something that we don't talk about too much here in the Senate.
12:40We don't talk about it too much in the House.
12:42We don't talk about it too much in the corporate media.
12:46But the reality is that today we have two Americas, two very, very different Americas.
12:55And in one of those Americas, the wealthiest people have never, ever had it so good.
13:03In the whole history of our country, the people on top have never, ever had it so good
13:11as they have it today.
13:14Today we have more income and wealth inequality than there has ever been in the history of
13:22America.
13:23Now, I know we don't discuss it.
13:24You don't see it much on TV.
13:26You don't hear it talked about here at all.
13:29But the American people do not believe that it is appropriate that three people, one,
13:35two, three, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, and Mr. Zuckerberg, three Americans own more wealth than the bottom
13:43half of American society, 170 million people.
13:50Really?
13:52Three people own more wealth than 170 million people?
13:56Anybody here think that is vaguely appropriate?
14:01And by the way, those very same three people, three richest people in America, are right
14:10there at Trump's inaugural standing right behind the president.
14:14So you want to know what oligarchy is?
14:16I know there's some confusion out there.
14:18What is oligarchy?
14:19Well, it starts off when you have the three wealthiest people in the country standing
14:23right behind the president when he gets inaugurated.
14:28The top 1% in our country now own more wealth than the bottom 90%.
14:34CEOs make 300 times more than their average worker.
14:41And unbelievably, real inflation accounted for wages today.
14:47The average American worker, if you can believe it, despite a massive increase in worker
14:53productivity, is lower today than it was 52 years ago.
15:00And during that period, there was a $75 trillion transfer of wealth that went from the bottom
15:0990% to the top 1%.
15:12That is the reality of the American economy today, and you know what?
15:16Maybe we might want to be talking about that.
15:20And in America today, in that top America, that one America, the 1% are completely separate
15:27and isolated from the rest of the country.
15:29You think they get on a subway to get to work?
15:31You think they sit in a traffic jam for an hour trying to get to work?
15:35Not the case.
15:36They fly around in the jets and the helicopters that they own.
15:41They live in their mansions all over the world in their gated communities.
15:47They have nannies taking care of their babies.
15:49They don't worry about the cost of child care.
15:52And they send their kids to the best private schools and colleges.
15:58Sometimes they vacation, not in a Motel 6, not in a national park, but on their very
16:05own islands that they have.
16:09And on occasion, for the very, very richest, just for a kick, have a little bit of fun.
16:14Maybe they'll spend a few million dollars flying off into space in one of their own
16:20spaceships.
16:21Sounds like fun.
16:22But it's not just income, massive income and wealth inequality that we're dealing with
16:29today.
16:30We have more concentration of ownership than ever before.
16:35While the profits on Wall Street and corporate America soar, a handful of giant corporations
16:42dominate sector after sector, whether it's agriculture, transportation, media, financial
16:49services, et cetera, et cetera, small number of huge corporations, international corporations
16:55dominating sector after sector.
16:58And as a result of that concentration of ownership, they are able to charge the American people
17:05outrageously high prices for the goods and services we need.
17:10Mr. President, we don't talk about it too much.
17:14Maybe we should.
17:16But there are three Wall Street firms, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, that combined
17:25are the major stockholders in 95% of our corporations.
17:30Got that?
17:32Three Wall Street firms.
17:34State Street are the major stockholders in 95% of American corporations.
17:41So Mr. President, that is one America.
17:44People on top doing phenomenally well.
17:48Not only do they have economic power, they have enormous political power.
17:55That's what's going on there.
17:56They live like kings.
17:59That's one America.
18:00But there is another America.
18:04And in that other America, 60%, 6-0, 60% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.
18:13And millions of workers from one end of this country to the other are trying to survive
18:18on starvation wages.
18:22And unlike Donald Trump, I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck.
18:27And I know the anxieties that my mom and dad have living in a rent-controlled apartment.
18:34Can we afford to buy this?
18:35Why did you buy that?
18:36And that's the story taking place all over America.
18:42What does living paycheck to paycheck mean?
18:46It means that every single day, millions of Americans worry about how they're going to
18:51pay their rent or their mortgage.
18:53All over the country, rents are skyrocketing.
18:57And people are wondering, what happens?
18:59What happens to me and my kids if rent goes up by 20%?
19:04And I can't afford it.
19:05Where do I live?
19:06Do I have to take my kid out of school?
19:08Where do I put my kid?
19:10In worst-case scenario, do I live in my car?
19:13Let's be clear.
19:15There are many people who are working today who are living in the back of their cars.
19:22How do I pay for childcare?
19:24I talked to a guy the other day, a police officer, spending $20,000 a year for childcare.
19:32How do I buy decent food for my kids when the price of groceries is off the charts?
19:40What happens if I get sick or my kid gets sick or my mother gets sick and I got a $12,000
19:45deductible and I can't afford to go to the doctor?
19:50How at the end of the month am I going to pay my credit card bill even though I am being
19:56charged 20 or 30% interest rates by the usurious credit card companies?
20:06People are worrying about simple things.
20:07What happens if my car breaks down and the guy at the repair shop says it's going to
20:15cost $1,000 and I don't have $1,000 in the bank?
20:20And if I don't have a car, how do I get to work?
20:23And if I don't get to work, how do I have an income?
20:26And if I don't have an income, how do I take care of my family?
20:31Those are the crises that millions of Americans are experiencing today.
20:36But it's not just working age Americans.
20:41Today in our country, half of older workers, older workers have nothing in the bank as
20:48they face retirement and they're watching TV and they're seeing Mr. Musk firing Social
20:53Security workers and actually worrying whether Social Security will be there for them.
21:01And it's not just older workers with nothing in the bank wondering what happens when they
21:05retire.
21:0622% of seniors are trying to survive on $15,000 a year.
21:13I dare anybody in this country, let alone somebody who is old, who needs health care,
21:17who needs to keep the house warm, try to survive on $15,000 a year.
21:22And there are people here, by the way, talking about cutting Social Security.
21:28Mr. President, it is not just about income and wealth inequality.
21:36It is about a health care system which everyone in the nation understands is broken, is dysfunctional,
21:46and is outrageously expensive.
21:47I hear my Republican friends, you know, I don't know where they are today, wanting to
21:52destroy the ACA.
21:54And my Democratic friends say, oh, we've got to defend the ACA.
21:57ACA is broken.
21:59It doesn't work.
22:00In my state, the cost of health care is going up 10, 15%.
22:04In America today, you've got 85 million people uninsured or underinsured.
22:10The function of the health care system today is not to do what a sane society would do,
22:17guarantee health care to all people in a cost-effective way, something which, by the way, every other
22:23major nation on earth manages to do.
22:26The function of our health care system, as everybody knows, is to make billions of dollars
22:32in profits for the insurance companies and the drug companies.
22:37So I say to my Democratic friends, it's not good enough to defend the Affordable Care Act.
22:42It's a broken system.
22:43You've got to have the guts to stand up and allow us to do what every other major nation does,
22:50guarantee health care to all people as a human right, not allow the drug companies and the
22:57insurance companies to make massive profits every year.
23:00And, Mr. President, I want to touch on an issue that gets virtually no discussion, but
23:07I think it is enormously important.
23:10And it says a hell of a lot about what's going on in our society today.
23:16In America, according to international studies, our life expectancy, how long we live as a
23:23people, is about four years lower than other countries.
23:28Most European countries, people there live longer lives.
23:31In Japan, they live even longer lives than in Europe.
23:37So question number one, why is that happening?
23:40We spend $14,000 a year per person on health care, almost double what any other country
23:46spends, and yet people around the world are living, on average, four years longer than we do.
23:54But here is the really ugly fact, even worse than that.
24:00And that is that in this country, on average, if you are a working class person, you will
24:09live seven years shorter lives than if you're in the top 1%.
24:17If you're a working class person, your life will be seven years shorter than if you are wealthy.
24:26In other words, being poor or working class in America today amounts to a death sentence.
24:36Mr. President, it's not only a broken health care system.
24:41We have got to ask ourselves a simple question, and the Biden administration began a little
24:45bit of movement in this direction.
24:48And that is, why are we living in a nation where one out of four people can't even afford
24:54the prescription drugs their doctors prescribe?
24:58Why are we in some cases paying 10 times more than our neighbors in Canada or in Europe?
25:06How does that happen?
25:09And the answer, of course, has to do with the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and
25:13their power right here, all of the campaign contributions that they make, which has prevented
25:19us from negotiating prices.
25:23But it's not just health care or prescription drugs when we look at what's going on in America.
25:28In Vermont and throughout this country, we have a major housing crisis.
25:34Here we are, the richest country on earth, 800,000 people sleeping out on the streets,
25:41and 20 million people are spending more than 50% of their limited incomes on housing.
25:47Can you imagine that?
25:49You're a working person spending 50% of your income on housing.
25:53How do you have money to do anything else?
25:55And the cost of housing is soaring.
25:58Do not tell me, Mr. President, that in a nation which could spend a trillion dollars on the
26:04military, a nation that could give massive tax breaks to the rich, that we cannot build
26:11the millions of units of housing that we desperately need.
26:17So, Mr. President, why is all of this happening?
26:22Why do we have a health care system that's broken, prescription drugs that are the most
26:27expensive in the world, a housing system, education in deep trouble?
26:31Talk to educators in Vermont, all over the country.
26:33Talk to a principal the other day from Vermont.
26:36They're starting salary at a public school, $32,000 a year.
26:41But don't worry, they can't afford to even bring people in because they can't afford
26:44the housing in the community.
26:45Why have we let education sink to the level that it has?
26:50So I think the bottom line of all this, the American people, I think, are catching on.
26:55And Mr. Musk, I must thank him because he has made it very clear.
27:00We are living in an oligarchic form of society.
27:02If anybody out there thinks that Mr. Musk is running around out of the goodness of his
27:07heart trying to make our government more efficient, you have not a clue as to what
27:14is going on.
27:16What these guys want to do is destroy virtually every federal program that impacts the well-being
27:23of working people, Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service, public education, you name
27:28it.
27:30So they can get huge tax breaks for the rich and eventually make government so inefficient
27:36that they will have the ability as large corporations to come in and privatize everything that is
27:42going on.
27:43So, Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in American history.
27:50And I sense that the American people have had it up to here.
27:55They are prepared to fight back.
27:58They do not want a government run by billionaires who have it all, whose greed is uncontrollable.
28:07We have in Vermont, and I think all over this country, a serious problem with addiction,
28:12with drugs, people drinking too much alcohol, people smoking too many cigarettes.
28:17But the worst form of addiction that this country now faces is the greed of the oligarchy.
28:27You might think that if you had $10, $20 billion, it would be enough, kind of enough to let
28:34your family live for the next 20 generations.
28:36But it's not.
28:38For whatever reason, whatever compulsive reason they have, these guys want more and more and
28:44more and they are prepared to destroy Social Security, Medicare, nutrition programs for
28:51hungry people in order to get even more.
28:55That to me is disgusting.
28:57So, Mr. President, we are at a pivotal moment in American history.
29:02And having been all over this country, in many parts of this country, I am absolutely
29:06confident that the American people, and I'm not just talking about Democrats, who are
29:10as complicit in the problems that we have right now as are Republicans.
29:14Because we got a two-party system which is basically corrupt.
29:19You got Mr. Musk over on the Republican side saying to any Republican who dares to stand
29:25up and defy the Trump agenda, we are going to primary you.
29:30And on the Democratic side, you got AIPAC and you got other super PACs saying you stand
29:35up for working people, you're in trouble as well.
29:39We got a corrupt campaign finance system in which billionaires are able to buy elections.
29:45And that's why all over this country, people are not happy with our two-party system, the
29:50Republicans and the Democrats.
29:53So, Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in American history.
29:58But we have had difficult moments before.
30:01And I am confident, from the bottom of my heart, that if we stand together, and we do
30:07not allow some right-wing extremists to divide us up by the color of our skin or our religion
30:15or where we were born or our sexual orientation, if we stand together, we can save this country.
30:23We can defeat oligarchy.
30:26We can defeat the movement toward authoritarianism.
30:30And in fact, we can create an economy and a government that works for all, not just
30:36a few.
30:37Thank you very much, Mr. President.