At a "Fight Oligarchy Tour' event in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about President Trump nominating several billionaires to be members of his cabinet.
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00:00We are living in a moment where a handful of billionaires control our government.
00:15You know, for many years I have been talking about oligarchy and American people said,
00:21well, you know, Bernie, Bernie has just given a speech.
00:25But anybody, I have to thank, you know, Trump for educating the American people about what oligarchy is.
00:41You know, we can talk about it as an abstraction, but when Trump gets inaugurated and standing right behind him,
00:50and I had the remarkable, unreal, surreal experience of being in the front row, just like you guys are.
00:59I got pushed into that, I don't know how, but there I was.
01:03And there's Trump taking the oath of office, and right behind him are the three wealthiest people in America.
01:10Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, and Mr. Zuckerberg.
01:21And if that is not enough to make you understand that we're living in an oligarchy,
01:27right behind them were 13 other billionaires that Trump had nominated to head up major federal agencies.
01:37And then, then, it's not only that we are living in an oligarchy and have a government of billionaires.
01:58I mean, that's bad. You know, I was thinking recently, I wish that I had been a better student in the sixth grade of American history.
02:09But I remember, and many of you will remember, Abraham Lincoln in 1863 in Gettysburg.
02:16Remember what he said? That's what he said. He was looking out on the battlefield.
02:24He had come there just a few days after the terrible battle where 20,000 Union soldiers fighting slavery,
02:35fighting to end slavery, had either died or been wounded. 20,000 soldiers.
02:40And he looked out on that field. And this is what he said. He said that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
02:57That this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom.
03:09And then remember what he said? And that government of the people
03:15shall not perish from the earth.
03:32And that's why we're here.
03:36We do not want a government of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class,
03:42for the billionaire class. We want a government that represents all of us, not just the 1%.
04:01We don't want the richest guy on earth running all over Washington, D.C.,
04:08throwing tens of thousands of dedicated federal workers out on the street,
04:15slashing the Social Security Administration,
04:23so that elderly disabled people are going to find it really hard to get the information they need to access Social Security.
04:36We don't want Mr. Musk and his friends proposing to lay off 83,000 employees at the Veterans Administration.
04:52We believe that the men and women who have put their lives on the line to defend this country deserve the highest quality health care.
05:04We don't want Mr. Musk and his friends running around slashing USAID.
05:09We don't want Mr. Musk and his friends running around slashing USAID.
05:14We don't want Mr. Musk and his friends running around slashing USAID.
05:17You know, some of the proudest things I think we feel is when we know our government has done things to help the poor,
05:26people on earth, children who would die of preventable diseases.
05:44That's what makes us a great country.
05:47And what makes all of this stuff even worse is that all of these cuts to Social Security, to the VA, to USAID, et cetera, et cetera,
05:57they are designed to do one thing, and that is to give massive tax breaks to the top 1%.
06:16At a time when our health care system is already broken, they want to cut Medicaid by $880 billion.
06:35They want to cut nutrition programs for hungry kids.
06:47So they can give Mr. Musk and the other billionaires a huge tax break.
06:52Goldsteinah!
06:53Great!
06:54Best pelice
07:02Have a great day, Mr. Chairman.
07:03Save you to watch the next break.
07:04Good.
07:06That is the zero that I really got on call.
07:10All you know awful â comer hungry, but talk a little bit.