JUST IN: Bernie Sanders Delivers Speech About Policies To Help The Working Class

thank you, let me start by thanking all of you here in DC for coming tonight, much appreciated, let me thank C-SPAN for covering this event or also thank you to everyone who is watching via live stream as we enter the new year , as Congress begins its legislative session next week and as we have

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finished celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, one of the great fighters for

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ice in our nation's history, it is appropriate, it seems to me, that Let's ask ourselves two very simple questions. questions that are not asked very often one asks: what is daily life like today for the vast majority of our people and that is the

working

class of this country, the middle class of this country and low-income Americans, which What are the pains, what are the struggles and the hopes that these millions and millions of people will strive for Christ that is question one, question two, what is Congress going to do to improve the lives of

working

families in the 2023 in the midst of an explosion of technology, massive wealth creation, and transformational economic change, how we can be sure that all Americans have the decent standard of living to which they are entitled is a utopian question. heaven or is something we can really achieve if we put our minds to it and I think we can do it now.

Consider that these very basic and simple questions are often discussed in the Senate or the House of Representatives or in the corporate environment. Well, if you thought you'd be wrong for a wide variety of reasons that have significantly to do with money in politics. and corporate ownership of the media, these are issues that are rarely discussed, we almost never hear a serious discussion about them and that is the purpose of my comments tonight and the type of discussion that I hope these comments will stimulate. Members of Congress and Americans may disagree politically. and philosophically where we want to go in the years to come, but it is imperative that we recognize the current reality that we find ourselves in as a country and not run from that reality and, in my opinion, the most important economic and political challenges The realities that you face now this country are as follows: a capital: the long-term decline of the American middle class.

This decline is not a new fact; it certainly didn't start in President Biden's administration or the Donald Trump years. This decline has been happening. for 50 years and we have to ask ourselves why and we have to put an end to that decline. The second point that we do not discuss enough is the obscene and unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality that currently exists and here is the sad reality and that is that never before in our history have we seen so few own as much as we see today, we have We have to put that issue on the table and put an end to that reality.

The third point we did not discuss is the rapidly growing concentration. of ownership within our economy, in sector after sector, a handful of giant corporations control what is produced and how much we pay for their products, and by the way, when you talk about inflation, that has a lot to do with this concentration of ownership. in fourth place. And that is the incredible and dangerous power that billionaires have over our political system. We can hardly call ourselves a vibrant democracy when a handful of the richest people in this country can spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to elect the candidates they want. that is not democracy and the fifth point is bringing it all together and something that we certainly do not discuss in Congress and certainly not in the corporate media is that what we are witnessing now in this country is the rapid evolution of our society towards an oligarchy in the that the billionaire class has enormous and growing control over the economic and political life of this country, that is the reality and that is a reality that we must face now, it is now very easy for politicians to look at Vladimir Putin's Russia and talk of the oligarchy there, that is certainly true, but it is time that we start paying attention to the oligarchy in the United States of America.

When we talk about what is happening in our country, let's start by taking a close look at the state. of our economy and what you will find is that the economy is doing extraordinarily well, it is doing fantastically for the people at the top for the billionaire class, unfortunately the economy is not doing so well for the working class of our country when we have Tens of millions of families are increasingly left behind as they struggle to pay their bills, care for their children and put food on the table. The enormous injustice, ugliness and cruelty of our current economy can be seen in stock market terms when we look at how workers function.

The class and the billionaire class have kissed during the horrible pandemic we have experienced, on the one hand, tens of thousands of American workers died going to their jobs during the worst public health crisis in modern American history, these extraordinarily brave men got up and went to work. They did their job and they were nurses. We have lost thousands and thousands of nurses who treated us during the pandemic. They are bus drivers. They have meat packing workers. They are EMT personnel. Your police. They are firefighters. Your teachers. Your grocery store workers. many others went out and did what they had to do and many of them lost their lives and others became seriously ill, that is what happened to the working families, on the other hand, sitting safely in their offices and in their homes, the billionaire class During this period it became a two trillion dollar ritual that often increased prices during the pandemic for the products we needed.

Desperate workers were forced to go to work in unhealthy and unsafe environments and thousands of them died because they were doing their essential jobs and because they had to feed their families in the meantime. Billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson took Joyrides to outer space, bought half-billion-dollar yachts and lived in huge mansions with dozens of bathrooms, while more and more working-class Americans can't afford the health care they need. they need. It takes three people, one, two, three people who own more wealth than the bottom half of American society. 165 million people. Let me repeat that because you won't hear it on television very often or hear it discussed in Congress.

We are living in a time when three Today, people own more wealth than the poorest 165 million Americans, we now have more income and wealth inequality than in any other period in American history, while nearly 18 millions of American families pay more than 50 percent of their limited income on housing and nearly 600,000 Americans are homeless, the top one percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent of the American people today, while millions of Ordinary workers work longer hours for lower wages, CEOs of our country's largest corporations now earn nearly 400 times more than the average worker, the highest CEO worker differential in American history in the 1950s.

CEOs earned about 20 times more than the average worker in the 1980s they earned 59 times more than the average worker in 2009 they earned about 180 times more than the average worker and today According to the latest figures, CEOs now earn 399 times what the average worker earns, but this long-term trend of growing inequality in the United States is more than the scandalous pay gap between CEOs and workers: it's much more than that since 1975, almost 50 years ago. There has been a massive redistribution of wealth in our country, the problem is that that redistribution has been going in precisely the wrong direction for the last 48 years.

According to a study by the Rand Corporation, more than $50 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from below. 90 percent up one percent $50 trillion that came from a growing percentage of corporate profits has been flowing into the stock portfolios of the very rich $50 trillion going from the bottom up and it's not just about income and wealth inequality What is plaguing our nation is the poor distribution of economic and political power. Today we have more concentration of ownership than at any time in the modern history of this country, in one sector after another, whether it's financial services, energy, food, transportation, a handful of giant corporations.

Controlling what is produced and how much we pay for those products is incredible and this is truly incredible. Three Wall Street firms alone, BlackRock Vanguard and State Street, control assets of nearly $20 trillion and all the major shareholders of 96 of the 500 corporations. Three Wall Street companies. And I might add, if you're wondering why you don't hear much about this topic in the corporate media, maybe it simply has something to do with the fact that about six multinational media conglomerates own and control about 90 percent of what the people American Watch Listen and Read Now you can't turn on the television without hearing a lot of stuff about everything under the sun, but somehow or another these important topics that have to do with wealth and power somehow don't get through. to our television screens.

Now, some of you may remember that at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second inaugural address, FDR, in 1937, after he had won a second term, famously said, and I quote: "I see a third of a nation badly housed, ill-dressed and ill-fed in the quote well, I am not here this afternoon to tell you that the current state of the American economy is as bad as it was during the Great Depression it is certainly no thanks to God, but as the incoming chairman of the committee; pensions and health education work when I look at this country in the year 2023, let me tell you what I see I see a nation where 63 percent of workers live paycheck to paycheck, paycheck to paycheck and I know something about that because I grew up in. a family that lived paycheck to paycheck.

And what does that mean? What does it mean to live paycheck to paycheck? It means that every day you live under incredible stress. You're a mom, you're a dad, you're scared to death, if your car breaks down. it spoils if your children get sick. if your landlord increases your rent if you get divorced or separated if you get pregnant if for any reason you lose your job when you're living paycheck to paycheck you'll find that if any of these things happen you'll find yourself in the middle of a financial catastrophe and we're not talking about that kind of thing. stress and what it means to millions of our people who live paycheck to paycheck and it leaves you with no sense of security, you can't breathe, you can't relax, there is no cushion to lean on and there is no quality time to spend with the family in a relaxed environment and that, in my opinion, is one of the reasons why the life expectancy of workers in this country is much lower than that of those with higher incomes.

Stress kills and having to work to survive and worry about your daily existence, yourself and your children. That kind of stress makes people sick and eventually kills them. Today I see a nation where almost a third of our workforce, a third of our work, was almost 52 million workers who earn less. of 15 dollars an hour and let's do the economic calculations on that, if you are a full time worker making fifteen dollars an hour, you will receive an income of about 31,000 more before that, before federal, state and local taxes. Thirty thousand dollars today. This is for people who make 15 dollars an hour and there are millions of people who make eleven twelve nine dollars an hour, some people still make seven and a quarter an hour.

Well, today it happens that the average landlord in America asks new tenants to pay on average. nineteen hundred dollars a month rent 22,800 a year the average household in America spends over fifty two hundred dollars a year on groceries and then of course there are the costs of child care and education, health care, medicine, transportation, clothing, cell phone, computer, everything you need, so tell me, my friends, tell me, how can someone survive when their basic needs cost more than their income and that is the reality that millions of working class Americans experience every day? These are people who go out to work.

They work hard, they work in dangerous environments, and yet they fall further and further behind while the people at the top get richer and richer, so let's also be very clear that what we are seeing today is not some kind of radical economic transformation that suddenly affected our country. that is not the case the reduction of the American middle class has been happening for decades in the United States today I see a nation where the average worker earns 54 dollars a week less than 50 years ago after adjusting for inflation, that is whatyou think. about that for a moment, just think about it and understand why working people all over this country, white and black Latino, were just angry, think about all the incredible advances in technology that have been made in the last 50 years and everyone knows which ones are.

I'm talking about computers, robotics, artificial intelligence, you name it, and as a result of that explosive technology, we've seen a huge increase in worker productivity that is unparalleled in history. And yet, when all is said and done, real weekly wages for Native American workers are lower today. than they were in 1973. That is truly extraordinary, how is that possible? Well, the answer is that virtually all of the economic gains created by modern technology have not benefited ordinary workers, almost all of those gains have gone to the people who own society. the people at the top now are a wonder given all that today it takes two breadwinners in most households to pay the bills when 50 years ago most American households needed one breadwinner to do it when we talk of the conditions facing American workers Obviously, it is not just wages and income that are important, but also whether people can access the basic necessities of life and there is nothing more basic than health care and, in terms of health care, something that the health education labor committee will obviously address from what I see.

I see a nation where more than 85 million of our people are uninsured or underinsured, and as you all know, we are the only major country in the world that does not guarantee health care to all. I see a nation where incredibly more than 500,000 people go bankrupt each year due to healthcare-related debt. You must be sick. You had a cancer operation. I see a nation and we don't talk about this at all, virtually no one talks about this, where over 68,000 people die every year because they can't afford the medical care they need. I have spoken to doctor after doctor in Vermont and around the world. country telling me about patients who walked in the door terribly sick and the doctor said: why didn't he present his symptoms when he first felt them?

At least I don't have any insurance, I can't afford it and thousands and thousands of people finally make it to the doctor's office and it's too late and they die in the United States of America. I see a nation that spends more than twice as much per capita on health care, we don't talk about it much, we are spending twice as much for health care as other major nations, all of which, by the way, guarantee health care to all people and what we are Spending today is incredible, think about it, thirteen thousand dollars for each man, woman and child, that is, fifty-two thousand dollars per person. family of four, and yet, despite that enormous spending, our country has worse health care outcomes than most other countries and our life expectancy is shorter than that of most developed nations.

That's the bad news, but the good news is that insurance companies make billions of dollars. every year and that dynamic brothers and sisters have to change this broken and dysfunctional healthcare system, even with all the money we spend, we cannot produce the number of doctors, nurses, dentists and mental health specialists that we desperately need . Can you believe we spent thirteen? thousand dollars per person, insurance companies make billions every year in profits and we can't even produce the doctors, nurses and mental health staff we need. Today I see a nation paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

As the pharmaceutical industry makes record profits and more than a few pharmaceutical executives become billionaires, it's not uncommon for these guys to become billionaires. Meanwhile, despite billions in government investments, we are spending as a nation and should be spending dozens of billions of dollars trying to develop life. save medications despite that enormous expense nearly one in four Americans cannot afford to buy the medications that are doctors predict it is time for the pharmaceutical industry to pay attention to the needs of the people of this country, not just its shareholders, and in this country the richest nation in the history of the world because Medicare does not cover dental care it does not cover hearing it does not cover vision there are millions of low-income seniors who do not have teeth in their mouths and cannot chew their food thoroughly because the cost of dental care is something they can't afford and many other seniors literally can't talk to their grandchildren because they've lost their hearing, they can't afford hearing aids and they can't afford glasses to watch TV, and that is what we are doing in health care and it is time to have a serious discussion about a dysfunctional health care system and start doing what your other major country on Earth does, which is move towards a system that guarantees care to everyone as a human right, not a privilege in terms of education and education is obviously, for many reasons, a basic human need in terms of how we treat our young people in general, we don't talk about this much either.

I see a nation where we shamefully now have the highest rate of child poverty of almost any nation on Earth and millions of children, disproportionately black and brown, face food insecurity. Now, as you may remember, we made some progress by filing for an expired child tax credit, we have to get that test tax credit back. Again, thank you in terms of education. I see a nation where we can somehow afford to provide over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top one percent and large corporations, but our teachers and our children have broken chairs and flooded classrooms. and inadequate staff support and where many thousands, many thousands of our teachers and teaching staff receive inadequate salaries, it is not too much to ask that in the richest country on Earth we have the best public education system in the world today.

I see a nation where hundreds and this is simply incredible given the scarcity of work given our needs in the competitive global economy. I see a nation where hundreds of thousands of bright young people who have the desire and ability to pursue higher education cannot do so because their families lack money, and at the same time I see a nation where 45 million Americans are drowning. in student debt. You shouldn't go bankrupt because you received an education, but it's not just about higher education. Psychologists have told us for years that The first four years of human life are the most important in terms of intellectual and emotional development.

The first four years and yet I see a nation that has a totally dysfunctional child care system that costs on average over fifteen thousand dollars a year per test. Tell me if you are a working middle class person making forty fifty sixty thousand dollars here, how can you afford fifteen thousand dollars a year for your child and besides there are not enough spaces in many parts of the country? They don't even find spaces to put their children in and beyond all that, despite the important work that child care workers do, they are paid a visibly low wage, averaging thirteen dollars and 30 cents an hour, and that's less than a parking attendant or a dog daycare worker, that's how we treat the workers who care for our country's most vulnerable people, young children, while on top of all that, we're still the only major country in the world that doesn't guarantee paid family and medical leave, so yeah.

We must work to create the best-educated workforce in the world, one that prepares our children to succeed in a highly competitive global economy, that recognizes that high-quality public education from childhood to adulthood is a right for everyone, not just a privilege of a few. Now let me say a word about the Labor Party because the Labor Health Education Committee will be dealing with the Labor issue in a big way and in terms of the Labor Party I not only see a nation with a rigged economy and an unprecedented level of income inequality wealth, I see workers from Vermont to California at companies like Starbucks and Amazon;

I see workers in hospitals and factories on college campuses fighting corporate greed and organizing unions for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. That's what we're seeing all over this country. A rebirth of the Labor Party. activism, but at the same time, unfortunately and unacceptably, I see large corporations engaging in vicious and illegal union-busting activities while trying to deny workers their constitutional right to form unions and we have news for those large corporations: they are going to stop break the law, why? Do we want to grow the union movement and support workers who are trying to organize?

The answer is obvious and it is because unions offer better wages, better benefits and better working conditions for their members. In fact, unionized workers earn on average wages of about 20 percent. higher than their non-union counterparts, they also have much better health care and much better pension plans than non-union employees and, by the way, many people don't recognize this when unions get decent contracts for their members, raise wages for all workers in the country and when we talk about low-wage jobs in the United States we should talk about finally raising the minimum wage to an incredibly living wage and it's really quite incredible that the federal minimum wage today is seven dollars and 25 cents an hour and It hasn't been raised since 2009. and tipped minimum wage workers have been stuck at a miserable minimum wage of two dollars and 13 cents for over 30 years, it hasn't actually been raised in 30 years, so yeah, We must follow the example of some states around us. the country and raise the minimum wage to a living wage we must stand up to the extraordinary greed and power of corporate America and make it possible for their workers to exercise their constitutional rights, that is all workers are asking for to organize unions, we must end the international agreement shame that the United States of America is the only major country in the world that does not guarantee paid family and medical leave in terms of pensions.

I see a nation and, again, this is not a topic that is discussed very little. I see a nation where half of older Americans have no retirement savings and no idea how they will be able to retire with a shred of dignity. Imagine you know that when you're 60 years old you've worked your entire life, you have nothing in the bank and you're facing retirement, millions of people are in that boat. I see a nation where 55 of the seniors are trying to survive on an income of less than 25,000 a year. You mention that you are old trying to survive on 25,000 a year or less.

In my opinion, we need to expand to find pension benefits. plans In the United States that said they are an endangered species in our country, we must also expand Social Security benefits, not cut them, my fellow Americans, there is a lot of discussion in the media, here is how divided our nation and on many issues there is no question, but that is absolutely true, on many issues we are very divided, but what we do not appreciate enough is that on some of the most important issues facing our country, the American people, whether Democrats , Republicans, independents, progressives, conservatives, it's often quite united.

The American people know that the greed of the pharmaceutical industry is ripping us off and wants us to substantially lower prescription drug prices. I recently saw a poll that surveyed only Republicans, do you know what issue was at the top of the list for lowering drug costs? prescription drugs, whether you are a Democrat or Republican, you know that we should not pay 10 times more for the same drug sold in Canada or elsewhere. The American people, regardless of their political views, know that our health care system is outrageously expensive, bureaucratic, and wasteful, and the American people, regardless of their politics, want universal, lower-cost health care.

The American people again, regardless of their politics, know that education is essential to our lives and the future of this country and they want high-quality, affordable public education starting in child care. to graduate school the American people again, regardless of affiliationpartisan, knows that no one can survive on a minimum wage of seven dollars and 25 cents an hour and the American people want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage the American people know that workers have a constitutional right right to form unions and their corporations who engage in illegal union agitation must be held accountable and these are just some of the issues within the jurisdiction of the health education labor committee that a large majority of the American people want us to address so that my The point here is, of course, that there are strong political differences in this country, but on many economic issues, workers, whether progressive or conservative, understand that corporate greed is destroying this country and they want us to act on their behalf, so if Ask me today what the status is of a working class in struggle.

I would tell them that the working class of this country is united around an agenda that meets the needs of ordinary Americans and not just the rich billionaires who contribute to their campaigns, and our job is to bring those people. together now at a time when too many, too many Americans are giving up on democracy, which is a sad reality, now is the time for all of us, the Democrats, the Republicans, the independents, to try to restore faith in our government If the government ignores your life, your pain and the needs of the children, your children, it is understandable that they say who cares about democracy, who cares about what Congress is doing, they don't care about me and our job now is may Congress have the courage to stand up to the powerful corporate interests and their lobbyists and campaign contributors who flood the Capitol and show the American people that our government can work for them and not just the one percent and let me add that It is imperative that we take the discussion of all of these important issues and even more so that we take this discussion out of the Beltway here in Washington and into communities across this country and I intend to see our committee travel this country to hear directly from working people about the struggles that they face in their jobs.

I look forward to hearing from seniors who cannot afford the outrageously high healthcare costs they face every day. I look forward to hearing from young people across the country who want the opportunity to get a decent education but don't want to leave school deep in debt, and I look forward to hearing from parents who want high-quality, affordable child care for their children at this difficult time in history. of America and it's a very difficult time, let's have the courage to come together and fight corporate greed, let's fight massive income and wealth. inequality that is happening right now let's fight a corrupt political system dominated by billionaire campaign contributors let's listen to the needs of working families and not just corporate CEOs let's finally come together and create an economy and government that works for all not just one percent thank you very much everyone