Bernie Sanders (00:02):
Thank you. Let me thank Tim Kinsella for the music. Let me thank Fruit Bats and Whitney for their music. Let me thank Arturo Landa with the Teamsters. Let me thank Dr. Matt Mahoney, a great young doctor. Let me thank State Senator Robert Peters, your next member of Congress. And let me thank Congresswoman Delia Ramirez for being one of the strong, progressive voices in the US Congress. The truth-
Speaker 1 (00:52):
[inaudible 00:00:54].
Bernie Sanders (00:53):
Thank you. The truth is politics is not complicated. What politics is about is trying to understand where we are today, how we got to where we are, and maybe most importantly, where we want to go in the future. Now, you may think that that's a pretty simple proposition. Well, where are we today? What's the problem? We all know where we are. Well, we don't. Where do we want to go in the future? Are we really discussing that?
(01:35)
So I want to start off with a proposition, and I'm going to say it over and over again. We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. There is no excuse why every man, woman, and child in this country is not enjoying a decent standard of living. Period. And everybody in America has got to understand it. No excuse for 800,000 Americans sleeping out on the street or so many of us not having quality healthcare. No excuse at all.
(02:21)
So what is going on in America today? Well, what the media doesn't talk about very often and what you almost never hear in the halls of Congress is the reality that today you are living in a nation where a handful of incredibly wealthy people, multi-multi-billionaires, have enormous power and control over our economy, over our media, over our political system. And we are gathered here today to say that is going to change.
(03:13)
Today in America, we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of this country. You all got that? Never been more unequal, not in the 1920s, not in the 1860s, than it is today. Today, and again, one of the things the media does and what the establishment does, and the whole culture, it's not a conspiracy, it just happens, is they kind of tell us what we should be upset about, what we should be outraged about. If some kid with a gun goes into a 7-Eleven, we're supposed to be outraged. We are. That's a crime. But somehow we are not outraged when so few have so much and so many have so little. Well, I think we should be outraged with that.
(04:10)
In America today, if you can believe it, if you can believe it, one person, our good friend, Mr. Musk, you are familiar with Mr. Musk, one man owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households. You got that? Can you believe that? I mean, it is to me, now, you don't hear that discussed very much. I think I'm one of the few people who talk about it. So in the richest country on Earth, it doesn't matter how rich we are because of this massive inequality. One guy, more wealth than the bottom 52%. The top 1%, more wealth than the bottom 93%. CEOs today are making 350 times more than the average worker. Today in America, you have more concentration of economic ownership. In sector after sector, whether it's media, financial services, agriculture, transportation, you name it, a handful of giant corporations control what is produced and what you pay for those products.
(05:38)
But what the economy is, it's not just income and wealth inequality where the richest people have never had it so good, it's not just concentration of ownership. We are also looking at six major media conglomerates that own and control what you see, hear, and read. Do you ever wonder why some of the most important issues facing working people never get discussed? Well, that's kind of why. Do you ever ask yourself, how come we don't hear about what other countries around the world are doing in terms of healthcare or education? That is kind of why. So you've got a handful of billionaires controlling the economy and they control the media. But that's not enough. They also now control our political system.
(06:39)
So let us be clear. And that is, especially since this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, you have a political system now where billionaires can spend as much money as they want to elect their candidates or defeat candidates who stand with the working class. This is how the system works. Elon Musk, our friend again, contributed $270 million to elect Donald Trump president. And his reward. These guys don't make an investment without asking for something in return. They don't make these donations out of the goodness of their heart. And what he got was the ability to run the United States government for three or four months and to exercise his extreme right-wing ideology.
(07:47)
So what Mr. Musk was able to do, at a time when Social Security Administration is understaffed, seniors are having trouble getting information about their benefits, 7,000 Social Security employees were fired. At a time when we are not adequately staffing the Veterans Administration, so that the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us get the healthcare and benefits they deserve, Musk and his friends wanted to cut 80,000 employees from the Veterans Administration.
(08:38)
But it's not just elections. It's important to understand, that I tell you this as a United States senator, it's not just the power of money in buying elections. That's really bad. They're also involved in the legislative process every day with all of their lobbyists, et cetera. All right. This is how it works. Trump and the Republican leadership proposed this Big Beautiful Bill. Their so-called Big Beautiful Bill is, in my view, the most horrific and destructive piece of legislation ever passed in the modern history of this country.
(09:28)
What this legislation does, in short, in brief, is make massive cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, nutrition and education in order to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to the top 1% and $900 billion to large profitable corporations. Now, this is how money in politics works. If you think that many Republicans, especially those who represent low-income and working-class districts, didn't know what was in the bill, you would be mistaken. They knew what was in the bill.
(10:16)
And one guy, I don't know if you know his name or not, he's a guy named Thom Tillis, he's the senator from North Carolina. Tillis is a conservative Republican guy. But he actually did something unusual. He read the bill. This guy reads the bill, and he says, holy moly, hundreds of thousands of people in North Carolina are going to lose their health insurance if I vote for this bill. So he gets up and he says, "I cannot vote for this bill. It would be destructive for my constituents." You know what happened? Within minutes, Donald Trump was on social media ripping the hell out of this guy. Billionaires were announcing,
Bernie Sanders (11:00):
You standing up to the president, you don't like the legislation we brought forth, you are out of here. We're going to run somebody against you. And they have the resources to do that within a very short time. Senator Tillis says, "Forget it, I'm not running for reelection." The point, the point is that if people stand up for justice, stand up for what is right, they will be punished by big money interests. And that is a system that we can no longer tolerate because day after day, Washington becomes further and further removed from the reality of the American working class.
(11:56)
Now, as Delia and Robert told you, we are now living under the most dangerous president in perhaps the history of this country. This is a demagogue whose function in life is to serve the oligarchy and to try to divide us up. Now, when Trump was inaugurated, I had the unpleasure of being right in the front row. I somehow got shoved into the front row. Maybe nobody else wanted to go there, so they pushed me there. And I heard this horrific speech, but I want you all to remember because this is the essence of what Trumpism is about. Seated right behind Donald Trump were the three wealthiest people in this country, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, and Mr. Zuckerberg.
(12:56)
Seated right behind them were 13 other billionaires who Trump had nominated to head up major federal agencies. And as I was listening to this rather horrific speech, I really did think… I was thinking about American history and I was thinking about Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg. And some of you'll remember a few days after that terrible battle with thousands of union soldiers died to end the abomination of slavery. President Lincoln goes to the battlefield. People just died a few days before. And he looks out at the assembled crowd. And in so many words he says, "These guys did not die in vain, they die so that we will continue to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people."
(14:11)
And when I was listening to Trump and thinking about Abraham Lincoln, I was thinking that this guy is giving us a government of the billionaire class, by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class. Now I trust and I know that all of you understand how demagogues function and Trump is not original. It goes on around the world and it has gone on historically. The way demagogues succeed is by dividing people up and by scapegoating powerless minorities. That's how it's always been. It's been true in this country. It's true all over the world. Europe, it was Jews and gypsies. In this country it was gay people, black people, Latino people. Today it is trans people and the undocumented. So that's the strategy.
(15:16)
I mean, it's a well-thought-out strategy. So instead of addressing the serious crises facing the country and say, "All right, we got a crisis here. We got a crisis here. How do we work together to resolve those crises?" What a demagogue like Trump does is say, "Forget about the healthcare crisis, forget about climate, forget about education, forget about housing. We're not going to talk about that. We're going to talk about how we hate this group of people and that group of people." And the antidote to that which we must bring forth, we must create, is an understanding that if we do not all stand together, we're all going to go down together. And that's where we are now.
(16:28)
So they want us to hate this group and tomorrow it's another group and tomorrow it's another group. So people in this country are hurting and they want to understand what's going on. Why am I working longer hours for low wages? Why can't I afford healthcare? Why am I paying 50% of my income and housing? And Trump has an answer. It's the undocumented, it's trans people, it's whoever the next scapegoat is tomorrow. That's how demagogues function. And our job right now is to bring our people together around an agenda that says, "We are going to create an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just a few. We're not going to fall for your tricks anymore."
(17:26)
All right, so let's talk about what the democrats often don't talk about and that is, what kind of agenda do we need to address the needs of a struggling working class? Now, today, again, we don't talk about it much, but it is a sad reality. While the richest people in America have never ever had it so good, 60, 6-0, percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. You got it? Some of you are living paycheck to paycheck. Yes. All right. I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck. I know something about it. And what paycheck to paycheck is about is you wake up in the morning and you say, "How am I going to get through the day? Or how am I going to get through the week? How am I going to pay for the decent food? I want to make sure my kids are able to eat. What happens if my landlord raises my rent by 20%? Where am I going to live? Can't afford rent right now. I'm going to have to take my kid out the school. What happens? What happens if my car breaks down and the mechanic tells me it's 1,000 bucks to get it fixed? And what happens if I don't have that 1,000 bucks and millions of people don't have that 1,000 bucks. Can't fix my car. If I can't fix my car, I can't get to work. If I can't get to work, I get fired. If I get fired, what happens to my family? What happens if my mom is sick and she can't afford the prescription drugs? Or my dad has to go into a nursing home, or maybe I have to pay for childcare for my kid and I can't afford all these things." The result of all of that is that tens of millions of people in this country are living under incredible stress.
(19:27)
And you know what stress does to the human mind in the human body? It kills us. That's exactly right. Now, one of the disgraceful things that we don't talk about much that's going on in America is despite all of the money we spend on healthcare, I'm going to get to that in a second, despite all of the expenditures we have in healthcare, our life expectancy, how long we live is four years shorter than people in other wealthy countries. Got it. But you know what's even worse, and it is never discussed, working-class people in America live lives that are seven years shorter than wealthy people. Why is that? Tell me why. Give me an example of what I'm talking about. All right. Raise your hand. Tell me what that is about. Yes, stand up. Tell me more about what does that mean? All right. All right. The truth is, I did, yes, woman right here.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
[inaudible 00:20:42].
Bernie Sanders (20:41):
All right. You can't go to the gym because it requires some subscription. You can't get healthy food. You can't go to the doctor when you should. If you have to live under those conditions day after day, month after month, year after year. What the doctors tell you, there is an expression, it's called the physiology of poverty, physiology of stress. It impacts your heart. It results in a whole lot of diseases, which is why working-class people die significantly younger than the rich.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
That ain't right.
Bernie Sanders (21:16):
Not only is that not right, it is criminal. We are deserved better. And one of the things that the system in its broader sense doesn't want us to ask is just that issue. Should being working-class in America be a death sentence? No, it shouldn't. Should so many of our people have to struggle when you've got a handful of people on top who have unbelievable wealth? That's right. Those are the issues that we have got to put on the table.
Bernie Sanders (22:00):
God didn't create this stuff. This was created by people who are incredibly greedy. And let me tell you something because I deal with these guys every day. Tell you a story if I might.
(22:13)
I'm on the Veterans Committee, and I take veterans issues very seriously, and I want to thank all the men and women here today who served our country, put their lives on the line. And I go around my own state very often, and I talk to veterans, and I say, "Look, Joe, did you happen to know that there are a whole lot of veterans programs that you are entitled to?" And Joe will tell me, he says, "Yeah, Bernie, I know that. But you know what? There are other people who need it more than me."
(22:49)
I cannot tell you how many times in Vermont, and I'm sure it's true all over the country. In other words, it happens not to be true. These programs are there for all people. But these guys worry that if they get the program, somebody else who's maybe worse off than they will not get it. In other words, there is a generosity of heart and spirit. They worry about other people. That's what being human is about.
(23:23)
But this sense of empathy, of worrying about other people, this truly does not exist among the oligarchs, all right? They are very religious people. You know what their religion is?
Crowd (23:42):
Money.
Bernie Sanders (23:44):
It's greed, and they worship on the altar of money. And I don't understand this because this is not an economic issue. This is rather a psychiatric issue. And now all of us know it's true. It's absolutely true.
(24:05)
I mean, all of us know people who have addiction problems, whether it's drugs, it's alcohol, tobacco, whatever it may be. It's a serious problem in this country. These guys also have a serious addiction problem. No matter how much money they have, it is not enough. And if they have to step on you and you, if they have to destroy social security, Medicare and Medicaid to get another tax break so they can get a few billion dollars more, that is what they will do.
(24:43)
They are very formidable people. They lack the empathy gene. They could share less about humanity. It's all for themselves. And they're becoming more and more ostentatious. They don't give a damn who knows about it. Bezos has a wedding in Venice, 50 million bucks. Zuckerberg decides to buy 11 houses in Palo Alto. Bezos owns 14 homes around. They really are not shy. They're not embarrassed about telling the world that they have it all.
(25:24)
And we have got to change that culture in America. We've got to end… We've got to end the survival of the beast and fighting amongst ourselves, and we have got to develop a society that works for all of us.
(25:49)
Let me give you some examples of what I think we have got to do. Well, we have got to make clear, loudly and clearly, is that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege. We are the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people. That has got to end.
(26:24)
Anyone here think that that's a radical idea?
Crowd (26:29):
No.
Bernie Sanders (26:29):
Every other major country guarantees healthcare to all, and most of them spend half as much as we do per capita.
(26:42)
We have got to cut the cost of prescription drugs in this country in half. Think that's a radical idea?
Crowd (26:53):
No.
Bernie Sanders (26:53):
We pay, in some cases, 10 times more than other countries for the same exact medicine. Now, here's another idea that is not radical. We live in a competitive global economy, and that means we need to have the best educated workforce in the world.
(27:20)
Now, I hear many of my colleagues in Washington giving long speeches about how much they love America. Well, if you love America, you love the children in America. You don't have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth. You don't have a child care system, which is dysfunctional. You pay your public school teachers a living wage. I want the best and the brightest to go into teaching. We should start off every teaching job in America at at least $60,000 a year.
(28:22)
Today I had a meeting in Chicago with medical residents. Some of them graduated medical school, $500,000 in debt, nursing graduates, 100, $200,000 in debt. Ordinary kids going to a four-year school, 50, $80,000 in debt. We have got to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and cancel all student debt. And again, I got to say this over and over again. I want you to think about it. This is the richest country on earth. Why should we have a dysfunctional child care system, which costs parents far more than they can afford and yet pays child care teachers totally inadequate wages? Why is that? How is it that we can give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1%, but cannot have the best public school system in the world? That's not asking too much.
(29:48)
And when we talk about where we are as a country, just talk to people the other day in Davenport, young woman gets up and says, "You know what, the likelihood is I am never going to own my own house." And the statistics are pretty clear. And again, try to understand why is this? Why is it that the likelihood of a young person today owning a home is much less than his or her parents? We have a major housing crisis in America.
(30:20)
In two weeks, there'll be a bill coming before the Senate, the Defense Appropriations bill. It will ask people to vote for a $1 trillion military budget for a Pentagon that cannot pass an independent audit. It increases military spending by $150 billion.
(30:51)
Well, I think instead of spending a trillion dollars on the military, how about using that new 150 billion to build millions of low-income and affordable housing units in America?
(31:11)
And when we talk about the needs of workers right now in Washington, I'm embarrassed to tell you, but you already know it, the federal minimum wage has not been raised for a long, long time. It is a starvation wage of seven and a quarter an hour. I have the radical belief that if somebody works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty. Radical idea. We've got to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of at least $17 an hour.
(31:53)
There are millions of workers who want to join unions. If we're going to rebuild the middle class in this country, we need to rebuild the trade union movement. We need to make it easier for workers to be in unions, not harder. And that's why we've got to pass the PRO Act.
(32:18)
We are one of a few countries around the world that doesn't guarantee paid family and medical leave. Again, you're living in the richest country on earth. Moms and dads should not have to make the choice about whether they stay home with a sick kid, or they get fired if they don't go to work. Not a choice that should have to be made in the United States of America. Let's pass Paid Family and Medical Leave.
(32:48)
22, 22%
Bernie Sanders (33:00):
… of senior citizens in America, again in the richest country on earth, are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less. Can you imagine anybody trying to get by on 15,000 a year or less? 22% are seniors. Half of seniors are trying to get by on 30,000 or less. And then you've got Republicans out there saying, "Well, let's cut social security." I have a slightly different idea. And that is instead of cutting social security, we should expand social security benefits, and extend the solvency of social security so we know that it's there for our kids and our grandchildren.
(33:53)
And you know how you do it. That's right. That's exactly right. Right now we have the absurd situation. One person makes 10 million a year, one person makes 186,000. They both contribute the same amount into social security. Lift the cap. We can significantly expand social security benefits and the solvency of the social security trust fund. Let me remind the young people who are here that there was once a time, not so many years ago, when workers who worked for large companies had defined benefit pension plans, just like we have in Congress. Good idea. And what it means is that if you work for a company, or for several companies, when you retire you are guaranteed a certain pension every single month. I think that's a good idea and I think we should bring it back.
(35:11)
All right, to summarize, we are living in a system today, people on top never had it so good, but for working people, the system is broken. The economic system is broken. 60% living paycheck to paycheck. Healthcare system is broken. 85 million uninsured or underinsured. And that will be made much worse as a result of Trump's legislation. Education system, largely broken. Child care, dysfunctional. Higher education, too expensive. Trade schools not available for working class kids when they need it. In other words, when you talk about the basic necessities of life, health, education, housing, the system is broken. And our job right now is to tell the oligarchs on top, their day has come and gone. We're going to reclaim this nation.
(36:27)
And nothing that I am saying, I want to pound this away, and I've been called a communist and everything else, nothing that I am telling you is not supported by a strong majority of Americans. They know the system is broken. They know it is rigged for the rich. They know the political system is owned by the oligarchs. But not only, brothers and sisters, do we need to change our domestic policies, we need fundamental changes in our foreign policies. We must not give another nickel to Netanyahu and the Israeli government to starve the children of Gaza. I can tell you, I've gone all over this country, I've been all over this country, and I've talked to Democrats and progressives, I've talked to conservatives, Republicans, independents, the overwhelming majority of the American people do not believe that we should spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to starve children in Gaza. And this is an issue. And I want you to know this is an issue not only addressing the horrific situation which exists today, but how do you think the United States of America is going to have an ounce of credibility in condemning human rights abuses any place in the world? China does something, they're going to laugh in your face and say, "You tell us about what we're doing. You've supported the murder of the children in Gaza." Russia, the same thing. Russia's bombing Ukrainian cities. How do we go around condemning that when they're going to throw what's going on in Gaza in our face? Suppose a tough guy is president, right? Oh, he's a tough guy. He takes on the poor and the weak. Hey, Mr. President, if you're so tough, take on Netanyahu. Stop funding this war.
(39:04)
So brothers and sisters, this is a tough time, no ifs, buts and maybes. This is a difficult time for our country. But this is not the only difficult time that we have had. Don't let people tell you that we can't win this thing. People throughout our history have had to stand up and struggle for justice. Workers stood up and struggled to achieve union victories and a decent standard of living for us. Women stood up and struggled for the right to vote and to end sexism in America. African-Americans stood up to end segregation and racism. The gay community stood up to end bigotry against the gay community.
(40:11)
So our job now is every single day to stand up and fight against Trump's authoritarianism, his attacks on the working class. But it is also to hold out in our hearts and in our minds a vision of where this country should go. Wouldn't it be extraordinary if the whole world looked at America and said, "Wow, we want to emulate that great healthcare system you have. How'd you do it? That great educational system. How do you have affordable housing for all of your people? How do you have the best child care system in the world so that your kids are flourishing?" That's the America we want. Now, I'm not going to kid you. These oligarchs are enormously powerful. They have unlimited, underlined, unlimited amounts of money. They own the media, they control the economy. They have huge influence in both political parties. That is the truth. But here is another truth more powerful than that. And that is … I am not a mathematician, don't have a PhD in mathematics. Kind of failed it when I was in college. But this I do know, that at the end of the day 99% is a hell of a lot bigger number than 1%. So brothers and sisters, this fight is not only for us, it's for our kids, it's for the entire planet in terms of climate change. It's for democracy around the world. As goes America so goes the world. There's a lot of responsibility on each and every person's shoulders in this room. We got to think out of the box. We got to go outside of our comfort zones. We got to stand up and fight and create the America we deserve. Thank you all very much.