Bob Menendez

It really going to require real shared sacrifice, because I look at GDP in this country and about 70 percent of it is driven by domestic consumer demand.

It seems that those who are the wealthiest in the country, that major entities like the oil and gas industry that is getting $21 billion in tax breaks when they are going to make $144 billion in profits this year alone, no, we cannot touch…

I think it is fair to turn around and start managing and taking a look at that issue.

At the end of the day, they can make all of their commissions, but they have one standard. That would be the best interest of the investor.

A provision that I successfully included in Dodd-Frank would require publicly listed companies to disclose in their SEC filings the amount of CEO pay, the typical workers' pay at that company and the ratio of the two.

It is our task from afar to provide the supportive environment that helps to foster democratic practices.

If as part of our effort help strengthen the opportunities for sustainable development efforts and education efforts in the hemisphere, we give rise to a growing universe of citizens.

I have been promoting for several years now a social and economic development fund for the Americas to address the root cause of why people turn to the Chavezes of the world.

You want to stop the tide of undocumented immigration? One part of the equations is creating sustainable development and economic opportunities for people in the hemisphere.

What more are we willing to do to help civil society in the hemisphere, to empower them to have the ability to try to perfect democracies in their countries?

So I hope we will change course and move more aggressively ahead on the areas that I see as concerns in terms of our democracy programs.

Democracies are less likely to create armed conflict against other democracies.

I appreciate that we face challenges, and we had challenges in Poland and we had challenges in what was Czechoslovakia before it became the Czech Republic.

I'm hoping that the administration and the State Department will be more vigorously engaged in helping civil society.

But maybe one of the least commented on threats to democracy in Latin America is the silencing of civil society.

How can we work with the OAS to strengthen its resolve in pursuing enforcement of its Inter-American Democratic Charter?

In my view, freedom of the press is under attack in several countries in Latin America, in some cases by governments, in other cases by the threat of violence from private actors.

I think that entities and governments, particularly authoritarian governments, in the hemisphere are clearly going to push back.

We have pressed the Nicaraguan Government to invite credible domestic and international election observers.

We believe that the early presence of a sufficient number of credible and well-trained international observers will be important to the credibility of the process.

We celebrate that achievement and we seek to further solidify the pillars of democracy: fair and free elections, the independent operation of the legislative and executive branches, an independent judiciary, respect for civil society, and…

IRI has had a robust Cuba program for many years that supports civil society and conducts unique polling on the views of Cubans on a variety of issues.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the OAS Inter-American Charter, I wanted to convene a hearing to assess the progress of democracy in the hemisphere.

Elections are one element of a democracy, but without all the other aspects of what we would consider a democratic country-- independent branches of government, a judiciary that is honest, and a legal system that is transparent, that…

Moving costs money at the end of the day.