Bernie Sanders: “I wish to say a few words as to why I am strongly opposed to the Peru Free Trade Agreement. Some of the points I made…”

“I wish to say a few words as to why I am strongly opposed to the Peru Free Trade Agreement. Some of the points I made last night, but I think they need reiteration. The untold story of the economy in the United States is that the middle class is shrinking, poverty is increasing, and the gap between the rich and the poor is growing much wider. I am not going to stand here and tell you trade is the only reason the middle class is shrinking, but I am going to tell you it is a major reason, and it is an issue we have to deal with. Mr. President, since George W. Bush has been in office, 5 million Americans have slipped out of the middle class and into poverty, 8 rac{1}{2} million Americans have lost their health insurance, median household income for working-age families has gone down by nearly $2,500, over 3 million good-paying manufacturing jobs have been lost, 3 million Americans have lost their pensions, wages and salaries are now at their lowest share of GDP since 1929, and we are in a situation now where the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans earn far more income than the bottom 50 percent. In the last number of years, technology has exploded and worker productivity has increased. Yet in the midst of all of that, the middle class is struggling desperately to keep their heads above water, and poverty is increasing. I think the question this Senate should be spending a lot of time on answering is why that is happening.”