Political Quotes

“I want to say a few words to my fellow Vermonters and anyone who might be interested as to why I will be voting against this deficit-reduction package when it comes to the floor. The reason is pretty simple. This deficit-reduction package is grotesquely unfair, and it is also bad economic policy. It should not be passed. The wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well. In a recent 25-year period, 80 percent of all new income created in America went to the top 1 percent who now earn more income than the bottom 50 percent. In terms of wealth, the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth of any major country on Earth with the top 400 people owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. When we talk about this deficit-reduction package with the richest people becoming richer, huge corporations making billions of dollars in profits and in some cases paying nothing in taxes, how much are those people--the wealthy and the powerful--asked to contribute toward deficit reduction and shared sacrifice? How much are the rich and the powerful going to contribute into this deficit-reduction package? The answer is zero. Not one cent. Meanwhile, as everybody in America knows, we are in the midst of a horrendous recession. Real unemployment is over 16 percent. People have lost their homes, their life's savings. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world.…”