Bernie Sanders

The American people believe, whether you're Republicans, Democrats, Independent, that it should be our voters, the people of this country who determine the outcome of elections, not Russians, not people from any other country.

Let the investigation play out. I've been asked a million times, do I think Trump should be impeached blah, blah, blah? I don't right now.

I don't mean to be hyper political here, but one of the tragedies of the Trump administration is that fewer and fewer people believe anything that he says.

The obstacle there is, in fact, the organization that Mr. North represents, the NRA.

Right now in this country, we have 300 million guns floating around, including an estimated 5 million semiautomatic weapons.

My fear is that we are going to see a drip-by-drip depletion of funds for the VA and the services they provide.

Every single day, the VA is doing phenomenal work all over this country.

Bernie, do everything you can to prevent the privatization of the VA.

I think this ban is reprehensible for both moral and national security reasons, and I am extremely disappointed to see you support it.

I experienced what can and will never be duplicated in the private sector, and that is the communal aspect of VAs.

We cannot allow our great nation to be divided by the politics of hate.

In other words, no matter what one's view may be about the wisdom of the war, to vote to table is to abdicate our constitutional responsibility?

It seems to me we are talking about two separate issues, one of which is really a no-brainer. The no-brainer is that the Constitution is very clear that it is the Congress, not the President, that determines whether we go to war; that we…

Pursuant to section 1013 of the Department of State Authorization Act, fiscal years 1984 and 1985, and in accordance with the provisions of section 601(b) of the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act of 1976, I make…

But when we put money into the VA, we expect it to stay in the VA.

We like to be unique but not in that sense.

I resent taking money meant to go into the VA going into the Choice Program.

I intend to do everything I can to see that money goes into infrastructure.

Included in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 is the commitment that $2 billion in fiscal year 2018 and $2 billion in fiscal year 2019 will be used to, quote, ``rebuild and improve VA hospitals and clinics,'' end of quote.

How do we provide quality care in a timely manner to veterans if you have so many vacancies?

My experience in Vermont is not dissimilar to Senator Tester's in Montana, that Choice is causing a whole lot of problems for our veterans, through bureaucracy, inadequate payments, so forth and so on.

Let me be as clear as I can be. I will do everything that I can to stand with the veterans' organizations and millions of veterans who want to improve the VA and not privatize it.

I am distressed, although not surprised, by the objection. Apparently, the consumers of this country don't have the financial support to get their concerns onto the floor. So apparently we are not going to be discussing these items. Madam…

I thank the Senator from Illinois very much for his perceptive remarks and for reminding us that the time is long overdue for the U.S. Congress to accept its constitutional responsibilities. I wanted to ask Senator Lee if he--we are…

I say to Senator Lee that I think that is an excellent question. That was just the question that I was going to ask of Senator Murphy, because I think we understand that in recent history, when there is chaos and confusion in a country, it…