So what we are hearing--basically what this article tells us--is if people's income is going down, they are not going to Macy's, they are not going to Target. Those stores are not hiring workers or are getting rid of workers because the…

I have spoken repeatedly on this floor about the cost of war. In doing so, I have tried to remind the American people and my colleagues that the cost of war does not end when the last shots are fired and the last missiles launched. The…

Reserving the right to object, I need more than 10 minutes. Is that all right? That was the expectation. That is fine. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The Senator from Vermont. ____________________

I am delighted to have heard the speech from my good friend Senator Cornyn. As the ranking member of the Budget Committee, I think we are going to have some very serious discussions about the assertion Senator Cornyn and many other…

the scientific community tells us very clearly that if we are going to reverse climate change and the great dangers it poses for our country and the planet, we must move aggressively to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to…

Maybe, if we are serious about deficit reduction, rather than cutting Social Security or Medicare, we might want to examine that reality.

some of my Republican colleagues are looking forward to either cutting Social Security or moving to the privatization of Social Security.

In my view, these cost overruns are a prime example of wasteful spending that only benefits the bottom lines of some of the largest defense contractors in this country.

While we must continue to focus on the Federal deficit, we must also be aware that there are other deficits in our society that are causing horrendous pain for the vast majority of the American people.

Today, if you can believe it, the top one-tenth of one percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

If the debt is just a stalking horse for an attack on social programs--on Medicare, on Social Security, on other things--and if it is defined, as it has been defined in this very hearing, as an overspending problem, and my colleagues…

Hedge fund managers get a tax benefit that the witnesses have already condemned through the carried interest exception, and as a result, in the recent years they have had tax rates that are lower than the tax rates for Rhode Islanders who…

I have proposed on different--some of my colleagues have approached the problem in a slightly different way, but I asked the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, Mr. Goss, to estimate how long the solvency of Social…

we are going to hear from witnesses who suggest that in the midst of this massive income and wealth inequality, that we cut programs that the elderly, the children, the sick, the poor, and working families desperately depend upon

The top one percent own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

The IRS has estimated that each and every year about $350 billion in taxes go uncollected.

that is exactly what the Republican budget will be doing, taking from the working people and the poor and giving to the wealthy and large corporations

Well, thank you very much, Chairman Enzi. Congratulations on your assuming the Chairmanship of this important committee.

I did not vote to go to that war in Iraq. I did not go to war in Iraq.

I do not think it is accurate to characterize the situation as stealing from retirees to pay benefits to people with disabilities.

Medicare today is about cancer, it is about diabetes, it is about heart disease, it is about stroke.

If we are serious about dealing with the deficit, we are going to have to look at revenue.

Our job is to protect the middle class. Let us get to work doing that.

According to a November 2014 CBO report, the income of the wealthiest one percent of Americans has risen 200 percent since 1979 at the same time that their income tax rates have fallen.

I find it a little bit strange that some of my deficit hawk friends who want to cut Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid forgot to pay for two wars.