Should Congress begin to address income and wealth inequality from a moral perspective?

the wealthiest people in this country are not simply reinvesting their money in business or putting it under their mattress.

Do we have a problem that one family, the Walton family of Wal-Mart, owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of the American people, one family?

Such as extending long-term unemployment, putting money in the hands of people who desperately need that money.

I think you are right, but my point would be that even if you had more economic growth, if you had this kind of incredible inequality in terms of income, if 95 percent of all new income went to the top one percent, you can have six percent…

as the longest serving Independent in the history of the U.S. Congress, I wish to address an issue which I believe does not get the kind of discussion it should from either political party but certainly not from our Republican…

We need more Federal assistance. We need it long-term, we need reliability.

This is an enormously important hearing. Because it is vitally important that we hear from folk around the country who are struggling with one of the great challenges that we have, and that is a crumbling infrastructure.

I appreciate the interest my colleague from Louisiana has on this very important issue. I agree with him that we want to expand VA health care, that we have run into a bureaucratic morass, and there are 27 facilities in 18 States that can…

If we provided you with substantial sources of funding, we had a creative relationship, does anyone doubt that that would not be a significant job creator?

let me begin by commending my colleagues Senator Mikulski, Senator Harkin, Senator Alexander, and Senator Burr for their hard work to reauthorize the child care development block grant. This is a modest piece of legislation and I urge my…

Congress emphasized the importance of a regulatory framework that worked for the broad diversity of farming systems in America.

I want to thank all of our guests from VA for being with us today to discuss the budget.

General Shinseki, when you came into your position, you announced a very ambitious goal, and that goal was to process all claims in 125 days with 98 percent accuracy by 2015.

We applaud Senator Boozman and Senator Begich for leading this effort in the Senate by introducing S. 932, the 'Putting Veterans Funding First Act.'

We are dealing now with hundreds of thousands of men and women who have come home from Iraq and Afghanistan, dealing with traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder.

We need to make sure that people have access to mental health services in a timely manner.

we are not going to turn our backs on those veterans.

We have seen 2,300 individuals suffer wounds in war that make it impossible for them to have kids.

We are all distressed and saddened by the number of suicides that we face.

Enactment of S. 932 will generally free all VA services from the political gridlock that has crippled the appropriations process in Congress.

I am a great believer in primary health care.

We think we are making some progress. We want to continue that progress.

I would remind my colleague from Louisiana that the vote on that bill was 56 to 41. This is a 15-vote plurality. There is another person who was not here who would have voted for us on that bill, so 57 votes. But because of a Republican…

I appreciate the interest of Senator Vitter in this very important issue. Senator Landrieu of Louisiana shares his concern, as do Senators from many States in this country because, as Senator Vitter indicated, this bill will authorize the…