Bernie Sanders

On behalf of 80,000 Vermont senior citizens who receive Medicare, I rise today in vehement opposition to the proposed 7-year, $400 billion cut in Medicare funding proposed by the Republican leadership. Today under present funding, many…

If we could perhaps wrap it up, I think, in conclusion, the point that we are trying to make, we as three or four members of the Progressive caucus, and there are 36 other members, is that we think to a large degree the Congress of the…

I find it interesting, the contract of America, the Republican proposal, talks about a whole lot of things, but it is amazing how it manages to miss the most important policy issues that affect the needs of working people. I say, ``I know…

I know that when we talk about the issue of jobs and the declining standard of living for the average American worker, what we are extremely mindful of is that for the young workers, especially for those who do not have a college…

He is suggesting a terribly radical idea hardly heard on the floor of the House, and that is that maybe trade policy should work for the benefit of the average American worker rather than the head of the large corporations who are trying…

The gentleman is suggesting a very radical idea. He is suggesting the trade policy in America, and I think this year we have had $160 billion trade deficit.

I think we depart by saying to the American people, please stand up, fight back and take back your country.

Now, on top of all of that, if that is not enough for you, during the debate over NAFTA, some of us were concerned that we were merging our economies with an authoritarian and corrupt government. What about Mr. Salinas' brother? Where is…

In other words, the point is that with over $20 billion of taxpayers' money at risk, Speaker Gingrich and the Republican leadership in conjunction with a number of Democrats are prepared not to allow that debate on the floor of the House…

Now, I have not witnessed this with my own eyes, but I have read and I have heard from other Members that the lobbyists themselves are now writing the legislation and giving it to Members to present. Have you heard that? ... I am not…

Just last night we repealed the law that did away with this scandal. That was part of the contract on America, to do away with the corporate alternative minimum tax. That means that an American who works in a factory job for 10 bucks an…

It is an obscenity that we stigmatize so many young people with a criminal record for smoking marijuana.

We have heard a lot about waste and bureaucracy. Let us talk about waste. Do Members know what waste is? $10 billion on the space station. Helping senior citizens heat their homes in Vermont in the winter time is not waste. Do you know…

Mr. Speaker, what a terrible rule. Cutbacks for heating programs for low income, for senior citizens, cutbacks in education, cutbacks for veterans, cutbacks for WIC. But we are not allowed to discuss cutbacks in corporate welfare, cutbacks…

To the best of my knowledge, King Hussein is not exactly on the welfare rolls as well.

And the rich get richer, and meanwhile with that money they can contribute huge amounts of money to both political parties. This institution itself, 20 percent of the Members at least are millionaires. We expect that with the high cost of…

It think maybe we all want to summarize our views, and the fear that I have is that this country increasingly is moving away from our democratic traditions into an oligarchy, and all that those tax breaks for the wealthy do is they make…

Are these the same group of people who are talking about cutting back on nutrition programs for hungry people and senior citizens because we have a terrible deficit? I just wanted to be clear. I was a little bit confused. Are these the…

A recent study showed that the CEO's of 23 of the Nation's 27 top job destroyers, these are the large corporations who are downsizing, who are throwing workers out onto the street, those particular CEO's received raises last year averaging…

The gentleman is correct, I think, in saying that polls in America support the death penalty. People want judges and juries to have the option to use the death penalty. I think the gentleman will not disagree with me that polls and studies…

My concern here is to make sure that in what would most likely be a corporate crime, multiple victims are notified. When somebody stabs somebody we know what is going on. If somebody rips off hundreds of people, it is very likely those…

The main point I wanted to make very briefly is that it is not for sure that this $40 billion loan guarantee is without significant risk, and that is the main point I wanted to make.

I was on a national television program the other day and one of the proponents of his bailout was saying, well, the Mexican economy is basically in good shape; they are having a short-term cash flow problem. But basically it is strong. One…

All right. What we should appreciate is that this loan guarantee to Mexico puts us at risk for over double what our entire foreign aid package is today. Is that correct?

So you have the American people against the bailout, you have the Mexican people against the bailout. And one of the frustrations that all of us share is that we know that, if that vote had come to the floor of the House, the U.S…