American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009 - Conference Report
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Will my colleague yield?
Mr. SCHUMER. I am happy to yield on my colleague's time since I only have 3 minute left.
Mr. SANDERS. Sure. Does my friend recall that for many years under President Bush, the Republican leadership told us how imperative it was to repeal the estate tax, which would cost this Nation $1 trillion over a 10-year period? Mr. President, $1 trillion--and who were the beneficiaries of that tax break? The top three-tenths of 1 percent.
We are spending $800 billion, including tax breaks for the middle class, rebuilding this country. What does my friend think about $1 trillion for the top three-tenths of 1 percent as opposed to putting money into the middle-class and working families?
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, my sense of history is a little bit different than my good friend from Utah. I was under the recollection that George W.
Bush was President for the last 8 years. My recollection was that the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate for 6 of those 8 years. My recollection is that during the last 8 years, 6 million Americans slipped out of the middle class and went into poverty. My recollection is that median family income for middle-class working families declined by over $2,000. My recollection is that, yes, the wealthiest people in the country did very well under President Bush but that ordinary people struggled to keep their heads above water.
The bill we are addressing this evening is not perfect. I would have written it differently. I suspect everyone here would have written it differently. But what it does do is that in the midst of the greatest economic crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression, what we do is begin to address the unmet needs of the American people and we begin marching forward to create the millions of jobs this country desperately needs.
Most importantly, we begin the process of moving America in a very different direction so that, in fact, this country does not fall into a great depression from which it would take us years and years and tremendous human suffering to dig our way out.
What this legislation does is says that after years of neglect, let us create millions of good-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. In the State of Vermont, our bridges need work, our roads need work, our water systems need work. That is true all over this country.
Let us put people to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. That is what this legislation does. For decades now, people have been saying what a terrible shame it is, how silly it is that we import every single year hundreds of billions of dollars of oil from foreign countries. How silly it is. Well, finally we are beginning to address that absurdity. We are saying now and we are investing in energy efficiency, we are investing in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, sustainable energy.
Let's end the talk of moving us into a new energy direction. Let's invest in those areas so that America, in fact, can become energy independent. My Republican friends over the years have said what we need to do is give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country. In fact, right now, today, despite the fact that we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any country, the Republican leadership today says, let's repeal the estate tax.
Do you know that if we did as the Republicans wanted and repealed the estate tax completely, we would provide $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest three-tenths of 1 percent, millionaires and billionaires all? Not one person in the middle class would gain one nickel from that effort. It is one trillion dollars for the three-tenths of 1 percent.
Then they come to the floor of the Senate and they say, what a terrible thing, you are investing $800 billion rebuilding America, creating 3.5 million jobs, giving millions of middle-class and working-class Americans tax breaks. What a bad idea that is. You should do not that. We should not invest $800 billion rebuilding America. We should give $1 trillion to the top three-tenths of 1 percent. That is the contrast in terms of how they want to go and how many of us want to go.
What this bill does is not only begin the process of rebuilding our infrastructure, not only begin the process of moving us away from fossil fuel and foreign oil, what we also understand is that middle-class families cannot afford to send their kids to college. So we are putting a significant sum of money in and expanding the Pell grant program.
This bill understands that in these hard economic times, when millions of our fellow Americans have lost their jobs, hunger in America is a real problem. So we are putting money in for food stamps. We are putting money into energy, homeless shelters so that those among us, those least able among us, are protected.
Working-class and middle-class families cannot afford childcare. We are putting billions into helping them get the childcare they need, the Head Start they need, and creating jobs in that area as well.
This is an 800-page bill. It is not perfect. Everyone knows that. But this bill begins the process----
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. SANDERS. Of moving the country in the right direction. It should be supported.
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