Bank of America

Floor Speech

Mr. SANDERS. I want to say a word on another interesting issue which took place today. You may have noticed that Bank of America has decided to withdraw its $5 fee for debit transfers. Let me tell you, the Bank of America, like the other banks that were going to go forward in imposing these fees, did not withdraw them because they were nice guys. They withdrew them because the American people said ``enough is enough'' in terms of the greed of Wall Street.

Let us never forget that it was the Bank of America and the other huge financial institutions on Wall Street that caused the recession we are in, resulting in millions of people losing their jobs, their homes, their life savings. Let us never forget that when Wall Street was on the verge of collapse, it was the American people and the Fed who bailed them out. And now that Wall Street and the large banks are making very handsome profits, paying their CEOs some of the largest compensation packages they have ever received, their thank you to the American people was to charge them a $5 a month debit fee.

But do you know what happened? The American people said thanks but no thanks. It wasn't the Senate that turned this around. It wasn't the House that turned this around. It was the American people. I applaud the people on the Occupying Wall Street campaign who focused attention on the greed of Wall Street, and the millions of other Americans who have said enough is enough.

The point here, which is a very profound point--which is ultimately what politics is all about--is that if the American people at the grassroots level begin to stand up and fight back, profound and positive changes can take place in this country. If the American people stand up and say: No, we are not going to cut Social Security, we are not going to cut Medicare, we are not going to cut Medicaid, or education, but we are going to move toward a balanced budget by asking the wealthiest people in this country, whose effective tax rate is the lowest in decades, to start paying their fair share of taxes, we can do that. We don't have to cut Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

If the American people say maybe we have got to end these outrageous tax loopholes that allow oil companies--which are making huge profits right now--in some years to pay nothing in Federal income taxes, we can end those loopholes as well.

If the American people say, well, maybe before we cut programs for the elderly, the sick, the children, and the poor, maybe we want to make sure those companies and individuals who stash their money in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, where we lose $100 billion a year because of the tax havens--when we rally the American people and they stand up and say enough is enough, we can change that too.

So today I congratulate the American people. You did it. You took on the largest financial institution in the United States of America and you beat it. And that should be step one. We should go on from there. The American grassroots has to continue to speak out in the fight for social justice in this country.

I yield the floor, and note the absence of a quorum.

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