Statement of Congressman Sanders on 5/21/2005 regarding: Vermont Town Meeting

Statement of Congressman Sanders on 5/21/2005 regarding: Vermont Town Meeting

Let me begin by thanking all of those who organized this event. I especially want to express my thanks to the folks at CVCAC, and all the other organizations who have worked with us on this important town meeting.

Why are we holding this meeting, why have we held a similar meeting in Springfield and why will we be holding future meetings in Rutland and Newport? The answer is simple. Poverty in America is increasing, and more and more working people are struggling hard to keep their heads above water. That is the reality of American life. Sadly, however, this is an issue that is largely ignored in Washington. It's very often ignored by the media. It is almost always swept under the rug by the Establishment. But, if I have anything to say about it, and what this town meeting is about, is that this is an issue that will not be ignored in Vermont. All of us together have got to begin understanding the reality of poverty, the causes of poverty, and we've got to come up with solutions that will help us end poverty. This is the richest country in the history of the world. The extent of poverty in America is a national disgrace, it is a moral issue, and it is an issue that we must address.

Let's take a brief look at what's going on in the United States today. Nationally,

conservatively speaking, 36 million Americans, 13 percent of our population, live below the poverty life. In the last four years alone, we have seen 4 million more Americans enter the ranks of poverty. Shamefully, at a time when we hear so much discussion in Washington about "moral values," 21.9 percent of the children in this country live in poverty - more than one in five. In Vermont there are over 17,000 kids in poverty.

Compared to the rest of the industrialized world the U.S. today has, by far, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country. Further, we have to mention that the federal definition of poverty, which provide the numbers I have been citing, were formulated in the 1960s and are inadequate for today's world. In all likelihood the real numbers are much worse.

Today in America, real wages are declining for the average worker. Millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they used to and many of the new jobs that are being created pay less than a livable wage and have minimal benefits. We have gone over the last 30 years from a General Motors economy with good paying jobs and good benefits, to a WalMart economy which means that working people sometimes need 2 or 3 jobs just to pay the bills. In Vermont, 57 percent of workers earn less than $13.42 an hour, the amount necessary to be able to afford safe and affordable housing in this state.

Nationally, in the last 4 years, we have lost 2.7 million good paying manufacturing jobs and we are now on the cusp of losing millions of decent paying information technology jobs. This morning I had the sad duty, as Vermont's Congressman, to meet with dozens of workers in Burlington from Specialty Filaments.

Today in America, 45 million Americans - including 66,000 Vermonters - have no health insurance, millions more are underinsured and many more are unable to afford the cost of the prescription drugs they need. From 2002-2003, about 136,000 Vermonters went without health insurance for part or all of the year. In Vermont and throughout the country, low income people are finding it very hard to access dental care or psychological services.

Today in America, we not only have a serious problem with regard to homelessness, but we have a major crisis in terms of affordable housing - with over 14 million families paying over 50 percent of their income on rent. If you're spending that much on housing, what happens to you and your family when a medical emergency strikes, when the car breaks down or when you lose your job.

Today in America there are people who are hungry. According to the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger, 23,000 Vermont families, including 21,000 children, are unable to obtain enough nutritious food to lead an active an healthy life.

When we talk about poverty in America, when we talk about the collapse of the middle class, it is important that we put it in a broader context. It is important to understand, for example, that not everyone in this country is hurting economically. In fact, the truth is quite different. While poverty is increasing, while more and more middle class Americans struggle economically, the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good. Last year, full-time worker pay averaged about $32, 594 dollars a year. That is 11 percent less than 1973's average worker pay, adjusting for inflation, although worker productivity rose 78 percent 1973 and 2004.

Meanwhile, we are seeing large increases in the number of billionaires and the wealth they own. According to a recent Forbes Magazine article; "The rich had a very good year. The collective net worth of the 691 billionaires we could find is $2.2 trillion, up $300 billion from the combined worth of the 587 people listed last year. Every region made gains." We are seeing a growing and obscene increase in the gap between the rich and the poor. Today, the richest one percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent, and the wealthiest 17,000 families earn more income than do the bottom 20 million families. From 1979 to 2000, before the Bush tax breaks, the gap between the rich and poor in the United States more than doubled and we now have the average CEO of a major corporation earning over 300 times what the workers there make.

In the midst of all of this, what is President Bush and the Republican Leadership doing? Actually, they are making a bad situation even worse.

In terms of health care, the President has proposed to cut Medicaid by $60 billion, including $130 million for Vermont. Nationally, this would increase the number of uninsured Americans by 350,000. The president also proposed slashing rural health programs by 64 percent. In my view, instead of cutting Medicaid and raising premiums for Medicare recipients, we should move this country to a single-payer national health care system that guarantees health care for all.

At a time when we have a $400 billion dollar deficit, and a national debt of over $7 trillion, the President wants to make permanent the huge tax breaks that he has given his wealthy friends and campaign contributors. In my view, instead of giving tax breaks to millionaires, we should adequate fund the needs of our veterans, our kids and our seniors - for housing, education and the environment. If we eliminated the tax cuts for the top one percent we would save $2.9 trillion over 75 years - and that's exactly what we should do.

This President wants to privatize Social Security and slash Social Security benefits for the middle class. We're not going to let him do it. Despite what the President says over and over again, Social Security is not in crisis and is not going bankrupt. With modest changes we can insure that Social Security will be available for our kids and grandchildren.

The President wants to expand upon our disastrous trade agreements - NAFTA and PNTR with China. He thinks that it's a great idea that American workers have to "compete" against workers in China who make 30 cents an hour and who go jail when they want to form an independent union. Well, we're not going to let him do that either. We're going to defeat CAFTA and roll back PNTR with China. We want trade agreements that work for the middle class of this country, and not just the CEOs of large corporations.

The President and the Republican leadership in Congress have not had one serious word to say about raising the pathetic $5.15 an hour national minimum wage. In my view, if a person works 40 hours a week that individual should not be living in poverty. Instead of giving billions of dollars a year in corporate welfare to large corporations who are moving our jobs abroad, we should provide help to small and medium size businesses and raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

http://bernie.house.gov/statements/20050523170113.asp