From Common Dreams
As we address the needs of working families, and combat climate change, we are going to create millions of good paying jobs, many of them union jobs.
he following remarks, asprepared for delivery, were given by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Tuesday, August 10, 2021 as the Senate began consideration of the FY 2022 budget resolution and reconciliation instructions:
Let me begin by thanking President Biden and Majority Leader Schumer for their leadership in the arduous process which has gotten us to where we are today.
Mr. President: I do understand that many of my Republican colleagues are in a bit of shock now. They are finding it hard to believe that the president and the Democratic Caucus are prepared to go forward in addressing the long neglected needs of working families, and not just the 1% and wealthy campaign contributors. That's not the way things usually happen around here. Usually it's the big money interests and the lobbyists who call the tunes. But not today. Today, we move the country forward in a different direction.
Mr. President: The American people are sick and tired of growing income and wealth inequality in our country where two people own more wealth than the bottom 40%, where the 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 92%, and where 45% of all new income has gone to the top one percent since 2009. Meanwhile, while the very rich have become much richer the gross unfairness of our current tax system has allowed, in a given year, some of the wealthiest people in the world and largest and most profitable corporations to not pay -- to not pay a nickel in federal income tax.
Well, that's about to change. The American people want a government which represents all of us, and not just the few. This legislation is going to ask the wealthy and the powerful to start paying their fair share of taxes so that we can address the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. And, despite what Republicans may be saying, no one in America who makes less than $400,000 a year will a nickel more in federal taxes. In fact, what we are looking at is an historic tax cut for working families and the middle class.
Further, at a time when California and Oregon are on fire, when Greece is burning and when countries throughout the world are experiencing unprecedented drought, this legislation begins the process of combating climate change so that our kids and our grandchildren can live in a country and a planet which is healthy and habitable. It would be immoral and an absolute dereliction of our responsibilities as Senators to do anything less. We cannot ignore climate change any longer. Now is the time for our great country to lead the world out of this existential crisis.
And, by the way, as we address the needs of working families, and combat climate change, we are going to create millions of good paying jobs, many of them union jobs.
Let me very briefly describe some of what's in this budget proposal.
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