On the Senate floor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tore into the Republican reconciliation budget bill.
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00:00Thank you. Mr. President, the American people, whether they are Democrats, Republicans or Independents, understand that we have a corrupt campaign finance system which allows billionaires and their lobbyists to play an extraordinarily powerful role in electing candidates, in defeating candidates,
00:27and in crafting legislation. This is true of both parties, Democratic Party and the Republican Party money talks. But today, with Republicans in control of the White House, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, we are seeing, day by day, how this corrupt process plays out for the priorities
00:57of the Republican Party and for their billionaire campaign contributors.
01:03Mr. President, this so-called reconciliation bill, President Trump's big, beautiful bill that the Republicans are putting together right now in the House, is a rather extraordinary piece of legislation.
01:21In many respects, given the crises facing our country, this legislation does exactly the opposite of what should be done. It's rather remarkable. You've got a problem, and instead of addressing the problem, they make the problem worse.
01:41It is no secret that we have more income and inequality in our nation today than we have ever had. Serious problem. Today, the wealthiest person in the world, Mr. Elon Musk, who is now worth more than $400 billion, owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American society.
02:08Rather extraordinary. The top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. And CEOs of large corporations now make about 350 times what their workers make.
02:31Unbelievably, according to the RAND Corporation, over the past 50 years, nearly $80 trillion, that's a T, $80 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90% of the American people to the top 1%.
02:53So, what we have seen is the very wealthiest people in America are becoming much richer, while at the same time, 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and many millions of families are struggling to just put food on the table.
03:16That is the economic reality of today. So, what does President Trump's and Republican reconciliation bill do to address this grossly unfair and, in my view, unstable economic situation?
03:35What are they doing when the very rich are becoming much richer, while working families struggle?
03:44Well, here's the answer. This legislation makes the rich and wealthy campaign contributors even richer, while making life harder and more stressful for the working families of our country.
04:00This legislation provides massive tax breaks to the top 1% and large corporations, and pays for these tax cuts by cutting Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, nutrition, education, and other programs that are life and death for working families.
04:27Let me just give you one example of how outrageous this legislation is.
04:34As currently written, this bill provides a $235 billion tax break to the top two-tenths of 1% by increasing the estate tax exemption for couples to $30 million.
04:53I'm not talking about the top two percent. I'm talking about the top two-tenths of 1%.
05:02The estate tax is only applicable to the very wealthiest people in this country who inherit substantial sums of money from a relative.
05:12Under this provision in this reconciliation bill, a couple that inherits $30 million would now pay zero tax on that inheritance.
05:26Once again, this provision applies only to the top two-tenths of 1% of Americans, the very, very wealthiest people in this country, and people just coincidentally, I know, make massive campaign contributions to the Republican Party.
05:48Coincidence? No doubt. 99.8% of Americans would not benefit by one nickel under this provision. Top two-tenths of 1%, $235 billion in tax breaks.
06:07Further, Mr. President, this legislation would provide a $420 billion tax break to large, profitable corporations that are stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens,
06:22and who, by the way, are replacing American workers with robots.
06:27They get a tax break for throwing American workers out on the street and replacing them with new technology.
06:34Bottom line, the tax provisions in this reconciliation bill provide huge tax breaks to the people in our country who need it the least,
06:47while doing great harm to ordinary Americans.
06:52Mr. President, again, whether you're Democrat, Republican, or Independent,
06:58you know that our current healthcare system is broken, it is dysfunctional, it is cruel, it is wildly expensive.
07:08Despite spending almost twice as much per capita on healthcare as any other major nation,
07:16some 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured,
07:21and we remain the only major country on earth that does not guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right.
07:29So, given that reality, the reality of a broken, wildly expensive healthcare system,
07:39how does this reconciliation bill address the healthcare crisis in America?
07:46Does it expand healthcare to more Americans and lower the number of uninsured?
07:54We've got 85 million right now.
07:57Does it lower that number?
08:00Does it take on the greed of the insurance companies and the drug companies
08:05who make tens and tens of billions of dollars every single year
08:10by ripping off the people of our country?
08:13Is that what this reconciliation bill does?
08:17Not quite.
08:19What this legislation, in fact, does do is cut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act by $715 billion,
08:30which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated would eliminate health insurance for 13.7 million Americans.
08:40In other words, this legislation makes a very bad situation in terms of our healthcare crisis catastrophically worse.
08:53If we were to pass this bill, the number of Americans who would be uninsured or underinsured would rise to almost 100 million Americans.
09:07In other words, instead of lowering the number of uninsured or underinsured people in this country,
09:14this bill greatly increases that number.
09:19But that's not all that this legislation does.
09:22This bill, for the first time, forces millions of Medicaid recipients who make as little as $16,000 a year to pay a co-pay of $35 each time they visit a doctor when they get sick,
09:41up to 5% of their annual income.
09:46Well, what will be the impact of that?
09:50According to a study from Yale University, some 68,000 Americans die every year because they don't go to a doctor on time.
10:01I don't know about you, Mr. President, but I have talked to doctors in Vermont and all over this country,
10:06and they tell me that patients walk in their door very, very sick.
10:13And they say to the patients, they say,
10:14well, why didn't you come in earlier when you first felt your symptoms?
10:18And what the patients will say is, well, you know, I don't have any health insurance,
10:21or I can't afford the co-payment, or I can't afford the deductible.
10:25The deductible hasn't kicked in yet, and I don't go.
10:29And some of these people walk into a doctor's office so sick that they die when that should not have been the case.
10:38Now, if you are making good salary, if you're making a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year,
10:45the odds are that a $35 co-payment, which many people have, will not deter you from going to the doctor.
10:54You may not like it, but you fork over the $35, and you go to the doctor when you are sick.
11:01But, Mr. President, if you are a low-income American, and if you're struggling to pay the rent,
11:08or you're struggling to buy food for your kids, or to pay for childcare,
11:13that $35 co-pay may be just too much.
11:19And the result is that you don't see the doctor when you should.
11:24Mr. President, when you throw almost 14 million Americans off of the health insurance they have,
11:32and when you force low-income people to pay a $35 co-payment that they can't afford to pay,
11:41no one can deny that many thousands more Americans will die if this bill is signed into law.
11:52If this bill is signed into law, we are providing a death sentence for many thousands and thousands of people.
12:03That's just the simple reality, and nobody can deny that.
12:10Further, Mr. President, when Trump and the Republicans in the House make massive cuts to Medicaid,
12:17they are also making massive cuts to community health centers,
12:22which provide primary health care to 32 million low-income and working-class Americans.
12:28In other words, the cuts to Medicaid go well beyond the immediate impact on the individuals who will lose their health insurance.
12:38It impacts the entire health care community.
12:43Community health centers rely on Medicaid for 43 percent of their revenue.
12:49When you cut hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid, you are significantly cutting back on the access
12:56that millions of low-income and working-class Americans will have to primary health care.
13:04Once again, community health centers provide health care to 32 million Americans.
13:10Many of them in Vermont and all over this country are struggling today.
13:14make massive cuts to Medicaid.
13:17It will be a disaster for these community health centers and the people who utilize them for primary care.
13:23Mr. President, it is not just community health centers that would be devastated by this legislation.
13:32All across this country, rural hospitals are shutting down and facing enormous financial pressure all over this country.
13:42This legislation will only accelerate those closures and bring increased hardship to rural America
13:51at a time when rural America already has quite enough problems.
13:55Here is what Rick Pollack, the President and CEO of the American Hospital Association said,
14:03These proposed cuts will not make the Medicaid program work better for the 72 million Americans who rely on it.
14:13Instead, it will lead to millions of hardworking Americans losing access to health care
14:21and many of our nation's hospitals struggling to maintain services and stay open for their communities.
14:32End of quote.
14:34No question, this Medicaid cut will result in rural hospitals cutting down, being shut down in increasing numbers.
14:44Further, Mr. President, I hope my colleagues will listen to what Bruce Siegel, the President and CEO of America's Essential Hospitals,
14:53said in opposition to this bill, and I quote,
14:56Hospitals which already operate on thin margins cannot absorb such losses without reducing services or closing their doors altogether.
15:10End quote.
15:11That is exactly what rural America does not need.
15:15We don't need hospitals, more hospitals shutting down.
15:20Mr. President, we cannot allow that to happen.
15:24And let's be clear, it's not just hospitals and community health centers that are opposed to this legislation.
15:33Physicians throughout this country have also come out in strong opposition to this legislation.
15:42Let me read from a statement issued today, today, in opposition to this bill from the American Academy of Family Physicians,
15:50the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
15:56the American College of Physicians and the American Psychiatric Association.
16:02Quote,
16:03Our organizations representing more than 400,000 physicians who serve millions of patients
16:13are alarmed by proposals to implement cuts or other structural changes to Medicaid during the budget reconciliation process.
16:22Cuts to Medicaid will have grave consequences for patients, communities, and the entire healthcare system.
16:32With reduced federal funding, it will be harder for patients to access care,
16:38states will be forced to drop enrollees from coverage,
16:41and it will limit the healthcare services patients can access and cut payment rates.
16:48The impact of cuts to Medicaid funding is significant and wide-reaching, and it must be reconsidered.
16:57End of quote.
16:58That is what medical organizations in our country, representing 400,000 doctors, are saying about this disastrous piece of legislation.
17:13Further, Mr. President, at a time when some 22% of our seniors are trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year,
17:26something which I will never understand, or anybody, let alone a senior, can survive on less than $15,000 a year,
17:32this legislation will make it much harder for seniors and people with disabilities to receive the care they desperately need in nursing homes.
17:44When Medicaid provides over 60% of the revenue nursing homes rely on,
17:49slashing Medicaid will be a disaster for seniors and the disabled who need to be in nursing homes, and their kids as well.
18:02So when you cut Medicaid, it's not just throwing up to 13 million people off of the health insurance they have.
18:08It is going to be very destructive for community health centers to provide the health care they need,
18:15very destructive to hospitals all over this country, especially small rural hospitals, destructive to nursing homes as well.
18:25But Mr. President, that is not all that this legislation is doing.
18:34For the vast majority of Americans, including myself, who believe that women should have the right to control their own bodies,
18:43this bill essentially defunds Planned Parenthood, which provides vital health care to millions of women.
18:50But Mr. President, it is not just our health care system that would be devastated under this legislation.
18:59While this bill provides massive tax rates to billionaires, it would cut $290 billion from nutrition programs
19:10that would take food away from an estimated 4 million children and about half a million seniors.
19:18You know, Mr. President, I don't know if there is any religion in this world where it would be morally appropriate
19:29to take food out of the mouths of hungry kids and frail seniors in order to provide more tax breaks to billionaires.
19:40That is simply and grossly immoral.
19:44Further, Mr. President, for the many young people in our country struggling with student debt and others who wonder how they will ever be able to afford to go to college,
19:55this bill cuts federal funding for education by more than $350 billion.
20:01Now, what does that mean?
20:03Among other things, it means that the average student loan borrower with a bachelor's degree in America would see his or her loan payments increase by about $3,000 a year or some $244 a month.
20:20So, at a time when college is now unaffordable for millions of young people, at a time when we desperately need a well-educated population and the best-educated workforce in the world,
20:33this bill moves us in precisely the wrong direction.
20:37Finally, Mr. President, at a time when we already spend more on the military than the next nine nations combined,
20:48and when everyone knows, whether you're Republican or Democrat or Independent,
20:52everyone knows there is massive waste and fraud in the Pentagon.
20:56The Pentagon has not been able to undertake an independent audit for God knows how many years.
21:02This bill increases defense spending by $150 billion.
21:09And, Mr. President, let's be clear, this is just some of what is in this terrible bill.
21:17There are other provisions equally damaging which I have not touched upon.
21:22Mr. President, it seems clear to me, and I expect a majority of Americans,
21:28that this bill reflects exactly what is wrong with our current corrupt political system.
21:35When we have massive income and wealth inequality, our job is to demand that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of taxes,
21:48not do, as this bill provides, give huge tax breaks to the very rich.
21:55When 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured,
21:59our job should be to guarantee healthcare to every man, woman, and child in this country,
22:06not throw 13 million Americans off of the healthcare they currently have.
22:14When children and seniors in this country go hungry, here in the wealthiest country on earth,
22:22our job should be to make sure that all Americans have the nutrition they need to live healthy lives,
22:32not increase the level of hunger in our country.
22:37Mr. President, in many respects, this bill represents exactly why so many Americans are giving up on democracy,
22:47and have such contempt for Congress.
22:50At a time when the richest people have never, ever had it so good,
22:55they see Republican leadership working overtime to make the billionaire class even richer.
23:01At a time when a majority of Americans are struggling to put food on the table and pay for healthcare,
23:07they see Republican leadership making life even more difficult for average Americans.
23:14Mr. President, this is a disastrous piece of legislation.
23:19I urge my colleagues to oppose it.
23:21I would yield the floor.