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Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let's be honest. Let us face up to reality and let us acknowledge that most Americans understand that our great Nation, once the envy of the entire world, is now in the midst of a deep decline. And for the sake of our children and future generations, we must end that decline and turn this country around in very fundamental ways.
Not so many years ago, the United States of America was admired, respected by people throughout the world for our generosity, for our concern for the poor of the world, for our democracy, for our Constitution, for our rule of law, for our way of life. We were admired, respected. People around the world said: Do you know what? We would like our country to be like the United States of America.
Tragically, that is no longer the case. I was just on the phone this afternoon with an elected official in Europe who literally could not believe what is happening to our country today. And I fear that millions of people throughout the world--on every continent of this world, in every country in this world--are looking at the United States of America and saying: What in God's name is happening to that great country?
But it is not only our standing in the world and our increased isolation from other countries that I worry about. We used to have the highest standard of living of any country on Earth. That was it. America, strongest middle class in the world. We used to be a country where the American dream said that our young people will do better than their parents.
My dad came to this country at the age of 17, having dropped out of school at the age of 14, from Poland, with the dream that his son--his sons--would do better than he did. My mom graduated high school with the dream that maybe her sons would have a college education.
That was the dream of millions of people: We work hard so that our kids would do better.
The reality today, according to a number of studies, is that, everything equal, unless we turn it around, our younger generation will have a lower standard of living than their parents. They will own their own home at a much older age than their parents.
And when we talk about America being in a state of decline and the need to bring about fundamental transformation of this country, understand that two-thirds of the American people, according to a New York Times poll the other day--two-thirds of the American people now believe that a middle-class lifestyle is out of reach. We used to be a country of the middle class, and now two-thirds of the American people say, no, the American middle-class lifestyle is out of my reach.
We used to be the best educated country on Earth, best public school systems on Earth. That is not the case anymore. We used to have the best healthcare system of any country on Earth. Not anymore. We used to provide good, affordable housing for our people. Not anymore. We used to have the most advanced transportation system in the world. Not anymore. Just take a look at how the city of Washington is dealing with the current snowstorm.
In many respects, our great Nation is falling further and further behind other countries, and we must not allow that to continue.
The United States, our people, have faced horrific crises in the past, going back to the very beginning, the origins of this country, when a small number of people dared to have the dream and the courage to take on King George III and the British Empire and the most powerful military in the world because they wanted their independence, and they wanted their freedom. That was a crisis, and they prevailed.
In the 1840s, there were people who were saying slavery is an abomination. It is immoral. We can't talk about a Declaration of Independence that says all men are created equal and enslave millions of people. We have to end slavery. And they struggled and struggled, the abolitionists, and it was a horrible civil war, where so many people died. Finally, we ended the abomination of slavery.
The struggle continued with Martin Luther King, Jr., and the civil rights movement and the end of segregation.
This country went through the Great Depression, where 25 percent of our people were unemployed and government had to redefine itself and we did that.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, December of 1941, we were not prepared to fight a war in the East or a war against Hitler in Europe. And yet, within a few years, because the country came together, instead of building cars, we built tanks, and we built fighter planes. We ended up winning that war. We won a war on two fronts.
Bottom line, in all of these crises and others, the Nation came together and prevailed. We did it then, and I have little doubt, if we do not allow people to divide us up by where we were born or the color of our skin, we can, once again, overcome the crisis that we are in right now, which, in my view, is the most serious crisis in the modern history of our country.
Let me just say a few words about what is happening in Minneapolis right now as I speak. Let me be very clear. America is not about and must never be about a domestic military force called ICE, which as we speak at this moment is occupying--a military occupation--of one of our great American cities, Minneapolis, and is terrorizing the occupants in that city.
America is not and must never be about Federal agents shooting American citizens down in cold blood, breaking down doors to arrest people, or sending 5-year-olds to detention centers--all in clear violation of our Constitution. That is what takes place in dictatorships, in authoritarian societies where there is not a rule of law. It does not and it must not be allowed to take place in the United States or any democracy on Earth.
So let me be very clear. ICE must get out of Minnesota now. ICE must get out of Maine now. ICE must stop terrorizing the American people. Not another penny should be given to ICE or Customs and Border Protection unless there are fundamental reforms in how those Agencies function and until there is new leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and among those who run our immigration policy. To be clear, Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller must go.
But Trump's movement toward authoritarianism is not just about the use of his domestic army against the American people; it is about his attack against Venezuela in direct violation of the Constitution and international law, where he not only lacked congressional authorization but where no one in Congress had any knowledge about what was taking place.
Trump's authoritarianism is about disrupting the 100-plus-year alliances we have had with our allies in Europe and, insanely, threatening to seize Greenland from our longtime ally Denmark. Does anyone in their right mind believe that the United States of America should threaten violence against our longtime allies?
Trump's authoritarianism is about attacking Europe--every day, one attack or another--because it is a continent of democratic countries that are all very different, but they are democratic countries which actually elect their leaders. Apparently and increasingly, Europe and these countries will not simply do Trump's bidding--will not come to him with all kinds of gifts--while at the same time, as he attacks Europe every day--demeans Europe, insults Europe--he is busy cozying up to his autocratic friends in Saudi Arabia who have helped line his pockets with billions of dollars from cryptocurrency and real estate deals. It is not a problem that the head of Saudi Arabia is a murderer, who our intelligence Agency believed was responsible for the death of Washington Post correspondent Jamal Khashoggi. He is our ally. He has got a lot of money--a trillionaire family--the wealthiest family on Earth--that can do the Trump family a lot of good. It is not a problem that one of our allies is Binyamin Netanyahu, who has engaged in atrocities against the people of Gaza and is now under indictment by the International Criminal Court as a war criminal. He is a good ally. Those are the kinds of guys we want, those who are war criminals and trillionaires who put dissenters in jail--Saudi Arabia, a dictatorship.
Trump's authoritarianism is about his repeated threats to make Canada--Canada--I live 50 miles away from the Canadian border--which is one of our closest and most dependable allies, the 51st State. I mean, just think for a minute. We have been allies for decades and decades-- close friends--and you go around insulting this country and saying: You are going to become our 51st State.
What world does Trump live in? How does his mind tell him to do that?
Let's be clear. The American people want us to ally ourselves with democracies around the world, not dictatorships, not authoritarian societies. They do not want to be allied with or put American lives on the line for dictatorships like those that exist in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates or, least of all, Putin's Russia.
Everyone in this Chamber, including my Republican colleagues, understands, when Trump usurps the power of Congress, when he attacks the courts, when he threatens and intimidates the media and universities and perhaps, most significantly, when he brings criminal charges against his political opponents, be they liberal Democrats or conservative Republicans, that this man is a danger to everything this country stands for. My Republican colleagues know this, and the time is long overdue for them to begin speaking out against Trump's dangerous movement toward authoritarianism. We can disagree on the issues--we do disagree on the issues--but we should and must agree that this country will not move toward being an authoritarian society, with more and more power put in the hands of the President of the United States.
In that regard, let me applaud Chris Madel, who was a leading Republican candidate for the Governor of Minnesota, who recently ended his campaign because he could not defend the national Republican Party in the face of what was happening in his own State of Minnesota.
Mr. Madel said:
When U.S. citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear, and U.S. citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship, that is wrong. Driving while Hispanic is not a crime, neither is driving while Asian.
Mr. Madel is right, and more Republicans need to speak out if they care about protecting the values this Nation was founded upon.
When we talk about authoritarianism, we must also talk about the Big Lie--the lies that are told over and over again, that black is white and white is black. It is a constant barrage of lies that comes from the White House. We can disagree on the issues, but you cannot have a democracy when the President of the United States lies profoundly every single day.
No, Mr. President, Renee Good was not a domestic terrorist. She was the mother of three, sitting in her car when she was shot.
No, Alex Pretti was not a would-be assassin as Trump's administration has suggested.
No, last night's attack on Representative Ilhan Omar, while she was conducting a townhall meeting, was not staged. Somebody attacked her-- threatened her.
No, the January 6 insurrectionists were not conducting peaceful demonstrations. They were attempting to overthrow the results of an election.
No, the 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump. He lost that election by over 7 million votes. Yet today--today--as we speak right now, Trump's FBI has raided an election office in Georgia to seize their ballots. This is, by the way, after the Attorney General of the United States demanded that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls as a pretext for ICE's stopping its assault on that State.
President Trump's unacceptable actions are raising the question in the hearts of millions of Americans as to whether or not there will be free and fair elections in 2026 and 2028.
But it is not just Trump's authoritarianism that concerns me and millions of Americans very deeply. I worry very much about the growing economic and political power of the oligarchs in this country--the multibillionaires who are side by side with Trump, who were in the front row when he got inaugurated. I think all of us will remember Mr. Musk there, Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Bezos, and some 14 other billionaires sitting there when he was inaugurated.
Today, in America, we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of our Nation. Unbelievably, Elon Musk-- the wealthiest man alive--now owns more wealth than the bottom 53 percent of American households. One man--one man--now owns more wealth--some $700-billion plus--than the bottom 53 percent of American households. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 93 percent. CEOs of large, profitable corporations now earn 350 times what their average worker makes.
Meanwhile, in America today while the very rich become obscenely richer, 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. They are unable to afford the skyrocketing costs of housing, healthcare, education, childcare, groceries, electricity, or other basic necessities. The very rich are becoming phenomenally richer while tens of millions of Americans are struggling to pay for their basic needs.
Let us understand that the oligarchs--the multibillionaires--do not simply put their money under their mattresses. Not only do they want to own and control our economy, they are determined to own and control our corrupt political system as well. As we all know, Mr. Musk spent at least $290 million to elect Trump. Do you think you are living in a democracy when one guy can spend $290 million to elect his buddy to be President? The 100 richest people in our country spent $2.6 billion on the 2024 election--100 people.
Yes. You average American, you get the right to vote, but billionaires can spend hundreds of millions of dollars in super PACs to defeat the candidates who stand up for the working class and elect those people who stand with the oligarchs. That number--the amount of money being spent in these super PACs by the oligarchs--is growing and growing every day. I should point out that it is not just the Republican Party; it is Democratic billionaires as well. This is a bipartisan effort on the part of the billionaire class.
Just recently, a super PAC representing the crypto industry just announced that it has $193 million in cash at its disposal for the 2026 election. In other words, do you have concerns about crypto? Well, you are going to have to face a barrage of 30-second ads from extraordinarily wealthy people.
Big Tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley have already pledged to spend at least $200 million on a super PAC that is sympathetic to the AI industry, artificial intelligence--an industry that threatens to displace tens of millions of American workers. Are you worried about AI? Are you worried about robotics? Are you worried about the fact that tens of millions of jobs are going to be lost during the next decade? Are you concerned about it? Do you want to have some regulations? Well, guess what? These guys have got hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on a campaign.
That may sound like democracy to somebody, but it does not sound like democracy to me. It sounds like a very corrupt system owned by the very wealthiest people in the world. That is why, if we are going to come out of our decline--if we are going to turn this country around-- probably there is nothing more important that we can do than to end the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, abolish super PACs and move to the public funding of elections. If somebody wants to run against me who might disagree with my ideas, fine--go for it--but we should not have a system where candidates are backed by billionaires who can outspend heavily those candidates who are standing up for working people. That is not democracy; that is oligarchy. In a democracy, elections must be about one person, one vote, not billionaires buying politicians.
But that is not all.
When we look at what is going on in America--and it is important that we do that--take a look at our broken healthcare system. We are spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as the people of any other nation. Yet we are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all. We have got 85 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured, and over 60,000 people die each year because they can't afford to see a doctor on time.
Do you want to turn that around in America? Do you want to end our decline? We are the richest country on Earth, and we spend more on healthcare per person than any other country. Let us have the best healthcare system in the world--guaranteeing healthcare to every man, woman, and child.
That is what we should be doing, and that is why we should pass a Medicare for All single-payer system. And when we talk about America being in decline, we are talking about the skyrocketing price of housing and the fact that tens of millions of Americans cannot afford to buy a home.
We are seeing young people right now living with their parents because they can't even afford an apartment of their own, married couples who will buy their own home at a much older age than their parents.
Today, we have 800,000 Americans who are homeless--800,000, including people a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. And 20 million households are now spending over half of their limited incomes on housing.
Let us reverse this decline. Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, let's build the low-income and affordable housing this country desperately needs. In the wealthiest country on Earth, it is not a radical proposition to say that every American should be able to live in decent, affordable housing.
When we talk about America being in decline, we are talking about the crisis in our education system. Several decades ago, the United States was the best educated country on Earth. The United States used to lead the world in the percentage of adults with a college degree. We were No. 1.
Today, we are in 11th place behind countries like Japan, South Korea, Australia, the UK, and Canada. Today, the United States ranks 28th out of 37 developed countries in math, 12th in science, and 6th in reading.
This is the United States of America, the richest country on Earth. Our kids should be leading the world in science, in reading, in math, not being in 28th place.
If we are going to come out of our decline and successfully compete in a global economy, we need the best educated workforce in the world, which means we need to revamp our educational system from childcare to graduate school. Believe it or not--people don't know this--70 years ago, major public universities in the city of New York, California, great universities were tuition-free.
Maybe instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military, we make sure that every kid in this country has the opportunity to get a higher education because we make our public colleges and universities tuition-free.
In New York City, in New Mexico, now there is significant movements toward making childcare free and universal, and that is a lesson all of us have got to learn right here in the Congress. That should be our goal.
When we talk about America being in decline, we are talking about the fact that we have a retirement crisis in our country today. In America right now, over 20 percent of seniors are trying to survive on an income of less than $15,000 a year.
Got it? Twenty percent of seniors are trying to survive on $15,000 or less. One guy is worth over $700 billion.
Half of seniors are trying to get by on less than $30,000 a year. These are the people who built this country. These are the people who raised us. We need to treat them with respect and dignity. That is why we should expand and strengthen Social Security benefits and bring back defined benefit pension plans that guarantee a secure income in retirement.
A great nation like the United States should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country. We should not have one of the highest rates of senior poverty of almost any major country.
And when we talk about the decline in the standard of living in America, the fact that 60 percent of the people in our country today are struggling, as we speak, to put food on the table, we must understand that in our country right now, Big Tech oligarchs are working overtime to become even wealthier by throwing American workers out on the street and replacing them with robots or artificial intelligence.
Nobody knows exactly what the impact of AI and robotics will be, but there are some very sophisticated studies that would suggest that tens of millions of jobs will be replaced by AI and robotics, and we are in no way prepared for that.
That is why I have called for a moratorium on new AI data centers until we make sure that the economic gains of these revolutionary technologies benefit the working families of this country and not just a handful of multibillionaires in Silicon Valley.
AI robotics are neither good nor bad. It depends on how they are utilized. If they can improve life for ordinary people, it is positive. If they can reduce the workweek, it is positive. But if they simply throw millions of people out on the street, that is not a positive.
In my view, we are living through one of the most difficult moments in the modern history of our country. But the truth is that throughout our Nation's history, we have faced great challenges as well. This is not the first great and difficult challenge that we face.
We have been through an American revolution. We have been through a civil war. We have been through a suffrage movement that demanded full citizenship and the right to vote for our women. We have been through the Great Depression, where 25 percent of our people were unemployed. We have been through World War II. We have been through the Civil Rights Movement and the effort to end segregation, and here we are today.
At every moment of crisis in the history of our country, the American people came together and chose democracy over authoritarianism, chose justice over greed, and chose solidarity over division. They understood, in the past--and we understand today--that when we stand together, no matter how much money the oligarchs have, no matter how much political power they have, we have the people.
At the end of the day, people coming together is far more powerful than the billionaires and all of their money. If we summon that same courage today, if we stand together against fear and hatred, if we defend democracy and take on the power of the oligarchs, there is nothing that this great Nation cannot accomplish.
That is how we end the decline; that is how we renew our democracy; and that is how we build a future worthy of our children and generations yet to come.
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