quorum call:

the presiding officer: a quorum is not present. mr. reid: i ask the sergeant at arms to request the presence of absent senators. i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 44, the nays are 40. the motion is agreed to. a quorum is present. the majority leader. mr. reid: could we have order in the senate? the presiding officer: could we have order in the senate. please take your conversations out of the well. the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the following pending amendments be agreed to. cochran number 512 as modified with the changes at the desk, carper 517 and paul 503, a manager's amendment at the desk be agreed to. that at 11:00 a.m. on wednesday, june 29, the senate proceed to vote in relation to the remaining amendments to s. 679 in the following order -- demint 501, portman-udall,

udall of new mexico, cornyn, that's three senators as modified with the changes that are at the desk. demint number 511, toomey number 514. further, the cornyn amendment number 04, mccain and the paul amendment 502 be withdrawn, that no amendments be in order to any of the amendments prior to the votes. upon disposition of the amendments, the bill be read a third time and the senate proceed to vote on passage of the bill as amended. that there be no motions or points of order in order. the bill or any of the amendments other than the budget points of order and applicable motion toss waive. finally, that all other provisions of the previous orders with respect to s. 679 remain in effect. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president, reserving my right -- the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. mr. johnson: reserving my right to object, i may not object to this motion. it certainly is not addressing the primary problem facing our nation today, and that's the fact that we're bankrupting this

nation. we need to start actually addressing that here in the united states senate, but i realize that the managers have worked hard on this bill. i realize there are some good amendments that the senate really needs to debate and that we should vote on. that's the way the senate should work. and so if -- i also ask i be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes following the -- the agreement here. mr. reid: mr. president, i would accept the modification of that amendment -- i mean my motion. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. collins: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i just want to thank everybody for their cooperation. we have worked long and hard on this bill. i want to thank the senator from wisconsin. he raises an excellent point. i want to thank the majority leader. i want to thank senator alexander and senator schumer who are the chief sponsors of

this bill, and senator lieberman. i'm very glad we were able to work out this agreement and have final votes on the amendment and final passage tomorrow. thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the question as -- the request as modified is agreed to. a senator: mr. president? mr. reid: i will protect the senator's time. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the foreign relations committee be discharged from further consideration of s. res. 185. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 185. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 185, reaffirming the commitment of the united states to a negotiated settlement of the

israeli-palestinian conflict, and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate shall proceed to the measure. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, there being no intervening action or debate and any statements relating to this matter appear in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. on wednesday, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved until later in the day. following any leader remarks the senate proceed to a period of morning business for up to one hour with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or designees with the republicans controlling the first half and the majority controlling the final half. following morning business the senate resume consideration of s. 679. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. reid: mr. president, if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask we adjourn under the previous order following the remarks of up to 15 minutes of my friend from wisconsin. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from wisconsin. mr. johnson: i know a number of people -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. johnson: i know a number of -- i realize a number of people in this chamber are asking, why am i doing this? i think it is important that everybody realize and i certainly mean no offense to anybody in this chamber, but i did not run for the united states senate because i wanted to be a united states senate. i ran for the united states senate because i realized we are bankrupting this nation. i think the evidence is quite clear. if you take a look at the budget deficits for just the last three

years, $1.4 trillion, $1.3 trill years, $1.4 trillion, $1.3 trill ion, estimates as high this year as $1.65 trillion. we have incurred over $4 trillion worth of debt just in the last three years and our nation's debt stands at dz 14-dz .3 trillion. we've reached our debt limit. our debt is almost the size of our entire economy. i have been watching washington for 32 years from oshkosh, wisconsin, i realize that washington is pretty broken. i've been here for six months and i haven't seen anything here that convinces me otherwise. the united states senate has not passed a budget for over two years of the six pieces of legislation that we've passed, only six pieces of legislation that we passed from this chamber have actually become law. of those six, three dealt with last year's business. there are pieces of legislation dealing with this year's budget that should have been passed last summer.

the bottom line is the senate is fiddling while america is going bankrupt. as i mentioned, the debt ceiling has now been reached. what are we doing about it? the answer is virtually, nothing. we're scheduled to go on recess next week. we shouldn't be doing that. we should be staying in session. we should be debating, developing a budget. now bottom line, all we're really doing is waiting for the results of a negotiation. the presiding officer: the senator is correct. please -- please take your conversations out of the well. mr. johnson: now we're waiting for the results of a negotiation between a limited number of people, conducted behind closed doors, far away from the view of any american citizen. i mean, is this the process that we're going to rely on to prevent the bankruptcy of

america? is this what we are placing the future of america? i mean, i hope not. the senate needs to get back to work. we need to pass a budget. it shouldn't be that hard. american families do it every day. they figure out what their income is and they figure out how to learn to live within their means. the united states government needs to figure out how to live within its means as well. so let me kind of start the process by naming a figure. i'd start with $2.6 trillion. that's the amount of money that president obama in his budge says we will receive in revenue from the federal government next year. $2.6 trillion. it's $800 billion more than we spent just 10 years ago. it pays for -- it would pay for 100% of the interest payment, which is $256 billion.

it would pay for all social security, which is $760 billion. that totals $1 trillion. it would leave $1.6 trillion to pay for all other essential defense, security, health and safety spending. now, if that's not enough, then, again, that would be living within our means, then what i believe is required, is i believe every member of congress, members of the administration should come down into congressional committees and they need to in the open justify how much they want to spend, how much they are willing to borrow, and how much debt they are willing to pile on the backs of our children, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren. because that's really what we're doing in this country. so tonight i'll leave the floor, but unless the senate gets serious about addressing the number one problem facing this

nation, our debt and deficit, i will definitely be back. i will exercise my full rights. i will do everything in my power to prevent the bankrupting of america. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until

the

in the senate yesterday independent bernie sanders spoke on the floor about the u.s. economy and the federal budget. he said he was sending a letter to president obama saying the time has come when he lost, quote, stand with the american people and reminded the republican party is extreme demands. he addressed this agreement with house budget chairman paul ryan to change medicare and medicaid and previous agreements between the white house and the gop onng tax breaks. >> mr. president, this is a our pivotal moment in the history of our country. in the coming days and weeks, decisions will be made about thf

the lives of virtually every american in the country, and the time is now for the american people to become significantly t involved in that debate and notn leave a small number of people here in washington. the mr. president, at a time whenras the wealthiest people and theuny largest corporations in ournal country are doing phenomenallyt well and have never had it sos good. while the middle class is is disappearing and poverty is increasing, it is absolutelyny imperative that any deficit con reduction package that passes this congress not include the horrendous cuts, the cold cuts

and programs working people that desperately need better utilize every day by the elderly, why te the six, via our children and be the lowest income people in our country that the republicans in congress dominated by their demanding. breaks to billionaires'cking and attacking the most vulnerable people in our country. we must not allow that to vie happen.e in my view, the president of the united states needs to stand with a vast majority of theof te american peopl the republican leadership and eo make iugt clear that enough is n enough.he commesso, we will not balance

the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable people in this country, on our children, on our seniors, on the sick.rking fam no, we will not do that. working families in this countre have already sacrificed enough in terms of lost jobs, lost lost wages, lost homes, lost pensions. the working families of this country are hurting right now.n. enough is enough. time to say to the millionaires and the billionaires' in this country and to the largest corporations when many havet never had is so good that if they must participate in deficie reduction, that there must beace shared sacrifice that deficit

reduction cannot be based by bae cutting back on the needs of rih working families and the middle the rich and large the rich and large corporations have also got tos participate in this process. aey necessary if we are talking a sensible deficit loo reduction package that we take a hard look at unnecessary waste of spending at the pentagon.s and mr. president, let us maket it very clear that we will not b be blackmailed again by the republican leadership in desoy t washington who are threatening to destroy the full faith and se credit of the united states government so that for the very hi first time in ourstor nation's t history we might not pay the bills that we owe. that is there a threat. we will destroy all base pay our

bills, failing to do that unless they get everything they want. instead of yielding to the enzus of extreme republican demand ass the president in many respects deceer's tax did in last december's tax cut g agreement in this year's the spending negotiations the president has got to get out ofs the beltway to connect with thef needs amof working families and ordinary americans and a rally the overwhelming majority of reduction must bee based onhe we shared sacrifice, but the wealthy and the powerful and the large corporations cannot w continue to get everything they want while we wage an peopl unprecedented attack on the most

vulnerable people in this country. it is time for president obama to stand with the millions who have already lost their jobs, their homes, their life savingse are in many cases have never had it so good. unless the american people in huge numbers tell the president not to yield 1 inch the republican demands to destroy medicare and medicaid whilerovie continuing to provide tax breaks to the wealthy and powerfulcan p unless the american people rides up and say enough is enough. i'm afraid what will happen is theis president will yield once again and the wealthy and thelle powerful and working people wil. be devastated.he

so today i am asking the american people that if you believe deficit-reduction should be about shared sacrifice is if you believe the wealthiest people in our country should ber asked to pay their fair share as part of a deficit-reduction.hen if you believe at a time trled military spending is almost triple since 1997 that we begind to take a hard look at our o defenseur budget.he and if you believe the middle class and working families have already sacrificed enough, i and urge you to make sure the president hears your voice, and he needs to hear it now. peo i would urge the american people to go to my website, sandersh brought senate.gov and with then

president know enough is enough in also contact the white housey directly through their website and leave a message for the president. mr. psident as you know, mr. president, this challenges. sufred in fact we have a suffered for such a difficult moment sinceret the great depression of the 19 , thirties. the reality is we don't talkhate about it during much but the reality is the middle class ande the country is disappearing while at the same time poverty is increasing. when we talk about the state of ou the economy, and it's important to talk about it in the context of deficit-reduction, becausersw when you understand what isnow h going on in the economy, you know that you can't get bloode out of a stone. you cannot keep attacking people

who have been devastated the last few years in terms of los unemployment, in terms of loss s of pension and health care. got so when we talk about theituatis economy, we have to understand even worse than officials statistics indicate. for example, we read in the rate is now 9.1%. truth ofhe but the truth of the matter is no economist disagrees with this that that official statisticpeoa who've given up looking for wory and people working part time when they want ifto work togethe full-time. looking a if you add all that together, you are looking at a real on and went right in this country of about 16%.e those r 16%. are those really the people we should go to for deficit

reduction? are they not suffering enough right now? a young people graduate college le can't find at' job.eople let's hit them hard. all the people have lost their a jobs, can't find one working for t' previously worked. let's go after those people. noh 50 million people have no health insurance let'sk attack them. arking mothers and fathers can't find affordable childfter care. let's go after them. mr. president, we must understand that when we look at the economy, the middle class is hurting and hurting badly.ly over the last ten years on top . of the high unemployment rate of country has declined by over $2,500. you know why working families- are angry? that's why they are angry, theyl

are working longer hours forere lower wages and are those reallt the people you want to ask toud? balance the budget? i don't think so. sen hatsehink any sense of fairnesst any sense of morality one mighth have suggest you don't beat up f on people who are already suffered. you don't try to get blood out of a stone. stre whi the illegal behavior on wallle street which caused the terriblt recession millions morehave l americans have lostos their homs they've lost their pensions and they've lost their retirement dy savings. we hearth it every day in the calls that come to our office. and unlesscu we reverse ourrse,r current economic cost, our children will have for the very first time in modern american living than their parents. the american dream in reverse.

kids are going to do worse than their parents unless we reverse current economic trends. mr. president, we can for about a lot of numbers, a few hundrede billion and trillion but the kid truth of the matter is behind iy my state of vermont and all fore ar this country there are real people who are hurting terribly. and as members of the unitednitd states senate, our job is to pan attention to those people andpas representing the most powerful special interest in the world who's around this capital every single day. mr. president, last year i asked my constituents and vermont toso share some personal stories witd me. i asked them basically you know, how you're doing in this recession and the stories i got back from vermont i am sure are absolutely similar to the

stories that you would get in ay delaware or anyone would get in michigan or any other state in this country. but i asked them how are things going, and let me just tell you that as a result of the e-mail t but we sent out, we have moreesn than 400 responding to that say e-mail, and what they had to sar was poignant sometimes these stories were so powerful it wasa almost hard to read more of in a and the messages i received from vermont and suspect similar this messages coming from every state in this country is that people are finding it hard to get jobs, now working for lower wages than they used to. we are seeing older workers whog have depleted their life savings and they are worried about how they are going to retire, what r unable to work and who is going to take care of them.

we hear from young adults in their 20s and 30s who are deeplt in debt from college loans and t they don't know how theyho arelo going to pay offan those loans.l we hear from people of all agesr all walks of life from every corner of vermont who send thei, stories, and let me just read at few of them to make the point to put some flesh and blood behind the statistics we often thrown a out. we got a letter from a 51-year-old woman from central vermont and this is what she wrote. senator sanders, don't reallylyo know what to say.work f now we work in another state. heve been out of work since comt april. our mortgage company runs the house because we can't make thet payment. i can't find a job to save my p make a difference. how bad does it have to get? bye mother went through the great depression and here we go

again.e i am a well-educated person who can't see through the fault. writes a gentleman i fn his mid-50s rights for orange county vermong and this is what he writes after being unemployed since 1999 deutsch of a global trade agreements, i now find myself hs managing a hazardous transfer facility that pays about 25% min less than what i was making in 1999. and you hear that all the time. yes many people of course are t working but many older workers i today are dealing with the of humiliation and economic tragedy of now earning substantially a less than the yeargo and ten ory years ago and continues. my wife's children have moved back in, unemployed, and we are seeing very little for soo retirement.ely if things don't hav improve sooe till likely have to work untilka

we die. we consider ourselves workingen but we are employed. our children's friends tend to d thsey're skinny. we feed them. this is no recession is a modern-day depression. rea mr. president, are those the after when we talk about deficit reduction?er are they not suffering enough? a woman and her late 40's rights nearly 55 patched together a anr full-time job making $12 an houc in various painting jobs and still can't afford to get myself out of debt or make necessary repairs on my home. no other jobs in sight.avail. i applaud all the time for no avail. up, food and gas bills go up and upt i have no retirement at all. feg can't afford to move feeling stock, tired and hopelessi comstock, tigard and hopeless. ecs sus tpect that is how many millions of americans arer lettr

feeling f today. another letter from very deep it could very vermont and he i rece writes,d quote come in 2002 received a scholarship at thettd university the first and myn i family to attend college on the graduation in 2006 and wasickinl admitted to the dickinson schooe at penn state university and a graduate in 2009 with $150,000 of student loans. a 150,000. country but there are people all over this country who have extremely' high student loans, and theyff. don't know how they are going te pay them off. then he continues. f i could find nothing better thar a $10 our position stuffing o envelopes. interne my family i don't wantily i dot them to visit because i'm am ashamed of my surroundings my tt family told me in education was the ticket to success but myland

education seems to have done is make it impossible to pull myself out of debt and began a successful career. in the of quote. on and on it goes. l the last couple of weeks we've been focusingus on the crisis in the dental care defect inlions f vermont and all over thisd country that millions of peopley can't find gives you an idea. i'm raising these issues today t quoting some folks in vermont rect is doing better in this a recession than most in themont country. it gentlemen rights just in the last couple of weeks and says i can't afford health insurance so dental work is definitely out. and he talks about how studies l have linked him bad dental caree and cancer but he can't get to o

dentist. so mr. president, the reason i raise these issues is to get aom better understanding of who somy of the people are the will bes a impacted by the draconian cuts that the republicans are talkinr about.f they are talking about throwing millions of people off of medicaid and let me tell yout what that means.s i was on the budget cuts that took patients off and most of cd fhe country read about that. o the essentially because of the financial reasons what they sit in arizona is yes, you need a sc transplant but you're going to have to buy and people have stat through died. and in that state and in other states throughout this country,

hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people are being tt thrown off of medicaid. mea so what does that mean?low-incoa ugat does it mean if you are a low-income worker getting your health insurance to medicaid and you lose that medicaid? y what happens if you develop ank pain in your chest and you think you may be having a heart problem but you can't get to a doctor? what happens? republican friends thought that through when they proposed medic $700 billion in cuts in the medicaid? what happens to the children by the millions who are thrown offn of medicaid. who we have 50 million people today who have no health insurance of the republican plan goes through we are talking about tens of to millions more. what happens to those people? gt as americans are we content for kids to get sick because theyeco can't get to a doctor or people? died because they don't get to a

doctor on time? i have been told throughout my whole life that education is tht key to success. senat senate every single day. education. kids have to do well in highthey school so they will be able to go to college. the reality right now is that hundreds of thousands of brighto young people cannot afford to go to college because they just don't have the money, and as a nation we are losing their intellectual capability to make us a stronger nation. if the republicans get their was and make savage cuts in pell grants, no one has any doubt hundreds of thousands more young people will never be able to

walk into a college or university and that is not only foa tragedy for the individualsf for the young people themselves, is it a tragedy for this nation. everyday we are involved inpetii fierce competition in the global economy, and we are not doing ae well at educational levels. om gradually more of their students from college and the gap isll growing wider and if you cutgras back on pell grants and a other forms of college age and it ise clear that a bad situation will be made much worse.th let's get even more basic than a talth care, more basic than education. that comes to nutrition whethers people in the larger numbers in this country are going to go a

hungry. mr. president, according to then 2009 study there are over hungry and almost 1 million b seniors who do go hungry because they cannot afford to buy food, and in that context our backs republican friends want to balance the budget on the backsd of hundred, cut back on food stamps or other nutrition y programs. so what happens if you are 80 and food prices are going up and you don' et have enough to eat? will apparently there are some people here in the senate who don't worry about that, but i bl personally do not believe that is what america is about, and i think the american people do not want to see under increased for

our seniors or children.pain tht mr. president, this is a lot oft hiay and steve copay and the w republicans are tossing out while the t same time they areps vigorously. protected, they are wealthy and powerful friends. t in my view, the president of the united states has got to stand c tall, he's got to take the cased to the american people and he has got to hold the republicans responsible if in fact the debt ceiling is not raised and all of the repercussions that will occur if that happens. mr. president, i've given youn just equally what is going on in the real world and all of this o americans,enary working class people have a loti more to say about what is goings on in their life. people are fighting desperately

to keep their homes from fallini into foreclosure, they're struggling with 29, 30% interest rates on estheir credit card whh they are never able to pay off. people don't have the money to settle down. of lives have been deerfield, ce retirement savings have beenp be raised to pay for college tuition but to keep the the businesses afloat simply put gas in the car at $3.80 a gallon in order to get to work. that is what is going on in the real wor mld.hen we that is what it means when welld talk about the middle class collapsing and poverty isreside, increasing. mr. president, while all of that happens, it is important to note that there is another economic reality taking place in this country.e we havedhoo dtheir highest ratef poverty in any other major

country on earth. we see an increase in senioror c untizens who are going hungry. more and more families are notge able to send their kids to college, but there is another reality out there. the and that is that the gap between the wealthiest people in this country and everybody else is growing wider and wider.ide on the great, just before the great depression of 1929 began.lear let us be very clear. abt, but there's nothing to be proud has about with the united states today has by far the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth. today mr. president the top 1%nn earns over 20% of all income in this country which is more than the bottom 50 per cent. 1% has more income than the

bottom 50%. over a 2recent 25 year period,d 80% of all new income created ip this country went to the top 1%m even more dramatic, even more incredible, even more unfair in e,rms of distribution of wealthm which is accumulated in come as hard as it may be tod, comprehended america today top 400 individuals 01 more wealth than the bottom 150 million americans. 400 americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million americans.t, given tse mr. president given those it realities it doesn't take a ph.d. in economics to suggest me

deen we move forward with that deficit reduction deficit reduction must include shared sacrifice the wealthy and large corporations also have got to help this country deal withprest record-breaking deficit. the reality is simple but unfortunately and that reality is the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and goe middle class continues toan disappear. and that is what is going on iny this country and there is nohidg hiding it. got we have to acknowledge it and go from there. everyone knows in our country f today we are facing a major have deficit crisis and we have a national debt of over $14 trillion. been what has not been widely wiscussed is how we got into th

deficit situation in the first h place. deal with the deal with the deficit, you have to know how you got into it and what is very clear is the huge trillio record-breaking deficit at a t14 trillion national debt to, ' just happen overnight, and it didn't happen by accident. it happened in fact as a results of a number of policy decisions made over the last decade in the votes were cast right here on the floor of the senate and in the house of representatives. when we talk about the nationalv debt, let us not forget that ins yearsen ago, president bill clinton left office this country have an annual federal budget

surplus of $236 billion with projected budget surpluses as p far as the eye could see. that is one clinton left office some ten years ago how. and now we have a $1.5 trilliong deficit and growing n national e it is totally appropriate as we talk about deficit-reductionim that we ask of a simple question how do we get to where we aredat today in terms of the deficit? what happens in that incident ten years? pr how didoj we go from a huge projected surplus into ar, horrendous debt? the answer, mr. president, is not complicated and there is not a lot of disagreement. we know exactly what happened. the congressional budget office has documented that. the f

there was an interesting articlf on the front page of "the washington post" on april 30th h and here's what happened. i don't think there's a lot of disagreement about this. tn ar. president, when the nation w spends a trillion dollars on the war in frigates to pay for the war, we. run a deficit. when we provide overax the cowealthiest people in thish country and choose not to offset those tax breaks we've run up aa deficit. when we passed a medicare part b prescription drug program written by the companies and tha not allow medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and inn the cost and thus far more than

it should, 400 billion over a tenure peorriod, and we don't py when we told military spending e since 1997, not including the war mechem iraq and afghanistan and we don't pay for that, we've run up the deficit. now mr. president, i always find it amusing when some of my flo republican colleagues come downf here on the floor and lectureere some of us about how serious thl deficit is and how serious the national debt is and yetf ironically many of us voted thec against those proposals which cause the deficit crisis that we are in right now and i did a lot of attention during the debate

i d in theon't war in iraq.friends i don't recall many of our friends on the republican side the democrats the voted for thae war saying gee, we can't go to co the war because it's going to of cost the country a huge sum of i money.ng don't remember hearing that. as we build of wall street to0 the tune of 700 billion don't recall many of my friends my goodness we can't afford to doon that and when we gained 700 billion in tax breaks to thn wealthiest people where was the concern then? about deficit reduction. further, mr. president, and maybe more significantly the deficit we are in right now was caused by the recession that we are in which was of course illel caused by the greedy and illegal behavior on wall street, which

caused the economic condition of the moment, massive unemploymenl , and loss of a very revue substantial amount of revenue that otherwise would have comes. into our tax. these mr. president, the end result op all of these on a paid policies and actions year after year of d une deficits i just described io a staggering amount of debt. when president left office president obama inherited a $1.3 deficit of one pocket 3 trillios with deficits as far as the eye could see and the national debt more than doubled under these president bush because of all of these policy decisions made byea republicans and some democrats. so the reality is, if mr. president, if we did not goe res,ar mechem iraq, if we didn'i pass a huge tax breaks for the s

millionaires and billionaires, u if we didn't pass a prescription drug program with no cost and i control written by the drug andn insurance companies, and if weel did on the regulate wall streett which allows them to do the up things that they did, which stre ended up in wall street'snsui collapse and the ensuing mess we recession, we would not find ourselves in the mess we are in today. it really is that simple. in other words, the only reasons we have to increase our nation'y debt ceiling today is we are forced to pay the bills that the republican leadership in congress and some democrats andc president bush. t now mr. president, given the decline in the middle class, gie and given they fact that the wealthy and large corporations have never had it so good,at thr americans might find it strangeu that the republicans in

washington would use this med momentum to make cuts in medicare, medicaid, education, nutrition assistance and of her life and death programs while ae the same time pushing for even wealiest peo more tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations. >> unfortunately, the average is american may think this is weir. outside the beltway that is exactly what happens and this is ivery much part of the republican ideology. reall republicans in washington have never really believed in medicaid or in medicare or a federalss assistance if inhofe will provide indirect assistance to those in need.t the have always believed tax pou breaks for the wealthy and powerful would somehow miraculously trickle-down toespe every american despite all

history and evidence to the contrary. so in that sense it is not strange at all they would use the deficit crisis we are now ia as an opportunity for an the mot ideological attack against some of the most vulnerable people in our country.. and that, mr. president, is rub exactly what the rye and psed in republican budget that was passed in the house of representatives earlier this of year and supported by the vast e majority of republicans here int the senate just last month, that is what the budget is all abouts let me give you a long budget let me give you a few examples e of what the republican budgetlit would do. would the republican budget passed byi the house this year would end medicare as we know it within ten years. the nonpartisan congressional budget office estimates thatrop, under the proposal in 2022, a

private health care plan for a t 65-year-old equivalent of medicare coverage would cost chout $20,500, and yet the v republican budget would provide a voucher for only $8,000 of o those premiums. seniors would be on their own tg pay the remaining $12,500, aal. full 61% of the total. now, how many of the 20 million near elderly americans who are now ages 50 to 54 will be able to afford that? let's review what we have to read let's say when you become v 65 in ten years and are living on $15,000 in social security, y you're going to be asked to pay $12,500 more for health care

that is currently the case, how do you do that? kin how do you do that? w what kind of health care plan ad are you going to buy when you g are older and sicker and given and $8,000 voucher, how many days in the hospital will you be able to have? an you can run and 8,000-dollar bill in one day, today's. i so if the ending of medicare ass we know it, forcing seniors to n somehow come up with all kinds of money that in many cases they don't have will be a disaster for tens of millions of people. force 4 million seniors in this country to pay $3,500 more on b drugs by reopening the medicarea part b doughnut hole and that bl goes into effect as soon as thao

bill would be passed if it were to be passed. milon c nearly 2 million children wouldv lose their health insurance over program or according to the cboo budget office.en mr. president, at a time thatth 50 million americans have no health insurance, the republican budget would cut medicaid by cag millions of americans to lose theirth health insurance and cua nursing home assistance in half. right now medicaid pays the lion's share of nursing home care. he make savage cutswh in medica, what happens to the elderly in nursing homes and what happens to their kids? therire shall complex in terms f trying to provide the health of their parents desperately need.

ree publican budget would repeal the act affordable health care act preventing an estimated 34 million uninsured americans from getting the health insurance the need. the time of the cost of college education is becoming out of bue reach for so many americans, the budget would slash the pell grants by about 60% next year ad alone, reducing the maximum award from 5500 to 2100. americans don't have enough money to feed themselves or their families the republican budget would kick some 10 million americans off of food stamps. what kind of sense of morality is that?in ord when people today are struggling hard to feed themselves we throw another 10 million people off of

the food stamps.t it's no secret to anyone that our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. bu the republicans passed in the house support of all by a rlicas handful of republicans here ingr the senate would slash funding for the roads, bridges, rail airports by nearly 40% next year alone and one of two things happened. a result of this our infrastructure continues to else deteriorate or else hard-presseg citiesoi and towns are going tos have to raise property taxes and other regressive taxes in order to come up with a differential. yet, despite the fact that weheh talked about cuts in health med, care, medicare, medicaid,vironma education, nutrition, environmental protection. cuts, yet despite all of those cuts, when it comes to military

spending which has tripled since 1997, the house republican budget does nothing to reduce d unnecessary defense spending. in fact defense spending would 6 go up by 26 billion next year te alone under the republican plane interestingly enough, at a time when the rich are becomingforhe richer, when the effective tax o rates for the wealthiest peoplet that 18% are about the lowest on record, at a time when the top 2% have received hundreds and tx hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks, at a time when at corporate profits are at an all-time high and majeure corporations are making billions of dollars profits are notn paying a nickel of taxes, my republican colleagues in their approach through the deficit

reduction doesn't ask the the wealthiest people in this to country or the largest corporations to contribute 1 det penny towards this is a reduction. poverty is increasing.eople republicans cut programs for the most vulnerable people in this s country. middle class is disappearing int need of great help. safetyine republicans cut the safety lineg off from them. the rich who are getting richer and large corporations making mn huge profits and many cases not paying anything in taxes at all, what their requirement is is to receive even more in terms of me tax breaks. that makes sense to some people. it doesn't make sense to me. the in fact, what the republicans po want to do is provide overo $1 trillion of tax cuts tong

millionaires and billionaires' by permanently extending of the bush income tax cuts, reducing the estate tax from the multi millionaires and billionaires and lowering the top individuale and corporate income tax rates from 35% to 25%. get the rich get richer and they get tax breaks to read the poor get ability tos to the send their kids to college or ps care. tow mr. president, the republican idea of moving towards the dollar instead budget is thela middle class working families,pe income people and to make sure d millionaires and billionaires ad and the largest corporations inn this country that are in manyht cases doing phenomenally well right now do not have to shareey in the sacrifices being made by everyone else. they will be protected. the republican approach, the the reduction in washington is the robin hood philosophy in p reverse. peopl we take frome the poorest people

and give to the richest, and if it's not as if that approach is good for our economy marc sandyr the economic adviser johndent mccain when he wa,s running fort president has estimated the will republican budget plan will cose 1.7 million jobs by the year 2014 with 900,000 jobs lost nexe year alone.thtaking the house republican budget is breathtaking in its degree of lr cruelty. con but don't take my word for it.ge in a letter to the congressional leaders after the last year was0 introduced nearly 200 economistd and experts wrote, and i could come turning medicare into aould voucher program would underminei millions of the vulnerable mos people it would extinguish theo most promising approaches to the current cost and to improve the american medical care system.ste

>> as the columnist at "theast washington post" wrote last april, and i could, the budgetdg released is not courageous orerr serious or significant. bad from cuts and at least two-thirds of them come fromhe programs serving the poor. the will see what see the taxesd low word and the defense department would escapes. it is not courageous to attack the week while supporting the plotting damaging fiscal t orthodoxies. the problem is not just that it's morally questionable, it also wouldn't work. struggl mr. president, the deficit we are struggling with n right now has been called by unpaid for war, tax breaks to the rich in medicare part ad prescription

drug programs written by theof l insurance companies the bailout of wall street, the declining economy and less revenue coming into the treasury to read thecee republican solution is tohe balance the budget on the back of the sick, the elderly, the children and the poor to cutteco back on environmental protection to cut back on theba transportation or providing evet more tax breaks to those who don't need it. is that is unacceptable, and that o is what the american people have got toot stop.ndividua it is not just wealthy individuals making out like bandits. as hard as it may be to believel some of the largest most large profitable corpstorations in tht country are not only avoiding paying any federal income taxese whatsoever, but they're actually receiving tax rebates from the o this reality is to provide even

more tax breaks to these corporate freeloaders. mak that may make sense to someone.t it doesn't make sense to me and. nd i i want to do mr. presidenta and i would ask unanimous consent toun do this, is to a introduce a list of a number ofr corporationspo making huge profs somng virtually nothing in then taxes and in some cases getting a rebate. rebate. >> mr. president, let me just briefly read this list of corporate freeloaders. one, number one, exxonmobil, the the largest oil company in the mad world. in 2009 exxonmobil meek 19 billion in profits, and not only did exxonmobil avoid paying ay federal income taxes that year, they actually receivede 166 million-dollar rebate from

the irs treated you think maybe we want to ask exxonmobil to pai a little in taxes so we don'th have to throw children of their gealth insurance? lar mabey. i last year bank of america,ama largest bank in america, a received a $1.9 billion tax $9 o refund fromn the irs even thougn it made 4.4 billion of profits i and just a couple of years ago a received a bailout from thesury civil reserve and the treasuryf department of nearlynow $1 trillion. what do you know about that? bailing out the largest banks is this country whose greed, the recession and get a rebate from the irs rather than pay anyand o taxes and republican friends sol think the deficit reduction is t not to ask bank of america but iceir fair share at the end of medicare as we know it and forcy low-income seniors to paytheir e

substantially more for theiral health care to read estimate number three, general electric. in th we past five years whilee general electric was 26 billion in profits in the u.s., it received a $4.1 billion refund from the irs to it i don't knoww what do you think? g. to help us out? ed deficit-reduction. chevron, a major oil companyfros received a 90 million-dollar refund from the eye of this made $10 after 10 billion billi in profir authority billion dollar contract from the pentagonn to build 179 airborne tankers, 124 million-dollar refund from the irs, and on and on it goes goldman sachs in 2008 goldman sachs paid only 1.1% of taxes even though it earned a profitty of 2.3 billion. most americans would be pretty m happy to pay 1.1% of their t

income and taxes but then again, the arnold goldman sachs,onocopi citigroup, conocophillips,and carnival cruise lines, on and on and l on. you've got a large, extremely profitable corporations whong either pay nothing in taxes, or maybe, just maybe, when we talk about deficit reduction, we mayp want to ask those people to hel, us out rather than go after the elderly, sick, the children and the poor. mr. president, large corporations today are sitting on a record-breaking $2 trillion in cash. the problem is not the corporations are taxed too much. the problem is that consumers don't have enough money to buy their products, and the republican agenda would make that far worse. corporate tax revenue last year was down by 27% compared to 2000, even though corporate

profits are up 60% over the last decade. guys make more and more money, their contribution to the treasury goes down. now, when we talk about how we can in a fair way, in a responsible way deal with our deficit and our national debt, man, here is one very clear man, here is one very clear >> now here you have in the cayman islands, o four story building. a looks like a normal sized four-story building, and yet it has 18,857 companies who call this building their home. now, one of two things are going on. these guys are very, very tight. 18,000 corporations in this one 4-foot story building.

maybe we should call the zoning people to check that out, or maybe something else is going on, and, of course, this is an absolute thought of a building who does not house anybody, but it's a phony address that 18,000 plus corporations use for the explicit purpose of not paying taxes to the united states of america. there are studies out there which suggest that large corporations and wealth individuals are avoiding $100 billion in taxes every year by setting up these offshore tax shelters in the cayman islands, bahamas, and bermuda. maybe, maybe, maybe before we tell young people they can't go to college or single moms they can't get care for their kids or low income seniors that we're going to cut down on their

nutrition, just maybe, just maybe we should end this blatant outrage that costs $100 billion every year. the president in 2005, one out of four large corporations paid no income taxes at all even though they collected $1.1 trillion in rev new. what about there? our republican friends say oh, oh no, no, we have to force elderly people to pay more into medicaid and force kids out of medicaid. one is a very interesting point, mr. president, and frankly, we'll all politicians. you don't get elected unless you understand something about politics. what i don't understand, and essential what president obama needs to understand is the overwhelming majority of the american people do not agree

with the republican approach which says give tax breaks to billionaires and go after the elderly, the sick, the children, and the poor, and that's just not bernie sanders talking. i'm not much into polls to be honest with you, but i think it's important to get a little bit of a reflection of where the american people are coming from. according to a recent boston globe poll, a couple weeks ago they did a poll in the state of new hampshire mostly interested in the presidential candidates, but they asked other questions. in new hampshire, i know because they are a neighbor, they are the conservative state in new england, and here what the folks in new hampshire said in that recent poll. 73% support raising taxes on people making over $250,000 a

year, 78% oppose cutting medicare, 71% oppose cutting medicaid, and 76% oppose cutting sos. the republican approach is just the opposite. they want to cut medicare. they want to cut medicaid. they want to cut social security, and they certainly do not want to ask the wealthiest people in the country to pay a nickel more in taxes. well, that's one poll. let's look at another poll. in fact, poll after poll has more or less mirrored what new hampshire voters are saying. a "wall street journal" poll found the following -- 81% of the american people believe it's totally acceptable or mostly acceptable to impose a surtax on

millionaires to reduce the deficit. let me repeat that. 81% of the american people in that "wall street journal" and nbc poll believe it's mostly acceptable to impose a surtax on millionaires to reduce the deficit. 81% of the american people think it is a good idea, and yet we can't get one republican to ask the wealthy to pay a nickel more in taxes. talk about being out of touch with what the american people want. 74% in that same poll of the american people believe it's mostly acceptable to eliminate tax credits for the oil and gas industry, and on and on it goes. 76% believe it's totally unacceptable or mostly unacceptable to cut medicare to significantly reduce the deficit. now, here's an interesting poll that maybe some of my republican

friends. want to pay attention to, and that is while the leaders of the tea party here in washington are fighting to dismantle medicare and medicaid, it turns out that another poll done, 70%, 7-0, of those people who identify themselves with the tea party oppose cutting medicaid and medicare to reduce the deficit. that's the tea party. mr. president, here's the last poll to highlight, and there's many more out there. this was done by the "washington post" and abc news. 54% of the americans support raising taxes over 250,000 to reduce the national debt including 91% of democrats, 68% of independents, and 54% of republicans. here you have in congress

surrounded by special interests, a congress democrat nateed by large campaign contributors of members of the senate moving in exactly the opposite direction of where the american people want to go. the american people want shared sacrifice. the american people believe that when the wealthiest people in the country are doing phenomenally well and the gap between the rich and everybody else is going wider, yes, the wealthier people have to contribute to deficit reduction. the american people believe when you have corporations making record-breaking profits and not paying a nickel in taxes, yes, they have to start paying taxes, and the american people overwhelmingly believe that it is bad for this country to go after medicare and medicaid and programs that working families desperately depend upon. mr. president, instead of listening to millionaires and

billionaires, it is time for our leaders here in washington to start listening to the overwhelming majority of the american people who do want the wealthiest people in this country and the most profitable copingses to -- corporations to contribute to the deficit reduction. it is time for shared sacrifice. the elderly, sick, children, and the poor already sacrificed enough. it is time for the people on top, the people doing extremely well to also understand that they are americans. they are part of our country, and they have got to contribute to deficit reduction, and the fact of the matter is, mr. president, that moving towards deficit reduction in a way that is fair is not as complicated as some would have us believe. in fact, if you are not holding to wall street, large corporations and wealthy campaign contributors and not frightened by the number of 32

ads if you take these guys on, it is easy. i know there's many people out there of good faith who have different ideas about how we can move forward towards a balanced budget and deficit reductionment i'm not saying that i have all of the answers, but let me give you a few examples, a few examples as to how we can reduce the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next decade, and that includes, of course, asking the wealthier and large corporations to begin paying their fair share of taxes and does not do undo harm to ordinary americans. we can do it. we can do. if you're concerned about deficit reduction, i'm concerned about deficit reduction, but we can do it calling for shared sacrifice, and in a way that does not attack programs that millions and millions of children, elderly, and working families are terribly dependent

upon. let me give you a few ideas, and other people i know have other good ideas. first, we simply repeal the bush tax breaks for the top 2%. we can raise at least $700 billion over the next decade. that's rich. rich are getting richer. huge tax breaks, repeal that, $700 billion. i know that some of my republican friends think, oh, my goodness, if you don't give tax breaks to the wealthy, there's a negative impact on jobs, and this is the tickle down economic theory. tax breaks to the rich, corporations create jobs. well, that idea has been tested. that idea was tested. that was the idea of former george w. bush, but during his eight years as president when that idea was in effect, the private sector lost, lost over

600,000 jobs, and we had one of the worst economic decades in terms of job creation ever seen in this country. we tried that theory. we did give tax breaks to the rich and large corporations, and we lost 600,000 jobs during that 10 year period. meanwhile, when bill clinton raised taxes on the top 2%, you know what? the world didn't quite cave in. in fact, during clinton's presidency, we created over 22 million jobs and he left office with a huge budget surplus. that's just one idea. mr. president, you heard polls say we should impose a surtax on millionaires, vast majority of the american people believe that. if you did a 5.4% surtax on millionaires and billionaires, that raises $383 billion in ten years. mr. president, want another idea? at a time when the manufacturing sector is collapsing, when

50,000 factories have shut down in ten years, millions of workers lost good paying jobs, the united states government continues to reward companies that moves u.s. manufacturing jobs overseas through loopholes in the tax code known as the tax -- that clearly in terms of revenue to our government as well as policy which was also the loss of millions of good manufacturing jobs is not something we should sustain. if we ended that absurdity, that policy alone, the joint tax committee has estimated that we can raise more than $582 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. what about that? $585 billion of revenue, and we stop the outsourcing the jobs so that maybe we can rebuild our manufacturing sector. sounds to me like a pretty

sensible idea. my republican friends think it's elderly people to pay far more than they can afford for medicare. but ending this absurd policy, which encourages companies to throw american workers out on the street, makes a lot more sense to me than what the republicans are talking about. fourth, mr. president, if we end the tax breaks and subsidies to the big oil and gas companies, we could reduce the deficit by more than $40 billion over the next ten years. fifth, if we prohibited abusive and illegal offshore tax shelters -- i just talked about a moment ago -- we could bring in $1 trillion over ten years. that says to the corporations and the wealthy, sorry, you're no longer going to be able to stab your wealth in the cayman stab your wealth in the cayman >> avoid paying taxes. sixth, mr. president, if we establish a wall street

speculation team of less than 1% on the sale of purchase and credit swaps and stock options and futures, we can reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion in a decade and also, also tell wall street we're not going to tolerate their outrageous behavior that led us in the recession in the first place. we'll try to get a handle on our best speculation. my number seven, mr. president, if we tax capital gains and dividends the same way we attack ordinary workers, we can raise more than $730 billion in a decade. why should someone who clips dividend coupons pay a lower rate than someone out working on our street z as a nurse or teacher. warren buffet says he pays a lower effective tax rate than

his secretary, and the effect of tax rate of wealthy americans is just 18%, the lowest on record. we have a number of ideas out there, not least of which taking a hard look at the military. there are debates as to how much we think cuts should be, but we should be in agreement that it no longer makes sense to sustain weapon systems built in order to fight the cold war against the soviet union. they are not our enemy right now. i can tell you that my, my office request a gao report finding the pentagon at $36.9 billion in spare parts, but are collecting dust in warehouses. we can do better than that. i think we speak for the majority of the people in my state of vermont and i suspect in this country. it is time to begin bringing the

troops home from iraq and afghanistan and at an straited rate. we have been in afghanistan now for ten years. it is time for the afghan people and their military to take responsibility in terms of defeating the taliban. we should be supportive of those efforts, but bring our troops home sooner than the president suggested, and when we do that among other things, we'll save a substantial sum of money. further, mr. president, i will not deny for one second that there is waste and fraud and bureaucracy in almost every government program out there. i think we have to take a hard look at them all, and i believe in addition to the pentagon, we can save hundreds of billions of dollars a year by eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy. mr. president, the ideas that i've enumerated and some that i have not, but which will become

part of the record, if we did all or some of these things, we could easily reduce the deficit by well over $4 trillion over the next decade, if not, in fact, much more. it would be done in a way that is fair, and it would not unnecessarily and needlessly ruin the lives of some of the most desperate and tramming -- fragile and hurting people in our country today, people struggling to make ends meet. those people would be spared. mr. president, the extreme right wing agenda of more tax breaks by the wealth paid by the dismantling of medicaid, medicare, education, and the environment may be popular in the cocktail parties of the wealthy, but it is way out of touch with what the overwhelming majority of americans want. mr. president, as you know, late

last week, congressman, the republican majority leader in the house and senator john kyl, the minority whip of the house walkedded out of the budget negotiations led by vice president biden, and the reason they walked out was clear. they were not willing to close one single loophole to avoid paying taxes by stashing their money in the cayman islands and all the other loopholes that currently exist. mr. president, my sincere hope is that president obama will use this republican walkout, the unwillingness to talk about the wealthy corporations contributing nothing, to use this as an opportunity to rally the american people and make it clear that he had never support republican demands to move toward a balanced budget solely

on the backs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the poor, but i don't think that the president will do this unless the american people send him a message that enough is enough. the american people do not support the republican agenda. the american people support the concept of shared sacrifice as we move towards deficit reduction, but the president has got to hear from the american people. he has got to hear they will not accept decimating medicare, medicaid, pell grants, the environment in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy. the president has to stand up for the millions of americans who have seen their homes, jobs, and their savings vanish instead of the millionaires that have never had it so good. mr. president, it is my belief

that if the american people make that demand of the president and tell the president not to yield on this issue, we can win this budget struggle. if people would like to, and i hope they would, we have a letter to the president which i'm going to read in a moment on my website, and also as i mentioned earlier, they can contact the white house districtly by going strawght to the white house website and sending a message, and if hundreds of thousands of people do that, the president, i hope, will have the strength and the determination to say to the republicans, sorry, we are not going to balance the budget on the weak and the vulnerable. now, this is the letter on my website, sanders.senate.gov which i hope people will sign. this is what the letter says

that captures much of what i've been saying for the last hour. "dear, mr. president, this is a pivotal moment in the history of the country. decisions are made about the national budget to impact the lives of virtually every american for decades to come. as we address the issue of deficit reduction, we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. united states has by far the most une quale distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth, and everyone understands that over the long term we have to reduce the deficit, a deficit caused mainly by wall street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies.

it is absolutely imperil as we go forward with deficit reduction, we completely reject the republican approach that demand savage cuts in desperately needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children, and the poor by not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny. mr. president, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the american people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. the wealthiest americans and the most profitable corporations of the country must pay their fair share, at least 50%, at least 50% of any deficit reduction package from come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealth and eliminating tax loopholes that ben git large profitable compingses and wall

street financial institutions. a sensible deficit reduction package must include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful pentagon spending. please, mr. president, do not yield to outrageous republican demands that greatly increase suffering for the weakest members of the society. now is the time to stand with tens of millions of americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with millionaires and billionaires who never had it so good. respectfully yours." that's the letter on my website at sanders.senate.gov. i hope, and i know i think we have many, many signatures on that already. i hope that we get more. people would prefer to go to the white house website, do that. that would be important, but the main point here is that the president has got to know that we will not accept a deficit reduction package that just comes down heavily on working

families, and i would say, and the reason i must -- i raise these issues today, mr. president, is i am frankly very worried because we have gone through this negotiating process two times in the last six months, and that is why we need the american people to weigh in op this issue -- on this issue. in fact, we have seen this movie before. the republicans led by their extreme right wing have been successful in getting their way because of their refusal to compromise and their willingness to hold credit and economic security of the american people hostage. as many remember, the republican leadership was prepared to hold the middle class tax cuts and unemployment benefits hostage in order to extend the bush tax breaks for the top 2%, and as we all know, the republicans won,

and as a result of the $200 billion added to the deficit over the next two years, not only did the bush tax breaks for the wealthy get extended, but a reduction that benefits the top three-tenths of 1%. specifically the september tax agreement extended the bush income tax benefits and cost us very, very substantially. mr. president, it is not just the bush tax cuts that were extended in march of this year. you'll all remember that our republican friends said that unless we made very significant cuts, the republicans were prepared to shut down the government, disrupt the economy, and deny paychecks to some 800,000 federal workers if they could not get their way.

that's what they said, shut down the government unless we make draconian cuts, and one of the cuts i was disturbed about with many was $600 million to build health centers that saves money by keeping people healthy. they cut the pell grantings making it harder for students to go to college. point is, they acted as bullies, and they said if we don't get our way, we are prepared to shut down the government, and now we're back at it again. this is part three of the act, part one was whether or not the middle class gets its tax breaks and unemployment benefits to be extended. republicans one. part two is whether or not the government would be shut down. republicans mostly won getting mostly everything they wanted, and here we are today in the biggest act of all, and the question is whether the republicans will, in fact, not

raise the debt ceiling, and if they do that, it is quite possible that not only our country, but the entire world might be plunged into a major financial crisis, and that is what they are threatening. if we don't get everything we want, we are prepared not to pay our government's debts for the first time in the history of our country, prepare to see interest rates go up, and a very fragile global economy, prepare to see more and more instability. mr. president, in many ways, the republicans here in washington are acting like schoolyard bullies, and as we know, bullying is a very serious problem in our schools. every educator worth his or her soul tells you when you deal with a bully, you must not give into their tactics or tolerate their temper tantrums or