Sen. Bernie Sanders gestures as he speaks at the California Democrats State Convention in Sacramento, Calif., April 30. (photo: AP)
21 March 13
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media appear fixated about when and if a so-called "grand bargain" on
our economy will be reached. Wrong question! The question we should be
asking is: What should be in a "grand bargain" that works for the
average American?
At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46
million Americans are living in poverty and the gap between the very
rich and everyone else is growing wider, we need a "grand bargain" that
protects struggling working families, not billionaires.
With corporate profits at record-breaking levels while
the effective corporate tax is at its lowest level since 1972, and 1
out of 4 profitable corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes,
we need a grand bargain that ends corporate loopholes and demands that
corporate America starts helping us with deficit reduction. We must not
balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick
and the poor. We must not cut Social Security, disabled veterans'
benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other programs that provide
opportunity and dignity to millions of struggling American families.
Before we pass a grand bargain, we have got to take a
hard and sober look at what's happening economically in our country
today. In doing so, we must acknowledge that the United States has the
most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on
earth and that inequality is worse today than at any time since the late
1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals in this country own more
wealth than the bottom half of America - 150 million Americans. The top 1
percent owns 38 percent of all financial wealth, while the bottom 60
percent owns just 2.3 percent. Incredibly, the Federal Reserve reported
last year that median net worth for middle-class families dropped by
nearly 40 percent from 2007-2010. That's the equivalent of wiping out 18
years of savings for the average middle-class family.
The distribution of income is even worse. If you can
believe it, the last study on the subject showed that all of the new
income gained from 2009-2011 went to the top 1 percent. ALL of the new
income!
In America today, the average middle-class family has
seen its income go down by nearly $5,000 since 1999, adjusting for
inflation. Real unemployment is not 7.7 percent, it is 14.3 percent,
counting those workers who have given up looking for work or who are
working part time when they want to be working full time. While youth
unemployment is exceptionally high, millions of young people are
struggling with student loans they can't afford to pay back. While we
talk about the need to strengthen the middle class, we have to
understand that more than half of the new jobs that have been created
since 2010 are low-wage jobs paying people between $7.80 and $13.80 an
hour.
That's the economic reality facing a large majority of
our people, and that's what has to be taken into consideration when we
discuss deficit reduction and a "grand bargain."
As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, here are my priorities:
We need a budget that puts millions of Americans back
to work in decent-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure
and transforming our energy sector away from fossil fuels and into
renewable energy and energy efficiency.
We need a budget that keeps the promises we have made
to our seniors, veterans and the most vulnerable by protecting Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. We need a budget that makes
sure that the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations pay
their fair share of taxes. We must end corporate loopholes that allow
Wall Street banks, large corporations and the wealthy to avoid more than
$100 billion a year in federal taxes by stashing their profits in the
Cayman Islands and other tax havens.
A federal budget is not just a set of numbers. It is a
value statement of what we, as a nation, stand for. We must fight for a
grand bargain that stands for justice, opportunity and the needs of our
middle class. We must reject any approach that continues the economic
assault on working families.
Sanders is a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
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