Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate Budget Cmte. Ranking Member Sanders On Budget Priorities 20180119

A Government Shutdown would be extraordinarily destructive to the people of our country, millions of depend upon Government Services andnd it wil be destructive to millions of federal employees keep their families going with a paycheck from the government. It will be destructive to the United States armed forces, men and women who put their lives on the line to defend us. It seems to me that got to do everything we can to prevent a Government Shutdown. Now, is everyone knows we have a Republican Party which controls the United States senate, Republican Party which controls the us house of representatives and republican who is the white house, President Trump. We are now three and a half months into the fiscal year and yet the Republican Party has yet to give us an annual budget. The United States government is a 3 trilliondollar operation and there is no distance in this country that can run week to week, month to month, we need an annual budget and now the republicans are coming back asking for a force continuing resolution. You cannot run a government like that. It is unfair to the American People and unfair to the armed forcesto and unfair to all of u. Half months have gone in the fiscal year and yet the childrens healthh Insurance Program has not been reauthorized. This is a program that has existed for decades with bipartisan support. How can we not reauthorize the chip program customer. Half months in the fiscal year has come and gone and we have not reauthorized the Community Health Center Program which provides primary health care, dental care, Mental Health counseling, lowcost prescription drugs to 27 million americans in every state in this country. Mr. President , if legislation were brought to the floor of the senate today the stepanov bill reauthorizing the Community Health that i suspect it would get 75 votes and yet republicans after three and a half months have not been able to reauthorize the program or the Community Health Center Program. President , when we talk about the budget process we are talking about three major issu issues. There are more for their three major issues. Number one, will we continue to have parity and spending between defense spending and nondefense spendingdi. Since 2011 in four different budgets there has been a bipartisan agreement that for every dollar you spend on defense is a dollar you will spend on the needs of a struggling middleclass, millionsns of people who are struggling every day to keep their heads above water economically. The dollar here in a dollar there and it has been agreed upon on four separate occasions. Several weeks ago the leader, senator mcconnell, came to the floor instead we want to spend the needs oforking fs. Nd less on mr. President , we have a middle class which is shrinking and people all of this country working two or three jobs and with the highest rate ofil childhood poverty of any major country on earth for the millions of elderly people who cannot make it on 12 or 13000 a year we havent Opioid Crisis sweeping the nation hitting my state of vermont very, very hard. We have an structure which is dwindling and we cannot ignore the needs the working needs of the families in this country. One of the things we have to do is to come together and we must is have bipartisan agreement we reauthorize chip but of course, reauthorize the Community Health Center Program. Step now bill has nine republican cosponsors in every democrat will support and we have the votes, lets do it. We have to deal with the pension issue, mr. President , 1 million and a half of the workers are about to lose 50 or 60 of the pensions they were promised and it cannot be allowed to happen. We have to stand with those workers. The president i went to a meeting earlier today dealing with the Social Security administration. Social Security Administration which provides the process in administrative that make sure the elderly and disabled people get Social Security benefits to get the benefits in a timely manner. For years now republicans have underfunded that administration and today they are simply not enough employees to do the work that has to be done and now amazingly over in the house are lking massive cuts to the Social Security administration on top of all the cuts that they have already received. Washington post wrote an article two weeks ago unbelievable and what they said is that all but the last year if you can believe it 10000 people with disabilities who w had applied r Social Security benefits died while waiting for those benefi benefits, while waiting for those claims, to be processed. And they were not processed in a manner because there Social Security administration does not have the workers that it needs and has been significantly under funded. For the sake of the Senior Citizens of our country and for the sake of the disabled, a budget agreement, when we have parities must supply sufficient amount of money to the Social Security administration so that they can do their work. Mr. President , every veterans day, every member of this body talks about how much they love veterans. Veterans Administration Today has 30000 vacancies which mean that our veterans are not getting the quality and timely care that they must be able to receive. We have to start filling those vacancies in any budget agreement must include increased funding for the va. Mr. President , all of this country there are millions of young people who went to college and went to graduate school and have left School Deeply in debt and because of high Interest Rates some of those now pay their debts off and weve got to address some 40 million americans and in vermont and all of this country if youre working person what do you do if you have to have a three yearold or two yearold and you look for a decent Quality Childcare but all over this country it iss extremely difficult to find that Quality Childcare. Any serious budget agreement that we reach must include increased funding for child care so that working people in this country know that when they leaveeid their center that child will receive quality care at a cost, every dollar we invest is a dollar well spent. Mr. President all over this country in this most wealthy nation in the history of the world we have an infrastructure roads and bridges Water Systems and wastewaterra plants that are crumbling in many parts of Rural America and we do not have high quality affordable broadband or self service. How do you maintain a community and how do you bring business into a community how do kids do their homework if you dont have decent broadband or cell phone service. Weve got to invest in Rural America and make certain that every community in this country has broadband has the kind of infrastructure that it needs in order to process mr. President one of the tragedies taking place in this country today and resulting unbelievably in a lower Life Expectancy rate here it is in decline and one of the reasons forhat is the tragic opioid in heroin epidemic which claims some 60000 lives last year we cannot ignore that problem would have to invest in prevention and weve got invest in the treatments and all of this country and families who are struggling with this issue. My point is mr. President we need parity, not personal and direct reason we need parity spending because we need more in this country than just a Strong Military andon we need a strong working class and we cannot turn our backs on tens of millions of people who are struggling. The second issue we have got to deal with here in the congress is the issue of daca and the need for a clean dreamers legislation. In september President Trump initiated a very serious crisis and what he did was rescinded president obamas executive order dividing and providing legal status through daca to the 800,000 young people. These are young people who were raised in the United States of america and these are young people who today are working and they are in school and they are in the military and this is the only home they have ever known and this is the only country that an event or many of them cant even remember and the idea of simply doing away with the legal status that they have subjecting them to deportation and subjecting them to being taken away from their only country they have ever known and loved is literally beyond retention and unspeakable in september when trump initiated this process recently in obamas executive order on daca he said to the congress, Republican Leadership in the house and senate, you fix it. Get legislation while there are people right now, senator graham, many others were working on legislation to go as far as like i would like it to go but serious legislation is in the house. We have the vast majority of democrats and many republicans who understand we cannot turn our backs on these young people. That is not what we just feel here in t house and senate but it is what the American People want, poll after poll. It shows that 75 , 80 of the American People say provide these 800,000 young people with legal status and provide them with a passport citizenship. Very few people think we should turn our backs on these young people and let daca expire and subject them to deportation. Let us do what the American People want us to do. Let us pass a strong dreamers act. Last but not least we have some terrible hurricanes some months ago. Iter brought a lot of disaster o texas, florida, puerto rico into the virgin islands. Those states and territories desperately need. Mr. President , we cannot continue to kick the can down the road. We cannot continue to run a 3 trillion government on a monthbymonth basis unfair to everybody. We have got to sit down and negotiate a serious budget agreement, and what republicans must understand is, yes, they have a 5149 majority here in the senate, but you need 60 votes to pass this type of legislation. You need 60 votes. That means you cannot do it alone. You cannot give that means you t cannot do it alone. You cannot give the Democratic Congress datacomm plea and expect him to say we are going to follow you. This requires bipartisan discussionsc on the parody issue in domestic spending. They support the dreamers piece of legislation and pass forward to citizen ship. We have a Strong Majority of the American People. Lets not kick the can down the road. They must negotiate in a bipartisan way. Mr. President , constituents of mine are hearing today that there is a looming Government Shutdowns that by friday midnight if congress hasnt passed a speg