Provide further compelling evidence the. [shouting] of the strength of united kingdoms economic recovery thanks in large measure to a longterm economic plan [shouting] but given the strength of that recovery, may i launch an appeal to my right honorable friend that we do now commit to spending 2 of gdp on our defenses most appointed military capability gaps we have had to sustain . And in these troubled times, to measure our principal allies United States of america, thats a long as we have a conservative government, defense of the realm will be the number one priority of this country . [shouting] first of all i welcome the support of my honorable friend of the economic plan that is delivering jobs. Of course, the military can the Defense Industries are incredibly important employer in his constituency and he is right that we cant have Strong Defense without a strong economy. Eddies right to pursue were spending 2 of our gdp on defense. We made a commitment to the future Equipment Program for defense and will set out our future plans at the spending review. If i may mr. Speaker at the end of the session since he raises a military matter it is the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the agency which was the largest loss of british lives at sea in the history of this maritime nation. Some of the survivors are still alive today and many of course more to those who died and was kept secret at the time for reasons of wartime secrecy, and i think it is appropriate to do in this house of commons to them all of those who survived and those who died and their families who still mourn them. Here, here. Order. You have been watching prime ministers questions from the british comments. British commons. You can watch anytime at cspan. Org. Sara kate ellis is ceo of the gay and Lesbian Alliance against gay and Lesbian Alliance defamation. Otherwise known as glaad. At the same time, we will have live coverage on cspan3 with democratic senator chris murphy from connecticut. He will be speaking about u. S. Foreignpolicy and the ways to broaden the debate. At his life at 12 00 p. M. Est on cspan3. Cspan gives you the best access to congress. Live coverage, congressional hearings and news conferences. Bringing you events and every morning washington journal is live. Your comments on phone, facebook and twitter. Created by americas Cable Companies and brought to you as a public service. Democratic president ial candidate Bernie Sanders was in colorado where he spoke to a crowd of more than 4000 people. The independent senator talked about Campaign Finance, income inequality, Climate Change and college affordability. This is just over one hour. Well, let me begin by thanking robin for that wonderful introduction. Let me think all the folks at the atrium. Let me thank the many hundreds of the field. Thank you very much for being here tonight. This is an extraordinary turnouts, and i think all of you for being here. A few weeks ago if you weeks ago we decided we were going to do an event in l. A. And i said to myself, we are going to l. A. , what of received we can get a room in denver why dont we get a room and denver and see if we can bring a couple hundred people together, see if we can find some supporters, and after about 10 minutes after the email went out we knew we had to change the venue. [applause] and here we are tonight. So thank you. Let me begin by telling you what no other candidate for president is going to tell you. And that is that this campaign is not about me. Its not about hillary clinton. Its not about jeb bush. Is not about any other candidates. This campaign is about you, your kids and your parents. [applause] it is about creating a Political Movement of millions of people who stand up and loudly and proudly proclaim that this nation and our government belong to all of us and not just a handful of billionaires. [applause] people throughout our history have fought and died to defend democracy. And democracy means today that we need a Political Movement of millions of people who come out and vote, who educate, and who organize. Democracy is not about the last election in which 63 of the American People and 80 of young people did not vote. That is not democracy. Democracy is when people from one end of this country to the other stand up and say that there is nothing that a great nation cannot accomplish. Now is not the time for thinking small. We have been thinking small for too many years. We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. Now is the time to think big and to understand all that we can accomplish for all of our people. This country today, in my view faces more Serious Problems than at any time since a great depression. And if you add to that, the planetary crisis of Climate Change, it may well be that today, in our time, we face more challenges than any time in the modern history of this country. [cheers and applause] and what we are here tonight for his to lay those problems out on the table and talk about how we are going to solve those problems. [cheers and applause] today we live in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, but most americans dont feel that i dont know that. That and dont know that. Almost all of the wealth rests in the hands of a tiny number of people. America now has more income and wealth inequality than any major country on earth, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is wider today than at any time since the late 1920s. In my view, the issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, it is a great political issue of our time. [cheers and applause] let me be as clear as i can be. There is something profoundly wrong when the top 1 10 of 1 today owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 . There is something profoundly wrong when today 99 of all new income created goes to the top 1 . There is something profoundly wrong when we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires at the same time as millions of americans are working longer hours for lower wages, and we have by far the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. There is something profoundly wrong when one family in america, the walton family, owns more wealth than the bottom 130 million americans. This grotesque level of wealth and income inequality is not only immoral, is not only bad economics, is not only unsustainable, it is not what the United States of america is supposed to be about. [cheers and applause] and you know what . Together we are going to change that. It aint going to be easy. The billionaire class controls much of the economy, our political life, the media. But what we are doing tonight is sending a message to the billionaire class, and that is you cant have it all. You cannot get huge tax breaks when children in this country go hungry. You cannot continue to send our jobs to china when millions of people in this country are desperately looking for work. You cannot hide your profits in the Cayman Islands and in other tax havens while there are massive unmet needs in every corner of this country. The unconscionable greed of the billionaire class is destroying this nation and it has got to end. [cheers and applause] [crowd chants bernie] and what we say to these extraordinarily wealthy and powerful people is that you cannot take advantage of all the benefits if you refuse to accept your responsibilities as americans. When we talk about our economy we are not just talking about the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality. What we are also talking about is the tragic reality that over the last 40 years the great middle class of america, once the envy of the world has been disappearing. I want you to appreciate this. All of you are aware that in recent years we have seen an explosion of technology and all of you are aware that almost every worker in america is now far more productive than workers were 10 or 20 years ago. Despite that increase in technology and the increase in activity, the fact of the matter is millions are working longer hours for lower wages and median Family Income today is almost 5,000 less than it was in 1999. That is the reality and that is the reality that we have to put on the table and we have to discuss that and we have to turn that around. [applause] i can tell you that in my state of vermont thats right. I doubt it is any different in colorado or anyplace else, we have people not working one job. There are working two jobs or three jobs trying to cobble together an income and some health care. That is not what the American Economy should be about. When we talk about the economy and when you ask people what is on their mind, they talk about jobs and unemployment. Let me tell you this. When you read in the papers once per month that official unemployment is 5. 4 , dont believe it. The weight of the government determines Unemployment Rates is kind of complicated. If you throw in the fact that we have millions of people working parttime when they want to work fulltime and when you add to that the millions of people who have given up looking for work, real unemployment today is close to 11 . Let me tell you Something Else which is not discussed at all. One of the fun things about running for president is that you can talk about the issues that other people dont talk about. [applause] a report just came out a few weeks ago from the Economic Policy institute which is an excellent think tank in washington and what they said should scare every single american. That is that youth unemployment in this country has reached crisis proportions. If you include those people who have given up looking for work when they want to work fulltime. If you are looking at High School Graduates from age 17 to 20. The Unemployment Rate for white and hispanic young people is over 30 and for young africanamerican kids 1720 that number is 51 . Maybe, just maybe, we should start investing in jobs and education rather than in incarceration and jail. [applause] when we talk about the economy we are also not just talking about income wealth inequality. We are not just talking about unemployment. We are talking about wages and what were talking about is that millions of people in vermont and colorado are working at inadequate wages. [applause] i was in des moines iowa a week ago talking to some people at a Farmers Market and what they were doing, they were collecting food that was not sold at the Farmers Market and rating it to an emergency food shelf. What they said in des moines is that 90 of the people who went to the emergency food shelves were people who were working fulltime. One would think that if somebody worked fulltime, you would earn enough to be able to feed your family. [applause] let me state as clearly as i can , that the current federal minimum wage of seven dollars and . 25 of 7. 25 per hour is a starvation wage and must be raised to a living wage. [applause] the city of los angeles did exactly the right thing. They raised the minimum wage over a period of a couple years. That is what we should be doing nationally. When we talk about work and wages, we have to and the disgrace of women making . 78 on the dollar compared to men. [applause] we need to pay equity for women workers in this country. Equal pay for equal work. A couple weeks ago i announced a series of proposals that were a lot of fun to talk about and i will tell you why. As you know, many republicans talk about family values. They just love families. They just love children. They just cannot get enough of families and children. But when they talk about family values, you know what they are talking about. What they are saying to every woman in this country, you cannot control and have destiny over your own body. What they are saying to women and this is incredible hard to and what they are saying to our gay brothers and sisters is you cannot get married. Well, i have and i think you have a very different vision of what family values should be about. [applause] let me tell you, what i think family values mean. It means that the United States must end our International Embarrassment of being the only major country on earth, the only one, which does not guarantee workers paid medical and family leave. [applause] which does not guarantee paid sick time or paid vacation time. Let me tell you about a family value as deep and a strong as one can imagine. To make today in america, a workingclass, low income woman gives birth to a baby. That mom and that father want the opportunity to get to know their newborn baby. That is pretty natural and that is what a family is all about. But, if that workingclass woman does not have enough money, she will have to go back to work in four days, five days, one weeks time. And that is why we need family and medical leave for that mom and that data. You have one month to spend with your baby, paid for. [applause] this is not a radical socialistic idea. This is an idea that exists in virtually every major country on art. Let me tell you about another radical idea. Are you ready . I dont know about you, but i go around the country and and of eating in a lot of restaurants and i do not want someone preparing the food who has the flu or a sick. I want to see workers in this country be guaranteed paid sick leave. [applause] let me tell you Something Else that nobody talks about. And that is, with the collapse of the american middle class what is happening is that our people, men and women, are being forced to work incredibly long hours. I hope some of you know that our people in this country, the wealthiest country on earth, and up working far more hours then do the people of any major industrialized country. The American People are working 137 hours a year more than the japanese, who worked very hard. We work 260 more hours than the british, and well, for the french, we work over 500 hours a year more than our friends in france. Why do i say that . Is that an important issue . It is an important issue. Because our people are working incredibly long hours, here is the story. I was in her groceries or, outside of groceries or, in burlington, vermont. A few years ago. A woman came up to me. She said, bernie, i want to mention something. My husband and i have one kid. We would like to have more children. What i am working three jobs, he is working two job very we do not believe that we can be the kind of parent that we want to be. And that story is being told all across our country. People are exhausted. Some of you may remember, and read in your history books that 100 years ago, in the early 1900s, workers demonstrated all over this country and they held up banners and they held up signs and posters and they said that 100 years ago, we are not beasts of burden, we are human beings. We want leisure time. We want to spend time with our kids. We want more education. We want the 40 hour work week. [applause] brothers and sisters, 100 years have, and gone, we have seen an explosion in technology and a huge increase in worker productivity. We are not today even close to a 40 hour work week. Today, 85 of working men and 66 of working women were more than 40 hours a week. In my view, at the very least what we have got to do as a family value is to guarantee those workers at least two works weeks a year of paid vacation. [applause] imagine that radical idea that workers should have a couple of weeks where parents can spend some quality time with their kids. Again, all over the industrialized world, men have two weeks in fact they usually have a lot more than that. Let me talk, when pollsters went out and pulled the American People, they asked what they were caring about the most. The answer is almost always the four letter word j obs. Not only israel unemployment close to 11 , youth unemployment is off of the charts. People are scared to death that they will walk in and find out that their job has disappeared and the young person has topic. If you are young, youre desperately trying to find a career ladder but you cannot find your stop. In my view, find your job. In my view, it is time to recognize that we do have a job crisis in america and we need a major federal jobs program in america. [applause] several months ago, i was introduced to the senate and we will implement from the white house a jobs program which rebuilds our crumbling roads bridges, Water Systems plants [applause] this is the United States of america. Our roads and bridges and Water Systems and levees and dams should not be crumbling. Our rail system should not be behind europe, japan, and china. [applause] and if we invest a trillion dollars in rebuilding the infrastructure, we become more productive, more efficient safer, and we can create up to 13 million decent paying jobs. [applause] and here is another issue. That we have got to deal with as a nation. Not as sexy issue but it is enormously important. And that is to understand that the trade policies that we have had in this country for decades have been a protest failure a grotesque failure for the american worker. [applause] as a member of the house and now is a senator, i have voted against nafta, against havecafta, against per minute trade relations with china. Permanent trade relations with china. The function of these trade agreements was to allow Corporate America to shut down in america, outsource our jobs to lowwage countries and bring their products back in here. In my view, in my view, if Corporate America wants us to buy their products, the time is long overdue for them to start manufacturing those products here in the United States of america. [applause] and that is why, i have helped lead the opposition in the senate to this disastrous transpacific partnership. [applause] i want to say a word about the gdp. Not widely known. This is what i want to say. It is not just that the tpp and fasttrack would force American Workers to compete against people in vietnam that make . 56 an hour minimum wage. It is beyond that. I will tell you a story which demonstrates what these trade agreements are all about. An integral part of this trade agreement is called an investor state resolution process. What is that about . I will tell you what it is about. Tiny countries the tiny country of worldwide, a few years ago uruguay. He tried to keep the kids of his country from smoking. I think that is a good thing. Given the fact that smoking causes a huge. Of diseases, i applaud people who do that. Phillip morris on the other hand, disagreed. What Phillip Morris did as a result of trade language which is included in the tpp, is went to an International Tribunal and said to the tribunal, what berg uruguay is doing is harming our future profits. Phillip morris said we can make a lot of money by a digging children to nicotine and killing them over the years and you are taking away our ability to look at kids on cigarettes. And what the trade agreement we will see how that resolves itself. It is still in the tribunal. Australia is in the same boat. But that tells you anything you need to know about these trade agreements. The bottom line, very clearly is what is good for future profits is what trade agreements are all about. Not the health, not the environment, not the wellbeing of the people and that is why we have to defeat the tpp. [applause] let me be as blunt as i can be. In telling you come if i have not been blunt already, and tell you something that i think many of you already know. And that is, as a result of a disaster look Disastrous Supreme Court decision. Make that loud so that the Supreme Court can hear you. Buy a 54 decision, the Supreme Court rendered one of the worst decisions in the history of our country. What they said to the wealthiest people in this country ok guys, you already own much of america. We will now give you the opportunity to own the United States government. People like the Koch Brothers they said hey, that is great. That is great. What we have always wanted to do. To own our government. What Citizens United allowed is that these people spent billions of dollars to buy candidates who will make the rich richer and everyone else for poorer. This issue of Campaign Finance reform is so important, it is important because it impacts every other issue of concern. If we have a congress or governors or state legislatures that are owned by the billionaire class, we are not going to address the problems facing working families. I have so far made one promise in this campaign. I will have a litmus test for my nominees to the Supreme Court. [applause] that litmus test is that anyone i nominate will make it clear to this country that they are going to rehear Citizens United and vote to overturn that disastrous decision. [applause] i want to see a vibrant american democracy where we are not looking at 63 of the people not voting. We are looking at 90 of the people voting. I want to see a democracy. I want to see a democracy where everyone, regardless of his or her views, who wants to run for office can run for Office Without eating the holden to big without being beholden to big money interests. We moved to public funding of elections. [applause] brothers and sisters, american democracy people did not fight and die for american democracy to allow the Koch Brothers alone. This family will spend more money on this election cycle then either the Democratic Party or the republican party. Brothers and sisters, if you step back and you look at a situation like that, what you are not looking at, you are not looking at a democracy. You are looking at an oligarchic form of government and we have got to stop that. [applause] being at a university, i now want to touch on another issue that has enormous consequence. In a highly competitive global economy, which is what we are in, we need the best educated workforce in the world. And what that means, is that we have got to encourage all of our people not as young people, in middleage people, old people, to get all of the education that they can regardless of the income of their family. [applause] think about where we are right now in and the absurd situation that exists currently in america in the highly competitive global economy. Hundreds of thousands of bright young, qualified people who want to go to college or get a Higher Education are unable to do so not because they lack the ability, but because they lack the money. That is grossly unfair. In terms of just taking away the latter for those young laderder for those young people but it is even worse than that when we look at our nation as a whole. What kind of insanity is it when we say to those evil that we do not when we say to those people that we do not want you to become doctors and nurses because you just do not have the money. And that is why i have introduced legislation and will fight for it as president that will make every Public College and university in america tuition free. [applause] let me tell you what that means. It is not only that it is going to make life easier for kids in high school to know that they can go to college. It will permeate all levels of education. Kids right now they have gotten the message. Their family does not have a lot of money and they will not make it to the middle class and they will not go to college. Why should they study hard and do their homework. When we make it clear that every kid in this country in fact if you work hard in school, you will be able to get a Higher Education that will transform this nation. [applause] some people they think this is a radical idea. It is not a radical idea, it is the most common sense idea that we can think of. Let me tell you this. Right now, countries like germany, all over scandinavia even countries like chile, they understand that their future rests on investing in their young people. We should do the same thing. [applause] when we talk about Higher Education, and Higher Education financing, we also have to understand that there are millions of young and middleaged and not so middleaged people who are today being crushed by her rent this student debt. By horrendous student debt. I young man i know, not so young anymore, graduated law School Deeply in debt. Today, he is still think that that paying that debt off at 9 Interest Rates. What sense does it make if you can refinance your home at to present and you can buy a new car at 0 but because you committed the crime of wanting to get an education, you are stuck for the rest of your life at 9 . Part of that legislation will allow people who have student debt to refinance their student debt at lower Interest Rates. And what it also will do is and the absurdities of the federal government making billions in profits off of the Interest Rate paid by low income and workingclass families. [applause] when we do that, we can substantially cut i more than half, Interest Rates for people who have debt today. My critics have said bernie it is an expensive proposition you are proposing. They are right. This legislation would cost about 70 billion a year. That is a lot of money. We will pay for it by attacks on wall street speculation. By a tax on wall street speculation. [applause] as a result of the fraud, the recklessness, of wall street, this country was plunged into the worst economic recession since the great depression. Millions of people lost their jobs they lost their life savings, and they lost homes. The time right now is not only to pass a speculation tax on wall street, that time right now is to break up the major Financial Institutions in this country. [applause] if a bank is too big to fail that bank is too big to exist. [applause] i suppose that means i wont get much money for my campaign from wall street. But we will survive without their money. Let me touch now on an issue which i think addresses our responsibilities as human beings, as parents, i have four kids and seven beautiful grandchildren. We have the moral responsibility to make sure that the planet that we leave to our kids and grandchildren is habitable. [applause] the debate is over. Maybe with the exception of fox television. Other than that, the scientists have almost unanimously told us that Climate Change is real it is caused by human activity and the emissions of carbon, it is already causing devastating problems here in our country and around the world. This is what they have also told us. They have said that while the problems are very serious right now, they will only get much, much worse if we do not ceaseseize a short window of opportunity to transform our Energy System to sustainable energy. [applause] what the Scientific Community tells us, and this is really it speaks to our responsibilities as custodians of this planet. What they say is that if we continue business as usual, if we do not transform our Energy Systems, that by the end of this century the planet earth will be between five degrees and 10 degrees fair in height warmer. And what that will bill is more and what that will do is more and more drought, more flooding, more extreme weather disturbances, more acidification of the ocean, more rising sea levels, it will also be a Huge National security issue for the entire world because when people do not have land to grow food on, if they do not have water for agriculture or to drink there will be migrations of people, there will be international conflict, there will be more and more work. The point is, and pope francis made this point. What a hero. What a hero for this entire planet. Pope francis has been. We have one of the important religious leaders on earth speaking out in a way that nobody in congress would ever speak out about what money and inequality is doing to people all over the world. And now speaking out on Climate Change, god bless pope francis. [applause] when i was in college, way back when, a few years ago, the issue that motivated young people all across this country was civil rights. At that point, we had folks giving up their lives fighting in the south to desegregate the south, to fight for Voting Rights for africanamericans and some of those heroes that killed trying to do what they did. In my view today, one of the great issues facing our Younger Generation is to stand up and demand that america leads the world in transforming our Energy System. [applause] when we do that, by the way when we weather rise of homes that are leaking energy, when we have a Transportation System that is energyefficient, when we have a strong rail system when we move aggressively to solar wind and geothermal, we create millions of jobs as well. [applause] let me say a word about another issue that we have got to finally deal with. The United States shamefully is the only major nation on earth that does not guarantee health care to all of our people as a right. [applause] my state of vermont borders on canada. All people have health care in canada as a right. Germany, scandinavia austria every european country has health care for all of their people as a right. Today in america, despite the games of the Affordable Care act, we have 35 Million People without health insurance, we have even more who are under insured with large deductibles and copayments. What we have got to do in my view is passed a medicare for all, singlepayer program [applause] it makes no sense, no sense, 35 Million People uninsured or underinsured. Our Health Care Outcomes are not particularly good. We have a higher infant mortality rate in many countries, we have a lower Life Expectancy than many other countries and get we end up paying almost twice as much per capita for health care. And that is why, we have got to get the private Insurance Companies out of health care. [applause] i am the ranking member, which means leader of the opposition in the senate, on the budget committee. I want to say a word about the republican budget that passed last month. I will tell you this because the media forgot to talk about it. [laughter] and it is important that we talk about it for the following reasons. I am perhaps the most progressive member of the United States senate. [applause] and so, it should not be surprising that i have disagreements with all republicans on almost every issue. Not surprising. But here is