[This bill was a chance to do big things. It did very modest
things. It was a chance to stand up boldly for the working families of
our country and restore their faith in government. It didnt.]
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BERNIE – WHAT’S MISSING FROM THE RECONCILIATION BILL  
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Bernie Sanders
August 9, 2022
Bernie Sanders US Senator for Vermont [[link removed]]


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_ This bill was a chance to do big things. It did very modest things.
It was a chance to stand up boldly for the working families of our
country and restore their faith in government. It didn't. _

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont , Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

 

Let me be honest with you in saying that I have very ambivalent
feelings about the reconciliation bill that was passed in the Senate
on Sunday, and which I voted for. This bill was a chance to do big
things. It did very modest things. It was a chance to stand up boldly
for the working families of our country and restore their faith in
government. It didn't.

In my view, after weighing the pluses and the minuses of the bill, the
pluses won out and I voted for it. But let's be clear. This is only
the beginning. We still have a long way to go to create the kind of
economic, social, racial, and environmental justice the people of our
country deserve. And that's not going to happen unless we fight for
it.

As you know, a reconciliation bill is one of the few opportunities we
have in the Senate to pass major legislation with 50 votes, not the
usual 60. In other words, if all 50 Democrats had stood together we
could have taken a significant step forward in addressing the major
economic, social, and environmental crises facing our country.

That's not what happened.

Two corporate Democrats, Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema, both of
whom receive huge amounts of campaign contributions from powerful
special interests, prevented that from happening.

The result is that this bill does nothing to reform our dysfunctional,
wasteful, and cruel health care system. It does nothing to address the
massive levels of income and wealth inequality and concentration of
ownership that we are currently experiencing. It does nothing to raise
the starvation minimum wage or make it easier for workers to join
unions. It does nothing to build the millions of units of affordable
housing we need. It does nothing to address the crisis of childhood
poverty and a totally inadequate childcare system. It does nothing to
address the home health care crisis facing our seniors and people with
disabilities. It does nothing to expand Medicare to cover dental,
hearing, and vision care. It does nothing to make it easier for young
Americans to get a higher education, or pay off their student debt. It
does nothing to move us forward toward immigration reform or voting
rights reform.

So, sisters and brothers, what does this bill do? Why did I vote for
it?

This legislation makes important investments in clean energy and
energy efficiency. At a time when we face the existential crisis of
climate change, the most significant part of this bill is an
unprecedented $300 billion investment in clean energy, including a $7
billion solar roof top proposal that I introduced. This bill could
help increase U.S. solar energy by 500 percent and more than double
wind energy by 2035. That is no small thing.

And let me be clear. An investment in clean energy of this size did
not happen by accident. It occurred because the progressive community
has been pressuring the political system for years to act with urgency
on this life-and-death issue, and we should be proud of what we
accomplished. Is the funding in this bill for sustainable energy and
energy efficiency large enough? No. Does it include a Civilian Climate
Corps that calls a generation of young people into service to help
build a better sustainable future? No. But, all and all, it is a major
step forward in addressing the enormous climate crisis the planet
faces.

But here is the very negative aspect of this bill. Unbelievably, at a
time when we are trying to cut carbon emissions, this bill provides
massive giveaways to the fossil fuel industry. Under this legislation,
up to 60 million acres of public waters must be offered up for sale
each and every year to the oil and gas industry before the federal
government could approve any new offshore wind development. And
that’s not all. The fossil fuel industry will benefit from a side
deal that would approve the $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline —
a fracked gas pipeline that would span 303 miles from West Virginia to
Virginia, and potentially on to North Carolina. This is a pipeline
that would generate emissions equivalent to that released by 37 coal
plants or by over 27 million cars every year and is vigorously opposed
by the environmental community. It is beyond comprehension that these
anti-environmental provisions are in the bill.

In terms of prescription drugs this bill takes a small step forward in
doing something that progressives have demanded for years. The good
news is that it will allow Medicare to negotiate the outrageously high
price of prescription drugs and lower drug costs. The bad news is that
these negotiations won't go into effect until 2026 and they will begin
with only 10 drugs. Under this bill we will continue paying, by far,
the highest prices in the world for our medicines for the indefinite
future.

In terms of tax policy, this bill begins the work of making the
wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes by
imposing a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations. It is a step
forward when large profitable corporations will no longer be able to
completely avoid paying their taxes. Further, this legislation gives
the IRS the resources they need to pursue the estimated $1 trillion in
taxes not paid by the wealthiest people in this country, and will help
ordinary, working people get their returns faster.

Brothers and sisters: we may get attacked by the corporate, political,
and media establishments for having bold ambitions that challenge the
power of the 1 percent and wealthy campaign contributors. We will be
criticized for standing up for working families and demanding the
establishment of programs that already exist in many other countries.
But what we know and understand is that poll after poll shows that our
agenda is enormously popular. It is what working class people all over
this country want and need.

Working people don’t have powerful lobbyists in Washington D.C.
advocating on their behalf. They don't have super PACs that spend
hundreds of millions buying and selling politicians. All we have is
ourselves — the power of the people united.

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Today I hope you will sign my petition to show that we are in this
together.

PLEASE SIGN MY PETITION — TELL THE U.S. SENATE THAT YOU WANT BOLD
LEGISLATION THAT ADEQUATELY ADDRESSES THE NEEDS OF THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE.
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No real change ever comes about in this country from the top on down.
It always happens from the bottom on up.

Thank you for adding your name today to show that our movement stands
together on this.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

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* Senate Reconciliation Bill; Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin;
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