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Friends -

I will soon be taking the gavel as the Chairman of the United States Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), one of the most important committees in Congress.

Let me tell you what’s on my mind and what kind of committee I intend to lead.

Health Care: Today, I am thinking about a country that spends more per-capita for health care than any nation in the world and yet has worse outcomes and lower life expectancy than many developed nations.

A country that has a health care system in which more than 60 million Americans are either uninsured or underinsured; almost 500,000 people declare bankruptcy each year; and 70,000 more die every year because they can’t afford the care they need.

A country where drug companies are making huge profits while people split their lifesaving pills in half because they can’t afford them. And because Medicare doesn’t cover vision, hearing, and dental, we have seniors who don’t have the glasses they need to see their loved ones, hearing aids to have a conversation with them, or dental care to enjoy a meal with family.

This is America. That is truly beyond comprehension.

So yes, we must have the courage to stand up to the greed and recklessness of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies, substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs, and work to guarantee health care as a right for all of our people.

Education: Today, I am thinking about a country where the billionaire class gets huge tax breaks, but our teachers and children get broken chairs, flooded classrooms, and inadequate staff support – one of the richest countries in the history of the world, yet our teachers are among the worst paid.

A country where hundreds of thousands of bright young people who have the desire to get a college education cannot because their families lack the money and 45 million more are struggling with student debt.

A country with a public education system that is failing our families from a young age and it has only gotten worse since COVID, especially for working class Americans.

So yes, we must work toward creating the best-educated workforce in the world, one that prepares our children to succeed in a highly competitive global economy – one that recognizes a high-quality public education from childhood to adulthood is the right of all, not just the privilege of a few.

Labor: Today, I am thinking about a rigged economy with an unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality. While the billionaires become richer, 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and millions are trying to exist on starvation wages.

A country where, at this moment, workers all across the country, at Starbucks, Amazon, hospitals, factories, and on college campuses, are organizing unions in order to receive better wages and working conditions. They are often being resisted by fierce and illegal anti-union actions from corporate America.

So yes, we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We must stand up to the extraordinary greed and power of corporate America and make it possible for workers to excessive their constitutional rights to organize unions.

Now I am not naive.

I do not believe that I am going to be able to bang my gavel and pass all of the legislation we would hope to make law in this country.

There are going to be a number of areas where Republicans and conservative Democrats are not going to support us. But I am not going to give up on those issues and together we will continue to make progress on them, as we have over the past several years.

But I am hopeful there are areas where we can find some common ground and make real progress: Reducing the cost of prescription drugs and insulin; expanding early childhood and higher education; raising the minimum wage to name a few.

Because the truth is, it is not just people in so-called “blue states” who are paying too much for drugs, or want better educational opportunities for their children, or who believe the current federal minimum wage is a starvation wage.

Most people believe that in all parts of this country.

So this is going to be a different Chairmanship.

You are going to see us hearing directly from workers.

You are going to see us talking about issues that historically have not been discussed much in Congress.

You are going to see us take our case on the road, not just committee rooms in Washington, D.C.

And you are going to see me asking for your help along the way. Because in order for us to be successful millions of Americans are going to have to stand together in the struggle for economic, racial, social, and environmental justice. These battles will not be won inside the beltway alone. They will require a strong and focused grassroots movement. Let’s do it.

I hope that I can count on your help.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders


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