The Time Traveler Thus Revealed:

ALL RELIGIONS THRIVE ON POVERTY STRICKEN
PEOPLE


JANUARY 25, 2007
2:03 PM
CONTACT: Senator Bernie Sanders
Erin Campbell, 202-224-5141

Senator Bernie Sanders Offers Amendment to Combat Poverty in America to
the Minimum Wage Bill


WASHINGTON - January 25 - Bernie Sanders (I-VT) today offered an
amendment on the Senate floor to combat pervasive poverty in America as
part of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The amendment expresses the
Sense of the Senate that we have a moral obligation to improve the
lives of the nearly 37 million Americans living in poverty, eradicate
childhood poverty, and reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. A
full copy of Senator Sanders' floor statement is below and attached.
Please feel free to post this statement to your website.

Senator Sanders Offers Amendment to Combat Poverty in America

Mr. President, the United States is the richest country in the history
of the world. Unfortunately, however, despite our great wealth, nearly
13 percent of our citizens are living in poverty and we have the
highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country in the
industrialized world. In my opinion we have a moral responsibility to
end child poverty in this country.

Therefore, the amendment that I am offering today simply expresses the
Sense of the Senate that:

1) We have a moral obligation to improve the lives of nearly 37 million
Americans living in poverty, including nearly 13 million children;

2) We have got to address the reality that in the United States today
we have by far the most unfair distribution of wealth and income of any
major industrialized country and we have a moral obligation to reduce
the gap between the rich and the poor;

3) And, most importantly, this amendment calls on the President to
submit a plan to Congress which eradicates childhood poverty over the
next decade and reduces the gap between the rich and the poor.

Mr. President, as a nation we are proud of our accomplishments. How
often do we hear the phrase "America's #1?"

Unfortunately, in terms of childhood poverty not only are we not #1 in
having the lowest childhood poverty rate, we're at the top of the
list in having the highest childhood poverty rate in the industrialized
world.

Mr. President, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the childhood
poverty rate is nearly 18%. According to data from the Luxembourg
Income Study Group, the childhood poverty rate in the U.S. is even
higher: 21.9%.

Well, let's look at other OECD countries. In Germany, the childhood
poverty rate is 9%; in France, it's 7.9%; in Austria, it's 6.7%; in
Sweden, it's 4.2%; in Norway, it's 3.4%; and in Finland, the
childhood poverty rate is only 2.8%.

Mr. President, have other countries succeeded in reducing their
childhood poverty rates? Absolutely. In 1999, the British government
made a commitment to end child poverty. Six years later, child poverty
in the United Kingdom had been cut by 20 percent. Unfortunately, at the
same time that Britain was taking important steps to reduce child
poverty, child poverty in the United States increased by about twelve
percent.

Mr. President, that is unacceptable. We have got to do better than
that.

Gap Between the Rich and Poor

While we continue to have the highest rate of childhood poverty and
while over five million Americans have slipped into poverty over the
past six years, there is another issue that the Senate has got to
address. And, that is the growing oligarchic nature of our society.

Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans own more wealth than the
bottom 90 percent. The wealthiest 1 percent, yes, that is right, the
wealthiest 1 percent own more wealth as the bottom 90 percent. The CEOs
of our largest corporations now earn over 800 times what a minimum wage
earner makes.

Today the Nation's 13,000 wealthiest families, who constitute 1/100th
of 1 percent of the population, a tiny, tiny percentage of Americans,
receive almost as much income as the bottom 20 million families in the
United States of America; 1/100th of 1 percent receive nearly as much
income as the bottom 20 million families. And, I defy anyone to tell me
that that is in any way fair or that is in any way what the United
States is supposed to be about.

We have got to come up with a plan to reverse this trend. Increasing
the minimum wage is a great first step, but we have got to do more, and
that is what this amendment is all about.

Today, Mr. President, while the middle class in America is shrinking
and poverty is increasing, the people at the very top - the
millionaires and billionaires - have never had it so good. That is
something that we have got to address.

The true greatness of a country does not lie in the number of
millionaires and billionaires. Rather, a great nation is one in which
justice, equality and dignity prevail.

Mr. President let me close by a quote that President Bush made on
January 20, 2001:

"In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent
poverty is unworthy of our nation's promise. Where there is
suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are
citizens, not problems, but priorities. And all of us are diminished
when any are hopeless. And I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we
see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to
the other side."

The President was right to make this pledge, but since he made this
statement, we all know that 5.4 million Americans slipped into poverty
including over one million children.

Let us begin to turn this pledge into reality. We can begin by raising
the minimum wage and coming up with a plan, once and for all to
eliminate childhood poverty and reduce the gap between the rich and the
poor.


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