TRANSCIPT
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huge hi this is senator Bernie Sanders much of the media often approaches
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politics as a war of baseball game or a soap opera who is leading in the latest
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poll how much money that a candidate readies did someone say something really
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dumb last night that's what a lot of the media thinks modern politics should be
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about I disagree I'm old fashioned I guess but I think what in campaign and a
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democratic society is about is the need to discuss and debate the most important
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issues facing our people and the world and that's what I want to do now and by
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the way I would very much appreciate your help in getting this video widely
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distributed please share it with your friends family and co-workers the more
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we raise public consciousness in this country the better we do and the better
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our nation does you should I'd like to touch upon today with social security
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perhaps the most important federal program in existence a program of
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enormous consequence to the 59 million seniors people with disabilities and
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children were beneficial I know you ever heard over and over again that social
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security's going broke but it won't be there for our kids and grandchildren
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that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme that social security is contributing to
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a large deficit and national debt etc etc etc and you've also heard many
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republicans tell us that we need to cut Social Security raise the retirement age
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or maybe even privatize the program
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well i'm happy to tell you that much of what you've heard is simply not true
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despite what many of my republican colleagues are saying let's be clear
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social security is not going broke
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social security has a two point eight trillion dollar surplus and according to
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the Social Security Administration can't pay out every benefit 02 every eligible
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Americans for the next 19 years that is not a program going broke
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further social security is independently funded by the payroll tax the 6.2% of
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your paycheck that you and your employer pay that means the social security does
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not add one nickel to the deficit it has its own source of funding the wars in
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Iraq and Afghanistan that the republicans forgot to pay for adding
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trillions to the deficit and national debt not social security that the truth
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is that while we do not have a social security crisis today we do have a
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retirement crisis and that is a very serious problem all over this country
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millions of Americans people who have worked their entire lives all wondering
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if they will ever be able to retire with any shred of dignity the sad truth is
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that as a result of the collapse about middle-class and declining wages more
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than half of older workers between the ages of 55 to 64 have no retirement
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savings imagine that you're heading to the moment in your life when you are no
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longer able to work when you can earn any and you have nothing in the back how
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scary is that
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further
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millions of other words have seen their pensions eliminated was severely cut
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back promises were made to them by their employers and those promises were not
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kept thirty years ago more than a third of private sector workers had a
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guaranteed defined benefit pension plan today fewer than 18 percent do and that
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number is shrinking everyday the result is that many of our parents and our
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grandparents are trying to survive on totally inadequate incomes millions of
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seniors today are trying to make ends meet by the medicine they need by the
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food they require or heat their homes on incomes of twelve or thirteen thousand
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dollars a year frankly I don't know how they do it and the truth is that many of
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them really don't get many of them don't take the medicine that they should many
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of them live in homes that are too cold in the winter many of them don't get the
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nutrition they need in order to stay healthy that is not how we should treat
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the seniors of this country
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some of the most vulnerable people in the United States at a time when the
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average Social Security benefit is just thirteen hundred and twenty eight
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dollars a month and over a third of senior citizens rely on social security
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for virtually all of their income
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our job must be to expand benefits not got our job is to strengthen Social
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Security not weaken legs feet cleavage social security is the most successful
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government program in our nation's history before social security was
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signed into law
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nearly half of senior citizens live in poverty today while much too high the
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elderly poverty rate is about 10% let me also be clear in stating that one of the
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great strengths of social security is that through good economic times and bad
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social security has paid every nickel 02 every eligible american on time and
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without delay that is an extraordinary accomplishment and in this unstable
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economy something that we should not take for granted when corporations
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eliminated defined benefit pension plans over the last thirty years
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social security was right there paying full benefits when millions of Americans
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lost their life savings after the Wall Street's greed and recklessness crashed
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the economy in 2008 social security was right there
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paying full benefits although Social Security's finances will remain strong
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for the next 19 years I believe congressman strengthen and expand social
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security for generations to come
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well how do we do that the answer is we demand that the wealthiest Americans in
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this country pay their fair share into the social security system today at a
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time when almost all new income and wealth is going to the top one percent a
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billionaire pays the same about the money into social security as someone
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who makes one hundred eighteen thousand five hundred dollars a year that's
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because the Social Security payroll tax is cap if we lift that cap and apply the
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payroll tax all income over two hundred and fifty thousand a year we can do four
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things first we can make sure that social security can pay out every
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benefit 02 every eligible american for the next 50 years not nineteen years
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fifties second we can expand benefits by an average of $65 a month we can lift
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seniors out of poverty by increasing the minimum benefits paid to low-income
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workers when they retire or we can increase costs the living expenses to
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keep up with the rising cost of health
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and prescription drugs expanding social security by making the wealthiest
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Americans pay more
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is not only the right thing to do from a moral perspective it is good economics
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and it just what a large majority of the american people want us to do our job
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together is to create an economy which works for all not just the wealthy and
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the powerful our job is to protect the most vulnerable people in our society
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including the elderly and the disabled our job is to extend and expand social
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security not cut it or privatizing please work with me to make this house
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and please get this video out to your friends and family thank you very much
The TRUTH will set you FREE.
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