Large people in the lower and middle income areas. And its not that his policies were helping them. In fact they were destroying their opportunities and chance at the american dream. But they didnt think we care, and its the old Teddy Roosevelt said people dont care what you know until they know you care, and so we have to have policies, not just rhetoric but policies that connect, and i think we can reestablish an entirely new map that puts states like pennsylvania and ohio and illinois, even illinois, and wisconsin, and michigan, back in elector to play again. Host a huge percentage of working class voters are receiving government aid in one form or another. Isnt it a tough sell for republicans to say to the voter, with whom they might have a cultural affinity, on guns or abortion or gay marriage to say to them, elect me and i will, for example, cut your disability payment. Elect me and i will create an opportunity for you to have better paying jobs and an opportunity for you to take better care of your family, work one job instead of two. Have maybe your spouse not have to work a job so if she wants to be able to stay in home to stay in the home. Or if you want to stay in the home and have your wife work, whatever it is, but to give options to your families because the jobs you have are now better paying jobs you. Dont need the government benefits. Part of it is, the reason 47 of people are receiving government benefits, thats an alltime high. Before the recession it was 31 or 32 . Its the economy that is driving up these benefits and getting more and more people involved in getting government benefits, and so if we can grow the economy, have adequate say we need a pro growth, proworker agenda and thats what we trier to lay out. Host at some point, just math suggests youre going have to cut someone has to cut benefits somewhere, sometime. Guest sure. Host or the numbers dont work and people dont want to give up benefits. Guest i talk about this in the book. Theres certain things that we can and must do with a lot of the programs that are in place, that are fiscally unsustainable. Theyre not going to be able to be continued. Social security is on its way to bankruptcy. Medicare on the way to bankruptcy. Medicaid is not sustainable. And so we have to begin to address those issues, and if we can create a healthier economy and we can begin to create Economic Opportunities for people who would be affected by these changes, then i think its a pretty good tradeoff, and hopefully we can make that argument. Say, well, they dont want to give them up. Well see. I have a lot of faith in the american public. If you actually lead, actually lay out a vision for america and make the case to america and are given the opportunity to do so as a leader, and you call upon america to step forward and do their part to make america a viable enterprise going forward, i have cost in the American People that can happen. Host i think you came to d. C. The same year i did, 1991. Guest yes. Host for all thereof those 23 years you have that conservatives around the country sending money to politicians in d. C. And also these conservative nonprofits in the hopes they would help make america more conservative. Over that time, at least from my perspective, the country has become anything but. By any of the measures you mentioned. The welfare rate, wedlock birth rate, the way people vote. What happened to all those billions . Was that wasted . Guest i think republicans have focused on the wrong place. Tucker, one of the things ive done since i left the political race, the race for president , is i became ceo of a movie production distribution company, and one of the reasons you have seen the change in america youre talking about is because of the Popular Culture. You look at the attitudes. Look at the attitudes towards marriage. Thats been grundy a pop already cal temperature, media, television, news, pounding away, pounding on the way, you have to think this with a and youunder dont youre an intolerant bigot. You give money to a think tank. Thats great. Great for Public Policy and if you give money to the Republican National committee, thats great. But elects are downstream from Popular Culture these days, and so i would make the argument, i think youre seeing this now, that conservatives need to engage in the culture ump ive down so with this studio company, and other people are saying we have to start going out there and battling for the hearts and souls of america, and that is not just in the Popular Culture but the church. We have to energize the church again, to get off its butt and start fighting back in a way that is creative and positive. Look at pope francis. Im encouraged what i see from him. He has captured the imagination of young people in a lot of cases. Why . He is out there preparing the positive, uplifting good news. Look at the reachers who are doing well on television, its positive, upbeat. So we have to be happy we have to be warriors. Cant back away from what we believe in but theres a way to present that in a way thats true, good and beautiful, that will attract and change hearteds and minds. Host so to do that you want a clear assessment of your opponents you. Said Popular Culture isogon mining the family. Why is that . Whats the thinking there, the motivation . Guest well, its always the elite. You go back to the days of william roberforce and any elite culture and the roman empire. The elites always want to be able to do whatever they want to do. Dont want any constraints because they every problem in the world comes down to a problem with the first commandment. Put a false god before god, and false god is you. Youre the god. So you do things for you and dont care about any other consequences and just whatever makes me happy at the moment. And thats sort of materialism and egoism is unfortunately rampant among elites in well in every culture in the history of man. So this is not something we should be surprised at. Happens everywhere. And so you see that point of view being expressed by those elites in the culture they create. None of this should be shocking and surprising, every israelis of man has bon how to this. William wilberforce, one of my heroes back in england, that whats fight to go after the elites and the problems that were occurring and the example they were sifting for society, and so if you look at the examples the celebrity culture exhibits to society, well, its not one that is all about living good, decent, and moral lives, and so people tend to imitate that. Particularly young people. Host senator rick santorum. The book is blue collar conservative snippet independent senator Bernie Sanders of vermont discusses the 81 2 hour speech he delivered on the senate floor. He was critical of president obamas tax cuts for top awayers and the disappearance of the middle class. [applause] thank you, that was a wonderful introduction, sounding very good. I want to thank you for hosting this event and all of the great work you do. Thank you very much. And i want to thank everybody. A wonderful crowd. Thank you for coming out. Let me talk a bit about myself. Kind of how i got where i am. Then im goal to read a few pages. Read the introduction to the book, go on for seven our eight hours after that [laughter] they didnt tell you that, right . No. And then well take some questions and answers at 4 00 in the morning. As you heard, i am the longest serving independent in american congressional history, actually, as it were, and you may say, why is senate why are you on independent . The answer is pretty simple. I believe that both Political Parties are heavily dominateled by moneyed and i think that millions of working families dont have the kind off voice they should be having in all levels of government, and i have chosen to be an independent. I caucus new with the democrats, have always done that. I began my political career in vermont by running for the United States senate on a thirdparty ticket. Running against democrats, republicans, and i received all of 2 of the vote. That was back in roughly 1971. And not deterred, i then ran for governor of the state of vermont, the same third party, called the Liberty Union party, and i went from 2 to 1 . [laughter] not the kind of trajectory at the were hoping but i may not be very bright but i am persistent. Came back and ran for the senate again in 1974, against my nowsch colleague, patrick leahy, he won, i lost, but i got 4 of the vote in a threeway race. I saw the votes going up. And then two years later i ran for governor again. We have elections every two years in vermont. And i got 6 . At that point i took the hint that maybe getting elected to Political Office is not what my life was going to be about, and i went about doing other things, mostly doing some writing, working on historical film strips and actually have rag pretty good time. Having a pretty good time in 1981 you now people say you should run for office, and actually in my case it was true. There were a number of friends who say we looked at the election results, and youve did really well in burlington, and if you run in burlington, the largest city in the state of vermont are you might actually win. So, i did. And we put together a wonderful coalition of unions and Senior Citizens and womens advocates and environmental advocates and the Police Officers came onboard, and on Election Night, we won by 14 votes. Defeating a fiveterm incumbent, which will probably go down in Vermont History as maybe the major most significant political upset of modern Vermont History. Then we went to the recount and i won by 10 votes. I took office in 1981, with two supporters on the city council and the rest were democrats and republicans who were not particularly supportive. In fact they fired my secretary on the first day i took office, and i had to run the city for the first year with the previous mayors administration. Like obama running with bushs administration. It was a little difficult. But a year later, we had rallied the people, and we won a number of seats in the city council. I developed veto power, and we began to do some really exciting things in burlington. After two years i ran for reelection against a democrat and won, then ran against a republican and won, and then they combined the parties and we won anyhow, that was in 19 7 and 1978. I iran for the United States coming and my friends said you shouldnt run, youll be a spoiler. Youll pull votes awayment on the Election Night the republican won with 34 , i got 31 . The democrat got 19 . Two years late are i ran for the same seat in the house and i won by 16 points. There was not a strong democrat served after 16 years, ran for the United States senate in 2006, when senator jim evers retired. We ran against the done one of the wealthiest guys in the state, the most anyone had spent in an election in the state of vermont was 2. 5 million. He spent 7 million. We had to raise 5 million but we won by a very strong vote and im up for reelection in 2012. So thats my political history. Let me now take you to why youre here today. Well talk about the book. And read you from the introduction. On friday, december 10, 2002, i woke up at my usual time, had my usual break fast of oatmeal and coffee at the Dirksen Senate building and then that a typical daily discussion with my staff. A 10 30 a. M. I walked on to the floor of the senate and gap a speech turned out to be a very long speech. A modern version of the filibuster. It went on for eight and a half hours until 7 00 p. M. There were several reasons why i went to the floor for that speech. First, promised to do everything i could to oppose what i believed was a very bad tax agreement between president barack obama and the republican leadership. As a time when this country has a 13 . 8 trillion National Debt and the most unequill contradiction of wealth and income in any major country, it seemed to me totally absurd to provide hundreds of billions in tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. Further, by confirming this was the lame duck session before the rub runs took control of the houston fir their by confirming under a democratic president , Democratic House and a democracy senate, the trickle downtheory, disagreement was laying the groundwork for more about additions. Unfortunately i was absolutely right and that takes us right to the ryan republican budget of today. Second, more tax breaks breaks r the very rich is only one symptom of an economic and political system that is failing the average american. The simple reality is that the middle class of america is collapsing, poverty is increasing, and the gap between the very wealthiest people and everyone else is getting whiter. How did this happen . Why did is happen . What can we do about it . These are issues that had to be talk about, and talked about in a way that is not often heard in washington. Over the 20 years ive served in the house and senate, had examined these issues. Issues far too often ignored by the Corporate Media and my colleagues in congress. From a wide variety of perspectives. Now with an excellent opportunity to bring them together and to make the connections. What does it mean . Morally and economically . That in 2007, the top 1 earned over 23 of all income in this country, more than the bottom 50 . Or that the top 1 owns more wealth than the bottom 90 . Given the enormous political power that goes with this concentration of wealth, in terms of lobbying capabilities, campaign contributions, and media ownership, is the United States on its way to becoming an al gar beginning form of society, with almost all power resting in the hands of a tiny few . What does it say about our economy and the political choices we make about it on capitol hill . That today, despite all of the huge increases in productivity and technology, that we have seen in recent decades, a twoincome family now has less disposable income that a oneincome family did 30 years ago. Why is it that americans today work the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world . What this correlation between the United States having by far the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country while we also have more people in jail . Doesnt it make more sense to invest in our kids than in jail construction . How does it reflect upon our political and legal system when the crooks on wall street who caused this horrendous recession, now earn more money than they did before their banks were bailed out by the taxpayers. How come none of them are in jail . And what does the financial reform bill mean when three out of the top four too big to fail bangs in this country are now larger than they were before the wall street collapse . With assets of over half the gdp of the country. What does it anyone the Economic Future of the country that over the last ten years we have lost 42,000 factories and millions of goodpaying manufacturing jobs, and that it is harder and harder to buy products manufactured in america. How does it happen that ceos of large corporations boast about the advantages of outsourcing their production, and jobs to china, but when hard times hit, they come running to u. S. Taxpayers for a bailout . And on and on and on. So, those were some of the themes that i wanted to talk about in my remarks and i wanted to tie some of the dots together. What does it feel like to stand and talk for eight and a half hours when you cant leave the floor, east, or most importantly, the question asked of me time and time again, especially by the media, how come you didnt go to the bathroom . How is that . And thats my secret. Im not telling. Youll never know. And youre doing this with a National Television camera on you. This answer is, my profound answer is, its hard. Try it sometime. The interestingly enough, the aftereffect hit me a few days later when i found myself very, very tired. During the speech itself my legs began to cramp up, my voice became hoarse. When i walked on to the floor i had no idea how long i would stay there none at all. When i was mayor of burlington, in the 1980s, i sometimes gave speeches for as long as an hour. At that time was it. Would i last three hours, five hours, 20 hours . I didnt know. What i was clear about in my own mind, however, was that i wasnt going to read from the phone book. Or sing songs, and youll be happy to know i didnt sing any songs, believe me. Just eat up time. I wanted to speak for as long as i had something relevant to say. While i didnt have a prepared script for the speech, i mostly worked off of previous speeched id given or articles id written and occasionally excerpts from some books i had read itch would read a few lines of pains and go off from there. Twice colleagues came to the floor and engage net what we call a colloquy. I remain grateful to senator Sherrod Brown and mary lan drew. We also warn the reads over the book that it contains some repetition. What do you want . Eight and a half hours. There will be some. And this is not an accident. In giving the speech i was more than aware that most people were not going to be listening to it in its entirety. I suspected that most people would tune in for half hour or an hour and then move on with their lives. I made its point to keep returning to my basic themes. Was surprised about the kind of attention that the speech received . Are you kidding . The phones in both my washington and vermont offices never stopped ringing in vermont, every one of my eight staff people did nothing else all day but respond to called, thousands of calls, and emails. The Senate Television web site crashed because of the huge number of people who wanted to watch the speech live, online, and apparently cspan2 had an exceptional day. According to the New York Times my speech was the most twittered event in the world on that day. What a distinction. Never knew it. Most twittered event. [applause] some day i will learn what twitter is all about. There were front page stories in newspapers all around the country, and the speech was covered widely in the international media. The number of people who signed up as friends on my Facebook Page doubled the previous total in one day and business to my web site went sky high. Some journalists clammed that obama had hand unschedule impromptu press conference with former president bill clinton, who defended the tax deal in order to divert Media Attention away from what i was doing on the senate floor. Just turned out clinton was in the white house, there was suddenly had a press conference and captured a lot of attention. Despite my best efforts and the hard work of other members of congress we lost the vote on the tax deal that the president obama worked out with the republicans. A very bad agreement was signed into law. Was my 81 2 hour speech worth the effort . Absolutely. If this country is going to move forward in a new direction, if were going save the middle class and change our national priorities, we have got to cut through the fog and obfuscation of the corporate main stream media and focus on the life and death issues that working families really care about. The very strong response to my speech tells me theres a hunger all over america for a discussion about economic truths, for a counterattack on the ferocious assaults that are taking place against working families, and for a practical plan on how to reverse the obscene politics that favor the rich of the middle class and the disadvantaged in our nation. If my speech helped educate people about some of these issues, made them aware theyre not alone in their pain and opinioned a way to to forward it was well worth it. Thats it. Thank you. [applause] what i would love to do now is to take any questions or thoughts anybody may have. You have to shout. Thank you for everything you do. What is your advice on what we or what congress should be doing about the Citizens United . Does it have to have an amendment to the constitution or there are better ways to do it . Let me just back that excellent question up. Perhaps everybody doesnt know what the Citizens United decision is about. For many, many years, we have had a Disastrous Campaign finance system which clearly favors those people who have a lot of money and corporate interests against those of us who do not. A year or so ago our Supreme Court by a 54decision passed a disastrous absurd decision called the Citizens United decision. And in their wisdom we found five people in the same room, the only five people in america, who actually believe a corporation is a person. Five people in america and they all happen to be on the Supreme Court at the same time. And essentially what that decision does is it says to large corporations, that you, being a person, have First Amendment freedom of speech rights, and therefore you are able to express your freedom of speech by putting 30second ads on television, tell thing the world how terrible Bernie Sanders is or anybody else, and and by the way, you can do that in secrecy. You dont have to reveal who you are. You can come up with some phony name and phony organization. This is a disastrous decision which makes a very bad Campaign Finance situation much worse. We saw it in the last election. Youre going to see a lot more of it. Essentially what is going to happen is a handful of billionaires and very wealthy corporate people will sit around the room and say, okayor,er put 1000 00 00 into new hampshire, 20 million into california, and for these guys, this is a small sum of money to win a senate seat or a house seat. It is a horrendous decision. What we tried to do on the floor of the house and the senate is at least pass some legislation that would minimize, minimize, the impact of Citizens United. So there was legislation that was brought forth, which not shockingly got no republican support, which said, okay, if i put an ad on television attacking my opponent, which ive never done i never run a negative ad. I have to have my name on tv and say, i take responsibility for this ad. So we said, fine. If you are a ceo of a corporation who is paying for this ad, get your face up there and say, you take responsibility for this ad. Accomplish we thought that would discourage a lot of corporations from doing that. Second of all, we wanted to make sure that if a chinese company, a company in the United States, owned significantly by chinese interests, they should not be allowed to participate in american politics. Thirdly, what we wanted to do is say, okay, if you out utilizes that. Then your opponent somebody attack me using the process i could get the cheapest possible rates available to respond. We lost those votes. We couldnt get any republicans. For republicans this is a very good Supreme Court decision. Your question is, should we go forward with a constitutional amendment. In general, i have to tell you, im not a great fan of constitutional amendments. People think, everybody who has a problem, we need a constitutional amendment to solve it. That weakens what our constitution is about, which is a pretty good document. But, on this issue i think we can make the exception to that rule. So, i do believe that certainly a constitutional amendment is one of the options we have, and that amendment should simply say a corporation, to everyones shock and surprise, is not a person. Last point i would say on this issue, we had a town meeting, we do a lot of town meetings in vermont. We had one a couple of months ago. A whole lot of people out. And benny jerrys ben was there and jerry was there and ben said, you know, im ben. I am a person. This is jerry. He is a person. Ben jerries, not a person. And in a nutshell thats about it. The idea that we give corporate, corporations, First Amendment rights, is absurd. Im just wondering, we missed out on kyoto, signing that, cap and trade is dead. What would you recommend our advocacy be to promote Global Change . Well, in my view, Global Warming is a huge, huge issue. And it saddens me very much that today in the congress, you have certainly a majority of people in the house, almost all republicans, including intelligent people, who are willing to ignore virtue virtually the tire Scientific Community who says Global Warming is real, is today, today, caution can very Serious Problems and the problems are only going to get worse in the future. You have the cia telling us that in terms of national security, Global Warming, which can lead to wars, as people around the world fight over limited resources because of droughts, floods, food shortages, you good at the cia, the defense department, the agriculture, all these organizations all of the world saying it, and yet the antiscience feeling on capitol hill is such that we certainly at this particular political moment are not going to move forward on Global Warming to anxious your question, its not just Global Warming. We can talk about education, health care. What are the answers . The main point i want to make to you is the solution is not going to come inside the beltway. The solution is going to come in cities and towns all over this country where ordinary people begin to stand up and organize and get out on the streets and say, enough is enough. I can tell you, without any fear of contradiction, that what goes on in congress is far, far removed from the reality of the lives of ordinary people. And that is true whether its economics, thats true whether its health care. What goes on in congress is theirs an invisible wall, inphysical traited by lobbyists and corporate interests who shape the whole discussion, shape the debate. You have a Corporate Media out there which will talk about everything in the world except issues that are most important to ordinary people. So, Global Warming is a huge issue. And right now i dont think theres anyone who thinks were going to make serious advances in addressing that. What we may be able to do is to get some investment in energy efficiency, and the state of vermont has done a very good job in that area. Get some investments in Sustainable Energies like wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and get investments in Public Transportation, but as you notice, in this recent cr, that was passed in order to prevent republicans from shutting down the government, obama had to give up on billions of dollars on highspeed rail. Highspeed rail. So instead of investing in Public Transportation and in rail, we have to cut back on that and i fear very much that as this debate goes forward on the budget, youre going to see more of these cutbacks0. Answer your question and other questions, we can turn this thing around. I believe we can. There are very few people in america, not located inside the capitol, who believe that it makes any sense at all to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthiest people in the country, to cut the Corporate Tax rate at a time when many corporations making billions of dollars already pay nothing in taxes, and then having given huge tax breaks to people who dont need it cut back on infrastructure, cut back on the needs of our children, cut back to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars on medicaid, voucherrize medicare, very few people believe that makes any sense at all. But our job is to cut through a media which in many ways doesnt discuss the issue, take on the big money interests who sponsor members of congress, through Large Campaign contributions and organize and educate, and if we do that, we are going to win this thing. Senator, thank you very much for being americas senator. Has opposition been mounted yet . Have they started to spend money against you . No. We think there are at least one serious candidate out there and there may be others. As of this point theyre not spending money against me. Hi, senator. Im wondering, if you think about race in the country, and immigration and [inaudible] are you finding good question. Tell you what we intend to do on that issue in the area i have some jurisdiction. There are some very frightening statistics out there that we dont talk enough about. Having to do that poverty in america is in many ways a death sentence and what i mean by that is if you look, for example, you contrast in terms of racial disparities, say, rich white guy who has access to good Quality Health care, disease prevention, doesnt live under enormous amount of stress, because hell have the income he needs, et cetera, contrast that to a low income black person, youre going to see a very significant discrepancy and disparity in longevity. So i think youre going to see that, and were going to do a hearing and get some studies done on that. But the fact of the matter is, whether youre black, white, hispanic, or whatever, when youre poor, youre going to live a shorter life span, and the quality of your life will not be as good as somebody else. And i think those are important issues to pound away at. [inaudible] hope you can get democrats to stand strong. I believe we no one wants the debt ceiling raised more than the wall street banks, who are the heart and soul of the Republican Party. They will suck the we have to stand up to the Crazy Tea Party nuts and their governors and the bunch. They need us a lot more than we need them. We cannot let them cut necessary spending as an excuse here. Let me thats a very good question and i agree with you. Let me back it up so Everybody Knows what were talking about. Lets be honest about this. I do arrayedow show every friday do a radio show every friday, and we talk to a couple Million People, and every week somebody raises this issue. The issue they raise is, why is it that the republicans are so tough they dont compromise, and democrats compromise all of the time . That . Okay. Thats the question they raise. And just look at what happened in the last year. In terms of what this book is about, what the republicans said is, okay, there are several Million People whose Unemployment Compensation is going to expire. But we dont want to extend unemployment. And unless you give us by the way, that was ahistorical. Historically, one unemployment was before a certain level, where we are right now, generally there was bipartisan support for extending unemployment. The republicans said, were not going do it. The obama and the democrats said theres terrible. The republicans say, well do it but we need to extend bushs tax breaks for the wealthiest people, we need to lower the tax rates on the estate tax, which go to the very, very, very, very wealthiest people, top. 03 of one percent, bring those down, and we are delighted youre going to divert this not the republicans idea, they supported it 120 billion from the Social Security fund by doing a tax holiday on the payroll tax for workeres. Okay . 120 bill not going into Social Security. That is what they demanded and essentially they got everything that they wanted. I thought, and thats why i was on the floor for 81 2 hours, that was a very poor compromise. You have to give but that was a very poor compromise, which the republicans got 90 of what they wanted. Their threat was were going not go extend unemployment benefits. Now, a few weeks ago, what was the blackmail then . If you dont give us the cuts that we want, were going to shut down the government. Government. 800,000 federal employees are not going to have a paycheck, Government Services are not going to be available, you have to give us what we want or we will shut down the government. I voted against that, democrats protected headstart and others and i worked very hard, we have to increase our investments of that in five years we will have 40 Million People be able to get primary health care, dental care, lowcost prescription drugs, Mental Health, Mental Health counseling and they started coming back. Millions of people will not have access in the future. So there black male there was a we will shut the government down, and government democrats fought back a little bit but not enough. Now to your point were part three of the movie. This time unless you make devastating cuts, or lay the groundwork for devastating cuts in the future week on the for the first time in the history of this great country are not going to pay our debt, we are going to default on our debt, we are going to cause an Internet National crisis the outcome of which nobody knows. Will it lead to a world depression, will lead to higher interest rates, almost definitely. Well meet for will meet for the first time in the history of this country people who buy bonds from the United States will have second thoughts about it. Republicans will set we are pretty prepared to do that unless you give us what we want. This is like a child having a temper tantrum, i am going to go nuts when companies in the house unless you give me the candy or am going to burn down the place alleged to give me what i want. While it suggested interesting point is that probably the first group of people that are going to be hit hardest by not raising the debt ceiling will be wall street. I agree with you, i happen to think that our friends on wall street who own a good part of the Republican Party will part probably not allow their employees to do that. ]wcpg it up, the point is that never ends. These guys are very bold, they are, they are very tough, theyre very irresponsible. If my suggestion to the president is to say to them and look them in the eye and say if you want to, for the first time in this country default on our deck, if you want to send the world into a financial crisis you go ahead and do it, and the voters will hold you accountable in the next election. But we are not going to keep surrendering on issue after issue. [applause]. [applause] any questions . Say that again. [inaudible] as im coming back to washington a lot of people say isnt this great . I share that. Youll have a guy out there and you dont know how actively he was involved with terrorist movements and we will learn more about that over the next few weeks but he not only on 9 11 that killed thousands and thousands of innocent men women and children and the world is better off without him. Now on capitol hill what does this mean about the war in afghanistan . If anyone thinks it is the osama bin noded internationally running this singlehandedly this is a naive point of view. People all over the world who want to do very bad things. I think socle psychologically taking amount does have a positive impact and more importantly the growth of the democratic movements in the middle east are significant. Asking about afghanistan my views did not change the day before or after. I was in afghanistan a couple months ago. It is enormously complicated and difficult situation. A country that is terribly for a and undeveloped juneau have been niche education the average Police Officer has . O. Functionally illiterate per car with to a place for an International Group germany the United States and ireland were trading Police Officers in afghanistan with the hope maybe the the with the first grade or third grade education. I visited a village in the southern part of the country which i suspect it is different as the taliban was strong there. If you walk down the main street and the guy sells a vegetable side did not see one woman out on the streets in the midafternoon theyre all behind closed doors. So the goal in afghanistan is to make sure that taliban never again assumes power. That would be very bad for ideological reasons but after 10 long years, i believe the tide now is to bring our troops home. [applause] thinks for coming tonight to speak to the people. Those that are dominated by money interest, what is your plan. [inaudible] [applause] i think the lobby is one of many in washington. And my hope is the president will work with israel and the arab countries of all political persuasions to develop a to state solution and i think, it breaks my heart to see decent people of bullseyes with the never ending violence. I would hope the United States will play an active role it is very difficult because read people trying to tear it apart on bullseyes would hope we can bring people together so the violence comes to an end [inaudible] i did not know him personally but he did live in vermont. Yes. Roosevelt to give you know, who george was . It a bit easier of stone . He was a mentor, one of these independent journalist who actually read material and ask questions in the wonderful writer. But i never met him. One more question. [inaudible] by the way that my office we came here of the subway but we dont have subways in vermont sojourn get to work we drive. And what happens is millions of working people, many have finite wages now paying 4 or more for a gallon of gas coming right out of their paycheck sent making this situation economically to day worse. Here is what you have with gas prices. I will back it up a middle pepper co when you talk to people, people are very a great. I think there was a gallup poll that showed i believe for the first time is that people now believe that their kids will have a lower standard of living than they do. For the very first time. My dad worked his whole life did not make a lot of money we lived in a small apartment. As every parent stream their kids will do better. But all over the country now they say they will have less education, low wages and there is a lot of despair and tinker all over the country. If you would ask me one issue or one fact is if people saw the crux on wall street whose greed and recklessness destroyed they lost their life savings into now after they are bailed out sometimes making more money than they ever did before. Some kid throws of brick through a window he goes to jail. The end of making tens of millions of dollars that these guys have so much event power that day are untouchable there is nothing you can do to read because i owe the United States congress. You will not put me in jail. So what . And in my view that is the real reality. How does that deal with your question . What you see right now is the theory of supply and demand when supply is limited the demand is high in the prices go up. You learn that it economics but i will be the first to tell you there is more oil supply in America Today than one year. And on top of that there is less demand today than there was one year ago. What is supposed to happen . Prices are supposed to go down. The reason is our friends with exxon mobil and other large corporations that make huge profits isnt dont pay anything in taxes but they have reason not to lower prices isnt the itc a division between the Oil Subsidies and wall street the oil company says we are greedy they are selfish but were not the only ones. Now you see wall street where they are bidding up the Oil Futures Prices better use the product just make the money as the prices gore up. The financial reform bill passed one year ago, we gave the authority to a commission that nobody has ever heard of the future Commodity Trading commission to end extreme speculation. That was their job and they have not done it. I have urged the president to take action fifth if they dont do it then get their resignation but the working people and the economy is suffering. But this would be a perfect example with the power of congress for. Thank you for the question. Let me conclude by thanking you. [inaudible] what i wanted to ask is do you know, anything. [inaudible] and also of the timing of it. [inaudible] let me pick up on the points that are related like a good politician. [laughter] year reminded me of something. That is an issue that is interesting of coming together. I had serious doubts about the dodd frank bill because i dont think it went anywhere near far enough. We build up the huge Financial Institutions that were too big to fail i did not vote for that and then we find out after three and four economists believe they will not see restitution but my white right wing friends but has read see that coming together. The bottom line if you want to know with the u. S. Department of treasury at the same time with little discussion in with our friends at the fed to layout 3 trillion progressive member of the Budget Committee and i said to bernanke which Financial Institution . How did they get it . You have to be a major Freddie Angeles to cherishing to get the money or the 800 members you have to call . [laughter] he said i will not tell you and donna day i introduced legislation to manage zero get back the vision. They had a couple of months then they revealed but every major Financial Institution the received huge amounts but what was also surprising that at the same time after their denying affordable loans from the arabs and drink they all got a bailout as well as corporations like general electric. And also the banks the Court Majority owned and we are also looking at the fed. The point is fare also looking. The point is for the American People. Also to have bankers sitting around and then have a provision the hope is injured by the gao but the fed is a huge issue and more aggressive of that issue but to have decent jobs in this country and not from the institutions. [applause] [inaudible] i have had some meetings and what i love about it is that difficult economic problems translated into english share i can tell you that i did more because going into the Obama Administration half a dozen senators said mr. President were concerned but he gave his reasons but i did determine that with the background the with the republicans would reset although they will get the appointment but she is extremely capable. To deal with an issue if you look at the bible or any other religious tex