The Speech

Bernie Sanders is a Democratic candidate for President of the United States. In 2006, he was elected to the U.S. Senate after sixteen years as Vermont's sole congressman in the House of Representatives. Bernie is now serving in the U.S. Senate after winning re-election in 2012 with seventy-one percent of the vote.

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Senator Bernie Sanders walked onto the floor of the Senate and gave a very long speech. It lasted over eight and a half hours, and it hit a nerve. Millions followed the speech online, and a grassroots response tied up the phones in the senator's offices. Editorials and news coverage appeared throughout the world.Sanders' speechpublished here in its entirety with a new introduction by the senatoris a call for action. In it, he blasts the agreement that extended the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, lowered estate tax rates for the very, very rich, and diverted revenue away from the Social Security trust fund. But the speech is more than a critique of a particular piece of legislation. It is a dissection of the collapse of the American middle class and a well-researched attack on corporate greed and on public policy that, over the last several decades, has led to a huge growth in income inequality. It is a plea for a fundamental change in national priorities; for government policy that reflects the needs of working families, not just the wealthy.