It was a dissection of the collapse of the American middle class & a well-researched attack on corporate greed & on public policy which, over the last several decades, has led to a huge growth in millionaires even as the US has the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world.

But the speech was more than a critique of a particular piece of legislation. In his speech, Sanders blasted the agreement that President Obama struck with Republicans, which extended the Bush tax cuts for millionaires & billionaires, lowered estate tax rates for the very, very rich, & set a terrible precedent by establishing a 'payroll tax holiday' diverting revenue away from the Social Security Trust Fund, threatening the fund's very future.

Editorials & news coverage appeared throughout the world. Clinton to deflect media attention away from Sanders' speech. Obama reportedly held an impromptu press conference with former Pres. A huge, positive grassroots response tied up the phones in the senator's offices in Vermont & Washington. Millions followed the speech online until the traffic crashed the Senate server. It turned out to be a very long speech, lasting over eight & a half hours. It rose to its current level of $7.25 an hour in July of 2009.On Friday,, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders walked on to the floor of the US Senate & began speaking. The Vermont senator said Thursday that a $15-an-hour wage in 2021 is equal to a $17-an-hour wage in 2023 because of inflation.Ĭongress last voted to raise the nation’s minimum wage in 2007. Sanders is renewing his push to raise the national minimum wage more than two years after eight Senate Democrats joined all Republicans in rejecting a proposal, 58-42, to include a $15-an-hour national minimum wage in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which President Biden signed into law in March of 2021. As chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, that is exactly what I intend to see happen,” he said at a press conference Thursday. “It is time to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. He said the panel will mark up the bill June 14 and hopes to push it to the Senate floor. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, unveiled a proposal Thursday to raise the national minimum wage to $17 an hour.

The Speech by Bernie Sanders