The Speech: On Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class - Softcover

"Bernie Sanders is such a rarity, and people should appreciate what he's doing not just for his home state of Vermont, but for the reputation of all politicians in general." --Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone "A rare oratorical tour de force." --U.S. News and World Report "A progressive hero." --Washington Post "I endorse Brother Bernie Sanders because he is a long-distance runner with integrity in the struggle for justice for over 50 years."--Cornel West "Bernie Sanders has a proven track record of uncompromised activism and advocacy for working people, and a message that resonates with nurses, and, as we have all seen, tens of thousands of people across the country"--NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro "Bernie Sanders is the only remotely reasonable candidate for president of the United States"--Flea (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) "I feel weird using words like values, and morals, because those are words that have been coopted by people who wear them as shrouds to justify terrible things... I'd like to take those words back tonight and use them to describe Bernie Sanders, because his moral compass and sense of values inspires me. He always seems to be on the right side of history."--Sarah Silverman "However you may vote, Bernie Sanders is pretty great. He doesn't pander, is consistent and clear on important issues."--Mia Farrow

On Friday, December 10, 2010, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders walked on to the floor of the United States Senate and began speaking. It turned out to be a very long speech, lasting over eight and a half hours. And it hit a nerve. Millions followed the speech online until the traffic crashed the Senate server. A huge, positive grassroots response tied up the phones in the senator's offices in Vermont and Washington. President Obama reportedly held an impromptu press conference with former President Clinton to deflect media attention away from Sander'speech. Editorials and news coverage appeared throughout the world.In his speech, Sanders blasted the agreement that President Obama struck with Republicans, which extended the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, lowered estate tax rates for the very, very rich, and 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. But the speech was more than a critique of a particular piece of legislation. It was a dissection of the collapse of the American middle class and a well-researched attack on corporate greed and on public policy which, over the last several decades, has led to a huge growth in millionaires even as the United States has the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. It was a plea for a fundamental change in national priorities, for government policy that reflects the needs of working families, and not just the wealthy and their lobbyists.Finally, Sanders'speech-published here in its entirety with a new introduction by the senator-is a call for action. It is a passionate statement informing us that the only people who will save the middle class of this country is the middle class itself, but only if it is informed, organized, and prepared to take on the enormously powerful special interests dominating Washington.