U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders Visits West Lafayette To Promote $3.5 Trillion Budget Resolution

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) visited West Lafayette Friday to promote the $ 3.5 trillion budget resolution currently going through Congress.

The rally was part of a two-stop trip to West Lafayette and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Sander’s visits to Indiana and Iowa this weekend will be billed as a way to reach voters in more conservative areas.

Speaking to over two thousand people, Sanders stated that the proposed spending package would cover everything from climate change and health care to rising income inequality and childcare costs.

“I am absolutely convinced tonight here in Indiana that if we have the courage and determination to stand together in the fight for justice, we can move this country forward in a different and more positive direction,” he said. “Yes we can do that.”

Sanders’ speech specifically focused on how the resolution would affect childcare – ensuring that no family costs them more than seven percent of their income.

“And childcare will be free for lower-income families,” he told the crowd.

Sanders also returned to the importance of dealing with climate change.

“This bill not only addresses the human needs of working families in our country in a very overdue manner,” he said. “What it does in the most significant way in American history is to understand that the United States of America must lead the world in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”

“I’m not here to tell you this afternoon that this law does everything,” said Sanders. “There is still so much to do. I should also tell you that this bill is still a work in progress – it is being worked on. But in fairness it can be said that there has never been legislation in our lives that goes so far as to address the long-neglected problems of the working and middle classes in this country. ”

US Senator Mike Braun (R-Indiana) spoke out against the resolution at an earlier event in West Lafayette, saying it was too expensive.

“You have to live within your means,” said Braun. “If you have a printing press in the basement at the Fed that finances and buys that debt, it prepares us for a debt bomb and an inflation bomb that we won’t see for a year or two.”

But when he pushed for what Braun specifically opposed in the legislation, he said it was mainly the process the Democrats took to enforce it.

“Legislation has many merits, but it should be done through regular ordinances and committees,” he said.

Sanders himself lamented the lack of Republican support, saying that final legislation was unlikely to get a single vote from that party.

“All of these Republicans who are unwilling to stand up for the working class families of this country just a few years ago voted unanimously or practically unanimously in favor of massive tax breaks for billionaires and the richest families in America,” he said.

“Now my Republican colleagues are busy telling everyone we’re going to raise taxes. You’re right. We will levy it on the richest people in this country who should start paying their fair share of taxes, ”Sanders said.

The budget decision includes a provision prohibiting tax increases for families earning less than $ 400,000 a year.

The event was held in the style of a town hall, with parishioners including West Lafayette Alderman Shannon Kang on stage and discussing how the budget decision might affect them.

The resolution was passed in a party vote in the House of Representatives this week.