(Host) Senator Bernie Sanders is staging an old-fashioned filibuster on the floor of the U.S. Senate to oppose a tax agreement between President Obama and Republican leaders.
Sanders took the floor of the Senate at 10:30a.m. and he’s still speaking at this hour.
Sanders says it’s an outrage to extend tax cuts for the wealthy during the lame duck session. He says that will add $700 billion to the national deficit over the next ten years.
(Sanders) "We should be embarrassed that we are for one second talking about a proposal which gives tax breaks to billionaires while we are ignoring the needs of working families, low-income people and the middle class. We should be embarrassed that we are not investing in our infrastructure, that we’re not breaking up these large financial institutions."
(Host) Sanders’ decision to dominate the Senate floor is unusual because the Senate has formalized its rules governing a filibuster.
The new rules allow a senator to threaten to filibuster an issue and then a vote is held to determine if the debate should be cut off.
But Sanders has chosen to speak continuously to block other business from taking place.