At some point today, I’m sure many in the Senate wanted to check Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for Energizer batteries because he kept going and going and going.
But don’t call it a filibuster. Because it’s not. Sanders said so. And he had a lot of time to think about it.
Sanders took the floor at 10:24 a.m. to talk about tax. And talk he did – for more than eight hours.
So what was on his mind? Sanders isn’t happy about the proposed tax deal. Clearly, he felt like sharing:
I think everyone knows, the president of the United States, President Obama and the Republican leadership have reached an agreement on a very significant tax bill. In my view, the agreement that they reached is a bad deal for the American people. I think we can do better, and I am here today to take a strong stand against this bill, and I intend to tell my colleagues and the nation exactly why I am in opposition.
Sanders’ speech was streamed live on his web site and bits of it were tweeted – as of tonight #Bernie Sanders was still trending (you can follow his official twitter account @senatorsanders here).
Sanders finally ended his speech around 7 p.m., concluding:
If the American people stand up and say, we can do better than this, that we don’t need to drive up the national debt by giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, that if the American people are prepared to stand – and we’re prepared to follow them – I think we can defeat this proposal. I think we can come up with a better proposal which better reflects the needs of the middle class and working families of our country and, to me, most importantly, the children of our country. And with that, Madam President, I would yield the floor.
So he did, noting that he was tired. Apparently he was also hungry: reports indicate that he was followed off of the Senate floor by a staffer toting pizza. Even Senators need to eat.
God Bless Bernie Sanders!