What we are here today to talk about is the very, very important issue regarding the ongoing

debt crisis in Greece.

We're going to be focusing on Greece, but in truth, this issue goes beyond Greece.

In many ways, Greece today resembles the United States in the 1930s in the midst of the

worst depression economic downturn in the history of our country.

I want to begin by expressing my solidarity with the people of Greece, where five years

of cruel and counterproductive austerity policies demanded by the European Central Bank, the

European Commission and the International Monetary Fund have left the people of Greece

facing a full-blown humanitarian crisis.

In my view, there is no more obvious example of the failure of austerity policies than what

is going on in Greece.

For more than five years, Greece has cut pensions.

Greece has slashed its government workforce.

Greece has made deep spending cuts that have eviscerated its social safety net.

In other words, despite what we have been led to believe by many in the media, Greece

has not gone on a shopping spree.

It has not overfunded its government, rather it has imposed massive spending cuts that

have caused devastating pain to some of its most vulnerable people.

It has done this because its creditors, led by Germany, have insisted that austerity

is the only way to dig Greece out of its debt.

As a result, today, Greece has the highest levels of inequality and the worst unemployment

rates in Europe.

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