Bidding Farewell, Levin Challenges Congress to Close Gap Between Rich and Poor: Watch

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, the longest-serving U.S. senator in Michigan history and retiring after six terms, made what is likely his last speech on the Senate floor Friday.

In it, the 80-year-old Detroit Democrat said Congress needs to do a better job of addressing the rising gap between rich and poor, and restore the connection with working Americans by “closing egregious tax loopholes that serve no economic purpose but to enrich some of the wealthiest among us and our most profitable corporations.”

“I believe one of the greatest (challenges) is the need to meet the fundamental economic challenge of this era: the growing gap in our society between a fortunate few and the vast majority of Americans whose fortunes have stagnated or fallen,” Levin said.

The economists who have said that growing economic inequality is holding back economic growth are right, he said.

“This isn’t just about economic data. It’s about our nation’s heart and soul. This growing gulf between a fortunate few and a struggling many is a threat to the dream that has animated this nation since its founding, the dream that hard work leads to a better life for us and for our children.”

Though he said he wasn’t leaving because frustration from gridlock, he called on the Senate, where he has served for 36 years, to do a better job of working together.

“I know the Senate can do better — because I have seen it happen with my own eyes,” he said. “The Senate has indeed demonstrated, even in our own era, that bipartisanship is not extinct.”

Watch the full video below.

Video and screenshot via C-Span.