Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders
Bernard "Bernie" Sandersis an American politician, serving as the junior United States Senator from Vermont since 2007. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. He has always caucused with the Democratic Party, which has entitled him to committee assignments and at times given Democrats a majority. Sanders became the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee in January 2015; he had previously served for two years as chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. He publicly identified...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 September 1941
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
As a nation, there are many issues we don`t talk about, we just don`t talk about, push them under the rug. Poverty is one of those issues.
Obviously in the next few months we have got to do everything that we can to make sure that Donald Trump, who in my view is the worst, least-prepared candidate for president in my lifetime. Number two, we've got to obviously elect Hillary Clinton.
My path to victory is to talk about the issues that impact the lives of millions of Americans.
Student debt is crushing the lives of millions of Americans. How does it happen that we can get a home mortgage or purchase a car with interest rates half of that being paid for student loans? We must make higher education affordable for all. We must substantially lower interest rates on student loans. This must be a national priority.
There's no question to my mind and I think no question to any objective observer's mind that the DNC was supporting Hillary Clinton and was at opposition to our campaign. So I'm not quite shocked by this. And that is why many, many months ago I made it clear that I thought Debbie Wasserman Schultz should resign, should step down.
We can have paid family and medical leave. We can make public colleges and universities tuition-free. These are not revolutionary, radical ideas. They're kind of common sense.
It is time to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. It is time to end the arrests of so many people and the destruction of so many lives for possessing marijuana.
I don't think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of Iraq led to the massive level of instability that we're seeing right now. I think that was one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of the United States.
In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism.
I think what you`ve got are millions of people who are in trouble today. They really are. They`re confused. They`re working longer hours for lower wages. They`re seeing productivity going up but their kids are worse off economically than they are. They`re looking at a campaign finance system in politics and they see corruption, big money buying elections. Nobody in Congress is listening to them.
I think my experience at the University of Chicago, working in the civil rights movement, working in the peace movement, working with community organizations, did a lot to influence the politics that I have.
I think the issue of income and wealth inequality is in fact a moral issue.
In 2013 Citigroup had profits of $6.4 billion in the United States. They paid no federal income tax and, in fact, received a rebate from the IRS of $260 million. That same year J.P. Morgan had $17.2 billion in profits in the U.S. They also paid no federal income tax. Do you think it's time for tax reform?
If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.