85 quotes
I do [support a UBI], but that is not where we are. I think that is a very correct idea... that’s kind of a step too far right now for the United States.
So long as you have a Congress dominated by big money, I can guarantee you that the discussion about universal basic income is going to go nowhere in a hurry.
Right now, the average worker in America is making, in inflation-accounted-for dollars, and despite a huge increase in technology and worker productivity, exactly the same amount of money that he or she made 43 years ago. That’s incomprehensible.
We have got to end the two-tier justice system — one for the poor and working class and one for Wall Street and the wealthy — that has existed for far too long in this country.
If there is going to be class warfare in this country, it’s time that the working class of this country won that war and not just the corporate elite. (Senator Sanders was speaking to the Iowa AFL-CIO convention summer 2019)
George Bush was a very conservative president, I opposed him every single day. But George Bush did not operate outside of mainstream American political values.
The Guardian interview (2017)
Somehow, we have billions of dollars available for more jails and incarceration, but we "can't afford" to provide kids with the college education they need to survive in modern America. That doesn't make any sense to me.
At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when the three richest Americans own more wealth than 160 million Americans, it is literally beyond belief that the Republican leadership wants to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the top 0.2 percent...
Change comes, even in the face of overwhelming odds. And the recognition of the changes we have already made, of what we have won, inspires us to fight even harder.
Preface to Outsider in the White House (2015)
Today, we say to our young people that we want you to get the best education that you can, regardless of the income of your family. Good jobs require a good education. That is why we are going to make public colleges and universities tuition free, and cancel all student debt...
How can we call this a civilized society... while members of working-class families, who lack health insurance, have to die or needlessly suffer--or go hopelessly into debt to get the care they need? This is an outrageous injustice...
This idea of suddenly, one day or maybe a night, rounding up 11 million people and taking them outside of this country is a vulgar, absurd idea that I would hope very few people in America support.
Democratic Presidential Debate in Miami (2016)
When you look around the world, you see every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States. You see every other major country saying to moms that, when you have a baby, we’re not gonna separate you from your newborn baby, because we are going to have — we are gonna have medical and family paid leave, like every other country on Earth. Those are some of the principles that I believe in, and I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.
President Clinton, like Bush and Reagan before him, is supporting a trade policy that protects the interests and profits of multinational corporations, while compromising the interests of American workers.
Outsider in the House (1998)
CALDERON: Many believe those spending bills were a crucial part of stabilizing the economy back then. Would you support bailouts for industries that are being crushed by the coronavirus outbreak now?
Democratic Presidential Debate in Washington, D.C (2020)
Humanity is at a crossroads. We can continue down the current path of greed, consumerism, oligarchy, poverty, war, racism, and environmental degradation. Or we can lead the world in moving in a very different direction.
In the last thirty years, there has been a massive redistribution of wealth. Unfortunately, it's gone in the wrong direction. ... All that money that has gone from the middle class to the top 1%, I think it should start coming back to the people who need it the most.
What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate. That’s wrong
Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world
We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel.
Ben Bagdikian has written a very important book called The Media Monopoly
Outsider in the House (1998)
I've got to tell you, 25 years ago, I believe that in this country, we should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people. We have got to do everything that we can on top of that to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them, criminals, people who are mentally ill. So that struggles continues.