Bernie Sanders in Survey of 2016 Presidential campaign websites
On Civil Rights:
Equal pay for equal work by women
Women workers today earn 78 percent of what their male counterparts make.
We need pay equity in our country--equal pay for equal work.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Corporations:
Break up major Wall Street firms
The function of banking is to facilitate the flow of capital into productive and job-creating activities. Financial institutions cannot be an island unto themselves, standing as huge profit centers outside of the real economy.
Today, six huge Wall Street financial institutions have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product--over $9.8 trillion.
These institutions underwrite more than half the mortgages in this country and more than two-thirds of the credit cards.
The greed, recklessness and illegal behavior of major Wall Street firms plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. They are too powerful to be reformed. They must be broken up.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Corporations:
Worker-owned cooperatives instead of corporate tax breaks
We need to develop new economic models to increase job creation and productivity. Instead of giving huge tax breaks to corporations which ship our jobs to China and other low-wage countries, we need to provide assistance to workers who want to purchase
their own businesses by establishing worker-owned cooperatives. When workers have an ownership stake in the businesses they work for, productivity goes up, absenteeism goes down and employees are much more satisfied with their jobs.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Education:
Quality affordable education, from child care to higher ed
Millions of Americans are unable to afford the higher education they need in order to get good-paying jobs. Further, with both parents now often at work, most working-class families can't locate the high-quality and affordable child care they need for
their kids. Quality education in America, from child care to higher education, must be affordable for all. Without a high-quality and affordable educational system, we will be unable to compete globally and our standard of living will continue to decline
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Energy & Oil:
Transform to sustainable system & away from fossil fuels
The US must lead the world in tackling climate change and make certain that this planet is habitable for our children and grandchildren. We must transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energies.
Millions of homes and buildings need to be weatherized, our transportation system needs to be energy efficient and we need to greatly accelerate the progress we are already seeing in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other forms of sustainable energy.
Transforming our energy system will not only protect the environment, it will create good paying jobs.Unless we take bold action to address climate change, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to look back on this period
in history and ask a very simple question: Where were they? Why didn't the US lead the international community in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and preventing the devastating damage that the scientific community was sure would come?
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Free Trade:
End disastrous NAFTA, CAFTA, and PNTR with China
Since 2001 we have lost more than 60,000 factories in this country, and more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs. We must end our disastrous trade policies (NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, etc.) which enable corporate America to shut
down plants in this country and move to China and other low-wage countries. We need to end the race to the bottom and develop trade policies which demand that American corporations create jobs here, and not abroad.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Health Care:
Move toward a single-payer system
It boggles the mind that approximately 30% of every health care dollar spent in the US goes to administrative costs rather than to delivering care. If our goal is to provide high-quality health care in a cost-effective way, what should we be doing?
Clearly, we must move toward a single-payer system.The health insurance lobby and other opponents of single-payer care make it sound scary. It's not. In fact, a large-scale single-payer system already exists. It's called Medicare.
People enrolled in the system give it high marks. More importantly, it has succeeded in providing near-universal coverage to Americans over the age of 65.
Establishing a single-payer system will mean peace of mind for all Americans. The goal of real
health care reform must be high-quality, universal coverage in a cost-effective way. We must ensure that the money we put into health coverage goes to the delivery of health care, not to paper-pushing, astronomical profits and lining CEOs' pockets.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Jobs:
Raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour
The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage--$15 an hour over the next few years.
No one in this country who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Jobs:
Corporate opposition makes union organizing difficult
Union workers who are able to collectively bargain for higher wages and benefits earn substantially more than non-union workers. Today, corporate opposition to union organizing makes it extremely difficult for workers to join a union.
We need legislation which makes it clear that when a majority of workers sign cards in support of a union, they can form a union.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Social Security:
Strengthen the social safety net, instead of weakening it
Millions of seniors live in poverty and we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country. We must strengthen the social safety net, not weaken it.
Instead of cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs, we should be expanding these programs.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Tax Reform:
We need a progressive tax system based on ability to pay
At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, we need a progressive tax system in this country which is based on ability to pay. It is not acceptable that major profitable corporations have paid nothing in federal income taxes, and that corporate
CEOs in this country often enjoy an effective tax rate which is lower than their secretaries. It is absurd that we lose over $100 billion a year in revenue because corporations and the wealthy stash their cash in offshore tax havens around the world.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
On Technology:
Stop bailing out Wall Street & start repairing Main Street
Our infrastructure is collapsing, and Americans know it. They see it every day in the potholes they drive over, the bridges in their communities that have been shut down and the water pipes that burst.Is this the best our country can do? No.
We can and we must do better. That's why we need to invest at least $1 trillion over five years to rebuild America. This will not only make us safer, more productive and more efficient, but it will generate income and create jobs--lots of jobs.
The estimate is that this $1 trillion investment will create and maintain 13 million jobs--which is exactly what our economy needs. We have ignored our infrastructure crisis for too long. The time to act is now.
There's a reason that investing in our
infrastructure has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress. It's a good idea. This funding should receive the highest priority.
It's high time we stopped bailing out Wall Street and started repairing Main Street.
Source: 2016 presidential campaign website, BernieSanders.com
Mar 21, 2015
Page last updated: Dec 09, 2018