Sanders tells @OnPointRadio you shd vote for Clinton "if you think establishment politics and establishment economics" are what we need.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) October 1, 2015Excerpts from the transcript below:
So yes, count me as a radical. I want to invest in jobs and education for our young people rather than jails and incarceration.snip
In a competitive global economy it is totally insane that hundreds of thousands of young people can not afford to go to college. We need public colleges and universities to be tuition free. Not a radical idea, actually, it existed in this country 50 of 60 years ago, it exists in a number of other countries around the world. And to pay for these programs, which are expensive,
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yes, the wealthy and profitable large corporations will have to start paying their fair share of taxes.
TA: Senator Sanders, you call yourself a Democratic Socialists. Can you define that, and what does it mean in policy terms?BS: What it means, Tom, is that we have got to look at countries around the world — including many Democratic Socialist, or Labor governments, or Social Democratic countries — countries like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and other countries — that have done some really extraordinary things for their working people and the middle class.
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Why are we the only major country that doesn’t guarantee health care for all? I live in Burlington, Vermont, 100 miles away form the Canadian border, they provide health care to all people.
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Every other country on Earth, major country, says, you know what? When a women has a baby, dad has a baby, they should have some income to stay home to get to love their baby, know their baby, we are the only country that does not do that.
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TA: So Democratic Socialist means guaranteeing certain services?
BS: Yeah, it does. It means learning from countries and saying, you know what, everybody should have health care as a right. Everybody regardless of the income of their family should be able to get the education that they need. Don’t tell some poor bright kid who wants to become a doctor or an engineer that he or she can’t do that because their family doesn’t have a lot of money. So what it means, in so many words Tom, is that instead of having a government, which we do today,which is significantly dominated by big money interests and large campaign donations, donors, we should have a government that represents ordinary Americans, middle class, working class Americans and guarantee the rights of people to live in dignity and security.
TA: Can we afford that? You’ve got a lot of European countries, you’re citing some, but you’ve got a lot with very large debt. We have very large debt. The Washington Post estimates today that your program would cost $3.27 trillion. That’s a lot of money.BS: Yes, but like other analysts, who exaggerate what we’re doing, we pay for what we’re doing. But here’s the point, Tom. Yes, I’m not going to deny that if you make certain that every public college and university is tutiion free and if you by the way substantially lower student debt — which is now a very serious problem, Tom — that will cost you about $70 billion a year. That’s a lot of money. But you know how we pay for it? We pay for it based on a tax on Wall Street speculation. Yes, I oppose cutting Social Security benefits, I want to expand it. We pay for that by demanding that the wealthiest people in this country, people earning over $250,000 a year, we will lift the cap on taxable income, and they will in fact pay on all of their income rather than on $118,000 right now. So you name the issue, and we are paying for it by doing away for example with the absurd loophole that now exists such that profitable corporations making billions of dollars a year can stash their money in the Cayman Islands and in Bermuda and not pay a nickel in Federal taxes.
TA: For Democrats, why vote for you, Bernie Sanders, rather than, at this point, Hillary Clinton, let’s say?BS: Well, you know, I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years and I have a great deal of respect for Hilary Clinton. I’m not gonna tell you we are bosom buddies, but you know we’re friends, we have known each other, we served in the Senate together. But I think people have to assess where we are this moment in the history of this country. And if you think establishment politics and establishment economics is the answer to our problems, fine, there are good candidates out there. But if you think it’s time for what I define as a political revolution, and that means involving millions and millions of people in the political process today in a way that has never been the case before, than I think I’m your candidate. And let me tell you why, Tom, this is not just rhetoric. What I have said over and over again and repeat to you now, is that no President, not Bernie Sanders, not Hillary Clinton, not anybody else, with the best intentions in the world can become President of the United States and effectively take on the incredible power of Wall Street, corporate America, the corporate, media, large campaign donors. No President can do that. The only way we transform America and make government work for all of our people is through what I call a political revolution and that means involving tens of millions of people in the political process.
It's all a great interview... check it out... But here's one more nice snippet towards the end: TA: So your answer is to put millions of people in the mall in Washington, is that what you envision?BS: Not a bad idea! You wanna make public colleges and universities tuition free, yes. Actually, Tom, that’s a good idea. If a million young people demanded that, marched on Washington, knew the legislation and made it clear to every member of the Congress they were paying attention, yes you would get public colleges and universities tuition free in America.
And more in regards to the scary "S" word: CC: Okay, thank you. The word socialist scares a lot of people, Senator Sanders, and I’d like to explain what other US institutions, are right now, socialist institutions.TA: The word socialist, Claire I appreciate that. Gallup Poll, Bernie Sanders, says American are open to elected a President who is Catholic, female, black, Hispanic, Jewish, Mormon, gay, lesbian, Evangelical Christian. Even 60% of Americans said they’d vote for a Muslim. Atheist, 58%. The absolute lowest category, Socialist — 47%.
BS: Well, first of all, 47% is probably a lot higher than it was a couple of years ago. And I think the answer is, as Claire indicated, is to talk about the issue. To talk about Social Security being a socialist program. To talk about the fact that your local police department or your fire department or your library is a publicly owned institution. I come from a city where our electric company is publicly owned. TVA is publicly owned. But I think we need to do a lot of education on this issue, primarily pointing out what governments around the world have done to protect their middle class and working families — in terms of better retirement programs, than we have right now, better childcare programs, than we have right now. But I think there’s a lot of education to be done. But I think when we end up explaining what Democratic Socialism is, which is not what goes on in North Korea, not what went on in the Soviet Union, I think many people will be responding to that message.