WIKIPEDIA ON
SANDERS' DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST PHILOSOPHY AND MORE
COMPILATION AND
COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
MAY 3, 2020
THIS WIKIPEDIA
ARTICLE GIVES ANYTHING, OR ALMOST ANYTHING, THAT THE READER MAY WANT TO KNOW. I
HAVE NOT INCLUDED THE FOOTNOTES, BUT SOME TWENTY PAGES OF THEM ARE AVAILABLE ON
THE WEBSITE. BY THE WAY, YOU MAY NOT WANT TO PRINT THE ARTICLE, BECAUSE IT IS
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I FIND SOMETHING THIS LONG TO BE EASIER TO READ ON THE SCREEN, AND THE RELATED
SUBJECT LINKS ARE ALWAYS USEFUL.
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TO MY WAY OF LOOKING AT THINGS, SUPERIOR TO ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA IN THAT
USUALLY THE ARTICLES ARE NOT SO FULL OF SPECIALIZED WORD USAGES THAT IT’S
IMPOSSIBLE TO READ WITHOUT CONSTANTLY LOOKING FOR DEFINATIONS.
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Political
positions of Bernie Sanders
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
The
political positions of Bernie Sanders are reflected by his United States Senate
voting record, public speeches, and interviews. He is a self-described
democratic socialist. Bernie Sanders is an independent senator from Vermont who
has served in government since 1981.
In 2016,
Sanders campaigned for the Presidency of the United States in the Democratic
primaries. His proposed policies emphasize reversing economic inequality.[1][2]
Since the
election, Sanders has criticized the presidency of Donald Trump. In February
2019, Sanders announced his candidacy in the Democratic Party primaries for the
2020 presidential election,[3][4] later withdrawing in April 2020.[5][6]
Political
and economic philosophy
Sanders
described himself as a "democratic socialist"[7] and an admirer of
aspects of social democracy as practiced in the Scandinavian countries. In an
address on his political philosophy given at Georgetown University in November
2015, Sanders identified his conception of "democratic socialism"
with Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal for a Second Bill of Rights,[8][9] saying
that democratic socialism means creating "an economy that works for all,
not just the very wealthy," reforming the political system (which Sanders
says is "grossly unfair" and "in many respects, corrupt"),
recognizing health care and education as rights, protecting the environment,
and creating a "vibrant democracy based on the principle of one person,
one vote."[10] He explained that democratic socialism is not tied to
Marxism or the abolition of capitalism but rather describes a program of
extensive social benefits, funded by broad-based taxes.[11]
Academics
Samuel Goldman,
assistant professor of political science at George Washington University,
states that Sanders' platform is not socialist and is better described as
"welfarism" reminiscent of the 1950s that aims to regulate rather
than to replace capitalism. Goldman notes that Sanders does not advocate public
ownership of the means of production nor does he seek to abolish the profit
system, both of which Goldman considers to be defining characteristics of
socialism.[12]
Lane
Kenworthy, professor of sociology at the University of California at San Diego,
has stated that Sanders is a social democrat and not a democratic socialist,
and that the two ideologies are fundamentally different from each other.
Kenworthy points out that social democracy does not aim to abolish capitalism,
and argues that Sanders' use of the term "socialism" when he actually
advocates "social democracy" is causing more confusion than it is
adding value, and might unnecessarily have a negative impact on his
presidential campaign.
Mike
Konczal, an economic policy expert at the Roosevelt Institute, also
characterizes Sanders' positions as "social democracy" rather than
"socialist", noting that social democracy means support for a mixed
economy combining private enterprise with government spending, social insurance
programs, Keynesian macroeconomic policies, and democratic participation in
government and the workplace—all of which are a part of Sanders' platform.[13]
Andrei
Markovits, professor of political science at the University of Michigan, defines
democratic socialism as "an attempt to create a property-free, socialist
society" and something that does not exist in Denmark or anywhere else in
the world, and argues that Sanders' explanation of the term is inaccurate.[14]
Socialist
organizations
American
socialists and representatives belonging to the Democratic Socialists of
America, Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Party USA have criticized
Sanders, arguing that he is not a socialist because he aims to reform capitalism
rather than to replace it with an entirely different socialist system.[15]
Despite its criticism, the Democratic Socialists of America "strongly
support[ed]" his campaign for President.[16] Former Sanders colleague
Peter Diamondstone claimed that Sanders was a socialist during his time in the
Liberty Union Party but is no longer a socialist.[17]
Bhaskar
Sunkara, the founder, editor, and publisher of the democratic socialist journal
Jacobin, considered Sanders to be a social democrat and not a socialist.[8]
Other
commentators
In 2015,
The New Republic distinguished between socialism and "democratic
socialism", suggesting that Sanders himself was loose with the distinction
in his terminology and that the United States already had such social
democratic programs as Social Security and Medicare.[18] Noam Chomsky, a social
commentator and activist, called Sanders an "honest New Dealer".[19]
In a 2016 editorial, The Economist suggested that, despite calling himself a
"democratic socialist", Sanders actually fits the mold of a
"social democrat" for his embrace of "private companies that
thrive and grow in America" and belief that "the middle class and the
working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair
deal".[20] A Forbes commentator suggested that his "democratic
socialism" is really social democracy as found in much of Europe and
especially in the Nordic countries.[21] Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke
Rasmussen of the center-right Venstre party has also disputed Sanders's
portrayal of Denmark, denying that the nation is socialist and noting they have
a market economy.[22]
In 2018,
The Week suggested that there was a trend towards social democracy in the
United States and highlighted the implementation of such policies in the Nordic
countries, suggesting that Sanders' popularity was an element in favor of
possible growth in acceptance of social democracy.[23]
Prior to
elected office
In 1971,
Sanders joined the Liberty Union Party, a "self-described 'radical
political party'"[24] which was founded in 1970 in opposition to the
Vietnam War.[25] During his association with the party as a leading member, he
advocated for nationalization of major industries, including those in the
manufacturing, energy and banking sectors. In 1974, he advocated for a marginal
tax rate of 100% on income over one million dollars, saying that "Nobody
should earn more than a million dollars".[24]
While
campaigning for the US Senate in 1971, he advocated for state control of
Vermont public utilities in a manner that would direct surplus revenues towards
social programs and the reduction of property taxes. In 1976, he called for the
state seizure without compensation of Vermont's private electric companies in
order to reduce the costs of their services to the consumer down to the level
of governmentally run utilities.[24] As chairman of the party in 1973, he wrote
an editorial in opposition of Richard Nixon's energy policy and against oil
industry profits at a time of price increases and shortages during the OPEC oil
embargo. He called for nationalization of the entire energy sector.[24] In
1976, Sanders advocated for public ownership of utilities, banks and major
industries. He advocated for the conversion of manufacturing industries into
worker-controlled enterprises and the placement of restrictions on the
abilities of companies to abandon communities where they are established.[24]
At the
time of his resignation from the party in October 1977, he was party chairman.
Sanders quit due to the inactivity of the party between elections.[26] In 2019,
a campaign spokesman cast this record as reflecting Sanders' history of
fighting "on the side of working people" and against the
"influence of both the powerful ultra-rich and giant corporations who seek
only to further their own greed".[24]
Economics
Income and
wealth inequality
File:Bernie
Brief (1) - Income Inequality.webm
Campaign
video on income inequality
Wealth
inequality in the United States increased from 1989 to 2013[27]
A
cornerstone of Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign was to fight the increasing
wealth inequality in the United States. In April 2015, Sanders articulated his
position in an interview with The Guardian:
What we
have seen is that while the average person is working longer hours for lower
wages, we have seen a huge increase in income and wealth inequality, which is
now reaching obscene levels. This is a rigged economy, which works for the rich
and the powerful, and is not working for ordinary Americans ... You know, this
country just does not belong to a handful of billionaires.[28]
In July
2015, Sanders introduced legislation that would incrementally increase the
federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020.[29][30]
Taxation
Sanders
supports repeal of some of the tax deductions that he says benefit hedge funds
and corporations, and would raise taxes on capital gains and the wealthiest one
percent of Americans. He would use some of the added revenues to lower the
taxes of the middle and lower classes.[31][32] He has suggested that he would
be open to a 90% top marginal tax rate (a rate that last existed during the
years after World War II) for the wealthiest earners, as well as a 52% top
income tax bracket.[33] He has proposed a top marginal rate of 65% for the
federal estate tax, up from the current 40% rate.[34]
While
running for the Senate in 1974, Sanders said, "nobody should earn more
than $1 million" (more than $5 million in 2018 dollars).[35][36]
In
February 2014, Sanders was one of fifteen senators to sign a letter to the
Treasury Department and IRS urging the Obama administration to implement rules
that would "only close a loophole that has until now allowed donors to
evade campaign finance law disclosure requirements" and defending the
proposed changes as not restricting "anyone’s right to speak, or to spend
money to influence elections."[37]
In 2016,
Sanders wrote an op-ed to Philadelphia magazine stating that while he supported
city government initiatives to fund universal pre-kindergarten education, he
opposed mayor Jim Kenney's soda tax on the grounds that it would
disproportionately impact the poor.[38]
In March
2017, Sanders introduced legislation ending the ability of corporations to
defer from paying taxes in the United States on their foreign earnings until
the money was repatriated. The bill also had provisions that limited the tax
benefits of corporate inversions and prohibiting American companies from
asserting themselves as foreign companies in the event that their management
and operations were based in the US. In a press conference, Sanders stated that
the US had "a rigged tax code that has essentially legalized tax-dodging
for large corporations."[39]
On October
1, 2017, during an interview, Sanders referred to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of
2017 promoted by President Trump and most of the Congressional GOP as
"just really bad policy" and furthered that he did not understand
"why anybody would support a proposal which is massive amounts of tax
breaks to the people who don't need it." Sanders advocated for people to
instead focus on meeting the needs of the middle class and working families of
this country, as opposed to "the top 1 percent."[40]
On January
31, 2019, after Republicans introduced a bill in the Senate to repeal the
estate tax, Sanders introduced an expansion of the estate tax, lowering its
exemption amount and forming a progressive rate structure. In a statement,
Sanders said the bill "does what the American people want by substantially
increasing the estate tax on the wealthiest families in this country and
dramatically reducing wealth inequality" and that the US would "not
thrive when so few have so much and so many have so little."[41]
On October
14, 2019, Sanders unveiled an economic plan that would increase the corporate
tax rate from 21 percent to 35 percent and mandate companies that either are
publicly traded or have at least $100 million in either their annual revenue or
balance sheet total grant workers 2 percent of the company's stock until
employees own a minimum of 20 percent of the company. The Sanders campaign
stated that the economic plan would "give workers an ownership stake in
the companies they work for, break up corrupt corporate mergers and monopolies,
and finally make corporations pay their fair share" and asserted that a
Sanders presidency would end what he believes is corporate greed ruining the
United States "once and for all".[42]
Wall
Street reform
On May 6,
2015, Sanders introduced legislation designed to break up "too big to
fail" financial institutions. With three of the four banks that were
bailed out during the 2007–08 global financial crisis now larger than they were
then, Sanders believes that "no single financial institution should have
holdings so extensive that its failure would send the world economy into
crisis. If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to
exist."[43][44] As a representative from Vermont, Sanders opposed the
Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, signed in 1999 by President Bill Clinton, which repealed
the provision of the Glass–Steagall Act preventing any financial institution
from acting as both a securities firm and a commercial bank. Sanders supports
legislation sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John McCain
(R-Ariz.) to reinstate Glass–Steagall.[45]
Infrastructure
In his
"Plan to Rebuild America", the January 27, 2015 legislative proposal
he co-sponsored with Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), the ranking member of the
appropriations committee, and backed by the American Society of Civil
Engineers, the AFL-CIO and other trade unions, Sanders insisted on the pivotal
role played by infrastructure investments:
For too
many years, we have dramatically underfunded the physical infrastructure that
our economy depends on. That is why I have proposed the Rebuild America Act, to
invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our infrastructure. [...]
Importantly, the Rebuild America Act will support more than thirteen million
good-paying jobs – jobs that our economy desperately needs.[46]
While
clearly rooted in the Rooseveltian, progressive tradition,[47] this policy
proposal also reflects more generally the pre-Reagan Era bipartisan American
policy consensus, which was more favorable to the notion of infrastructure
spending[48] and infrastructure-driven development.
In June
2019, Sanders was one of eight senators to sponsor the Made in America Act,
legislation that would designate federal programs which had funded
infrastructure projects not currently subject to Buy America standards and
mandate the materials used in these federal programs were domestically
produced. Bill cosponsor Tammy Baldwin said the bill would strengthen Buy
America requirements of the federal government and that she was hopeful both
Democrats and Republicans would support "this effort to make sure our
government is buying American products and supporting American
workers."[49]
Trade
In 1993
Sanders spoke out against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).[50]
According to PolitiFact, Sanders has "consistently argued for
protectionist trade policies as opposed to free trade."[51] Sanders
opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which he has called
"a continuation of other disastrous trade agreements, like NAFTA, CAFTA,
and permanent normal trade relations with China." He believes that free
trade agreements have caused a loss of American jobs and have depressed American
wages. Sanders has said that America needs to rebuild its own manufacturing
base by using American factories and supporting well-paying jobs for American
labor rather than outsourcing to China and other countries.[52][53][54][55]
According
to Sanders, TPP undermines United States sovereignty: TPP grants multinational
corporations power to sue a national government in UN and World Bank tribunals
over lost profits (including those yet to be made) due to the regulations about
labor, health and environment that the government imposed. The tribunals can
require US's taxpayer to pay compensation.[56] In September 2016, Sanders was
one of twelve senators to sign a letter to President Obama asserting that the
passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership "in its current form will
perpetuate a trade policy that advantages corporations at the expense of
American workers" and there would be an "erosion of U.S.
manufacturing and middle class jobs, and accelerate the corporate race to the
bottom" if provisions were not fixed.[57]
Sanders
opposed the Panama Free Trade Agreement, which he characterized as making worse
the tax evasion exposed in leaked Panama Papers.[58]
In May
2011, Sanders was one of seventeen senators to sign a letter to Commodity
Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler requesting a regulatory
crackdown on what they described as speculative Wall Street trading in oil
contracts, asserting that they had entered "a time of economic emergency
for many American families" while noting that the average retail price of
regular grade gasoline was $3.95 nationwide. The senators requested that the
CFTC adopt speculation limits in regard to markets where contracts for future
delivery of oil are traded.[59]
On
November 30, 2018, Sanders announced his opposition to the United
States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, saying "a re-negotiated NAFTA must stop
the outsourcing of U.S. jobs, end the destructive race to the bottom, protect
the environment, and lower the outrageously high price of prescription drugs"
and that corporations would persist in shipping "U.S. jobs to Mexico where
workers are paid as little as $2 an hour" until the agreement's text was
revised to include "strong enforcement mechanisms".[60]
Position
on charities
In 1981 as
Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, The New York Times quoted Sanders' position on
private charitable organizations:
"I
don't believe in charities," said Mayor Sanders, bringing a shocked
silence to a packed hotel banquet room. The Mayor, who is a Socialist, went on
to question the "fundamental concepts on which charities are based"
and contended that government, rather than charity organizations, should take
over responsibility for social programs.[61]
Jobs
Sanders
was committed to creating job growth through infrastructure development and
manufacturing, saying, "America once led the world in building and
maintaining a nationwide network of safe and reliable bridges and roads. Today,
nearly a quarter of the nation's 600,000 bridges have been designated as
structurally deficient or functionally obsolete ... Almost one-third of
America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition ..." Sanders has
introduced amendments to Senate bills (S.Amendt.323) promoting the creation of
millions of middle-class jobs by investing in infrastructure, paid for by
closing what he characterizes as loopholes in the corporate and international
tax system.[62][63] He also supports legislation that would make it easier for
workers to join or form a labor union.[64] Sanders' campaign website also has
focused on the concerns of both the long-term unemployed and the underemployed,
contending that "the real unemployment rate is much higher than the
'official' figure typically reported in the newspapers. When you include
workers who have given up looking for jobs, or those who are working part-time
when they want to work full-time, the real number is much higher than official
figures would suggest."[65]
Sanders
also supports a federal jobs guarantee.[66]
Sanders
has said that there is a very important role for free enterprise and economic
growth, especially for small business and entrepreneurs, but that the
competitive landscape in the US has become unfair, favoring large corporations.
He has also said that economic growth needs to serve people and that growth for
the sake of enriching the top 1% does not serve the country's interests. He has
said that he would accept a reduction in economic growth in order to increase
fairness and reduce economic inequality.[54][67][68]
Employee
ownership
Sanders
supports establishing worker-owned cooperatives and introduced legislation in
June 2014 that would aid workers who wanted to "form their own businesses
or to set up worker-owned cooperatives."[64][69][70] As early as 1976,
Sanders proposed workplace democracy, saying, "I believe that, in the long
run, major industries in this state and nation should be publicly owned and
controlled by the workers themselves."[71]
In 1987,
Sanders defined democracy as public ownership and workers' self-management in
the workplace, stating that "Democracy means public ownership of the major
means of production, it means decentralization, it means involving people in
their work. Rather than having bosses and workers it means having democratic
control over the factories and shops to as great a degree as you can."[72]
Offshore
tax havens
Noting
that American corporations are collectively holding more than $1 trillion in
profits in offshore tax haven countries, Sanders has introduced legislation
that would crack down on offshore tax havens by requiring companies to pay the
top U.S. corporate tax rate on profits held abroad.[73] On his website, Sanders
offers examples of large American companies that paid no federal taxes and even
received tax refunds, with many of them receiving large amounts in financial
assistance during the recent financial crisis and continuing to receive
billions in subsidies.[74] Sanders feels that this is unfair and that it
damages the nation's economy, believing the money used for refunds and
subsidies should instead be invested in American small businesses and the working
people.[75]
Federal
Reserve
Sanders is
in favor of auditing the Federal Reserve, which would reduce the independence
of the Federal Reserve in monetary policy deliberations; Federal Reserve
officials say that 'Audit the Fed' legislation would expose the Federal Reserve
to undue political pressure from lawmakers disliking its decisions.[76][77][78]
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said that "such a bill would
essentially empower the cranks — the gold-standard-loving, hyperinflation-is-coming
types who dominate the modern G.O.P., and have spent the past five or six years
trying to bully monetary policy makers into ceasing and desisting from their
efforts to prevent economic disaster."[79]
In a
December 2015 op-ed, Sanders called for creating board positions on the Federal
Reserve for "representatives from all walks of life — including labor,
consumers, homeowners, urban residents, farmers and small
businesses."[80][81]
Debt
relief
In June
2016, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced an agreement on a
Puerto Rico debt relief bill, Sanders said the bill was a "terrible piece
of legislation, setting horrific precedent and must not be passed" and
stated his opposition to the US treating Puerto Rico "like a colony."[82]
Minimum
wage
In May
2017, Sanders and thirty Democratic senators introduced a bill increasing the
federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 by 2024 while also tying future
increases to national median wage growth and gradually reducing the current
exception to the minimum wage in regard to tipped workers. Sanders stated,
"Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to
$15 an hour was 'radical'. Our job in the wealthiest country in the history of
the world is to make sure that every worker has at least a modest and decent
standard of living."[83]
In January
2019, Sanders sponsored the Senate version of a bill to increase the federal
minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024, saying, "We are living today in an
American economy that is doing very well for the people on top. Not so well for
working families."[84]
Labor
In May
2018, Sanders was one of twelve senators to sign a letter to Chairman of the
Federal Labor Relations Authority Colleen Kiko urging the FLRA to end efforts
to close its Boston regional office until Congress debated the matter,
furthering that the FLRA closing down its seven regional offices would cause
staff to be placed farther away from the federal employees they protect the
rights of.[85]
Sanders
was a cosponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act.[86]
In July
2019, Sanders signed a letter to United States Secretary of Labor Alexander
Acosta that advocated for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration to initiate a full investigation into a complaint filed on May
20 by a group of Chicago-area employees of McDonald's, which detailed workplace
violence incidents that included interactions with customers such as customers
throwing hot coffee and threatening employees with firearms and more. The
senators argued that McDonald's could and needed to "do more to protect
its employees, but employers will not take seriously their obligations to
provide a safe workplace if OSHA does not enforce workers rights to a
hazard-free workplace."[87]
Antitrust,
competition and corporate regulation
In July
2018, in response to Comcast's $65 billion bid to buy much of 21st Century Fox,
Sanders was one of four senators to sign a letter to head of the Justice
Department's antitrust division Makan Delrahim requesting a review on whether
Comcast would be able to use Fox's entertainment offerings to suppress its
competitors, noting "that the merger would provide a majority stake in the
streaming service Hulu" and citing the "need to protect consumers
from the harmful effects of the proposed merger is evident in the numerous
settlements with Comcast regarding past anticompetitive practices, such as the
use of channel listings to prioritize its content over that of outside
competitors and overbilling of customers."[88]
In
February 2019, Sanders was one of eight senators to sign a letter to the
Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice advocating for
regulators to renounce a proposed $26 billion merger between T-Mobile and
Sprint, writing that American enforcers have understood for the last thirty
years "that fostering robust competition in telecommunications markets is
the best way to provide every American with access to high-quality,
cutting-edge communications at a reasonable price" and the merger would
result in a return for "Americans to the dark days of heavily consolidated
markets and less competition, with all of the resulting harms."[89]
In May
2019, Sanders and Representative Barbara Lee introduced the Inclusive
Prosperity Act, imposing a "fraction of a percent" tax on stock, bond
and derivatives trading estimated to generate 2.4 trillion from Wall Street
investors over a 10-year period. Sanders stated the effects of the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act of 2017 on Americans of varying classes and asserted that it was
"long past time for Congress to rein in the recklessness of Wall Street
billionaires and build an economy that works for all Americans."[90]
In June
2019, Sanders was one of twenty-one senators to sign a letter led by Bob
Menendez and Sherrod Brown to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in
response to a proposed update to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that
would authorize debt collectors to send unlimited texts and emails to consumers
along with calling them up to seven times a day. The senators wrote that the
proposed update "permits collectors to overwhelm consumers with intrusive
communications" and that the CFPB was "placing the cost burden of
these text messages on the consumer" due to not enforcing the debt
collectors to use free-to-end-user text messaging.[91]
In June
2019, along with Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, Sanders sent a letter to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice requesting an
investigation into the acquisition of 21 regional sports networks by Sinclair
Broadcast Group as the senators found Sinclair to have "an explicit
interest in, and commitment to, relaying partisan political messages to its
viewers — making its recent anti competitive expansion attempts into millions
of additional households all the more concerning."[92]
In a June
2019 speech, Sanders accused Trump of loving "corporate
socialism".[93][94]
Price
controls
In April
2013, Sanders was one of nineteen senators to sign a brief led by Carl Levin
requesting the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
overturn a 2012 federal district court ruling effectively invalidates proposed
federal regulations setting speculation limits on 28 commodities, arguing
rampant speculation on the aforementioned commodities had led to higher prices
for both consumers and businesses.[95]
Housing
In April
2019, Sanders was one of forty-one senators to sign a bipartisan letter to the
housing subcommittee praising the United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development's Section 4 Capacity Building program as authorizing "HUD to
partner with national nonprofit community development organizations to provide
education, training, and financial support to local community development
corporations (CDCs) across the country" and expressing disappointment that
President Trump's budget "has slated this program for elimination after
decades of successful economic and community development." The senators
wrote of their hope that the subcommittee would support continued funding for
Section 4 in Fiscal Year 2020.[96]
Government
shutdown
In March
2019, Sanders and thirty-eight other senators signed a letter to the
Appropriations Committee opining that contractor workers and by extension their
families "should not be penalized for a government shutdown that they did
nothing to cause" while noting that there were bills in both chambers of
Congress that if enacted would provide back pay to compensate contractor
employees for lost wages before urging the Appropriations Committee "to
include back pay for contractor employees in a supplemental appropriations bill
for FY2019 or as part of the regular appropriations process for FY2020."[97]
Environment
Global
warming
File:Bernie
Brief (3) - Climate Change.webm
Campaign
video on climate change
Sanders
views global warming as a serious problem.[98] Along with Senator Barbara
Boxer, Sanders introduced the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 on
January 15, 2007.[99] In a July 26, 2012 speech on the Senate floor, Sanders
addressed claims made by Senator Jim Inhofe: "The bottom line is when
Senator Inhofe says global warming is a hoax, he is just dead wrong, according
to the vast majority of climate scientists."[100] He was Climate Hawks
Vote's top-rated senator on climate leadership in the 113th Congress.[101]
Believing
that "[we need to] transform our energy system away from fossil
fuel," Sanders voted against the Keystone Pipeline bill, saying,
"Unless we get our act together, the planet that we're going to be leaving
to our kids and grandchildren will be significantly less habitable than the
planet we have right now ... I think it's a good idea for the president,
Congress, and the American people to listen to the overwhelming amount of
scientists who tell us loudly and clearly that climate change is one of the
great planetary crises that we face."[102]
Sanders
also stands with the Great Sioux Nation as opposed to constructing the Dakota
Access Pipeline, stating:
Like the
Keystone XL pipeline, which I opposed since day one, the Dakota Access fracked
oil pipeline, will transport some of the dirtiest fuel on the planet.
Regardless of the court's decision, the Dakota Access pipeline must be stopped.
As a nation, our job is to break our addiction to fossil fuels, not increase
our dependence on oil. I join with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the many
tribal nations fighting this dangerous pipeline.[103]
In April
2015, Sanders was one of five senators to sign a letter to American governors
saying the climate change views of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were
not in line with that of Kentuckians and urging them to comply with the Obama
administration's Clean Power Plan.[104]
In April
2017, along with Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson, Sanders wrote
an op-ed for The Guardian on the need for the US to "aggressively
transition our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward clean, renewable
energy solutions", citing climate change as already having caused
"severe weather events like prolonged droughts, record-high temperatures,
and rising sea levels because of melting Arctic sea ice." Sanders and
Jacobson also warned that "the people who had least to do with causing the
problem will be impacted the most, including low income families and
communities of color across America."[105]
In
February 2019, in response to reports of the EPA intending to decide against
setting drinking water limits for Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as part of an upcoming national strategy to
manage the aforementioned class of chemicals, Sanders was one of twenty
senators to sign a letter to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler calling
on the agency "to develop enforceable federal drinking water standards for
PFOA and PFOS, as well as institute immediate actions to protect the public
from contamination from additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS)."[106]
In June
2019, Sanders was one of forty-four senators to introduce the International
Climate Accountability Act, legislation that would prevent President Trump from
using funds in an attempt to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and directing
the president's administration to instead develop a strategic plan for the
United States that would allow it to meet its commitment under the Paris
Agreement.[107]
On August
22, 2019, Sanders unveiled a climate change plan that called for a
transformation of the United States energy system that would allow for it to
transition to relying entirely on renewable energy for both electricity and
transportation by 2030 and complete decarbonization by 2050. The plan would
also invest $40 billion in a Climate Justice Resiliency Fund intended to help
"under-resourced groups, communities of color, Native Americans, people
with disabilities, children and the elderly recover from and prepare for the
impacts of climate change." Sanders committed to declaring climate change
a national emergency and rejoining the Paris Agreement if elected president,
citing the climate crisis as "not only the single greatest challenge
facing our country; it is also our single greatest opportunity to build a more
just and equitable future, but we must act immediately."[108]
During a September
2019 CNN town hall on climate change in which Sanders participated, there was
an exchange with an audience member who said "Human population growth has
more than doubled in the past 50 years. The planet cannot sustain this growth.
I realize this is a poisonous topic for politicians, but it's crucial to face.
Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth
seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss
this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate
catastrophe?" Sanders responded:
The answer
is yes. And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the
United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies
and make reproductive decisions. And the Mexico City agreement, which denies
American aid to those organizations around the world that allow women to have
abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd. So I
think especially in poor countries around the world where women do not
necessarily want to have large numbers of babies and where they can have the
opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, is
something I very, very strongly support.[109]
Nuclear
energy
Following
the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents, Sanders called for a moratorium on
licensing new nuclear plants and re-licensing of existing ones, in an effort to
slow down what has been touted as a nuclear renaissance in the United
States.[110] Sanders wrote to President Obama, asking him to appoint a special
commission to review the safety of U.S. nuclear plants. Sanders also wants to
repeal the Price–Anderson Act, which leaves the taxpayers to pay most of the
costs of a major nuclear accident. He says, "in a free-enterprise system,
the nuclear industry should be required to insure itself against
accidents."[110]
Sanders
has gone on record against the government financial backing of the nuclear
industry, which he calls "nuclear welfare".[111] Additionally, he
expresses concern over the logistics and fiscal challenges of nuclear
waste.[111] He has spoken in favor of sustainable alternatives and cites
Vermont as a state leading such endeavors, saying in regard to opposition of
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 2011 extension (just one week after the
Japanese accidents) of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant's operating
license, "In my state there is a strong feeling that we want to go forward
with energy efficiency and sustainable energy. I believe that we have that right.
I believe that every other state in the country has that right. If we want to
move to sustainable energy and not maintain an aging, trouble-plagued nuclear
power plant, I think we should be allowed to do that."[112]
In July
2019, Sanders was an original cosponsor of the Sensible, Timely Relief for
America's Nuclear Districts' Economic Development (STRANDED) Act, a bipartisan
bill introduced by Susan Collins and Tammy Duckworth that would give economic
impact grants to local government entities for the purpose of offsetting
economic impacts of stranded nuclear waste in addition to forming a task force
that would identify funding which already exists that could be used to benefit
its respective community and form a competitive innovative solutions prize competition
to aid those communities in their search for alternatives to "nuclear
facilities, generating sites, and waste sites."[113]
Pipelines
At a
September 2016 rally near the White House, Sanders called on President Obama to
ensure the Dakota Access Pipeline "gets a full environmental and cultural
impact analysis" and stated his position that the pipeline would not
continue in the event of such an analysis taking place, citing findings by Oil
Change International that the Dakota Access Pipeline would have the same impact
on the planet as adding 21 million more cars on the road along with
constructing 30 more coal plants.[114]
In October
2016, Sanders led four senators in a letter to President Obama requesting the
administration halt work on the Dakota Access Pipeline until the permitting
process of the Army Corps "be transparent and include public notice and
participation, formal and meaningful tribal consultation, and adequate
environmental review" and stating their support for the "tribes along
the pipeline route in their fight against the Dakota Access pipeline
project."[115]
In
December 2016, following the United States Army Corps of Engineers's block on
the Dakota Access Pipeline, Sanders released a statement praising President
Obama for listening to Native Americans as well as others opposed to the
pipeline's construction and said the United States should neither
"endanger the water supply of millions of people" nor "become
more dependent on fossil fuel and accelerate the planetary crisis of climate
change." He called for a transformation of the American energy system that
would see a departure from the usage of fossil fuels.[116]
Following
a spill at the Keystone pipeline in October 2019, Sanders said he would shut
down the existing Keystone pipeline if elected.[117][118]
Transparency
and corruption
Campaign
finance
Sanders
supports the DISCLOSE Act, which would make campaign finances more transparent
and ban U.S. corporations controlled by foreign interests from making political
expenditures.[119] He has been outspoken in calling for an overturn of Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission, in which the Supreme Court overturned
McCain-Feingold restrictions on political spending by corporations and unions
as a violation of the First Amendment.[120] Saying that he believes that the
Citizens United decision is "one of the Supreme Court's worst decisions
ever" and that it has allowed big money to "deflect attention from
the real issues" facing voters,[121] he has proposed a constitutional
amendment to undo the ruling.[122] He warns: "We now have a political
situation where billionaires are literally able to buy elections and
candidates."[123]
In January
2016, Sanders was one of twenty-nine senators to sign a letter spearheaded by
Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse to President Obama urging him to issue a final
executive order that would require federal contractors to disclose political
donations, arguing that form of disclosure was "a modest step that would
expose an especially troubling type of secret money: campaign contributions
that have the potential to influence government contracting
practices."[124]
In October
2016, while stumping for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, Sanders advocated
for Trump supporters to vote for Clinton due to her promise to propose a
constitutional amendment in the first 100 days of her presidency to overturn
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission as well as her intent to
nominate a Supreme Court justice to fill the vacancy by the late Antonin Scalia
that would support overturning Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: "This
issue of Citizens United is a profound issue impacting the entire country. I
say to Mr. Trump's supporters: most of you understand that system is rigged in
favor of wealthy and power."[125]
Instant
runoff voting
In 2007,
Sanders testified to the Vermont Senate Government Operations Committee that he
"strongly supports instant-runoff voting" because it "allows
people to vote for what they really want without worrying about the possibility
of them getting what they really don't want."[126] The committee and
legislature ultimately passed legislation that would have enacted instant
runoff voting for U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators, but the governor
vetoed it.[127]
Criticism
of the media
In an
early essay, Sanders claimed that the corporate owners of the television
industry sought to benumb critical thinking among their viewers. Later he
bemoaned the media's emphasis on reporting disasters, while ignoring what he
characterizes as the plight of the working class.[128] Consequently, he has
been a leader in calling for media reform and opposes increased concentration
of ownership of media outlets,[129] as well as being a contributing author for
OpEdNews.[130] He appeared in Orwell Rolls in His Grave and Outfoxed: Rupert
Murdoch's War on Journalism, two documentaries on the subject.[131]
Internet
privacy
In April
2017, after President Trump signed a law undoing a Federal Communications
Commission rule requiring internet service providers to obtain permission from
customers prior to selling their data to advertisers, Sanders was one of eleven
senators to sponsor legislation undoing the repeal and reinstating the
regulations.[132] Sanders voiced support for penalizing companies that neglect
to protect their users' personal data, specifically citing the 2017 Equifax
data breach.[133]
Sanders
has also proposed creating a public, secure credit registry to replace the
current credit reporting system.[133]
Net
neutrality
Sanders
opposes the repeal of net neutrality in the United States, as voted by FCC
commissioners in a 3–2 vote on December 14, 2017 — his statement on the issue
from his U.S. Senate website on the same day as the vote, partly reads:
"The FCC's vote to end net neutrality is an egregious attack on our
democracy. With this decision the internet and its free exchange of information
as we have come to know it will cease to exist ... At a time when our
democratic institutions are already in peril, we must do everything we can to
stop this decision from taking effect."[134]
In May
2014, days before the FCC was scheduled to rewrite its net neutrality rules,
Sanders was one of eleven senators to sign a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
charging Wheeler's proposal with destroying net neutrality instead of
preserving it and urged the FCC to "consider reclassifying Internet
providers to make them more like traditional phone companies, over which the
agency has clear authority to regulate more broadly."[135]
In March
2018, Sanders was one of ten senators to sign a letter spearheaded by Jeff
Merkley which lambasted a proposal from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that would curb
the scope of benefits from the Lifeline program, which provided access to
high-speed internet to roughly 6.5 million people in poor communities, citing
that it was Pai's "obligation to the American public, as the Chairman of
the Federal Communications Commission, to improve the Lifeline program and
ensure that more Americans can afford access, and have means of access, to
broadband and phone service".[136]
In May
2018, Sanders voted for a bill that would reinstate net neutrality rules and
thereby overturn the FCC's repeal via a law authorizing Congress to reverse
regulatory actions by a simple majority vote.[137]
Foreign
policy
Sanders at
a May 2016 rally in Vallejo, California
Afghanistan
Sanders
voted for the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against
Terrorists[138] that has been cited as the legal justification for
controversial military actions since the September 11 attacks.[139] In February
2011, Sanders traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan with fellow senators Bob
Corker, Chris Coons, and Joe Manchin, opining afterward that Afghanistan was
"one of the most backward countries in the entire world" given its
massive poverty, lack of literacy, and corruption. He stated his belief that
the US could afford to reduce its funding for the American and Afghanistan
armed forces, Afghanistan police, and Afghanistan's economic development.[140]
In 2019,
Sanders was one of eight lawmakers to sign a pledge by grass-roots organization
Common Defense stating their intent "to fight to reclaim Congress’s
constitutional authority to conduct oversight of U.S. foreign policy and
independently debate whether to authorize each new use of military force"
along with acting toward bringing "the Forever War to a responsible and
expedient conclusion" after seventeen years of ongoing US military
conflict.[141]
In June
2019, he told the New York Times that "by the end of my first term, I
think our troops would be home."[142] In September, a campaign spokesman
indicated to the Washington Post that this did not rule out leaving residual
forces.[143]
Balkans
Sanders
supported the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, arguing that while aspects of
the Clinton administration's military push to resolve ethnic tensions in Kosovo
bordered on unconstitutional, he felt it was necessary to prevent genocide in
the region.[144][145] Regarding the level of influence Congress needed to have
in the approval process, he preferred the administration's recommendation that
the bombing not be subject to the War Powers Resolution of 1973,[146] and
opposed a formal declaration of war by the United States proposed by
then-Representative Tom Campbell.[147]
Regarding
the Greek government-debt crisis, Sanders opposed fiscal austerity measures,
and called on the European Central Bank, European Commission, and International
Monetary Fund to allow "pro-growth" economic stimulus
policies.[148][149] In November 2018, Sanders and former Greek finance minister
Yanis Varoufakis reiterated their opposition to austerity before launching the
pro-Keynesian Progressive International movement at an event in Rome.[150]
Central
America
In April
2019, Sanders was one of thirty-four senators to sign a letter to President
Trump encouraging him "to listen to members of your own Administration and
reverse a decision that will damage our national security and aggravate
conditions inside Central America", asserting that Trump had "consistently
expressed a flawed understanding of U.S. foreign assistance" since
becoming president and that he was "personally undermining efforts to
promote U.S. national security and economic prosperity" through preventing
the use of Fiscal Year 2018 national security funding. The senators argued that
foreign assistance to Central American countries created less migration to the
U.S., citing the funding's helping to improve conditions in those
countries.[151]
Cuba
Early in
his career, Sanders had praised the Cuban government for their reforms,
including widespread education and health care in Cuba.[152] On April 14, 2015,
after the White House announced that President Obama had intended to remove
Cuba from the United States' list of nations sponsoring terrorism, Sanders issued
a statement saying, "While we have our strong differences with Cuba, it is
not a terrorist state. I applaud President Obama for moving aggressively to
develop normal diplomatic relations. Fifty years of Cold War is enough. It is
time for Cuba and the United States to turn the page and normalize
relations."[153]
China
On May 1,
2019, Sanders tweeted: "Since the China trade deal I voted against,
America has lost over 3 million manufacturing jobs. It’s wrong to pretend that
China isn’t one of our major economic competitors."[154]
On August
27, 2019, Sanders told The Hill: "China is a country that is moving
unfortunately in a more authoritarian way in a number of directions. What we
have to say about China in fairness to China and its leadership is -- if I’m
not mistaken -- they have made more progress in addressing extreme poverty than
any country in the history of civilization. So they’ve done a lot of things for
their people."[155]
On
December 6, 2019, Sanders spoke concerning the Xinjiang re-education camps,
telling the DesMoines Register: "What we should be doing with China is
understanding they are a superpower, they are a strong economy. We want to be
working with them. We certainly don't want a Cold War. But we should be
speaking out against human rights abuses. When you put into concentration
camps, you know, or at least lock up, I don't know, a million Muslims there,
somebody's got to speak out about that."[156]
On January
7, 2020, Sanders mentioned China in the context of the 2020 Baghdad International
Airport airstrike in an interview with Anderson Cooper saying, "...you can
say there are a lot of bad people all over the world running governments...the
President of China now has put a million people, Muslims, into educational
camps- some would call them concentration camps."[157]
Iran
Sanders
supports the agreement with Iran reached by President Obama and Secretary of
State John Kerry. While calling it less than a perfect agreement, he believes
that the US needs to negotiate with Iran rather than enter in another war in
the Middle East.[158]
During the
January 17, 2016 Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, Sanders
criticized Iran by saying "their support for terrorism, the anti-American
rhetoric that we’re hearing from of their leadership is something that is not
acceptable" and espoused the view that the US should apply the same policy
it did toward normalizing relations with Cuba to Iran through a "move in
warm relations with a very powerful and important country in this
world."[159]
In 2017,
Congress took up a bill designed to impose CAATSA sanctions on Russia, for its
alleged interference in the 2016 election, and on Iran. Sanders announced that
he supported the sanctions on Russia, but he voted against the bill because of
the Iran provisions. He stated:
I have
voted for sanctions on Iran in the past, and I believe sanctions were an
important tool for bringing Iran to the negotiating table. But I believe that
these new sanctions could endanger the very important nuclear agreement that
was signed between the United States, its partners and Iran in 2015. That is
not a risk worth taking. ...[160]
In October
2017, Sanders said that "the worst possible thing" the United States
could do was undermine the Iran nuclear deal if it was "genuinely
concerned with Iran's behavior in the region" and that the president's
comments against the deal had isolated the US from foreign allies that had
retained their commitment to the agreement.[161]
In May
2018, Sanders was one of twelve senators to sign a letter to President Trump
urging him to remain in the Iran nuclear deal on the grounds that "Iran
could either remain in the agreement and seek to isolate the United States from
our closest partners, or resume its nuclear activities" if the US pulled
out and that both possibilities "would be detrimental to our national
security interests."[162]
Following
Patrick M. Shanahan announcing 1,000 more US troops being deployed to the
Middle East for defensive purposes in June 2019, Sanders was one of six
senators to sign a letter spearheaded by Tim Kaine and Mike Lee expressing
concern that "increasingly escalatory actions" by both the US and
Iran would "lead to an unnecessary conflict." The senators noted that
Congress had not authorized a war against Iran and requested "a joint
Defense, State and Intelligence Community briefing by the end of June to
address these policy and legal issues."[163]
Sanders
said during the Democratic primary debate hosted by NBC News: "I will do
everything I can to prevent a war with Iran, which would be far worse than [the]
disastrous war with Iraq."[154]
Following
the death of Qassem Soleimani in a US airstrike, Sanders tweeted: "Trump's
dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle
East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars. Trump promised
to end endless wars, but this action puts us on the path to another
one."[164][better source needed]
India
Sanders,
along with multiple other American politicians, expressed their concerns over
the anti-Muslim North East Delhi riots.[165] In response, on February 27, 2020,
the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, stated that these
remarks were "factually inaccurate", "misleading" and
"aimed at politicising the issue".[166]
Iraq
Sanders
strongly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq and voted against the 2002
resolution authorizing the use of force against that country. In a 2002 speech,
he said, "I am opposed to giving the President a blank check to launch a
unilateral invasion and occupation of Iraq" and "I will vote against
this resolution. One, I have not heard any estimates of how many young American
men and women might die in such a war or how many tens of thousands of women
and children in Iraq might also be killed. As a caring Nation, we should do
everything we can to prevent the horrible suffering that a war will cause. War
must be the last recourse in international relations, not the first. Second, I
am deeply concerned about the precedent that a unilateral invasion of Iraq
could establish in terms of international law and the role of the United
Nations."[167][168]
Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria
Sanders
has called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) "a barbaric
organization" and "a growing threat," but does not believe that
the U.S. should lead the fight against it. Sanders believes that "the
United States should be supportive, along with other countries, but we cannot
and we should not be involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East – the
Muslim countries themselves have got to lead the effort."[169]
On
November 15, 2015, in response to ISIS' attacks in Paris, Sanders cautioned
against Islamophobia saying, "During these difficult times as Americans,
we will not succumb to racism. We will not allow ourselves to be divided and
succumb to Islamophobia. And while hundreds of thousands have lost everything,
have nothing left but the shirts on their backs, we will not turn our backs on
the refugees!"[170]
Sanders
criticized Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and UAE, saying that those
"countries of enormous wealth and resources – have contributed far too
little in the fight against ISIS". Sanders said Saudi Arabia, instead of
fighting ISIS, has focused more on supporting the Yemeni government against
Iranian sponsored Houthi militants in Yemen that seized control of much of the
country in 2015, and Kuwait which has been a well-known source of financing for
ISIS, and Qatar is spending $200 billion on the 2022 World Cup, yet very little
to fight against ISIS.[according to whom?] "Wealthy and powerful Muslim
nations in the region can no longer sit on the sidelines and expect the United
States to do their work for them."[171]
Syria and
Assad
In January
2016, Sanders said on the Democratic primary debate: "Our first priority
must be the destruction of ISIS. Our second must be getting rid of
Assad."[172] Then, in September 2019, Sanders told the Washington Post,
"The world and in particular the Syrian people would be far better off
without Bashar al-Assad, who is responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of
thousands of innocent men, women and children, the forced migration of millions
and the collapse of the nation of Syria. It is not up to the United States to
topple him, and diplomatic engagement does not imply approval of him or of his
activities. If he remains in power, the United States needs to engage with his
regime in some fashion."[173]
In April
2018, in a statement, Sanders said President Trump had "no legal authority
for broadening the war in Syria" and recommended Trump approach Congress
if he believed "expanding the war in Syria will bring stability to the
region and protect American interests".[174]
Israeli–Palestinian
conflict
Sanders
supports a two-state solution, saying that "the Palestinian people, in my
view, deserve a state of their own, they deserve an economy of their own, they
deserve economic support from the people of this country. And Israel needs to
be able to live in security without terrorist attacks."[175] Sanders has
said Israel must have a right to live in peace and security.[176]
In 2008,
Sanders was a co-sponsor of a Senate Resolution, "recognizing the 60th
anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel and reaffirming the
bonds of close friendship and cooperation between the United States and
Israel." The resolution reaffirmed Israel's right to defend itself against
terror. It also congratulated Israel on building a strong nation and wished for
a successful Israeli future.[177]
According
to Sanders' senate webpage, David Palumbo-Liu wrongly noted in Salon that Sen.
Sanders "voted" for a resolution supporting Operation Protective Edge
which had actually passed without a vote.[178] A statement published on his
Senate website reads in part: "Sanders believes the Israeli attacks that
killed hundreds of innocent people – including many women and children – in
bombings of civilian neighborhoods and UN controlled schools, hospitals, and
refugee camps were disproportionate, and the widespread killing of civilians is
completely unacceptable. Israel's actions took an enormous human toll, and
appeared to strengthen support for Hamas and may well be sowing the seeds for
even more hatred, war and destruction in future years."[175]
The Intercept's
Zaid Jilani wrote that Sanders "stood out in contrast to the remarks from
the other four major party candidates" in the 2016 presidential election,
criticizing Israel's policy of settlement expansion after violent episodes and
defended self-determination, civil rights, and economic well-being for
Palestinians. After AIPAC's refusal to accept Sanders's telepresence at their
2016 debate, former U.S. ambassador Marc Ginsberg explained the event saying
that Bernie Sanders "has never really extolled his Jewishness, much less
any support for Israel".[179] Sanders was criticized for hiring IfNotNow
founder Simone Zimmerman as his Jewish Outreach Coordinator, and she was fired
from the campaign after critical social media posts about Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and the conflict surfaced.[180][181]
While
being interviewed in April 2016 by the New York Daily News, Sanders said that
Israel killed over 10,000 innocent civilians in Gaza,[182] an unnecessarily
high death toll.[183] The Anti-Defamation League subsequently called on Sanders
to withdraw remarks he made about the casualties, which the ADL said
exaggerated the death toll of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, citing a number
far in excess of Palestinian or Israel sources' estimates.[184] Sanders later
clarified that he was quickly corrected in that the death toll was closer to
2,000 civilians.[185]
In
November 2017, Sanders was one of ten Democratic senators to sign a letter
urging Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the planned
demolitions of Palestinian villages Khan al-Ahmar and Susiya on the grounds
that such action would further diminish efforts to seek a two-state solution
and "endanger Israel's future as a Jewish democracy."[186] In
December 2017, Sanders opposed President Trump's decision to recognize
Jerusalem as Israel's capital.[187]
In April
2018, shortly after the commencing of the 2018 Gaza border protests, Sanders
stated, "From what my understanding is, you have tens and tens of
thousands of people who are engaged in a nonviolent protest. I believe now 15
or 20 people, Palestinians, have been killed and many, many others have been
wounded. So I think it's a difficult situation, but my assessment is that
Israel overreacted on that." He furthered that Gaza remained "a
humanitarian disaster" and called on the United States to play "a
more positive role in ending the Gaza blockade and helping Palestinians and
Israelis build a future that works for all."[188]
During an
October 2018 speech, Sanders said it was "hard to imagine that Israel's
Netanyahu government would have taken a number of steps— including passing the
recent 'Nation State law,' which essentially codifies the second-class status
of Israel's non-Jewish citizens, aggressively undermining the longstanding goal
of a two-state solution, and ignoring the economic catastrophe in Gaza — if
Netanyahu wasn't confident that Trump would support him."[189]
In March
2019, after Representative Ilhan Omar received criticism from Democrats and
Republicans over comments about Israel that were deemed as anti-Semitic,
Sanders condemned antisemitism as "a hateful and dangerous ideology which
must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world"
while noting that they should not "equate anti-Semitism with legitimate
criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel." Sanders
called for the formation of "an even-handed Middle East policy which
brings Israelis and Palestinians together for a lasting peace" and voiced
his concern that Omar was being targeted "as a way of stifling that
debate."[190]
In a July
2019 interview, Sanders stated that he believed "that the people of Israel
absolutely have the right to live in peace, independence and security" but
that the Netanyahu government was extremely right-wing "with many racist
tendencies" and that the role of the United States was "to try to
finally bring peace to the Middle East and to treat the Palestinian people with
the kind of respect and dignity they deserve." Sanders reflected on the
trillions of dollars spent on the War on Terror and asserted that as U.S.
President he would favor sitting down "in a room with the leadership of
Saudi Arabia, with the leadership of Iran, with the leadership of the
Palestinians, with the leadership of Israel, and hammer out some damn
agreements, which will try to end the conflicts that exist there
forever."[191]
BDS and
defense of Israeli right to exist
Bernie
Sanders supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
opposes attempts at a one-state solution, opposes the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement against Israel (BDS), and maintains that the United Nations
has a bias against Israel.[192][193] He has also maintained that antisemitism
plays a role in the BDS movement.[194]
Following
Sanders' signing of a US congressional letter denouncing a bias at the UN
against Israel and calling upon UN General Secretary António Guterres, urging
him to remedy the problem, he defended his signature on an interview hosted by
the Qatari news agency Al Jazeera, saying:[192]
there are
many problems with Israel ... On the other hand, to see Israel attacked over
and over again for human rights violations — which may be true — when you have
countries like Saudi Arabia or Syria, Saudi Arabia – I'm not quite sure if a
woman can even drive a car today. So I think the thrust of that letter is not
to say that Israel does not have human rights issues — it does — but to say how
come it's only Israel when you have other countries where women are treated as
third-class citizens, where in Egypt, I don't know how many thousands of people
now lingering in jail, so that's the point of that, not to defend Israel but to
say why only Israel."
Asked if
he "respected" BDS as a protest tactic, Sanders has said "No, I
don't", adding that it was counterproductive if the goal is trying to
bring about peace talks.[192] In 2016, Sanders averred that there was
"absolutely" antisemitism in the BDS movement, elaborating:[194]
Israel has
done some very bad things, so has every other country on earth," Sanders
said. "I think the people who want to attack Israel for their policies, I
think that is fair game. But not to appreciate that there is some level of
anti-Semitism around the world involved in that I think would be a mistake ...
I spent many months on a kibbutz on Israel, so I know something about Israel.
Israel has got to be defended, has a right to exist, but you cannot ignore the
needs of the Palestinian people.
Sanders
supports a two-state solution, and regarding the possibility of a one-state
solution, he has stated:[192]
I think if
that happens, then that [a one-state solution] would be the end of the State of
Israel and I support Israel's right to exist ... I think if there is the
political will to make it [peace and a two-state solution] happen and if there
is good faith on both sides I do think it's possible, and I think there has not
been good faith, certainly on this Israeli government and I have my doubts
about parts of the Palestinian leadership as well.
In a
December 2018 letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer, Sanders and Dianne Feinstein advocated against a provision
of a spending package barring companies from endorsing anti-Israel boycotts
promoted by governmental groups, writing that while they did not support
"the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, we remain resolved
to our constitutional oath to defend the right of every American to express
their views peacefully without fear of or actual punishment by the
government."[195] In February 2019, Sanders voted against a controversial
Anti-Boycott Act initiated by Republicans,[196] which would make it illegal for
U.S. companies to engage in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in
the occupied Palestinian territories.[197]
Henry
Kissinger
During a
2016 Democratic debate, Sanders took issue with Hillary Clinton's admiration of
former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, describing him as "one of the
most destructive" in US modern history, stating:
I am proud
to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend. I will not take advice from Henry
Kissinger. In fact, Kissinger's actions in Cambodia, when the United States
bombed that country, overthrew Prince Sihanouk, created the instability for Pol
Pot and the Khmer Rouge to come in who then butchered some 3 million innocent
people – one of the worst genocides in the history of the world.[198]
Nicaraguan
Revolution
During the
Nicaraguan Revolution, Sanders opposed funding the Contra Rebels and praised
the leadership and popularity of the Sandinista Party. Sanders stated that the
support for the Sandinistas in their country was higher than the support of American
voters for President Ronald Reagan and even those who did not vote for the
Sandinstas did not want an invasion.[199][152]
Venezuela
In August
2011, Sanders's official Senate webpage re-printed in full an editorial from
the West Lebanon, New Hampshire Valley News stating: "These days, the
American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as
Ecuador, Venezuela and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today
than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic
now?"[200]
Since the
deterioration of Venezuelan living standards under the direction of the
country's self-described socialist government, concerns and comparisons to
Venezuela were raised over Sanders' desires to implement socialist policies in
the United States.[201][202][203] In 2016, Sanders responded by attempting to
distance himself from Venezuela's Bolivarian government, replying to such
worries by stating, "When I talk about Democratic socialist, I'm not
looking at Venezuela. I'm not looking at Cuba. I'm looking at countries like
Denmark and Sweden".[204] Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has
contested Sanders's portrayal of the nation, saying Denmark is not socialist
but rather has a market economy.[22]
Sanders
also furthered himself from the Venezuelan government by calling the leader of
Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution, former President Hugo Chávez, a "dead
communist dictator".[205]
During the
2019 Venezuelan presidential crisis, Sanders cautioned about President Donald
Trump's decision to back a competing claim for the government in Venezuela,
citing US support of coups in Chile, Guatemala, and Brazil. At the same time,
Sanders condemned the anti-democratic actions of the Nicolás Maduro
government.[206]
In a
February 2019 CNN town hall, when asked by Wolf Blitzer why he would not
describe Maduro as a "dictator", Sanders admitted that it was
"fair to say" Venezuela's last presidential election "was
undemocratic" while noting other "democratic operations taking place
in that country" and stated his support for "internationally
supervised free elections."[207]
In an
April 2019 interview, Sanders stated that Maduro was heading a "failed
regime" while also expressing his opposition to military intervention,
furthering that the world community needed to "be mindful of the
humanitarian suffering and the hunger that's going on in Venezuela right
now" and that what one would want is "free and fair elections, and we
want to do everything we can to establish democracy there." Sanders noted
that all recent evidence had pointed to Maduro's reelection being under
fraudulent circumstances and cited the need for establishing a democracy in
Venezuela without "deciding that some politician is the new President, who
never won any election."[208]
Clinton
Foundation
When asked
by CNN's Jake Tapper in June 2016 if it was fair to criticize the Clinton
Foundation, an American charity, for taking money from foreign governments
which do not represent American values, Sanders responded, "Yes it is. It
is. If you ask me about the Clinton Foundation, do I have a problem when a
sitting secretary of state and a foundation run by her husband collects many
millions of dollars from foreign governments, governments which are dictatorships
-- you don't have a lot of civil liberties or democratic rights in Saudi
Arabia. You don't have a lot of respect there for opposition points of view for
gay rights, for women's rights. Yes, do I have a problem with that? Yes, I
do."[209][210] In September 2016, Sanders told NBC's Chuck Todd that if
Clinton becomes president of the United States, she should cease all contact
with the Foundation, but stopped short of agreeing it should be closed, noting,
"I don't know enough. They do a lot of good things with A.I.D.S. and so
forth. I can't, you know, definitively answer that."[211][212]
United
Kingdom and Jeremy Corbyn
In August
2016, Sanders praised Jeremy Corbyn in his candidacy in the Labour Party
leadership election. Corbyn said that he had received a message from Sanders
saying that Sanders was dismissed as unelectable but that the real reason many
dismissed him was that he was electable and a threat to the American political
establishment.[213]
During a
speech promoting his book at the Brighton Festival in June 2017,[214] Sanders
drew parallels between Corbyn and himself, saying: "What Corbyn has tried
to do with the Labour Party is not dissimilar to what some of us are trying to
do with the Democratic Party, and that is to make it a party that is much more
open and inviting for working people and young people and not have a liberal
elite making the decisions from the top down. I think what Corbyn is doing is
trying to revitalise democracy, bring a lot of new people into the political
process and I think that's an excellent idea ..."[215] He added:
"...he has taken on the establishment of the Labour Party, he has gone to
the grassroots and he has tried to transform that party ..."[214]
After the
2017 general election, Sanders wrote in The New York Times that "the
British elections should be a lesson for the Democratic Party" and urged
the Democrats to stop holding on to an "overly cautious, centrist
ideology", arguing that "momentum shifted to Labour after it released
a very progressive manifesto that generated much enthusiasm among young people
and workers".[216][217]
Russia
In
December 2010, Sanders voted for the ratification of New START,[218] a nuclear
arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging
both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700
launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a
continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the
previous year. It was the first arms treaty with Russia in eight years.[219]
In July
2017, Sanders voted against the Countering America's Adversaries Through
Sanctions Act that placed sanctions on Russia together with Iran and North
Korea. 98 senators voted for the act, Rand Paul was the only other Senator to vote
no.[220] Sanders supported the sanctions on Russia, but he voted against the
bill because of the Iran provisions.[160]
During
December 2018, in response to President Trump's October announcement that he
intended to withdraw the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces Treaty, Sanders was one of seven senators to cosponsor the Prevention of
Arms Race Act of 2018, legislation prohibiting funding for a U.S.
ground-launched or ballistic missile that had "a range of between 500 and
5,500 kilometers" until the administration provided a report meeting five
specific conditions.[221] Sanders also cosponsored this legislation when it was
reintroduced by Senator Jeff Merkley in the 116th United States Congress.[222]
In
December 2018, after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the
Trump administration was suspending its obligations in the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty in 60 days in the event that Russia continued to violate
the treaty, Sanders was one of twenty-six senators to sign a letter expressing
concern over the administration "now abandoning generations of bipartisan
U.S. leadership around the paired goals of reducing the global role and number
of nuclear weapons and ensuring strategic stability with America's nuclear-armed
adversaries" and calling on President Trump to continue arms
negotiations.[223]
Myanmar
Sanders
condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called
for a stronger response to the crisis.[224]
North
Korea
In April
2017, after President Trump acknowledged the possibility of a "major,
major conflict" between North Korea and the US, Sanders said such a
conflict equated to a nuclear war and advocated for the US to lean on China,
citing China's receiving of exports from North Korea and thereby being in
"a position to tighten the screws on North Korea and tell them they cannot
continue their missile program or their nuclear program."[225]
In October
2017, Sanders and six Democrats were led by Chris Murphy in introducing
legislation prohibiting "funds from being used for kinetic military
operations without congressional approval unless the United States faces an
imminent threat or such action is necessary to defend citizens or our
allies" in light of rhetorical escalation between the US and North Korea
as well as "contradictory behavior from Trump and officials in his
administration".[226]
In
February 2018, Sanders was one of eighteen senators to sign a letter to
President Trump arguing that striking North Korea with "a preventative or
preemptive U.S. military strike would lack either a constitutional basis or
legal authority" without congressional approval.[227]
In April
2018, when asked by a reporter about the US pursuing diplomatic relations with
North Korea, Sanders said, "I think the idea of sitting down and having
direct negotiations with North Korea is a step forward, and I hope it works out
well."[228] After President Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
during the 2018 North Korea-United States summit, Sanders called the summit
"very light on substance" but also representing "a positive step
in de-escalating tensions between our countries, addressing the threat of North
Korea’s nuclear weapons, and moving toward a more peaceful future."[229]
In February
2019, ahead of the North Korea–United States Hanoi Summit, Sanders said,
"I think nuclear weapons in the hands of a brutal, irresponsible dictator
is a bad idea. And if Trump can succeed ... through face-to-face meetings with
Kim Jong Un and rid that country of nuclear weapons that is a very good
thing."[230]
In a May
2019 interview, Sanders stated that "the idea of sitting down with Kim
Jong Un is the right thing to do", citing this as difficult but necessary
due to North Korea being a threat to the planet, and that the United States had
"to do everything we can to have China and the people in the Pacific Rim
put as much pressure on North Korea and make it clear that they cannot continue
to act this way."[231]
In June
2019, following President Trump becoming the first sitting U.S. President to
cross into North Korea and announcing that stalled talks between the US and
North Korea on nuclear capabilities would resume, Sanders stated that he did
not have a problem with President Trump "sitting down and negotiating with
our adversaries," but that he opposed such meetings being reduced to
"a photo opportunity." He called for the US to have "real
diplomacy" and criticized President Trump for weakening the State
Department, citing the agency's strength as essential to moving "forward
diplomatically."[232]
Mexico
In a
January 2018 statement, Sanders said he was "not sure why President Trump
wants to shut down the government over a multi-billion dollar wall that no one
wants, is not needed and will not be paid for by Mexico" and that
Americans instead overwhelmingly favored providing "legal protection to
800,000 Dreamers and a path toward citizenship for them."[233]
United
Nations
In June
2018, following the United Nations releasing a report on poverty in the United
States and condemning "President Trump's administration for pursuing high
tax breaks for the rich and removing basic protections for the poor",
Sanders was one of twenty lawmakers to sign a letter to United States
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley calling for the Trump
administration to develop a plan to address poverty. Haley responded to Sanders
in a letter, writing that it was "patently ridiculous for the United
Nations to examine poverty in America" and charged the report with misstating
"the progress the United States has made in addressing poverty and
purposely used misleading facts and figures in its biased reporting."
Sanders disputed Haley in a subsequent letter, defending the appropriateness of
the U.N.'s report and noting that poverty was occurring "in the richest
country in the history of the world and at a time when wealth and income
inequality is worse than at any time since the 1920s."[234]
Saudi
Arabia
In June
2017, Sanders voted for a resolution by Rand Paul and Chris Murphy that would
block President Trump's 510 million sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi
Arabia that made up a portion of the 110 billion arms sale Trump announced
during his visit to Saudi Arabia the previous year.[235][236]
In
September 2017, Sanders called Saudi Arabia "an undemocratic country that
has supported terrorism around the world, it has funded terrorism. ... They are
not an ally of the United States."[237]
On October
9, 2018, Sanders said that Saudi Arabia "is a despotic dictatorship that
does not tolerate dissent, that treats women as third-class citizens, and has
spent the last several decades exporting a very extreme form of Islam around
the world. Saudi Arabia is currently devastating the country of Yemen in a
catastrophic war in alliance with the United States."[154]
In October
2018, Sanders said that if Saudis murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the US
should "not only stop military sales, not only put sanctions on Saudi
Arabia, but most importantly, get out of this terrible, terrible war in Yemen
led by the Saudis." He maintained that the US could not "have an ally
who murders in cold blood, in their own consulate, a critic, a
dissident".[238] Later that month, Sanders was one of eight senators to
sign a letter to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats requesting a
classified briefing on what the American intelligence community knew about
threats to Khashoggi so that the senators may fulfill their "oversight
obligation" as members of Congress.[239] In a column for The New York
Times, Sanders called on the United States to end its backing of the Saudi
intervention in Yemen against the Houthis, saying that US support for this war
makes it complicit in crimes against humanity and that its participation is
unconstitutional because it had not been authorized by Congress.[240]
In
November 2018, Sanders confirmed his intent to force a vote on ending American
support for the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in an email to supporters,
writing that despite President Trump's "venal support for the Saudi
regime, I am confident that we now stand an excellent chance to win this vote
which I plan on bringing back to the Senate floor this week."[241] On
November 28, as the Senate weighed the resolution to end American military
support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen's civil war, Sanders said, "In
my mind it is imperative today that the United States Senate tell Saudi Arabia
and tell the world that we are not going to be continuing to be part of that
humanitarian disaster. We have to make the decision as to what happens in the
war in Yemen and our role in that, and that's what the vote today is
about." The resolution passed in a vote of 63 to 37.[242]
The Senate
voted to pass Sanders's resolution again on March 13, 2019 in a vote of 54 to
46.[243] Sanders stated that the resolution's passage would begin the process
of reasserting Congress's "responsibility over war making" and that
"Article 1 of the Constitution clearly states that it is Congress, not the
president, that has the power to declare war."[244]
In April
2019, after the House passed the resolution withdrawing American support for
the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, Sanders was one of nine lawmakers to sign a
letter to President Trump requesting a meeting with him and urging him to sign
"Senate Joint Resolution 7, which invokes the War Powers Act of 1973 to
end unauthorized US military participation in the Saudi-led coalition's armed
conflict against Yemen's Houthi forces, initiated in 2015 by the Obama
administration." They asserted the "Saudi-led coalition's imposition
of an air-land-and-sea blockade as part of its war against Yemen’s Houthis has
continued to prevent the unimpeded distribution of these vital commodities,
contributing to the suffering and death of vast numbers of civilians throughout
the country" and that Trump's approval of the resolution through his
signing would give a "powerful signal to the Saudi-led coalition to bring
the four-year-old war to a close".[245]
National
security
Surveillance
PHOTOGRAPH
-- Sanders and Salman Rushdie in 2004 protesting section 215 of the USA Patriot
Act
Sanders
has long been critical of U.S. government surveillance policies. He voted
against the USA PATRIOT Act and all of its renewals and has characterized the
National Security Agency as "out of control." He has frequently
criticized warrantless wiretapping and the collection of the phone, email,
library, and internet browsing records of American citizens without due
process:[246]
In my
view, the NSA is out of control and operating in an unconstitutional manner. I
worry very much about kids growing up in a society where they think 'I'm not
going to talk about this issue, read this book, or explore this idea because
someone may think I'm a terrorist.' That is not the kind of free society I want
for our children.[247]
In June
2013, following reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) had used
statutes under the Patriot Act to obtain the phone records and emails of United
States denizens, Sanders was one of twenty-six senators to sign a letter
espousing the view that the records could "reveal personal relationships,
family medical issues, political and religious affiliations, and a variety of
other private personal information" and other bulk information associated
with the USA Patriot Act "could clearly have a significant impact on Americans’
privacy and liberties as well."[248]
In October
2015, during the first Democratic presidential debate, the candidates were
asked for their opinion of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. When asked the
question "hero or traitor?" Sanders replied, "I think Snowden
played a very important role in educating the American people to the degree in
which our civil liberties and our constitutional rights are being undermined.
He did—he did break the law, and I think there should be a penalty to that. But
I think what he did in educating us should be taken into consideration."
Journalist Norman Solomon praised Sanders's reply saying, "I think Bernie
Sanders handled it the best in terms of scoping out and describing the terrain.
And for the most part, I think Edward Snowden would probably agree with what he
said."[249]
In August
2019, Sanders announced that he supported a ban on law enforcement agencies'
use of facial recognition technology.[250]
Veterans
Sanders
during the Memorial Day Ceremony 2016 in the Presidio of San Francisco
Sanders
won the 2014 Col. Arthur T. Marix Congressional Leadership Award from the
Military Officers Association of America for his leadership in support of
veterans.[251] Sanders introduced the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment
Act of 2013 (S. 893; 113th Congress) into the Senate on May 8, 2013.[252] It
increased the disability compensation rate for American veterans and their
families.[253] Sanders co-wrote, with Senator John McCain, the Veterans' Access
to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014, a bill
intended to reform the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in response
to the Veterans Health Administration scandal of 2014.[254]
In
December 2018, Sanders was one of twenty-one senators to sign a letter to
United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie calling it
"appalling that the VA is not conducting oversight of its own outreach
efforts" in spite of suicide prevention being the VA's highest clinical
priority and requesting Wilkie "consult with experts with proven track
records of successful public and mental health outreach campaigns with a
particular emphasis on how those individuals measure success."[255]
Education
Early
childhood
Drawing
figures from a recent report ranking the U.S. 33rd out of 36 nations in reading
literacy, 27th in mathematical literacy, 22nd in science literacy, and 18th
overall in secondary education, Sanders has said, "In a society with our
resources, it is unconscionable to that we do not properly invest in our
children from the very first stages of their lives". He has introduced
legislation to provide child care and early education to all children six weeks
old through kindergarten. Sanders believes that "the 'Foundations for
Success Act' would provide preschool children with a full range of services,
leading to success in school and critical support for hard-pressed families
nationwide."[256][257][258]
Sanders
has previously supported Common Core State Standards, but his public position
at the time of his 2020 presidential campaign is unknown. In 2015, Sanders
voted against an amendment that would have prohibited the federal government
from incentivizing states to adopt Common Core.[259] He also voted in favor of
an act allocating funds to the Race to the Top program, which incentivized
states to adopt Common Core. Later that year, however, Sanders voted in favor
of the Every Child Achieves Act, part of which aimed to prevent the government
from using federal funds to promote Common Core.[260][261]
School
choice and K–12 education reform
The
position of Sanders on school choice was unknown before 2019.[261] In May 2019,
on the 65th anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling on Brown v. Board of
Education, Sanders introduced a policy proposal that included a blanket ban on
for-profit charter schools, an increase in regulatory oversight of existing
charter schools, and a temporary moratorium on funding for new nonprofit
charter schools, ending upon full review of their effectiveness.[262] The
proposal also included tripling funding for Title I schools, improving funding
for publicly run magnet schools and free school-provided meal programs,
"rethinking" the ways states and localities fund education in light
of the property tax system favoring the wealthy, and raising the national
minimum wage for teachers to $60,000 per year.[263]
Student
loans
See also:
Student debt
Sanders
has long been an advocate of making college more affordable. He has spoken out
against the high interest rates on federal student loans, noting that in the
next ten years, the federal government will profit by as much as $127 billion
from them. He has also criticized President Obama for signing legislation that
temporarily froze student loan interest rates in exchange for allowing the
rates to reach historic highs over the next two years. Sanders believes closing
corporate tax loopholes is the solution, and has developed a plan bringing
matching grants from the federal and state governments to cut tuition at public
universities by more than half. He has criticized both Republicans and
Democrats for failing to institute reforms that will stop predatory lending
practices in the student loan market.[264]
In June
2019, Sanders announced a plan to forgive all outstanding student loan debt
which would be paid for with a tax on Wall Street Speculation.[265]
A December
2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, commissioned by Sanders,
shows that the millennial generation will be the first to have lower living
standards than their parents, primarily as the result of student loan debt and
stagnant wages, and will likely not have opportunities to improve their lives.
Commenting on the report, Sanders said "it is about time we take a hard look
at this research and stand up for our young people who dream of making it into
the middle class. We must tell the economic elite who have hoarded income
growth in America: No, you can no longer have it all."[266]
Tuition-free
public universities
Sanders
favors public funding for college students. He believes "we live in a
highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need
the best-educated workforce in the world." He further maintains that many
other developed nations in Western Europe have long taken this approach to
higher education. Sanders expects strong opposition from the Republican Party,
but says it is ultimately "the American people" who will determine
its failure or success.[267][268][citation needed]
On May 19,
2015, Sanders introduced the College for All Act (S.1373), which would use a
Robin Hood tax of 50 cents on every "$100 of stock trades on stock
sales" to fund tuition at four-year public colleges and universities for
students who meet admission standards.[269][270][271] In addition, the Robin
Hood tax would include a 0.5% speculation fee to be charged on investment
houses, hedge funds, and other stock trades, while a 0.1% fee would be charged
on bonds, and a 0.005% fee on derivatives.[272]
Health
care
Sanders is
a staunch supporter of a universal health care system, and he has said,
"If you are serious about real healthcare reform, the only way to go is
single-payer."[273] He advocates lowering the cost of drugs that are
expensive because they remain under patent for years; some drugs costing
thousands of dollars per year in the U.S. are available for hundreds, or less,
in countries where they can be obtained as generics.[274]
In May
2013, as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging,
Sanders introduced legislation intended to reauthorize and strengthen the Older
Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels and other programs for
seniors.[275] He believes that supporting seniors "is not only the right
thing to do, it is the financially smart thing to do", because it
decreases expensive hospitalizations and allows seniors to remain in their
homes.[citation needed]
In June
2015, after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the ACA's subsidies, Sanders
stated the ruling was not a surprise since no one "thought that we should
look at the ... federal exchanges any differently than the state
exchanges" and stressed that "today, despite the gains of the
Affordable Care Act, which is certainly voted for, we still have 35 million
Americans without any health insurance, and many more who are
underinsured."[276]
In
December 2016, Sanders was one of five senators to vote against the Obama
administration-supported 21st Century Cures Act, legislation increasing funding
for disease research while addressing flaws in the American mental health
systems and altering drugs and medical devices' regulatory system."[277]
In July
2017, during a CNN appearance, Sanders stated that Republicans had upended the
standard process for handling bills in the Senate, describing the current
process applied toward the AHCA as one "in which the bills being brought
forth are opposed by the American Medical Association, the American Hospital
Association, the AARP — every major healthcare organization in America — and
they're trying to push this thing through."[278]
In
December 2018, Sanders was one of forty-two senators to sign a letter to Trump
administration officials Alex Azar, Seema Verma, and Steve Mnuchin arguing that
the administration was improperly using Section 1332 of the Affordable Care Act
to authorize states to "increase health care costs for millions of
consumers while weakening protections for individuals with pre-existing
conditions." The senators requested the administration withdraw the policy
and "re-engage with stakeholders, states, and Congress."[279]
In January
2019, during the 2018–19 United States federal government shutdown, Sanders was
one of thirty-four senators to sign a letter to Commissioner of Food and Drugs
Scott Gottlieb recognizing the efforts of the FDA to address the effect of the
government shutdown on the public health and employees while remaining alarmed
"that the continued shutdown will result in increasingly harmful effects
on the agency’s employees and the safety and security of the nation’s food and
medical products."[280]
In a
February 2019 letter to Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, Sanders criticized the
company's decision to set the annual list price of Firdapse at $375,000, which
was previously free, as "a blatant fleecing of American taxpayers"
and "also an immoral exploitation of patients who need this
medication". Sanders requested Catalyst provide financial and
non-financial factors that led to the new price along with questioning how many
patients would suffer or die as a result of the price increase.[281]
In June
2019, Sanders was one of eight senators to cosponsor the Territories Health
Equity Act of 2019, legislation that would remove the cap on annual federal
Medicaid funding and increase federal matching rate for Medicaid expenditures
of territories along with more funds being provided for prescription drug
coverage to low-income seniors in an attempt to equalize funding for American
territories Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the
Northern Mariana Islands with that of U.S. states. Sanders stated the need
"to ensure a strong health care system in all the territories and address
inequities in federal law that have allowed the territories to fall behind in
almost every measurable social and economic criteria."[282]
On July
29, 2019, following Senator Kamala Harris releasing her own Medicare for All
plan that would put the US on the path toward a government-backed health
insurance system over the course of 10 years without entirely abolishing
private insurance, Sanders stated that the plan was not Medicare for All which
he defined as understanding "that health care is a human right and the
function of a sane health care system is not to make sure that insurance
companies and drug companies make tens of billions of dollars in profit."
He noted one of his disagreements with the Harris plan was the goal of a
10-year period of transitioning to Medicare for All, citing his belief that
four years was enough.[283]
In August
2019, Sanders and four Senate Democrats signed a letter to Acting FDA
Commissioner Dr. Ned Sharpless in response to Novartis falsifying data as part
of an attempt to gain the FDA's approval for its new gene therapy Zolgensma,
writing that it was "unconscionable that a drug company would provide
manipulated data to federal regulators in order to rush its product to market,
reap federal perks, and charge the highest amount in American history for its
medication."[284]
Social
issues
PHOTOGRAPH
-- Sanders at a March 2016 rally in Phoenix, Arizona
Abortion
In June
2003, Sanders voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.[285]
In
February 2019, Sanders and 43 other Democrats voted against the Born-Alive
Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would have required health care
practitioners present at the time of a failed abortion to "exercise the
same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and
health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care
practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational
age."[286]
In June
2019, amid Democratic presidential candidates announcing their support for
repealing the Hyde Amendment, Sanders stated that he only voted for the
amendment when it was part of larger spending bills and that he believed his
record of "being literally 100 percent pro-choice is absolutely
correct." Sanders pledged that he would never "nominate someone to
the Supreme Court that is not 100 percent defending Roe V. Wade" and that
supporting the latter Supreme Court decision was his only litmus test for
Supreme Court nominees.[287]
NARAL Pro-Choice
America has given Sanders a 100% rating on his abortion rights voting
record.[288]
Agriculture
In March
2019, Sanders was one of thirty-eight senators to sign a letter to United
States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue warning that dairy farmers
"have continued to face market instability and are struggling to survive
the fourth year of sustained low prices" and urging his department to
"strongly encourage these farmers to consider the Dairy Margin Coverage
program."[289]
In a March
2019 op-ed, Sanders wrote that "the crisis in America’s small towns and
rural communities is the result of deliberate policy choices by a political
class that neglects rural America" and that the large transfer of wealth
from rural working people to corporate CEOs had taken a financial toll on rural
America as well as caused "personal pain as entire rural communities are
devastated by opioid addiction" and spikes in farmer suicides. Sanders
furthered that his presidency would work to "strengthen antitrust laws
that defend farmers from the corporate middlemen that stand between the food
grower and the consumer" and called for the abolition of "the absurd
situation where the top four packing companies now control more than 80 percent
of the beef market, 63 percent of the pork market, and 53 percent of the
chicken market." Sanders also pledged to reverse the Trump administration's
elimination of an Obama-era rule allowing small farmers to pursue legal action
when abused by large corporation middlemen and restore an agency inside the
United States Department of Agriculture tasked with enforcing antitrust laws
within the meatpacking industry.[290]
D.C.
statehood
Sanders
has stated that he believes it is "morally wrong" for Washington,
D.C. residents to be denied federal representation.[291] In 2015, he joined 17
other senators in co-sponsoring legislation in support of D.C. statehood under
the name "New Columbia".[292]
Paid leave
Sanders
has been a prominent supporter of laws requiring companies to provide their
workers parental leave, sick leave, and vacation time, arguing that such laws
have been adopted by almost every developed country, and that there are
significant disparities among workers having access to paid sick and paid
vacation time.[256][257]
Sanders's
Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act (S.1564) would mandate companies to provide 10
days of paid vacation for employees who have worked for them for at least one
year. He is cosponsoring a Senate bill that would give mothers and fathers 12
weeks of paid family leave to care for a baby. It would also allow workers to
take the same amount of paid time off if they are diagnosed with cancer or have
other serious medical conditions or to take care of family members who are
seriously ill. Sanders has also cosponsored a bill that would guarantee workers
at least seven paid sick days per year for short-term illness, routine medical care,
or to care for a sick family member.[256][257]
Gun laws
Sanders
supports banning assault weapons,[293] universal federal background
checks,[294] and closing the gun show loophole.[295]
While in
the House of Representatives representing a "state with virtually no gun
laws", Sanders voted against the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act
that required federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the US; he
later voted for the post-Newtown Manchin-Toomey universal federal background
check bill as a US Senator in 2013. In the Senate, he voted for the 2005
Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.[296] When asked, Sanders stated his
view that mandatory waiting periods were best left to states.[297]
With
regard to proposed legislation enabling gun violence victims to sue gun
manufacturers, Sanders said, "If somebody has a gun and it falls into the
hands of a murderer and the murderer kills somebody with a gun, do you hold the
gun manufacturer responsible? Not any more than you would hold a hammer company
responsible if somebody beats somebody over the head with a hammer."
Sanders has said, "we have millions of people who are gun owners in this
country -- 99.9% of those people obey the law. I want to see real, serious
debate and action on guns, but it is not going to take place if we simply have
extreme positions on both sides. I think I can bring us to the
middle."[293]
Following
the Las Vegas shooting in October 2017, Sanders was one of twenty-four senators
to sign a letter to National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins
espousing the view that it was critical the NIH "dedicate a portion of its
resources to the public health consequences of gun violence" at a time
when 93 Americans die per day from gun-related fatalities and noted that the
Dickey Amendment did not prohibit objective, scientific inquiries into shooting
death prevention.[298]
In
November 2017, Sanders was a cosponsor of the Military Domestic Violence
Reporting Enhancement Act, a bill that would form a charge of Domestic Violence
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and stipulate that
convictions would have to be reported to federal databases with the authority
to keep abusers from purchasing firearms within three days in an attempt to
close a loophole in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) through which
convicted abusers retained the ability to purchase firearms.[299]
In March
2018, Sanders was one of ten senators to sign a letter to Chairman of the
United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Lamar
Alexander and ranking Democrat Patty Murray requesting they schedule a hearing
on the causes and remedies of mass shootings in the wake of the Stoneman
Douglas High School shooting.[300]
In a May
2018 interview, Sanders said President Trump and Republicans "don't have
the guts to stand up to" the NRA and that the Senate had not done enough
toward gun control legislation. He added that "common sense" gun
control was supported by Americans overwhelmingly.[301]
In January
2019, Sanders joined 39 Democrats in introducing the Background Check Expansion
Act, a bill that would require background checks for either the sale or
transfer of all firearms including all unlicensed sellers. Exceptions to the
bill's background check requirement included transfers between members of law
enforcement, loaning firearms for either hunting or sporting events on a
temporary basis, providing firearms as gifts to members of one's immediate
family, firearms being transferred as part of an inheritance, or giving a
firearm to another person temporarily for immediate self-defense.[302]
Sanders
was delivering remarks at an August 3, 2019 presidential forum in Las Vegas as
news broke of the 2019 El Paso shooting. He stated that Americans
overwhelmingly supported gun control reform and referred to the 2017 Las Vegas
shooting "where some lunatic killed fifty-some-odd people and wounded
hundreds of people."[303] In response to the El Paso and Dayton shootings
over the weekend, Sanders cosponsored the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, a
bill authorizing states to use grants to develop red flag laws which would
grant family members the ability to petition courts for an order that would
temporarily prevent someone from purchasing a gun and the state laws would also
allow family members to petition an order for law enforcement to take a firearm
away.[304]
Child care
In 2019,
Sanders and 34 Democrats introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act, a
bill that created 770,000 new child care jobs and that ensured families under
75 percent of the state median income did not pay for child care with higher
earning families having to pay "their fair share for care on a sliding
scale, regardless of the number of children they have." The legislation
also supported universal access to high-quality preschool programs for all 3
and 4-year-olds and gave the child care workforce a changed compensation and
training to aid both teachers and caregivers.[305]
Criminal
justice reform
Sanders
has called for reforms to sentencing guidelines, drug policy, and the use of
force policies within police departments. Noting that there are more people
incarcerated in the U.S. than any country in the world at an annual cost to
taxpayers of $70 billion, Sanders argues that the money would be better spent
on education and jobs. He has spoken out against police brutality and the
uneven rates of arresting African Americans and other minorities, saying,
"From Ferguson[,] [Missouri] to Baltimore[,] [Maryland] and across this
nation, too many African Americans and other minorities find themselves
subjected to a system that treats citizens who have not committed crimes as if
they were criminals and that is unacceptable."[306] Following the release
of footage depicting the arrest of African American Sandra Bland for a minor
traffic violation, Sanders strongly condemned the "totally outrageous
police behavior" shown in the video, stating that "This video
highlights once again why we need real police reform. People should not die for
a minor traffic infraction. This type of police abuse has become an
all-too-common occurrence for people of color and it must stop."[307]
Sanders
has also spoken out against the privatization of prisons throughout the US,
stating:
It is
morally repugnant and a national tragedy that we have privatized prisons all
over America. In my view, corporations should not be allowed to make a profit
by building more jails and keeping more Americans behind bars. We have got to
end the private-for-profit prison racket in America![308]
On
September 17, 2015, Sanders introduced the "Justice Is Not for Sale"
Act,[309] which prohibits the US government at federal, state and local levels
from contracting with private firms to provide and/or operate detention
facilities within two years. He noted that "We cannot fix our criminal
justice system if corporations are allowed to profit from mass
incarceration."[310][311]
Sanders
voted in favor of the 1994 Crime Bill, which played a role in increasing the
American prison population and causing racial disparities in the criminal
justice system. Sanders said, at the time, he was voting for the crime bill
because it included the Violence Against Women Act. He has indicated he has a
problem with what is referred to as "Mass
Incarceration".[312][313][314]
In
December 2018, Sanders voted for the First Step Act, legislation aimed at
reducing recidivism rates among federal prisoners through expanding job
training and other programs in addition to forming an expansion of
early-release programs and modifications on sentencing laws such as mandatory
minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, "to more equitably punish
drug offenders."[315]
In July
2019, when asked by Jake Tapper if he was satisfied with his vote for the 1994
Crime Bill, Sanders replied that he was not happy that he had "voted for a
terrible bill" but was glad that he was honest with Vermonters and
furthered that since then he had been doing his best "to lead the effort
for real criminal justice reform, so that we end the disgrace of having more
people in jail than any other country."[316]
Death
penalty
Sanders
has strongly opposed the death penalty throughout his political career.[317] In
1996 Sanders voted against the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act.[318] In October 2015, he said, "I would rather have our country stand
side-by-side with European democracies rather than with countries like China,
Iran, Saudi Arabia and others who maintain the death penalty."[319] After
the Washington Supreme Court found the death penalty unconstitutional, Sanders
praised the decision and stated: "We can't properly reform our broken
criminal justice system without ending the death penalty."[320] On July
31, 2019, following Attorney General William Barr announcing that the United
States federal government would resume the use of the death penalty for the
first time in over twenty years, Sanders was a cosponsor of a bill banning the
death penalty.[321]
LGBT
rights
In a
letter that he published in the early 1970s when he was running for Governor of
Vermont, Sanders called for abolishing all laws against homosexuality.[322]
In the 1980s,
Sanders supported the designation of the Burlington "Lesbian and Gay Pride
Day" as the mayor of the city and signed a resolution recommending all
government levels to support gay rights.[323]
In the
House, Sanders voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, which was
signed by President Bill Clinton that same year.[324] Sanders opposed
"Don't ask, don't tell", the US policy on LGBT service members in the
military, which was implemented in 1994 and ended in 2011.[324]
Sanders
first spoke out in favor of same-sex marriage in 2009.[324] Vermont was the
first state to legalize same-sex unions in 2000. In a 2006 interview, Sanders
noted that Vermont had "led the way" in creating the civil unions
law, but said it was "a very divisive debate". Asked whether Vermont
should legalize full marriage rights for same-sex couples, he said: "Not
right now, not after what we went through."[325] At the same time, Sanders
expressed opposition to the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would
have prohibited same-sex marriage in the US.[325] Sanders voted against the
amendment later that year.[326] In 2009, Vermont also was the first state to
legalize same-sex marriage by statute.
When the
Supreme Court took up the issue in 2015, Sanders issued a statement reaffirming
his support, saying gay Americans in every state should be allowed to marry:
"Of course all citizens deserve equal rights. It's time for the Supreme
Court to catch up to the American people and legalize gay marriage."[327]
In May
2017, Sanders was one of forty-six senators to introduce the Equality Act of
2017, described by Representative David Cicilline as ensuring "that every
LGBT person can live their lives free from the fear of
discrimination."[328]
In October
2018, Sanders was one of twenty senators to sign a letter to Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo urging Pompeo to reverse the rolling back of a policy that granted
visas to same-sex partners of LGBTQ diplomats who had unions which were not
recognized by their home countries, writing that too many places around the
world have seen LGBTQ individuals "subjected to discrimination and
unspeakable violence, and receive little or no protection from the law or local
authorities" and that the US refusing to let LGBTQ diplomats bring their
partners to the US would be equivalent of America upholding "the
discriminatory policies of many countries around the world."[329]
In June
2019, Sanders was one of eighteen senators to sign a letter to United States
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting an explanation of a decision by the
State Department to not issue an official statement that year commemorating
Pride Month nor issue the annual cable outlining activities for embassies
commemorating Pride Month. They also questioned why the LGBTI special envoy
position had remained vacant and asserted that "preventing the official
flying of rainbow flags and limiting public messages celebrating Pride Month
signals to the international community that the United States is abandoning the
advancement of LGBTI rights as a foreign policy priority."[330]
Immigration
Sanders
believes a path to citizenship should be created for new immigrants.[331] He
voted for the comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013,[332] saying,
"It does not make a lot of sense to me to bring hundreds of thousands of
[foreign] workers into this country to work for minimum wage and compete with
American kids." Sanders opposes guest worker programs[333] and is also
skeptical about skilled immigrant (H-1B) visas, saying, "Last year, the
top 10 employers of H-1B guest workers were all offshore outsourcing companies.
These firms are responsible for shipping large numbers of American information
technology jobs to India and other countries."[331][334] In an interview
with Vox, he stated his opposition to an open borders immigration policy,
describing it as:
... a
right-wing proposal, which says essentially there is no United States ...
you're doing away with the concept of a nation-state. What right-wing people in
this country would love is an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people,
work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don't believe in
that. I think we have to raise wages in this country, I think we have to do
everything we can to create millions of jobs.[335][336]
In 2006,
Sanders voted for the Community Protection Act, which would have permitted
"indefinite detention of specified dangerous aliens under orders of
removal who cannot be removed, subject to review every six months." The
bill was not passed in the Senate.[337][338][339] That same year, he voted for
an amendment to a Homeland Security appropriations bill prohibiting the federal
government from contacting the Mexican government about American civilian
groups, such as the Minutemen, that patrolled the US-Mexico border to stop
undocumented immigrants from crossing,[340] which a campaign representative
described as one of many "nuisance amendments" and "a
meaningless thing" in the view of the Customs and Border Patrol.[337]
Regarding
immigration detention, a joint letter dated June 2015 by 33 senators (including
Gillibrand, Warren, and Booker) criticized that as "unacceptable and goes
against our most fundamental values".[341][342]
In March
2016, Sanders traveled to the US-Mexico border with Santa Cruz County Sheriff
Tony Estrada and Representative Raul Grijalva and pledged to expand both
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of
Americans, the latter of which was then being argued in court.[343]
In
February 2018, Sanders voted for bipartisan immigration legislation, admitting
that it was "not the bill I would have written." He furthered,
"What we should be doing is passing a clean DREAM Act with a pathway to
citizenship for Dreamers and their parents. We also need to move forward and
pass comprehensive immigration reform that will allow people to come out of the
shadows and will unite families – not divide them."[344]
In a May
2018 interview, Sanders said the Trump administration's immigration policy was
"heartless" and that while Americans believed the US "should
move forward to comprehensive immigration reform", President Trump was
"moving in exactly the wrong direction and we see the cruelty of his
immigration policies when you talk about the United States government
separating children from their parents."[345]
In August
2018, Sanders was one of seventeen senators to sign a letter spearheaded by
Kamala Harris to United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen
demanding that the Trump administration take immediate action in attempting to
reunite 539 migrant children with their families, citing each passing day of
inaction as intensifying "trauma that this administration has needlessly
caused for children and their families seeking humanitarian
protection."[346]
In July
2018, Sanders was one of eleven senators to sign a letter to the agencies
responsible for reuniting families requesting them to provide weekly updates
until every separated child was returned to their parents. The updates would be
in the form of a list of separated children, a list of their parents, and a
list connecting the two, as well as a briefing for lawmakers on the strategies
used to reunite families.[347] Later that month, Sanders was one of twenty two
senators to sponsor the Stop Shackling and Detaining Pregnant Women Act, which
if enacted would prohibit immigration officers from detaining pregnant women in
a majority of circumstances and improve conditions of care for individuals in
custody.[348]
In
November 2018, Sanders was one of eleven senators to sign a letter to United
States Secretary of Defense James Mattis concerning "the overt
politicization of the military" with the Trump administration's deployment
of 5,800 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and requesting a briefing and written
justification from the U.S. Northern Command for troop deployment while urging
Mattis to "curb the unprecedented escalation of DOD involvement in
immigration enforcement."[349]
In January
2019, Sanders was one of twenty senators to sponsor the Dreamer Confidentiality
Act, a bill imposing a ban on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from
passing information collected on DACA recipients to Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of
Justice, or any other law enforcement agency with exceptions in the case of
fraudulent claims, national security issues, or non-immigration related
felonies being investigated.[350]
In March
2019, Sanders voted to block President Trump's national emergency declaration
that would have granted him access to $3.6 billion in military construction
funding to build border barriers.[351]
In April
2019, Sanders signed a letter led by Catherine Cortez Masto to Immigrations and
Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Enforcement asserting that "the
civil detention of an expectant mother for potential immigration offenses is
never justified" due to the "absence of compelling evidence that the
detention of a pregnant woman is necessary because she is a threat to herself
or others, or is a threat to public safety or national security". The
senators requested the CBP enact measures that would ensure "timely and
appropriate treatment" for pregnant women in custody along with both
agencies providing information on how available facilities and doctors are for
pregnant immigrants and complete data on the number of those currently in
custody.[352]
In April
2019, Sanders was one of nineteen senators to sign a letter to top members on
the Appropriations Committee Richard Shelby and Patrick Leahy and top members
of its Homeland Security subcommittee Shelley Moore Capito and Jon Tester
indicating that they could not "support the appropriation of funds that
would expand this administration’s unnecessarily cruel immigration enforcement
policies, its inhumane immigrant detention systems, or its efforts to build the
president’s vanity projects" and urging Congress to "resist efforts
to raid critical and effective public safety programs in order to pay for political
theatrics" as President Trump's "manufactured emergency" was not
justification for "spending taxpayer dollars on an ineffective
wall."[353]
In June
2019, following the Housing and Urban Development Department's confirmation
that DACA recipients did not meet eligibility for federal backed loans, Sanders
and eleven Democrats introduced The Home Ownership Dreamers Act, legislation
that mandated that the federal government was not authorized to deny mortgage
loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or
the Agriculture Department solely due to the immigration status of an
applicant.[354]
In his
remarks at a July 2019 forum hosted by the League of United Latin American
Citizens, Sanders stated his administration would "provide immediate legal
status to the 1.8 million young people eligible for the DACA program" and
reform the immigration system of the US, which included offering a path to
citizenship for the 11 million undocumented citizens in America.[355]
Racial
justice
Sanders
was a civil rights organizer at the University of Chicago in the 1960s, and he
has been given a 100% rating by the NAACP for his civil rights voting record.
In 1988, Sanders worked for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign saying,
"Jesse Jackson uniquely and alone has shown the courage to tackle the most
important and basic issues facing working class Americans, poor people, elderly
people, environmentalists, peace activists, women, and America's
minorities."[356]
As part of
his 2016 presidential platform, Sanders calls for an end to "the four
central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical,
political, legal and economic."[357][358] Speaking on these issues,
Sanders says:
It is an
obscenity that we stigmatize so many young Americans with a criminal record for
smoking marijuana, but not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted
for causing the near collapse of our entire economy. This must change. We must
address the lingering unjust stereotypes that lead to the labeling of black
youths as "thugs." We know the truth that, like every community in
this country, the vast majority of people of color are trying to work hard,
play by the rules and raise their children. It's time to stop demonizing minority
communities.
During a
Democratic debate, Sanders was asked "do black lives matter or do all
lives matter" to which he responded "Black lives matter" and
went on to condemn actions he portrayed as racist policing and
incarceration.[359]
In his
appearance at the She the People forum in Houston, Texas on April 24, 2019,
Sayu Bhojwani (founder and president of New American Leaders) asked Sanders in
what way he believed the federal government should be involved in fighting
"against the rise of white nationalism and white terrorist acts" and
how Sanders would lead that effort if elected president. Sanders responded by
criticizing what he said was President Trump's demagoguery and further
announced would do everything he could to help lead the United States "in
a direction that ends all forms of discrimination -- racial discrimination,
gender discrimination and discrimination based on people's sexual
orientation." Sanders later furthered that his administration would have
the top of its agenda "the understanding that discrimination of all forms
has got to end -- period" and concluded, "If somebody wants to go
around perpetrating hate crimes, that person will pay a very, very heavy price,
indeed."[360]
Reparations
In April
2019, Sanders was asked if he would support legislation by Representative
Sheila Jackson Lee forming a commission to study the issue of reparations for
African-Americans and confirmed he would sign it if elected president and in
the event it passed in both chambers of Congress and stated his belief that there
should be a study into the subject. Sanders called for "real attention to
the most distressed communities in America" and the use of "10
percent of all federal funds to make sure that kids who need it get the
education, get the jobs, get the environmental protection that they
need".[361]
On July
24, 2019, when asked if he supported reparations for slavery at the annual
NAACP convention in Detroit, Michigan, Sanders said that he backed a plan put
forth by South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn to put significant
investments in impoverished communities, citing his fear that Congress would
give "the African American community a $20,000 check and then says that
takes care of slavery and we don't have to worry about it anymore."[362]
Church and
state
Sanders is
rated by Americans United for Separation of Church and State as strongly in
favor of the separation of church and state.[363]
Genetically-engineered
food
In 2012,
along with Senator Barbara Boxer, Sanders introduced an amendment which would
have given states the right to require labels on food products which are
genetically engineered. The bill has been passed by the House Agriculture
Committee by a vote of 9–1, but not the full House.[364]
Cannabis
legalization
In October
2015, Sanders announced his support for removing cannabis from the Controlled
Substances Act, to end federal prohibition of the drug and clear the way for it
to be legalized at the state level unimpeded by the federal
government.[365][366] One week later Sanders introduced the Ending Federal
Marijuana Prohibition Act, marking the first time that a bill to legalize
cannabis had been filed in the U.S. Senate.[367] Sanders also supports the sale
and taxation of cannabis at the state level in a manner similar to alcohol and
tobacco.[368]
Sanders
said in a July 2019 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience that he would sign an
executive order to legalize cannabis as president.[369] In October 2019 he
released a comprehensive plan for legalization that included descheduling of
cannabis within the first 100 days of his presidency.[370][371]
Disaster
relief
In October
2017, following Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma, Sanders signed a letter to
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke urging her "to provide
all necessary resources to confirm that storm-related deaths are being counted
correctly" given that President Trump seemed "to be using the number
of fatalities to determine the quality of the disaster response".[372]
In August
2018, Sanders was one of eight senators to sign a letter to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency charging the agency with not assisting displaced
homeowners in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria under the
Individuals and Households (IHP) program by "alarming rates."[373]
In March
2019, Sanders was one of eleven senators to sign a letter to congressional
leaders urging them to "bring legislation providing disaster supplemental
appropriations to your respective floors for consideration immediately"
after noting that the previous year had seen 124 federal disaster declarations
approved for states, territories, and tribal nations across the US.[374]
Drugs
Yearly
overdose deaths from all drugs in the United States[375]
In July
2015, Sanders and Representative Elijah Cummings wrote a letter to the National
Governors Association and National Association of Attorneys General asserting
that the "opioid abuse epidemic is a public health emergency that must be
addressed, and no company should jeopardize the progress many states have made
in tackling this emergency by overcharging for a critically important drug like
naloxone."[376]
In 2016,
Sanders supported Proposition 61, dubbed the California Drug Price Relief Act,
a measure preventing state agencies from purchasing prescription drugs for
higher prices than the Department of Veterans Affairs pays, arguing that it
would "be great for the taxpayers of California and it will be a real blow
against this greedy industry that will reverberate all over America."[377]
On
November 20, 2018, Sanders and Representative Ro Khanna unveiled a bill
intended to abolish the monopoly from a company, regardless of any patents, and
authorize other companies to compose cheaper generic versions of a drug in the
event of the price for that drug being higher than the median price in Canada,
the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan. Sanders said in a statement that
the United States was the only country in the world that allowed
"pharmaceutical companies to charge any price they want for any reason
they want" and that the "greed of the prescription drug industry is
literally killing Americans".[378]
In
February 2019, Sanders was one of eleven senators to sign a letter to insulin
manufactures Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi over increased
insulin prices and charging the price increases with having caused patients to
lack "access to the life-saving medications they need."[379]
In June
2019, Sanders was one of fifteen senators to introduce the Affordable
Medications Act, legislation intended to promote transparency through mandating
pharmaceutical companies disclose the amount of money going toward research and
development in addition to both marketing and executives' salaries. The bill
also abolished the restriction that stopped the federal Medicare program from
using its buying power to negotiate lower drug prices for beneficiaries and hinder
drug company monopoly practices used to keep prices high and disable less
expensive generics entering the market.[380]
On August
1, 2019, following the Trump administration announcing a plan that would allow
the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from other countries, Sanders
released a statement in which he opined that there was "no rational reason
why insulin and other life-saving medications should cost ten times more in the
United States than Canada" and pledged that on the first day of his
presidency he would "direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services and
FDA Commissioner to allow pharmacists, wholesalers and patients to purchase FDA
approved prescription drugs from Canada."[381]
Workplace
harassment
In April
2019, Sanders signed onto the Be HEARD Act, legislation intended to abolish the
tipped minimum wage along with ending mandatory arbitration and pre-employment
nondisclosure agreements. The bill also gave workers additional time to report
harassment and was said by co-sponsor Patty Murray to come at a time when too
many workers are "still silenced by mandatory disclosure agreements that
prevent them from discussing sexual harassment and longstanding practices like
the tipped wages that keep workers in certain industries especially
vulnerable."[382]
Election
security
In May
2019, Sanders was one of twelve senators to cosponsor the Protecting American
Votes and Elections (PAVE) Act, legislation granting the United States
Department of Homeland Security the authority "to set minimum
cybersecurity standards for U.S. voting machines, authorize a one-time $500
million grant program for states to buy ballot-scanning machines to count paper
ballots and require states to conduct risk-limiting audits of all federal
elections in order to detect any cyber hacks."[383]
Opioids
In
February 2017, Sanders and thirty other senators signed a letter to Kaléo
Pharmaceuticals in response to the opioid-overdose-reversing device Evzio
rising in price from $690 in 2014 to $4,500 and requested the company answer
what the detailed price structure for Evzio was, the number of devices Kaléo
Pharmaceuticals set aside for donation, and the totality of federal
reimbursements Evzio received in the previous year.[384]
In March
2017, Sanders was one of twenty-one senators to sign a letter led by Ed Markey
to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell which noted that 12 percent of adult
Medicaid beneficiaries had some form or a substance abuse disorder in addition
to one third of treatment administered for opioid and other substance use
disorders in the United States being financed through Medicaid and opined that
the American Health Care Act could "very literally translate into a death
spiral for those with opioid use disorders" due to the insurance coverage
lacking and not having the adequate funds to afford care oftentimes resulting
in individuals abandoning substance use disorder treatment.[385]
In
September 2018, Sanders voted for a package of 70 Senate bills that cost $8.4
billion and altered programs across multiple agencies as part of an bipartisan
effort to prevent opioids from being shipped through the U.S. Postal Service
and grant doctors the ability to prescribe medications designed to wean opioid
addictions.[386]
United
States Postal Service
In March
2019, Sanders was a cosponsor of a bipartisan resolution led by Gary Peters and
Jerry Moran that opposed privatization of the United States Postal Service
(USPS), citing the USPS as an establishment that was self-sustained and noting
concerns that a potential privatization could cause higher prices and reduced
services for customers of USPS with a particular occurrence in rural
communities.[387]
Criticism
of the Trump administration
Cabinet
On
February 5, 2017, Sanders said Trump was a "fraud" for appointing multiple
billionaires to his cabinet after committing during his campaign to tackle Wall
Street, and predicted Trump would "sell out" the middle and working
class.[388] In Los Angeles on February 19, Sanders called Trump "a
pathological liar" and promised to defeat "Trump and Trumpism and the
Republican right-wing ideology."[389]
In
February 2018, two days after Rob Porter stepped down as White House Staff
Secretary, Sanders was one of twelve senators to sign a letter requesting the
White House provide details on the allegations of domestic abuse against
Porter.[390]
In June
2018, during an appearance on CNN, Sanders stated that President Trump was
going to war against the working class through his "budget,
trillion-dollar cut in Medicaid proposal, $500 billion in Medicare, massive
cuts in education, nutrition programs" and that he was not addressing the
issues of "low wages, people can't afford health care, can't afford
prescription drugs, can't afford to send their kids to college."[391]
In July
2018, Sanders was one of four senators to sign a letter to the head of the
antitrust division of the Justice Department Makan Delrahim requesting a review
of whether Comcast would be able to use 21st Century Fox's entertainment
offerings to suppress competitors amid Comcast's bid to buy parts of 21st
Century Fox, citing the need "to protect consumers from the harmful
effects of the proposed merger".[392]
In July
2018, Sanders was one of nine senators to vote against the nomination of Robert
Wilkie as United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the first
non-unanimous vote in the office's history as a cabinet position.[393]
Energy and
climate
On March
30, 2017, two days after Trump signed an "Energy Independence"
executive order, Sanders called Trump's choice to prioritize job creation over
climate change "nonsensical, and stupid, and dangerous", and noted
that scientists report that human activity is causing "devastating
problems" while Trump and his allies believe climate change is a
"hoax".[394]
In May
2018, Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to President Trump calling on
the president to select an individual who takes climate change seriously as his
next Homeland Security adviser, warning that without "a dedicated federal
effort to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gasses that human activity releases
into the atmosphere, climate change will continue to worsen and cause
increasingly severe weather events, including hurricanes" and that climate
change had previously and would continue to "have a tangible and harmful
impact on our national security and disaster readiness."[395]
In October
2018, after Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow disputed a
report by the United Nations warning the world to slash emissions by 45 percent
before 2030 in order to avert the atmosphere possibly warming to 1.5 degrees
Celsius, Sanders stated that they had "12 years to substantially cut the
amount of carbon in our atmosphere, or this planet, our country, the rest of
the world, is going to suffer irreversible damage." Sanders added that the
Trump administration "virtually does not even recognize the reality of
climate change" and was "making a bad situation worse" by
working with the Fossil Fuel industry.[396]
In
November 2018, after the federal government released a report that found
climate change had led to temperature increases and sea levels rising and
warned that the effects of climate change would "lead to more intense
wildfires, floods and other disasters if left unchecked", Sanders called
for Congress to "take Trump on, take the fossil fuel industry on and
transform our system to sustainable energy" which he asserted would result
in the US leading the world in saving the planet and producing "millions
of decent paying jobs." Sanders added that he was amazed the US had
"an administration right now that still considers climate change to be a
hoax" and that the issue was not up for debate given climate change's
verification by the science community.[397]
In May
2019, Sanders said that his most profound difference with President Trump on
climate change policy was Trump "maintaining the myth that climate change
is a hoax" and maintained that Trump was working to ensure the US had more
carbon emissions. Sanders mocked Trump as "a profound scientist, someone
who’s researched the issue for years and uniquely came up with that
conclusion" and alluded to Trump's comments the previous month in which
the latter stated that the noise wind turbines emit cause cancer.[398]
War and
peace
In an
April 7, 2017 statement, Sanders expressed disapproval of Trump's ordered
airstrike on Syria from the previous day: "If there's anything we
should've learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which the lives of
thousands of brave American men and women and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
and Afghan civilians have been lost and trillions of dollars spent, it's that
it's easier to get into a war than out of one."[399]
Special
Counsel investigation
In
February 2017, Sanders was one of twenty-six senators to sign a letter to the
Election Assistance Commission (EAC) requesting the commission detail
cybersecurity challenges to state and local officials amid their attempts to
safeguard future elections and also secure the 2016 election from Russian
hackers.[400]
In July
2018, following Special Counsel Robert Mueller's indictment of twelve Russian
intelligence officers in the 2016 hacking of the DNC, Sanders said the
indictments "strongly suggests that the interference was directed from the
highest levels of the Russian government." Sanders advocated for Mueller
to be allowed "to continue his investigation free of pressure" and
called for President Trump to relay to Russian President Vladimir Putin that
the United States would not tolerate Russian interference in either American
elections or those of the country's allies.[401]
In April
2019, after the Justice Department released a redacted version of the Mueller
Report, Sanders released a statement saying in part, "It is clear that
Donald Trump wanted nothing more than to shut down the Mueller investigation.
While we have more detail from today's report than before, Congress must
continue its investigation into Trump's conduct and any foreign attempts to
influence our election." Sanders also called for work to be done that
would ensure the protection of "our future elections from the significant
threat of foreign interference" and requested President Trump and
Republican leadership cease their obstruction of "the necessary work to
protect our democracy."[402]
Interest
group ratings
Bernie
Sanders' ratings from advocacy organizations[403]
Group Advocacy issue(s) Rating Year
ACLU Civil and Political Rights 100% 2014
AFBF Agriculture 83% 2014
AFL-CIO Labor Unions 100% 2013
AFT Education 86% 2012
ARA Senior Citizens 100% 2014
DPA Drug Policy 83% 2006
HRC LGBTQ Rights 100% 2014
LCV Environment 100% 2015[404]
LULAC Immigration Reform, Liberal 100% 2013–14[405]
LWV Civic Engagement 89% 2007
MPP Marijuana Legalization 66% 2016
NAACP Minorities and Affirmative Action 100% 2014
NARAL Abortion, Pro-Choice 100% 2014
NFU Farmer's Union 90% 2012
NRA Gun Ownership, Conservative 14% 2012
NRLC Abortion, Pro-Life 0% 2015[406]
NTU Tax Policy, Conservative 5% 2013[407]
NumbersUSA Immigration Reform, Conservative 44% 2015–16[408]
PA West Foreign Affairs 75% 2014
PPFA Reproductive Health 100% 2014
SEIU Service Union 100% 2012
References
[FOR
EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF REFERENCES, GO THE WEBSITE.]
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