Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders
Bernard "Bernie" Sandersis an American politician, serving as the junior United States Senator from Vermont since 2007. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. He has always caucused with the Democratic Party, which has entitled him to committee assignments and at times given Democrats a majority. Sanders became the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee in January 2015; he had previously served for two years as chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. He publicly identified...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 September 1941
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
What every American should know is that we have more people in jail today than any other country on Earth, more than China. We have some 2.2 million people in jail. What that means is that a lot of lives are being destroyed.
In my view, one of the major reasons that we have so many people in jail is that we have turned our backs on a lot young people.
When people get out of jail, it is not easy for them to find a job. It is not easy for them to return to civil society.
We have more people in jail than any other country in Earth, disproportionately Latino and African-American.
We are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana.
It costs a hell of a lot more money to put somebody in jail than send them to the University of Virginia.
Each and every year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion a year in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses by the wealthy and large corporations.
Establishing a 0.03 percent Wall Street speculation fee, similar to what we had from 1914-1966, would dampen the dangerous level of speculation and gambling on Wall Street, encourage the financial sector to invest in the productive economy and reduce the deficit by more than $350 billion over 10 years.
I see a future where getting to work or to school or to the store does not have to cause pollution.
If credit unions can grow and prosper with a 15 percent cap, so can banks.
We should make a major financial commitment to improving our roads and bridges.
Every day we are paying more for energy than we should due to poor insulation, inefficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment - money we could save by investing in energy efficiency.
A president and a party that can provide insurance for 31 million more Americans is far preferable to most voters than a party that only says, 'No.'
At its worst, Washington is a place where name-calling partisan politics too often trumps policy.