Bernie Sanders, Junior Senator from Vermont and 2016 presidential candidate spoke to supporters on a national conference call hosted by the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) while campaigning on the East Coast.
During the conference call American Focus PAC learned that Senator Sanders is continuing his grassroots tour of early voting states notably “headed out to the west coast and other areas” in two weeks time. We look forward to Sanders’ visit to the Silver State in the near future.
After being introduced by PDA Executive Director Conor Boylan, Senator Sanders spoke to listeners about his key issues and legislation he has proposed; including income equality, youth unemployment, Wall Street tax reform, and college tuition.
PDA Executive Director Boylan noted over 450 individuals had joined the national teleconference. Decent numbers considering it took place the same time as Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Sanders remarked, “The campaign is going well beyond our best expectations.” He noted large attendance numbers at his public events; including over 5,000 at his announcement for candidacy in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont and standing room only crowds at events throughout New Hampshire. The Senator stated a New York Times report that reported, “No candidate at this point has had larger crowds.” Source
On public policy, Senator Sanders believes that issues that he talks about on the campaign are issues that resonate with the American people. He stated:
“The American people want to know how it happens that despite an explosion of technology and increased worker productivity millions of workers are working longer hours for lower wages, unable to afford to send their kids to college, deeply worried about what happens to them when they get old and when they retire and they understand that something is profoundly wrong when we have more wealth income inequality today than at any time since 1929 and its worse than any other major industrialized country on Earth.”
On how Sanders’ plans on getting his message out to the masses he elaborates:
“What we have been doing is, kind of an old fashioned way, nothing fancy about it, is just laying out an agenda that speaks to the needs of working Americans; an agenda that talks about creating 13 Million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, our roads, bridges, rail, airports, etc. It talks about raising the minimum wage over a few years to fifteen bucks an hour, talks about pay equity for women workers, talks about the need for working people in this country to be able to get paid sick time and paid vacation time as well.” Source
The Senator also described proposed alterations to campaign finance and the judiciary:
“In this campaign we have made campaign finance reform a very important part of what we’re talking about. It’s very hard for me to understand how anybody can believe that it is acceptable for billionaires to be able to buy elections and buy candidates, which is what they are doing today as a result of Citizens United…and what I have said is, that there will be a litmus test for my nominees to the Supreme Court and that is in fact, they will vote to overturn Citizens United.”
On education, Senator Sanders remarked:
“A couple of other issues we’ve raised recently is that in my view and I’m sure most of you agree with me, it is totally crazy that in the kind of competitive global economy we are living in right now that you have hundreds of thousands of bright, qualified, young people who can no longer have the dream of going to college because it is simply too expensive. An then you have millions of other people who either left college or graduated college or graduate school who are deeply, deeply, deeply in debt. And that is crazy stuff. So we have introduced legislation which I will certainly fight for as president, which would make tuition free in every public college and university in America, and also substantially lower interests’ rates on student debt. And we do that by imposing a transaction tax on Wall Street which can bring an enormous amount of revenue and at the same time damper Wall Street speculation.”
Sanders concluded his remarks on the conference call on the topic of youth unemployment stating:
“National disgrace of youth unemployment being 17%, African-American youth unemployment being well over 20%... there are millions of kids today who are not in school, either dropped out, maybe they graduated who do not have jobs, do not have the educational opportunities, and what we said loudly and clearly is that we’re going to invest in job training. This is how we should be investing, instead of investing in jails we invest in job training, we invest in education. So those are just, some of the issues out there.”
The Senator left the call with this final remark:
“Were on the move, the campaign is going great, and we’re going to stay focused on the major issues facing the American people… Let’s go forward together, thank you very much.”
Senator Sanders announced a brief campaign schedule: Saturday, May 6th he will be in Keene, New Hampshire, the week of May 7th, he will be campaigning in Iowa, and then he is headed out towards the west coast and other areas during the week of May 14th.
After being introduced by PDA Executive Director Conor Boylan, Senator Sanders spoke to listeners about his key issues and legislation he has proposed; including income equality, youth unemployment, Wall Street tax reform, and college tuition.
PDA Executive Director Boylan noted over 450 individuals had joined the national teleconference. Decent numbers considering it took place the same time as Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Sanders remarked, “The campaign is going well beyond our best expectations.” He noted large attendance numbers at his public events; including over 5,000 at his announcement for candidacy in his hometown of Burlington, Vermont and standing room only crowds at events throughout New Hampshire. The Senator stated a New York Times report that reported, “No candidate at this point has had larger crowds.” Source
On public policy, Senator Sanders believes that issues that he talks about on the campaign are issues that resonate with the American people. He stated:
“The American people want to know how it happens that despite an explosion of technology and increased worker productivity millions of workers are working longer hours for lower wages, unable to afford to send their kids to college, deeply worried about what happens to them when they get old and when they retire and they understand that something is profoundly wrong when we have more wealth income inequality today than at any time since 1929 and its worse than any other major industrialized country on Earth.”
On how Sanders’ plans on getting his message out to the masses he elaborates:
“What we have been doing is, kind of an old fashioned way, nothing fancy about it, is just laying out an agenda that speaks to the needs of working Americans; an agenda that talks about creating 13 Million new jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, our roads, bridges, rail, airports, etc. It talks about raising the minimum wage over a few years to fifteen bucks an hour, talks about pay equity for women workers, talks about the need for working people in this country to be able to get paid sick time and paid vacation time as well.” Source
The Senator also described proposed alterations to campaign finance and the judiciary:
“In this campaign we have made campaign finance reform a very important part of what we’re talking about. It’s very hard for me to understand how anybody can believe that it is acceptable for billionaires to be able to buy elections and buy candidates, which is what they are doing today as a result of Citizens United…and what I have said is, that there will be a litmus test for my nominees to the Supreme Court and that is in fact, they will vote to overturn Citizens United.”
On education, Senator Sanders remarked:
“A couple of other issues we’ve raised recently is that in my view and I’m sure most of you agree with me, it is totally crazy that in the kind of competitive global economy we are living in right now that you have hundreds of thousands of bright, qualified, young people who can no longer have the dream of going to college because it is simply too expensive. An then you have millions of other people who either left college or graduated college or graduate school who are deeply, deeply, deeply in debt. And that is crazy stuff. So we have introduced legislation which I will certainly fight for as president, which would make tuition free in every public college and university in America, and also substantially lower interests’ rates on student debt. And we do that by imposing a transaction tax on Wall Street which can bring an enormous amount of revenue and at the same time damper Wall Street speculation.”
Sanders concluded his remarks on the conference call on the topic of youth unemployment stating:
“National disgrace of youth unemployment being 17%, African-American youth unemployment being well over 20%... there are millions of kids today who are not in school, either dropped out, maybe they graduated who do not have jobs, do not have the educational opportunities, and what we said loudly and clearly is that we’re going to invest in job training. This is how we should be investing, instead of investing in jails we invest in job training, we invest in education. So those are just, some of the issues out there.”
The Senator left the call with this final remark:
“Were on the move, the campaign is going great, and we’re going to stay focused on the major issues facing the American people… Let’s go forward together, thank you very much.”
Senator Sanders announced a brief campaign schedule: Saturday, May 6th he will be in Keene, New Hampshire, the week of May 7th, he will be campaigning in Iowa, and then he is headed out towards the west coast and other areas during the week of May 14th.