Bernie Sanders Quotes
1. Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.
2. You know, I think many people have the mistaken impression that Congress regulates Wall Street. In truth that’s not the case. The real truth is that Wall Street regulates the Congress.
3. Good environmental policy is good economic policy.
4. I think there are a lot of people who, when they hear the word ‘socialist,’ get very, very nervous.
5. We need leadership in this country, which will improve the lives of working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. We need leadership which brings our people together and makes us stronger.
6. Yes, we become stronger when men and women, young and old, gay and straight, native-born and immigrant fight together to create the kind of country we all know we can become.
7. It is time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street billionaires.
8. One in four corporations doesn’t pay any taxes.
9. Finally, let us understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win.
10. I don’t believe there’s a red state in America where people believe you should cut Medicare, Social Security and veterans’ benefits rather than doing away with corporate tax loopholes.
11. Wall Street is greedy, reckless and they operate illegally. That’s fine. But what do you do?
12. You want to know the way to raise money? Put a transaction fee on Wall Street, so maybe we can curb some of the speculation and raise some money.
13. What some of us believe is that it is possible that if chemicals are related to Gulf War illness that some of the more severe symptoms may not erupt until 10 or 20 years down the line.
14. The next time you hear me attacked as a socialist – like tomorrow – remember this: I don’t believe that government should take over the grocery store down the street or control the means of production. But I believe that the middle class and the working families who produce the wealth of America deserve a fair deal.
15. Before Social Security existed, about half of America’s senior citizens lived in poverty.
16. What being a socialist means is… that you hold out… a vision of society where poverty is absolutely unnecessary, where international relations are not based on greed… but on cooperation… where human beings can own the means of production and work together rather than having to work as semi-slaves to other people who can hire and fire.
17. We still have people in the active duty, and if people are feeling ill, if they’re experiencing various symptoms and they’re still in the active duty, they’re less likely to come forward because that could result in their medical discharge.
18. I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future.
19. We need an energy revolution by breaking our dependence on fossil fuels, polluting fuels… I am very, very confident our small state will lead this. We will be noticed by the country and the world.
20. You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs.
21. Do the elected officials in Washington stand with ordinary Americans – working families, children, the elderly, the poor – or will the extraordinary power of billionaire campaign contributors and Big Money prevail? The American people, by the millions, must send Congress the answer to that question.
22. The Occupy Wall Street protests are shining a national spotlight on the most powerful, dangerous and secretive economic and political force in America.
23. If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.
24. The Federal Reserve needs to provide small businesses in America with the same low-interest loans it gave to foreign banks.
25. The Federal Reserve has a responsibility to ensure the safety and soundness of financial institutions and to contain systemic risks in financial markets.
26. In my view, a corporation is not a person. A corporation does not have First Amendment rights to spend as much money as it wants, without disclosure, on a political campaign.
27. The U.S. constitution is an extraordinary document. In my view, it should not be amended often.
28. Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America.
29. Let us wage a moral and political war against war itself, so that we can cut military spending and use that money for human needs.
30. I think the overwhelming majority of the American people know that we have got to stand together, that we’re going to grow together, that we’re going to survive together, and that if we start splintering, we’re not going to succeed in a highly competitive international economy.
31. These are the same people who believe, in some cases, the federal government should not play any role in providing health care to our people or protecting the environment.
32. There are a lot of smart honest, progressive people who I think can be good presidents.
33. Washington is dominated by big money.
34. If you look at the newspapers here – the Washington papers – most of the discussion deals with campaign gossip.
35. The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs.
36. Two-thirds of the directors at the New York Fed are hand-picked by the same bankers that the Fed is in charge of regulating.
37. To be honest with you, I worry about concentration of ownership in media, where you have a handful of media conglomerates largely controlling what we see, hear and read.
38. Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break.
39. Who do you think controls the Republican Party? Big money controls the Republican Party. This is where their campaign contributions come from.
40. You’ve got the top 400 Americans owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. Most folks do not think that is right.
41. The bottom line is that when Senator Inhofe says, ‘Global warming is a hoax,’ he is just dead wrong, according to the vast majority of climate scientists.
42. Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit.
43. CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about.
44. I come from a rural state. People drive 50, 100 miles to and from work every single day. That is true all over America.
45. As a single-payer advocate, I believe that at the end of the day, if a state goes forward and passed an effective single-payer program, it will demonstrate that you can provide quality health care to every man, woman and child in a more cost-effective way.
46. I’m not a Democrat, I’m an Independent, but I caucus with the Democrats.
47. I don’t consider myself a pariah.
48. If the goal of health-care reform is to provide comprehensive, universal health care in a cost-effective way, the only honest approach is a single-payer approach.
49. I am sure that there are some single payer advocates who think the only thing worth fighting for is single payer.
50. I think the American people in many cases want to transform our energy system.
51. There is nobody that I know who believes that Bank of America is a human being who should be entitled for the same constitutional rights that the people of our country are.
52. I thought the Bush economic policy was a disaster. We lost 500,000 private sector jobs during his tenure.
53. Here is what the practical impact of Citizens United means. What Citizens United means is that corporations call hundreds of millions of dollars into television ads, radio ads, and other forms of advertising to defeat those candidates who stand up and take them on.
54. Of course the Republicans have long wanted to privatize Social Security and destroy it. But Social Security has been the most important and valuable social program in the history of the United States.
55. What Wall Street and credit card companies are doing is really not much different from what gangsters and loan sharks do who make predatory loans. While the bankers wear three-piece suits and don’t break the knee caps of those who can’t pay back, they still are destroying people’s lives.
56. It is incomprehensible that drug companies still get away with charging Americans twice as much, or more, than citizens of Canada or Europe for the exact same drugs manufactured by the exact same companies.
57. The goal of real healthcare reform must be high-quality, universal coverage in a cost-effective way.
58. What the American people want to see in their president is somebody who not necessarily can win every fight, but they want to see him stand up and fight for what he believes, take his case to the American people.
59. You know, let me be very clear. I supported Barack Obama originally.
60. I have introduced a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and make it clear that the Congress and state legislatures do have the ability and the power to regulate and get corporate funding out of political campaigns.
