'I Look Forward to Issue-Oriented Debate,' Sanders Says on Clinton Economic Speech

'I Look Forward to Issue-Oriented Debate,' Sanders Says on Clinton Economic Speech
 
KANSAS CITY – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday welcomed a debate over how to help working families and address income and wealth inequality in the United States, which he called “the great moral, economic and political issue of our day.”

Sanders commented after former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech in New York outlining her views on the economy.

“Over the last 30 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1 percent,” Sanders said. “We need policies now which help the disappearing middle class, not just the millionaires and billionaires. It is time to take on Wall Street, take on corporate America and create an economy that works for all Americans and not just the very wealthy.”

“I welcome Secretary Clinton’s discussion of the economy and look forward to an issue-oriented debate as to which set of policies will best represent the working families of our country,” Sanders said.

Sanders already had laid out a detailed set of specific policy proposals on the economy.

He proposed a $1 trillion investment in rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges to create or support 13 million jobs.

He would raise the minimum wage to $15 an from the $7.25 an hour “starvation wage” now set by federal law.

Sanders also has proposed specific legislation to make the wealthy and profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes and to break up big Wall Street banks that are more powerful today than before taxpayers bailed them out after the 2008 financial collapse.

To address youth unemployment, he has introduced legislation with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to provide $5.5 billion for states and local governments to employ 1 million youth from ages 16 to 24 years old. According to Economic Policy Institute research conducted for Sanders, youth unemployment for high school graduates and dropouts is 33 percent for white youth, 36 percent for Hispanic youth and 51 percent for African-American young people.

As part of a “family values” legislative agenda, Sanders would provide affordable child care, paid family leave for parents to care for newborns and guaranteed vacation for workers.

For seniors, Sanders has proposed expanding Social Security and strengthening the retirement program’s finances by applying the payroll tax to workers who earn $250,000 or more a year.

He wants equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make.

To help students and our overall economy, he has introduced legislation to make four-year public colleges and universities tuition free so all qualified students, regardless of their income, may get a higher education.

To reverse the decline of American manufacturing and the flow of good-paying jobs to low-wage nations overseas, Sanders would reform trade policies that have shuttered more than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs.

To provide better health care for more people at less cost, he would provide a Medicare-for-all, single payer health care system.

To better care for the sick and hungry, he would expand Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs that were first approved in landmark legislation signed by President Lyndon Johnson 50 years ago this month.

To address income and wealth inequality and pay for the proposals, Sanders would close tax loopholes, end the abuse of tax shelters in the Cayman islands and other tax havens, raise taxes on Wall Street speculators and raise tax rates for the wealthiest people in America.