At a town hall event on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about his policy goals amid President Trump’s rollbacks since taking office.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Together we're going to stop the cuts to Social Security. Instead of cutting Social Security, we're going to expand Social Security benefits.
00:14Instead of making massive cuts to Medicaid, we're going to join every other major country on earth, guaranteeing health care to all through a Medicare for All single payout system.
00:29And in the wealthiest country on earth, you know what, nobody should go homeless, nobody should pay 50% of their income in housing.
00:38We can create millions of jobs by building 4 million units of low income and affordable housing, and stopping corporate landlords from jacking up rent prices.
00:53I grew up in a rent controlled apartment, seems to me that's a pretty good idea.
01:00And in a competitive global economy, we need the best educated workforce in the world.
01:08All of our young people must have the ability to get a higher education by making public colleges and universities and trade schools and universities tuition free.
01:23Alexandria led the effort for the Green New Jobs, creating millions of good paying jobs, transforming our energy system to save the planet. Let's do it.
01:41Now I know that there are a lot of people here in Las Vegas and around the country who are feeling despair and anxiety about what's happening in D.C.
02:03And some of you may feel a little bit hopeless. So let me say this, at this particular moment, this pivotal moment in American history, despair is not an option.
02:17Giving up is not acceptable, and none of us have the privilege of hiding under the covers. The stakes are just too high.
02:32And let us never forget, real change only occurs when ordinary people at the grassroots level stand up against oppression and injustice and fight back.
02:48That is the history of our country from way back when. When this country was first formed, you had people here who took on the most powerful person in the world, the King of England, and the entire British Empire.
03:12And you know what? They won. In the 1840s, you had people in the abolitionist movement standing up and saying slavery is not acceptable, it's horrendous, it's horrific.
03:28They had to take on the great power of the slave owners. And we fought a war where hundreds of people, hundreds of thousands of people died. But we won. Slavery was abolished.
03:41In the early part of our century, workers who were overworked and underpaid demanded to form unions. Some of them were killed, they were fired, they were beaten, but they stood up for the trade union movement and they won and helped create the American middle class.
03:59In the 1930s, we had a depression. 25% of America was unemployed. But people stood up, elected a great president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, transformed the government, and we managed to end the depression.
04:18In 1941, this country was attacked at Pearl Harbor. Our military was weak. We had to fight a war on two fronts. Yet because the nation came together and we produced the planes, the guns, the tanks that we needed, in two and a half years, that war was essentially won.
04:38So what I am saying to you is that this is not the first time we have faced crisis. And what I believe from the bottom of my heart is the American people do not want to see a handful of billionaires running this country.
05:01The American people understand that in democracy, we criticize each other, we have free elections, and we're not like Donald Trump, too cowardly to accept criticism. American people do not want to move us toward an authoritarian society.
05:23The American people understand that there's something very wrong today when so few have so much and so many have so little. So my view is that while I am not a mathematician, I do know that 99% is a hell of a lot bigger number than 1%.
05:48And I believe from the bottom of my heart, if we do not let Trump and his friends divide us up by the color of our skin, or where we were born, or our religion, or our sexual orientation, if we stand together as one people fighting for justice, there is nothing that we cannot do.
06:15Trust me, I work in Washington, and I know the power of the oligarchs. They are very powerful. But if we stand together, I have zero doubt that we can and will defeat them, that we can transform the economics and politics of this country, and that we can have an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%.
06:44Thank you all very much.