Bernie Sanders Quotes

[The Democrats] will say that the Reagan administrtion has given benefits to the rich at the expense of the poor - a term that they define broadly to include middle-income people, women, minorities, the aged, the young, farmers, steelworkers, and others.

I believe the Democratic Party has got to be firmly on the side of working families, taking on the big money interests, who today, to a very significant degree, control our economic and political life.

The Democrats have pretty much given up on the white working class. That would require a commitment to economic issues, and that's not their concern.

There's no conscious plan here; my whole life in politics as a state legislator and in Congress has been about strengthening the middle class.

Government can’t deliver a free lunch to the country as a whole. It can, however, determine who pays for lunch.

Members of Congress often have to have testimony to hang their hat on if they wish to do something for you or do something for the country.

There’s a sausage machine on Capitol Hill. We’ve given the sausage machine the right kind of ingredients. Now it’s up to the sausage machine to turn out the right kind of legislation.

Congress, rather than administrative agencies should fashion any policy that is not only of great economic importance but also one that has divided the faiths and loyalties of classes of people.

When you pass legislation, it is not tied to a particular problem. It can have unintended consequences.

The legislator commands the future.

Competition has brought about two great opposing opinions; one that Government should do nothing, the other that it should do everything. The first arises from the contemplation of the immense wealth heaped up under a system of unimpeded individual action, and of the extraordinary folly and selfishness of the customs and legislation that controlled such action in the past. The second arises from the sufferings which unimpeded individualism has brought upon the working classes, who cry out that Government is bound to protect them from misery and starvation

The people who talk about the middle class aren't upholding their interests in the legislature.

Class warfare has never created a job.

The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses.

In modern capitalism economic exploitation rather than political oppression is the real enemy of the people.

I think we should increase the minimum wage and I think $15 is a good beginning.

Congress, after years of stalling, finally got around to clearing the way for informal discussions that might lead to possible formal talks that could potentially produce some kind of tenative agreements.

The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by aggregated capital and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil and be framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman

I would prefer to use a very inclusive definition of the working class. I'd like to include all of those people who are, if they're not exploited by an immediate employer over them, they're exploited by the system and therefore have a cause to want to change the system. Having a very inclusive definition of the working class creates a great opportunity for organizing people.

There are different varieties and forms of capitalism. There are priorities within the capitalist society so that you can have countervailing forces come in and empower your working people and your poor people. There are capitalist societies that do not have poverty. America needs to understand that.

My strong preference has always been to legislate when I can get legislation done.

It is brought home to you...that it is only because miners sweat their guts out that superior persons can remain superior.

President Obama and the congressional Democrats have certainly been responsive.

Any allegation of runaway capitalism has to be tempered by the observation that today we have the largest public sectors and the highest taxes the world has ever known.

Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality.