SEN BERNIE SANDERS: My plan for a Trump presidency. What I will – and what I will not – do
NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 as an anti-establishment populist willing to stand up to the political class and act on behalf of working families. When Trump is ready to move forward in that direction, I will be happy to support him. If he doesn’t, I will oppose him fiercely.
Trump said the United States should not be paying far and away the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. He has a right. Under President Bidenwe have made good progress in lowering the outrageously high prices of prescription drugs in this country, including Medicare negotiating prices with the pharmaceutical industry. But much more needs to be done. I look forward to working with President Trump on legislation that would end the absurdity of Americans paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We must have the courage to confront the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and significantly lower drug prices.
At a time when many financially struggling Americans are paying 20 to 30% interest on their credit cards, President Trump has stated that he wants to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. He has a right. I will soon introduce bipartisan legislation to protect Americans from the rip-offs of the credit card industry, and I look forward to his support.
BERNIE SANDERS PLANS TO LEAD LEGISLATION ON KEY TRUMP PROPOSAL
President Trump has rightly pointed out that disastrous trade deals like NAFTA and PNTR with China they cost millions of American jobs as corporations shut down production in this country and moved overseas in search of cheap labor. As someone who strongly opposed those agreements, I look forward to working with the Trump administration on new trade policies that will protect American workers and create good-paying jobs in our country.
Some of Trump’s candidates also made important points. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is right when he says that food corporations are “poisoning” our young people with highly processed foods that cause obesity, heart disease and other serious health problems. The Trump administration and Congress must tackle the greed of the food industry and create a healthier America.
At a time when many large corporations routinely break the law and engage in illegal union busting, Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer supported the PRO Act, which would protect the right of workers to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits and working conditions . She is right. Workers must have the right to join a union without unlawful interference from their bosses. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to pass the PRO Act into law.
TRUMP NOMINATED REPRESENTATIVE LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER AS LABOR SECRETARY
No one denies that we must put an end to waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Muskfor example, it is correct when it expires that the Pentagon has failed seven audits and cannot fully account for its over $800 billion budget. We need to make the Department of Defense far more efficient, save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and cut spending.
But let me be clear. Although I am more than willing to work with Trump administration in the areas I agree with, I have some very strong disagreements with the positions that Trump has proposed.
At a time of enormous income and wealth inequality, when the richest people have never had it so good, it would be terrible to give hundreds of billions of dollars in additional tax breaks to large corporations and the richest people in this country. Any new tax cuts it should go to the working families of this country. Billionaires and large profitable corporations must start paying their fair share of taxes.
BERNIE SANDERS’ DREAM: TWO AMERICAS, THE PEOPLE VS. BILLIONAIRES
Furthermore, we must not throw millions of people out of the health care they have with massive cuts to Medicaid and other public health programs, which is how some Republicans want to pay for their tax cuts for the wealthy. Medicaid is a lifeline not only for millions of low-income Americans, but also for more than a million seniors in nursing homes and people with disabilities.
The past 10 years have been the warmest on record and, as a result, we’ve seen unprecedented extreme weather events across the United States and the world. While Los Angeles is experiencing devastating wildfires and North Carolina still recovering from devastating floods, Trump is dangerously wrong when he claims climate change is a “hoax.” Almost the entire scientific community understands that climate change is real, that it is caused by carbon emissions, and that it poses a huge threat to the well-being of our children and future generations. We must fight climate change with the entire global community.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONS
We must not engage in the mass deportation of 20 million people in this country, many of whom have worked and lived here almost their entire lives and are a vital part of our economy. We have to stop illegal crossings with strong border measures and people who commit serious crimes should be deported. But we must not tear apart millions of families, put children in cages or unconstitutionally use the US military to round up immigrants in door-to-door searches.
Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent he is wrong when he opposes the need to raise the federal minimum wage. At a time when the $7.25 minimum wage has not been raised in 15 years, it is unconscionable that millions of Americans are still working for starvation wages. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $17 an hour.
American investor and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent testifies before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination for Treasury Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, January 16, 2025. (Getty)
We must not allow billionaire oligarchs to buy our government. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he wants to Republican Party represent the needs of working people. Well, you can’t do that by surrounding yourself with the richest people in the world and putting 13 billionaires in your cabinet, many of whom have a direct financial stake in the industries they are charged with regulating. Furthermore, we need real campaign finance reform that will prevent billionaires in both parties from buying elections.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Let us never forget that we are the richest country in the history of the world. There is no reason why 60% of Americans should be living paycheck to paycheck, why we have massive and growing inequality in income and wealth, why 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, why 25% of America’s seniors are trying to survive on $15,000 a year or less, why young people are leaving college in debt, or why childcare is unaffordable for millions of families. We can do better. We have to be better.
I look forward to working with President Trump when it stands with the working families of this country. I will vigorously oppose him when he represents the needs of the billionaire class and the special interests of the wealthy.
