Quotes from Bernie Sanders

in Norway, no matter how much time you might spend in a hospital, no matter how many doctor visits you might make, no matter how many prescription drugs you might use, you cannot spend more than $350 a year for health care. Not one cent more.

As circumstances grew increasingly desperate for the Democrats, I proposed a "radical idea." I wanted "the world's greatest deliberative body" to actually start deliberating. I wanted Senate Democrats to bring to the floor legislation that addressed the needs of working families, and force Republicans to vote for or against these very important and very popular initiatives.

we never get around to discussing the reality that, after adjusting for inflation, the average worker in America is making $44 a week less today than she made fifty years ago.

The American people were sick and tired of endless "negotiations." They were sick and tired of politicians hiding behind closed doors. They wanted the Senate to vote on legislation to improve their lives. At the very least, they had a right to know where their senators stood on the issues. But Senate leaders preferred to do nothing rather than "divide" their caucus by exposing the pro-corporate stances of a handful of their Democratic colleagues.

what has not changed is the sense of empowerment that grows when working people are treated not as "employees," but as "owners" who share responsibility for defining the scope and character of their jobs.

there are many ways to organize workplaces, and that we have a responsibility to identify the models that respect workers as human beings, and allow them to realize their full potential.

Is it really too much, in the twenty-first century, in the wealthiest country on earth, to begin creating an economy in which people actually have some power over what they do for forty hours or more a week?

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.

if we are serious about creating a truly free society, we must take the next step forward and guarantee every man, woman, and child in our country basic economic rights—the right to quality health care, the right to good education, the right to decent and affordable housing, the right to a secure retirement, and the right to live in a clean environment. And the right to a secure, well-paying, and meaningful job.

My answer to all these questions is that Americans are not nearly so free as we think we are, or as we should be. To achieve the genuine freedom to which we are entitled as human beings, we cannot be satisfied with political democracy alone—especially at a time when democracy itself is under fierce attack. We need economic democracy every bit as much as we need political democracy.

The only way to get it is by breaking the shackles of the old thinking that says there is no alternative to unfettered capitalism. We've got to upend the lie we've been told for decades, the one that says: This is how the system works. This is how globalization works. This is how capitalism works. This is how employers and employees will always relate to each other. There's nothing you can do about it. So just shut up and get back to work.

We need an economic system that serves humanity rather than exploits it. There can be honest debates about how best to achieve that end, but to my view there are at least four steps that must be taken:

Over fifteen million Americans lack any health insurance, and some thirty million are underinsured because of high deductibles and copayments.

There is no real freedom without economic justice.

It turned out that Republicans loved veterans very much, except when it came to funding their needs.

if a man doesn't have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists.

You're either on the side of workers and organized labor, or you're not.

asking the right questions.

In any case, in Vermont $500 is a lot of money for dinner. I hope these rich folks enjoyed themselves.

It's time to ensure that every worker in this country has access to paid family leave, paid sick time and paid vacation leave.

In the modern world, broadband is a necessity, not a luxury.

Offshore tax havens are nothing but legalized tax fraud and the fiscally responsible thing, and the just thing, to do is to eliminate them.

Suddenly, it was dawning on Americans that health care should not be an employee benefit. It should be understood as a human right.

Since 2001, nearly sixty thousand manufacturing plants in this country have been shut down and boarded up, and we have lost more than 4.8 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs.