I think what the American people are saying is enough is enough. This country, this great country, belongs to all of us. It cannot continue to be controlled by a handful of billionaires who apparently want it all.
It costs a hell of a lot more money to put somebody in jail than send them to the University of Virginia.
It's time to make our government work for all of us... and not just the 1%.
We need a very progressive and strong agenda to bring people into the political process because I worry very much about the future of the American democracy where so many people are giving up.
I'm not that much of a socialist compared to Eisenhower.
What kind of nation are we when we give tax breaks to billionaires, but we can't take care of the elderly and the children.
Brothers and sisters: Now is not the time for thinking small, now is not the time for the same-old, same-old establishment politics and stale inside-the-Beltway ideas.
We need to change the power structure in America, we need to end the political oligarchy.
The United States must join the rest of the industrialized world, guarantee health care to all people as a right.
The point is change can come about, but it only comes about when millions of people are actively involved in political struggle, the billionaires may have the money, but we have the people.
An America where every person, no matter their race, their disability or their sexual orientation realizes the full promise of equality that is our birthright as Americans.
Today, the top one-tenth of 1% owns nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The economic game is rigged, and this level of inequality is unsustainable. We need an economy that works for all, not just the powerful.
Americans' right to free speech should not be proportionate to their bank accounts.
The only way change happens is when people become more significantly involved in the political process.
It's better to show up than to give up.
The problems we face, did not come down from the heavens. They are made, they are made by bad human decisions, and good human decisions can change them.
What my campaign is about is a political revolution - millions of people standing up and saying, enough is enough. Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the hand full of billionaires.
Finally, let understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win.
![Real change never occurs from the top on down, [but] always from the bottom on up.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/bernie-sanders-77483.jpg)
Real change never occurs from the top on down, [but] always from the bottom on up.
A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little.
To me, democratic socialism means democracy. It means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country.
You go to your public library, or you call your fire department or police department, what do you think you are calling? These are socialist institutions.
It used to be that I was known as 'the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress,' which is true. Now I'm a 'self-professed democratic socialist.' Things change when you run for president.
I think there are a lot of people who, when they hear the word 'socialist,' get very, very nervous.
Bill Clinton is a moderate Democrat. I'm a democratic socialist.
Democratic socialism means, that in a democratic, civilized society, the wealthiest people and the largest corporations must pay their fair share of taxes.
I certainly did not know what the word 'socialism' meant growing up, because I was brought up in a very nonpolitical family. My brother was somewhat active, but my parents were not.
Social Security, which transformed life for the elderly in this country, was 'socialist.' The concept of the 'minimum wage' was seen as a radical intrusion into the marketplace and was described as 'socialist.'
Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.
Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United and end the movement toward oligarchy that we are seeing in this country.
We have got to defeat Donald Trump, and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine.
It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues.
Our job is to do two things - to defeat Donald Trump and to elect Hillary Clinton. It is easy to boo, but it is harder to look your kids in the face if we are living under a Trump presidency.
Any objective observer will conclude that - based on her ideas and her leadership - Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States.
Hillary Clinton will nominate justices to the Supreme Court who are prepared to overturn Citizens United!
Together, together, my friends, we have begun a political revolution to transform America, and that revolution, our revolution, continues!
Let me thank the 2 1/2 million Americans who helped fund our campaign with an unprecedented 8 million individual campaign contributions. Anyone know what that average contribution was? That's right, $27.
But what I intend to do, the day after Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States, is to do everything I can to make sure she goes forward as progressively as she can.
Clinton understands that in a competitive global economy we need the best-educated workforce in the world. She and I worked together on a proposal that will revolutionize higher education in America.
We have over 13 million people who supported my candidacy. And I have no doubt that there are some of those people who will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton wants to see that all Americans have the right to choose a public option in their health care exchange.
Hillary Clinton understands that a president's job is to worry about future generations, not the short-term profits of the fossil fuel industry.
Why, over her political career has Wall Street been a major - the major campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton? You know, maybe they're dumb and they don't know what they're going to get, but I don't think so.
It is time for Congress to save the Postal Service, not dismantle it.
At the insistence of the Bush administration, Congress in 2006 passed legislation that required the Postal Service to prefund, over a 10-year period, 75 years of future retiree health benefits.
The minimum wage in Denmark is about twice that of the United States, and people who are totally out of the labor market or unable to care for themselves have a basic income guarantee of about $100 per day.
Denmark is a small, homogenous nation of about 5.5 million people. The United States is a melting pot of more than 315 million people. No question about it, Denmark and the United States are very different countries.
Mitt Romney's energy policy is a relic of the 19th century. We need a 21st century plan. The fate of the planet is at stake.
The Department of Defense, the largest single energy consumer in America, is bullish on solar.
While I may not agree with all of President Obama's energy policies, I strongly supported his successful effort to double fuel economy standards for cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
Before Social Security existed, about half of America's senior citizens lived in poverty.
If you want to know if your food contains gluten, aspartame, high fructose corn syrup, trans-fats or MSG, you simply read the ingredients listed on the label.
In 49 countries around the world, including all of Europe, people have the opportunity of knowing whether or not they are eating food which contains genetically engineered ingredients. In the United States, we don't.
When a mother goes to the store and purchases food for her child, she has the right to know what she is feeding her family.
Fossil fuel corporations are supposed to pay the government fair market royalties in exchange for the right to drill on public lands or in federal waters.
Coal and oil lobbyists added fossil fuels to a bill aimed at helping American manufacturers, so they too could claim 'manufacturing' tax deductions.
I have seven beautiful grandchildren, four of whom are girls.
History will record that the Citizens United decision is one of the worst in the history of our country.
If the U.S. can transform its domestic market for HIV/AIDS drugs, it will certainly transform the world market and make HIV/AIDS drugs more affordable for everyone, everywhere.
From the beginning, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has presented very difficult challenges.
When World AIDS Day was first observed in 1988, there was no truly effective treatment for what was almost always a deadly disease.
The Federal Reserve has the responsibility to protect the credit rights of consumers.
We should make a major financial commitment to improving our roads and bridges.
For too long, unfunded federal mandates have drained the budgets of states and communities. The strength and vitality of our communities must be restored.
Vermonters often ask me whether I am pessimistic about the future of our country. My honest answer is that I am not.
States used to protect consumers from predatory lenders, but strong state usury laws were obliterated by a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Finland is no utopia.
In Finland, where 80 percent of workers belong to unions, all employees enjoy at least 30 days paid vacation, and the gap between the rich and poor is far more equitable than in the United States.
Representative Spencer Bachus is one of the only people I know from Alabama. I bet I'm the only socialist he knows.
If credit unions can grow and prosper with a 15 percent cap, so can banks.
In 2003, GlaxoSmithKline paid $88 million in civil fines for overcharging Medicaid for its anti-depressant Paxil.
In 2004, Warner-Lambert, a division of Pfizer Inc., pled guilty to two felonies and agreed to pay $430 million for fraudulently promoting the drug Neurontin.
In 1999, Hoffmann-LaRoche paid a $500 million criminal fine for leading a worldwide conspiracy to fix prices for certain vitamins.
For every $1 billion we invest in public transportation, we create 30,000 jobs, save thousands of dollars a year for each commuter, and dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions.
I see a future where American companies lead the world in the production of hybrid-plug in cars and electric vehicles.
Even the alternative weekly newspapers, traditionally a bastion of progressive thought and analysis, have been bought by a monopoly franchise and made a predictable shift to the right in their coverage of local news.
The right wing has monopolized the AM radio airwaves.
Private insurance companies in America are reaping huge profits.
For much of America, the all-American values depicted in Norman Rockwell's classic illustrations are idealistic. For those of us from Vermont, they're realistic. That's what we do.
Ted Kennedy devoted his lifetime to protecting those most in need, and tens of millions of Americans have been the beneficiaries.
Ted Kennedy will go down in history as one of the giants of the U.S. Senate and one the most accomplished legislators in American history.
The Senate voted 59 to 39 in favor of an amendment I offered to the Budget Resolution calling on the Fed to tell the American people who they loaned $2.2 trillion to and how much each bank received.
Capitalism does a number of things very well: it helps create an entrepreneurial spirit; it gets people motivated to come up with new ideas, and that's a good thing.
If we are going to reverse the race to the bottom, workers must have the right to engage in collective bargaining.
I am not aware how you succeed politically when you insult women, who far more than men consistently provide you with great margins of support.
In 2005, Republicans passed a 360-page reconciliation bill without a single Democratic vote that provided deep cuts to Medicaid and raised premiums on Medicare beneficiaries.
In 2001, Republicans used reconciliation to pass President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut that mainly benefited the wealthy.
In 1996, Republicans used reconciliation to pass major legislation that ended six decades of welfare policy.
Senate Republicans have engaged in a record number of filibusters and other obstructionist tactics.
If we completely repealed the estate tax, it would provide an estimated $32 billion tax break for the Walton family - the founders of Wal-Mart.
While commentators on Fox and right-wing radio have the backing of Rupert Murdoch, a major Republican contributor, and other conservative corporations, progressives understand that their position is extremely vulnerable.
If there is a silver lining in the action of MSNBC against Keith Olbermann, it is that people will now pay more attention to the political role of corporate media in America.
Comcast rents modems directly to consumers, thereby competing directly with companies like Zoom. It has every reason to make Zoom modems more expensive or even to drive companies like Zoom out of business.
Citizens in a democracy need diverse sources of news and information.
Each and every year, the United States loses an estimated $100 billion a year in tax revenues due to offshore tax abuses by the wealthy and large corporations.
Ford's federal income tax rate was just 2.3 percent in 2009 even though it made $3 billion in profits.
Before Congress cuts funding for Head Start, Social Security, and financial aid for college, we have got to make sure that large, profitable corporations are paying their fair share of taxes.
The deficit crisis is real and must be addressed. But it cannot be solved on the backs of the weak and vulnerable.
Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999.
There must be a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages.
People don't trust private health insurance companies for all the right reasons.
As a result of the digital age and the decline of first-class mail, there is no question that the Postal Service must change and develop a new business model.
