One possible Democratic presidential candidate would rather focus on inequality than buy into the Obama administration’s “middle-class economics” rhetoric.
“Today, the most serious problem we face is the grotesque and growing level of wealth and income inequality,” said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday.
Sanders is an independent self-identified socialist who caucuses with Democrats and is the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee. He is also “giving serious thought” to running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, he said. This weekend he promised a “real clash of ideas” with former secretary of state and presumed candidate Hillary Clinton if they both run.
With his platform on the Budget Committee, Sanders has sought to push an unapologetically progressive agenda and has also sketched out a possible left-wing platform for a Democratic run, setting himself apart from Clinton on financial regulation and trade in particular.
At the top of his priorities is countering inequality, which he blamed not only for harming overall prosperity but also for allowing wealthy donors to co-opt the political process.
Citing, specifically, the plans of the libertarian Koch brothers for fundraising and campaign spending in 2016, Sanders warned that the U.S. was not a democracy but an “oligarchy.”
Other Democrats, including President Obama, have shied away from explicitly invoking inequality as the top problem facing the country, a framing that can be perceived as divisive. Instead, Obama has preferred to focus on the middle class and economic growth.
But Sanders made populist resentment a main part of his appeal. “There are a lot of angry people out there — all across the country,” he said in prepared remarks for his speech at the Brookings Institution.
Legislation to undo the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision is a necessity to limit corporate influence in politics, Sanders said.
Otherwise, the 73 year-old senator has laid out a 12-point economic program, heavy on infrastructure spending and government programs to provide universal single-payer health care, paid work leave for parents, and tuition-free higher education.
Sanders also is a proponent of progressive taxation and tighter regulation of banks.
“I happen to believe that the business model of Wall Street is fraud and deception,” Sanders said Monday, noting that banking in theory serves an important purpose.
He departs from some Democrats, including the Obama administration, in opposing many trade agreements, and said that he wants to avoid a “race to the bottom” on labor standards.
Although he is interested in running for the presidency, Sanders acknowledged that he faces steep odds and a likely funding disadvantage, and said that he doesn’t “want to run a futile campaign.” He would only run if he thought the grassroots support would be strong enough to give him adequate funding.
