CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Bernie Sanders

Interview

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COOPER: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today told reporters that a final vote on the COVID Relief Bill the Senate passed over the weekend would come quote, "Wednesday morning at the latest," unquote.

Speaker Pelosi also said she does not expect more Democrats in the House to vote against the bill because of changes made to the Senate Bill.

Let's get perspective now on this legislation from Senate Budget Committee Chairman Senator Bernie Sanders. Chairman Sanders, thanks for being with us.

So you hear what Speaker Pelosi says. It looks as though the bill is on track to be signed by President Biden this week. Obviously, it doesn't include a Federal minimum wage hike, something you were very determined I know to include. Despite that, are you satisfied with what the bill ended up with?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Anderson, in my view, this is the most significant legislation for working people that has been passed in decades, and what this legislation is about is looking out around our country in the midst of this terrible pandemic, the economic decline, the fact that the education of our kids has been disrupted, that people are facing eviction, families are facing hunger.

We've looked at all of these issues. And we said: what can we do? And I think what shocks many in the establishment, and certainly my Republican colleagues is that we wrote a bill to address the crisis facing working families and the middle class and low-income people, and not the wealthy and large corporations and their lobbyists.

So this bill is enormously significant and at the top of our list is the understanding that the American people know to be true, is that we're not going to get our kids back to school safely.

We're not going to get our economy humming the way it should be, and create the millions of jobs we need to create unless we crush the pandemic, and we are putting billions of dollars into making sure that we are producing the amount of vaccines that we need, and we're developing a mechanism to get those vaccines into the arms of the American people.

[20:20:03]

SANDERS: The Biden administration, I think in the last month has made real progress, but we have a long, long way to go because every day that somebody is not getting a vaccine is the day that that person may get the COVID virus and die.

COOPER: In terms of the $15.00 an hour minimum wage, how do you want to proceed with that? Clearly, that's still something on your agenda.

SANDERS: Oh, it is absolutely on my agenda, Anderson. If you would have asked me what the great crisis in the American economy is today, we can talk about a lot of things.

But to my mind, the fact that half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck and that many millions of people are working for starvation wages, that eight, nine, ten bucks an hour, you can't live on that. Minimum wage has not been raised by Congress since 2007, and it stands today at $7.25 an hour.

So we are developing a strategy, and if anybody thinks that the vote that we had the other day on the minimum wage is the last vote that is taking place this session, they're going to be there very, very wrong. I am going to pass that bill.

COOPER: There are some Democrats who did not want that.

SANDERS: Now, I know. Believe me, I know. But at the end of the day, the American people want it, overwhelmingly large numbers of people support raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, eight states have already voted to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. Many communities and cities have done the same.

So we're going to do what the American people want one way or another, we are going to pass the $15.00 an hour minimum wage.

COOPER: I just want to go back to something you said at the beginning that you think this is the most significant piece of legislation in decades. Can you just talk more about why you think that is? And what does it say that, you know, the first relief in the beginning, this pandemic got overwhelming Republican support as well. This got no Republican support. What does that say to you?

SANDERS: Well, it says to me that the Republicans are have turned their back on the needs of working families. They used the reconciliation process a few years ago to give a trillion dollars in tax breaks for the top one percent and large corporations. They used the reconciliation process to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act and throw 30 million people off of their healthcare that they had.

What we are using reconciliation for is to address the crises facing working families. What does that mean? It means that hopefully within a couple of weeks, some 85 percent of American households will receive a direct payment check.

Now, that direct payment will be $1,400.00 for every working-class adult, individuals $75,000.00 or less, couples, $150,000.00 or less, plus your children. Family of four gets help of $5,600.00.

And in the midst of this crisis, God only knows that millions and millions of families desperately need that boost. What this legislation does, Anderson, is it addresses a crisis that this country has ignored for too long.

We have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of any major country on Earth. This legislation will expand the child tax credit and lower childhood poverty in America by up to 50 percent.

Yes, we're going to pay attention to the kids in America, many of whom are struggling for a variety of reasons. This legislation says that in the richest country in the history of the world, people should not be going hungry.

In my community, Burlington, Vermont, a few months ago, hundreds of cars lined up for emergency food packages taking place all over this country. This legislation provides help so that when the moratorium on evictions end, people will get assistance to stay in their homes, whether it's a rental unit or your own home.

This legislation more than doubles funding for community health centers. In my state, about 25 percent of people get their medical care. They've got their dental care. They've got low-cost prescription drugs, mental health counseling through community health centers. We have more than doubled funding it.

We're putting money into getting doctors into underserved areas. We're putting money into making sure that millions of workers do not lose the pensions that they were promised.

So this legislation is quite comprehensive in attempting to address the needs of working families. And obviously, the next reconciliation bill will deal with our structural problems, not just the emergency problems of how we can create millions of good paying jobs, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and transforming our energy system to protect us from climate change.

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COOPER: Senator Sanders, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

SANDERS: Thank you very much.

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