MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript
Interview
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Tonight was a real kick in the teeth by the United States Senate to middle classers across this country. Your reaction?
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: It is beyond my comprehension how when we have, in real terms, Ed, 16 percent of our people unemployed, 25 million Americans, when we have millions more who work longer hours for lower wages, when we have an economy today which is in as bad a shape as any time since the Great Depression -- it is literally beyond my comprehension how we could not get one Republican vote in order to put millions of people back to work.
SCHULTZ: Senator, what is the upside of voting no if you`re a Democrat and you stand for Democratic values?
SANDERS: Well, you got me. I don`t understand that either. I think if you go out on any street corner in the United States of America, and you ask people, do you think we need a major jobs program which, among other things, rebuilds our crumbling infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our water system, public transportation, I think the vast majority of the people say yes; let`s put Americans back to work rebuilding this country.
In terms of laying off teachers, we have a great crisis in education. Let me tell you, Ed, the solution is not laying off hundreds of thousands of teachers or police officers or firemen. We`ve got to get them back to
work as well. So I can`t understand why, in the midst of this economic crisis, anyone would vote against this bill.
In my view, we`ve got to go a lot further, to be honest with you, than the president proposed. I would put a lot more money into infrastructure, into energy. And I think we can create a whole lot of jobs doing that.
SCHULTZ: So what kind of political climate does this create for President Obama? He`s put a lot of political capital into this. Been out on the road. He`s got the polling with him on this. But he didn`t get the
Senate to vote his way tonight. Where does this leave him?
SANDERS: From a political position, I think it leaves him in very, very good shape. I think the overwhelming majority of the American people understand that the Republican agenda is a fringe agenda. These are the
guys who do not want to support job creation because they think it would be good for President Obama.
These are the guys who want to destroy Social Security and Medicare. These are the people who, with a huge deficit, want to give more tax breaks to the richest people in this country. And they also want to continue to deregulate Wall Street, after Wall Street has caused the recession we`re in.
So I think this right wing Republican agenda is a fringe agenda. I think from the political point of view, Obama has got to keep running around the country, talking truth to the American people.
SCHULTZ: It is obstruction at an unprecedented level. Do you think the American people get it? Is that what these 99ers are all about, the 99 percent that`s out there.
SANDERS: I think the American people do get it. I think the protesters are touching a real nerve end. Because what the protesters are saying is there is something wrong when the crooks on Wall Street who
caused this recession are now making more money than they ever did before, while unemployment is soaring and people have lost their homes and their life savings as a result of what Wall Street has done.
The other point they`re making, which needs to be made, is this great country cannot survive economically when we continue to have such a gross disparity in income and wealth, where you have the top 400 Americans owning more wealth than the bottom one half of America.
SCHULTZ: Senator, on a different matter tonight, the Republican debate took place. And Newt Gingrich made the comment that he thinks that Dodd and Frank should be in jail. What`s your response to that?
SANDERS: Well, that tells us why Newt is doing quite so well in the Republican primary. I think that`s what it tells us.
SCHULTZ: Senator Sanders, good to have you with us tonight. Thanks so much.
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