MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Joining me now is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Senator,
I want to take you to my Vulture Chart right away here, the chart that we
show a lot. The two top two percent, their income over the last 30 years
has gone through the roof, over 300 percent.

The middle class, of course, is the blue line. That`s how much the
middle class has moved forward in this country over the last 30 years. So
when people on the radio ask me, well, what`s fair. There`s your
definition of fairness right there. Your thoughts, senator.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Well, Ed, I think the average
American understands that the middle class in our country today is
collapsing. They see poverty increasing. But they also know that the
wealthiest people are doing phenomenally well.

A study just came out -- and if you can believe it -- this is really
unbelievable. Between 2009 and 2010, 93 percent of all new income went to
the top one percent. Ninety nine percent of the people shared seven
percent.

You have the 400 wealthiest people in this country owning more wealth
than the bottom half of America, 150 million Americans. Then on top of
that, the effective tax rate for the very rich is the lowest that it has
been in decades, where as you have just shown us, you have billionaires
paying a lower effective tax rates than teachers and firefighters.

SCHULTZ: I kind of viewed the Buffet Rule as a start. Really as a
start.

SANDERS: Exactly.

SCHULTZ: I mean, you think we should have gone further.

SANDERS: Absolutely. Look, here is what worries me very much, Ed: if
we don`t turn this around, we are going to lose the democratic foundations
that have made this country the nation that it is. And we are going to
move very rapidly, which is where we`re going right now, into an oligarchic
form of society, where a handful of people on the top control not only the
economics of the nation, they control the politics as well.

SCHULTZ: Well, I think when you`re looking at 72 percent of the
American people want something and the Congress doesn`t deliver, what does
that tell you?

SANDERS: That tells you that our Republican friends are in the pocket
of big money interests. And they understand, by the way -- and this should
also concern us -- that with Citizens United Supreme Court decision, these
billionaires are pumping huge amounts of money into the political process
so that they can become even wealthier.

SCHULTZ: Senator, Republicans love to talk about the percentage of
Americans who pay no federal income taxes. What they want to do is they
want to take blood out of a rock, is what they want to do. They want the
working poor to ante up. What`s your response to these folks that say
everybody`s got to pay?

SANDERS: The response is you`re quite right. Median family income
has gone down precipitously in the last 10 years. We`ve lost millions of
good paying jobs. You have the top one percent now earning more income
than the bottom 50 percent.

You have millions and millions of people today, Ed, who are struggling
to pay their mortgage or rent, to buy food, to put gas in the car. You
know what? They are -- by the way, they are paying federal taxes in terms
of FICA taxes. But you`re quite right. You can`t get blood out of a stone
when the middle class is shrinking.

SCHULTZ: Well, how are these guys going go home -- or these people
that vote against what the American people want, go home and tell their
constituents, you know, we have to do more for the wealthy? For the life
of me, I don`t know how they`re going to get reelected.

That`s another subject. Senator, great to have you with us. Thanks
so much.

SANDERS: Good to be here.

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