MSNBC "Interview With Senator Bernie Sanders" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. BREWER: Good Tuesday, everyone. I'm Contessa Brewer, live at the politics desk. The president says the economic crisis will become a catastrophe without quick action, but Republicans say they won't vote for a bill passed with new spending.

Independent Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders plans to vote in favor of the bill. Senator Sanders, great to see you today.

SEN. SANDERS: Good to be with you.

MS. BREWER: I just talked with Senator Barrasso, your Republican colleague from Wyoming, and he says that there are a lot of items in this bill that should be looked at as separate appropriation bills, not as part of the stimulus. Do you agree with that?

SEN. SANDERS: No, I don't. I think this country faces a huge economic crisis. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their savings, their health care, their ability to send their kids to college.

For eight years we had a do-nothing president who believed, as many of the Republicans still continue to believe, that the panacea is to give tax breaks to billionaires, and everything else will work out. That's wrong.

The American people want us to invest in our infrastructure. They want energy independence. They want sustainable energy. They want clean water. They want their kids to be able to go to college. When people lose their jobs, Contessa, I think what the American people understand -- we have to reach out. We have to provide them with health care.

Hunger in the United States of America is growing. We have to deal with that.

MS. BREWER: But --

SEN. SANDERS: Let me also say this. Many of my friends, Republican friends, will say, "Oh, look at all of this spending." You know what they believe? They believe we should repeal the estate tax today, which would provide a trillion dollars in tax relief to the wealthiest three-tenths of 1 percent.

So give me a break when they talk about their concerns about spending.

MS. BREWER: But when we talk about food stamps or Head Start spending, I'm not arguing that those things are (sic) valuable programs, but your Republican colleagues think that they don't belong in this stimulus bill. Explain to me, if you will, how the social program spending helps the economy.

SEN. SANDERS: Okay. Well, first --

MS. BREWER: How does it grow jobs?

SEN. SANDERS: First of all, in the midst of an economic crisis, people are going hungry. You've got to make sure that our fellow Americans don't go hungry.

MS. BREWER: But how does that stimulate the economy -- making sure that people don't go hungry?

SEN. SANDERS: Contessa, in the United States of America, we don't allow people to go hungry. You don't allow children to sleep out in the street.

In terms of Head Start, you know, I am a strong believer -- rebuilding our infrastructure. I'm a strong believer in moving us to sustainable energy and creating jobs there. Do you know what? Head Start and child care also create jobs. Yes, maybe they're women's jobs. Maybe they don't pay as much as we would like. Those are jobs as well.

But in the midst of the economic crisis, obviously the main thrust there is to create jobs. But second of all, there are a lot of people who are hurting.

MS. BREWER: Right.

SEN. SANDERS: When they lose their jobs, we've got to help those people as well.

MS. BREWER: Senator Sanders, what happens if the nation embraces this bill, the senators are going to pass it, there's going to be some agreement in conference, and the president signs a stimulus bill -- what happens if it doesn't work?

SEN. SANDERS: Well, let's define what we mean by "doesn't work." If the goal that my Republican friends are suggesting is, oh, Barack Obama says if you pass this bill, the economic crisis is going to end tomorrow, that's not true. We are hemorrhaging 5(00,000), 600,000 jobs a month. We hope that within a couple of years' time, this program, this stimulus package, will create 4 million jobs. We're still hemorrhaging jobs.

MS. BREWER: Yeah.

SEN. SANDERS: There's a lot more that we have to do. But right now we've had eight years of a president and a philosophy which has obliterated the middle class and increased poverty. We've got to move this country in a very different direction.

MS. BREWER: Senator Sanders, I always love when you come on. I appreciate your conversation. Thanks.

SEN. SANDERS: Thank you very much.

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