Sanders warns lawmakers not to ‘go to war on the working class’ during debt negotiations

Story by Julia Mueller • Yesterday 

Sanders warns lawmakers not to ‘go to war on the working class’ during debt negotiations © Provided by The Hill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said he’s open to some spending cuts as Congress works out how to deal with the debt ceiling and the threat of default, but knocked House Republicans’ recent proposal and warned lawmakers not to “go to war against the working class.”

“I think we can move toward cutting military spending. We’re now spending 10 times more than … any other country on Earth, massive cost overruns in the Pentagon. I’m certainly open to demanding that the largest corporations in this country and the wealthiest people start paying their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” when asked whether he’d consider other spending cuts as part of an ultimate deal.

“And I’m willing to look at any other proposals. There’s a lot of waste within government. Let’s go after it. But don’t go to war against the working class of this country, lower-income people. Don’t tell kids that they can’t afford to go to college or cut back on public education in America. We have already too much inequality in America. Let’s not make it worse,” he added.

The Republican-controlled House last week passed a bill to raise the borrowing limit and cut spending, which now has little chance of getting through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sanders on Sunday said President Biden is “right” to push for a “clean” debt limit increase instead.

“What we need is a clean debt ceiling bill. You pay your bills, and then you can sit down and negotiate what a sensible budget is,” Sanders said.

“What the Republicans are saying in their budget proposal is that, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the richest people are becoming much richer, while working-class people are struggling, what they want to do is to cut programs for nutrition, for education, for health care, throw hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people off the health care they need,” the senator said.

Sanders also said Biden can “start negotiating tomorrow” on possible spending cuts.

“But you cannot be holding the American people or the world’s economy hostage. What the Republicans have got to say is, absolutely, we are going to make sure that we pay our debts. Let’s sit down and negotiate a budget.”