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Newly elected President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 as an anti-establishment populist willing to take on the political class and act on behalf of working families. If Trump is willing to continue in that direction, I will be happy to support him. If he doesn’t, I will strongly oppose him.
Trump has said the United States should not pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. He’s right. Below President Bidenwe have made good progress in lowering the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs in this country, including by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with the pharmaceutical industry. But much more needs to be done. I look forward to working with President Trump on legislation that would end the absurdity of Americans paying by far the highest price in the world for prescription drugs. We must have the courage to tackle the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and substantially reduce drug prices.
At a time when many financially strapped Americans are paying 20 or 30% interest on their credit cards, President Trump has stated that he wants to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. He’s right. I will soon introduce bipartisan legislation to protect Americans from credit card industry scams and I look forward to his support.
BERNIE SANDERS PLANS TO LEAD LEGISLATION ON TRUMP’S MAJOR PROPOSAL
President Trump has rightly pointed out that disastrous trade deals like NAFTA and PNTR with China have cost millions of American jobs as companies shut down production in this country and moved abroad to find cheap labor. As someone who strongly opposes these agreements, I look forward to working with the Trump Administration on new trade policies that will protect American workers and create good-paying jobs in our country.
Some of Trump’s nominees have also made important points. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is right when he says food companies are “poisoning” our youth with highly processed foods that cause obesity. heart disease and other serious health problems. The Trump Administration and Congress must address food industry greed and create a healthier America.
At a time when many major corporations are routinely breaking the law and engaging in illegal union fraud, Secretary of Labor nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer has sponsored the PRO Act, which would protect workers’ right to join a union and to negotiate better working conditions. wages, benefits and employment conditions. She’s right. Workers should have the right to join a union without illegal interference from their bosses. I look forward to working with the Trump Administration to sign the PRO Act into law.
TRUMP NOMINATES REP. LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER AS LABOR SECRETARY
No one denies that we need to end waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Muskfor example, is right to point it out that the Pentagon has failed seven audits and cannot fully justify its $800 billion-plus budget. We need to make the Department of Defense much more efficient, saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year and making cuts.
But let me be clear. Although I am more than willing to deal with the Trump administration in areas where there is agreement, I have some very serious disagreements with the positions Trump has proposed.
At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the richest people have never had it better, it would be a shame to offer hundreds of billions of dollars in additional tax breaks to big corporations and the richest people in this country. Each new tax cuts should go to the working families of this country. Billionaires and large profitable companies must pay their fair share of taxes.
SEN BERNIE SANDERS: TWO AMERICAS, THE PEOPLE VS. THE BILLIONAIRES
Furthermore, we should not throw millions of people off the health care they have by making massive cuts to Medicaid and other public health programs, which is how some Republicans want to pay for their tax cuts for the wealthy. Medicaid is a lifeline not only for millions of low-income Americans, but also for more than a million seniors in nursing homes and people with disabilities.
The past decade has been the warmest on record, and as a result, we have seen unprecedented extreme weather events in the United States and around the world. While Los Angeles experiences devastating wildfires and North Carolina is still recovering from devastating floods, Trump is dangerously wrong when he claims climate change is a hoax. Virtually the entire scientific community understands that climate change is real, is caused by carbon emissions, and poses an enormous threat to the well-being of our children and future generations. We must, together with the entire global community, fight climate change.
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We must not engage in the mass deportation of twenty million people in this country, many of whom have worked and lived here virtually all their lives and are an essential part of our economy. We have to stop illegal border crossings with strict border enforcement and must deport people who commit serious criminal offenses from the country. But we should not break up millions of families, put children in cages, or unconstitutionally use the U.S. military to round up immigrants in door-to-door searches.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary candidate Scott Bessant is wrong to oppose the need to raise the federal minimum wage. At a time when the $7.25 minimum wage has not been raised in 15 years, it is unconscionable that millions of Americans continue to work for a pittance. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $17 an hour.
American investor and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent testifies before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on his nomination for Treasury Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2025. (Getty)
We cannot allow billionaire oligarchs to buy our government. Trump has repeatedly claimed he wants that Republican Party to represent the needs of working people. Well, you don’t do that by surrounding yourself with the richest people in the world and putting thirteen billionaires in your cabinet, many of whom have a direct financial interest in the industries they are charged with regulating. Furthermore, we need real campaign finance reform that stops billionaires in both parties from buying elections.
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Let us never forget that we are the richest country in the history of the world. There is no reason why 60% of Americans should have to live paycheck to paycheck, why we have massive and growing income and wealth inequality, why 85 million Americans are uninsured or being underinsured, why 25% of America’s seniors try to live on $15,000 a year or less, why young people leave college with deep debt, or why child care is unaffordable for millions of families. We can do better. We must do better.
I look forward to working with you President Trump when he stands with the working families of this country. I will vigorously oppose him if he represents the needs of the billionaire class and wealthy special interests.
