SEN BERNIE SANDERS: My plan for a Trump presidency. What I would — and wouldn’t — do

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 as an anti-establishment figure ready to take the political stage and act on behalf of working families. When Trump is willing to move forward in that direction, I will gladly support him. If he doesn’t, I will strongly oppose him.

Trump said America should not be paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. You are right. Under President Biden, we have made some good progress in reducing the very high costs of prescription drugs in this country, including having Medicare negotiate prices with the medical industry. But much remains to be done. I look forward to working with President Trump on legislation that will end the stupidity of Americans paying, by far, the highest price in the world for prescription drugs. We must have the courage to take on the selfishness of the pharmaceutical industry and reduce the price of medicines dramatically.

At a time when many financially poor Americans are paying 20 or 30% interest on their credit cards, President Trump has indicated that he wants to lower credit card interest rates to 10%. You are right. I will soon introduce bipartisan legislation to protect Americans from being ripped off by the credit card industry and I look forward to his support.

BERNIE SANDERS PLANS LEGISLATION ON TRUMP’S KEY 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 the country and moved abroad for cheaper labor. As a staunch opponent of those deals, 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.

Other Trump appointees also made important points. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is right when he says that food companies are “poisoning” our young people with highly processed foods that cause obesity, heart disease and other serious health problems. The Trump administration and Congress must take on the greed of the food industry and build a healthier America.

At a time when many large corporations are often breaking the law and engaging in illegal union busting, Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been supporting the PRO Act, which would protect workers’ right to join a union and bargain for betterment. salary, benefits and working conditions. You are right. Workers must have the right to join a union without unlawful interference by their management. I look forward to working with the Trump administration to pass the PRO Act into law.

TRUMP NOMINATES REP. LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER AS LABOR SECRETARY

No one denies that we must end waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, for example, is right when he points out that the Pentagon has failed seven audits and cannot fully account for its more than $800 billion budget. We must make the Department of Defense more efficient, save taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year and cut spending.

But let me be clear. While I am very willing to work with the Trump administration on areas of agreement, I have strong disagreements with the positions that Trump has proposed.

At a time of great income and wealth inequality, when the wealthiest people have never had it so good, it would be outrageous to give hundreds of billions of dollars in extra tax breaks to the biggest corporations and wealthiest people in this country. Any new tax cuts should go to the working families of this country. Billionaires and big profitable companies should start paying their fair share of taxes.

SEN BERNIE SANDERS: TWO AMERICAS, THE PEOPLE VS. BILLIONS

In addition, we should not deprive millions of people of the health care they have by making huge cuts to Medicaid and other public health programs, which is how some Republicans want to pay for 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 10 years have been the warmest on record, and as a result, we’ve seen unprecedented weather disruptions across the United States and the world. While Los Angeles is dealing with devastating wildfires and North Carolina is still recovering from devastating floods, Trump is fatally wrong when he says climate change is “a hoax.” Almost the entire scientific community understands that climate change is real, caused by carbon emissions and is a serious threat to the well-being of our children and future generations. We must, together with the rest of the global community, fight climate change.

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We must not engage in mass deportations of 20 million people from this country, most of whom have worked and lived here almost their entire lives and are an important part of our economy. We need to stop illegal crossings by tightening borders and we must deport people who commit serious crimes. But we must not separate millions of families, put children in cages, or unconstitutionally use the US military to round up immigrants in door-to-door searches.

Trump’s Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent is wrong when he opposes 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 absurd that millions of Americans continue to work for starvation wages. We should raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $17 an hour.

We must not allow billionaire oligarchs to buy our government. Trump has always said he wants the Republican Party to represent the needs of working people. Well, you don’t do that by rounding up the richest people in the world and putting 13 billionaires in your cabinet, many of whom have a direct financial stake in the industries they are charged with regulating. In addition, we need real campaign finance reforms that prevent billionaires from 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 have to live paycheck to paycheck, why we have high and growing income and wealth inequality, why 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, why 25% of adults in America are struggling to make ends meet for $15,000 per year. or less, why young people leave college deep in debt, or why child care is unaffordable for millions of families. We can do better. We have to do better.

I look forward to working with President Trump as he stands with the working families of this country. I will strongly oppose him when he represents the interests of the billionaire class and wealthy special interests.

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