Bernie Sanders on Corporations Socialist Jr Senator; previously Representative (VT-At-Large)

Sub-sections under Corporations:
• Banking Reform
• Voting Record
• Other issues under Corporations

Let's create America that works for all, not handful on top

If Teddy Roosevelt saw modern banks he'd say "break them up"

CLINTON: You can look at what I did in the Senate. I've laid out a very aggressive plan to rein in Wall Street-- not just the big banks. We have to go after what is called the shadow banking industry. Those hedge funds. I want to look at the whole problem; my proposal is much more comprehensive than anything else that's been put forth.

Q: Sen. Sanders, you said that the donations to Secretary Clinton are compromising. So what did you think of her answer?

SANDERS: Not good enough. Let's not be naive about it. Over her political career has Wall Street been the major campaign contributor to Hillary Clinton? You know, maybe they're dumb and they don't know what they're going to get, but I don't think so. If Teddy Roosevelt, a good Republican, were alive today, you know what he'd say? "Break them up." Reestablish Glass-Steagall. And Teddy Roosevelt is right.

Fix estate tax so mega-rich pay their fair share

How would that tax policy work? Bernie has many ideas, but here are some major planks of his plan for more equitable taxation:
1. Progressive income taxes on the richest Americans.
2. Fixing the estate tax so mega-rich families pay their fair share.
3. Taxing corporations more fairly, including addressing tax havens.
4. Taxing Wall Street speculation.

If a bank is too big to fail, it is too big to exist

Worker-owned cooperatives instead of corporate tax breaks

Bank bailout was socialism for the rich

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and I don't agree on much, but I thought he did a great job of describing the Fed and the bank bailouts as: "A clear case of socialism for the rich; and rugged-you're-on-your-own-individualism for everyone else."

The Fed, with unlimited ability to print money, now prints that money to lobby against Congressional oversight. It is a disgrace and every citizen in the land should rise up and say: We the people are in charge and we demand an audit!

Americans want change: corporations get rich & people don't

SANDERS: I know that the middle class in this country is collapsing. I know that the gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider. I know there is profound anger at the greed on Wall Street and corporate America. Anger at the political establishments. Anger at the media establishment.

Q: But if Hillary Clinton were speaking more robustly on these issues...

SANDERS: The issue is not Hillary. The question is: At a time when so many people have seen a decline in their standard of living, when the wealthiest people and largest corporations are doing phenomenally well, the American people want change. So, let Hillary speak for herself. I know where I'm coming from.

Investigate huge dairy processors for anti-trust violations

Corporations do not have First Amendment rights

I do not believe that is what American democracy is supposed to be about.

In my view, history will record that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision is one of the worst decisions ever made by a Supreme Court in the history of our country. While the campaign finance system we had before Citizens United was, in my view, a disaster, as a result of Citizens United, that bad situation has become much worse

Greed is addictive; their sickness hurts country terribly

The point that needs to be made is, when is enough enough? Greed, in my view, is like a sickness. It is like an addiction. They can't stop. But I would hope that these people who are worth millions of dollars will look around and say: "There is something more important than the richest people becoming richer when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world." Maybe they will understand that they are Americans, part of a great nation which is in trouble today. Maybe they have to go back to the Bible, whatever they believe in, and understand there is virtue in sharing. This greed, this reckless, uncontrollable greed is almost like a disease which is hurting this country terribly. During the Bush years, the wealthiest 400 Americans saw their wealth increase by some $400 billion.

Small banks did just fine during financial crisis

I come from a small State. We have community banks. Here is the irony: The banks in Vermont, in the midst of all of this financial disaster, did just fine. They are small, locally owned banks. They know the people they lend money to. The CEOs are not making millions of dollars in profit. They know their community. Now, I may be old-fashioned like Mr. Volcker, but I think that is what banking is about: to lend out money to people in the productive economy, to the business community, who can use the money to expand and create jobs; to homeowners who need that money to buy a home, not to be living in your own world engaged in a huge gambling casino producing and selling worthless products nobody understands.

Deregulation led to incredible greed of $39B in CEO bonuses

Cap deductions for CEO pay; count perks as profit

• Change how income of multinational corporations is allocated between nations: increased income--$143.5 billion.
• Eliminate foreign tax credit for multinational corporations and subsidiary income exemption: increased income--$82.5 billion.
• Close loopholes for foreign-owned firms in the US, including bond-interest exemptions: increased income--$1.9 billion.
• Cap deductions for CEO pay, counting excess salary/stock options/perks as taxable profit: increased income--$50 billion.

In 1980s, wealthiest 1% got 2/3 of all wealth increases

During the 1980s, the top 1% of wealth holders in this country enjoyed 2/3 of all increases in financial wealth. The bottom 80% ended up with less real financial wealth in 1989 than in 1983--and that trend continues. Today, tragically, the US has the most unfair distribution of wealth and income in the entire industrialized world.

The needs of the rich & large corporations are never ignored

The auto industry bill was really a bailout for Wall Street

SANDERS: The bill that Secretary Clinton is talking about was the bailout of the recklessness, irresponsibility and illegal behavior of Wall Street. It was the Wall Street bailout. And I find it interesting that when Secretary Clinton, who was the former senator of New York, of course, when she defended her vote, she said, "Well, it's going to help the big banks in New York. Those are my constituents." And then you go to Detroit and suddenly this legislation helps the automobile workers.

If we don't break up banks, we'll be bailing them out again

Corporate America & Wall Street won't like President Sanders

CLINTON: Everybody should. I want to be the president for the striving and the successful. I want to make sure the wealthy pay their fair share,

Q: Will corporate America love a President Sanders?

SANDERS: No, I think they won't. So Hillary and I have a difference. The CEOs of large multinationals may like Hillary. They ain't going to like me and Wall Street is going to like me even less. We need an economy that works for the middle class, not just a handful of billionaires, and I will fight and lead to make that happen.

CLINTON: There are currently two hedge fund billionaires running ads against me here in N.H. Now, why are they running ads against me? And the answer is: Because they know I will go right after them.

Wall Street will not be in my Cabinet; their model is fraud

SANDERS: With all due respect to the secretary, Wall Street play by the rules? Who are we kidding? The business model of Wall Street is fraud. That's what it is. Let me make this promise. Whether it's Republican administrations or Democratic administrations, we have seen Wall Street and Goldman Sachs dominate administrations. Here's my promise: Wall Street representatives will not be in my cabinet.

CLINTON: I represented Wall Street and I worked closely with New Yorkers after 9/11 to rebuild.

SANDERS: Many of us supported you in trying to rebuild that devastation. But at the end of the day, Wall Street today has enormous economic and political power. Their business model is greed and fraud. And for the sake of our economy, the major banks must be broken up.

I'm not part of casino capitalism that wrecked our economy

SANDERS: Every other major country providing health care to all people as a right, except the United States. You see every other major country saying we are going to have medical and family paid leave. I think we should look to countries like Denmark and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people. Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little by which Wall Street's greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don't. I believe in a society where all people do well. Not just a handful of billionaires.

CLINTON: What Senator Sanders is saying certainly makes sense in the terms of the inequality that we have. But we are not Denmark. We are the United States of America.

Fraud is the business model of Wall Street

Make Wall Street bail out Wall Street; but middle class did

Wall Street business model is a fraud & led us to recession

SANDERS: People do not understand why the middle class of this country is collapsing at the same time as almost all of the new income and wealth is going to the top 1%. People do not like the idea that, as a result of Citizens United, our campaign finance system has become corrupt and politicians are dependent upon super PACs and billionaires for money. People want us to deal with climate change, make college affordable. Those are the issues I have been talking about.

Q: You also talk about taking on the billionaire class. Give us some specifics.

SANDERS: I think that the business model of Wall Street is fraud. And I think these guys drove us into the worst economic downturn into the modern history of America. I think they're at it again. I believe that, when you have so few banks with so much power, you have to not only reestablish Glass-Steagall, but you have got to break them up.

Casino-type capitalism causes devastating problems

SANDERS: I think what the pope has been saying in a very profound and deep way is that casino-type capitalism is causing devastating problems not only in terms of our climate but in terms of income and wealth inequality. The pope is saying there's something wrong internationally where almost all of the new wealth in this world is going to people on the top and so many other people are falling by the wayside. So, yes, I think that Pope Francis has played an extraordinary role; he has been a voice of conscience all over the world, speaking out for those people who don't have a voice, those people who are suffering. And what are you saying, enough is enough. Money cannot be the God of life. We have got to look at our kids, look at those people who are hurting; we've got to come together to create a new world and not a world in which a handful of people have so much wealth and so many other people are suffering.

Break up major Wall Street firms

Break up the Wall Street giants; they can't be reformed

Crooks on Wall Street started Great Recession & got richer

Regrets vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives

"Clinton's claim is unavoidably true. In 2000, Sanders voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. The act prevented the government from regulating credit default swaps and the trading of financial derivatives. Swaps like these, which are a type of financial derivative, were largely vilified during the financial meltdown of 2008. Sanders was far from the only Democrat who voted for the bill. It passed the House by a wide margin: Only four representatives did not vote for it. Not to mention, Clinton's husband, then-president Bill Clinton, supported the bill and signed it into law."

Bernie now says he regrets that vote, but Hillary was accurate.

Stop $31M Pentagon payments for corporate mergers

Now, a $91 million bonus for executives who were laying off 17,000 workers is obscene enough. Fully 1/3 of that money, $31 million, was to come from the Pentagon as "restructuring costs." As soon as I learned about this outrageous federal giveaway, I drafted an amendment to prevent the Pentagon from paying the bonus. Imagine: workers thrown out of their jobs paying taxes so that the bastards who fired them could stuff their pockets. We termed the legislation the "payoffs for layoffs" amendment. The amendment passed by voice vote.

Voted NO on replacing illegal export tax breaks with $140B in new breaks.

Voted NO on Bankruptcy Overhaul requiring partial debt repayment.

Require Code of Conduct for US corporations abroad.

OFFICIAL CONGRESSIONAL SUMMARY: Requires any national of the United States that employs more than 20 persons in a foreign country, either directly or through subsidiaries or licensees, to take the necessary steps to implement a Corporate Code of Conduct with respect to the employment of those persons.

EXCERPTS OF CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS:

The Congress finds the following:
1. On 1/31/1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan challenged world business leaders to 'embrace and enact' the Global Compact, an agreement that asks corporations to protect human rights, labor rights, and the environment.
2. In a recent poll, 88% of the respondents agreed that 'American companies that operate in other countries should be expected to abide by US environmental standards.'.
3. The European Parliament has passed a European Code of Conduct calling for European businesses to abide by European Union laws in operations outside of Europe.
4. The protests in 2000 against the WTO in Seattle, and the World Bank and IMF in Washington, D.C., demonstrate a growing constituency against the unregulated expansion of globalization.
5. Unfortunately, too many US businesses with operations abroad are notorious for their blatant disregard for the well being of the citizens of their host nations who are employees of the businesses.

CORPORATE CODE OF CONDUCT
1. Provide a safe and healthy workplace.
2. Ensure fair employment, including the prohibition of the use of child and forced labor, the prohibition of discrimination, the right to bargain collectively, and the payment of a living wage to all workers.
3. Prohibit mandatory overtime work by employees under the age of 18.
4. Prohibit the practice of pregnancy testing of employees.
5. Comply with minimum international human rights standards.

LEGISLATIVE OUTCOME:Referred to House Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade; never came to a vote.

Rated 14% by the US COC, indicating an anti-business voting record.

Whether you own a business, represent one, lead a corporate office, or manage an association, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of AmericaSM provides you with a voice of experience and influence in Washington, D.C., and around the globe.

Our members include businesses of all sizes and sectors—from large Fortune 500 companies to home-based, one-person operations. In fact, 96% of our membership encompasses businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

Mission Statement:

"To advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity, and responsibility."

Expand lending caps for credit unions to small business.

Congressional Summary:

• Amends the Federal Credit Union Act to limit loans outstanding to either 1.75 times the net worth, or 12.25% of the total assets of the credit union.
• Authorizes insured credit unions to make business loans up to 27.5 % of the total assets of the credit union, if the credit union meets specified safety and soundness criteria.
• Directs the development of a tiered approval process, including lending standards, under which an insured credit union gradually increases the amount of member business lending in a manner that is consistent with safe and sound operations.

Supporter's Comments: (by CUNA, a pro-credit union organization)
America's small businesses are the engine of growth of our nation's economy. The effects of the financial crisis of the past few years have spread to all types of lending, resulting in a reduction in the availability of business credit. At a time when banks are withdrawing credit from America's small businesses, credit unions have actually been expanding credit to small businesses, but with more credit unions approaching the cap, this growth is threatened. Congress should enact legislation which increases the credit union member business lending cap from 12.25% of assets to 27.5% for well-capitalized credit unions

Opponent's Comments: (by the Independent Community Banks of America, Nov. 15, 2012)
The tax-subsidized credit union industry is pressing for doubling the statutory cap Congress placed on member business loans. Shifting assets from tax-paying banks to tax-exempt credit unions would reduce tax revenue to the government; the CBO estimates the revenue impact at $354 million over 10 years. We believe that banks are currently meeting the needs of credit-worthy businesses, as substantiated by numerous business surveys.

Rated 86% by UFCW, indicating an anti-management/pro-labor record.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) is North America's Neighborhood Union--1.3 million members with UFCW locals in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. Our members work in supermarkets, drug stores, retail stores, meatpacking and meat processing plants, food processing plants, and manufacturing workers who make everything from fertilizer to shoes. We number over 60,000 strong with 25,000 workers in chemical production and 20,000 who work in garment and textile industries.

The UFCW Senate scorecard is based on these key votes:
1. American Jobs Act (+)
2. Balanced Budget Amendment (-)
3. Rejecting Cut, Cap, and Balance (+)
4. Repeal Health Care Law (-)
5. Sen. Am. 14 Wicker Am. to S 223, excluding unionization at TSA (-)
6. Sen. Am. 740 McCain Am. to HR 2112, defunding TAA (-)
7. Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act (TAA) (+)

Corporate political spending is not free speech.

Constitutional Amendment

1. Whereas the right to vote in public elections belongs only to natural persons, so shall the ability to make contributions and expenditures to influence the outcome of public elections belong only to natural persons.
2. Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to restrict the power of Congress and the States to protect the integrity and fairness of the electoral process, limit the corrupting influence of private wealth in public elections, and guarantee the dependence of elected officials on the people alone by taking actions which may include the establishment of systems of public financing for elections, or the imposition of requirements to ensure the disclosure of [election] contributions and expenditures.
3. Nothing in this Article shall be construed to alter the freedom of the press.

Opponents recommend voting NO because:[Supreme Court majority opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, for which the Constitutional Amendment is proposed as a remedy. The FEC had ruled that the movie "Hillary", released in 2008 to persuade voters against Hillary Clinton, was illegal because it was a disguised campaign contribution made by a corporation. The Supreme Court overruled the FEC]:

Modern day movies might portray public officials in unflattering ways. Yet if a covered transmission [is broadcast] during the blackout period, a felony occurs solely because a corporation, [instead of a candidate or donors, paid] in order to engage in political speech. Speech would be suppressed in the realm where its necessity is most evident: in the public dialogue preceding a real election. Governments are often hostile to speech, but it seems stranger than fiction for our Government to make this political speech a crime. Some members of the public might consider Hillary to be insightful and instructive; some might find it to be [unfair]; those assessments, however, are not for the Government to make.