Bernie Sanders in CNN Kfile
On Corporations:
1976: I favor the public ownership of utilities & banks
Bernie Sanders advocated for the nationalization of most major industries, including energy companies, factories, and banks, when he was a leading member of a self-described "radical political party" in the 1970s, a CNN KFile review of his record
reveals. "I favor the public ownership of utilities, banks and major industries," Sanders said in one interview with the Burlington Free Press in 1976. In his career as a US Senator, Sanders has backed away from such ardent calls for nationalization.
Source: CNN KFile "1970s nationalization" on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
On Corporations:
1970s: State should take over utilities without compensation
After moving to Vermont in 1968, Sanders became an active member of the left-wing Liberty Union Party. Sanders left the Liberty Union Party in 1977. When he launched his campaign for the Senate in 1971, Sanders said state utilities needed to be run by
Vermont on a nonprofit basis. If revenues exceed expenditures they could be used to fund government programs and lower property taxes. In 1976, Sanders went even further: calling for the state to seize ownership of Vermont's private electric companies
without compensation to investors. Sanders' rhetoric was strongest during his 1976 campaign for governor of Vermont. "I will be campaigning in support of the Liberty Union utility proposal which calls for the public ownership of Vermont's private
electric companies without compensation to the banks and wealthy stockholders who own the vast majority of stock in these companies," he said in a July 1976 press release. "I will also be calling for public ownership of the telephone company."
Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
On Corporations:
1976: Relocating businesses must pay; for public ownership
"We have got to deal with the fact that corporations do not have the right to disrupt the lives of their workers or their towns simply because they wish to move to earn a higher profit," Sanders said in a press release in August 1976. Sanders' plan would
10 years of taxes for the town."In the long run, the problem of the fleeing corporations must be dealt with on the national level by legislation which will bring about
the public ownership of the major means of production and their conversion into worker-controlled enterprises," he said.
Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
On Health Care:
1970s: For socialized medicine, public drug companies owned
"I believe in socialized medicine, public ownership of the drug companies and placing doctors on salaries.
The idea that millionaires can make money by selling poor people drugs that they desperately need for highly inflated prices disgusts me," he said.
Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
On Tax Reform:
1974: 100% tax over $1 million
During his 1974 Senate run, Sanders said one plan to expand government included making it illegal to gain more wealth than person could spend in a lifetime and have a
100% tax on incomes above this level. (Sanders defined this as $1 million dollars annually). "Nobody should earn more than a million dollars," Sanders said.
Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary
Mar 14, 2019
Page last updated: Oct 31, 2024