A Socialist in the Millionaires’ Club: An Interview with Bernie Sanders
Vermont’s junior senator-elect has a modest proposal for Ted Kennedy’s committee: Investigate “power and wealth in America.”
by James Ridgeway
Money in America — who owns and controls wealth — has been a dead issue in Congress since the New Deal petered out in the 1960s. But the growing gap between rich and poor has put the topic back on the agenda for the new Democratic majority, and Vermont Senator-elect Bernie Sanders says he will propose an investigation of money and power when he joins Ted Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in January.
Though technically an independent, Sanders will caucus with the Democrats in the Senate, as he has in the House since he was first elected as Vermont’s single representative in 1990. The Dems’ one-vote margin should give him considerable leverage: Nobody seriously thinks he would routinely vote with the GOP, as fellow independent Joe Lieberman might well do on some issues, but Sanders is also not a party-line man and in the past has joined Republicans on votes against NAFTA, trade with China, and other issues.
When I stopped by his office last week — still his old digs in the Rayburn House Office Building — Sanders, in his standard sport coat and slacks, first excused himself to make a quick phone call: “Hello,” he said, “this is Senator-elect Bernie (more…)
