The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact: press@sanders.senate.gov

Sanders: Austerity on the Defensive

WASHINGTON

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today on Sunday's elections in France and elsewhere in Europe where voters rejected austerity measures unfairly shouldered by working families:

"In the United States and around the world, the middle class is in steep decline while the wealthy and large corporations are doing phenomenally well. The message sent by voters in France and other European countries, which I believe will be echoed here in the United States, is that the wealthy and large corporations are going to have to experience some austerity also and that that burden cannot solely fall on working families.

"In the United States, where corporate profits are soaring and the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing wider, we must end corporate tax loopholes and start making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. At the same time, we must protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Austerity, yes, but for millionaires and billionaires, not the working families of this country."

United States Senator for Vermont

(202) 224-5141