proximity of where these coffee house can be -- they're not allowing tourists anymore. anything above 15% thc is treated as a hard drug. they are keeping the potency the low. they do not have the highly potent stuff we do. >> on the dutch border issue there are tourists -- on a border towns to clamp down. it blew up in their faces immediately. many had to backtrack. what happened, they were only selected dutch -- no foreigners. that created job opportunities for profiteers who then brought back marijuana -- illegally creating a huge black market. so that is a bad policy. in colorado, when people leave

politicians will follow. counterintuitive solutions are complex, it takes popular expression to a sure politicians yes you can talk about these issues openly as adults. a lot of people would like some sensible drug control. we should be terrified of the nra, how many of them are in congress? if they came in the closet, we might have a different discussion. to keep our ban on travel to cuba, paralyzed by the fear of negative attack ads. the majority of the people in this country wanted normalization of those relationships. >> the reason we are terrified of the nra, they are so big.

>>we do not get to them in the beginning. i would've thought about that -- we have good science. we have good information, we do not need to wait 50 years to make this lobby so large we cannot combat. reasonable conversation today is through tag lines. quick, easy --now is a time. engage anyway you want to, but we need to have these discussions with the tobacco industry, the booze lobbies. we have the opportunity to do this right. let's have a smarter conversation about it, and not let business interests rule the day.

>> i am going to respectfully ask you -- we need to wind up the program. i want to thank everyone for their participation, i want to thank the speakers in particular for their eloquence and preparation. i invite all of you to look at our programming -- we have great programming this winter. we are working on summer programming. i hope you attend future programs. it is cold outside, bundle up and drive safely. [applause]

>> next, bernie sanders outlines his economic priorities. venice senate armed services hearing on global threats. live at 7 a.m., your calls and comment on washington journal. tonight on q&a thomas allen harris explores how african-americans have been portrayed in photographic images from the time of slavery up until today. >> it is based on the work of deborah willis. her groundbreaking work on black photographers but very much aware that there was this other theme going on in which black people were constructed post slavery and even before the end of slavery as something other

than human. it was part of the marketing of photograph and memorabilia. now it would be considered de cl asse but in many ways they are still haunting us in the way we see ourselves, in what we might see others. >> tonight at 8 p.m. eastern and pacific. on monday, vermont senator bernie sanders says he will not attend israeli prime minister benjamin addressed the congress. he said it was wrong for the president not to be consulted. he also talked about his presidential aspirations. this is one hour and 10 minutes.

>> it is a great honor to welcome senator ernie sanders on our ongoing conversation. for those of you out there who want to comment on twitter, the hashtag is #sandersatbrookings. i want to say at the outset before i do the formal part of the introduction that it is a pleasure to welcome a self-described, proud democratic socialist here to brookings.

you know, these days the word "socialist" is thrown around as an epithet, and the socialists i know are insulted when president obama's called a socialist because they argue he is too moderate to be a democratic socialist. but the thing we forget is the vibrancy of the democratic socialist tradition in the united states. and bear in mind we're talking democratic, small d socialist, i.e. scandinavia, not the old soviet union. and in the american tradition, we're talking about people from eugene debs to michael thomas to people like barbara aaron right. this is a lively american tradition that has influenced policy in our country in a great many ways. and so it is refreshing to see to have a senator who doesn't run away from a particular part of our american tradition. senator sanders is the junior united states senator from vermont. he's spent 16 years in the house of representatives, the longest-serving independent member of congress in american

history. he's devoted his career to public service. the growing income gap and the shrinking american middle class. he's also been a strong advocate for rebuilding our nation's infrastructure and protecting our environment. he was also the mayor of burlington, and he is the ranking member of the senate budget committee and former chair of the senate committee on veterans affairs. and i just want to note that we sort of worry a lot these days about congress being able to do nothing. and i think it's worth noting that when two sides are willing to seek agreement and are willing to recognize the urgency of government action, you can actually have things happen. and very recently senate sanders, with senator mccain and others, negotiated a very comprehensive bill to deal with the problems in the v.a. medical system. so when we have senator sanders and senator mccain working together, we can produce

miracles in public policy. and while senator sanders will not be talking about miracles today, i will close by saying that he is a fan of pope francis. welcome, bernie sanders. [applause] >> well, let me begin by thanking brookings for hosting this event and thank e.j. for moderating and thank all of you for being here this morning. before i begin my remarks in trying to explain what's going on in our country and where i think we should be going, let me say a few words about myself because my journey and how i got here is, to say the least, a little bit different than many others who have been on this platform. i was born in brooklyn, new york, in 1941.

my father came to this country at the age of 17 without a penny in his pocket and without much of an education. my mother graduated high school in new york. my family was never really poor. my dad was a paint salesman. he never made much money. my mother's dream was to get out of the three-and-a-half room rent-controlled apartment that we lived in throughout my entire life, but we never made it out she never lived to see that dream. and what i learned as a kid is what lack of money does to a family. and the kind of stress and pressures that a family that doesn't have the money they need, what happens to them. and that's a lesson that i have never forgotten. my wife jane and i have been married for 27 years, we have four kids and seven grandchildren. and without being overly

dramatic, the truth is that my involvement in politics has everything to do with what kind of country i hope that they will be living in. as the longest-serving independent in american congressional history, let me very briefly describe my political journey which is an unusual one. i first came to vermont in 1964. in 1971 there was a special election to replace a senator from vermont who had passed away. and i ran for the united states senate on a third party called the liberty union party, and i received 2% of the vote. next year i ran for governor of the state of vermont, and i received 1% of the vote. i was on the move. heading down. two years later i ran for the senate. hadley remembers that race because i ran against him. i received 4% of the vote, and

then i ran for governor in 1976 and received 6% of the vote. then i decided to give the good people of the state of vermont a break, and i stopped running for office. but five years later some friends of mine suggested that i could do well in a race for mayor of the city of burlington which, as you know, is the largest city in the state of vermont. and in that race, i ran against a five-term incumbent, a democratic mayor. i ran as an independent, and nobody but nobody thought that we had a chance to win. nobody. in that very remarkable election -- and the point i want to make to you is a profound political lesson that i learned -- we did what is not done terribly much today, we did coalition politics. and that is, we put together an extraordinary coalition of workers and unions, of environmentalists, of

neighborhood activists, of low income organizations. very first press conference i had was at a low income housing project of women's groups, of college students. that's the coalition we put together. and that type of politics, bringing people together around the progressive agenda is something that i believe was right then and i believe is right today. i should also state that that campaign for mayor cost something like $4,000, and in the process i personally knocked on thousands of doors in the city. on election night when the votes were counted, we won the working class wards of thety by two to one -- of city by two to one and we won the election by all of 14 votes. it was, in fact, the biggest political upset in vermont history. and after the recount, the margin of victory was reduced to

10 votes. now, without going into any great -- actually, there have been books written about this -- i took office with 11 out of the 13 members of the city council, those were the democrats and the republican, in very, very strong opposition to my agenda. and trust me, if you think that the republicans have been obstructionists to the president obama, you ain't seen nothing with what happened in my first year as mayor of the city of burlington. but what happened, and this is also a lesson that i've never forgotten, by doing what we could do despite the opposition and reaching out to people, what happened is a year later the slate of candidates that i supported won a huge victory against the people who were obstructionist. and the other lesson that i will never forget is that the year following when i ran for

re-election, we almost doubled the voter turnout. almost doubled the voter turnout from what it had been when i first won. and the lesson that i will never forget and what i believe is that when you stand up for people and you keep your promise, people will, in fact, get involved in politics. so i think it was true then, and i think it's true today. um, in 1986 i ran for governor of the state of vermont as an independent, received 14% of the vote. 1988, i ran for the u.s. congress, and in that election i was told by my democratic friends that i would be a spoiler, taking away votes and enabling the republican candidate to win. in fact, the republican candidate did win with 41% of the vote. i got 38. democrat got 19%. two years later i ran again for congress defeating the incumbent by 16 points.

in 2006 with the retirement of jim jeffords and with the support of democrats, i won vermont's united states senate seat against the fellow who i think was the wealthiest person in the state of vermont who spent three times more money than had ever been spent in our state previous to that. i received 67% of the vote. in 2012, i won re-election with 71% of the vote. as mayor of burlington, my administration took on virtually every powerful special interest in the city, in the state. we had a very active city attorney's office. against the wishes of the developers and the railroad, we created an extraordinarily beautiful people-oriented water front and bike path on lake champlain, we developed the first municipal housing land in the country, an idea that has spread worldwide. we won national recognition for

urban beatification by planting thousands of trees throughout the city, often using a lot of volunteers to make that happen. we made major improvements in our streets and sidewalks, we implemented the largest environmental program by preventing waste from going into the lake. we started a youth office which created an extraordinary daycare center, after school programs and a teen center all of which 25, 30 years later are still in existence today. we were the first city in vermont to break our dependence on the regressive property tax. we made major changes in the burlington police department to move toward community policing. we started a very active and successful arts center and women's council. and i say all of that to invite all of you to burlington and the state of vermont. [laughter] it's a beautiful place to visit. in 1990, i became the first independent, nondemocrat nonrepublican elected to the u.s. house in 40 years.

during my first year there along with four other house members, we put together the congressional progressive caucus which today is one of the largest and, i think, more effective caucuses in the house. one of my first votes in the house was a vote against the first gulf war. i believe that history will record that that was the right vote as was the vote i cast years later against the war in iraq, a war which has cost us many thousands of brave young men and women, untold suffering for those who returned and has driven up our national debt by trillions of dollars. it has also -- that war in my opinion -- has also opened up the can of worms which we now see in that region of the world in which we are trying to deal with today. while a member of the house financial services committee, i was one of those leading the fight against the decan regulation of wall street. and i will never forget having alan greenspan up there are while a member of the house

financial services committee, i was one of those leading the fight against the decan regulation of wall street. and i will never forget having alan greenspan up there are visiting the committee, telling us how great deregulation was. i didn't buy it then, and i don't buy it now. i also opposed the free trade agreements that came down the pike, nafta, cafta, permanent normal trade relations with china. i never believed then, and i don't believe now that forcing american workers to compete against people who make pennies an hour is a good thing for the united states of america. while in the house i took on the pharmaceutical industry, and the outrageous prices they charge our people. and how it is that they end up charging us far higher prices for the same products than do the people that are charged to the people of any other country. the was the first congressman to take americans over the canadian border and will never forget women buying the same exact breast cancer drug for one-tenth of the price that they were paying in the united states. as a united states senator and former cha i remember of the --

chairman of the veterans affairs committee as e.j. just mentioned, i worked hard in a bipartisan way with republicans in the senate, a number of senators including senator mccain, jeff miller in the house on what turns out to be one of the more significant piece of veterans legislation passed in recent years. i also led the effort with representative jim clyburn to put some $12 billion into federally-qualified health centers which has result inside some four million americans -- resulted in some four million americans, lower income americans now getting health care, dental care -- which is a huge issue in our country -- low cost prescription drugs, and i'm proud of that. with senator bob menendez, i helped pass the energy efficiency block grant program which put billions of dollars into weatherization and sustainable energy as we do our best to try to reverse climate change. now, that is my life and political history in five minutes. let me get to something more important now, and that is the

future of our country. on saturday, just this last saturday, i had been invited to speak in harrisburg, pennsylvania, and my friend and i were driving back to d.c., and we drove through gettysburg, and we stopped there for a while at the battlefield of monuments and the museum. and while we were there we, of course, saw the lincoln statues, and we read from his gettysburg address. and you all know about lincoln's extraordinary gettysburg address where he said a hell of a lot more than i said in ten times as much time as he said it. but he said a hope that this nation would have, quote, a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth, end of quote. what an extraordinary statement.

and as we drove back from gettysburg to washington, it struck me hard that lincoln's extraordinary vision -- a government of the people, by the people for the people -- was, in fact, perishing, was coming to an end and that we are moving rapidly away from our democratic heritage into annal backerric form of -- annal backerric form of society where today we are experiencing a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires and for the billionaires. today, in my view, the most serious problem we face as a nation is the grotesque and growing levels of wealth and income inequality. this is a profound moral issue it is an economic issue, and it is a political issue. economically for the last 40

years the great middle class of our country, once the envy of the world, has been many decline. has been in decline. despite, and here's the important point to make that we have got to answer, despite an explosion of technology, can despite a huge increase in productivity, despite all of the so-called benefits of the global economy, millions of american workers today are working longer hours for lower wages, and we have more people living in poverty than almost any time in the history of our country. today real unemployment is not the 5.7% you read in the newspapers, it is 11.3% if you include those people who are working part time when they want to work full time or those people who have given up looking for work entirely. we don't talk about it. pope francis does, by the

way. but we don't talk about the fact that youth unemployment in this country is 18%, and african-american youth unemployment is nearly 30%. shamefully, we have by far the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. i hear a whole lot of discussion about family values from my republican friends but nothing about the fact that almost 20% of our kids are living in poverty. despite the modest success of the affordable care act, some 40 million americans continue to have no health insurance while even more are underinsured with high deductibles, high co-payments, high premiums. we remain today the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right, ask can yet we end up spending almost twice as much per perp on health care -- per person on health care as do the people of any other nation.

now, as all of you know, there are a lot of angry people out there. all across the country. some of them are in the occupy wall street movement and consider themselves progressives, some are in the tea party movement and consider themselves conservatives. but let me give you an explanation as to why they have every right in the world to be angry. since 1999 the typical middle class family, the family right in the middle of the economy has seen its income go down by almost $5,000 after adjusting for inflation. incredibly, that family earned less income last year than it did 26 years ago back in 1989. the median male worker, that guy right in the middle of the economy, made $783 less last year than he did 42 years ago.

while the median female worker earned $1300 less last year than she did in 2007. that is why people are angry. they're working longer hours for lower wages, they're seeing an explosion or technology they're watching tv and seeing all the great benefits supposedly of the global economy, and they're working longer hours for lower wages and they're scared to death as to what is going to happen to their kids, what kind of jobs are their kids going to have. are we better off today economically than we were six years ago when president bush left office? of course we are. but anyone who doesn't understand the suffering anxiety and fear that the middle class and working families of our country are experiencing today has no idea about what's going on in the economy, and i fear very much a lot of the pundits here on capitol hill don't understand that. it might be a good idea to get off of capitol hill, go into the real world and find out

what's going on with working people. meanwhile, while the middle class continues to disappear the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well, and the gap between the very, very rich and everybody else is growing wider and wider. the top 1% now own about 41% of the entire wealth of the united states while the bottom 60% own less than 2% of our wealth. and this one is incredible. today the top one-tenth of 1% -- that is the wealthiest 16,000 families -- now own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. is that really what the united states of america is supposed to be about?

i don't think so, and i don't think most americans think so. today the walton family, the owners of walmart, and the wealthiest family in america are now worth about $153 billion. that one family owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of the american people. in terms of income as opposed to wealth, almost all of the new income generated in recent years has gone to the top 1%. in fact, the latest information that we have shows that in recent years over 99% of all new income generated in the economy has gone to the top 1%. in other words, for the middle class gdp doesn't matter. 2%, 4%, 6% doesn't matter because middle class and working families are not getting any of it. it's all going to the top 1%. in other words, while millions of americans saw a decline in

their family income, while we have seen an increase in senior poverty throughout this country, over 99% of all the new income generated goes to the top 1%. an example, an example, the top 25 hedge fund managers made more than $24 billion in 2013. that is equivalent to the full salaries of more than 425,000 public schoolteachers. anyone really think that is morally acceptable economically acceptable? is that really what our country should be about? but income inequality is not just the moral issue of whether we are satisfied about our country where we have seen a proliferation of billionaires at the same time as millions of families are struggling to make sure they're automobile to feed their kids -- able to feed

their kids, it is also a profound political issue. as a result of the disastrous supreme court decision, the 5-4 decision on citizens united, billionaire families are now able to spend hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase the candidates of their choice. the billionaire class now owns the economy k and they are working day and night to make certain that they own the united states government. according to media reports, it appears that one family -- the extreme right-wing koch brothers -- are prepared to spend more money than either the democratic party or the republican party in the coming elections. in other words, one family, a family which is worst about $100 billion, may well have a

stronger political presence than either of our major parties. now, i know that people are not comfortable when i say this, but i want you to take a hard look at what's going on, take a deep breath, and you tell me whether or not we are looking at a democracy or whether or not we are looking at an oligarchy. when you have one family that has more political power than the democratic party, than the republican party which can spend unlimited sums of money not only on campaigns, but on think tanks, on media, i worry very, very much about the future of democracy in our country. and that is why it is absolutely imperative that we pass a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united and, in fact, why we must move

forward toward public funding of elections. i want young people out there, whatever their point of view may be, who like the idea of public servants to be able to run for office, to get involved in politics without having to worry about sucking up to billionaires in order to get the support that they may need. now, given the economic crisis that we face -- i talked a little bit about the political crisis, given the economic crisis and i laid out a little bit of what that's about, where do we go? what should we be doing? how do we rebuild a disappearing middle class? last month i introduced a 12-point program that's i called -- that i called an agenda for america, but relate me briefly summarize it. first of all, you ask the average american what the most important issue he or she is concerned about, and the answer is a four-letter word, called jobs.

we need a major federal jobs program to put millions of americans back to work. the fastest way to do that is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads, bridges, water systems wastewater points, airports, railroads and schools. it has been estimated that the costs of the bush/cheney iraq war with, a war we should never have waged, will total $3 trillion by the time the last veteran receives needed care. a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could support 13 million decent-paying jobs and make our country more efficient, productive and safer. and along with senator barbara mikulski, i introduced that legislation two weeks ago. further, we must understand that climate change is real, it is caused by human activity, and it is already causing devastating harm. we must listen to the scientific community and not fox tv and lead the world in reversing climate change so

that this planet is habitable for our children and grandchildren. and what that means, that we have the technology to do it transform our system from fossil fuel to energy efficiency, weatherization and sustainable energies like wind solar, geothermal and other technologies. and when we do that, we not only lead the world in reversing climate change, we can also create many jobs. we not only need to create jobs in this country, we need to raise wages. the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage. we need to raise the wage to at least $15 an hour over a period of years. no one who works 40 hours a week in this country should live in poverty. we must also demand pay equity for women workers who today earn 78 cents of what their male counterparts make for doing the same work.

we must also end the scandal of overtime pay. we are people at mcdonald's who make $25,000 as, quote-unquote managers who make 60 hours a week but because they are managers, they don't get overtime. further, we must make it easier for workers to join unions by passing card check legislation. .. in order to get good paying jobs.

millions of morns where are unable to get good paying jobs. all of you know the hundreds of thousands of young people have literally given up on the dream of going to college while others are graduating schools deeply, deeply in debt. a woman went toa result of that crime is that medical school. she is $300,000 in debt. that is nuts. and we have got to learn countries like germany scandinavia, many parts of the world people are smart enough to understand that the future of their countries depends on their education their young people get, their college education in graduate school is free. we have got to learn that lesson. free public education does not

have to end at high school. president obama is, president obama's initiative for two years of community college is a good start. we have got to go further. further, we cannot run away from the fact that the greed and recklessness and illegal behavior on wall street caused the worst economic downturn in this country and, in fact, the world since the great depression. that's a fact. i know it's easy not to talk about it, but that is the fact. today six huge wall street financial institutions have assets equivalent to 60% of our gdp. close to $10 trillion. if teddy roosevelt, a good republican, were alive today, i know what he would say. and what he would say is that when you have six financial institutions issuing half the mortgages and two-thirds of the credit cards in this country it is time to break them up,

and i've introduced legislation to do just that. in terms of health care we have got to grapple with the fact that we remain the only country without a health care program. right now, in fact, i say in this as the ranking member of the budget committee, my republican colleagues are going to begin their effort to try to cut social security benefits. they're going to start off with disability benefits and go beyond that. in my view, at a time when senior povertity is increasing -- poverty is increasing people are trying to get by on $12, $4,000 a year -- $14,000 a year. we should not be about cutting social security benefits, we should be about expanding those benefits. as i mentioned a moment ago, we

need a progressive tax system in this country and an effective tax rate. it is absurd that we lose $100 billion a year revenue because corporations and the wealthy stash their money in offshore tax havens like the cayman islands, bermuda and other places around the world. the time is now for real tax reform. so let me conclude by saying this: the struggle that we're in now is not just about protecting social security or medicare or medicaid or making college affordable to our kids or raising the minimum wage.

it is something deeper than that. it is about whether we can put together a vibrant grassroots movement all over this country which says to the billionaire class,co sorry, government in this country is going to work for all of us and not just the top 1%. thank you very much.

>> for the cameras i've got to connect. hold on. >> we connected? thank you, senator sanders, for that carefully-hedged, cautious political speech. >> i was very quiet. this is brookings -- >> yeah. >> and i didn't want to -- >> this is a moderate version of the speech. i have a whole lot of questions i would like to ask. i'm going to try to limit myself to a few, and can then i want to bring -- and then i want to bring in the audience. i am going to have a bias. i'm going to ask members of the media to ask questions because they're bringing this to other people, but i will open it up to everyone before we're done. i want to start with one philosophical and one political question. the philosophical question is what do you actually think of the market economy? you know, in this long list of proposals you do not propose you know, public ownership of the means of production distribution in exchange, and

you are very critical of the way capitalism works. but what is your view of the market economy in general and capitalism in particular? >> well, in that regard i think i come down somewhere where pope francis is. who i think, by the way, has played an extraordinary role in the last several years in raising issues internationally that have not been raised by such a prominent figure. i think casino capitalism, runaway capitalism which is what we are experiencing right now, is a disaster. there is no way to defend internationally the top 1% owning more wealth than the bottom 90% of the world's population. i think it's impossible to defend that. it is impossible to defend the

incredible inequities that we see in american society today. what i believe when i talk about these issues, what i look at is countries like den mark, and we have -- denmark, and we have the danish ambassador coming to vermont a year and a half ago, and it's not that the government is going to take over every mom and pop store. that is not what we're talking about. but what we are talking about is that in a democratic, civilized society, the basic necessities of life should be available to all people. not a radical idea. it exists in scandinavia and elsewhere. should everybody have a right the health care? the answer is, yes. should everybody, regardless of their income, be able to get as much income as they need? the answer is, yes. in the united states when you have a baby, we managed some years ago to do the family and medical leave act, and you get three months off if you work for a large company without pay. how many americans know that all over the world that women

get six, eight months off with three-quarters pay in order to bond with their babies? when you get old, you should have strong retirement security, stronger than we have right now. so, e.j., capitalism does a lot of good things. it creates wealth, you've got a lot of vibrant, small businesses, entrepreneurs that are coming up with fantastic ideas, that is great. but we cannot at the end of that process have these situations where a handful of people own so much and so many people have so little. so the government plays a very important role in making sure that all of our people have the opportunity to succeed in life. >> now, you hint at this, but i'd like you to be more specific. this is a very ambitious program, a trillion dollar investment in infrastructure broader rather than narrower social security, free higher education and so on. how are you going to pay for this? >> well, it addresses the issue of income and wealth inequality, and you're doing

two things at the same time. in terms of social security, everybody in this room understands that if somebody's making ten million a year, somebody is making $118,000 a year, both people are paying the same amount into the social security trust fund. if you simply lift the cap and begin taxing at $250,000, you will extend social security for decades and be able to expand benefits. in terms of other infrastructure, for example, we are losing about $100 billion every single year because corporations and wealthy people are stashing their money in the cayman islands and elsewhere. real tax reform should be used for infrastructure and education. >> um, there is many years ago two folks you probably disagree with, but they made a very interesting point, richard stanton and ben wattenberg said the problem with liberals is they often come along and say our programs have failed, let us continue.

and i raise that quote because while you do say that we are better off economically than we were six years ago, you have a pretty tough litany of what's wrong with the economy as it exists. the real unemployment rate is 11.3%, youth unemployment 18%. i'm sorry, 30 -- and african-american unemployment 30 percent and so on. yet you voted for a number of programs to try to get the economy moving including the recovery act, otherwise known as the stimulus. if somebody listens to you and says, you know, bernie sanders is saying that the programs of the last six years haven't worked, what do you say back to them? >> compared to what? you know, i think history, and you know, i was on the floor eight and a half hours a couple years ago in opposition to president obama's tax proposal so, you know, i have been very critical of him. but i think what you will find is history will judge president

obama a lot better than his contemporaries have. i'll tell you programs, e.j. that have not worked, and that is trickle down economics. trickle down economics, which means tax breaks for the rich and large corporations deregulation of wall street, etc., etc., has been a grotesque failure. and any economic analysis will suggest that that is true. has the obama program, has the stimulus percentage worked? of course it worked. it created millions of jobs at a time when we desperately needed those jobs. so i would argue in terms of infrastructure, putting money into infrastructure and creating jobs, it's not a question of whether it works how do you ignore the fact that our infrastructure is crumbling? so i am proud to defend in terms of single payer, health care. i live 100 miles away from the canadian border. they have a conservative premier, they have a single-payer health care system because it is more cost

effective, provides health care to all of their people. >> but more generally, i mean, i guess when you look back on the last six years, what would you have done that we didn't do to get the economy moving to deal with some of the problems you're talking about here? >> i would have been stronger than president obama in a number of areas. i think he missed the opportunity politically of doing what roosevelt did when he was elected. and making it clear to the american people what is happening and why is it happening? when he was elected, this economy was on the verge of collapse, financial system maybe wouldn't make it. and at that point what he should have done is what roosevelt did. he should have looked in that camera and said -- what roosevelt said was the economic realists hate me, and i'm going to take them on. i think that's what president obama said. these people have destroyed

millions of lives because of their greed and recklessness. i will take them on, ask is we're going to rebuild -- and we're going to rebuild an economy so that it works for all people and not just for the economy. i voted for the affordable care act. we managed to get $12 million into community health certains very important. i would have gone forward trying to fight for a single payer or at least greatly expanding medicare, making it simpler, more inclusive. >> and what do you say to folks who put a heavy emphasis now on the cost of retiring baby boomers? in other words, basically you're saying that if we simply lift the cap, we can cover that problem. is that your answer to that critique? >> we are exactly where people anticipated we would be when the last social security adjustments -- no great surprise, people can add. they do know demographickings. and right now just -- demographics. just a couple of points on social security, because there's a lot of misinformation that dose out there.

social security is not going broke. there's $2.8 trillion, can pay out every benefit for the next 18 years. social security, obviously doesn't add to the deaf fit because it's paid by an independent source of revenue, the payroll tax. so the answer is, yes, should we strengthen social security? absolutely. and the way to do that is to lift the cap. i would start at $250,000. >> is there a place for something like wall street in a bernie sanders economy? >> well, look, banking plays an important role, obviously, in our society. and in that i am pretty conservative. what banking is about, traditional banking is i work, i make money, i put it in the bank. i get a guaranteed interest rate, the bank then invests money into the economy. what has happened in recent years is something radically different. wall street, instead of being the grease for the economy taking money in and getting it out to small businesses, medium-sized businesses, what

wall street has become is an island unto itself where its goal is to make as much money as it can in however way that it can do it. and i don't want to, again, you know, try to be, you know, too dramatic here. i happen to believe that the business model of wall street is fraud and deception. and as you know, recently you pick up the papers every single day there's another large bank that is fined, reaches a settlement with the government. so their job is banking plays an important role. it helps get money out to the economy. the businesses that are producing products, producing services. that is what we want from a banking, the banking community. we don't want a small number of people coming up with incredibly complicated speculative, dangerous financial tools. and then when it all goes down the taxpayers of this country bail them out. that is what we don't want. >> by the way, the headline on

the event so far is bernie sanders calls himself "pretty conservative." i just wanted to note that. .. when climate change threatens not only this country but the entire planet, when you have a handful of billionaires in the process of buying a united states government and our particle system, i think it is important with candidates who stand up for the working comes of this country who are

prepared to take on the big money interest. i am giving serious thought -- don't tell my wife actually. she doesn't necessary agree. >> tell her to turn off the tv right now. >> on the other hand, i also want to say, when you take on the billionaire class, it ain't easy. and if i do something, i want to do it well and it's important not just for my ego i do it well it's important for millions of people who share the same set of beliefs that i hold. so to do it well we would have to put together the strongest grassroots movement in the modern history of this country with millions of people are saying, you know what? enough is enough. we are going to take on the billionaire class. we're going to have a government that starts working for working values rather than just the top 1%. to be honest with you, i am going around the country and talking to a lot of people. a lot of people coming out. there is a lot of sentiment

that enough is enough. that we need fundamental changes, that the establishment, the economic or political or the media establishment is failing the american people. account feeling i'm going to have, decision on the draft reaches whether that willingness to stand up and fight back. if it's not i don't want to run a futile campaign. i want to run. we need millions of people actively involved. in terms of money that's all other so -- story. this is out absurd the stories. if you had a candidate who reached out and generate a lot and you had 2 million people we are going for 100 bucks into the campaign, and by the way in my senate race, you know my average contribution was? $45. if you had 2 million people putting in 100 bucks, that $200 million, that is 20% of what the koch brothers themselves are prepared to spend. can you take that on?

i don't know the answer. maybe the game is over. maybe they have bought a united states government. maybe there is no turning back. i don't know. i surely hope not but we have to look at that reality. >> last on that issue, when candidates run for president they often have two objectives. the first objective obviously is to win the nomination of election but there've been plenty of candidates in our history who have won to advance an agenda even when they didn't win. and so obviously you've had to have thought about both sides of this equation if i run and when i run and win. but if i run and lose, how can i have an effect on the agenda of the winning candidate which at this point under -- on the democratic side we assume will be different understanding -- will be hillary clinton. can you analyze the politics?

i think the politics limited measure trying to advance an agenda not simply win an election spirit if i do this and people have to appreciate how difficult a decision that is, but if i make the decision i would be running to win. but having said that let me also take something about myself. you are looking at a candidate who ran four times for mayor eight times for the house and place for the senate. you know how many negative ads i run it during the whole period? zero. never read a negative ad in my whole life. negative ads disgust me. in my state they don't work. if i run and if secretary clinton runs, what i would hope would have is that we would have a real choose debate, this is a woman i respect, clearly a very intelligent person why think is impressive in issues by the way. i think we have a debate about how you rebuild a crumbling middle-class. a debate about how you reverse

climate change, a debate about the foreign policy in the wisdom of the war in iraq and how we deal with what we deal with. a debate about trade policy. a debate about wall street, and that would be i think good for the american people, to be honest with you. but it is not my style to trash people. it is not my style to run ugly, negative ads. >> which you reregister as democrats be? that's a decision i get to me. as i go around the country there are a lot of people who say look, republican party democratic party, we are the same. you've got to start outside of the two-party system. a lot of people feel that way. and other people do and say you've got to run to you been in the democratic caucus, and if you want to go where the action is and you want to be in the debates and to want to get media attention, you've got to run within the democratic caucus.

>> we have a lot of voices. by the way, as i begin with a journalist first and i want to have my colleague, david likes of, at any point if you want to jump in now or later, -- david wessel. who among journalists who are here would like to ask a question? right in front. hold on. say it again. >> been shrunken sure from political. does the pressure to comprise up to hillary clinton make it harder for you to introduce or sell to voters on their own terms? >> well, i'll tell you a funny story. i do a number of interviews. often i do when doing today, talk about the issues that if you are important and some were at the in sum has asked the question that hillary and i try not to attack her. usually no matter what i say becomes hillary clinton. so to answer your question, to

me if i run, what i am running on are the issues i talk to you about today, issues by the way which i think the vast majority of the american people understand and support. clearly in terms of hillary clinton, her name recognition is about 10 times greater than money. if i run it will take a lot of work getting around the country, introducing myself to people. but i would say this and this is the interesting point if i may. when you look at the republican agenda which boils down to more tax breaks for billionaires and large corporations, cuts in social stratum medicare, medicaid and education, what percentage of the american people do you think support that? i would say, 10, 15% but when you look at my agenda, massive jobs program to put people back to work, rebuild our infrastructure, raising the minimum wage, tackling climate change, we have a lot more support. so the question is how we get out the people and how we bring people together to go forward.

>> and do you do the working families endorsement of elizabeth warren as a setback? >> i'm not sure senator warren is going to be running. >> be have a thought on senator warren? >> i knew elizabeth warren before she was elizabeth warren. she was a mere brilliant harvard law school professor. we brought senator, well elizabeth warren to the town meetings and she blew me away with her ability to deal with complicated economic issues in a language that people could understand. we had meetings around the state. i'm a fan of elizabeth warren and we worked together on a number of issues. >> way in the back. >> thank you. kevin with the hill. i'm wondering if senator warren, she says she's not running for president if she were to get in the race, would that change your plans at all for 2016? >> this is kind of what media does.

like to speculate. you will forgive me, i'm not much into speculation. >> mark, you want to come in? mark shields in the middle. welcome, mark. great to have you here. >> thank you, e.j. thank you, senator. no one which issue of being morning in america with your presentation today. >> with a you may be spent but what does give you hope? >> my often tells me that after i speak we have to pass up the tranquilizers and the anti-suicide gets. i've been trying to be more cheerful. you didn't catch that obviously. i'll tell you, i'll tell you there's another part of my speech that often give and i'll tell you where i am.

this is serious stuff. regardless of one's political views, if we sat in this room, mark, 30 years ago and i was thank you, i think our country which has a terrible history of racial prejudice, in the year 2008 we would elect an african-american president of the united states, you know, what the hell, maybe reelected four years later. if we would overcome our racism into that, you would have said, what are you smoking? ain't going to happen. we did it. we did it. 30, 40 years ago you had one or two members of the united states senate who were women. today, you have had, we have had states, the government is a woman, senators are women, members of congress are women. and while we still have a long long way to go to break down sexist barriers in this country, nobody would deny that we have come a long way. i remember when i was mayor, i appointed the first woman

police officer back in the 1980s. what a big deal that was. walk around capitol hill today it's not such a big deal. overcome huge beers in terms of sexism. disability issues. when you and i were kids and families had a baby born with a disability, it was an embarrassment in the part of the valley. kids were institutionalized. today we have come a long, long way as a result of the ada and other programs where kids with a disability are loved and welcomed into our schools. they are a part of our communities. we have made more progress on that than anyone would've dreamed up the last but certainly not least, and i know this firsthand because the state of vermont helped lead the effort with regard to civil unions, if you and i were talking 10 years ago and you said i think maybe some of the more conservative states in america, gay marriage would no longer be a big deal in fear 2015. you would have thought that

would be completely crazy, right? and yet i go to kids schools in vermont and as kids, what you think about gay marriage? a look at me like i'm crazy, what are you talking about? no problem. you ask me about optimism, those are the areas, some of the areas. where we have now taken it for granted, you've got a black president, so what? 20, 30 years ago no one would've dreamed that would be possible. so i believe we have the capacity to change but i think what we're up against now, by the way, is something tougher. because you are taking on the greed and the power of the billionaire class, of the koch brothers who are out to destroy social security, medicare, medicaid, et cetera. we go back to 1920 to have the money to try to do that. this is a tough fight but am optimistic. i think we have the capacity to bring change to this country and we have done in recent years. >> thank you, mark, for allowing the senator to listen to his wife's advice.

who do we have over there? the gentleman who has his hand up. could you identifies the? >> my name is peter. i would like to ask you your opinion on the speech that prime minister netanyahu is planning to give to congress and would you consider boycotting the? >> yes. i think, look, again people disagree. the president of the united states, he argued the president was even consulted, that is wrong and not a good thing. are you thinking of not going? >> i'm not thinking i'm not going. i am not going. i may watch on it on tv but i'm not going. spent how many of your colleagues do think we'll do that? spent e.j., you are sunny like the media. you want me to speculate. no idea. >> i am the media. >> oh, that's right. >> the lady in the front please.

>> anything but don't ask me to speculate. >> i'm wondering what we can do and what you think we can do to stop this path we are on of endless war? >> thank you for phrasing it that way. that is exactly what my nightmare is come is endless war. look, it goes without saying that this isis, it is beyond pathetic to think this is going on in the year 2015, the barbarianism we are seeing. and anyone who tells you have a magical solution to this problem is kidding you. they don't. but wanted to believe that most important thing we can do is to demand that the people in the region, by an extremely -- plate an extremely active role militarily and politically. it will shock people in this room to know that the country that has the fourth largest

defense spending in the world is not france, not the uk, it is saudi arabia. owned by a group of billionaire thugs. do you know what? that's the neighborhood and i think the united states and the west will should be very supportive but i think nations in that region are going to have to put some real skin in the game, more than our right now. >> can you imagine a use of force resolution against isis that would be framed in a way you could vote for? >> again i don't, look, isis is beyond, what they've done to you can't even speak about it it is so horrible. i want to see them destroyed. but as this woman aptly pointed out, there are some of my colleagues in the congress who really have the mind, you know god knows how many years we were in afghanistan and iraq.

i was chairman of the veterans committee. we've got 5000 men and women who came back from iraq and afghanistan with ptsd and traumatic brain injury. thousands of lives have been terribly impacted. i do not want to say an endless war in the middle east. i don't. having said that, i don't have any magic so sure but i think at the heart heart of its county regional activity on the country's foremost impacted. >> let me press you on that because this is not a speculative question. if president obama called you up and said, i know there are a lot of people in the senate and the house were very reluctant to keep edwards in the middle east, get you agreed, we agree that isis is a particular threat. can you write me a resolution that you could vote for? >> again, the devil is always in the details added don't want to speculate not seeing a document. i think it's fair to say i do

not disagree with the air attacks the united states is coordinating, forks over. but i just want to see is the ground presence and never ending war. >> who else? a lady in the back on the aisle. those two folks on the aisle. >> leeann, sputnik international news. just had a follow-up question on what you have raised about the oligarchical trend in u.s. politics. and i just would like to know what kind of impact that has on the united states as a world leader, so how this trend in the u.s. impacts economic justice worldwide? >> thank you. that's a great question. i mean, i will answer any couple of ways. first off the weight impacts american politics, and again i don't mean, everyone knows my political views, but if you were the republican party or

any group of people, you would think he would put up the keystone pipeline as your first order of business? i'm against the keystone pipeline, thought it very hard. do you really think that a canadian pipeline which will provide 35 private jobs is the most important issue facing america's? you would make -- that's your first bill. what you think it may have something to do with the fact that the koch brothers are major donors of leases in that part of canada? i would -- how it impacts our foreign policy is that i'm afraid people who have the money will have more influence than the ordinary americans. i will give you an example. i want to applaud the president. this is not get a lot of attention. the people of greece are hurting terribly. unemployment increase is 25, 26% to the economy has shrunk

by a quarter. there are people living in dire poverty right now. and right know what you are having is an effort on the part of the european central bank to talk about more austerity for greece, rather than letting the new government start implementing the agenda and the promises that it made. and president obama spoke on the issue and talked about how more austerity in a country whose economy is shrinking is not the way to go. but to answer your question globally, the problems we're facing in the united states are not dissimilar to what many of the countries are facing around the world. more and more wealth and income inequality, more and more austerity. i think the american people got to work with people around the world to say that when you have a handful of billionaires owning as much wealth as half of the people in this world, we need radical changes in the way we do economics.

>> the gentleman right there. >> larry. i agree with most of what you say, senator. i would offer one caveat. if you're going to invite people to vermont, to burlington, do it in the summertime. >> the skiing is good. >> but, yeah, keep away from speculation on my office as -- what scares me a little bit is are you willing come if you don't go over to the democratic side, to run as a democrat would you run as an independent? only because are you willing to be the son of ralph nader speaks no, i will not. i will not be a spoiler. there are ways to do this but let me make it very clear. i will not be a spoiler. >> the gentleman in the back. somebody tell me when we are running short of time. we are at the end of? this gentleman will ask the last question so you have the heavy weight on your shoulders. >> a to be a good one.

senator kohl thank you. i've talked to some of your constituents in vermont and they said something they like about you and the charm about you is your independent major spanish i believe that's the word they use to associate me with. >> i'm keeping it nice. fact that you are an independent, they like that. do you think that if you become a democrat to run for president does that hurt you with another constituency people around the country who may vote for you like the fact that you're not good with a party by the? >> as i mentioned earlier, i think i could be wrong but i think in the last election, for example, in for what i think we got about 25% of the republican votes, which is, i think have a lot of working-class republicans who are not uncomfortable with what i i am saying. and i think in vermont and around the country of enormous number of people who say you're not a democrat, you're not a republican? i don't know what you stand for

but i love you. because there's so much frustration with the tea party system. -- to party. i am getting bolder and bolder cankind figure these things out. on the other hand, you know what, i am not mr. bloomberg of new york and i don't have billions of dollars. and to try to put together an independent political effort you'd have to spend an enormous amount of time and money and it getting on the ballot in 50 states. will then be the cover you if you run as an independent? these are some the issues. >> i just want to close by saying that the late mike harrington used to say that he was for the left wing of the possible. and i think that senator sanders is pushing the definition of the possible, and i thank him and all of you for a very enlightening exploration of what can be done. and if i may use the phrase, what is to be done. thank you very, very much.

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