(BSDMS) – DES MOINES, IOWA – 2020 democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D/I-VT) gave a speech at the Iowa State Fair on Sunday in front of a big crowd. “Grandpa Bernie” was also swarmed by a lot of followers there while eating a corn dog.
The large crowd chanted “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” before the Senator was introduced onto the stage to give his speech. The crowd cheered as Bernie walked out onto the stage.
Bernie Sanders began his speech by thanking the people of Iowa for “playing an extraordinary role in transforming politics in America.”
Sanders reminisced about four years ago, recalling when he said if you work 40 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty, and emphasized raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He also mentioned it should be easier for workers to become members of a Union.
“Four years ago that seemed like a wild and crazy idea. Since then, seven states and the US congress, have passed legislation, raising the minimum wage to ’15 bucks an hour’,” Sanders said.
Bernie Sanders emphasized that if we (The United States) want to be the best educated country in the world, that we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free. Sanders again made mention that such an idea used to be considered “wild and extreme.”
“Well since then, state after state, city after city have done just that. We are going to make public colleges and universities in America, tuition free.
Four years ago I said, sounds to me a little bit crazy that we are punishing young people, for the quote unquote, crime of getting a higher education, and finding themselves fifty or a hundred thousand dollars in debt,” Sanders stated, then mentioned “we” need to cancel student debt.
As to how it would be paid for, Sanders talked about putting a tax on Wall Street speculation.
“Eleven years ago when people in this country had to bailout the crooks on Wall Street, now it is their time to help the working class of this country,” Sanders said.
Sanders strongly stated that the US needs to do what every other country on Earth is doing, and guarantee healthcare as a human right to all people.
“There is something wrong, when 87 million Americans are uninsured or under-insured. Something is wrong today, when 30,000 people a year die because they don’t have access to healthcare,” Sanders mentioned.
“Something awful, when 500,000 Americans go bankrupt, because they can not afford the incredible high medical bills, that they received when they got out of the hospital.
Something very wrong, when we spend twice as much per ca pita on healthcare per as do the people of any other country, and yet one our of five Americans cannot afford prescription drugs, because the pharmaceutical industry rips us off, every single day,” Bernie stated.
Bernie Sanders made clear that poll after poll reveals that a majority of Americans support a single payer Medicare For All system. He then emphasized that it means no deductibles, no co-payments, no premiums, no out of pocket expenses, it means freedom of choice to go to any doctor and any hospital you want to go to, “And we’re gonna phase that in, over a four year period.”
Sanders said it’d make sure that elderly people get their dental care, hearing aids, and eyeglasses they need as well.
Bernie emphasized that when asked about the biggest national security issue we face, he said climate change. He went on to talk about how real change doesn’t start from the top down, but the bottom up, such as movements in the US like civil rights, workers and unions, or women’s rights. Then Sanders got back into talking about climate change and taking on the fossil fuel industry.
Sanders mentioned passing comprehensive immigration reform, and not demonizing immigrants. He also talked about criminal justice reform and not having more people in jail than any other country.
Bernie Sanders was also filmed walking and eating a corn dog while swarmed by a crowd of people following him at the Iowa State Fair. Grandpa Bernie couldn’t even eat a corn dog without a huge group of people following him around! Video provided by ABCNews.com.
You can watch Bernie Sanders’ full speech on YouTube:
Kyle James Lee – BSDMS – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
