page_title: Bernie Sanders
section_title: Political views
hierarchical_section_title: Bernie Sanders / Political views
caption_attribution_description: English: Days after President Donald Trump released a budget that would slash support for working families, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), joined by 28 of their colleagues in the Senate, introduced legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Reps. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) introduced a companion bill Thursday with 152 cosponsors in the House. “Just a few short years ago, we were told that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour was ‘radical.’ But a grassroots movement of millions of workers throughout this country refused to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Sanders said. “Our job in the wealthiest country in the history of the world is to make sure that every worker has at least a modest and decent standard of living.” The Raise the Wage Act would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024 and would be indexed to median wage growth thereafter. This raise would increase the minimum wage higher than its 1968 peak. The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 2009.
context_page_description: Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is an American politician. He is the Junior United States senator from Vermont. He is an Independent, but often votes with the Democratic Party in the Senate. He became senator on January 3, 2007. He ran for President of the United States twice in 2016 and in 2020.
  Sanders was born in Brooklyn, New York City. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student, he was active in organizing protests for civil rights. In 1963, he took part in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech.
  Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981. He was re-elected three times. In 1991, he became a United States representative for Vermont's at-large congressional district. He was a congressman for 16 years. In 2006, he was elected to the U.S. Senate after he won 64.5% of the vote. In 2012, he was re-elected by winning almost 71% of the vote. In 2018, he was re-elected by winning nearly 68% of the vote.
  Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist. He thinks that a social democratic government for the United States is a good idea.
context_section_description: Sanders is a democratic socialist. He supports the Nordic model of social democracy. He thinks a workplace democracy is a good idea. He focuses on income, banning assault weapons, raising taxes on the wealthy, raising the minimum wage, federal background checks for guns, universal healthcare, lowering student debt, making tuition free at public colleges and universities, and expanding Social Security benefits.
  Sanders is a supporter of paternity leave, sick leave, and vacation time. He also supports rules that would make it easier for workers to join or form a union. Sanders knows that global warming is real and he wants to fix it. He is against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sanders was against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He thinks that the government should not engage in mass surveillance of American citizens. He has been against Patriot Act since it was created.
  Sanders is more liberal on social issues such as supporting same-sex marriage, DACA, citizenship for illegal immigrants and abortion. On November 15, 2015, in response to ISIS' attacks in Paris, Sanders said: "We [have got to] be tough, not stupid," in the war against ISIS. He said that the United States should still welcome Syrian refugees.
  After Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential elections, Sanders said that the Democratic Party needs a "series of reforms" and "must break loose from its corporate establishment ties and, once again, become a grass-roots party of working people, the elderly and the poor."
  In September 2017, Sanders called Saudi Arabia "an undemocratic country that has supported terrorism around the world, it has funded terrorism. ... They are not an ally of the United States".
  In an October 2018 column for The New York Times, Sanders called on the United States to end its backing of the Saudi intervention in Yemen and said Congress should have authorized it first.
  In June 2019, Sanders called on Brazilian authorities to release former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from prison and drop all charges against him after leaked documents showed his arrest was politically motivated.
  On July 9, 2019, Sanders and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Earl Blumenauer proposed legislation that would declare climate change a national and international emergency. In September 2019, Sanders said that family planning and controlling overpopulation in third world countries can help fight climate change.
caption: Sanders at a Fight for $15 Minimum wage rally in Washington, D.C. in April 2017
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