Bernie Sanders
| Bernie Sanders | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| U.S. Senator from Vermont From: January 3, 2007 – Present | |||
| Predecessor | Jim Jeffords | ||
| Successor | Incumbent (no successor) | ||
| U.S. Representative from Vermont's at-large Congressional District From: January 3, 1991 – January 3, 2007 | |||
| Predecessor | Peter Smith | ||
| Successor | Peter Welch | ||
| Information | |||
| Party | Independent (Caucuses with Democrats) | ||
| Spouse(s) | Jane O'Meara | ||
| Religion | Judaism | ||
Bernie Sanders, born September 8, 1941 (age 82), is the only self-identified democratic socialist in the United States Congress, and in 2006 became the first admitted socialist elected to the U.S. Senate to represent Vermont. Previously, he served in the House of Representatives for eight terms, after serving several terms as mayor of Burlington, the state's largest city. He usually caucuses with Democrats. He has a 100% pro-abortion voting record, but speaks out more on economic issues.
He said this to Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, during a Financial Services Committee hearing in 2003: "The country club and the cocktail parties are not real America. You have defended over the years the abolition of the minimum wage and giving huge tax breaks to billionaires. But today you reached a new low, I think, by suggesting that manufacturing in America doesn't matter."
Sanders has claimed that the Fox News Channel led America into the war in Iraq, and called on other news organization to "not to follow Fox down the road to war again."[1]
At a press conference on April 30, 2015, Sanders announced that he is running for the Democratic nomination. He held an "official launch" on May 26.[2]
Controversial votes
During Bernie Sanders 2006 Senatorial campaign, Republican opponent Rich Tarrant made an issue over Sanders 2003 vote against the Amber Alert. Which is a notification to the general public, by various media outlets in Canada and in the United States, when police confirmed that a child has been abducted. The bill passed in the House of Representatives 410-14. Every United States Senator voted for it, including Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords. He was also one of only nineteen Congressman to vote against the Women's Rights HIV Testing –Passage. Which would allow sexual assault victims to find out the HIV status of their suspected assailant.
After countless stories of election fraud by the group ACORN, Bernie Sanders was one of seven Democrats that voted to continue funding ACORN. The vote failed and ACORN was stripped of funding in the Senate [3] Bill Wilson of Americans for Limited Government said, "The ACORN Housing Corporation has long been pushing the very loose-lending policies that helped destroy the housing industry. And now it has been exposed for working with prostitutes, as well. Yet, these seven Senators [Sanders] have knowingly voted to keep sending taxpayer money to a highly corrupt organization of pushers and pimps," [4]
References
- ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_en_tv/tv_fox_iran_1
- ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/04/29/vermont-sen-bernie-sanders-am-running-for-president/
- ↑ Senate denies ACORN funding, Politico, September 14, 2009
- ↑ ALG Condemns 7 Senators,Politico Mafioso, September 16, 2009
