Politics

Bernie Sanders: The US Should Be More Like Socialist Scandinavia [VIDEO]

Al Weaver Reporter
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Bernie Sanderes said socialist policies in nations such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden should be implemented in the U.S. in an interview with “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos Sunday.

The ABC News host told Sanders he could “hear the Republican attack ad…he wants America to look more like Scandinavia.” The Vermont senator responded saying, “That’s right. What’s wrong with that?”

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it really possible for someone who calls themselves a socialist to be elected president of the United States?

BERNIE SANDERS: Well, so long as we know what democratic socialism is, and if we know that in countries in Scandinavia, like Denmark and Norway and Sweden, they are very democratic countries. Obviously, their voter turnout is higher than it is in the United States. In those countries, health care is the right of all people. In those countries, college education, graduate school is free. In those countries retirement benefits, childcare are stronger than the United States of America. And in those countries, by and large, government works for ordinary people in the middle class rather than as, is the case in our country, for the billionaire class.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I can hear the Republican attack ad right now: He wants America to look more like Scandinavia.

SANDERS: That’s right. That’s right. What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong when you have more income and wealth equality. What’s wrong when they have a stronger middle class in many ways than we do, a higher minimum wage than we do, and they’re stronger on the environment than we do? The fact of the matter is that we do a lot in our country, which is good, but we can learn from other countries. We have, George, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth at the same time as we’re seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires. Frankly, I don’t think that’s sustainable. I don’t think that’s what America is about.