Bernie Sanders Calls For 'Fundamental Change' To US Economy, 'Economic Bill Of Rights'

Confident that he is the strongest Democratic candidate to square off with President Donald Trump in 2020, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took his message for fundamental change in the economy and politics to Fox News on Sunday.

Less than a week after an address at George Washington University, where he called for a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights, Sanders spoke about income inequality to “Fox News Sunday.”

"In the last 30 years, the top 1% has seen an increase in their wealth of $21 trillion, while the bottom half of America has seen an actual decline in their wealth of some $900 billion," Sanders said.

"If we're going to bring about real change in this country ... we need fundamental change. We need a political revolution," Sanders told Chris Wallace.

Sanders has called himself a democratic socialist for decades, and sought to explain what he meant during his George Washington University speech.

News media, President Trump, and even some of his Democratic primary competitors have blanched at Sanders’ use of the word "socialism" — in many cases asserting he is out of step with America’s embrace of market capitalism. But as Sanders and others have pointed out, Americans already support various forms of socialism in the economy, such as police and fire services, public highways and schools, city and national parks, social security and the post office.

Wallace challenged Sanders that his call for social programs such as Medicare-for-all, and an Economic Bill of Rights involved “dramatic change” to the country’s financial foundation. Sanders agreed that was “basically true.”

While detailing his Economic Bill of Rights, Sanders repeatedly referred to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served from 1933 to 1945. Sanders said he wants to fulfill the vision FDR had in 1944, a year before he died.

That vision, Sanders said, included a job with a living wage, secure retirement, health care, education, affordable housing and a clean environment.

"The time is now for us to say, "You know what, we need an economy and a government that works for all of us, not just the 1%,” Sanders said. “If people want to accuse me of believing in that, I plead guilty. That's what I believe in.”

In a lengthy op-ed in The Atlantic in early May, Hoover Institute Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson, and analyst Eyck Freymann, argued America may be facing a generation war, where the Democratic Party is quickly becoming the party of the young, fueled by Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) and Generation Z (born after 1996). Meanwhile, the Republican Party is relying on retirees, particularly those born before the end of World War II in the mid-1940s.

Millennials, and Gen Z have been burdened by student loan and credit card debt. They have faced stagnant wages and were hit with a financial crisis at the start of their working careers and the slow recovery that followed. Absent significant changes in fiscal policies and programs, these groups are unlikely to receive the type of entitlements current retirees receive.

Meanwhile, older Americans benefitted from a G.I. Bill that provided education opportunities and homeownership to thousands of veterans, at little cost. Non-veterans benefitted from federal and state subsidy of higher education, making college nearly free, and fueling the economy through innovation such as the space program and technology sector.

That began to change during a conservative political wave of Reaganomics in the 1980s. Education became a private good instead of a public good, and as a result government shouldered less of the financial burden of higher education and passed it on to students and their families.

Sanders has argued as long as Americans cannot afford education, or healthcare and have to work 60 hours a week to get by, they are not “truly free.”