Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has changed his tune about millionaires, since becoming one himself.
On Sunday night, when pressed by CNN anchor and “60 Minutes” host Anderson Cooper about potential hypocrisy, considering Sanders is a millionaire who pushes socialist policies, the presidential candidate insisted that he pays his “fair share” in taxes.
In other words, now that Sanders is a millionaire himself, millionaires are no longer to be vilified or apparently taxed at higher rates.
“Though he’s campaigning as a champion of the poor, Bernie Sanders became a millionaire four years ago, thanks largely to royalties from his bestselling book ‘Our Revolution,'” explained Cooper, interviewing Sanders on “60 Minutes.”
“His Democratic rivals have given him some grief about it during the debates,” Cooper stated.
“You know what they’re getting at,” the host said to Sanders, “they’re suggesting that it’s hypocritical.”
“We pay our fair share in taxes,” Sanders responded, apparently speaking up on behalf of all millionaires.
Cooper did not press further on the issue.
Before Sanders was known as a millionaire, however, the open socialist ripped apart millionaires in the same breath he ripped apart billionaires.
For example, in 2016, Sanders complained to a campaign crowd that there was “something profoundly wrong” with the the creation of “millionaires and billionaires,” as shown in a clip archived by C-SPAN.
“There is something profoundly wrong, when in recent years, we have seen a proliferation of millionaires and billionaire at the same time as millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages and we have shamefully the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country,” the Vermont senator yelled to the crowd.
As hit on by Cooper, Democratic challengers, such as presidential candidate former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, have highlighted the apparent hypocrisy.
Last week, during a debate in Nevada, Bloomberg ripped the socialist: “What a wonderful country we have. The best known socialist happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What’d I miss here?”
During the same “60 Minutes” interview, Cooper noted that under a Sanders administration, folks who make $29,000 would see a tax hike to pay for all of Sanders’ proposed policy plans. Cooper also noted that Sanders has repeatedly admitted that he has yet to put a price tag on his plans.
However, Sanders reiterated time and again that taxes would go up on “billionaires,” seemingly misleading the American people about potential tax hikes on the working class:
“It’s taxes on billionaires. You know? You know, I get a little bit tired of hearing my opponents saying– ‘Gee, how you going to pay for a program that impacts and helps children or working-class families or middle-class families? How you going to pay for that?’ And yet, where are people saying, ‘How are you going to pay for over $750 billion on military spending?’ How you going to pay for a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% in large corporations which was what Trump did? When you help the billionaires and you help Wall Street, ‘Hey! Of course we can pay for it. That’s what America’s supposed to be about.’ Well, I disagree.”
(Partial transcript via CBS News)
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