Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pushed President Biden’s American Families Plan in an op-ed published by Fox News on Monday.
In his piece, Sanders, who has regularly appeared on Fox News in the past, lambasted the vast wealth divide in the United States, blasting how much of the country’s wealth goes the the small percentage of earners at the top.
“Because of disastrous trade policies pushed by large corporations that have cost us millions of manufacturing jobs and anti-worker decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board, fewer workers today are able to negotiate decent wages as union membership is now lower than at any time in recent history,” Sanders wrote.
The Vermont senator held up the measures included in the American Families Plan as ways to combat the growing inequality, pointing to the expanded Child Tax Credit, free pre-K for children and free community college tuition.
“Importantly, given the unfairness of our current tax system, the reconciliation bill will be paid for by increased taxes on the very wealthiest people and largest corporations in this country,” Sanders wrote. “Despite what critics are saying, no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in taxes.”
He affirmed that the proposed plan would end the “international disgrace” of the U.S. being the only major country to not have paid family and medical leave, as well as the “disgrace” of widespread homelessness and lack of affordable housing.
“For too many decades, Congress has ignored the needs of the working class, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor,” he added. “Now is the time for bold action. Let’s go forward together.”