Sanders: Biden and I are ‘taking a look at reality for working families’ for infrastructure plan

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Sunday that he and President Biden are focused on working families amid infrastructure package negotiations.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sanders said he believes lawmakers are becoming “bogged down in numbers” and that it is more important for them to look at the “needs of the American people, what’s going on right now.”

“All that the president is doing, all I am doing, is taking a look at reality for working families. Understand their needs have been ignored for decades. Now it is time to create good-paying jobs, millions of good-paying jobs, addressing health care, housing, infrastructure,” Sanders told host Dana Bash.

Sanders told Bash that he plans to meet with every member of the Democratic caucus to discuss infrastructure, acknowledging that it feels “very good” to be in a position as Budget Committee chairman to handle deals in Congress now.

Sanders also touched on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was unveiled earlier this month, saying he is seeking to “bring people together.”

“The bottom line here is that the bipartisan proposal provides spending in some very important areas — roads, bridges, water systems — and that’s the good. That’s good,” Sanders said. “The amount of money that they are proposing is about one quarter of what the president talked about in terms of new money. That’s not adequate, and what we should be also watching carefully is how it’s paid for.”

Sanders added that he thinks raising the gas tax or fees on electric cars in order to pay for the infrastructure plan, as has been tossed around by some lawmakers, is a bad idea.