CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Bernie Sanders

Interview

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COOPER: Ryan Nobles, Abby Phillip, thanks very much.

Joining us now the Independent senator from Vermont and Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Bernie Sanders.

Chairman Sanders, what happens with the $15.00 minimum wage now? I mean, the White House has made it clear they will not push to overrule the Parliamentarian, nor does it look like Democrats would even have the votes to do that. Where does it go from here?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Well, we're looking at an alternative, and the alternative says that if you are a large corporation making a whole lot of money, you should not pay your workers starvation wages. I had a hearing on this issue.

You know, Walmart is owned by the wealthiest family in this country. They are worth $200 billion, and yet they're starting off their workers at 11 bucks an hour.

McDonald's, Burger King, and other large corporations are doing the same thing. We think that through a tax provision, which says that if you're not paying your workers a living wage of 15 bucks an hour, you're going to have to pay more in taxes.

We think that is an approach. It is not the ideal approach. But it is an approach that will raise minimum wage for millions of workers.

Look, at the end of the day, Anderson, what is so upsetting about the Parliamentarian's decision is you've got 60 percent of the American people who want to raise that minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. The House has already passed that legislation. The President wants it. We have the votes in the Senate.

And yet an unelected staffer, if you like, of the Senate decides that 30 million people cannot get a wage increase, and that deals with the archaic and undemocratic rules of the Senate.

It's another issue. It's something that we have to deal with.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, CNN, to your point, CNN had reported that the Senate Majority Leader Schumer was looking at inserting a provision in the COVID Bill that would penalize these large corporations, and that you floated that yesterday.

I know senators, you know, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, they've indicated they would not vote for a COVID Bill that included a minimum wage increase, A, do you know that they would support that provision?

SANDERS: I don't think that that's quite accurate, Anderson. You know and it's complicated. It deals with Democratic politics, in my view. At the end of the day, the question is, will every Democrat support the President? Will every Democrat vote for a $1.9 trillion bill, which provides $1,400.00 to every working class person and their children, which greatly expands healthcare, which cuts childhood poverty by 50 percent, which opens up some programs for kids all over this country, which provides aids to cities and states all over America?

You know what, I think every Democrat will vote the right way and the Vice President will give us the vote that we need.

COOPER: How do you pick which corporations would be penalized?

SANDERS: Well, you know, we're working out the details, but here you have a situation again, going back to Walmart is I think the poster child.

This is a family that is incredibly wealthy. One of their owners spend zillions of dollars on antique cars. They've got mansions. They have all kinds of art collections. But somehow or another they can't pay their starting wage at more than 11 bucks an hour.

The same thing for Burger King, same thing for McDonald's, same thing for Dollar General.

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SANDERS: So I think there is a way that we can do it. Now, to be very honest with you, I would obviously prefer to have a simple minimum wage, 15 bucks over a four-year period. That's the easy way.

But with that setback that we received yesterday, we're going to have to figure out another way to raise wages, because in my view, you know, when we talk about the economy, Anderson, I would say probably the most distressing aspect of where we are today is that half of our people -- half of our people -- are living paycheck to paycheck.

Their car breaks down, they're in serious financial trouble. Millions of people are working for starvation wages. The minimum wage today, nationally is $7.25 an hour. And to my mind the people could disagree with me if they want. That is a starvation wage. It hasn't been raised by Congress since 2007.

We've got to take care of low-income workers in this country. It is the right thing to do.

COOPER: You've said that there's no way a standalone bill on a $15.00 minimum wage would pass and that the only way Democrats will get it done is through reconciliation or ending the filibuster, meaning you'd only need a simple majority of 51 votes to get something passed.

If reconciliation is a dead end, should Democrats in your view be pushing to end the filibuster?

SANDERS: I personally --

COOPER: It looks like we have a problem with the transmission, unfortunately, on Senator Sanders, we'll see if we can get it back. I want to thank the Chairman.

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