from an interview for Senator Berny Sanders with the Guardian <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House is likely to see his comments as a shot across the bow by the left wing of a party increasingly frustrated at how centrist Democrats have managed to scupper or delay huge chunks of Biden\u2019s domestic policy plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with the Guardian, Sanders called on Joe Biden and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to push to hold votes on individual bills that would be a boon to working families, citing extending the child tax credit, cutting prescription drug prices and raising the federal hourly minimum wage to $15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such votes would be good policy and good politics, the Vermont senator insisted, saying they would show the Democrats battling for the working class while highlighting Republican opposition to hugely popular policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is no great secret that the Republican party is winning more and more support from working people,\u201d Sanders said. \u201cIt\u2019s not because the Republican party has anything to say to them. It\u2019s because in too many ways the Democratic party has turned its back on the working class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanders spoke to the Guardian on 6 January, the same day he issued a statement that the best way to safeguard our democracy is not just to enact legislation that protects voting rights, but to address the concerns of \u201cthe vast majority of Americans\u201d for whom \u201cthere is a disconnect between the realities of their lives and what goes on in Washington\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said millions of Americans were concerned with such \u201cpainful realities\u201d as \u201clow wages, dead-end jobs, debt, homelessness, lack of healthcare\u201d. In that statement, he said, many working-class Americans have grown disaffected with the political system because \u201cnothing changes\u201d for them \u201cor, if it does, it\u2019s usually for the worse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Democrats to make \u201ca major course correction\u201d that focuses on fighting for America\u2019s working class and standing up to \u201cpowerful corporate interests\u201d because the Democrats\u2019 legislative agenda is stalled and their party faces tough prospects in this November\u2019s elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House is likely to see his comments as a shot across the bow by the left wing of a party increasingly frustrated at how centrist Democrats have managed to scupper or delay huge chunks of Biden\u2019s domestic policy plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n