OPINION:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Socialist from Vermont who is giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money, supports Greece’s decision to vote down austerity mesures, even if that means an exit from the European Union.
“I applaud the people of Greece for saying ‘no’ to more austerity for the the poor, the children, the sick and the elderly. In a world of massive wealth and income inequality Europe must support Greece’s efforts to build an economy which creates more jobs and income, not more unemployment and suffering,” the Vermont senator said.
Sanders is running on a platform of fixing income inequality and making college free for all, as well as pushing a national health care system. His democratic socialist views are resonating with voters, many of whom have suffered under the last six years of President Obama’s weak economy.
Sanders is also taking aim at big banks, and recently said “the pensions of the people in Greece should not be cut even further to pay back some of the largest banks and wealthiest financiers in the world,” according to the Huffington Post.
Greece has defaulted on a loan from the International Monetary Fund, and Sanders says the United States should pressure the IMF to persuade the aid agency to go easy on Greece. “You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of depression,” he said on CNN. “At some point, there has to be a growth strategy in order for them to pay off their debts to eliminate some of their deficits.”
Sanders even went so far as to say austerity contributing to the rise of Nazism in Germany, telling the Huffington Post:
“Let us not forget, after World War I, the Allies imposed oppressive austerity on Germany as part of the Versailles Treaty. … As a result, unemployment skyrocketed, the people suffered, and the policies of austerity gave rise to the Nazi Party. We cannot let a situation like that ever happen again.”
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