Sen. Bernie Sanders said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “going to war against working people” and suggested the President has not lived up to the promises he made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Trump campaigned, he said, ‘I will not cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,'” Sanders told CNN’s Chris Cuomo during an interview on “Cuomo Prime Time.”
But Sanders said, referring to the President, “His budget, trillion-dollar cut in Medicaid proposal, $500 billion in Medicare, massive cuts in education, nutrition programs. He’s going to war against working people.”
Sanders went on to say that the President is “a tool of the wealthiest people in this country and I think the American people understand that.”
The Vermont independent said that even though US unemployment is low, the President is not doing enough to ensure that the average American family has adequately high wages.
“Our economy is doing well in terms of unemployment, but we are not doing well in terms of raising wages for working families,” Sanders said.
“The crisis of our time are low wages, people can’t afford healthcare, can’t afford prescription drugs, can’t afford to send their kids to college. Those are the issues that Trump is not dealing with.”
Sanders also responded to criticism that his push for universal programs, like single-payer health care, will be too costly.
The senator called comments from Howard Schultz, who recently announced he is stepping down as the executive chairman of Starbucks, “dead wrong” after Schultz said that he is concerned the Democratic Party is moving too far to the left and wonders how it will be possible to pay for policy ideas like single payer.
“I think his comment is dead wrong,” Sanders said, describing his proposal for universal health care as a “much more cost effective approach” than America’s “current dysfunctional health care system.”
