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Why Bernie matters: A 2016 primary run by Bernie Sanders would be good for Democrats, progressives and the nation.
2:14 PM PT: Fellow Vermonter Bill McKibben is speaking. "They know [Bernie] always means what he says and he always stands for what he believes."
2:27 PM PT: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (the tasty ice cream barons and progressive employers) now up. "The system's not broken, it's fixed!"
"For those of us who have been sitting on the sidelines, finally a candidate worth voting for."
2:33 PM PT: Bernie now up! "This is an emotional day for me, not just for what I am going to be announcing. But to see so many people here. [...] Thank you very much."
2:38 PM PT: "Government belongs to all the people and not to a handful of billionaires. ... Now is not the time for thinking small."
2:41 PM PT: "This campaign is about the needs of the American people and the ideas and proposals that effectively address those needs. ... These are serious times, we need serious debate."
2:45 PM PT: Median family income is almost $5,000 less than it was in 1998.
2:48 PM PT: "As a result of the disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, the American political system has been totally corrupted, and the foundations of American democracy are being undermined. What the Supreme Court essentially said was that it was not good enough for the billionaire class to own much of our economy. They could now own the U.S. government as well. And that is precisely what they are trying to do."
3:02 PM PT: "At a time when millions of Americans are struggling to keep their heads above water economically, at a time when senior poverty is increasing, at a time when millions of kids are living in dire poverty, my Republican colleagues, as part of their recently-passed budget, are trying to make a terrible situation even worse. If you can believe it, and it is the truth, the Republican budget throws 27 million Americans off health insurance, makes drastic cuts in Medicare, throws millions of low-income Americans, including pregnant women off of nutrition programs, and makes it harder for working-class families to afford college or put their kids in the Head Start program. And then, to add insult to injury, they provide huge tax breaks for the very wealthiest families in this country while they raise taxes on working families."
3:05 PM PT: "...as president, I will fight to make tuition in public colleges and universities free, as well as substantially lower interest rates on student loans."
3:09 PM PT: "...for too many of our fellow Americans, the dream of progress and opportunity is being denied by the grind of an economy that funnels virtually all the wealth and all of the income to the top.
And to those who say we cannot restore the dream, I say just look where we are standing today. As some of you will remember, this beautiful place was once an unsightly rail yard that served no public purpose and was an eyesore. As mayor, I worked with the people of Burlington to help turn this waterfront into the beautiful people-oriented public space it is today. We took that fight to the courts, to the legislature and to the people. And we won.
The lesson to be learned, and it is a profound political lesson, is that when people stand together, when people are prepared to fight back, there is nothing that can’t be accomplished."
