Where he stands on the issues
Sanders would need to be an effective leader to implement his ambitious, left-leaning agenda. For instance, President Obama hasn't been able to enact comprehensive tax reforms, but Sanders says it's necessary to help pay for infrastructure.
"We are losing about $100 billion every single year because corporations and wealthy people are stashing their money in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere," he said Monday. "Real tax reform can generate a significant sum of money which should be used for infrastructure and education."
Jobs and the economy
To address the issue that Americans are most concerned with -- jobs and the economy -- Sanders recently introduced a bill, along with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, to spend
$1 trillion on infrastructure.
"We need a major federal jobs program to put millions of Americans back to work," Sanders said at Brookings. "The fastest way to do that is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, our roads, bridges, water systems, wastewater plants, airports, railroads and schools... A $1 trillion investment in infrastructure could support 13 million decent-paying jobs and make our country more efficient, productive and safer."
The senator has also said the minimum wage should be raised over a period of years to at least $15 an hour, and he has called for federal legislation to ensure overtime pay and equal pay for men and women.
Education
While President Obama has proposed making two years of community college free, Sanders said Monday, "We have got to go further."
"What we have got to learn is that in countries like Germany, Scandinavia, many parts of the world, people who are competing against us, they are smart enough to understand that the future of their countries depends on the education their young people get," he said. We have got to learn that lesson. Free public education does not have to end at high school."
Health care
Sanders has commended the "modest success" of the Affordable Care Act, but he is an strident supporter of single-payer health care systems, or what's known in the U.S. as "Medicare for all."
"We have got to grapple," he said, "with the fact that we remain the only country, major country, without a national health care program."
Social Security
While lawmakers often talk about ways to curtail spending on this large government program, Sanders wants to expand Social Security benefits.
"In my view, at a time when senior poverty is increasing, when we have millions of seniors -- and I meet them in Vermont all the time -- people are trying to get by on $12,000, $14,000 a year," he said. "We should not be about cutting Social Security benefits, we should be about expanding those benefits."
To pay for that expansion, he proposes lifting the income cap on Social Security taxes.
Foreign policy
With respect to defeating ISIS, Sanders said Monday that he doesn't want to see "endless war" in the Middle East. "And, having said that, you know, I don't have any magical solution, but I think at the heart of it has got to be regional activity on the countries who are most impacted by ISIS," he said, referencing Saudi Arabia's large defense budget.
"But, you know, I think it's fair to say I do not disagree with the air attacks that the United States is coordinating," he said. "What I just don't want to see is a ground presence and never ending war."
