Senator Bernie Sanders: Summer Celebration for Older Vermonters

through that ceiling. I heaven I did right when I got there along the floor and bumped your head. Well, now the angels say that just before you passed away, these were the last words that you said. Please don't bury me down in that cold ground. I'd rather have them cut me up and pass me all around. We'll throw my bra in the eyes. The death of my size. Me We have this Heat. Heat. Andrea. Yeah. My go very Don't come in. Please don't bury me down in that gold. I'd ra me up and watch me all around. Well, my brain working in the my eyes. The can have all the my Thank you very much, John. Anybody here like Grateful Dead? >> Okay, let's do a Grateful Dead song. Okay, >> deal. >> Yeah, we have a deal. >> We got a deal. Heat. Heat. says it costs a lot to win, even more to lose. You need better sometimes. Wondering what to choose. Well, it goes to show you don't ever know. and laying slow. Wait for that deal. Don't you let that deal go down. Wait for that deal to come down. Don't you let that deal go down. I've been gambling here. show you that he won't let that hill down around you down. Let's see. eyes. We know that down. Don't you let that deal down. Don't you let that down. I'm going to retire >> and my wife starting Here we go. Second, My love in the summer my love I say J my love I go cheeks as red and blue and rose eyes. My eyes still my shores but I don't Shady grow my little she Oh Jesus. I want you on my My love My boundaria. Yes. Oh, I'm going to get her information. That's my mom. My granddaughter. I see trouble lonely. I see her twing like I see. Still don't force one of you. >> It's my shed, my she. >> That's the front yard. I know the end is coming soon. garlic oil there before they go around. That's my yard. That's the side of the house looking into the front yard. This is a lot of these come as they go. Yeah, I do. That's my brother. I've got a couple of Katrina shot. My name is David. >> Yes, I am very much so. Congratulations. HEAT. HEAT. You just >> Well, thank you all very much for coming out. >> How was the food? Edible. All right. Thank you to the chips and everybody who prepared it. Um before I go any further because I always forget this thing. Uh if anybody in this room has any problem with one or another government agencies, the VA, Social Security, Medicare, Medicare, whatever it may be, we have a great staff uh whose job it is to do our best to protect for miners. So um so you have staff members here all over cars right there and you have others any problems you know anybody who has any problems come up to them give us your phone number and we will get back to you or your friends very shortly. Okay. All right. All right. What I wanted to do uh this afternoon, I don't have to I think tell anybody in this room uh that we are living in very crazy times. Correct? >> And there are a lot of reasons for that and I wish I could tell you there are some simple solutions to solve them. There aren't. But what I want to do is say a few words as to my sense of what's going on in the country in Washington. And then I like your comments and your questions. I'll ask you questions, you ask me questions. How's that? All right. >> All right. For a start, the world is changing very rapidly. All right. That's the way it is. The world has always changed, but because of technology, things are moving much faster than was ever the case before. All right. And then you got artificial intelligence out there which is going to transform every aspect of our lives. And I would like in a few minutes to get your views on AI and robotics and all that stuff. But here are some of the concerns that I have and let me tell you what we're trying to do about it. Number one, you are living in a nation today that has more income and wealth inequality than ever existed in the history of the United States. All right? Remember when we were kids, we studied history and there was the guilded age of Rockefeller and JP Morgan and Jay Gold and all those very rich guys. Remember that the concentration of ownership today in the inequality is much greater now than it was back then or at any other time in American history. What does that mean? It means that while 60% 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, you all know what living paycheck to paycheck is about. All right? That means people are struggling to put food on the table, pay the rent, pay for health care, pay for prescription drugs, etc., etc. 60% of Americans. At the same time, the top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. One man, Mr. Musk, himself owns more wealth than the bottom half of American households. Got that? All right. Now, what is of concern is not just that so few have so much and so many have so little. That is a real problem. But what's an additional problem? These guys do not put their money under their mattresses. They use their money to increase their wealth and their power at the expense of working families. What does that mean? Right now we have in my view a corrupt campaign finance system. >> And what that means as a result of a terrible Supreme Court decision called Citizens United. All right. billionaires are able to start super PACs, organizations, put in as much money as they want, hundreds of millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars to elect the candidates they want and to defeat other candidates. Got it? >> Yeah. >> So, for all of the billionaires in this room, and I know there are many, >> because you all know this is really a big fundraiser. They didn't tell you it $10,000 a person. uh they forgot to tell you. All right. But in the real world, that is exactly what goes on. In fact, $10,000 these guys is nothing. Hundreds of thousands of dollars is what they contribute. So what happens when you have somebody like Elon Musk himself spend $270 million to elect Donald Trump president? >> He gets elected. >> All right. That's right. That's right. But it's not just Republicans. You have billionaires on the Democratic side who also spend a whole lot of money to elect candidates they want. The end the end result of all of that is you end up with a Congress that does not represent the needs of ordinary people. Not because members of Congress are stupid or they're evil. They're scared to death. All right, think about it. Put yourself in the shoes of an ordinary member of Congress. You get elected. You say, "hm, I think we got to do something about the broken health care system. Oh, then I'm going to have the insurance companies attacking me. I think we should do something about artificial intelligence to protect the kids. Oh, the AI people have hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions. Can't talk about that." So what you have is a Congress where people are scared to do the right thing because huge amounts of money and 30 second ads are going to come against them and they're going to lose elections. So it's not just income and wealth inequality. It is a corrupt campaign finance system funded by billionaires and their super PACs. All right, those are two things. Then on top of that, let's look at the real issues impacting you and millions of other people. How many people in this room think our current health care system is working well? Raise your hand. I'm looking around. I don't see anybody. It's not. It is a broken, dysfunctional, wildly expensive bureaucratic system. Correct. >> All right. How many wealthy nations in the world do not guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right? Anyone know? >> All right. >> And this gets back to a corrupt campaign finances some of your views. I've been all over the country and I asked the same question in California, Nevada, in Illinois. Everybody has the same answer. The system is broken. Vast majority of the people believe that healthc care is a human right. So that is why a number of years ago I introduced legislation called Medicare for all. >> All right. What does it do? What does it do? First of all, it does away with all of the co-ayments that now exist in Medicare. All right. No more out ofpocket expenses. All right. Number two, what it does, it expands Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision. There was a recent poll that came out said 64% of the American people support Medicare for all. Over 80% support expanding Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision. Cuz last I heard, teeth, ears, eyes are part of healthcare. Right. >> So, one of the struggles that we have, and I'm going to do everything that I can to see that Congress does what the American people want us to do, guarantee healthcare to all people. Now, I know a lot of my opponents out there think they say, "Oh, this is a far-left idea. It's an extreme idea." So, let me tell you what it does. It's a 4-year transition. First year, it lowers the age of Medicare eligibility, which is now 65, down to 55. Make sense? >> Yes. >> All right. It expands Medicare, as I've just said, the cover dental, hearing, and vision. It includes all the children in the program. Second year goes from 55 now to 45. Third year 45 now to 35. Fourth year everybody is in it. All right. That's now some people say, "Oh, you can't afford to do it." The answer is right now, most people don't know this. We are spending twice as much per person on health care as do the people of Canada, Europe, and other countries. Got it? >> You know how much anybody here know? This is really pretty crazy. How much do we spend in America if you combined Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration, out-ofpocket expenses, what your employer pays, all throw it all into one pot, divide it by 340 million Americans. Do you know how much we spend per person on healthcare? Anyone know? >> Over $15,000. You got it? A year. So, a family of four, $60,000. That's combining everything. That is double what they spend in Canada and Europe and those countries manage to provide quality care to all people. Why is that? Why do other countries spend half as much and provide healthare allit? >> All right. Right. You got it. >> What is the function of the American healthare system right now? >> So the bottom line is you got 85 million Americans uninsured or underinsured. Many of you are paying co-ayments that you can't afford. >> And yet the insurance companies and the drug companies make tens of billions of dollars every single year. Now, running a health care system, whether it's Canada or Europe, is not easy. There is no system that is perfect. But if you start off with the goal of how do we make as much money as we can for insurance companies and drug companies, you distort the whole process. If you start off from the proposition, our job is to provide quality care to every man, woman, and child. It's a whole different approach. So bottom line, when people say we can't afford it, we can afford it right now. It's not just the profitering, it's a huge bureaucracy within the health care system because it is designed to make money. So I got to figure out how I make money off of your insurance, right? Well, maybe I make it so complicated that you forget or give up trying to get your pre trying to get the coverage. Correct? >> Happens every day. That's the goal. Why do I want to pay you? I make more money if I don't pay you. All right. Then we drive doctors crazy by saying you can only look at your patient for 15 to 20 minutes because you got to keep it moving, right? >> Etc., etc. So, it is the problems facing the health care system are deep. Uh but we've got to take on the insurance companies and drug companies and move in a very different direction. Okay, THAT'S >> let me let me touch on another issue that may be on your mind. You watch the TV and you're going to see some guys getting up there and saying, "Well, it's unfortunate, but Social Security is going broke." >> And you know, uh you know, we're going to have to do something about it. We're not quite sure what. Well, may have to raise retirement age or so we can have 90 year olds packing groceries. You know, it's the idea. Uh or maybe we maybe have to cut back on those colas because the seniors are really getting very rich off the colas or maybe do one thing or another. All right, so let's look at the facts. The facts are the social security trust fund will run out of money. It's the trust fund and I can't tr I think it's I'm not sure what it is. It's 10 years down the line or something. Okay. >> All right. That's the is it 32. Okay. That's the trust fund and that's an issue that we have got to deal with. >> Now the trust fund is the surplus. Right now, every worker in America is contributing to Social Security, helping you just as you helped your parents. What is the solution to how we deal with the Social Security crisis? Should we be cutting benefits? >> All right. What do we do? >> Tax the rich. >> All right. How do you do that? What goes on? What's the structure? All right. If this gentleman here makes $10 million a year, >> he's my friend. >> He's your friend. Hey, how you doing? Everybody's right. And this gentleman makes 184,000 a year. Who pays more into the social security? >> Well, they both pay the same amount. It's a cap. >> Somewhere along the line, somebody said the cap goes up every year by a few thousand bucks. >> So, in other words, Mr. Moss, who's worth 7800 billion, pays the same amount to the social security as somebody making 184,000. The legislation that I have that's getting more and more support is what we call scrapping the cap. >> It's what AARP wants, other organizations want. You lift that cap, not only can we expend, extend the solveny of social security for 75 years, we can increase benefits for seniors, which is something we have got to do. One of the things that I learned, and I did not know this, and maybe you do it, maybe you're living it. 20% of seniors in America are living or trying to live on $15,000 a year or less. Do you know that? I don't know how anybody makes it on 15,000 or less. Half seniors are making it on 30,000 or less, which in this day and age is very hard to do. So, we have got to change our national priorities. And I don't say this just because for you know the four senior organization or senior members here uh we have got to protect the elderly and the children. We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. So I think we got to get our priorities right. And the way you do that is to say in my view that at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, yeah, the billionaires and the very wealthiest people in America will have to start paying their fair share of taxes. All right. >> Okay. I talked longer than I meant to. Let's take some questions or comments. Yeah, ma'am. to stand up if you could. We got a mic. Do we have mics here? >> Yes, we do. >> All right. There's a lot of words. All right. >> Uh yeah, my question and I've asked several people uh from previous presidents on bound. Why aren't we also taxing on their uh interest because they are not paying on that. The kids have been living off of interest. They don't have to worry about finishing degrees and worrying about losing a job because families have the interest sitting in those millions. >> The answer is we have a you know a tax system which was written by the wealthy and their lobbyists. So give you an example. Somebody like Mr. Bezos, you all know who Mr. Bezos is? >> One of the richest guys in the country worth hundreds of billions of dollars. He's the head he's he's the founder in major stockholder in Amazon. >> To the best of my knowledge, you know what his salary is? It's $85,000 a year. >> Okay. Guy's worth hundreds of billions of dollars. What does he pay on $85,000? Very little in taxes, >> right? >> So, you're able to borrow money at lower interest rate and so forth. I'm sorry. >> Very kind. >> So, it's a system that could be easily manipulated by good accountants and lawyers. >> Yep. Stand up center. Minor couple comments. There's >> a mic right behind you. >> Minor couple comments in terms of the healthcare. When you talk about comparing us to the wealthiest nations, I suggest that maybe you have your staff do some stuff because oh very big countries like Iceland, Ecuador, Ecuador and Brazil, it's in their constitution that there's going to be healthcare. So, it's, you know, we're not inventing the wheel here. You know, it's uh I believe it was Winston Churchill that said the Americans will always get it right after they tried everything else. >> So, rest of the world. The other the other thing um that I would encourage staff to do research on when I speak with younger working people about Medicare for all, they say, "Well, my taxes were going to go up." Well, your taxes are going to go up, but so should your salary. You should knock on the door for a raise. If your employer is now paying $15,000 a year for your healthcare, we got a system of 10,000. There's $5,000. >> That's exactly right. And smart employers understand that as well. All right. They don't want to have to deal with a healthcare cost. I remember when I was mayor of Burlington going crazy trying to figure out how we can get the most cost effective health care for city employees. Um, and once you take that burden off employers, it's more money available uh for workers. That's that's exactly correct. And there's something else, by the way. I suspect that many people in this room know family members for staying on a job not because they like the job but because they have decent health insurance for their families. Right? >> So think what it means for people and for the economy when somebody could say, "Hey, I don't like this job. I'm going elseare. Doesn't matter what I'm doing, driving a taxi, running a corporation, I have healthcare, so I can move to any job that I want." That's a big deal. Yeah, ma'am. So, um, >> there's a white coat. >> So, this is not what you're talking about, but I am a supporter of the DSA. I'm supporter of most of the candidates that we are working for and helping. >> I'm a supporter of the DSA. I'm worried about the Democratic Party in the next cycle and how is it going to get together? You know what I'm saying? >> Oh, I know exactly what you're saying. I deal with this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Soon as they leave, I'll be dealing with it. All right. You know, this is a Senate meeting and I'm glad you asked me a political question, so I'll give you an answer. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> No, no, that's okay. That's all you mind. I'm here to answer any questions people have. Look, here's let me give you a broad stroke of where we are in my view politically. Uh you got two major parties, Republican party and Democratic party that are both in a significant way despised by the American people. Both very unpopular. The Republican party over the last, you know, number of years went from what I would call a centerright party, conservative party to a right-wing extremist party under Trump. Okay? And what bothers me most is not just the right-wing extremism. It is they have become what we call a cult of the individual. You know what I mean by that? >> What I mean is that Trump, there was a time, look, Republicans like anybody else have differences of opinion. In this room, we have differences of opinion. It's called democracy. It's called America. But what Trump has said is, "Oh, you disagree with me, you criticize me, I'm going to get one of my super PACs and spend millions of dollars. you're finished and he has been successful in it. So, he has, you know, I talked to some of the Republicans in the Senate and a number of them tell, yeah, he's crazy, but you know, what can we do? You know, they are frightened of him because of his power and his popularity among a certain subsection of the American people. So, that concerns me. There was a time in both parties where you know you belong to a part let me preface this by saying as many of you know many of you helped send me to Washington as the longest serving independent in the history of the United States of America. So my outlook is a little bit different. I caucus with the Democrats always have but I have differences with the Democratic leaders. You got the Republican party becoming right-wing extremists and terrified by Donald Trump. Then what do you got the Democratic party? Well, Democratic Party has a whole set of different problems. In the last many, many years for a variety of reasons we don't have the time to get into, it is a party that is increasingly dominated by people who have money. So what happens is a couple hundred people just like here come together except all of them are multi-millionaires and they sit around and they say all right who do you think should be the Senate candidate for Michigan? What about Minnesota? What do you think about me? Who do you think we should be running? You ready to put in a few million dollars to elect that guy in Maine? Well Michigan that's what we need. So the party has been a party and I ran into this as some of you know when I ran for president in 2016 and 2020. We took on those people. They have the money. They have a lot of power. So their view of politics is people with money help select the candidates. They raise a lot of money. They hire consultants who know how to do very good 30-cond ads. They know how to do opposition research. And that's what the campaign is about. Okay. I have a different view of what politics is about. Okay. It's what we try to do here in Vermont. And I'm trying to spread it nationally. What we believe in is politics from the bottom on up, not from the top on down. What does that mean? It means that you encourage people to participate in the political process. You listen to what they have to say. He opened the door to young people, to workingass people who often felt not welcome, to people of color who often felt not welcome. And then when you open that door, you find out that the desires and needs of people is very different from a workingclass perspective than from a billionaire perspective. All right. What you have seen in the last year is the politics that I am fighting for getting more and more popular and winning more and more victories. It's been a long hard fight and it started a year ago with a guy some of you may know Ziron Mandani in New York CITY and Zan happens to be a really smart guy and in the fatigue I don't know how he goes 24 hours a day. Uh in any case, uh Ziron talking about grassroots campaign in New York City, which is a city of over 8 million people, he put a 100,000 people into the streets knocking on doors to get him elected. So he had to take on the Democratic establishment, the Republican establishments, the oligarchs in New York City. That's what he had to take on. And he won. >> All right. And he's a very popular and good mayor. And by the way, just so you know, those of you old enough, how many people lived in Burlington when I was mayor? >> All right, he's some of the things that we did back then, he's doing right now in New York City. And it's not an accident. He studied what we did here in New York City in in Burlington. >> Um, so it's not just New York City. Right now, you may have followed a race in Michigan with a guy named Dr. Abdul El sayed. >> Yes. >> All right. Been a friend of mine for many, many years. This is what that guy had to take on to win the Democratic primary. He had to take on Michigan's Democratic leadership, popular governor. He had to take on the national Democratic leadership with a lot of money and power. He had to take on over $60 million in super PAC money. $60 million. He was outspent by in by outside spending something like nine to one. Nine to one. Unheard of. And he managed to win the election. >> Okay. A friend of mine in Minnesota named Peggy Flanigan >> did the same. But he's a very All right. All right. Bottom line, we're seeing these victories all across the country in congressional elections. So to answer your question, there is a division within the Democratic party. On one side is the Democratic leadership. On the other side of people like Mandani, Alexandria Kaziocortez, myself and others. All right. As of now, we are winning the struggle, but it's going to be a long hard struggle. And I'm going to be very busy in the next few months to see that progressives a win elections, but in addition to that, Democrats regain control over the House and the Senate because we got to stop. So my life is that's you understand what I'm saying? I got two jobs. I want to make sure that we neutralize Trump's terrible policies by having Democrats win the House and the Senate. On the other hand, I want to see progressives win in the House and the Senate so they can force the Democrats to start standing up for working families. That's what I'd like to do. All right, stand up. >> Thank you. Um, some of the fears that I have happened, I lost my job for anti-semitic comments online. Um, many many many people uh union did not help. Many people are facing that word used like a scarlet letter. It's slung out without any context. I was being stalked by Physicians Against Anti-semitism, a wellfunded right-wing group like Canary Mission. Um, I had a nervous breakdown after that. I'm about ready to lose my housing. I'm going to have to either move in with a friend in Finland or get a roommate. Um, it's been devastating. And when those well-funded groups come after small people for political participation, they now have AI kill list, they have tools, they have organizations that can dox you online and in your home. Um, what is the AI and and if people like Rubio saying we're going to be called communists for wanting the things that you're suggesting, showing up to events that were invited to in the city of Burlington and like the Quaker meetings which people got arrested inside the Quaker Hall in England. What safety when >> Let me just say a few words. Anti-semitism is a disgusting ideology. I'm Drew. My father's family was wiped out by Hitler. All right. Six million people died. So anti-semitism is disgusting. What criticism? Criticism of the right-wing extremist government in Israel that has committed horrible, horrible war crimes against the Palestinian people. When you criticize that, that is not anti-semitism. And I've been subject to that, you know, those same types of attacks. And right now, what worries me, I mean, it is no great secret that anybody in this room, this country has a long history going back to what the settlers did to the Native Americans when they first came here >> of racism. You know, we have slavery, we had Chinese, we had Asian expulsion acts. >> It wasn't so very, very long ago. my wife is Irish that there were signs up that said Irish not wanted. >> All right. Anti-semitism. And now what you're seeing is Islamophobia on the rise. All right. There's just somebody who happens to be and this is true with Elsa in Michigan happens to be a Muslim. Uh Mandani is a Muslim. Suddenly these are terrible people because they are Muslims. So in my view, we have got to combat all forms of racism against African-Americans, against Latinos, against women. You know, sexism is alive and well. Homophobia is alive and well. We have to do that. But your point is well taken. I mean, people have a right to speak out on issues of importance. What's going on in Israel, in Gaza, is in my view horrible. You're looking at a guy who has led the effort to stop funding the Netanyahu's war machine. So, all right. We got a gentleman right here. Yeah. Stand up, sir. All right. So, Mike coming right behind you. >> I'm Muri. I have adopt I've adopted this country 50 odd years ago for two reasons. the people one of the most open-minded people anywhere in the world around in many many different places and second the constitution but in last 50 years when I looking the constitution has been violated by both parties by business and our generation have failed to look what is coming if we had the check and balances 50 30 years we had the energy and go and do something go to jail or even hang we would have stopped it. The result is that we have got bunch of mafias. They have taken the government and we still have got the time to get up, sacrifice our vacation, sacrifice our living standard, go and do the hunger strike or whatever to because our top priority is not us. Our next generation that many of them is sleeping on the street, drug addicts and dying. Okay. >> All right. Uh, look, um, I will not deny that, you know, you know, Democrats have played a role, but right now the really when you talk about violating and breaking the constitution of what Trump is doing is unprecedented in American history and that's really quite clear. uh you have a president who in my view and you know I don't want to make this ter everyone knows my views on Trump and I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on it but what makes him unique is he happens not to believe in democracy or the rule of law you talk about the constitution the constitution is quite clear it is congress that has the authority to go to war not a president so this guy woke up one day and said hey let's work with let's bomb Iran let's go to war happens wants to be illegal and unconstitutional. All right. Right now he's build in in in trying to intimidate media and the ABC criticize him. Oh my god. Imagine having a television program that criticized the president trying to shut down ABC. All right. That's called authoritarianism. And we have never seen anything like that in the history of this country. Not to mention ICE, which is a domestic army of Trumps. So you can criticize anybody you want, but what you're looking at in terms of Trump is absolutely unprecedented. A whole different level. And one of the reasons that Democrats have got to regain control of the House and the Senate is to deal with that issue. All right. Bernie, this is very close to me personally. What can be done to stop the ethnic cleansing and the genocide of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza? Uh is awful. It is horrible and it breaks my heart. Uh and I think the simple answer is no. Not another nickel of US taxpayer money going to the Israeli military. >> And I will tell you to make you feel a little bit better is we have made some real progress on that. I introduced uh an amendment I can't remember when maybe a couple of years ago saying just that and I think we had whatever it was seven 10 people supporting me. Next time we had 15. Then we had 25. Last time around we had 40 out of 47 members of the Democratic caucus voting to suspend military aid uh to uh Netanyahu and his government. And I think the Republicans are getting nervous about that issue as well because a lot of their people are saying for a variety of reasons. Why the hell are we giving Netanyahu billions of dollars when you got people sleeping out on the streets >> when kids can't afford to go to college? So the sentiment is building. We're taking on very powerful organizations. The woman Apac is a very powerful organization spending huge amounts of money. Uh they tried to defeat Elsa. They spent $30 million in Michigan. He won. They're putting money into other campaigns around the country. Uh but the sentiment right now is growing all over this country that we should not be supporting a government which in my view has committed chesticide uh in uh in in Gaza. All right, other questions. Yeah, woman in the background. Yep. >> I'm Jane. I live in Burlington and I want to thank you for the NPA that you started long ago. >> Long time ago. >> Yes. participate in that, my husband and I. And um I just want to say there are a lot of scared people. I hear you. But I want to thank you, Bernie, because you've got a backbone. You've got intestinal fortitude and we've got to fight. And thank you, Bernie. Thank you. >> First of all, thank you very much. And you understand you elected me. We are in this together. Most of you did. All right? And I know you get your phone calls from your relatives in California or Kansas saying, "Why the hell did you elect that guy?" Uh but I think you know I am very proud of our state and our moral values. Uh and I want to see this small state become a model for what America can and should be. >> First of all, this is an honor. This is an honor and thank you for this meal. And I hope I don't stop crying. First, thank you for your dedicated service for all these decades and also for work on the water the pathway for the Queen City. I just found this out that you had worked on it with your colleagues. My question is related to AI. >> Good. >> Do you have any concerns about the possible manipulation of electronic voting? >> All right. Good. Are you taking us AI? Thank you. All right. I want to I want to go there. >> All right. The answer I have are >> uh I want to spend a few minutes discussing this. I want your opinions as well. Okay. Uh AI and robotics both are the most transformative technologies in the history of humanity. >> Okay. >> Look, the world has always changed. When we were kids in Vermont, when I came here in my 20s, you had a lot of family farms, guys dressed up in their work suit, green. Remember, outfits working hard. Many of those farms are now gone. People went from the farms to the factories. They went from the factories to the offices. Economy has always transitioned. But what's happening now is happening a lot faster and a broader way than we have ever seen in the history of the world. And my overall fear before I get to your question is this stuff is moving so fast we are really not prepared to deal with it. Okay. Does AI have some positive aspects? Yes, it does. I think it can help us uh diagnose diseases, come up with prescription drugs, do a number of positive things. But here is what I worry about. This is the broad view and I'm playing an active role in the Senate on these issues. Number one, what will AI do to jobs in America? Okay, answer is nobody exactly knows. Some people say, "Hey, not a problem. Yeah, you're going to lose your job, but she's going to gain the job. Another job." It's always been like that. Don't worry about it. I don't accept that. Elon Musk, the guy I don't trust, I don't like, but who is not stupid. He says that the concept of work will be ended in the next x number of years. All right? That AI will be able to do anything that you do better than you do it. That we don't need you anymore. That all of the goods, all of the services that human beings need are going to be supplied by AI. You can just sit back and tend to your garden. >> All right. Is Mus crazy? I don't know. In this regard, he may be, he may not be, but nobody knows. What we are seeing right now is in big tech, a lot of people are being laid off. There are a lot of jobs out there that AI can do today that workers used to go. I'll tell you another concern, not talked about enough. I was in San Francisco, I don't know, 6 months ago, and I drove in a Whimo. Anybody here drive go in a driverless car? >> All right. I went into a Whimo and you know what? It works. You press the button, you tell the machine there where you want to go and it goes there. It's safe more or less, etc. There are 6 million jobs in transportation. Right now, as we speak in Texas, there are 18 wheel trucks barreling down the road. And guess who's driving them? >> Nobody. >> All right. So you're looking at truck drivers jobs. You're looking at cab drivers, Uber jobs, bus drivers. Add them up, there probably six million jobs in transportation that could likely disappear in the next x number of years. Nobody knows exactly. A lot of entrylevel jobs, kids go into debt, they go to college, they start moving in a corporate world. Those jobs are disappearing. Now again, some people say, "Yeah, don't worry. There's going to be other jobs created." I am not so sure. All right. So that's issue number one. Are we prepared for the kind of millions of jobs that may be lost in the next decade? No, we are not. >> Number two, touching on the issue that the question asked deals with privacy issues in general. >> We are at a moment and that moment is when the thing about AI that everyone has got to understand is it is not static. It does not go from 2 to 4 to 6 to 8. It goes from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32 to 64. It grows on itself. The intelligence of AI breeds even more intelligence. So we're heading in and some of you may have seen I don't know how much was reported here in Vermont last month you had three instances from open AI uh meta and uh anthropic where what AI models what they call escaped the sandbox they lost human beings lost control of them they hacked another computer >> I have talked to guys who are Nobel Prize scientists All right, guys who helped develop AI, this is what they worry about. They worry that as AI becomes smarter than human beings, it will break away from human control. >> So then, so then what you say for example, you say to AI, okay AI, how do we produce, I want you to produce more paper clips. Well, for AI, that's the only thing it needs. So it can wipe out humanity to produce four paper clips. You understand what I'm saying? It doesn't have a conscience. It doesn't have a context. So the danger is that AI could control lose be acting independently of human control. That is a big big fear. All right. Give you another example about democracy or about voting. Right now on I suspect the internet there are videos of Bernie Sanders saying pretty crazy things. You know what they never said. So right now AI is sophisticated enough to put words in your mouth that looks like you are talking. It's really quite good. What does that mean to democracy? What happens if a week before the election you have a candidate for president saying something absolutely outrageous except he or she never said it? >> That's the plan. >> All right. Well, I don't know what the plan is, but that is a real danger. Tell you something else. >> Corruption. >> Tell you something else, and that is the impact of AI on mental health, especially for our kids. >> Y. >> All right. What does that mean? It means that a lot of kids are spending too much damn time on these things. All right, they're watching Tik Tok and everything else. >> Meta >> right now has been successfully sued for huge amounts of money. You know why? They are addicting kids to the screens, getting information about the kids so they can sell these kids all kinds of products and make money. All right. What does it mean? You tell me. You got grandkids. What does it mean if a kid spends eight hours a day looking at Tik Tok or is on the screen? >> What does it mean? Well, tell me what kind of what happens to that kid? >> Bad for their bodies. >> Mushroom. >> All right. What I'm what we are seeing right now is reading c if you can believe this reading capabilities of our kids are in decline. Do you know that? >> They're going down. Writing skills are in decline. >> Cognitive capabilities are in decline. >> All right. >> What happens in normal human life? Like here. All right. This is a normal meeting. Human beings are coming together. We talk, we disagree, we like each other, we don't like each other, whatever it may be, we are interacting as human beings. We have done that our whole life. Take a kid who is spending 8 10 hours a day on a screen. Is that kid learning how to deal with disagreements? Is the kid learning how to deal with disappointment? Love, all of the emotions that make us human beings. So I worry very much about kids become learning to be isolated from other human beings and losing what it means to be a human being. So what the future that some of these guys want, you know, Mr. Musk and his friends, they want robots, not tomorrow, but in the future, robots to be teachers, robots to be doctors. You already seen that. All right. Uh robots to be your life companions, etc. Literally on and on it goes. I mean, you're going to have people marrying robots. Really? It is. All right. So, you got to take a deep breath here. And this gets really deep. It gets beyond elections, beyond democracy, beyond jobs. What the hell kind of world do we want to live in? And do we want our kids to live in? All right. What do you think? Now, that's my view. Those are my concerns. Tell me what you think. Honestly, that's got some hands here. Woman way in the back there. Stand up, please. >> All right. Now, you don't have to stand up. Use the mic. So, you got to use the mic. It's coming right behind you. There it is. >> Mother be rocking. So, hi. I just want to say I totally agree with what you were just saying about social emotional what's going on. Look at the mental health issues that are >> Hold it up a little closer. Hold it a little closer. Okay. So, social emotional going on with the children, families, people, mental health care. But I want to go back to healthcare for a minute because I want a little bit of I appreciate everything that you're doing in that area. I have a hard time understanding what's going on with healthcare. So, having lived in Europe for many years, I'm I'm shocked. Teeth, teeth, ears, eyes. Okay. But, so I had to get um insurance to pay for pharmacy, which I didn't realize that. And I missed the payment and all of a sudden they declined and I paid in full for the year. And then they said, "And now I'm getting a tax for life. It's not a lot, but it all adds up because every little bit helps." So, I'm I'm penalized for missing a payment and now I'm working with a health advocate to try to get healthcare and I'm being the the the um whatever it's called the tax on me is increasing because I don't have the healthcare yet. >> All right. Two things. >> Unreal. >> All right. Two things. Gentleman right behind you. If you think our office is going to help, give us your name and you can try to help. Okay. All right. But look, this is again, you think it's crazy. If I'm the insurance company, I think it's great. >> Right. >> That's the goal of the system. >> Can I just say the health advocate? That's what she said. >> They don't want you to know because that's how they make their money. No kidding. That's exactly right. Yeah. Okay. All you say on Medicare. Hey, thank you. I had a long career in information technology. AI disturbs me in a lot of ways. I'll add on to what you said. Environmental concerns where the AI data centers are going in. It's using up the water, the sound is driving the neighbors crazy, unending noise. Um, but when they talk about the jobs going away and and the shifts in the economy, I'm not seeing where new jobs are being created in this environment. But what's really not clear to me is where the tax structure is going to be. They're replacing people who play t pay taxes with an AI infrastructure that's not being taxed at all. So, I would add those concerns. >> Absolutely. I'll give you one other example. Uh this guy Jeff Bezos who many of you know he is putting together a 100 billion dollar fund to quote unquote automate factories. You know what that means? All right. That means the end of all manufacturing jobs in America at the end of all um warehouse jobs. And your point is all right these people lose their jobs. Who the hell is going to be paying taxes to support Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and so forth? A very legitimate concern. Okay, stay on AI, then we'll get off AI. Gentlemen, >> is there a So, I'm concerned about the military starting to use AI and losing control over weapons. >> Very, very scary situation. >> All right. Uh we may have seen that already. I mean without getting into this terrible war in Iran, a law that should never have been fought, a law that is illegal and unconstitutional. But above and beyond all that, as you may recall, in the beginning of the war, a school was bombed and hundreds I think children were killed. Uh there is reason to believe that that was an AI malfunction. But the idea that AI will be making the whole nature of warfare is being changed radically. And your point, it's a very important point and it's a very scary point. You know, some of the stuff that we're thinking about, we're talking about now. People wrote novels and movies about 30 years ago. It was good science fiction. I'll give you another example in terms of we are not far away from robots being effective soldiers. And what does that mean? If a politician doesn't have to worry, you know, one of the impediments to war, thank God, is that people, you know, presidents and prime ministers do not have to tell their constituents that their kids are getting killed in a war, right? Well, if robots are fighting those wars, what does that mean in terms of war all over the world, you know, there aren't human casualties? So, warfare is a very important concern regarding AI. Okay, gentlemen back there. >> Good afternoon, Bernie. brought up how it is is concerning for our children. I'd argue that it's concerning for everyone because many of us, myself included, are dialed in on the screen watching Tic Tac or whatever. And now we have a crazy person in the White House using AI to show he's talking to George Washington. And and you know, I don't I can't even call it propaganda. It's insanity if Congress is flipped by enough seats. Is will they have enough power to stop that matter? >> Theoretically, I mean that's the answer is theoretically absolutely. Congress controls the pur street rates and purr. Uh that gets back to the discussion we had a little while ago about the future of the democratic party. But if I have anything to say about it, and I do, uh, we will do everything that we can to stop this guy's irrational and disastrous responses. Yeah. Thank you. >> Um, so going back to AI and AI military specifically, um, and I I agree with what you're saying, but I just want to raise the counterargument because everyone else is raising the counter argument. There's a lot of fear around China and China's advancement with AI and China's China is a national security issue broadly. But specifically, do you see a danger in if we restrict AI and China advances beyond our capabilities? >> Very good question. And that is the criticism always left at me. You know, oh Bernie, you want to do all this in America about China? Okay, here's the story. I'll give you a couple of months ago I did something which provoked a lot of uh criticism from the Trump administration. I had a public meeting in the capital hundreds of people coming out with two very prominent uh US AI scientists and then on the screen I had two guys from China. Okay. The reason I do that is precisely that America alone cannot address some of the existential threats. It's got to be done internationally. China is an authoritarian country. Do I trust them? No, I don't. On the other hand, their president, President Xi, recently said that it is important that the world community get together to address the crisis, the potential crisis facing AI. Now, when I brought the Chinese scientists into the capital to talk about this issue, I was criticized. Guess what? Trump is going to be meeting with Chi, you know what? They're going to be talking about AI. So, I think there is way back in the 1980s, you remember Gorbachev and Reagan, these guys have nothing in common politically, but they understand understood that a nuclear war would not be helpful to either country, >> right? >> And they worked out some kind of nuclear deterrence. I think we got to do the same right now with China. So, China has got to be incorporated into the fault and I think there is a willingness and I talked to Chinese scientists who are serious about wanting to prevent the same type of crisis that would impact China has impact the United States. The international cooperation is extremely important. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh yeah. >> I I'm wondering if there's anything >> mic coming. What what besides calling our Congress people, what can ordinary citizens do? We know we don't have to call you to do the right thing. But what can we do? What can we be doing? >> Well, that's a good question. I I mean we have friends in around the country uh whose uh delegation is not as progressive as Peter is doing a great job in the Senate. Becca's doing a great job in the House. That's my >> um other senator other states do not have that kind of representation. So you can help work with your friends. Uh campaigns need help. Telephones go beyond the state of Vermont, right? You can get involved in phone calling. The other thing you can do, by the way, is we have got to rethink democracy right here in the state of Vermont. Let's not kid ourselves. This state has some very serious problems, right? >> And we have got to pitch up our sleeves. Why do we pay the highest prices in the world for healthcare right here in Vermont? What can we do about it? Plain >> tax the rich. >> All right. Well, it's not just Yeah. I mean, it's Yeah. Yes. But it's more complicated than that. It involves all of us demanding the government respond to our needs. It breaks my heart to see towns in rural Vermont, you know, lose population, kids are leaving, farmers are going under how not easy stuff. How do we regain uh ac retain uh small family farms in Vermont, etc. How do we make sure that our schools are doing a great job? All of us can participate uh in those efforts. All right, maybe one or two more questions, sir. Thank you. Can you hear me? Okay. >> At age 85 and 40 of those being spent here, I still feel that Vermont has more pluses and minuses. Before I get to my three-fold question, let me thank you, Senator, I can remember when I was living in Burlington and you came to the faith community and ask for advice or support, but I want to thank you for going around the state and around the country speaking to the big T truth. It seems to have gotten lost and it is raised in so many situations. That's most unfortunate to us as a people. My question one as it relates to or three rather relates to the faith community. What can we possibly do or what recommendations do you have there? Our current currency and our uh coins say God we trust. But you came to a meeting we had when you first were we the faith community leaders in Chittton County and you said I can deal with the uh uh politicians here but I need supports and arms and feet on the street from the faith community. Secondly, education AI is I think agrevely garbage is about garbage in and garbage out because what comes out is what we humans put into it. And there are countless situations where people of color are not recognized by AI with a consequence that there's a double vomality um that's happening there. Education, you made a reference to that. What can we as educators do? We tax payers and incidentally uh you and the lady in my seat here took my earlier comments. I just met her so as if we in the same boat. The we is the question. The we is the underlying because in most instances we are still part of this one human family where we can make a difference. But Um, when you are intellectually bankrupt, when you have nothing to say about the crisis facing this country, whether it's AI, whether it's education, whether it's healthcare, whether it's climate change, whether it's income and wealth inequality, whether it's a corrupt campaign finance system, if you have nothing to say of significance about those issues. What can you say? How do you win votes? >> Blame the immigrants. >> Well, what you do is what demagogues always do. Trump didn't invent this, >> right? It's gone on throughout the world. It's gone on throughout history. So, do you say to people, you got problems? Oh, yeah. I can't afford healthcare. Oh god, housing is terribly expensive. Oh god, my kids schools are not good. You know whose fault it is? It's A, B, C, or it's this group or that group. All right. Terms of racism in America, I am old enough to remember that the lowest paid white workers in America were in Mississippi way back when. And you know how the employers got away with paying white workers very low wages? They could drink at a damn water fountain that a black worker could not. Right? That makes you superior. So, you're earning nothing. Oh, but I can drink from that water fountain. I can go to that movie theater. So, what racism is about all over Europe right now, we're singing is it is an effort to deflect attention from the basic issues of income and wealth inequality, how you create a decent society for all people. And right now, what we're seeing is a growth in, you know, bigotry across this country. And what we have got to do is stand tall and say you know it's an extraordinary one of the beautiful things about this country is over the years people have fought to become a more inclusive society and we cannot allow Trump and his friends to continue to divide us up which is exactly what they're trying to do >> right >> all right I see maybe one last question gentleman way in the Um, I agree with you 100%, but there's one area that I think we have a real problem with, and that is Democrats always seem to bring a knife to a gunfight. And the real problem, it's not just that, but don't you think it's really critical that in, you know, it's one thing for General, it's another thing for Ela to win Michigan. Don't you think we really have to put candidates up there that can win in their districts? Because all the things you're saying are great, but if the status quo continues, we're doing it. We have to we have to break the cycle. The cycle has to be broken at least in the House and the Senate and something has to be done about the >> That is a very good question. And there are honest differences of opinion about you're asking how do you win elections? Okay. And that's a very fair question and there are differences of opinion in my view. And let's remember that Michigan is a very tough state. The current senator won by 210 of 1%. Okay? So, it's not an easy Democratic state by any means. I view politics is the way you win elections is you bring more people into the political process especially people who for variety of reasons have historically not voted. All right. When I run for office or when Elsa runs for office something like 70 75% of people under 25 vote for him. Got it? Okay. It's true. Progressives in general. Our job therefore is to get to these young people who don't vote in very high numbers, okay, workingass people. What Trump has succeeded in doing because of I think a lot of white workingclass people have given up on the Democratic party. I am trying to lead the effort to talk to those people to understand to make them understand that Trump is not their friend. Tell you a story. One of I you know some of you may know I ran all over this country what we calling fighting alikapi tour all over America and we had hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people coming out. One of the most interesting events that we did was in Mingo County, West Virginia. I went to West Virginia because West Virginia voted for Trump to the tune of 70%. Mingo County, all white voted for Trump to the tune of 74%. So I figured why not? I'm going to go to Mingo County. >> Good place to go. >> You were scared. >> Well, you would be smart. You had three 400, you know, got 10,000 people. You had three or 400 people coming out a very rural county and it was a beautiful meeting. These are people got can't afford healthcare. I'm worried about education. I'm earning terrible wages. We're worried about the drug epidemic in West Virginia. In my view, the problem is in West Virginia, by the way, the Democratic Party doesn't even exist. Virtually non-existent. They've given up. >> All right. So, what I am trying to do with others is to rebuild a party from the grassroots on up. I think you win elections when you have large voter turnouts. And if you may have noticed politically in New York City, in Michigan, in Colorado, in Minnesota, they have experienced recordbreaking voter turnout. So we are appealing not just to young people, but the workingclass people who say it doesn't matter. We say it does matter. We got an agenda that speaks to you. Come out and vote. They are coming out. So that is, you know, frankly, a difference of opinion between the Democratic leadership and myself. They think, "Hey, the electorate is this. I got 200 people here and that's all there is." I say, "No, we can bring in another 100 people. Three quarters will move vote for us." Okay, that's the difference of opinion. But both sides, to be honest with you, are determined to win the House and the Senate again. We're working on that. All right. All right. On that note, I got to go back to figure out how we win the House and the Senate. >> Uh listen, uh thank you all very much for coming out. >> Thank you. >> And a special thanks to the folks here in the Old North End. I started my political career by winning here in the Old North End. Thank you very much. THANK YOU. MY mom father message. I know I chase my Heat. Heat. Tastes like I'm going to taste my wine. I'm going to taste like I'm going I know where she is my I got Washington. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. I got battle. >> Hi, we're the Rustics. We had a great time playing for the this event for Senator Bernie Sanders and the people here were just fantastic. So, thank you very much. >> Yay.