Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) said Thursday on PoliticsNation that Republicans "literally get away with murder" by reforming Medicare, taxes, and higher education.
"What I think, Al, is the Republicans literally get away with murder because people don't know what their agenda is," Sanders said to MSNBC host Al Sharpton. "Nobody knows that their budget throws 27 million people off of Medicare—off of health care. Nobody knew that they cut Pell Grants by $90 billion. Nobody knows that they gave $250 billion to the top two-tenths of one percent."
Sanders, the socialist candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination, said the GOP has to be "confronted" over its extreme and outlandish policy positions.
It is unclear if Sanders was using the word "literally" figuratively, or if he believes that many of his Senate colleagues are murderers.
Sanders' announcement speech for president was a strong indicator of where he would go with his economic rhetoric during his campaign:
But it is not just income and wealth inequality. It is the tragic reality that for the last 40 years the great middle class of our country -- once the envy of the world -- has been disappearing. Despite exploding technology and increased worker productivity, median family income is almost $5,000 less than it was in 1999. In Vermont and throughout this country it is not uncommon for people to be working two or three jobs just to cobble together enough income to survive on and some health care benefits.
The truth is that real unemployment is not the 5.4 percent you read in newspapers. It is close to 11 percent if you include those workers who have given up looking for jobs or who are working part time when they want to work full time. Youth unemployment is over 17 percent and African-American youth unemployment is much higher than that. Today, shamefully, we have 45 million people living in poverty, many of whom are working at low-wage jobs. These are the people who struggle every day to find the money to feed their kids, to pay their electric bills and to put gas in the car to get to work. This campaign is about those people and our struggling middle class. It is about creating an economy that works for all, and not just the one percent.