Bernie Sanders: ‘We Will Raise Taxes, Yes We Will’

Sanders kept bringing up his vote against the Iraq war, even explicitly noting that Hillary had backed the war.

“You’re ashamed all the time”, said Carrie Aldrich, 46, who teared up as she told Sanders about living on less than $10,000 a year as she struggles with a disability. “I led the effort against Wall Street deregulation”.

But when it came to demonstrating fluency in foreign and domestic issues – without saying a nasty word about Sanders – Clinton dominated the space of being ready to govern and deal with a gridlocked Congress. “I worked three, four, five jobs sometimes, always minimum wage”.

Sanders voters tend to be dissatisfied (69 percent) with the workings of the federal government, while Clinton voters are about as likely to be satisfied (50 percent) as dissatisfied (47 percent).

He noted that on two issues – the Keystone Pipeline and Trans Pacific Partnership – he has long held the opposition, while in both cases it took Clinton months to come around.

Hillary Clinton’s lead in the Democratic primary race has narrowed to its slimmest margin yet.

He also warned unapologetically that taxes would rise if he is elected President, especially to pay for his Medicare-for-all health care plan.

“This would be so unimaginable”, Sanders said. And, living up to his image as a self-declared Democratic socialist, he warned corporations and the richest Americans that they would pay more.

“We will raise taxes, yes we will”, Sanders confirmed, but said people would save more by not paying health insurance premiums.

“I did not say it well”, Sanders said, trying to draw a distinction between the leadership of the group and its members.

The Vermont senator kicked off the town hall by saying that his populist message of economic and political change “has resonated much faster, much further than I thought it would”. He laughed easily during exchanges with moderator Chris Cuomo and boasted of his athletic prowess as an elementary school basketball player.

“Every candidate in Iowa has the same opponent, and that opponent’s name is ‘expected, ‘” says Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University.

Sanders – the first to sit down last night on the CNN set – was asked if Clinton was “better prepared” to be the next president.

The Des Moines Register, the largest newspaper in the state that will cast the first votes for US presidential nominees, gave its coveted endorsement on Saturday to Clinton.

The Sanders campaign took the president’s comments in stride.

For former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Monday night might be his last night on the national stage in 2016.

Meanwhile, the poll shows Hillary Clinton’s popularity with Democratic primary voters has dropped considerably. The poll showed women, non-whites, self-identified Democrats, and those over age 50 breaking sharply for Clinton. The tightening race has both Clinton and Sanders – who have managed to mostly avoid direct attacks on one another in the past – swinging away.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign rally at Burford Garner Elementary School, on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016, in North Liberty, Iowa. With the Vermont senator insisting he’s been a consistent gun safety supporter, Clinton’s team dispatched a prominent gun control advocate to deride his “disgraceful record”. Following a series of high-profile speeches by Sanders, Clinton said she wasn’t “interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real world”.