Elect Kamala Harris as next president: Bernie Sanders to US voters

CHICAGO: Senator Bernie Sanders on Tuesday urged the people of the United States to elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the country.

Delivering a prime-time address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Sanders spoke of the critical importance of delivering a progressive economic agenda for the working-class Americans and taking on rampant corporate greed.

“We need an economy that works for all of us, not just the greed of the billionaire class. My fellow Americans, while 60 per cent of our people live paycheck to paycheck, the top 1 per cent have never had it so good. These oligarchs tell us we shouldn’t tax the rich; we shouldn’t take on price gouging; we shouldn’t expand medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision; and we shouldn’t increase social security benefits for struggling seniors,” he said.

“Well, I’ve got some bad news for them. That is precisely what we are going to do, and we’re going to win this struggle because this is precisely what the American people want from their government. And at the top of that to-do list is the need to get big money out of our political process,” he said.

Billionaires in both parties should not be able to buy elections — including primary elections, the Vermont senator said.

"For the sake of our democracy we must overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and move toward public funding of elections. And let me tell you what else we must do. We need to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all as a human right, not a privilege,” he said.

"We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, and pass the PRO Act so that workers can organise in unions for decent pay and decent benefits, Sanders said at the DNC.

He said public education needed to be strengthened, teacher salaries should be raised and added that every American receives higher education regardless of income.

"We need to take on 'Big Pharma' and cut prescription drug costs in half, so that we pay no more than other countries," the senator said.