(Radio Iowa) – Bernie Sanders — the U.S. Senate Budget Committee chairman — is visiting states like Iowa with Republican dominated congressional delegations to tout the three-and-a-half TRILLION dollar federal spending plan he’s helped craft. “This is the moment that tests our mettle. Do we stand and fight?” Sanders asked the crowd. “We will and we’re going to prevail.”
Sanders spoke Sunday afternoon in downtown Cedar Rapids. Sanders says the bill offers solutions to a range of problems like climate change as well as a lack of child care and affordable housing. He describes it as the most significant piece of legislation since the so-called New Deal of the 1930s.

“So many good people are struggling economically to provide for their families and when half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, we can do better than that,” Sanders said, to cheers.

Bernie Sanders. (Photo from Sanders’ Twitter feed.)

Sanders also cites the bill’s proposed expansion of Medicare to cover dental visits, hearing aids and eye glasses. Sanders says all these items are within reach if the country’s wealthiest citizens pay their fair share in taxes. Republicans say Iowans won’t be distracted by the Democrats’ spending agenda when American lives are in danger in Afghanistan.