“My opponent says that, as a senator, she told bankers to ‘cut it out’ and end their destructive behavior,” he said. “But, in my view, establishment politicians are the ones who need to cut it out,” he said.
“The reality is that Congress doesn’t regulate Wall Street. Wall Street, its lobbyists and their billions of dollars regulate Congress,” Sanders added.
Sanders also vowed to reinstate Glass-Steagall, which Bill Clinton overturned during his presidency, allowing commercial and investment banks to merge and form the super banks we have today. He has also co-sponsored a bill with Senator Elizabeth Warren to have it reinstated.
“We will no longer tolerate an economy and a political system that has been rigged by Wall Street to benefit the wealthiest Americans in this country at the expense of everyone else,” Sanders said.
Those weren’t the only promises made by the self-proclaimed democratic socialist. Sanders also vowed to prosecute Wall Street executives for the 2008 financial crisis, establish a tax on speculators to discourage “reckless gambling” to make colleges tuition-free, turn for-profit credit rating agencies into non-profits, cap interest rates and ATM fees, allow post offices to offer banking services and ban banking industry executives from serving on the Federal Reserve board.
“Senator Sanders should go beyond his existing plans for reforming Wall Street and endorse Hillary Clinton’s tough, comprehensive proposals to rein in risky behavior within the shadow banking sector,” the statement read.
Sanders’ campaign strongly rejected the suggestion, and issued a statement of their own:
"Senator Sanders won’t be taking advice on how to regulate Wall Street from a former Goldman Sachs partner and a former Treasury Department official who helped Wall Street rig the system.”
