About 3,200 people turned out to hear Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders at the Wings Event Center Monday, one day before the Michigan primary. Sanders drew cheers with proposals for a $15 minimum wage, free tuition at public universities and lower costs for prescription drugs.
Although polls show him trailing opponent Hillary Clinton in Michigan, Sanders told supporters that he can win the state if they turn out to vote.
The Vermont senator told the group that if he’s elected president, he’ll work to make things better for students and working people. Sanders said his ideas for raising wages, confronting climate change and lowering drug costs are not “radical.”
“But what they do require - and this is the difference between Secretary Clinton and myself - it does require us having the courage to take on the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies and Wall Street and the fossil fuel industry,” he said.
Sanders also called on the US to reinvest in its aging roads and water systems. He says the money to fix them could be raised by closing corporate tax loopholes.
“It is more important to rebuild the Flint water system, the Detroit school system than to give tax breaks to profitable corporations,” he said.
Sanders supporter Gerald Gibbons of Dowling says he’s worked through two plant closings in his career and hopes Sanders can bring jobs back to the US. Gibbons says Sanders has shown he’s committed to the labor movement.
“He’s always on picket lines, he’s not afraid to stand with the strikers or the people that are locked out. So I have a lot of respect for him. He doesn’t just talk the walk, he walks the talk,” Gibbons said.
Western Michigan University Senior Patrick Maher says he’s especially drawn to Sanders’ platform on education.
“I think it should be free for everyone, even if we all have to get taxed a little harder. I’d sacrifice 30 percent of my wage or even 40, just so everybody can be educated. I think that should be a right,” Maher said.
