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Senator Bernie Sanders told Business Insider that he is reaching across the aisle to find common ground.
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He has no qualms about working with Elon Musk on the good ideas he has about spending.
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Sanders also mentioned areas of mutual interest with RFK Jr. on health and Trump on credit card debt.
Senator Bernie Sanders extends an olive branch to newly elected President Donald Trump and his new administration.
In an interview with Business Insider on Tuesday, the Vermont senator mentioned common ground with Elon Musk, co-chair of a new extra-governmental department to cut costs, as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about health and Trump about credit debt.
“If anyone on the other side has a good idea, I will certainly work with them,” Sanders, who at 83 is the longest-serving independent in Congress, told BI.
In Musk, Sanders may find an ally to cut defense spending
Sanders made headlines on Monday when he tweeted his support for Elon Musk’s plea to curb defense spending.
Musk, who has previously criticized Sanders as a threat to democracy, responded with a laughing emoji and said, “Maybe we can find common ground.”
Sanders told BI that he has no qualms about working with Musk on Defense Department spending, or other good ideas he has as co-chair of DOGE, a new Department of Government Efficiency created by President-elect Trump.
“A lot of the things he did during the campaign were really ugly. On the other hand, he’s a very smart guy,” Sanders told BI. “He is absolutely right” in calling for the first independent audit of the Pentagon in more than seven years, Sanders said.
“We need a strong military, but we don’t need all the waste, profiteering and fraud that currently exists in the Pentagon,” he said.
While Musk has not yet outlined specific plans to curb defense spending, he has criticized the Defense Department’s F-35 program and cited its $841 billion budget in a Wall Street Journal op-ed about its mission to reduce costs. In April, Sanders pushed for an $88.6 billion, or 10%, cut to the military budget.
The amendment was voted down, and Sanders blasted lawmakers for pouring money into a department that couldn’t pass an audit.
Finding connection through Kennedy’s MAHA movement
Sanders, co-chairman of the Senate Health Committee, told BI that he also sees common ground with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., especially when it comes to ultra-processed foods.
Kennedy, Trump’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, faces a difficult confirmation hearing given his opposition to vaccines and plans to take on food giants and industry lobbyists.
If confirmed, he has pledged to “make America healthy again” by tackling chronic diseases. He promises to ban processed foods from school lunches and remove food dyes from the American food system, among other things.
Sanders is in favor of shaking up our food system. This week, he’s leading a Senate hearing on ultra-processed foods, questioning how processed products are regulated and how they impact health.
“When Kennedy talks about an unhealthy society, he is right. The amount of chronic disease we have is just extraordinary,” Sanders told BI.
While Sanders is critical of Kennedy’s views on vaccines, he supports his calls to address the root cause of chronic disease in America.Darryl Webb/AP
He mentioned the millions of people suffering from obesity and diabetes, and the ripple effects this has across industries. Diabetes care now costs the US an estimated $400 billion a year, and a recent report shows that the military is struggling to recruit young people who meet the physical requirements for enlistment.
“Our children are not healthy enough. In the long term, you want a healthy society as a goal in itself,” Sanders said. “We want our people to have a long life, a productive life and a happy life. That’s what we want. And if the industry is feeding our children food that makes them overweight, which leads to diabetes and other diseases, then that is clearly a problem we have to deal with. encounter.”
Sanders, who has previously criticized Kennedy’s views on vaccines, added: “I think a lot of what RFK says is quite crazy and driven by conspiracy theories. Some of what he says is not crazy.”
“Everyone with a brain in his or her head wants to tackle this problem, to find out the cause of the problem. I think processed food and the kind of sugar and salt that we have in products that our children and adults are ingesting is an important part of addressing that crisis.”
Sanders wants Trump to stick to his proposed cap on credit card interest rates
During his campaign, Donald Trump introduced a temporary 25% cap on credit card interest rates to help Americans catch up.Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
Although Trump and Sanders are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, they may have a common opinion on credit card interest rates.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S. consumer credit card debt reached $1.17 trillion in 2023.
“Donald Trump came up with an idea during this campaign. He said, you know what, credit card interest rates, which in some cases are now 20 to 25%, should not exceed 10%. Well, you know what? I agree with that,” Sanders said.
Although Trump said a limit would be “temporary” to help Americans “catch up” on payments, the suggestion made waves. Mark Cuban, a longtime critic of Trump, mocked him for going even further than “self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders.”
It would be difficult to pass Congress, as Sanders knows. He and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a 15% interest rate cap in 2019, but that came to nothing.
Now Sanders is challenging Trump to exercise his strong mandate and make this a key issue.
“We will see if Mr. Trump is willing to keep his word. We look forward to it and we will work with a number of Republicans on this issue,” Sanders said.
“Where Trump and the Republicans feel like it, we are happy to work with them. And we will vigorously oppose many of their policies, which to me are deeply distasteful.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
