Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign is surging in popularity as he gains on Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and Iowa. As a Sanders presidency becomes more realistic, the senator hinted at whom he thought would fit on his presidential cabinet, reported the Huffington Post.
“My cabinet would not be dominated by representatives of Wall Street,” said Sanders. “I think Wall Street’s played a horrendous role in recent years, in negatively impacting our economy and in making the rich richer. There are a lot of great public servants out there, great economists who for years have been standing up for the middle class and the working families of this country.”
Sanders wouldn’t appoint former banksters or CEOs. He’d likely look at economists and labor advocates, actual experts in the field they would oversee. Sanders mentioned three good names when Jake Tapper asked him on CNN’s State of the Union: Paul Krugman, Joseph Stiglitz, and Robert Reich. Sanders said that each one is doing a “great” or “fantastic” job.
Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and columnist for the New York Times. To his credit, Krugman has spoken out against tax cuts for the wealthy and has been discussing income inequality for several years.
Stiglitz is an economics professor at Columbia University and Nobel laureate. His area of expertise lies in studying and warning about the dangers of “radical free markets.” In a system that he describes as “intellectually bankrupt,” Stiglitz correctly noted that the American free market is nothing more than a collection of corporate welfare recipients.
And then there’s labor union supporter and former labor secretary of the Clinton administration Robert Reich. Reich is currently a professor at the University of California in Berkeley, and a staunch advocate of labor unions and workers’ right. For years, he’s been fighting against the GOP effort to dismantle the labor unions of America.
With Sanders in the White House, and a cabinet like this, America would be on the way to some real change. Sanders needs to get elected first, however. Once Sanders is in the White House, then everything else can come together.
Here’s a solid take from The Young Turks‘ Cenk Uygur about Sanders’ “Dream Team.”
