Erin Burnett: When you introduced your wealth tax, which would tax the assets of the wealthiest Americans, you said, quoting you senator, "billionaires should not exist." Is the goal of your plan to tax billionaires out of existence? Bernie Sanders: When you have a half-million Americans sleeping out on the street today. When you have 87 million people uninsured or under-insured. When you have hundreds of thousands of kids who cannot afford to go to college. And millions, struggling with the oppressive burden of student debt. And then you also have three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society. That is a moral and economic outrage. And the truth is, we cannot afford to continue this level of income and wealth inequality. And we cannot afford a billionaire class who's greed and corruption has been at war with the working families of this country for 45 years. So if you are asking me, do I think we should demand the wealthy start paying ... the wealthiest top 1/10th of 1 percent, start paying their fair share of taxes, so we can create a nation and government that works for all of us? Yes, that's exactly what I believe.
Erin Burnett: When you introduced your wealth tax, which would tax the assets of the wealthiest Americans, you said, quoting you senator, "billionaires should not exist." Is the goal of your plan to tax billionaires out of existence?
Bernie Sanders: When you have a half-million Americans sleeping out on the street today. When you have 87 million people uninsured or under-insured. When you have hundreds of thousands of kids who cannot afford to go to college. And millions, struggling with the oppressive burden of student debt. And then you also have three people owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society. That is a moral and economic outrage. And the truth is, we cannot afford to continue this level of income and wealth inequality. And we cannot afford a billionaire class who's greed and corruption has been at war with the working families of this country for 45 years. So if you are asking me, do I think we should demand the wealthy start paying ... the wealthiest top 1/10th of 1 percent, start paying their fair share of taxes, so we can create a nation and government that works for all of us? Yes, that's exactly what I believe.