"I'm not a Democrat, I'm an Independent, but I caucus with the Democrats."

"I come from a rural state. People drive 50, 100 miles to and from work every single day. That is true all over America."

"The bottom line is that when Senator Inhofe says, 'Global warming is a hoax,' he is just dead wrong, according to the vast majority of climate scientists."

"CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about."

"Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit."

"Social Security is a promise that we cannot and must not break."

"You've got the top 400 Americans owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. Most folks do not think that is right."

"Who do you think controls the Republican Party? Big money controls the Republican Party. This is where their campaign contributions come from."

"The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs."

"Washington is dominated by big money."

"If you look at the newspapers here - the Washington papers - most of the discussion deals with campaign gossip."

"These are the same people who believe, in some cases, the federal government should not play any role in providing health care to our people or protecting the environment."

"In my view, a corporation is not a person. A corporation does not have First Amendment rights to spend as much money as it wants, without disclosure, on a political campaign."

"The Federal Reserve has a responsibility to ensure the safety and soundness of financial institutions and to contain systemic risks in financial markets."

"The Federal Reserve needs to provide small businesses in America with the same low-interest loans it gave to foreign banks."

"We need an energy revolution by breaking our dependence on fossil fuels, polluting fuels... I am very, very confident our small state will lead this. We will be noticed by the country and the world."

"You go to Scandinavia, and you will find that people have a much higher standard of living, in terms of education, health care and decent paying jobs."

"I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future."

"What some of us believe is that it is possible that if chemicals are related to Gulf War illness that some of the more severe symptoms may not erupt until 10 or 20 years down the line."

"A president and a party that can provide insurance for 31 million more Americans is far preferable to most voters than a party that only says, 'No.'"

"Progressive activists are angry that a Medicare-for-all single-payer approach was totally ignored during the health care debate."

"It is incomprehensible that drug companies still get away with charging Americans twice as much, or more, than citizens of Canada or Europe for the exact same drugs manufactured by the exact same companies."

"You know, I think many people have the mistaken impression that Congress regulates Wall Street. In truth that's not the case. The real truth is that Wall Street regulates the Congress."

"The details of what the Fed did were kept secret until a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that I sponsored required the Government Accountability Office to audit the Fed's lending programs during the financial crisis."

"Danes pay very high taxes, but in return enjoy a quality of life that many Americans would find hard to believe."

"At its worst, Washington is a place where name-calling partisan politics too often trumps policy."

"What the Ten Million Solar Roofs Act does is provide consumer rebates for the purchase and installation of solar systems."

"General Electric, NBC's parent, is one of the largest corporations in the world, with an anti-labor history of outsourcing jobs and with financial links to military and nuclear power industries."

"In cold weather states like Vermont, where the weather can get to 20 below zero, home heating assistance is critically important. In fact, it is a life and death issue."

"The Postal Service is a vitally important institution for the American people. It must be saved."

"For better or worse, when Sen. Inhofe speaks, the Republican Party follows. And when the Republican Party follows, it is impossible to get real work done in the Congress."

"Two-thirds of the directors at the New York Fed are hand-picked by the same bankers that the Fed is in charge of regulating."

"There are a lot of smart honest, progressive people who I think can be good presidents."

"The U.S. constitution is an extraordinary document. In my view, it should not be amended often."

"Yes, we become stronger when black and whites, Latino, Asian American, Native American, when all of us stand together."

"Today the biggest problem in caring for those with AIDS is no longer mainly a medical or scientific problem. The crisis is access to affordable drugs."

"Former Senator Al D'Amato in 1991 offered an amendment to cap credit card interest rates at 14 percent."

"Democratic socialism means that our government does everything it can to create a full employment economy."

"Health care in Denmark is universal, free of charge and high quality. Everybody is covered as a right of citizenship."

"I don't believe there's a red state in America where people believe you should cut Medicare, Social Security and veterans' benefits rather than doing away with corporate tax loopholes."

"It has become clear that the function of a private health insurance is to make as much money as possible. Every dollar not paid out in claims is another dollar made in profits for the company."

"I am a socialist, and everyone knows it."

"Every working family in America knows how hard it is today to find affordable childcare or early childhood education."

"I'm not always a smiley kind of guy."

"Low-income people, racial or ethnic minorities, pregnant women, seniors, people with special needs, people in rural areas - they all have a much harder time accessing a dentist than other groups of Americans."

"The Occupy Wall Street protests are shining a national spotlight on the most powerful, dangerous and secretive economic and political force in America."

"We need leadership in this country, which will improve the lives of working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor. We need leadership which brings our people together and makes us stronger."

"Hillary Clinton understands that we have to invest in education and jobs for our young people, not more jails or incarceration."

"To be honest with you, I worry about concentration of ownership in media, where you have a handful of media conglomerates largely controlling what we see, hear and read."

"Shouting down and intimidating someone from speaking their mind is not exactly a Vermont town meeting value, nor should it be an American town meeting value."