"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."

"In 2008, Goldman Sachs only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department."

"It is time we had democratic socialism for working families, not just Wall Street billionaires."

"Wall Street is greedy, reckless and they operate illegally. That's fine. But what do you do?"

"When I talk about democratic socialist, I'm not looking at Venezuela. I'm not looking at Cuba. I'm looking at countries like Denmark and Sweden."

"While Donald Trump believes in huge tax breaks for billionaires, he believes that states should actually have the right to lower the minimum wage below $7.25. What an outrage!"

"As Vermont's senator and a member of the Budget Committee, I will not support a plan to reduce the deficit that does not call for shared sacrifice."

"If the goal of health-care reform is to provide comprehensive, universal health care in a cost-effective way, the only honest approach is a single-payer approach."

"Every day we are paying more for energy than we should due to poor insulation, inefficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment - money we could save by investing in energy efficiency."

"In terms of job creation, every billion dollars invested in the physical infrastructure creates 47,000 new jobs."

"After all, Wall Street is clearly the most powerful lobbying force on Capitol Hill. From 1998 through 2008, the financial sector spent over $5 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions to deregulate Wall Street."

"If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist."

"If you ask me about my views on the environment, on women's rights, on gay rights, I am liberal. I don't have a problem with that at all. Some of my best friends are liberal."

"One in four corporations doesn't pay any taxes."

"At a time when the Post Office is losing substantial revenue from the instantaneous flow of information by email and on the Internet, slowing mail service is a recipe for disaster."

"At a time when the Post Office is losing substantial revenue from the instantaneous flow of information by email and on the Internet, slowing mail service is a recipe for disaster."

"Hillary Clinton understands that if someone in America this country works 40 hours a week, that person should not be living in poverty. She understands that we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage."

"It makes a lot more sense for us to be investing in jobs and education rather than jails and incarceration."

"I am a socialist; of course I am a socialist. To hold a vision that society can be fundamentally different, to believe that all people can be equal - that is not a new idea."

"At the current $5.15 an hour, the federal minimum wage has become a poverty wage. A full-time worker with one child lives below the official poverty line."

"Let us wage a moral and political war against war itself, so that we can cut military spending and use that money for human needs."

"Good environmental policy is good economic policy."

"The goal of real healthcare reform must be high-quality, universal coverage in a cost-effective way."

"Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America."

"Finally, let us understand that when we stand together, we will always win. When men and women stand together for justice, we win. When black, white and Hispanic people stand together for justice, we win."