Sen. Bernie Sanders: Congress works very well for the top 1 percent

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Thursday blasted the influence of corporate money on American politics during an appearance on MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show.

"The United States Congress, and to a certain degree the White House, are dominated by big money interest," he said. "If you look at who contributes to campaigns, by and large they are very wealthy people. If you look at the lobbying effort that takes place it Washington it is beyond belief. When we look at what happened at Wall Street and the collapse of the Wall Street as a result of deregulation, we can never forget that Wall Street spent $5 billion over a ten year period lobbying for that deregulation.

"I don't look at Congress having a personality defect, people can't get along and all that stuff, that's not the issue," he continued. "The issue is Congress is dominated by people who have a whole lot of money and if you look at what has happened in recent years, in fact Congress has been working very, very well for the top 1 percent or the top 2 percent."

In hopes of getting money out of politics, Sanders has introduced the Saving American Democracy Amendment to the Senate. The constitutional amendment would state that corporations are not entitled to the same constitutional rights as people, ban corporate campaign donations to candidates, and give Congress and the states broad authority to regulate spending in elections.

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