'Reagan Was Right': Bernie Sanders Quotes Former President Ronald Reagan During Senate Hearing

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At a Senate Health Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about employee-owned businesses.

Transcript

00:00With that, I recognize Senator Sanders. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding this

00:05important hearing. One of the beautiful things about representing the state of Vermont is that

00:10we have some of the best employee-owned companies in the country, and I'm very proud of that fact.

00:16Over the years, I've met with employee-owned companies in Vermont, and never in my life have

00:21I seen employees who take more pride in the work that they do, from senior executives and managers

00:28all the way down to the cashier and the store clerk. In a few moments, I'm delighted that we will be

00:34hearing from one of those companies, the King Arthur Baking Company, headquartered in Norwich,

00:40Vermont. King Arthur is not only an enormously successful baking company, what makes this

00:46company so special is that it is directly owned by its employees, not some multi-billionaire on

00:54Wall Street. Brock Martin, the chief financial officer of that company, is one of our witnesses,

00:59and Brock, thanks so much for being here today. Mr. Chairman, at a time when the gap between the

01:04very rich and everyone else in our country is growing wider, when millions of Americans are

01:09falling further and further behind, when corporate America has outsourced millions of decent-paying jobs

01:16overseas, and when the economy continues to struggle to create jobs that pay a livable wage with good

01:22benefits, we need to expand economic models that broadly benefit the middle class, not just the one

01:30percent. And I strongly believe that employee ownership is one of those models which has enormous

01:37economic potential and the potential to improve the lives of millions of workers. Mr. Chairman, when

01:44employees own their own companies, when they work for themselves, when they're involved in the

01:49decision-making process, rather than just being a cog in a machine, they are no longer just punching a

01:57time clock. Unlike large corporations that have been shipping jobs overseas, employee-owned businesses

02:04are not shutting down, and they're not moving their businesses to China, Mexico, Bangladesh, or other low-wage

02:11countries. Workers who have a direct ownership stake in the companies they work for become more

02:17motivated, absenteeism goes down, worker productivity goes up, and people stay on the jobs for a longer

02:25period of time. They're happy at their work, they're proud of what they're doing. Further, employee-owned

02:30businesses boost morale because workers share in future profits and have greater control over their work

02:38life. Study after study has shown that employee ownership has been proven to increase employment,

02:44increase productivity, increase sales, and increase wages in the U.S. And I'm proud that the author of

02:50many of those studies is also here with us this morning, Dr. Joseph Blasi, the Director Emeritus of the

02:56Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University. Dr. Blasi, thanks so

03:02much for being with us. Mr. Chairman, for far too long, many corporations in this country believe that

03:09the bottom line is only the bottom line. The only thing that matters are short-term profits, strong

03:16dividends, and increasingly generous compensation packages for their CEOs. That type of greed, in my view,

03:25is not an economic model that we should be embracing. In my view, we can and must do better,

03:30and that is what I hope this hearing will begin to accomplish. Despite the important role that worker

03:36ownership can play in revitalizing our economy, the federal government has failed to commit the

03:41resources needed to allow this business model to realize its true potential, and I hope we can

03:47make some significant improvements in that area. And that is why I have introduced legislation today

03:52to provide the financial assistance workers need to own their own businesses through employee ownership

03:59stock, ownership plans, or worker-owned cooperatives. A lot of workers around this country would like

04:05to own their own companies, and employers, people who started the business, would prefer everything

04:12being equal to give their businesses over to their workers. But right now, there are a lot of

04:17impediments in doing that. Let me conclude, Mr. Chairman, by doing something that I don't do very often,

04:24that is quoting Ronald Reagan. All right, you ready for Ronald Reagan, guys?

04:29There's hope for us, Bernie.

04:32In 1987, Ronald Reagan said, and I quote,

04:35I can't help but believe that in the future we will see in the United States and throughout the

04:41Western world an increasing trend toward the next logical step, employee ownership. It's a path that

04:49benefits a free people, end of quote. Reagan was right 38 years ago. Let's do it. Thank you.

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