Sanders: ‘We Need to Raise Wages and Income’ Not Force People to Work More Hours

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BUSH: “My aspirations for the country, and I believe we can achieve it, is for 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see, which means we have to be a lot more productive. Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours…”

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CUOMO: “Now, you jumped on him with this being him - an example of being how - him out of a - being out of touch, excuse me.”
SANDERS: “Right.” 
CUOMO: “But were you being unfair? You know that what he meant was, part-time workers need full-time jobs. Were you playing a little bit of the tricky game?” 
SANDERS: “Well, of course we need full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs. But to suggest that people have got to work harder, Chris, here's the fact that the United - people in the United States of America today are working the longest hours of the people of any major industrialized countries. We work a lot harder than the Germans, than the British. We have 85 percent of men working more than 40 hours a week, 65 percent of women working more than 40 hours a week. So what we need to do is raise wages and income, not force our people, who are already stressed out by long hours, to work even more hours.” 
CUOMO: “Right. But he wasn't arguing about ethic.” 
SANDERS: “No.”
CUOMO: “He was talking about the availability of jobs. So I'm just saying, you know, you're kind of twisting it a little bit there, senator.” 
SANDERS: “Well –“

CUOMO: “And if you want to stay above the board of dirty politics, you've got to be consistent.” 
SANDERS: “Well, if he is talking about the need for more full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs, he's absolutely correct. That's - that's what we have to do. But I want to reiterate, we work - our people work today the longest hours of any people in any major industrialized country.”