Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist, is the closest rival to Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.
The 74 year old was hot on the heels of the former first lady at the first caucus in Iowa and is hotly tipped to clinch the win in New Hampshire at the first primary on Tuesday.
But with support for the left-wing candidate increasing as the race heads towards the party conventions, what exactly does he stand for? Here’s a break down of his key policies.
INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY
Calling the enormous shift in wealth from the middle class and the poor to the wealthiest the Robin Hood principle, Mr Sanders aims to tackle this issue in a number of ways.
This includes demanding wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes, increasing the federal minimum wage and by putting 13 million Americans to work by rebuilding infrastructure.
MAKE COLLEGE TUITION FREE
Mr Sanders says he will abolish tuition fees at public colleges and universities – in a bid to end debt and encourage more youngsters to go. And he will drop undergraduate loan rates from 4.29% to 2.37% and require public colleges and universities to meet the meeds of the lowest-income students.
GETTING BIG MONEY OUT OF POLITICS
In a bid to move away from the wealthy few who determine who gets elected or not – he is calling for new legislation to be passed to require those individuals and corporations who make large campaign contributions to disclose where their cash is going.
He also aims to pass a constitutional amendment to give congress and states the power to regulate money in elections.
CREATING DECENT PAYING JOBS
He aims to create millions of jobs by investing billions of dollars in infrastructure across the US. This includes bridges and roads, the rail network, airports, and restoring levees, water pipes and the electrical grid.
A LIVING WAGE
Calling the current federal minimum wage (7.25 dollars an hour) “starvation pay”, Mr Sanders wants to increase this sum to 15 dollars an hour over the coming several years.
COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE TO SAVE THE PLANET
Mr Sanders is proposing to accelerate a transition away from fossil fuel usage, instead investing in clean, sustainable energy, wants to revolutionise the electric and transportation infrastructure by modernising the grid and updating the current system, and he wants to lead the international community in the bid to tackle climate change and prevent international conflict.
A FAIR AND HUMANE IMMIGRATION POLICY
With plans to implement a secure immigration policy, Mr Sanders, if successful, says he will dismantle inhumane deportation programmes and detention centres, pave the way for a swift and fair legislative road for the 11 million undocumented immigrant and ensure the border remains secure.
RACIAL JUSTICE
In a bid to tackle intolerable acts of violence perpetrated by police and racist acts of terrorism by white supremacists – he wants to demilitarise the police, invest in community policing and new police training.
FIGHTING FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Mr Sanders wants equal pay for women, to protect and expand the reproductive rights of women and make quality childcare and available to all Americans. As well as providing at least 12 weeks of paid family leave, two weeks’ paid holiday and one week of paid sick leave to citizens.
IMPROVING RURAL ECONOMIES
He wants to improve the lives of rural Americans and aims to do so by supporting young farmers and establishing an ongoing regeneration of the country’s soil.
REFORMING WALL STREET
He aims to break up the big six banks – and to do this he would introduce the Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Exist Act. It would ban any too-big-to-fail institutions from accessing Federal Reserve discount facilities or using insured deposits for risky activities.
WAR AND PEACE
Mr Sanders wants to move towards a policy of emphasising diplomacy – ensuring going to war is a last option. He would also close Guantanamo Bay and abolish the use of torture.
CRACKDOWN ON CORPORATE TAX AVOIDERS
This would involve Mr Sanders ending the offshore tax scheme, eliminating tax breaks for big oil, gas and coal companies, closing loopholes that allow US corporations to artificially inflate foreign tax credits, as well as limiting tax deductions for the rich and introducing higher income tax rates for the richest Americans.
ANYTHING ELSE?
He also wants to push for a bill that prohibits discrimination against LGBT people and wants to provide veterans with the care and support they need and deserve.
He will also lift that cap so that everyone who earns more than 250,000 dollars a year pays the same percentage of their income into social security as the middle class and working families.
And he will push for lower prescription costs for Americans – requiring Medicare to use its bargaining powers to negotiate a better price with the drugs companies – a practice that is currently banned by law – as well as allowing individuals, pharmacies and wholesalers to important prescription drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies.
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