Sanders hopes populist fire kindles presidential campaign

Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate, is heading to Minneapolis on Sunday for an event at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. It's the first public campaign rally or event among declared candidates in Minnesota this cycle.

MPR News' Tom Weber spoke to Sanders about his planned visit and his platform that focuses on income inequality.

"We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, yet we have the highest rate of childhood poverty, we have real unemployment at 11 percent, we have millions of young people who are leaving school deeply in debt and hundreds of thousands who can't afford to go to college," Sanders said. "The middle class for 40 years has been disappearing. That is not what America is supposed to be about and that is what has got to change."

FactCheck.org called some of Sanders' inequality claims "misleading, and an exaggeration:"

Sanders claims that "in America we now have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth." Not really. Sanders excludes nations such as Russia, Turkey and Brazil from his definition of "major." According to the World Bank, at least 41 counties have greater income inequality than the U.S. And those include Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.

Sanders said he would change the country's tax system to bring in more revenue from profitable corporations and the nation's wealthiest, make public universities and colleges nearly free, and expand social security benefits.

In order to expand social security benefits and the program's solvency, Sanders said he would raise the taxable income cap from $118,000 to $150,000. The tuition break would come from a tax on Wall Street stock transfer fees.