Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) had an uneasy exchange with a reporter on camera on Thursday when questioned about the 32-hour workweek bill he introduced.
Fox News Business correspondent Hillary Vaughn attempted to ask Sanders a question about his proposed legislation, which would cut down the 40-hour work week but still pay as much as a standard five-day work week.
“It seems like Democrats want businesses to be taxed more, pay their workers—” Vaughn began before the senator cut her off.
“Really? Is that what you think?” Sanders responded with a smile. As the Vermont lawmaker attempted to respond to the suggestion, Vaughn continued her question, causing the two to interrupt each other and Sanders to start walking away. “I didn’t get to ask you a question,” the reporter noted.
Vaughn intended to ask Sanders, according to Fox Business: “Democrats want businesses to be taxed more… pay their workers more… lower prices… and now pay their workers not to work — how are businesses going to survive all that?”
Sanders’s Thirty-Two-Hour Workweek Act would reduce the traditional five-day work week over four years, and employees would be given time and a half if they worked beyond 32 hours. A press release on the bill described it as an “important step toward ensuring workers share in increasing productivity and economic growth driven by technological advancements.”
“We held a hearing on a 32-hour workweek,” Sanders told Vaughn during their exchange, “because what we have seen is that over the last 50 years, despite a huge increase in worker productivity, almost all of the wealth has gone to the top 1%, while 60% of the people [are] living paycheck to paycheck. Many of our people are exhausted. We work the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world. I think it’s time for a shortened workweek.”
When Vaughn attempted to ask about the bill again, she was cut off by Sanders, who responded, “I can yell as loud as you!”
Vaughn was raising her voice at this point as she and Sanders were once again talking over one another, but whether she was yelling is debateable. She did, however, finally manage to ask how businesses would survive the proposal.
“When Mr. Bezos pays an effective tax rate lower than the average worker, I think we have a real problem with our tax system,” Sanders said. “I think that billionaires have got to start paying their fair share of taxes. Thank you.”
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While some Democratic lawmakers and workers rights unions backed Sanders’s bill, Republicans and even some business owners opposed it, with one X user and self-described business owner saying, “Forcing businesses to pay for less productivity doesn’t lead to better outcomes for workers. It results in higher inflation, reliance on automation, and less jobs.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Sanders’s office for comment.
