Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders snapped at Fox Business correspondent Hillary Vaughn on Thursday as she pressed him on his proposed legislation to reduce the work week from 40 hours to 32.
The reduction in hours would reduce the work week to four days without a loss of pay over the span of four years, according to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Sanders held a hearing in support of the legislation on Thursday afternoon, arguing the wealthy are getting richer despite the increase in worker productivity in the past several decades.
After the hearing, Vaughn confronted Sanders in a hallway, where he interrupted her multiple times as she attempted to ask him about the costs of a 32-hour work week, according to Fox Business.
“We held a hearing on a 32-hour work week because what we have seen is that over the last 50 years, despite a huge increase in worker productivity, almost all of the new wealth has gone to the top one percent while 60 percent of the people are living paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders told Vaughn after her second attempt to finish asking her question. “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 work week.”
“Can I ask you a question about that. It seems like Democrats want businesses to be taxed more —” Vaughn began.
“Really? That’s not my assumption, I don’t think so!” Sanders interrupted again, bobbing his head toward Vaughn.
“— pay their workers more, lower prices, and now pay people not to work,” Vaughn continued.
“You know what I would like to see?” Sanders shot back, adding “I can yell as loud as you!” when Vaughn persisted in trying to finish her question.
“How are businesses gonna survive that?” Vaughn asked. “That’s the question: how can businesses survive all of those proposals?”
“I think when Mr. [Jeff] Bezos pays an effective tax rate lower than the average worker, I think we have a real problem in our tax system,” the senator replied, appearing to wave his hand in Vaughn’s face. “I think that billionaires have got to start paying their fair share of taxes. Thank you.” (RELATED: ‘It Was Called Communism, And It Just Didn’t Work’: Bloomberg And Sanders Spar Over Taxes And Wealth)
In a press release, Sanders called for the financial gains from artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies to go to the working class and not just corporate CEOs.
“Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea,” the statement reads. “Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change … It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life.”
Sanders opened the hearing saying the legislation, titled “Thirty-Two Hour Work Week Act,” is not a “radical idea,” and compared the proposed change to work weeks in European countries such as Denmark, France, and Norway, according to Fox Business.
Sanders introduced the legislation along with Democratic California Sen. Laphonza Butler.
Democratic California Rep. Mark Takono introduced a companion bill in the House, according to NBC News.