Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and “Viewpoint” host Eliot Spitzer consider what the U.S. can learn from the rejection of austerity measures in the recent European elections. Sanders proposes investments to bolster the economy, calling for “fundamental changes” in U.S. trade policy: “Unfettered free trade has not worked for the United States of America and for our workers. We have to demand that corporate America start investing in this country, not China.”

Sanders also expresses concern about U.S. campaign finance in the wake of Citizens United: “We are moving into a system — and we see it now every single day — where these guys who are billionaires are literally buying politicians and trying to buy elections.”

And as Sen. Sanders noted on his web site, he supports austerity measures... for millionaires and billionaires: An Austerity Backlash:

France handed the presidency on Sunday to François Hollande, who declared that "austerity can no longer be inevitable." In Greece, Germany and Italy, parliamentary and local elections Sunday were seen as setbacks for austerity measures. Sen. Bernie Sanders saw a lesson for the United States in the European elections. "In the United States and around the world, the middle class is in steep decline while the wealthy and large corporations are doing phenomenally well. The message sent by voters in France and other European countries, which I believe will be echoed here in the United States, is that the wealthy and large corporations are going to have to experience some austerity also and that that burden cannot solely fall on working families. In the United States, where corporate profits are soaring and the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing wider, we must end corporate tax loopholes and start making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. At the same time, we must protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Austerity, yes, but for millionaires and billionaires, not the working families of this country."