Sanders: I'll Decide On Presidential Run By March [View all]

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Source: Associated Press

Dec 26, 3:26 AM EST

SANDERS: I'LL DECIDE ON PRESIDENTIAL RUN BY MARCH

BY DAVE GRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders says he'll decide by March whether to launch a 2016 presidential campaign and, if so, whether he'll seek the Democratic nomination. Either way, Sanders says he wouldn't run just to nudge the debate to the left.

"I don't want to do it unless I can do it well," he told The Associated Press. "I don't want to do it unless we can win this thing."

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Sanders said the issues about which he's been railing for all these years are only becoming more dire. The wealth gap has grown, and the middle class, he says, is "collapsing."

"You have one family, the Walton family of Walmart, owning more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of the American people," he said. "We have 95 percent of all new income going to the top 1 percent. You have millions of families unable to afford to send their kids to college. People are desperately worried about whether or not they are going to retire with dignity."

Sanders has a 12-step plan that he says will restore the economy and especially the middle class, most of them dependent on higher taxes on the rich and corporations. Among the proposals: A $1 trillion infrastructure building program that would "create 13 million decent-paying jobs"; more worker-friendly international trade deals and legislation to strengthen unions; and transforming the U.S. energy system "away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy."

He says he'll make a "gut decision" about running for the presidency - and, perhaps, challenging Democratic favorite Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DEM_2016_SANDERS