After opening musical acts from one-man-band Mike Hosty and singer-songwriter Samantha Crane, Sanders spent a large portion of his 39-minute speech taking jabs at President Donald Trump, wage inequality and continued to call for free public higher education.
“We are going to cancel all student debt in America,” Sanders said, which drew cheers from the crowd and chants of his name. “A couple of years ago, Trump and his friends gave over $1 trillion in tax breaks to the 1 percent and large corporations. If we can give tax breaks to billionaires, bail out the crooks on Wall Street we most certainly can cancel all student debt.”
During his speech, Sanders called for an increase of the federal minimum wage to $15-per-hour from $7.25-per-hour. Some states have higher minimum wages, but Oklahoma’s remains $7.25.
Regarding health care, Sanders told the crowd that he wants them to know that the United States is the “only major country on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right.”
“Together we are going to end that absurdity,” he said.
Sanders, who traveled to another rally in Lawton after his Norman speech, said Americans are spending twice as much per person on health care as any other nation.
“Yet for all of that money, this is what you get, 87 million uninsured or under-insured,” Sanders said. “Thirty thousand Americans dying every single year because they don’t get to a doctor when they should.”
