Bernie backs the budget deal

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders tentatively endorsed the Senate budget deal on Wednesday, calling it "much better than across-the-board budget cuts."

"This is not the budget I would have written," Sanders said in a written statement. "It doesn't ask the most profitable corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in taxes and it increases Pentagon spending too much. But I will support it because it's much better than across-the-board budget cuts, increased premiums for Medicare, cuts to Social Security and the constant threat we won't pay our bills."

He argued that the two-year deal gives the government time to focus on providing an "emergency cost-of-living adjustment for senior citizens, raising the minimum wage, ensuring equal pay for women, expanding Social Security, making college tuition-free, reforming our criminal justice system, bringing millions of new Americans out of the shadows and addressing the growing threat of climate change," all parts of his 2016 platform.

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