--- title: Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve's Rate Hike description: He says its "bad news for working families" canonical: https://time.com/4152954/bernie-sanders-slams-federal-reserve-rate-hike/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-17T00:53:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:27:13.824Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve's Rate Hike og:description: He says its "bad news for working families" og:url: https://time.com/4152954/bernie-sanders-slams-federal-reserve-rate-hike/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b504a890bd24ab4/698875c9f887dc77dde93c80/bernie-sanders1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Bernie Sanders og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve's Rate Hike twitter:description: He says its "bad news for working families" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b504a890bd24ab4/698875c9f887dc77dde93c80/bernie-sanders1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve Rate Hike by [Ben Geier / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Ben Geier / Fortune Fortune Dec 17, 2015 12:53 AM UTC  Bernie Sanders speaks during an interfaith roundtable at the Nation's Mosque in Washington on Dec. 16, 2015. Bernie Sanders speaks during an interfaith roundtable at the Nation's Mosque in Washington on Dec. 16, 2015.Andrew Harnik—AP by [Ben Geier / Fortune](https://time.com/author/fortune/) ## Ben Geier / Fortune Fortune Dec 17, 2015 12:53 AM UTC Today, the Federal Reserve announced that it was [raising interest rates](http://fortune.com/2015/12/16/fed-interest-rates-2/) for the first time since 2006\. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, was not happy with the decision. In a statement, Sanders, a democratic-socialist who has in the past run as an independent, issued the following statement on his Senate website: --- > “” --- This isn’t the first time Sanders has talked about interest rates. In September he [put out a statement](https://berniesanders.com/press-release/sanders-statement-on-fed-leaving-interest-rates-unchanged/) saying essentially the same thing when the Fed did not adjust interest rates. Sanders stance on the issue is in keeping with his campaign theme, which is to do anything to help the middle class, oftentimes at the expense of financial institutions. _This_ [_article_](http://fortune.com/2015/12/16/bernie-sanders-isnt-happy-with-the-fed/) _originally appeared on_ [_Fortune.com_](http://fortune.com/2015/12/16/bernie-sanders-isnt-happy-with-the-fed/) Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve's Rate Hike ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4152954/bernie-sanders-slams-federal-reserve-rate-hike/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4152954/bernie-sanders-slams-federal-reserve-rate-hike/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve Rate Hike","datePublished":"2015-12-17T00:53:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:27:13.824Z","description":"He says its \"bad news for working families\"","url":"https://time.com/4152954/bernie-sanders-slams-federal-reserve-rate-hike/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b504a890bd24ab4/698875c9f887dc77dde93c80/bernie-sanders1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Geier / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b504a890bd24ab4/698875c9f887dc77dde93c80/bernie-sanders1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bernie Sanders","caption":"Bernie Sanders","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4152954/bernie-sanders-slams-federal-reserve-rate-hike/","name":"Bernie Sanders Slams Federal Reserve Rate Hike"}}]}] ```