To bolster our flailing economy and ease the huge unemployment rate, President Obama talks about "coming together across party lines" and investing in small business. But Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders tells Laura Flanders that it’s not that simple—and even when it comes to supporting small businesses, cross-party progress can be difficult to achieve.

"The role of the Republican party in the Senate has been obstructionist and filibustering from the beginning," Sanders tells Laura Flanders on GritTV, citing the tax breaks that the right has endorsed for the richest in America. Sanders, who published a piece called "No To Oligarchy" in the Nation last week, suggests something called the Responsible Estate Tax Act, legislation that would ensure that the majority of families—save the top .03 wealthiest percentile in America—wouldn’t have to pay a dime upon losing a loved one. "What we are fighting for now," Sanders says, "is to stop the decline of the middle class, the increase in poverty and the incredible gap between the very, very rich and everybody else."

—Carrie Battan