Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday that the issue of Ben Bernanke's reappointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve has as much to do with the future as the past.  A new Fed chairman must do more to stop credit card ripoffs, provide credit to small businesses, break up big banks and be truthful with taxpayers.  Sanders is leading the Senate opposition to a second term for Bernanke. Sanders said, "The American people need a chairman of the Federal Reserve who will require bailed-out banks to stop ripping off consumers and small businesses by charging usurious interest rates and sky-high fees. The Fed needs to tell bailed-out banks that they cannot charge 25 percent or 30 percent interest rates on credit cards and other loans.

Sanders made the case for blocking Bernanke from a second term in an editorial response published today by USA Today.

"It is clear to almost everyone," the senator wrote, "that Chairman Bernanke was asleep at the switch while Wall Street became the largest gambling casino in the history of the world and hurtled into insolvency. His failure to adequately regulate financial institutions should not be rewarded with a reappointment."

To watch the senator's Unfiltered video on Bernanke, click here.

To read the senator's editorial response in USA Today, click here.