Bernie Sanders on Shared Sacrifice
Sen. Bernie Sanders was all over the airways today talking about the negotiations on raising the debt ceiling, and Fran already made note of Sanders' letter to President Obama and his petition in the open thread this evening, but I wanted to share Sanders' floor speech from today as well.
As Fran already pointed out, you can sign Sen. Sanders' petition here as well and here's a copy of his letter to the President -- Shared Sacrifice:
Dear Mr. President,
This is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. Decisions are being made about the national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American for decades to come. As we address the issue of deficit reduction we must not ignore the painful economic reality of today - which is that the wealthiest people in our country and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. In fact, the United States today has, by far, the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth.
Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit - a deficit that was caused mainly by Wall Street greed, tax breaks for the rich, two wars, and a prescription drug program written by the drug and insurance companies. It is absolutely imperative, however, that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.
Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction package must come from revenue raised by ending tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminating tax loopholes that benefit large, profitable corporations and Wall Street financial institutions. A sensible deficit reduction package must also include significant cuts to unnecessary and wasteful Pentagon spending.
Please do not yield to outrageous Republican demands that would greatly increase suffering for the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society. Now is the time to stand with the tens of millions of Americans who are struggling to survive economically, not with the millionaires and billionaires who have never had it so good.
Respectfully,
Sen. Bernie Sanders;
and Co-signers
Well-done, Bernie! He sorta nailed it.
that it even has to be said to this presidential DINO saur.
that you attack Obama, rather than the real culprits who engineered this disaster: the GOP and their corporate puppetmasters.
.
It's the GOP and their corporate puppet masters who have tossed this country into the toilet, but it's President Obama's (and, by extension, many Democrats') complete lack of anything resembling balls to stand up to them that's going to end up pulling the flush handle. That's not an attack; that's telling it like it is. Obama doesn't need more yes-men to tell him that everything he's doing and wants to do is great. He needs people to get in his face and tell him what he's doing wrong, the sooner the better.
"Whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, the Republicans are not the least bit interested in solving it. They are interested in two things, and two things only: making you afraid of it, and telling you who's to blame for it."
You're right of course but the Democrats are not completely innocent , they knew what was going on , I didn't hear them shouting out warnings , many contributed to it right along with the Republicans and are on the take as well. The fact that the Republicans have F'd this country up so bad has nothing to do with the negotiations going on right now , if Obama and or the Dems compromise once again and give the Republicans what they want again , they have no excuse for doing so , not this time , and they are in the drivers seat on this one , make no mistake about it . If they won't even stand up for the American people in regards to Medicare , Medicaid and Social Security , why even support and vote for them ? Like Sanders said , enough is enough .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
If I had a nickel...wait, lets say a dime (inflation)...for every time I've read "...this time..." today, I'd be able to buy my Congressman's vote!
The Glass-Steagal act has been repealed during the Clinton era. No, the GOP is not the only culprit...
read the letter. The last resident of the White House would have laughed, after he had someone read it to him, and then had them throw it into the trash bin.
On a more coarse note: right-wingers suck!
Also, some property in Florida.
to pay for it. Oh, wait, I'm not a right-winger.
homeless people, you say? why yes, they do seem to be flaunting a lot of cash these days don't they? I better go collect that money from them so I can create jobs to give them. its for their own good.
perhaps bratboy meant stateless people, like the ueber-wealthy who don't give a flying fark what happens to the country (or any country). that would at least make sense.
What the right-wingers believe to be okay in their perverted way of "thinking" is to take from the poor and give to the rich. What the wealthy like to do is just that. So for me to have enough money to "buy the bridge" I would have to be a right-winger who steals from homeless or stateless people. Even tho', if I were a wealthy right-winger, I would already have the money. It would be more apropos of right-wingers to steal anyway rather than use their own money. Why spend theirs when they can steal yours?
Take from the poor and give to the rich seems to be the republican, conservative, libertarian, tea-bagger mantra.
Sleazy!
Senator Sanders will just have to make do with his government salary. He's not going to be making lobbyist money acting like this. Is that the American way? I ask you.
Sen. Sanders is one person you can rely on to fight for progressive causes. If the rest of the progressives had any sense, they should organize a PAC to elect people like him in every public office possible. There is no better way to ‘organize’ grass roots based on a progressive political agenda, while putting fear of losing their seats in spineless cowards that most Democrats are and more so in those who are conservative Democrats. We can get a lot more done, at least politically, with increasing numbers of Bernie Sanderses in Congress and creating a powerful independent progressive caucus, and someday, may be even a progressive political organization independent of the Democrats. Obama does not need financial help from ordinary folks; he has Wall Street to back him for his ‘pro-business give-in-to-the-Republicans before they even demand it’ policies. We should spend our money on supporting more Bernie Sanderses!
MSiddique
Are you LISTENING? Do the right thing. Listen to Bernie and stand up against the Repugs.
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln
from the looks of the video, nobody was listening... was anyone else actually in the chamber?
well, i'm sure the MSM is all over this story at least...
I am proud to have signed his petition days ago.
Of course, you know the ReThug machine will now brand Sen Sanders because he is racist... he said "blackmail".
That it is necessary is a sad and pathetic state of affairs.
with the sound of laughter. (Hills of K and Wall Street)
Dear President Obama,
Enough.
The top 2% of the wealthy in this country have enough.
The corporations have enough.
They have too much, as a matter of fact. This country has the greatest income disparity since “The Gilded Age.” And yet, they want more -a “Platinum Age.”
And how do they want us to pay for their “Platinum Age?”
By wringing every last penny from the dying middle class. They want the last pennies of the old, the sick, the disabled, the poor, and the children.
They’re to take, and we’re to give.
You, Mr. President, need to stand up to them and say, “That’s enough! You have enough. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more – unless it’s at the cost of everyone else in this great country but you. THAT’S ENOUGH!
Justice Holmes once said, ‘Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.’ And you are not paying your fair share. Your desire for more, and more, and more, while contributing less, and less, and less, is uncivilized. THAT’S ENOUGH!”
President Obama, we are in a class war, and ‘We the people’ are losing the battle. Badly. And yet, despite winning, the ‘have enough’s,’ want more. Enough, Mr. President, enough.
If we are to remain a functioning representative democracy, you need tell the nation that we all need to stand together and say, “That’s enough!”
That if we continue to pad the wallets of the rich and powerful by raiding everyone else’s piggy banks, we will put an end to this great American experiment, and “We the people,’ will have failed. We will have failed because some of us didn’t realize that sometimes enough is too much. And that ‘never enough’ is not a goal, but a moral sickness.
Mr. President, if we’re not going to turn this country from “The American Dream” into a paupers worst nightmare, you need to stand up and say, “THAT’S ENOUGH!”
Do the right thing President Obama. ‘We, the people,’ need you. This is why I think you were the right person for the job. This is why I supported you. This is why I voted for you.
Do the right thing.
Ok, I’ve said enough.
He is one of them.
You gotta BS the guy.
Lets all start a corporation, make it too big to fail, contribute $$$$$$$ to politicians, including Obama, and THEN, maybe he'll listen. C'mon, if we all pool our money, we can buy him! Its as good of a plan as any other! Lets do it! Lets take back, um, buy back our Democracy!
Using the language of the neo-con traitors who have made tax cuts a religion and government a pariah only reinforces their theme.
Why is it a "sacrifice" to fund the government that provides so much for the community? Every citizen takes advantage of many many government functions for the common good.
Food safety
Airline safety
Interstate transport
Coast guard resues
National defense
Honest weights and measures
Research and development
Air and water quality
National parks
Education
etc. etc. etc.
As long as even Bernie Sanders frames the discussion of taxation as a "sacrifice" the neo-cons will win.
Real patriots love their country,want it to be a "more perfect union" and support it with taxes. The selfish philosophy of "I got mine" that started during Reagan union busting that makes every citizen an island and pits citizen against citizen (I don't have kids - why should I pay for HeadStart?) is bankrupting the nation economically and morally.
It is long past the time to call out the neo-con, anti-tax, anti-government cabal for what they are - TRAITORS.
Look at those things you mention...Education for example. Its not a sacrifice to cut that! Everyone can still pay tens of thousands of dollars per year to send their kids to private school. See? There will still be Education...and all that money we pay will trickle back to us at our jobs! Its like free private school!
shhh, those farkers will take you seriously!
Once again, Bernie Sanders, the modern day conscious of Progressivism, has performed admirably, but, like before, his admonitions are falling on deaf ears. Obama has announced he'll no longer push for the elimination of the Bush tax cuts in the so-called compromise, better known as capitulation. I'm asking again, why don't we primary this president. The argument that it'll weaken him for 2012 is laughable, especially in the face of these repeated capitulations. How much weaker can this guy get? More importantly, how much more can we afford to keep handing over to the GOP and their paymasters. I thought we elected a Democrat in 2008, if so, then why is the GOP still running this government? If it isn't clear to everyone by now just how impotent this president at negotiating, and his complete unwillingness to draw a bright line in the sand and stand on it, then you're still one of the kool-aid drinkers and need to put the damned glass down.
"I'm asking again, why don't we primary this president. The argument that it'll weaken him for 2012 is laughable,"
Because the "owners" will not allow it.
And besides, DLC DINO GOP wannabee Obama has been turning blue states corporate red since he took office.
As far as making the tax cuts permanent - nothing is permanent unless amended.
Someday, when we get a real president of the people and a real congress of representatives and not corrupt bribe-o-crats, we can put the tax rate back to 90% for the rich.
Of course it may be 50 years after I am dead, so what's the diff?
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Here's a post I made on Sanders in a previous thread....
It's dishonest to make speeches which strongly advocate increasing taxes on the wealthy, and then introduce a proposal which excludes a good percentage of the wealthy from tax increases. I guess Bernie - like John McCain - thinks people making $999K a year are middle class.
If *compromise* is his policy, then why did he take an oath to vote against any healthcare bill with no public option?
Sanders indicated to Ed Schultz he would filibuster the bill......
SCHULTZ: Will you filibuster this?
SANDERS: I will do whatever I can on this. This is a very, very bad agreement.
SCHULTZ: So the two year extension of the Bush tax cuts, the thirteen months on unemployment, that's the reported meat of the deal. You're telling us tonight that you will do everything you can to stop this deal—
SANDERS: I will.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/12/06/9262...
As a U.S. Senator, Sanders has the right to filibuster or place holds on Senate bills. He was therefore lying when he said he would do everything he could to stop the extension of the Bush tax cuts. If he had really been serious about what he told Ed Schultz, he would've placed a hold on the bill.
You talk about people *paying attention,* and it should be clear to anyone who is that Bernie Sanders is not the progressive he claims to be. Like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and most other Democrats, he *seems* to support a lot of good things, but always thinks it somehow inappropriate to actually fight for those things. Yes, Bernie Sanders will do everything he can to advance a progressive agenda and stop the GOP, just as long as it doesn't involve using his actual powers as a U.S. Senator.
yes, get your non-phony progressive ass elected a.s.a.p. we're waiting for you, o' peer-less one!
Our two party system is the problem. With two parties both parties maximize their votes by being almost the same. As the Repugs move more to the right the Dems get more votes by moving to the right with them, As long as they are slightly to the left of the repugs they get all the voters to the left of them. Progressives are a lost breed, they have no leader and depend on the Dems to throw them a few crumbs now and then to keep them in line. Maybe the unions can form their own party like the British Labor Party.
Just Yes.
Politicians made the deficit. Voters sanctioned the politicians. Let the politicians and those who voted for them pay off THEIR deficit. Leave everyone else the hell alone.
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