Bernie Sanders on the budget

Subject: The People Have Spoken, 11/28/12 (email from Democracy for America)

As I’m sure you are aware, there is currently a major effort being waged by Wall Street CEOs, Republicans and some Democrats to do deficit reduction on the backs of the middle class and working families.

This could mean, among other things, significant cuts to vital programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

President Obama and the Democrats won a decisive victory on Election Day. The people have spoken and the Democratic Leadership must make it very clear that they intend to stand with the middle class and working families of our country, and not the Big Money interests. This means that in the coming weeks and months the Democrats must hold the line in demanding that deficit reduction is done in a way that is fair — and not on the backs of the elderly, the sick, children and the poor.

As Congress reconvenes and addresses the so-called “fiscal cliff,” I have outlined several ways that we can do deficit reduction without cutting the programs that working families rely on most:

At a time when the wealthiest people in our country are doing phenomenally well, we must eliminate the Bush tax cuts favoring the top 2 percent.

At a time when corporate profits are soaring, we must end the absurd tax policy that allows about one-quarter of large, profitable corporations to pay nothing in federal income taxes.

At a time when the federal treasury is losing over $100 billion annually because the wealthy and large corporations are stashing their money in tax havens in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere, we must pass real tax reform that ends this outrage.

At a time when we spend almost as much as the rest of the world combined on defense, we must cut defense spending. There is also waste in other governmental agencies which must be eliminated.

Now, is the time to hold Democrats accountable and ensure that we do deficit reduction in a way that is fair, while also protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Please stand with me in fighting for a deficit reduction plan which is fair — Sign the petition calling on Congress to let the Bush tax cuts expire, while protecting vital programs.

Let me be clear. Social Security has not contributed one penny to the deficit because it is funded independently by the payroll tax. In fact, the Social Security Trust Fund today, according to the Social Security Administration, has a $2.7 trillion surplus and can pay 100 percent of all benefits owed to every eligible American for the next 21 years. Social Security, as well as Medicare and Medicaid, must be protected.

Poll after poll shows that the American people want to see deficit reduction done in a way that is fair. They do not want to see cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while millionaires, billionaires and large corporations continue to receive huge tax breaks.

In my view, if the Republicans continue to play an obstructionist role, the president should get out of the Oval Office and travel the country. If he does that, I believe that he will find that there is no state in the country, including those that are very red, where people believe that we should give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, while cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Right now, the Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year. That means the only way that Republicans can extend tax breaks for the wealthy and cut vital programs is if Democrats let them.

Sadly, virtually all Republicans and some Democrats are too willing to do deficit reduction in a way that hurts those who are already hurting.

Don’t let them win. The Bush tax cuts must be allowed to expire. Please sign the petition today.

I look forward to working with President Obama and all members of Congress to do deficit reduction in a way that finally asks the wealthiest people in our country to pay their fair share, and that recognizes the needs of working families.

Despite the fact that we just won a major electoral victory over Big Money, Wall Street CEOs, big corporations and the millionaires and billionaires are not giving up. Defeating them will take a major grass-roots effort with millions of people getting involved in this fight.

Please, stand with me today.

Thank you,

-Bernie

Senator Bernie Sanders

We must learn that democracy is compromise

letter, Daily Local News, 05/16/12

“No new taxes … instead cut government waste.” And so begins Mr. Anthony Oleck’s honorable appeal to good sense in government (May 7). However, built into such simplicity is the knotty problem itself – wherein lies the waste? (And, I might ask, why does it appear that the “citizen deficit hawk” only arose cicada-like on Jan. 20, 2009?) Although I agree without equivocation that merely saying “just give us more money” is not a solution to what bedevils America, I would also submit that the polar alternative as embodied in Mr. Norquist’s (and apparently Mr. Oleck’s) “no new taxes” pledge is likewise just as quixotic.

The question is: Can thinking citizens find common ground before it’s too late? Or, are we resigned to fighting the same old battles – military largesse vs. social program support as zero sum game? Are we resigned to accepting a state of permanent “trench warfare” as a polarized nation crawls back and forth along an ideological frontier, captives of an inertia borne of an unwillingness to compromise?

My advice is that both camps forget about installing the fabled “durable majority” and hopes of “running the table” with a wish-list item-a-day deluge of legislation. Who can argue that such laws would be anything but fuel for an intensifying downward spiral, gasoline fomenting an even more incendiary divisiveness?

Now regarding the post office and its running in the “red,” well, I’m just wondering, do other federal departments likewise face fiscal challenges? I mean is the FBI turning a respectable profit? Or the Department of Interior? Hey, let’s just make a first-class stamp $2 and end the talking point, shall we? After all, who needs the mail?

Yes, let’s get rid of the whole federal apparatus, while we’re at it. I think war fighting, for example, has been one of the biggest black holes of inefficiency in modern history. Need some more of those “million dollars a pop” cruise missiles? Coming right up, they’re cheaper by the gross!

All kidding aside, I absolutely buy into the notion of “cutting the waste and redundancy” even if I don’t know why windmills and solar panels wouldn’t appeal to citizens of all stripes – not just liberals … that is, those citizens eager to cut loose from foreign oil entanglements, not just in rhetoric but in fact.

And sorry, but I don’t think “productive” should be the automatic modifier for “private sector” entities. Although I am, without apology, a capitalist, I do have some trouble understanding why we are so eager to pay CEOs hundreds of times the salary offered to line workers, even when they often seem to be more interested in their next opportunity than in building their companies. And in terms of the 1 percent and allowing them to “keep their money to invest in the private sector,” there is something odd there. If job-creating was the primary focus of all those millionaires paying a 15 percent tax rate, it kind of makes you wonder why Munch’s “The Scream” drew $120 million at auction recently. Just sayin’.

So, of course, what we all deserve from government is good management, with our shared resources efficiently and effectively husbanded. No single political party owns the franchise on this element of the public interest. Not the party that started two wars and simultaneously cut taxes, and not the party that finally came around to “ending welfare as we know it.”

No, it’s not rocket science, but clearly some form of social science needs to be at work here, the kind that elevates our respect for different priorities in pursuit of the common good. I submit that unless we can stop thinking in terms of winner-take-all politics, and instead begin to once again trust moderation, and relearn that democracy IS compromise, then America, both as idea and as ideal, is, quite frankly, poised to unravel.

Kurt Jaworski
East Bradford

Average Americans?

letter, Daily Local News, 4/6/12

After two costly wars, tax cuts to the very wealthy, a financial near-meltdown, and the resultant recession, the still-recovering economy has been very much on people’s minds, and deficits and debts of course have to be met.

In order to do so, the Obama administration has basically advocated reducing expenses wherever possible, closing corporate and other loopholes, and increasing revenue by following the “Buffett Rule” of “fair share” tax rates for all.

To make up for the deficits and debts, Republican candidates have endorsed the “Ryan Plan,” which, among other things, would reduce or even eliminate portions of Medicare and Medicaid, already paid into by every working American.

We all need to look carefully at these two different sets of priorities, and consequences, between now and this November’s election, and at who’s really thinking of, and working for, average Americans.

David W. Long
West Chester

The Four Great Hypocrisies of the Debt Deal

Click here for Keith Olbermann’s video denouncing the four great hypocrisies of thus week’s deal. Supporters of the US Constitution, pay special attention!