Bernie Sanders: 4 causes of national debt.

[ErikJ]

[B Calm]

1. +1 Couldn't agree more!

[erronis]

27. Isn't this just stating the obvious? Bernie++

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Truth. n/t

[No Vested Interest]

3. Tell it, Bernie. nt

[ChangeUp106]

4. Bernie 2016

[MissDeeds]

31. Yup, Bernie in 2016

The man is awesome!

[pa28]

5. K&R

[Live and Learn]

6. Well said, Bernie, as usual. nt

[AzDar]

7. K & R

[JDPriestly]

8. K&R.

[merrily]

9. Dereg. of Wall Street: Repeal of Glass Steagall, aka Gramm, Leach, Blilely.

Last edited Tue May 20, 2014, 04:45 AM - Edit history (1)

Urged by both Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan and voted for by many Democrats. And Glass Steagall remains repealed, despite near global economic collapse and four years of Democratic control of Congress, during two of which Democrats also held the White House.

a prescription drug program written by the phamaceutical industry

Having the industry write health legislation is not a good thing?

[Indydem]

13. The final bill passed 90-8 in the senate

You can act like it was a republicon action, but when push came to shove, Democrats supported it in droves when their pet project got a little attention in the final bill.

[merrily]

15. Oh, my bad. I'll edit.

I'd hate to mislead Banyone who does not read your post, too. Besides, people tend to remember that which reinforces their already existing worldview.

It also shows, I think, that a popular Democratic President does indeed influence how Democratic members of Congress vote. I like Sanders very much, but he can be the Senator version of Krugman.

Thank you for the correction.

[ErikJ]

24. Gramm, Leach, Bliley, (and Greenspan) all Republicans

and the Congress was GOP controlled when it passed. And the government/country was under the control of the Reaganomic deregualtion zeitgeist.

But I think even worse was the almost complete deregualtion of the mortgage industry under Bush admin. This is what Elliot Spitzer was trying to expose in 2007 just before he got taken out by the Republicans.

[Indydem]

26. "Reaganomic deregualtion zeitgeist?"

In 1999? Signed by BILL CLINTON?

Riiiiiiiiight.

[merrily]

37. So what? As already stated, Clinton urged Democrats to vote for it; and they did and he didn't veto.

As Indy Dem said, you can act like this was a Republicon action all you want, but it wasn't.

Since when do three original sponsors of a bill mean anything? Medicare for all at one point had 100 co-sponsors and that didn't mean shit, let alone 3 people a bill happens to be named after.

But I think even worse was the almost complete deregualtion of the mortgage industry under Bush admin.

That could not have been done as to banks, but for repeal of Glass Steagall; and it was only the icing on the cake, compared with Glass Steagall. Just google.


We have to stop acting as though our only problem is Republicans. Corporatist Democrats, aka New Democrats, DLC, Third Way, and all the other names they've gone by haven't been doing right by us.

[Warpy]

10. More even than an unfunded drug plan

is the military monkey on our backs.

While I realize saying so is still political suicide because of all the decades spent ginning up fear to gin up support for a bloated military, that is one more thing that has to be cut down to size.

Until that happens, this country will simply continue to add to the debt until it can do nothing else but pay the vig on it and at that point, it will cease to exist as a viable entity.

[merrily]

16. From your mouth to God's ears, but I am not hopeful.

Especially not when the economy is bad. It's not only a matter of cutting down on the number of people the military employs, but also cutting down jobs around closed military bases, vendors to the military, etc.

Besides, we hate Russia again, so I guess we'll just have to win another cold war. And that takes troops, dammit!



After all the money spent on the military, we sent troops to Iraq with unarmored vehicles and poor Rumsfelf had to go to war with the army he had, not the army he wanted. So, what the hell were we spending the money on, I have to wonder? And what are we spending it on now? Is anyone even asking?

[ErikJ]

21. Yes, as Sanders reminds us, defense spending has TRIPLED since 1998.

Mostly b/c of Bush /GOP wars and their defense cronies.

[nikto]

11. This is who to blame...

[Joe Shlabotnik]

12. K&R n/t

[thelordofhell]

14. Reagan, Bush, Greenspan, Bush

There's your 4 reasons right there...........

[Enthusiast]

17. Well said, Senator Sanders!

Senator Sanders says this while President Obama implies that social security contributes to the debt.

I want a real Democratic president.

[grahamhgreen]

18. Return to the tax rates of the Greatest Generation.

[7962]

35. Only problem with that is that almost nobody paid those high rates. nt

[grahamhgreen]

36. The Walton's alone have as much wealth as the poorest 40%.

[7962]

39. So now you want an asset tax too?

[grahamhgreen]

40. Absolutely. I'd call it a theft claw back from the theiving class.

[7962]

42. It'd be great for the lawyers. Because everyone would hide everything

Have you never heard of property rich but cash poor? I've seen several cases of it. People who have a lot of property but not a lot of income. The plan is to sell it when they get older to fund their retirement. At THAT time the gain IS taxed.
You start trying to tax assets and the economy will crash like a wingless bird. And once again, the govt still wont get much out of it. The rich will ALWAYS find a way around taxes they feel are unfairly high. The corp tax is a great example. 35% and no one pays it. Trillions overseas and it will stay there, real or imagined, because we're the ONLY country who double taxes corp. income. Its just a stupid move.
Do you want more govt revenue or do you just want to feel good about a high tax rate?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

19. Bernie would make a great president....just sayin'.

[WillyT]

20. K & R !!!

[Bandit]

22. We had a National Debt long before the Iraq War or a Prescription drug program

Reagan was the first to actually triple the National Debt from a little over one trillion to almost four trillion dollars. Then came Bush the first and another trillion was added. It went up a little under Clinton in his first term and then in his second term we were actually beginning to pay it down a bit. We had Budget surpluses. Then came Bush* and he doubled the National Debt to over Twelve Trillion dollars. Remember his campaign slogan, "It's Your Money" Well turns out he put it on all the tab. And they call themselves "Fiscal Conservatives" What is even weirder is that people still believe them even after decades of factual evidence to prove they are the exact opposite.

[colsohlibgal]

23. Game, Set, Match Bernie!

Now if more and more people can actually take the time to actually think things through maybe we can get back to a much more level playing field.

[TBF]

25. That about covers it. nt

[EEO]

28. National Treasure.

[Jefferson23]

29. Don't you love how concise he always is..spells it out perfectly. K&R

[ErikJ]

33. I would add that Bush's crash required a trillion $ bank bailout and economic stimulus

Last edited Wed May 21, 2014, 12:40 AM - Edit history (1)

and the loss of 8 million tax paying jobs which was probably the biggest addition to our national debt since Obama got elected.

[Jefferson23]

34. Yes, Bush almost took down the whole world. n/t

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

30. When Bill Clinton was President

The rich paid higher taxes. The budget was balanced and the economy was booming. What's so hard to understand about this?

[Initech]

32. Bernie for president!!

[xchrom]

38. du rec.

[lonestarnot]

41. K & R!