Bernie Sanders Slams Clinton for Having Supported Slashing of America's Safety Net


Bernie Sanders is criticizing Hillary Clinton for supporting the gutting of the welfare system under Bill Clinton's watch. In 1996, Bill Clinton passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, with the advertised intention of "ending welfare as we know it." Many critics believe that's exactly what it did. Three assistant secretaries at the Department of Health resigned in protest of the act, claiming that it shredded the existing safety net. In her 2003 book, Living History, Clinton writes that she supported the legislation.

Bloomberg'sJosh Eidelson reports that Sanders is now taking aim at Clinton for this position. "I think that history will suggest that that legislation has not worked terribly well," Sanders told Bloomberg, "I mean, that’s what Ronald Reagan’s ‘welfare queen’ was all about. It was the illusion that we’re spending huge sums of money on people who are cheating, who are taking of the welfare system and so forth."

In her book Clinton insists welfare reform gave millions of parents jobs, but many see things quite differently In his Harper's essay on Hillary's campaign, economic analyst Doug Henwood writes about a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report that analyzed the long-term impact of welfare reform. "They found that [it's] serving fewer families despite increased demand, that the value of benefits has eroded to the point where beneficiaries can’t meet their basic needs, and that it does far less to reduce poverty than its predecessor, AFDC. In addition, the report noted that almost all of the early employment gains for single mothers have since been reversed."

Clinton's support of her husband's legislation briefly came up during the 2008 campaign as well. Then Senator Obama declared, "I won't second guess President Clinton for signing."

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-sanders-slams-clinton-her-support-welfare-reform-gutted-safety-net

Almost Every Major Poll Shows Bernie Sanders Challenging or Defeating Clinton and Republicans. Here's Why



Polls once extolling Hillary Clinton's enormous lead over Sanders are now dwindling for the same reason Sanders beats Republicans in various other polls: Americans have had enough of dynasties, scandals, wars, and Wall Street corruption. I will be voting for Bernie Sanders because I too have had enough of endless wars, and Bernie says "I'll be damned" if more Americans are sent back to fight in the Middle East. I'll also be voting for Sanders because like the polls illustrating his lightning fast surge, more and more Americans have had enough with a two-party system that doesn't give people a choice. I want my Democratic nominee to vote against counterinsurgency wars and vehemently oppose environmental disasters in the making like Keystone XL, not evolve towards the most politically expedient position available at the time.


With Sanders already surging in Iowa, and now virtually tied with Clinton in New Hampshire, it's important to remember that Vermont's Senator is doing something most observers once thought to be an impossibility. He has a great chance of winning the first two contests on the road to the Democratic nomination, while his challenger deals with subpoenas from Congress and other scandals. Every classified email uncovered by the FBI dooms one candidate, while paving the way for Sanders.


Clinton gets markedly negative favorability ratings in each state, 35-56 percent in Colorado, 33-56 percent in Iowa and 41-50 percent in Virginia.

"Hillary Clinton's numbers have dropped among voters in the key swing states of Colorado, Iowa and Virginia. She has lost ground in the horserace and on key questions about her honesty and leadership," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/almost-every-major-poll-shows-bernie-sanders_b_7937906.html

Oregon presidential poll: Hillary Clinton pressed by Bernie Sanders

A new independent political survey shows Hillary Clinton with only a narrow lead over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race in Oregon. On the Republican side, businessman Donald Trump leads the field in Oregon, much as he does in national polls.

The July 25-27 survey by Portland-based DHM Research shows Clinton, the former secretary of state, leading the Democratic primary in Oregon with 44 percent of the vote to 39 percent for Sanders, a Vermont senator.

Trump has support from 18 percent of Oregon Republicans, compared to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at 12 percent, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 11 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 10 percent.

http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2015/08/oregon_presidential_poll_hilla.html

New Jersey Cop Slams, Nearly Kills Female Senior Citizen

Clark County, New Jersey cops pulled over Fortuna Riga, for allegedly running a stop sign. Riga says the cops pulled him out of his car, and his 61 year old mother intervened. According to the cops his mother jumped on one of the officers back. According to the family, she merely grabbed one of the officers and asked why they were going after her son? The officers slammed the grandmother to the ground, breaking out her front teeth, and causing multiple fractures. She is in critical condition, and was placed into a medically induced coma. It is unclear how long she will remain in the hospital or how long the recovery will take.

Riga was taken away in handcuffs and given multiple citations including reckless driving and refusing to exit the vehicle when ordered.

The couple’s five year old child was in the car, and exposed to this traumatic incident where those who claim to “protect,” but instead brutalized his grandmother, the injuries show that very easily this lady could have lost her life, and very well may never be the same.


“They tried saying my mom jumped on the cop’s back. My mom grabbed the cop and said ‘why are you going after my son like this?’. He was like, shut up boom and just slammed her, she went face first.”


http://www.copblock.org/134458/new-jersey-cop-slams-nearly-kills-female-senior-citizen/

Trade Deal Targets Medicare, New Leak Reveals

For the second time in a week, Medicare is complicating an already fraught debate over the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.

A recent draft of the health care transparency section of TPP released by Wikileaks on Wednesday reveals the deal would make Medicare vulnerable to legal challenges from pharmaceutical companies and jeopardize future attempts by the insurer to negotiate lower drug prices.

In a modest victory for global health care advocates, however, the leaked draft does not contain previous language explicitly protecting prescription drug prices from being marked down by government insurers.


“The language previously was a little more specifically designed to attack the reimbursement rates” of government drug insurance programs, Maybarduk told The Huffington Post. “Now it is more about process rather than outcomes,” but the intent to undermine government drug price negotiation remains the same.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/10/tpp-medicare-leak_n_7555232.html

In the Age of Trump, Will Democrats Sell Out More, Or Less?


Over the weekend, polls showed that that the Trump-fueled collapse of the Republican Party is reaching historic depths. According to CNN, the GOP's approval rating is now down to 32 percent, the lowest level in over two decades. It probably won't be trending up anytime soon, either, now that the Trump campaign is turning "you can't rape your spouse" into this week's political catchphrase.

Theoretically, the collapse of the GOP should mean we can ease up on the whole "we must accept the lesser evil" argument. After all, the Greater Evil is now shooting itself in the face on TV every day.

We saw a preview of how this rotten dynamic will work last week, when former Democratic congressman and current Signature Bank board member Barney Frank wrote a piece for Politico entitled "Why Progressives Shouldn't Support Bernie."

When the Democrats had a legitimate electoral threat in the Republicans to wave in front of their voters, they used that as currency to buy their voters' indulgence as they deregulated Wall Street, widened the drug war, abandoned unions in favor of free-trade deals and other horrors, and vastly increased the prison population, among innumerable other things.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/in-age-of-trump-will-democrats-sell-out-more-or-less-20150728#ixzz3hfWqAkIn

Why No Scheduled Democratic Party Debates? Are They Afraid of Bernie? Time for Social Media to Force the Debate

Before the 2008 Presidential primaries, the Democratic Party scheduled a total of 26 debates between the candidates. The first debate, broadcast over MSNBC, was held on April 26th, 2007. It involved a total of eight candidates. Among them: then-New York senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton and her young, relatively unknown senate colleague from Illinois, whose name was Barack Obama. The stakes were high in 2008. The incumbent president, George W. Bush, could not run for a third term – so the contest was wide open.

This year, the stakes are equally high, in large part for the same reason. Yet, here we are at the end of July – and not one debate has taken place. By this time in 2007, there had already been five debates, four of which had been televised. This year, while the first GOP debate will be held on August 3rd, the first Democratic debate has yet to be scheduled. No definite dates have been announced, nor do we know which networks will be carrying them.

Sign Petition Today: To help force this debate, click and sign the petition: Initiate Immediately Democratic National Convention Debates.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/930/249/280/democratic-national-convention-debates/


https://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/07/why-no-scheduled-democratic-party-debates-are-they-afraid-of-bernie-time-for-social-media-to-force-the-debate/