Bernie Sanders on Real causes of the deficit and a Real solution

[Armstead]

Sen. Bernie Sanders on the Budget Crisis and Shared Sacrifice, and his proposal for a Millionaires' Surtax.

An Editorial by Sanders in the Huffington Post Today
(This is an e3xccerpt. It is worth reading the full text at the link, as it powerfully outliners the impact and reasons for the GOP budget policies))

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/a-time-for-shared-sacrifi_b_835166.html

The rich are getting richer. The middle class and poor are getting poorer. What is the Republican solution to the deficit crisis? More tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Savage cuts in programs that are desperately needed by working families.

There is another approach, which is why I've just introduced legislation imposing a surtax on those households earning a million dollars or more and the elimination of tax loopholes which the big oil companies take advantage of.....
<snip>

....The corporate media have been very lax in describing the devastating and unprecedented pain that the Republican House passed budget bill, HR 1, would bring about for low and moderate income families. Let me briefly mention just a very few of their cuts.

The Republicans want to decimate the Head Start Program. Every working family in America knows how hard it is today to find affordable childcare or early childhood education. At a time when we have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world, the Republican solution is to slash Head Start by 20 percent, throw 218,000 children off the program and lay off 55,000 Head Start instructors...
<snip>

.....The federal budget is not just a bunch of big numbers. It is the document that speaks to the values of our country, our national priorities and our hopes for the future. At a time when the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, it is a moral abomination to give more tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, while cutting programs for the most vulnerable people in our society -- the children, the elderly, the sick and the hungry. The Republican budget proposal must be defeated

[liberal N proud]

1. If only what the GOP was doing was about cutting deficits

It's not!

[Armstead]

4. That's partly Bernie's style

He knows all that is behind this, and often will say so directly.

But there are also times when he "gives them the benefit of the doubt" and presents a simple straightforward proposal to call their bluff.

In other words: "You really serious about the budget? Here's a way to prove it."

Obviously they won't, but at least he gets the truth out there.

[mikekohr]

14. Here is the real reason for deficits, Republican Economic Policy, -graphs-

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WHY DO REPUBLICAN ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES EXPAND THE NATIONAL DEBT?
-The answer is simple mathematics. Reduced revenue + increased spending ='s increased debt-
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The two biggest promises of "Trickle Down Economics" are it's greatest failings. Proponents of "Trickle Down Economics” claim that tax cuts, skewed to the rich, will create jobs and increase tax revenues. The graph above disproves the latter claim. Job creation plummets under "Trickle Down Economics (see http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/job-growth.html )and nine of the last ten recessions have occurred under Republican leadership (see http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/history-of-recessions.html ).

Two things are certain to grow when a Republican is in the White House, unemployment and the National Debt.





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THE LAST 3 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS HAVE ACCOUNTED FOR NEARLY 100% OF OUR INCREASE IN THE NATIONAL DEBT SINCE 1981

Every President, from Truman to Carter, steadily paid down the staggering debt that was run up in our fight against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. That pattern came to a screeching halt with Reagan/Bush and Bush. Clinton’s fiscal policy was a brief respite during this orgy of deficit spending.

Clinton balanced 5 budgets, which is 5 times as many balanced budgets as the last 5 Republican presidents combined.

President Obama, like President Clinton, inherited a sea of red ink and a recession from his predecessor. He, like President Clinton, recognizes the importance of getting America back to work and then getting our fiscal house in order.
http://bureaucountydems.blogspot.com/p/national-debt.html

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. Bernie always has been and always will be THE MAN

[ProSense]

3. This is good. Reminds

me of the President's comments here.

[whosinpower]

5. Speaks volumes

That he is independant.

[jwirr]

6. K & R just because I love this man.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Sorry, Bernie

Both parties now firmly believe in tax cuts for the wealthy. The Bush tax cuts will eventually become permanent and there will be no millionaires surtax.

Both parties are bought by corporate interests and the situation will only get worse. The top 1% will eventually control nearly all the wealth in America and the rest of the 99% will be bought and sold like cattle and the middle class will eventually be destroyed.

I know I sound defeatist but let's be honest, we're fucked.

[ProSense]

8. Actually,

no.

<...>

The president, in a $3.7 trillion budget plan released yesterday in Washington, revived dozens of proposals that Congress has rejected, including $129 billion in higher taxes on the overseas profits of U.S. companies. He also proposed changing the tax treatment of oil, gas and coal companies, which would raise about $46 billion.

<...>

The proposal also would bring back pre-2001 tax rates on income and capital gains for individuals earning more than $200,000 annually and married couples making more than $250,000. The estate tax would return to 2009 levels with a $3.5 million per-person exemption and a 45 percent top rate. Under a law Obama signed in December, lower rates expire at the end of 2012.


<...>

The budget plan would limit itemized deductions for top earners to 28 percent, curbing the value of tax breaks for charitable contributions, home mortgage interest and state and local taxes. That proposal has been included in every budget of Obama’s presidency and was rejected as a revenue-raising provision to fund his overhaul of the health system last year.

link

Also included is a $30 billion tax on the largest financial institutions.

Wouldn't it be great if Congress passed these?

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Not only are those measures a drop in the bucket,

but they will do very little to reign in the $14 trillion structural deficit. Got that? It's $14 trillion and will continue to explode thanks to the Bush tax cuts.

Also, Obama knows damn well the Congress won't go for some of the measures you're referring to so this is nothing more than window dressing on Obama's part.

He can pretend that he's for tax increases and fiscal responsibility, but he just committed the greatest blunder of his political career and these proposals will do nothing to mask that fact.

All he had to do was sit back and let the tax cuts expire, but he was too scared of the criticism that would come his way. He didn't want to be branded a socialist by the rethugs.

[ProSense]

10. "Both parties now firmly believe in tax cuts for the wealthy. "

That was your previous statement, and it was wrong!

"Also, Obama knows damn well the Congress won't go for some of the measures you're referring to so this is nothing more than window dressing on Obama's part."

So they aren't going for the President's proposals to tax the wealthy, but they're going for Senator Sanders'?

Great argument!

[Cali_Democrat]

11. Well

When a President signs a bill extending tax cuts for the wealthy and appoints a JP Morgan Chase bankster as his chief of staff, what would you call that? I would call it taking up the fight for the wealthy and the banksters.

BTW, Obama raised more money for his election than any other candidate in history. What percentage of that money was from corporate interests?

Obama is doing nothing more than rewarding contributors. The appointment of a JP Morgan bankster was a goodwill gesture.

[Keith Bee]

12. B-b-but he's a S-S-SOCIALIST!!!!!

Oh my GOD OH MY GOD!!! :cry:

[freshwest]

13. Where are the talking heads on FOX on this subject? Maybe they should invite Bernie on!