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Off the Top of My Head

Joe Biden Least Articulate of Dem Candidates

by John Lawrence, September 16, 2019

Give the man credit for his past service, but his time has gone. He can't complete a sentence and gets lost in his own verbage. Talks about playing the record player for your kids? Give me a break. Records ceased being produced about 30 years ago. I don't want a President that has to be scripted, somebody that's just a figurehead, someone that's a safe bet to beat Donald Trump. These times demand someone who has the energy, boldness and fighting spirit to take on the fossil fuel and the gun lobbies. Someone who understands that drastic changes have to be made in the way we consume energy in all its different forms and capacities. Oil and gas must be replaced by renewables. Planet earth is still going to experience the terrible effects of climate change even if we undergo a planet wide conversion to renewables tomorrow. But if we don't do everything possible in the next ten years, planet earth will become a catastrophe for human beings.

Trump has set back America and the world by years in all arenas. The next Democratic President will have to make up for his idiocy before we have a hope of getting back on the right track. And one way or another the roadblocker-in-chief in the Senate, Mitch McConnell has to be nullified. If it takes getting rid of the filibuster, so be it. The budget reconciliation process could help. A budget reconciliation bill is considered under expedited procedures that limit debate and amendments. Like the budget resolution, a reconciliation bill cannot be filibustered in the Senate and therefore needs only a simple majority to move to a final vote. Whatever it takes to restore majority rule and democracy to the US should be undertaken.

The Republicans only want to talk about all the threats to the US while ignoring the biggest one - climate change. They only want to talk about how much more money we should give to the Defense Department, and they equate taking the money away to help actual Americans and fight climate change as socialism. Pretty soon, if we do nothing, our military will be fighting over a few scraps left on the table after climate change devastates the earth. I guess their goal is to let the rest of the earth go to hell while we defend ourselves against all the climate change refugees. Let's get real. The fall of the Roman Empire did not threaten the whole earth. The American empire and Trump's fiddling while earth burns is doing just that. While the US threatens every country in sight that does not kowtow to its imperialism, China is going around the planet building infrastructure. That's why they're a threat to the US. We can't sit back and let China do all this good.

For Christ's sake they're building roads and ports in Papua New Guinea of all places. Of course they are the biggest threat to the US. The world needs to sit back and let us control it by the use of our military with its 800 bases scattered around the world and by our use of sanctions. The US is the world's bully threatening every country that does not do its bidding with military action or sanctions. Climate change refugees from Central America, where there has been massive crop failures due to heat and drought, must be fought back.

That's why Joe Biden's time has past. He never met a credit card company that he didn't do the whims of. As a senator from Delaware -- a corporate tax haven where the financial industry is one of the state’s largest employers -- Biden was one of the key proponents of the 2005 legislation that effectively prevents the $150 billion worth of private student loan debt from being discharged, rescheduled or renegotiated as other debt can be in bankruptcy court. Now the restoration of bankruptcy protection for student loan debtors is a big campaign issue for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Why didn't they bring this out in the Democratic debates?

My pick is for the team of Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker. They have the energy, the vision, the smarts, the right ethnic and genderific combo and the fighting spirit to put America back on the right track. I love Bernie. He's put all these issues before the American public for years. For years he was a voice crying out in the wilderness. Now his views are almost mainstream, but I think Bernie's approach is too basically monotone. Warren and Booker are much more vibrant and energetic, and they have basically the same agenda as Bernie's. I also think Bernie is too dogmatic with his Medicare for All proposal. Medicare for All Who Want It is a better approach.

All the Democratic Presidential hopefuls on the stage at the last debate were far more articulate and spoke far more intelligently than did Joe Biden. We need a bold new America not Obama 2.0. Thank you.

Challenging Biden on Iraq War Vote, Sanders Denounces Bloated Trump Pentagon Budget During Democratic Debate

Published on Friday, September 13, 2019

by Common Dreams

"I don't think we have to spend $750 billion a year on the military when we don't even know who our enemy is."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

8 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, asks for time to speak during the third Democratic primary debate of at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 2019. (Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Distinguishing himself from his 2020 presidential rivals on the issue of America's obscene military spending—which continues to soar year after year with bipartisan support—Sen. Bernie Sanders touted his record as the only candidate on stage during Thursday night's Democratic debate who has opposed all of President Donald Trump's Pentagon budget proposals.

"I think... I am the only person up here to have voted against all three of Trump's military budgets," the Vermont senator said to applause. "I don't think we have to spend $750 billion a year on the military when we don't even know who our enemy is."

"The Pentagon is set to grow by $90 billion and reach $738 billion next year. For $90 billion, we could double nutrition assistance or provide $7,000 to every child in poverty."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

 

In 2017, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and then-Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas.)—the only other 2020 contenders on stage Thursday who were in Congress at the time—all voted for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018, which handed the Pentagon $700 billion. Sanders voted no.

Sanders also voted against the 2019 NDAA and a procedural motion for the 2020 NDAA. The House and Senate still have to reconcile the 2020 NDAA before both chambers take a final vote on the legislation.

"I think that what we have got to do is bring this world together—bring it together on climate change, bring it together in fighting against terrorism, and make it clear that we as a planet, as a global community, will work together to help countries around the world rebuild their struggling economies and do everything that we can to rid the world of terrorism," said Sanders.

"But dropping bombs on Afghanistan and Iraq was not the way to do it," added the senator.

Watch:

"I think I am the only person up here to have voted against all three of Trump's military budgets. I don't think we have to spend $750 billion a year on the military when we don't even know who our enemy is" @BernieSanders #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/YhAYjZ0DcT

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) September 13, 2019

Sanders also took aim at former Vice President Joe Biden's support for the Iraq War, a record Biden attempted to obfuscate in the days leading up to Thursday's debate in Houston.

"You talked about the big mistake in Iraq and the surge. The truth is, the big mistake, the huge mistake, and one of the big differences between you and me, I never believed what Cheney and Bush said about Iraq," said Sanders, addressing Biden. "I voted against the war in Iraq and helped lead the opposition."

As Common Dreams reported in August, Sanders has called for slashing America's enormous Pentagon budget and using the funds to invest in domestic priorities like healthcare, tuition-free college, and assistance for the poor.

At a time when the U.S. already spends more on the military than the next 10 countries combined, Trump is proposing an $861 billion increase in base defense spending over 10 years.

For the same cost, we could make public colleges and universities tuition-free for a decade.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 11, 2019

"The Pentagon is set to grow by $90 billion and reach $738 billion next year. For $90 billion, we could double nutrition assistance or provide $7,000 to every child in poverty," Sanders tweeted last month. "We cannot keep handing over billions to the military-industrial complex."

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Bernie Sanders Calls To Seize the Means of Electricity Production

The presidential candidate’s new climate plan includes moving toward 100% public ownership of power.

BY JOHANNA BOZUWA, In These Times, August 22, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a town hall meeting about climate change on August 22 in Chico, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A year after a neglected Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) power line sparked a wildfire that tore through northern California, presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday visited Chico, Calif., where many who fled the fire made a new home. He held a town hall the same day he released a new climate plan, in which he declared that the days of investor-owned utilities—with their profit incentives to underinvest in the electric grid and double down on fossil fuels—have to end.

He’s right: It is time for a massive public takeover of the nation’s electric grid.

The for-profit companies that reign over our energy system now have shown no meaningful sign of being willing to transform our energy system; they are much more interested in shareholder gains and business as usual. Together, for-profit utilities and fossil fuel companies have created powerful political-economic machines across the country to solidify the status quo of extraction and extortion. In contrast, democratic public ownership of our energy system could prioritize community benefit over profit, paving the way for a just and equitable energy system.

“We will end greed in our energy system,” says Sanders’ climate plan. “The renewable energy generated by the Green New Deal will be publicly owned.”

His plan comes as public power ownership campaigns mobilize across the country. California’s movement took off after the state’s largest for-profit utility, PG&E, requested a bailout after the fire forced the utility to declare bankruptcy under the weight of liability claims. Communities across the state are now demanding public ownership, and the company’s hometown of San Francisco has begun looking into municipalization.

In New York, in the midst of a July heat wave, Con Edison sacrificed low-income communities of color in Brooklyn by cutting their power to avoid a larger blackout. Residents responded with outrage, and Mayor Bill de Blasio, another presidential contender, called for kicking out the utility in favor of public ownership.

The birthplace of the monopoly for-profit utility, Chicago, just introduced an order to study the feasibility of taking over Commonwealth Edison after years of rate hikes and inaction on climate change. Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said that “through municipalization, Chicago could accelerate decarbonization, and implement a progressive rate structure that ensures better rates for working-class Chicagoans.”

Over the past months, multiple Democratic presidential candidates have come out in favor of democratizing our energy system. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (who this week dropped out to run again for governor) centered much of his plan for a clean energy economy on community-owned and community-led renewables. And Julian Castro—the former mayor of San Antonio, where one of the more progressive public utilities is located—has voiced support for policies that empower the public to set up democratic utilities not only for electricity but also internet services and water.

But Sanders has voiced the most direct support for 100% public power, and this demand is fundamental to his climate plan. Unlike other proposals to date, Sanders’ plan explicitly commits to using public dollars for everything, refusing to leave the transition to corporate investors who so far have failed the public. By doing so, the Green New Deal proposal also ensures that the benefits of the plan don’t disappear into the pockets of billionaires like Elon Musk but are directed toward a more equitable society. Publicly funded projects, when structured so communities have a say in the types of projects and jobs they create, also have the potential to be more accountable, and can prioritize marginalized communities’ access to high-paying, unionized public jobs and respect the rights of the communities where this new infrastructure is built.

Sanders’ plan envisions harnessing and expanding the four already-operating federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), as well as creating a fifth PMA, to build out renewable energy. It would inject $1.52 trillion into renewable energy expansion and $852 billion into energy storage, working particularly with publicly or cooperatively owned utilities. By 2035, this plan would essentially decommodify energy generation through the federal authorities. Unlike the TVA of the past, designed largely for the benefit of white men in search of work in the South, the entire plan is based on the Jemez Principles of environmental justice that focus on bottom-up organizing and including all people in decision-making.

At the municipal, district and state levels, Sanders explicitly commits to supporting the growth of public and co-op utilities. Already, public and cooperatively owned utilities serve 49 million people in the United States, atlower costs and with generally more reliable service. In fact, the entire state of Nebraska runs fully off of public power after the state expelled the for-profit utility in the 1940s because of its extortionist rates. Unlike their for-profit counterparts, these entities are ultimately beholden to the public and any profits are reinvested into the community’s schools, parks and public services. This plan would help this sector expand its reach and invest more in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and much more.

It also provides express assistance to states and municipalities so they could start their own democratically owned utilities—ones driven by the public interest and a climate-resilient future. This could be key for places like New York or Chicago that are starting the process of taking over their utility, seeking guidance and expertise throughout the process. By taking energy utilities into public ownership, we can catalyze renewable energy deployment at the same time we redistribute wealth and power.

Elements of Sanders’ proposal are similar to a proposal for a Community Ownership of Power Administration that was co-created by The Democracy Collaborative (where I work) and grassroots energy groups.

Sanders’ plans for public ownership don’t stop at electricity. He would also allocate funds to massively increase public broadband projects to give people access to a new and necessary public good: the internet. An estimated 19 million people, largely located in rural America, still do not have access to broadband. He offers a vision for integrated and effective local public transportation systems with high-speed rail connections. He stresses the importance of building high-quality, low-carbon-footprint public housing, as well as weatherizing already-standing homes to end energy poverty. The plan reinstates the federal Civilian Conservation Corps jobs program to restore our public lands. It invests dramatically more in public regional development agencies like the Appalachian Regional Commission. It even creates spaces for cooperatively owned grocery stores to facilitate local agriculture not held hostage by monopolies like Monsanto.

Sanders is not alone in his call for more public ownership. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has similarly audacious plans for services like broadband, and both Warren and Sen. Cory Booker have invoked the Civilian Conservation Corps as a model. However, Sanders’ Green New Deal proposal stands alone in its comprehensive commitment to public funding and programs.

The future is public. It is accountable to the principles of environmental justice. It is democratic. It is decommodified. Sanders’ plan is the latest to set the bar for a new economy shepherded in by the green energy transition. We learned long ago that private interests won’t solve for climate and justice at the same time—that change will have to come from united and empowered people. Now, this realization is firmly on the presidential political agenda. 

 

Off the Top of My Head

China Has Done More Than Any Other Nation to Alleviate Poverty

by John Lawrence, August 31, 2019

According to the World Bank, more than 850 million people have lifted themselves out of extreme poverty as China's poverty rate fell from 88 percent in 1981 to 0.7 percent in 2015, as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.90 or less per day in 2011 purchasing price parity terms. So Bernie Sanders brings up an inconvenient point when he says, "But what we have to say about China in fairness to China and it’s leadership is, if I’m not mistaken, they have made more progress in addressing extreme poverty than any country in the history of civilization, so they’ve done a lot of things for their people.” Oh how Fox News doesn't like someone bringing up an inconvenient fact about a country they're doing their level best to make into an adversary. Laura Ingraham made this comment: "It really shouldn't be all that surprising, I guess, that Bernie has a soft spot for the Chinese thugs. Socialism ultimately leads to more power for the state. And less power for you and your family." What she leaves out is the inconvenient truth that America, rather than alleviating poverty, has continued to increase it.

From 2016 to 2017, homelessness increased in America by 0.7 percent. The largest increases were among unaccompanied children and young adults (14.3 percent increase), individuals experiencing chronic homelessness (12.2 percent increase), and people experiencing unsheltered homelessness (9.4 percent increase). According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2018 there were around 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night, or 0.17% of the population. So while China has made miraculous strides in decreasing poverty, the US has done nothing or next to nothing and homelessness which represents extreme poverty is increasing year after year.

In May 2019, The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) released its 2019 “State of Homelessness in America” report. NAEH’s interactive report allows users to explore national and state level data on the trends and progress toward ending homelessness in the United States. According to the report, homelessness has increased slightly by 0.3%, or 1,834 people, between 2017 and 2018 nationally. Approximately 552,830 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States on a single night in 2018 during the Point-in-Time (PIT) count. So while China makes gigantic strides in reducing poverty, the US, supposedly the world's richest nation, does little or nothing while poverty increases. But instead of focusing on a comparison of the two countries with respect to how much each has decreased poverty, Laura Ingraham instead criticizes Bernie Sanders for having the audacity to even bring up the subject puting the US in an unfavorable light with respect to China.

Maybe China is doing something right which, of course, Fox News is reluctant to admit. And while the US has made little progress in its "War on Poverty" since President Lyndon Johnson declared an ""unconditional war on poverty" 55 years ago, China lifted 850 million people out of poverty in 35 years! Not only is China’s success in reducing poverty without precedent, Beijing is best equipped to help reduce poverty globally – a fact that the Western media seems happy to skip over, preferring instead to criticise Beijing’s actions wherever possible. China is helping many other nations with its "Belt and Road" initiative. But the US sees China's alleviation of poverty and assistance in economic development in other parts of the world as a "threat" undercutting its own valiant efforts which have produced nothing but war and destruction.

China spent $250 billion on its military in 2018 while the US spent $649 billion, considerably more. How much did the US spend on economic development in other nations compared to China? China spent $460 billion in the five years since 2013 while in the US total spending was roughly $49 billion in 2016, the last full fiscal year analyzed. This accounts for about 1.2 percent of the federal budget. So while the US spends over twice as much as China on war, China spends about twice that of the US on foreign aid.

In the South China Morning Post, John F. Cooper writes in an opinion piece in April 2019:

China’s two government bodies reached decisions to alleviate rural poverty both at home and in developing countries. The sentiment was that China had done both before.

In fact, China’s accomplishments in these two realms are mind-boggling, having removed some 500 million to 700 million people from the poverty rolls. In fact, poverty in China has been cut to just a fraction of what it once was.

But China has not merely reduced poverty at home. The UN Millennium Development Goals project launched in 2000 was realized, UN officials said, with help from China’s generous, no-nonsense, market-oriented and unfettered foreign aid and investments.

According to the UN (recorded in its Sustainable Development Goals project), there are 783 million people living in poverty around the world.

The Western media has not cottoned to the fact that China had done a yeoman’s job in promoting economic growth by privatizing its economy and promoting competition, and has applied these principles to its foreign aid.

Liberals favor other means. Nor do they like Beijing’s undermining of the liberal, Western world order by proffering its own model of governance. Now, the media is unhappy that China can help the world’s poor when the West can do little.

Recently, Italy formally became the first G7 country to join China’s monumental Belt and Road Initiative, an ambitious effort to coordinate trillions of dollars of infrastructure investment across the regions of Africa, Europe and Asia historically bound by the Silk Road. Investment from China’s Cosco Shipping rescued Greece’s Piraeus port three years ago, turning it into one of Europe’s fastest growing. According to the German newspaper, Die Zeit, Piraeus will displace Hamburg as Europe’s third-busiest port this year.

We dare not say that China is outcompeting the US on the world stage with its approach to helping people around the world instead of bullying them. Of course Laura Ingraham and Fox News, Trump's propaganda arm, will never admit that nor will they ever admit that perhaps China's version of capitalism is superior to the US version. No, they will continue to set up the divide between the capitalist US and the socialist China. Bernie Sanders is a truth teller and that is something that can't be allowed to stand unchallenged by Fox News.

Bernie Sanders Announces a $16.3 Trillion Green New Deal

BY DINO GRANDONI with Paulina Firozi - THE LIGHTBULB, from the Washngton Post

        Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Bernie Sanders released a comprehensive plan to address a “climate crisis” he says is on par with that America faced during the Second World War, vowing to declare the global buildup of planet-warming gases a national emergency and to spend more than any other Democratic candidate has proposed to address the issue.

The independent Vermont senator, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, published a nearly 14,000-word “Green New Deal” on Thursday that aims to eliminate the use of fossil fuels from power plants and cars by the end of the next decade and to completely decarbonize the rest of the U.S. economy by the middle of the century.

It is also distinguished from the plans of his 2020 rivals by the fact that it would attempt to empower Sanders, if he is was in the White House, to impose many of its components through executive action, a popular tool during the Trump and Obama administrations to enact environmental change.

But the self-proclaimed democratic socialist's proposal comes with a steep price tag of $16.3 trillion, far eclipsing that of former vice president Joe Biden's $1.7 trillion climate plan.

Sanders is the last among the 2020 race's top-tier candidates to release a comprehensive climate plan. Spurred in part by dire warnings from climate scientists and regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration, the issue of climate change is being transformed from an electoral afterthought into a top issue in the Democratic primary. Att the same time, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee, who was running a single-issue campaign on global warming, on Wednesday night dropped out of the presidential contest.

Many of the 2020 contenders have embraced some form of a Green New Deal — a pitch to dramatically and quickly roll back carbon emissions and guarantee jobs for all — but the version backed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who supported Sanders in his 2016 run, was defeated in the Senate.

As oil field workers, coal miners and other laborers would lose their jobs under such a plan, Sanders is promising a “fair transition” by providing them with job training, health-care coverage, five years of unemployment insurance and, for those who want them, early retirement packages.

Typical of the senator's sharp-elbowed style, Sanders leaves little room for compromise with fossil-fuel interests. Like his stances on health care and college education, Sanders's purist approach to addressing climate change may endear him to the Democratic Party's left flank while turning off more moderate members.

“We need a president who has the courage, the vision, and the record to face down the greed of fossil fuel executives and the billionaire class who stand in the way of climate action,” his Green New Deal reads. “We need a president who welcomes their hatred.”

At the same time, Sanders is keen to court unions, many of which have expressed skepticism of the Green New Deal as articulated by Ocasio-Cortez over fears that aggressive environmental regulations could eliminate jobs. Sanders hopes to allay those fears with a comprehensive set of benefits for laid-off industrial workers. He made a similar tweak to his Medicare-for-all program yesterday by endorsing a move to increase the power of unions in negotiating with health-care providers.

“He just has a lot of credibility to say, 'This is what I’ll be fighting for,' " said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, an environmental organization that reviewed parts of the plan for the Sanders campaign.

The high cost of Sanders's plan is due in part to eschewing partnership with the private businesses to erect the wind turbines and solar panels needed to hit his goal of 100 percent renewable energy in the power sector by 2030. Instead Sanders wants to establish a new federal electric utility to provide power to Northeast and Midwestern states while expanding the four existing federal power administrations that cover most of the rest of the Lower 48.

The Sanders campaign says it will pay for the plan through a combination of cutting military spending, increasing corporate taxes and suing fossil-fuel companies.

Echoing legislation he introduces perennially in Congress, Sanders wants to eliminate government subsidies for fossil-fuel companies. And going a step further than his two main Democratic rivals, Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, he promises to pursue a nationwide ban on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a controversial technique for extracting gas that can sometimes contaminate groundwater.

Sanders's plan, like most Democratic climate proposals, has virtually no shot of being passed by a Republican-controlled Senate. But it is Sanders's willingness to marshal the emergency powers of the executive branch that set him apart from most of the rest of the Democratic field.

“If the Senate and Congress are going to be bogged down, he will have the authority to enforce many of the pieces he needs to enact to address the climate crisis,” Pica said. “This proposal recognizes the presidential power he would have.”

President Trump's own embrace of emergency powers to fund the construction of a border wall has spurred Democrats to talk more openly about ways to wield executive power. Most of the Democratic field, including Sanders, has said they will end coal, oil and natural gas leasing on federally controlled lands, for example.

While there is some precedent for such a moratorium — the Obama administration implemented one for coal — it is an open question as to whether the conservative majority on the Supreme Court would sanction Sanders's use of emergency powers to reshuffle federal funds to address climate change.

Many of Sanders's ideas would also face stiff resistance from within his own Democratic caucus over what Paul Bledsoe, an energy fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute and former Clinton White House climate adviser, calls his “radical climate purity.”

“I’m afraid it’s going to be written off by moderates,” Bledsoe added.

Citing the Fukushima meltdown and the Chernobyl explosion, Sanders's plan calls for a moratorium on not just new nuclear power plants but also on the license renewals of existing ones — despite the fact that currently one fifth of U.S. power comes from nuclear reactors, making it by far the nation's largest sources of low-carbon energy. Sanders also rejects the use of technologies that do not yet exist at scale — such as the capturing of carbon dioxide before it exits coal plants' smokestacks — calling them “false solutions.”

To transform the way Americans move around on the ground, Sanders wants to provide $2.09 trillion in grants for consumers to buy electric passenger vehicles and $407 billion for school districts and other local governments to buy electric buses. He also wants to resurrect an Obama administration plan to invest $607 billion in building a high-speed rail system.

But the goal of taking every gasoline-guzzling car, pickup truck and SUV off the roads by 2030 is simply unrealistic, said Josh Freed, head of the clean energy program at the center-left think tank Third Way.

“It undermines the seriousness of the plan, and shows that it's just a political document,” he said.

While he promises to rejoin the Paris climate accords, Sanders calls the agreement brokered by the Obama administration “not perfect” for falling short of emissions reductions needed to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. On the international stage, Sanders wants to invest $200 billion abroad in Asia, Africa and South America for building out renewable energy and adapting to rising seas and other effects of climate change.

To readers: As the summer winds down, this is the last edition of The Energy 202 for the month of August. We return to our full schedule after Labor Day.

Sanders Unveils Plan to End Cash Bail, Ban Private Prisons, and 'Fundamentally Transform' US Criminal Justice System

Published on Sunday, August 18, 2019

by Common Dreams

"If we stand together, we can eliminate private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

47 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall at the Aratani Theater in Los Angeles on July 25, 2019. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Decrying America's status as the "world's leading jailer," Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday released a comprehensive plan to confront the crisis of mass incarceration, end the criminalization of poverty, and dramatically overhaul the U.S. criminal justice system.

"We have a criminal justice system that is racist and broken, and working together we're going to fundamentally transform it," said Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

The platform, which Sanders unveiled at an event in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday, condemns America's "overly-punitive approach to public safety" and urges investments "to rebuild the communities that mass incarceration continues to decimate."

"We have over two million people in jail and prison, more than any other nation on earth, and they are disproportionately African-American, Latino, and Native American," Sanders wrote in an email to supporters on Sunday. "We spend $80 billion a year keeping people behind bars, money which could be used for education, job creation, and affordable housing."

"We spent, and I want everybody to hear this, $80 billion a year in tax dollars at the local, state, and federal level to lock up fellow Americans... It might be a better idea to take some of that $80 billion and start investing in our young people." @BernieSanders pic.twitter.com/KyEv2q9hsf

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) August 18, 2019

To remedy this dysfunctional and devastating system, Sanders' platform—detailed on his website—calls for:

• A ban on private prisons as part of a broader effort to "end profiteering in our criminal justice system";
• An end to cash bail, which traps poor Americans in a cycle of debt;
• Halting excessive sentencing "with the goal of cutting the incarcerated population in half";
• Transformation of policing by ensuring oversight and accountability for law enforcement, banning use of facial recognition software by law enforcement, and ending "programs that provide military equipment to local police";
• Abolishing the death penalty;
• Legalization of marijuana and erasure of past marijuana convictions; and
• An end to the criminalization of addiction by funding adequate treatment for those addicted to opioids.

"If we stand together, we can eliminate private prisons and detention centers. No more profiteering from locking people up," Sanders said during his speech in South Carolina.

"If we stand together we can end the disastrous 'war on drugs,'" the senator added. "If we stand together we can end cash bail. No more keeping people in jail because they're too poor. If we stand together we can enact real police department reform and prosecute police brutality. If we stand together, there is nothing, nothing, nothing that we cannot accomplish."

Watch the speech:

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Is there a middle road on Medicare-for-all? Kamala Harris thinks so

.     BY PAIGE WINFIELD CUNNINGHAM with Paulina Firozi from the Washington Post THE PROGNOSIS Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) speaks at the 25th Essence Festival in New Orleans. (Gerald Herbert/AP) Is there a way to do Medicare-for-all without wiping out the country's private insurance system? Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) says there is. Here's her solution: Let people keep private plans, but have the government help pay for it. Harris aims to reach universal health coverage by expanding Medicare to everyone, but through private plans that are paid by the government to administer medical benefits. Harris released her proposal yesterday, adding to the proliferating pile of health policy proposals from the Democratic candidates, who are preparing for their second debate tonight and Wednesday. The 2020 presidential candidate has finally clarified where she stands on the perplexing issue, after months of confusing statements about whether or not she'd eliminate commercial health insurance. In the past, Harris signed onto the sweeping Medicare-for-all bill envisioned by her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who wants the federal government to directly cover the health expenses of all Americans. Democratic presidential hopefuls Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris speak during the Democratic primary debate in June. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) But what Harris is proposing now isn’t quite Medicare-for-all. It’s more like Medicare Advantage-for-all, a popular alternative version of Medicare that currently covers about 1 in 3 seniors. In Medicare Advantage, private plans bid for the rights to sponsor Medicare plans, in contrast to traditional Medicare, in which doctors and hospitals directly bill the federal government. The program is basically Republicans’ favorite flavor of Medicare, because it so heavily involves the private sector. So using Medicare Advantage as a starting point for health reform could be smart politics for Harris, especially if she eventually finds herself in the general election. Expanding coverage via private means is a more comfortable idea for many Americans. It certainly is for Tom Scully, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under GOP President George W. Bush, who called the idea a “brilliant masterstroke.” “There’s a hell of a big difference between Medicare-for-all and Medicare Advantage-for-all,” Scully told me. “I think [Harris] was brilliant to figure that out.” In her plan, laid out via a Medium post, Harris wants to give people the option of either enrolling in traditional Medicare or buying a Medicare Advantage-type plan while tacking on more benefits, such as mental health care. She’d let people immediately start buying into traditional Medicare and over a 10-year period would phase in privately run Medicare plans to cover newborns, the uninsured and, eventually, everyone who currently has workplace or Obamacare coverage. The approach allows Harris to embrace the most popular parts of Medicare-for-all — its generous set of medical benefits — while dodging its most controversial aspect of eliminating private health coverage. Harris had wavered on that question for months, on two separate occasions appearing to advocate banning private plans and each time walking back those remarks. “Essentially, we would allow private insurance to offer a plan in the Medicare system, but they will be subject to strict requirements to ensure it lowers costs and expands services,” Harris wrote. “If they want to play by our rules, they can be in the system. If not, they have to get out.” Andy Slavitt, who headed CMS under President Barack Obama, called her plan “an effort to balance idealism and pragmatism.” “The use of Medicare Advantage is a clever approach to getting there,” he told me. Indeed, Harris’s plan could be viewed as a middle ground between the dramatic health insurance overhaul suggested by Sanders and the incremental approach of a government-financed “public option” backed by former vice president Joe Biden. If you’re watching the debate, stay tuned for potential clashes between Biden and Harris on the subject when they share the stage Wednesday night. Harris’s rivals were already jumping all over her yesterday, slamming her for trying to have the best of both worlds and charging that it would instead lead to the worst of both worlds. “This new, have-it-every-which-way approach pushes the extremely challenging implementation of the Medicare for All part of this plan ten years into the future, meaning it would not occur on the watch of even a two-term administration,” said Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield. “The result? A Bernie Sanders-lite Medicare for All and a refusal to be straight with the American middle class, who would have a large tax increase forced on them with this plan,” she added. Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir told Politico that Harris's plan “introduces more corporate greed and more profiteering within Medicare.” And the health-care industry, which has formally banded together to fight Medicare-for-all-like proposals, appears no more open to Harris’s proposal than to what Sanders or Biden have suggested. The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a coalition that includes the major trade groups for health insurers, hospitals and other players, released a statement calling it a “one-size-fits-all government-run system.” “No matter how candidates try to thread the needle, Medicare for all, Medicare ‘buy-in’ and the ‘public option’ would all lead to the same harmful consequences — including unaffordable tax increases, the elimination of consumer choice, threats to patients’ access to their doctors and treatments and a diminished quality of care,” Lauren Crawford Shaver, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. Today the coalition is launching a six-figure ad campaign that includes digital ads in Detroit and Washington, and this national television ad: Harris’s proposal is too new for there to be polling data on it. But a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation underscores how Americans seem to prefer step-by-step approaches to getting everyone covered versus a system-wide transformation that might cost them their own coverage. Nearly two-third of respondents said they favor a public option that would compete with private plans and be available to all Americans. Just over half of respondents said they favor a national Medicare-for-all plan, slightly down from 56 percent who expressed support in April.

Off the Top of My Head

How to Counter China's BRI Initiative: A Worldwide Green New Deal

by John Lawrence, July 24, 2019

The American political establishment is all worried about China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) because it forges alliances with many countries especially, but not limited to, those of the Eurasian land mass including Russia. They do this by partnering to build infrastructure in those countries thereby increasing trade with China primarily. The Chinese approach is basically the equivalent of Dale Carnegie's book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." The American approach is to threaten other countries with its military might or its weaponized dollar. These are the only things in the American playbook. Other American interactions with third parties have been left to the private sector because the American government has been hollowed out to the point that all activities with the exception of the military and the use of sanctions have been left to the private sector. America cannot even repair its own infrastructure much less build infrastructure in the rest of the world like China is doing. China can do this because it has a government capable of launching huge initiatives. Unless those initiatives are of a military nature, the US can do nothing of the sort.

Therefore, I have a great idea (I think). The Democrats should think big and their agenda should be (in addition to universal health care which I will discuss later) a Worldwide Green New Deal (WWGND). Climate change will not be ameliorated that much by just greening America. Most of the greenhouse gasses are being emitted elsewhere. So a Green Marshall Plan or a Worldwide Green New Deal is in order, and it will counter China, not militarily like the Washington Republican establishment is trying to do (after all if all you possess is a hammer every problem must be solved by hammering), but by peaceful green development exactly like China is trying to do although I don't know how much the emphasis with the BRI is on green.

Some quibbles with the Green New Deal as presently constituted: it guarantees a government job for anyone who needs a job. No, leave this part out, because the Republicans will slaughter you over this. A Worldwide Green New Deal is necessary not only to save the planet, but to counter China's growing influence in the world. This would be a peaceful competition instead of the military one that has borne no fruit over the last years since WW II. The wars since then have been a waste and a tragedy that have only destroyed infrastructure and alienated major parts of the world's population. A WWGND will also be a change in foreign policy vis a vis the rest of the world. It will say we are not here just to try and control you militarily or to destroy your economies with sanctions if you don't obey our orders. It would be saying to the world "let's have a peaceful competition with China and save the world from the worst effects of climate change at the same time."

The US political establishment is apprehensive about China. It is getting defensive about China. That's why it is taking the attitude towards Huawei which is outdcompeting American companies. The US is trying to use sanctions to block Huawei's progress since it is on the losing end of the competition. But America has no industrial policy; China does and this makes all the difference. America can only react defensively using threats both military and dollarized.

Now regarding universal health care, as much as I like Bernie Sanders, I think Medicare for All as a plank in the platform has to go. The Republicans will slaughter us over that. Hickenlooper and others have a better idea: Medicare for All Who Want It. The rest can stay with their private insurance. Evidently, 180 million Americans are covered by employer based insurance, and, evidently, they like it. This would be similar to restoring the public option that was lobbied out of Obamacare. Let people opt in to Medicare, but don't force them to. This is the winning agenda item. Over the years as more and more people become disenchanted with private insurance, they will start opting in until the point will be reached that effectively Medicare For All will be realized. This is the way to make universal health care evolutionary instead of revolutionary.

The American Republican poltitical establishment is taking a defensive, fearful attitude towards China's BRI. They are trying to control the world not by military supremacy but by peaceful development in conjunction with their neighbors. How dare they! The US has invested the whole ball of wax into military domination of the world to put America first. After all we beat communism leaving America as the world's dominant empire. But if America doesn't change course it will be left in the position of trying to hold back China's peaceful initiatives with its threats of military action and sanctions.

One last note: the US will have to replace the privately owned Federal Reserve with a public central bank in order to fund a WWGND. Ellen Brown has discussed this in detail. Lincoln essentially did this with his issuance of greenbacks to fight the Civil War and build the transcontinental railroad. It worked for him and us.

'The Difference Is Thousands of Lives': Sanders Releases Chart Contrasting Biden's Incremental Healthcare Plan With Medicare for All

Published on Tuesday, July 16, 2019

by Common Dreams

"Biden's plan would preserve a broken system," said Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

7 Comments

Local politicians and hospital workers protest the imminent closure of Hahnemann University Hospital at a rally outside the Center City facilities in Philadelphia on July 11, 2019. (Photo: Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As Joe Biden continued his misleading attacks on single-payer during an AARP forum in Iowa on Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign circulated a chart highlighting the sharp and deeply consequential differences between the former vice president's newly unveiled healthcare plan and Medicare for All.

While Medicare for All would provide "health coverage to everyone," the chart says, Biden's plan to bolster the Affordable Care Act and add a public option would leave "nearly 10 million people uninsured" and hit tens of millions more with "high co-pays and deductibles that will leave too many people at the mercy of insurers and drug companies."

"Biden's plan would preserve a broken system," said the Sanders campaign. "According to a recent survey, as many as one in four adults go without insurance at some point in a given year. That's fifty million people. By age 50, the average worker has held 12 jobs. Under Biden's plan, this broken and fractured system would be maintained."

"The difference is thousands of lives," tweeted Jacobin magazine founder Bhaskar Sunkara in response to the chart.

As Common Dreams reported on Monday, Matt Bruenig of the People's Policy Project estimated that Biden's healthcare plan would lead to the deaths of 125,000 people in the first decade by leaving millions uninsured.

The Sanders campaign's chart, sent to the press late Monday, came after Biden told an audience of around 200 Iowa seniors that, under Medicare for All, "Medicare as you know it goes away"—a line that quickly drew comparisons to President Donald Trump's claim last year that Medicare for All would lead to "Medicare for none."

 Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, slammed Biden's attack on Medicare for All in a statement late Monday.

"He needlessly scared seniors today by telling them that Medicare for All would mean 'Medicare as you know it goes away,'" said Lawson. "In fact, Medicare for All would greatly improve the program for current beneficiaries."

This is completely false. #MedicareForAll would make Medicare much better by adding:

- Dental
- Hearing
- Vision
- Long Term Care

while eliminating co-pays, premiums, and deductibleshttps://t.co/KA065kQLji https://t.co/nIMjBC8194

— SocialSecurityWorks (@SSWorks) July 15, 2019

In a video posted on Twitter Monday night, Sanders highlighted Iowa seniors' lukewarm response after Biden asked whether they liked their private insurance providers before they retired.

Sanders, the lead Senate sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019, contrasted the seniors' response to Biden with the enthusiastic applause Medicare for All received during the Vermont senator's Fox News town hall in April.

"At the end of the day," Sanders tweeted, "you've either got to be on the side of the people or the side of the health insurance companies. I know which side I'm on."

At the end of the day, you’ve either got to be on the side of the people or the side of the health insurance companies. I know which side I’m on. pic.twitter.com/P2ZVzSSXM2

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 16, 2019

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Off the Top of My Head

Are Americans Amusing Themselves to Death?

by John Lawrence, July 16, 2019

I was waiting for Joe Biden to formalize an agenda, but so far his only agenda is that he is the likeliest candidate to beat Trump. That's not good enough. The next President and vice President need to set a bold agenda. The media likes to label that :progressive." So be it. Perhaps the next President can save the Iran nuclear deal and rejoin the Paris climate change accords. But he or she must do much more. While Trump and the media will try to sidetrack the issues and get everybody concerned with his outrageous tweets, Bernie and Elizabeth will concentrate on informing the American people about the real issues: infrastructure, climate change, universal health care, the growing dichotomy between rich and poor and what to do about it.

Trump and the media want you to take your eye off the ball; they want to distract and confuse. They want the issues to be all about superficial nonsense. Even Chuck Todd on Meet the Press tried last Sunday to distract Bernie, but Bernie always comes back to the real issue no matter what the question asked. The American people have to get used to the fact that a Presidential election should not be a circus. It should not be entertainment, but, of course, the American people have gotten used to the fact that practically everything in American life is about entertainment.

The book by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business hits the nail right on the head. In comparing Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" to George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four ", Postman said that the contemporary world was better reflected by Huxley's book, whose public was oppressed by their addiction to amusement, than by Orwell's work, where they were oppressed by state control. I would have to agree with him. Postman observed that people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights. Postman sees television's entertainment value as a present-day "soma", the fictitious pleasure drug in Brave New World, by means of which the citizens' rights are exchanged for consumers' entertainment. The opioid crisis can certainly be seen in that light.

Drugs and entertainment are the hallmark of American society. Reckless lifestyles instead of touch football are pursued with vigor as John Kennedy would say. It's Devil May Care in terms of climate change or any concern for future generations. Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll are the order of the day. A few people are concerned about bettering their own and other peoples' lives, but not very many. Trump is a manifestation of that. Ronald Reagan ushered in the "Me First" age, and Trump has solidified it.

This is from Wikipedia:

Postman asserts the presentation of television news is a form of entertainment programming; arguing that the inclusion of theme music, the interruption of commercials, and "talking hairdos" bear witness that televised news cannot readily be taken seriously. Postman further examines the differences between written speech, which he argues reached its prime in the early to mid-nineteenth century, and the forms of televisual communication, which rely mostly on visual images to "sell" lifestyles. He argues that, owing to this change in public discourse, politics has ceased to be about a candidate's ideas and solutions, but whether he comes across favorably on television. Television, he notes, has introduced the phrase "now this", which implies a complete absence of connection between the separate topics the phrase ostensibly connects. Larry Gonick used this phrase to conclude his Cartoon Guide to (Non)Communication, instead of the traditional "the end"

In the age of social media, rather than the medium being the message, the newsmaker is the message. We're endlessly distracted by the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and his escapades. Who cares? I guess a lot of people would rather be titillated by a scumbag like Epstein than to contemplate the real issues that Bernie and Elizabeth are talking about. The real issues that all the progressive Democrats are concerned with. The American people, large segments of them, just don't care. They want to get on with their selfish pursuits just like Ronald Reagan and George W Bush told them to do. They are amused by the antics of a clown as President of the US where his every word, no matter how ridiculous, is reported on and televised. America is more concerned with rubbish and entertainment than it is with the real issues facing the country and the world today.

What America Needs to Understand About Capitalism

Published on Saturday, July 13, 2019

by Project Syndicate

The United States has the resources to create a better capitalist system, and it is clear which policies can improve wellbeing today and create a more equitable and sustainable economy for future generations. Now the country needs to elect a president and Congress that can build this system

by Clair Brown, Simon Sällström

 

36 Comments

Either Warren or Sanders would be a better bet for reform than Biden. (Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA-EFE/Rex)

The candidates in the 2020 U.S. presidential race are proposing an array of economic policies frequently described as either free-market or socialist. These labels often confuse the American public. In particular, capitalism is widely—and wrongly—understood to be synonymous with free markets. In fact, it includes all economic systems with private ownership of property, from free markets to social democracy.

These various forms of capitalism require basic rules governing how markets operate, such as protection of property and the rule of law. Most capitalist societies also have social programs to protect the most vulnerable. Governments in capitalist economies therefore face two fundamental choices. First, they can either set market rules for the common good, or delegate this task to big business under the guise of "free markets." Second, they can design universal social programs with the aim of reducing inequality and protecting the environment, or scale them back in order to minimize government spending in these areas.

The choices governments make strongly influence levels of inequality, greenhouse-gas emissions, and overall well-being. To evaluate the Democratic candidates' economic policies properly, therefore, we must understand their proposals for structuring markets and creating or expanding social programs.

U.S. President Donald Trump disparages such measures as "socialism," and instead praises free markets without acknowledging that markets need rules to function. Rather than having government set the rules, Trump prefers to let multinational corporations decide how to operate their own markets. Yet in Big Tech and many other increasingly concentrated sectors, deregulation does not increase competition; on the contrary, it allows big companies to rig things in their favor.

Consider the energy sector, where Trump has put Big Coal, Oil, and Gas in charge of U.S. climate policies. Corporate bosses now determine how much they may pollute and how fast they need to develop renewable-energy capacity, while the U.S. remains addicted to fossil fuels. In the health-care industry, big pharmaceutical companies are free to set drug prices, and large insurers reap one-quarter of the sector's revenues. The military-industrial complex rules the Pentagon, investment banks control Wall Street, and big agricultural conglomerates hold sway over America's farmland.

Market concentration allows a few large multinationals to control an industry, resulting in high prices and excessive executive pay. Big incumbents crush newcomers in order to maintain their market power, and then use excess profits to help elect friendly lawmakers and lobby for policies that support their continued dominance—often undermining the power of popular democratic movements.

Several Democratic presidential candidates have highlighted these problems. Elizabeth Warren, for example, blames big-business corruption for worsening inequality and the climate crisis, and undermining American democracy. Bernie Sanders has called for a grassroots political revolution to create a social democracy in the U.S.

Although Warren and Sanders differ on the details, both want to put government back in charge of structuring markets for the common good—including higher taxes on the wealthy and big business, along with stricter enforcement of antitrust and environmental laws. Both candidates also advocate government social programs aimed at providing everyone with health care, childcare, higher education, adequate housing, and decent jobs, along with a social safety net to support them in hard times.

Other Democratic hopefuls have also advocated some of these measures, but more centrist candidates say such programs would be too expensive or even undermine freedom, thereby echoing a standard right-wing critique. Former Vice President Joe Biden, for example, recently told wealthy donors that "nothing would fundamentally change" if he became president. Yet the U.S. capitalist system needs a major revamp in order to tackle the climate crisis and unacceptably high levels of inequality. European countries have demonstrated how broad government programs, flourishing economies, and freedom go hand in hand.

Some are mapping the way forward. Nobel laureate economist Joseph E. Stiglitz says progressive capitalism could greatly help to reduce wealth-snatching and create a more sustainable, equitable economy. And the Poor People's Moral Budget advocates progressive social programs funded via taxes and the redirection of existing federal spending.

Our research team at the University of California, Berkeley, has created the Sustainable Shared-Prosperity Policy Index (SSPI) to measure policies that support a meaningful life in a sustainable world. The SSPI ranks 50 countries based on three broad criteria: policies that structure markets with rules and taxes; measures to protect the environment; and government programs that support healthy, educated people along with the infrastructure and human rights that establish a well-functioning society. By gathering data on over 50 policy indicators, the SSPI provides a practical roadmap toward creating an economy that cares for people and the environment.

All U.S. presidential candidates should present their plans for the economy so that voters can assess how the alternatives will affect their quality of life. People need to know whether they will have access to health care, higher education, and childcare, along with a secure job that pays a decent wage and allows time for a balanced life with family, friends, and community.

This is surely not too much for citizens of a rich country to expect and demand. America has the resources to create a better capitalist economy, and we know which policies can improve wellbeing today and for future generations. Now the country needs to elect a president and Congress that can build this new system.

© 2019 Project Syndicate

'We Welcome Their Hatred': Sanders Unveils Anti-Endorsement List of Billionaire CEOs and Wall Street Bankers

Published on Wednesday, July 10, 2019

by Common Dreams

"I am proud to announce the modern-day oligarchs who oppose our movement."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

44 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during a press conference to introduce college affordability legislation outside the U.S Capitol in Washington, D.C on June 24, 2019. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Asking the American public to judge his 2020 Democratic presidential campaign by both its supporters and its powerful enemies, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday unveiled an "anti-endorsement" list consisting of prominent billionaires, Wall Street bankers, and corporate CEOs who have attacked his candidacy and policies.

"These people have a vested interest in preserving the status quo so they can keep their grip on power so they can continue to exploit working people across America."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

 

"You can tell who is truly fighting for working families by the enemies they make, and we've made a lot of enemies," Sanders said in a statement. "We understand that nothing will fundamentally change for working Americans unless we have the guts to take on the most powerful corporate interests in this country."

"Therefore it should come as no surprise that corporate CEOs and billionaires have united against our movement," Sanders added. "These people have a vested interest in preserving the status quo so they can keep their grip on power so they can continue to exploit working people across America. We welcome their hatred."

The Sanders campaign lists the Vermont senator's anti-endorsements on a new webpage. The page includes billionaire Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban, who attacked Sanders as a "disaster zone" in an interview published Wednesday.

The rest of the list consists of:

• Billionaire Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone;
• Former CKE Restaurants CEO Andy Puzder;
• Former Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam;
• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon;
• Disney CEO Bob Iger;
• Former General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt;
• Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein;
• Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan;
• Centrist think-tank Third Way;
• Former Goldman Sachs partner Leon Cooperman;
• Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus; and
• Billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller.

"As we fight for an agenda that guarantees basic human rights for all Americans, we will be opposed by the most powerful forces in America," Sanders wrote on his website. "I am proud to announce the modern-day oligarchs who oppose our movement. In the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 'They are unanimous in their hate for me–and I welcome their hatred.'"

"We will overcome their greed," said Sanders, "and create an economy and a government that works for all, not just the one percent.

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Off the Top of My Head

San Diego's Emergency Room Crisis

by John Lawrence, July 11, 2019

There were 42,268 mental health visits to San Diego County emergency room hospitals in 2028 up 60% from 2008. These visits in and of themselves caused further trauma to the mentally ill. First, as anyone knows who have visited an emergency room lately, you have to wait for hours - some times for days -  in the emergency room before you're given a hospital bed in a regular room. Sometimes patients have to wait for hours on a gurney just to get a bed in the emergency room. Such was the case when I hurt my back when my car was rear ended, and I was transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Lisa Halverstadt reported in Voice of San Diego in an article, "Mental Health Patients Are Pouring Into Local Emergency Rooms":

Three large local hospital systems reported to VOSD that their patients wait an average of about 20 hours to move onto more specialized inpatient beds while a separate hospital association analysis released last year suggested patients can often wait up to 36 hours for those beds.

Those waits and the frenzied environment of an ER only escalate patients’ suffering while taxing the emergency departments of hospitals dealing with an array of urgent care needs. Patients who spoke to VOSD described increased anxiety, agitation and depression as they laid in gurneys – some waiting as long as two days for an inpatient bed – and going for hours without water or food.

But this situation isn't unique to mental illness patients. People that go to emergency rooms with stroke symptoms, for example, often wait long hours to be admitted to a hospital bed without food or water. That's where a patient advocate comes in. When my late wife went to the emergency room several times with stroke symptoms, I always went with her. I was her "go to" person for everything she needed. If she was hungry or thirsty, I would track down a nurse to bring her food or water. Without me there she would never get an extra blanket if she was cold or anything else she needed. I would track down the nurse and demand it. You could buzz them on the intercom all you wanted, and they would never come. Such is the situation in hospitals. For people with mental illness, it is only more frustrating and agonizing.

Halverstadt continues:

Vincent Dimeo recalls feeling relieved as he left his friend Ann Ruhlman at Sharp Grossmont Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation in December 2017.

On their way to the hospital, Dimeo said his friend was behaving erratically and he twice had to slap her hand away she tried to scratch her right eye. Now she was safe and checked into the emergency room. Dimeo could head to work.

“They said she’d be in good hands,” Dimeo said.

About nine hours later, Ruhlman gouged out her right eye in Grossmont’s ER.

So Dimeo's mistake was not staying with her in the ER. Everyone going to the hospital in the ER or in a regular room needs someone with them, a loved one or friend, to be their advocate. Without them, you are at the mercy of the hospital staff who responds only when they please. With all due respect they are very busy, even overworked, in this glorious of all non-socialistic health care systems. My wife could wait for hours to have her bed changed since she couldn't control her bowel movements if I were not there demanding that a CNA come, clean her up and change the bed. It got to be a fight between me and the nurses.

Halverstadt continues:

Three large local hospital systems reported to VOSD that their patients wait an average of about 20 hours to move onto more specialized inpatient beds while a separate hospital association analysis released last year suggested patients can often wait up to 36 hours for those beds.

Those waits and the frenzied environment of an ER only escalate patients’ suffering while taxing the emergency departments of hospitals dealing with an array of urgent care needs. Patients who spoke to VOSD described increased anxiety, agitation and depression as they laid in gurneys – some waiting as long as two days for an inpatient bed – and going for hours without water or food.

Ruhlman’s case is especially tragic.

Hospital and legal records obtained by VOSD reveal ER staff declared Ruhlman a threat to herself after her arrival at Grossmont. After she checked in, hospital workers restrained her for about an hour after she dug her fingers into her eyes and tried to stand on the hospital gurney. ER workers ordered tests that showed Ruhlman, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and anxiety, had methamphetamine in her system. It was unclear whether doctors had initially decided Ruhlman needed an inpatient bed, an outcome that Ruhlman said followed other ER visits.
A few hours into her ER stay, medical workers saw Ruhlman scratching her right eye again shortly after she was released from restraints and ordered a CT scan. The scan and a separate exam documented swelling around the lower lid and an abrasion on the eye she later tore out.
Dimeo felt sick when he learned days later what had happened.

“I shouldn’t have left,” he said.

Of course he shouldn't have. Patients are left alone for hours in their ER beds. No food, no water. My wife was at the same hospital that Ruhlman was. They don't even have plans for food service in the ER. If you complain loudly enough, the nurse will sneak you a sandwich or something, but there is no provision to feed you there.

Halverstadt continues:

In a statement, Sharp Healthcare wrote that patient safety is a high priority and described Ruhlman’s case as “most unfortunate.”

“Sharp Grossmont Hospital provides high quality care and complies with all regulatory requirements specific to the use of physical and chemical restraints,” Sharp wrote in the statement. “Due to patient privacy concerns, we are unable to provide any specific details regarding care provided to patients, however it is the hospital’s policy to provide care to its patients based on clinical presentation. The acuity level of a patient determines the level of care and observation needed.”

Other patients and advocates who spoke to VOSD also described harrowing experiences in local ERs.

“I’ve had people go through the emergency room process and say, ‘I’m never doing that again. That was more traumatic than the thing that brought me to this point to begin with,’” said Michelle Routhieaux, who leads San Diego’s Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and has accompanied patients on dozens of ER trips over the last 15 years.

Medical experts, county health officials, patients, advocates and law enforcement leaders agree that ERs can further traumatize patients who are already suffering.

Yet ERs have long been the front line of a broken mental-health system with insufficient resources for both patients in crisis and those seeking to avoid one. And in more recent years, bolstered by an explosion in Medi-Cal enrollment tied to the Affordable Care Act, patients in crisis have rushed in.

Just remember this, folks. If a loved one has to go to the ER for mental health or any other reason, stay there with them as their advocate. Otherwise, the staff will let your loved one lay there without food or water for hours, and that goes for after you're admitted to a hospital bed as well. However, there you will get regular meals. You could still lie in your own filth for hours before a CNA comes to change you if you don't have an advocate by your side. That's just the way it is in this expensive, capitalist society where money talks and shit walks. But whatever you do, don't go socialist. Seriously, Bernie Sanders has a better idea: Medicare for All and take the profit motive out of medicine.

CBO Analysis Shows $15 Federal Minimum Wage Would Raise Pay for 27 Million Workers and Lift 1.3 Million Out of Poverty

Published on Tuesday, July 09, 2019

by Common Dreams

"It has been more than 10 years since congress raised the minimum wage—the longest stretch in history. This is a shameful benchmark. Congress should immediately pass the Raise the Wage Act."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

4 Comments

People demonstrate for a higher minimum wage on a National Day of Action in Miami, Florida. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A Congressional Budget Office analysis published Monday showed that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 would significantly increase pay for over 27 million workers and lift 1.3 million people—including hundreds of thousands of children—out of poverty.

The CBO also found that more than doubling the federal minimum wage would boost the income of families earning less than three times the poverty rate by nearly $22 billion.

"Every time a minimum wage increase has been proposed, the extreme right wing and their billionaire campaign contributors claim that jobs will be destroyed. They have been proven dead wrong. It is time to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

 

While corporate media headlines emphasized the CBO's estimate that a $15 minimum wage could wipe out over a million jobs, economists disputed this finding as overly pessimistic and noted that—even if such a gloomy prediction is accepted—the analysis showed the benefits of a $15 minimum would still far exceed the costs.

"CBO nevertheless substantially overstates the costs," said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). "CBO finds that the policy would lead to a decline in employment of 1.3 million—though in choosing the parameters that resulted in that conclusion it failed to appropriately weight the highest quality studies in the vast academic literature on this issue."

"As a result," Shierholz added, "policymakers must be skeptical of their assessment of the employment impact, given that other careful reviews of the minimum wage literature have shown that the average study finds small-to-no employment effects of minimum wage increases."

As Common Dreams reported last week, a far-reaching study by economists at the University of California, Berkeley found that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024 would result in "substantial declines in household and child poverty" without any negative impact on employment or hours worked, even in low-wage states.

"It has been more than 10 years since Congress raised the minimum wage—the longest stretch in history," Shierholz said. "This is a shameful benchmark, reducing the living standards of working families in this country and exacerbating poverty and inequality. Congress should immediately pass the Raise the Wage Act and give this country's lowest wage workers a raise."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and the lead sponsor of the Raise the Wage Act in the Senate, echoed Shierholz in a tweet late Monday.

"Every time a minimum wage increase has been proposed, the extreme right-wing and their billionaire campaign contributors claim that jobs will be destroyed," Sanders wrote. "They have been proven dead wrong. It is time to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour."

Every time a minimum wage increase has been proposed, the extreme right wing and their billionaire campaign contributors claim that jobs will be destroyed.

They have been proven dead wrong. It is time to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. https://t.co/4d2WSrdX8u

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 9, 2019

The CBO analysis comes as House Democrats are expected to vote on the Raise the Wage Act as early as this month. If passed, the legislation would phase in a $15 federal minimum wage by 2024 and index it to inflation thereafter.

Though the Raise the Wage Act has over 200 Democratic sponsors in the House and is backed by nearly 75 percent of Democratic voters, so-called moderates have attempted to derail the bill by pushing for a "regional wage" adjusted to local living costs, arguing that a $15 minimum would lead to job losses in low-wage states.

New York Magazine's Eric Levitz argued Monday that the CBO analysis leaves congressional Democrats with no good reason to stop short of a $15 federal minimum wage.

"Given the scale of CBO's projected benefits, and the uncertainty of its findings on a wage hike's potential drawbacks," Levitz wrote, "[House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi's caucus has no substantive excuse for failing to pass the Raise the Wage Act. And given the state of polling on the $15 minimum wage, Democrats don't have any political excuse, either."

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AOC, Bernie Sanders to Introduce Resolution Calling 'Existential Threat' of the Climate Crisis an 'Emergency'

Published on

Monday, July 08, 2019

by

Common Dreams

"We are facing a climate emergency that requires a massive and immediate federal mobilization."

by 

Eoin Higgins, staff writer

 21 Comments

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to the media after the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami. (Photo: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

A cohort of progressive Democrats plan to introduce a resolution declaring a climate emergency Tuesday in Congress, a move that could open the door to decisive action on the crisis.

The Guardian's Emily Holden reported Monday afternoon that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) are expected to introduce a resolution calling for naming the climate crisis an "emergency" on Tuesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, also plans to introduce the resolution in the upper chamber, according to the reporting.

In comment to The Guardian, Blumenauer's office said that the congressman "decided to draft the resolution after Donald Trump declared an emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico so he could pursue building a wall between the two countries."

In her reporting, Holden urged caution.

"Even if the resolution passed and was signed by the president, it would not force any action on climate change," wrote Holden. "But advocates say similar efforts in Canada and the United Kingdom have served as a leverage point, highlighting the hypocrisy between the government position that the situation is an emergency and individual decisions that would exacerbate the problem."

A spokesperson for Sanders said the senator was moving forward on the resolution because President Donald Trump's policies are making things worse. 

"On the existential threat of climate change, Trump insists on calling it a hoax," said the spokesperson. "Senator Sanders is proud to partner with his House colleagues to challenge this absurdity and have Congress declare what we all know: we are facing a climate emergency that requires a massive and immediate federal mobilization."

The news came just before Trump delivered a climate address dismissed by the Environmental Working Group as an "utter fantasy."

On Twitter, Sanders leveled criticisms on the president donning the mantle of a climate advocate. 

"We don't have time for more lies," said Sanders. "We must address the climate crisis now."

News of the upcoming resolution was welcomed by progressive organizations. 

"The climate crisis is a true emergency, and it must be dealt with as such," the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee tweeted, thanking the lawmakers for their action. 

The Democratic Socialists of America said on Twitter that Sanders understands "this isn't just climate change, it's a climate emergency."

"The solution is to reorganize our economy so it works for both people and the planet, not the profit of fossil fuel companies," the group added.

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'No, No I Do Not': Kamala Harris Clarifies She Does Not Support Abolishing Private Insurance

Published on Friday, June 28, 2019

by  Common Dreams

"I am a proponent of Medicare for All. Private insurance will exist for supplemental coverage," the California senator said

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

11 Comments

Former Vice President Joe Biden looks on as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) raise their hands during the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

For the second time in a period of five months, Sen. Kamala Harris was forced to clarify Friday morning that she does not support eliminating private health insurance just hours after making it seem to many that she did.

"No, no I do not," Harris said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" when asked if she supports abolishing private insurance. "I am a proponent of Medicare for All. Private insurance will exist for supplemental coverage."

Harris's remarks came after she raised her hand in response to an "awkwardly phrased" question from NBC's Lester Holt during Thursday night's Democratic presidential debate.

"Many people watching at home have health insurance through their employer," Holt said. "Who here would abolish their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan?"

Tonight's candidates who raised their hands to abolish private insurance: Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/MG58k71hUV

— Axios (@axios) June 28, 2019

Harris said she interpreted the question as asking whether she would be willing to give up her own private insurance plan in favor of a government-run program like Medicare for All.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the lead Senate sponsor of the Medicare for All Act of 2019, was the only other candidate on the stage who raised his hand in response to Holt's question.

According to The Hill, "Sanders's plan would cover every medically necessary service, including dental, vision, and long-term care for people with disabilities. That would leave little room for private insurers to cover anything except cosmetic surgery."

"Harris has seized on this technicality in the past," The Hill reported, "to argue that Medicare for All wouldn't eliminate private insurance and that 'supplemental coverage' would still exist."

Larry Levitt, senior vice president for health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told the Washington Post in May that, "As a technical matter, the Medicare for All bill would allow private insurers to sell supplemental policies for benefits not covered by the government plan."

"As a practical matter," Levitt said, "the government plan covers such a comprehensive set of benefits that there would be virtually no role for private insurance."

Harris's comments Friday mark the second time this year she has clarified her position on private health insurance following a television appearance.

During a CNN town hall in January, Harris suggested she would support eliminating private insurance. Just hours later, a Harris campaign aide put out a statement saying the senator is open to multiple incremental healthcare plans that would keep private insurance intact.

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Financed by Tax on Wall Street Speculators, Sanders Plan Would Wipe Out All $1.6 Trillion in US Student Loan Debt

Published on Monday, June 24, 2019

by Common Dreams

"We bailed out Wall Street in 2008. It's time to tax Wall Street's greed to help the American people."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

16 Comments

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks to the crowd during the 2019 South Carolina Democratic Party State Convention on June 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo: Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

As part of a bold legislative package that would make public colleges and universities tuition-free, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday will unveil a plan to wipe out the $1.6 trillion in student loan debt that is saddling an estimated 45 million Americans.

"In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the 'crime' of getting a college education."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

 

"This is truly a revolutionary proposal," Sanders told the Washington Post, which reported the details of the Vermont senator's bill late Sunday. "In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the 'crime' of getting a college education."

Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, will introduce his proposal alongside Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who plan to unveil the Student Debt Cancellation Act and the College for All Act in the House.

"I am one of the 45 million people with student debt—45 million people who are held back from pursuing their dreams because of the student debt crisis," Omar tweeted Sunday. "It's why I'm proud to stand with Sen. Sanders and Rep. Jayapal to pass college for all and cancel student debt."

The three lawmakers introduced their proposals in a press conference Monday morning outside the U.S. Capitol building. Watch:

Vox's Tara Golshan called Sanders's legislative package the "most ambitious higher education plan in the Democratic 2020 presidential primary so far."

Unlike means-tested plans introduced by other 2020 contenders, Golshan observed, Sanders's legislation would cancel student debt for everyone "regardless of their income or assets."

"While this is a universal program—students from any financial background would benefit from the elimination of tuition—the proposal specifically targets lower-income students by increasing the federal Pell Grant program, tripling funding for the work-study program, and creating a dollar-for-dollar federal match to states to eliminate additional costs related to going to college," Golshan wrote.

According to the Post, Sanders would pay for his plan with "a tax on Wall Street his campaign says will raise more than $2 trillion over 10 years."

"Sanders is proposing to pay for the legislation with a new tax on financial transactions, including a 0.5 percent tax on stock transactions and a 0.1 percent tax on bonds," the Post reported. "Such a levy would curb Wall Street speculation while reducing income inequality, according to a report by the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank."

Warren Gunnels, Sanders's staff director, tweeted, "If we could give a multi-trillion bailout to Wall Street, yes we can make college for all a reality."

We'll pay for #CollegeforAll & our #CancelStudentDebt plan through a tax on Wall Street speculators that's estimated to raise $2.4 trillion over 10-years. The middle class bailed out Wall Street in 2008. Now, it's Wall Street's turn to return the favor. https://t.co/58YPvXQ9JK

— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) June 24, 2019

Sanders echoed Gunnels in a tweet Sunday night, writing, "We bailed out Wall Street in 2008. It's time to tax Wall Street's greed to help the American people."

According to the Post, the Vermont senator's new plan will go beyond the tuition-free public college proposal that was a key plank of his 2016 presidential campaign platform.

"Sanders's bill includes $1.3 billion a year for low-income students at historically black colleges and universities," the Post reported, "and $48 billion per year for eliminating tuition and fees at public schools and universities."

The Vermont senator's debt cancellation proposal comes just weeks after he unveiled a sweeping K-12 education platform that includes a national ban on for-profit charter schools, free universal school meals, and a significant raise for teachers.

"More than one million people default on their student loans each year," Sanders tweeted Sunday. "We have got to make public colleges and universities tuition-free."

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Off the Top of My Head

Repubs Would Crucify Bernie on the Cross of Socialism, But Elizabeth Warren Will Genuflect at the Altar of Capitalism

by John Lawrence, June 21, 2019

I used to want Bernie for the Demo nominee, but I've changed my mind after realizing that Elizabeth is proclaiming herself as a diehard capitalist. It's just labels, folks. They're meaningless except for the fact that Elizabeth has taken away the Repubs one track attack against the Demo nominee, whoever it is. Elizabeth's policies are just as radical as Bernie's except she doesn't call them socialist. They both want more or less the same things: 1)Tax the rich; 2) Eliminate student loan debt; 3) Free public college education; 4) Medicare for All Sorta; 5) $15 per hour minimum age; 6) Green New Deal Sorta. Warren's plans are both more realistic and less dogmatic than Bernie's. I like Bernie Sanders very much. I just think the Repubs will slaughter him over his self selected label: democratic socialist. Elizabeth will neutralize the Repub strategy on this while retaining most of Bernie's agenda.

What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. Thank you, William Shakespeare for providing the perfect metaphor for the socialist vs capitalist brou ha ha. It's the policies that Bernie or Warren would enact not what they call themselves that is of utmost importance. In that regard they are both more or less the same. Grist reported:

In February, Warren co-sponsored the Green New Deal resolution that Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York introduced. In April, Warren released a public lands plan, promising to sign executive orders to ban new fossil fuel leases on federal acres and demarcate more areas for renewable energy. In May, she outlined a plan to dramatically slash emissions generated by the U.S. military, one of the world’s biggest polluters.

On Tuesday, the Warren campaign released its most comprehensive climate plan yet, a $2 trillion package that commits the federal government to spend $150 billion a year over the next decade on low-carbon technology, increases energy research funding tenfold, and funds a $100 billion Green Marshall Plan to aid the poorer countries projected to suffer the worst as global temperatures rise.

In modeling her proposals on the post-World War II Marshall Plan aid package that helped rebuild Western Europe, Warren takes stock of the global nature of the crisis.

So call it a Green New Deal or call it something else. Jobs, Climate Change, Infrastructure - all these things are really important to deal with under whatever umbrella you like. Elizabeth's proposal also covers other countries so it would become a part of her foreign policy instead of the Trump foreign policy of slapping sanctions and tariffs on every country that doesn't agree with him and a lot that do. This would counter or complement in a positive way the Chinese Belt and Road initiative which is building infrastructure and gaining friends all over the world. Let's have a competition based on peace initiatives instead of war for once. Then maybe the planet, which may become uninhabitable otherwise, would be worth saving from global warming.

Elizabeth's concentration on free college and forgiveness of student loan debt up to $50,000. will get the attention of a lot of millenials. They then will be able to get on with their lives and afford to buy houses instead of spending all their income just paying off student loan debt.

The next question is who would be a good running mate should Elizabeth get the nomination. My vote is for Cory Booker. The VP would have to be a man and preferably a man of color. Cory fits that description and he is running pretty high in the polls. I think he is a fighter as well, and wouldn't allow Trump to intimidate Elizabeth the way he intimidated Hillory. He would call Trump out for what he is - a blowhard, a phony, a liar and an ignoramus. Elizabeth is a fighter as well. Neither of them would allow Trump to get away with the stuff he got away with in 2016.

Bernie Sanders' Radical New Proposal Could Transform America

Michael Nigro / Truthdig

by Marjorie Cohn, truthdig, June 16, 2019

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders delivered a full-throated defense of democratic socialism in his June 12 speech at George Washington University. Sanders quoted FDR’s 1944 State of the Union address: “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”

Sanders, like FDR, proposed an Economic Bill of Rights, including the rights to health care, affordable housing, education, a living wage and retirement.

“Economic rights are human rights,” Sanders declared. “That is what I mean by democratic socialism.”

Sanders cited figures of vast wealth disparity in the United States, where “the top 1 percent of people own more wealth than the bottom 92 percent.” He said there is higher income and wealth inequality today than at any time since the 1920s. And, Sanders stated, “despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, the average wage of the American worker in real dollars is no higher than it was 46 years ago and millions of people are forced to work two or three jobs just to survive.”

He also noted, “in America today, the very rich live on average 15 years longer than the poorest Americans.”

Economic Rights Are Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets forth two different categories of human rights: (1) civil and political rights, and (2) economic, social and cultural rights.

Civil and political rights comprise the rights to life, a fair trial and self-determination; freedom of speech, expression, assembly and religion; and freedom from torture, cruel treatment and arbitrary detention. Economic, social and cultural rights include the rights to health care, education and social security; the right to form and join unions and to strike; and the right to equal pay for equal work, unemployment insurance, paid maternity leave, and the prevention, treatment and control of diseases.

These two types of human rights are enshrined in two international treaties — the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The United States has ratified the ICCPR, but not the ICESCR. U.S. policy since the Reagan administration has been to define human rights only as civil and political rights, excluding economic, social and cultural rights from the realm of human rights.

The ICESCR, which has been ratified by 169 countries, guarantees the rights to work with favorable conditions, to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, to education, to housing, to an adequate standard of living, and to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and cultural freedom. It protects the rights to form and join trade unions, social security and social insurance, equal rights for men and women, and protection and assistance to the family.

Cuba, whose human rights record is frequently criticized by the U.S. government, puts the United States to shame with its recognition of economic rights. Cubans enjoy universal health care, universal free education including higher education, the right to form and join unions, and government-subsidized abortion and family planning. Cuba has a higher life expectancy than the U.S., as well as a relatively small ecological footprint due to low energy consumption.

Democratic Socialism vs. Corporate Socialism

Trump and his fellow oligarchs oppose democratic socialism, Sanders said, but “they don’t really oppose all forms of socialism.” Indeed, “they absolutely love corporate socialism that enriches Trump and other billionaires.”

Sanders cited the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in 2008 by the Treasury Department “after their greed, recklessness and illegal behavior created the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression — with millions of Americans losing their jobs, their homes and their life savings — Wall Street’s religious adherence to unfettered capitalism suddenly came to an end.”

He also mentioned tax breaks and loopholes for fossil fuel companies, pharmaceutical companies, Amazon, and the Trump family who “got $885 million worth of tax breaks and subsidies for your family’s housing empire that is built on racial discrimination.”

As Dr. King observed, the United States “has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”

Embracing Socialism Is a Winning Strategy

Sanders noted that FDR and his progressive coalition were successful, and their legacies continue to flourish in programs and protections like Social Security, regulation of Wall Street and unemployment compensation. He pointed out that Roosevelt aimed to go further.

“In 1944, FDR proposed an economic bill of rights but died a year later and was never able to fulfill that vision. Our job, 75 years later,” Sanders said, “is to complete what Roosevelt started.”

He then set forth his vision of a 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights, which would recognize that all Americans should have:

• The right to a decent job that pays a living wage
• The right to quality health care
• The right to a complete education
• The right to affordable housing
• The right to a clean environment
• The right to a secure retirement

Sanders listed Democratic presidents vilified by the oligarchs of their time for their programs of alleged “socialism.” Lyndon Johnson was attacked for Medicare, Harry Truman’s proposed national health care program was dubbed “socialized medicine,” and Newt Gingrich called Bill Clinton’s health care plan “centralized bureaucratic socialism.”

Although none of the other leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates has embraced socialism, the party’s base has. Candidate John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado, was roundly booed at the California Democratic convention earlier this month when he said, “If we want to beat Donald Trump and achieve big progressive goals, socialism is not the answer.”

Indeed, Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, argues, “Without a strong egalitarian-internationalist platform, it is difficult to unite low-education, low-income voters from all origins within the same coalition and to deliver a reduction in inequality.”

Keith A. Spencer, writing at Salon, cites Piketty for the proposition that “nominating centrist Democrats who don’t speak to class issues will result in a great swathe of voters simply not voting.”

Moreover, a 2018 Gallup poll determined that a majority of young Americans have a positive opinion of socialism. According to a recent Axios poll, 55 percent of women ages of 18 to 54 would prefer to live in a socialist country.

Sanders said the U.S. and the rest of the world face two different political paths. “On one hand,” he noted, “there is a growing movement towards oligarchy and authoritarianism in which a small number of incredibly wealthy and powerful billionaires own and control a significant part of the economy and exert enormous influence over the political life of our country. On the other hand, in opposition to oligarchy, there is a movement of working people and young people who, in ever increasing numbers, are fighting for justice.”

After his speech, Sanders told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, that real change is generated by mass movements. He cited the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the gay movement and the labor movement.

“It is time for the American people to stand up and fight for their right to freedom, human dignity and security,” Sanders affirmed. “This is the core of what my politics is all about.” He clarified, “the only way we achieve these goals is through a political revolution.”

Off the Top of My Head

What the Hell Does Socialism Have to Do With It at This Point?

by John Lawrence, June 5, 2019

The Repubs are determined to castigate socialism as their strategy to defeat the next Democratic Presidential hopeful. Socialism is totally irrelevant both as a party and as a philosophy at this point. What is important is Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. In the American political system third parties only damage the party they are ideologically closes to. That's just the way the American system is set up by the Constitution. So membership in a socialist party is a waste of time. In Europe where they have a parliamentary system, multiple parties have some meaning because they can gain representation in Parliament proportional to their numbers. So trying to tag a Green New Deal as socialist has little meaning. Americans by and large vote their self-interest whatever that may be regardless of political affiliation. However, even the Democrats and Republicans are irrelevant to the extent that there are now two tribes in America rather than two parties - the Southern White Tribe and the Left and Right Coast Tribe. Some people will vote with their tribe even when it's not in their self-interest. The Southern White Tribe, for example, has been largely co-opted by rich Republican interests.

Regardless of tribes or parties, there is not much time left to do something about climate change. We have maybe a decade to turn it around so that the planet earth isn't visited with the most devastating effects thereof. If joining practically every other nation on earth (except Zimbabwe) with a rational, effective national health care system which Medicare for All represents is socialist, well I guess pretty much all nations of earth have decided to be socialist. The US and in particular Trump's America has totally abandoned any pretext as far as any concern for the American people is concerned in terms of the environment, protection from predatory lenders, safety of consumer products etc. Their theme song is "Buyer Beware", Caveat Emptor! Trump promised to put America First, but he's just putting America behind the eight ball and doing a pretty good job of fucking up the whole world.

Here are the relevant issues which Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and other mainly progressive Democrats are talking about which will not be discussed much in the mainstream American media: universal health care, a World War II type effort to forestall climate change and  convert to renewable energy, rebuilding and improving American infrastructure, diminishing the economic divide between the ultra rich and the rest of us, diminishing the ridiculously high military budget, reining in the national debt which will soon cost the American people $1 trillion per year just in interest alone, providing housing for the homeless. There's a lot more, but these issues will do for now. Republicans are not interested in doing anything about these issues. They love the status quo because it's making them rich. Any Republican elected to Congress can easily become a millionaire. It's a no brainer.

Joe Biden is an amiable guy, and probably the one who can get down and dirty in the mud with Trump and take him out the best, but there are more important issues on the table, namely the ones mentioned above. It's not just a question of taking down Trump. It's a question of solving major problems that Trump and other Republicans, mainly, have created. Dems need to go for broke on this one. Middle of the Road Joe is just not the man or woman for the job. Major changes have to occur and Dems cannot afford to have some middeof the road, go slow, restore the status quo ante type of guy as their Presidential candidate. Bernie and either Kamala or Elizabeth Warren should be the ticket. I prefer Kamala over Elizabeth only because we only need one, not two, policy wonks on the ballot. Kamala adds more in terms of beauty and ethnicity to balance Bernie's wonkiness.

A Message From Bernie

One of the great crises facing the global community today is that democracy, the right of ordinary people to control their own lives, is on the defensive while authoritarianism is growing stronger.

And at its root is the fact that a handful of incredibly wealthy people are exerting enormous economic and political power over the planet. Unbelievably, in the global economy today, the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 99 percent, and a handful of billionaires own more than the bottom half of people around the world — that’s 3.7 billion people.

That is the reality.

People in our own country, and around the world, are angry and betrayed, and they feel that nobody is listening to their pain.

And one of the results of that reality is that in Europe, in Russia, in the Middle East, in Asia and elsewhere we are seeing movements led by demagogues who exploit people’s fears, prejudices and grievances to achieve and hold on to power.

Next week, Donald Trump is set to welcome one of those leaders into the White House: Hungary’s far-right authoritarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

Now, I have always found it very strange that Trump has such a hard time getting along with leaders of the world’s major democracies but feels very comfortable with authoritarians like Orbán, Putin, Xi Jinping, Bolsonaro and Mohammad bin Salman.

But the truth is, while they all differ in some respects, they share a number of key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests.

This trend certainly did not begin with Trump, but there’s no question that authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the leader of the world’s oldest and most powerful democracy seems to delight in shattering democratic norms.

Other authoritarian states are much farther along this kleptocratic process. In Russia, it is impossible to tell where the decisions of government end and the interests of Vladimir Putin and his circle of oligarchs begin. They operate as one unit. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, there is no debate about separation because the natural resources of the state, valued at trillions of dollars, belong to the Saudi royal family. In Hungary, far-right authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán is openly allied with Putin in Russia. In China, an inner circle led by Xi Jinping has steadily consolidated power, clamping down on domestic political freedom while it aggressively promotes a version of authoritarian capitalism abroad.

So the question is: Where do we go from here?

To effectively oppose right-wing authoritarianism, we cannot simply go back to the failed status quo of the last several decades. In order to fight this trend, we need to strengthen the global coalition of progressive democrats.

While authoritarians promote division and hatred, we promote unity, inclusion, and an agenda based on economic, social, racial, and environmental justice.

The people of the world must come together to end the absurdity of rich and multinational corporations stashing over $21 trillion in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying their fair share of taxes and then demanding that their respective governments impose an austerity agenda on their working families.

It is not acceptable that the fossil fuel industry continues to make huge profits while their carbon emissions destroy the planet for our children and grandchildren.

It is not acceptable that a handful of multinational media giants, owned by a small number of billionaires, largely control the flow of information on the planet.

It is not acceptable that trade policies that benefit large multinational corporations and encourage a race to the bottom hurt working people throughout the world as they are written out of public view.

It is not acceptable that, with the Cold War long behind us, countries around the world spend over $1 trillion a year on weapons of destruction, while millions of children die of easily treatable diseases.

In order to effectively combat the rise of the international authoritarian axis, we need a global progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people and that addresses the massive inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power as well.

Such a movement must be willing to think creatively and boldly about the world that we would like to see.

We must take the opportunity to reconceptualize a genuinely progressive global community based on human solidarity, that recognizes that every person on this planet shares a common humanity, that we all want our children to grow up healthy, to have a good education, have decent jobs, drink clean water, breathe clean air, and live in peace.

Our job is to reach out to those in every corner of the world who share these values and who are fighting for a better world.

In a time of exploding wealth and technology, we have the potential to create a decent life for all people. Our job is to build on our common humanity and do everything that we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other.

We know that those forces work together across borders. We must do the same.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Sanders Says Biden's "Middle Ground" Approach to Climate Crisis Would "Doom Future Generations"

Published on Friday, May 10, 2019

by Common Dreams

The Vermont senator and 2020 presidential candidate said the U.S. must commit to "fully transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels"

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

26 Comments

"There is no 'middle ground' when it comes to climate policy," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 2020 presidential candidate. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Without mentioning Joe Biden by name, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday slammed the centrist climate policy reportedly being crafted by the former vice president's 2020 campaign as a dangerously inadequate approach that would "doom future generations."

"There is no 'middle ground' when it comes to climate policy," the Vermont senator tweeted, quoting from a Reuters report on Biden's efforts to develop a climate plan that would leave the door open to so-called "fossil fuel options."

"If we don't commit to fully transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels, we will doom future generations," wrote Sanders, who is also a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. "Fighting climate change must be our priority, whether fossil fuel billionaires like it or not."

There is no “middle ground” when it comes to climate policy. If we don't commit to fully transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels, we will doom future generations. Fighting climate change must be our priority, whether fossil fuel billionaires like it or not.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 10, 2019

As Common Dreams reported in April, Sanders won praise from environmental groups after he unveiled a sweeping climate agenda calling for a Green New Deal, an end to oil exports, a complete ban on fracking, and a moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure projects.

Environmentalists were not pleased with reports of Biden's middle-of-the-road approach to confronting the climate crisis, which has pushed a million species to the brink of extinction and threatens the future of human civilization.

Echoing Sanders and the chorus of green groups voicing their concerns, Greenpeace USA climate campaigner Charlie Jiang said in a statement, "There is no such thing as a middle ground on climate change."

"We either doom millions of people to climate catastrophe or we don't," said Jiang.

Author and climate activist Naomi Klein also weighed in, tweeting, "there is bold, transformative action or there is sinking ground, burning ground, and churning ground."

No Joe, there is no "middle ground" on climate breakdown - there is bold, transformative action or there is sinking ground, burning ground and churning ground. "Presidential hopeful Biden looking for ‘middle ground’ climate policy" https://t.co/8q2WPzU7w0

— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) May 10, 2019

Climate scientists joined environmentalists in criticizing what is known of Biden's draft plan—which will reportedly center around re-joining the Paris Climate Agreement—as insufficient to the task of dramatically curbing carbon emissions, as the scientific evidence says is necessary to avert planetary disaster.

"The greatest fault in his proposal is the suggestion that natural gas can be part of the solution," Michael Mann, head of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told HuffPost. "The solution to a problem created by burning fossil fuels cannot be the burning of fossil fuels."

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New CBO Report on Medicare for All Is a Serious and Positive Contribution

Published on Saturday, May 04, 2019

by Common Dreams

Contrary to some press reports, the CBO study should be seen as useful and encouraging to advocates of Medicare for All

by Robert Pollin

 

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks while introducing healthcare legislation titled the "Medicare for All Act of 2019" with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) during a news conference on Capitol Hill, on April 9, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The Congressional Budget Office issued a report on May 1, 2019 titled "Key Design Components and Considerations for Establishing a Single-Payer Health Care System." This report reviews a range of considerations as regards the design and implementation of a single- payer system as applied to the United States. The Medicare for All bills currently before both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, as introduced by Representative Pramila Jayapal and Senator Bernie Sanders respectively, both advocate the adoption of a single-payer system for the U.S.

The CBO report (pdf) properly examines both the positive potential as well as matters of concern in establishing a single-payer system in the U.S. As the report states, "A single-payer system would present both opportunities and risks for the health care system."

Overall, the CBO report, as with all such analyses, needs to address two fundamental issues with respect to the establishment of a single-payer system for the U.S. These are: 1) Is a single-payer system capable of providing good-quality care to all U.S. residents; and 2) Is a single-payer system capable of significantly reducing overall U.S. health care costs while still delivering universal good-quality care? The report does not provide explicit answers, yes or no, to these questions. But it does present a framework for understanding how the U.S. could, in fact, establish a successful single-payer system.

"A single-payer system would provide coverage for the 114 million U.S. residents who are presently either uninsured or underinsured. Healthcare outcomes for these 114 million people—35 percent of the U.S. population—will therefore almost certainly improve under a single-payer system."

 

It is crucial to provide some context for recognizing the potential of a U.S. single- payer system as presented within the CBO report. It is especially illuminating to consider some basic indicators on the operations of the current U.S. health care system in comparison with those of other high-income economies. Thus, as of 2017, the U.S. spent $3.3 trillion on health care. This equaled 17 percent of US GDP, with average spending at about $10,000 per person. By contrast, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, the UK, Australia, Spain and Italy spent between 9 – 11 percent of GDP on health care, averaging between $3,400 - $5,700 per person. Yet, by most measures—including those based on the “amenable mortality rate,” which tracks medically preventable deaths—average health outcomes in all of these countries are superior to those in the UnitedStates.

The most basic cause of this poor U.S. performance is inadequate access to good- quality care. Roughly 9 percent of the U.S. population, 28 million people, are uninsured. Another 26 percent, 86 million people, are underinsured—i.e. they have insurance but are unable to access medical care because their deductibles or co-pays are prohibitively high. A large share of the remaining 65 percent of the population who are adequately insured still face high costs as well as anxiety over whether they could manage financially when they face any serious health issue.

Within this context, how, then, does the CBO assess the prospects for a U.S. single-payer system delivering good-quality universal coverage as well as significantly reduced overall health-care spending? We can summarize their perspectives briefly.

Good-quality universal coverage

The CBO is clear, first of all, that a single-payer system would achieve universal coverage, in dramatic contrast with our present system. The report states, "People who are currently uninsured would receive coverage and some people who are currently insured could receive additional benefits under the single-payer system, depending on its design." In other words, a single-payer system would provide coverage for the 114 million U.S. residents who are presently either uninsured or underinsured. Healthcare outcomes for these 114 million people—35 percent of the U.S. population—will therefore almost certainly improve under a single-payer system.

The CBO does not take an explicit position as to whether a single-payer system will also deliver benefits for the 65 percent of the population which presently has full health-insurance coverage. On the one hand, the report does note both the prospects for both improved outcomes as well as reduced costs as regards this population cohort, observing that:

Unlike private insurers, which can experience substantial enrollee turnover over time, a single-payer system without that turnover would have a greater incentive to invest in measures to improve people’s health and in preventive measures that have been shown to reduce costs.

It is also the case that both the Jayapal and Sanders bills offer more extensive coverage than is currently provided under a typical employer-sponsored policy, including significant support for long-term care. Expanding coverage in such ways should further improve overall health outcomes for those already insured. But the CBO also recognizes that the expansion of coverage to the uninsured and underinsured will entail increased overall demands on the country’s supply of health care resources. It is therefore possible, as the report notes, that this could produce shortages in terms of availability of providers, which, in turn, could mean reductions in quality of care. This is a legitimate issue which the CBO has properly highlighted.

More specifically, the single-payer system will need to be capable of establishing measures through which the provision of provider services can increase to match the increased demand resulting from universal coverage. I examined this question in depth in a 200-page peer-reviewed study with co-authors released last November, "Economic Analysis of Medicare for All." In our study, we conclude that a single-payer system will produce major reductions in the administrative burdens throughout the whole health-care system. The CBO report also recognizes this prospect for major reductions in administrative burdens under single-payer. These dramatic cuts in administration will then mean significantly less paperwork for doctors and nurses, freeing them to spend more time treating patients. On balance, our study concluded that this effective increase in the providers’ available time to treat patients should roughly match the increased demand for their services resulting from universal coverage.

Reducing Health-Care Costs

Much of the CBO report is focused around specific issues in designing the payment system. These include: provider payment methods; global budgets; capitated payments; payment rates for providers; and the setting of prescription drug prices. These are all critical concerns, and the CBO report is now a valuable resource in summarizing them. But the report does not take a position as to whether a U.S. single-payer system will be able to successfully control costs. Rather, the study concludes that:

The cost of a single-payer system would depend on various design choices such as the services covered, cost-sharing requirements, and provider payment rates.

In addition to those design choices, policymakers could consider using two other techniques to contain the growth of government spending on the single-payer plan and total health care spending: global budgets and utilization management. (p.26)

The CBO assessment here is indisputable. It is therefore incumbent on the designers of a single-payer system to consider the range of design choices with great care, to achieve the potential cost savings that are available through a well-designed system. It is evident from comparing the U.S. health care system with those of other high-income economies that there is massive potential for cost savings in the U.S. system, with, as noted above, the comparison countries spending between 9 – 11 percent of GDP on health care while the U.S. spends 17 percent. Within the present U.S. economy, every percentage point of GDP amounts to roughly $200 billion. Thus, even reducing our current health care spending by 2 percentage points relative to GDP would yield an astronomical $400 billion in savings, even while our healthcare system budget, as a share of GDP, would remain far above those of other advanced economics.

The CBO study is therefore to be commended for describing a range of measures through which a U.S. single-payer system can successfully implement significant cost savings while still delivering good-quality care for all residents. As such, the CBO study makes a positive contribution toward understanding the possibilities for creating a fair and workable health care system in the United States.

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Off the Top of My Head

Medicare For All (Who Want It)

by John Lawrence, April 29, 2017

Bernie Sanders and other progressives want to change the health care system to a single payer system - Medicare For All. The main blowback by the health insurance and pharmaceutical corporations who like things just the way they are is that half of all Americans have employer provided health care and they like it just like that. So to finesse the whole issue I'm suggesting that what Bernie and other progressives should be talking about is Medicare for All Who Want It. In other words if someone like the health care they currently have, let them keep it. The Medicare system is already set up. It would be so easy to just accept more people under that umbrella with minimal disruption.

What could be simpler? You let the current system exist, but you open up the possibility that anyone can opt in to the Medicare system if they should so desire. You are not creating a new health care system from scratch. You are not imposing it on anyone. Obama said, if we were creating a health care system from scratch, he would be in favor of single payer. But since we were not, he and other Democrats came up with the fatally flawed system of Obamacare whose main strong point was that no one could be refused health care because of preexisting conditions. All well and good, but Obamacare had no cost containment features. I wouldn't be surprised if a Medicare for All Who Want It system were set up - and it could be implemented by  simply changing of the law in Congress - that a lot of people would abandon their employer based health care system and join it.

Sanders proposed plan is almost too generous which is out of line with other countries that have universal health care. Vox reported:

The biggest difference between this plan and the version Sanders introduced in 2017 is the addition of a long-term care benefit that would cover care for Americans with disability at home or in community settings. This benefit was also added into the House version of the Medicare-for-all bill earlier this year.

The plan is significantly more generous than the single-payer plans run by America’s peer countries. The Canadian health care system, for example, does not cover vision or dental care, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services, or home health services. Instead, two-thirds of Canadians take out private insurance policies to cover these benefits. The Netherlands has a similar set of benefits (it also excludes dental and vision care), as does Australia.

What’s more, the Sanders plan does not subject consumers to any out-of-pocket spending on health aside from prescriptions drugs. This means there would be no charge when you go to the doctor, no co-payments when you visit the emergency room. All those services would be covered fully by the universal Medicare plan.

Bernie's plan is not the last word. Most other universal health care systems have co-pays. There's no reason why a Medicare for All system shouldn't have them too. I and Frank Thomas have written extensively about the health care system in the Netherlands which is a universal system, but is not government provided health care. You can read about it here. I am not that concerned about paying for a Medicare for All system. We have no problem paying for a trillion dollar defense budget which is not even capable of defending our borders. Of course, the wealthy should be taxed more, but the point is that there are myriad ways of paying for it especially if it is adopted incrementally which a Medicare For All Who Want It system would be. It could be set up in such a way that only so many would be let in every year so as not to overwhelm the system. Maybe we should start with 55 to 65 year olds first.

'That Backfired': Watch Bernie Sanders Counter Right-Wing Talking Point, Make Case for Medicare for All on Fox News

Published on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 by Common Dreams

The Fox town hall audience cheered when moderator Bret Baier polled support for transitioning to a single-payer system

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

22 Comments

 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) participates in a Fox News town hall on April 15, 2019, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images)

During a town hall hosted by Fox News Monday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders countered one of the most common right-wing talking points against Medicare for All and made the case for transitioning to a single-payer system—sparking applause from the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania audience.

"Democratic socialism, to me, is creating a government and an economy and a society which works for all, rather than just the top one percent."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

 

"Millions of people, every single year, lose their health insurance. You know why? They get fired. Or They quit. And they go to another employer," said the Vermont senator and 2020 presidential contender after Fox moderator Bret Baier suggested 180 million Americans with employer-provided insurance would lose coverage under Medicare for All.

"Every year, millions of workers wake up in the morning and their employer has changed the insurance that they have," Sanders added. "So this is not new... Now what we're talking about actually is stability. That when you have a Medicare for All [program] it is there now and it will be there in the future."

Bernie counters talk-point about losing employer-based insurance. Points out that Medicare For All would provide everyone with long-term health care stability. #Bernie #BernieFoxTownHall #berniesanderstownhall pic.twitter.com/rdzZ7oB7Hh

— Digital Left (@DigitalLeft) April 16, 2019

When Baier polled the town hall audience to gauge support for switching to a Medicare for All system, most hands shot up and many cheered.

As activist Jordan Uhl put it, Baier's question "backfired spectacularly." According to recent polling, a majority of Republican voters support Medicare for All.

That backfired... #BernieTownHall pic.twitter.com/NCKNDIQauZ

— DSA for Medicare for All (@dsam4a) April 15, 2019

In addition to highlighting specific planks of his policy platform—from Medicare for All to tuition-free public college to a living wage—Sanders also used his Fox News town hall to explain his broader vision of a more egalitarian U.S. society, in which wealth and political power are not concentrated at the very top:

Democratic socialism, to me, is creating a government and an economy and a society which works for all, rather than just the top one percent. It means ending the absurd inequalities that exist today. And I want to lay this out, because you're not going to hear this much on Fox. And you're not going to hear this much in the media in general. And the American people have got to conclude whether we think it is appropriate, and what America is about... to have three families owning more wealth than the bottom half of American society—160 million people. Whether it's appropriate for the top one percent to own more wealth than the bottom 92 percent. 

Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont on Fox News: "Democratic socialism to me is creating a governor and an economy that works for all rather than just the top 1%.. we want to create a political system based on one person one vote not billionaires buying elections" #BernieTownHall pic.twitter.com/NzBjhisfux

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) April 15, 2019

Sanders closed his Fox appearance with call-and-response with the town hall audience on a broad array of issues, including infrastructure, wages, and taxes on the ultra-wealthy:

.@BernieSanders closing statement at #BernieTownHall on @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/mrpB9jTgwn

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) April 15, 2019

Watch the full town hall:

Part 1

Part 2

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Off the Top of My Head

Democrats Could Lose to Trump if They Don't Play Their Cards Right

by John Lawrence, April 16, 2019

Big article about Joe Biden in Time magazine. Only nothing mentioned about the fact that he cast a vote taking bankruptcy protection away from student loan debtors and he never met a credit card company he didn't like. After all his state, Delaware, is where they're all incorporated. In the media it's all about Biden's touchy-feeliness which is irrelevant. Biden's too old and too associated with the status quo. I don't care if he's the most popular Democrat. He'll lose to Trump.

The fact is that the Republican base - about 30% - will vote for Trump even if he takes out his dong in the middle of Fifth Avenue and waves it around, let alone shooting somebody as he has stated. The same holds for the Democratic base. So the game is about peeling away just those voters who voted for Obama in 2012 and then turned around and voted for Trump in 2016. As Trump has been a disrupter so should the Democrat be a disrupter in the 2020 election. The best person to do that is Bernie Sanders. He sticks to a very simple economic message which is what the Democrats should be all about. They should forget all the peripheral issues, but they're prone to getting all tied up in them because the media prefers that and the Republicans would prefer that. Bernie has a clear message: Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. That's it.

Democrats also need to co-opt Trump's main issue: immigration. They need to take a realistic look and realize that Trump is right about some things. The asylum situation is a mess and smugglers are actively recruiting people in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to come to the US and seek asylum. They are organizing bus rides to the border. This is the reality, not some figment of Trump's imagination. The Democrats need to make this their issue as well and nullify Trump's appeal based on this single issue. Instead they are for the most part taking the totally unpopular side on this and letting the Republicans and the hate talkers define them as "open borders." Come on, Democrats, get real. I'm for humane treatment of immigrants and asylum seekers, but the point is that they are being professionally organized with only one thing in mind - to overwhelm the asylum system and thereby effectively gain permanent entry into the US.

The choice for Bernie's running mate is very important. Elizabeth Warren is great but she's too much like Bernie. Too much of a policy wonk and a firebrand. We need someone more mild and appealing but someone who has the same values as Bernie. Someone like Kamala Harris. Kamala is a very appealing person. First of all she's a beautiful woman, and, let's face it, beauty and personal appeal count for a lot in politics and in life. She's mixed race and did I say she's a woman. She would be a great contrast and a great balance for Bernie. She's young, and that's a point in her favor also. She's everything Bernie's not in terms of personal appearance, but they're both on the same wavelength politically.

I hope the Democratic establishment does not screw this up. We need Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. Stick to the economic issues and leave the peripheral and cultural issues for another day. The Left is going to vote for a Democrat anyway just like the Right will vote for Trump. The Democratic candidate for President in 2020 needs to be someone who can peel away enough Trump voters to win, and it will not be someone like Joe Biden running as a status quo candidate.

'I Felt Americans Needed to Know': Insurance Industry Whistleblower Gives Glimpse of Effort to Crush Medicare for All

Published on

Friday, April 12, 2019

by

Common Dreams

"The business model of for-profit health insurance depends on denying care to people who need it. These corporations can't be reasoned with, only defeated."

 

 

 

by

 Jake Johnson, staff writer

 50 Comments

"When the people begin organizing against private insurance, the lonely insurance executives turn to their only friends: the elected officials beholden to their cash," said Medicare for All campaigner and policy expert Tim Faust. (Image: Miami Business School)

In an effort to inform the public about the corporate forces working to crush Medicare for All, an employee at the insurance giant UnitedHealthcare leaked a video of his boss bragging about the company's campaign to preserve America's for-profit healthcare system.

"I felt Americans needed to know exactly who it is that's fighting against the idea that healthcare is a right, not a privilege." 
—whistleblower

Stein reported on Friday, UnitedHealthcare CEO Steve Nelson boasted about how much his company is doing to undermine Medicare for All, which is rapidly gaining support in Congress.

"One of the things you said: 'We're really quiet' or 'It seems like we're quiet.' Um, we've done a lot more than you would think," Nelson said. "We are advocating heavily and very involved in the conversation. Part of it is trying to be thoughtful about how we enter in the conversation, because there's a risk of seeming like it's self-serving."

According to the Post, which did not publish the video of Nelson's remarks, the executive said his company "opposes Medicare for All because it excludes the private sector, which he said does a better job of delivering healthcare than the government, and said he doubted how a single-payer system could be funded or effectively administered."

The UnitedHealth employee who leaked The Post this video says: “I felt Americans needed to know exactly who it is that’s fighting against the idea that healthcare is a right, not a privilege."https://t.co/fQAXmVTmdf

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) April 12, 2019

Nelson's remarks were leaked just days after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 presidential contender, unveiled his improved Medicare for All bill with the support of 14 Democratic senators and over 60 progressive organizations representing nurses, physicians, and consumer advocates.

Sanders called out insurance and pharmaceutical industry greed in a statementfollowing the introduction of his bill, which would virtually eliminate the private insurance industry and provide comprehensive healthcare to every American.

"When the people begin organizing against private insurance, the lonely insurance executives turn to their only friends: the elected officials beholden to their cash." 
—Tim Faust

"In my view, the current debate over Medicare for All really has nothing to do with healthcare. It's all about greed and profiteering," said the Vermont senator. "It is about whether we maintain a dysfunctional system which allows the top five health insurance companies to make over $20 billion in profits last year."

On Friday, Sanders took to Twitter to send Nelson a message.

"When we are in the White House your greed is going to end," Sanders wrote.

 

The UnitedHealth employee who leaked The Post this video says: “I felt Americans needed to know exactly who it is that’s fighting against the idea that healthcare is a right, not a privilege."https://t.co/fQAXmVTmdf

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) April 12, 2019

UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of United Healthcare, raked in around $17 billion in profits and "spent about $8 million on lobbying efforts" in 2018, Stein reported.

UnitedHealthcare's fight against single-payer, Stein noted, comes "amid a broader push from the health insurance industry to prevent legislation to enact Medicare for All from getting off the ground, including by trying to direct Democrats toward more centrist efforts and reject plans that would effectively legislate many of the companies out of existence."

"[A]bout half a dozen representatives of lobbying firms said they had pushed for meetings with Democrats over single-payer and other proposed government expansions of healthcare," according to Stein.

In a statement to the Post, Medicare for All campaigner and policy expert Tim Faust said, "When the people begin organizing against private insurance, the lonely insurance executives turn to their only friends: the elected officials beholden to their cash."

The business model of for-profit health insurance depends on denying care to people who need it.

These corporations can't be reasoned with, only defeated: https://t.co/YY6K6xawzU #MedicareForAll

— SocialSecurityWorks (@SSWorks) April 12, 2019

One of the industry-backed groups leading the fight against Medicare for All is the Partnership for America's Health Care Future, which is comprised of major pharmaceutical and insurance interests.

The Partnership launched a six-figure ad campaign against Medicare for All earlier this year, warning the popular proposal "would cause massive disruption to the current healthcare system."

After the Partnership launched its first digital ad against Medicare for All in January, Wendell Potter—an insurance industry executive-turned-whistleblower—said, "It's almost impressive how many lies they're able to fit into such a short clip."

Watch Potter's breakdown of the Partnership's ad:

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With Trillions in Safety Net Cuts, Bernie Sanders Says Trump Budget 'Breathtaking in Its Degree of Cruelty'

Published on Monday, March 11, 2019 by Common Dreams

"This is a budget for the military industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street, and for the billionaire class."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

65 Comments

Copies of volume 1 of President Donald Trump's new budget for Fiscal Year 2020 that has been delivered to the House Budget Committee, on March 11, 2019 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

If a budget is a statement of values and priorities, President Donald Trump's proposal for fiscal year 2020 clearly displays his commitment to enriching the wealthy at the expense of ordinary Americans.

"Make no mistake about it: Trump's budget is a massive transfer of wealth from working class families to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders

 

That was how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) characterized Trump's $4.7 trillion budget request on Monday after the White House released details of the plan, which includes a massive increase in military spending and trillions of dollars in total cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

"The Trump budget is breathtaking in its degree of cruelty and filled with broken promises," Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said in a statement. "Donald Trump promised the American people that he would be a different type of Republican, that he would be a champion of the working American and that he would not cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But his budget does the exact opposite of what he promised the American people."

Over the next decade, Trump's budget—officially titled "A Budget for a Better America"—would slash Medicaid by $1.5 trillion, Medicare by $845 billion, and Social Security by $25 billion, according to Sanders' office. The president's blueprint also requests $8.6 billion in border wall funding.

"This is a budget for the military industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street, and for the billionaire class," Sanders said. "It is dead on arrival."

This is a budget for the military-industrial complex, for corporate CEOs, for Wall Street and for the billionaire class.

We don’t need billions of dollars for a wall that no one wants. We need a budget that works for all Americans, not just Trump and his billionaire friends. https://t.co/qKf8iXpYzF

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 11, 2019

Giving the Pentagon "even more than it hoped for," Trump's budget calls for an $861 billion increase in base military spending over the next ten years.

That sum, Sanders said, "could make public colleges and universities tuition-free over the next decade."

Warren Gunnels, Sanders' staff director, tweeted: "We don't need a magic wand or a genie to make public colleges free. We need to get our priorities right."

Over the next 10 years, Trump's budget would cut:
- $1.5 trillion from Medicaid
- $845 billion from Medicare
- $25B from Social Security
- $207B from college education
- $220B from food stamps

While base defense spending would increase by $861 billion https://t.co/o7IW4SQIMq

— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) March 11, 2019

As the Washington Post's Jeff Stein and Amy Goldstein reported, Trump's budget proposal calls for coverting Medicaid into a block-grant system and handing states the power to set coverage rules—a move that would endanger the healthcare of millions of low-income Americans.

"Make no mistake about it: Trump's budget is a massive transfer of wealth from working class families to the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations in America," Sanders concluded.

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To Defeat Trump With People-Powered Political Revolution, Bernie Sanders Announces 2020 Run

Tuesday, February 19, 2019

 

What's going to be different this time? "We're going to win," said the Senator from Vermont

 

 

Jon Queally, staff writer

 

 164 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced his 2020 run on Tuesday morning. "We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign," he told Vermont Public Radio, "and now it's time to move that revolution forward." (Image: USAmurica)

With an interview with Vermont Public Radio that aired early Tuesday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) officially announced his candidancy for president in 2020, telling listeners in his home state he is determined to defeat President Donald Trump while building a grassroots-style campaign—with a network of "at least a million people"—designed to win Medicare for All, a national $15 minimum wage, reduced student debt, bold climate action, criminal justice and immigration reform, and create a political and economic system that works for the many and not just the few.

"If we are prepared to stand together, there is no limit to what the great people of our nation can accomplish." —Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)"I wanted to let the people of the state of Vermont know about this first," Sanders told VPR's Bob Kinzel. "And what I promise to do is, as I go around the country, is to take the values that all of us in Vermont are proud of—a belief in justice, in community, in grassroots politics, in town meetings—That's what I'm going to carry all over this country."

Sanders added, "We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign, and now it's time to move that revolution forward."

Shortly after his radio appearance, Sanders released the following campaign video via Twitter:

I'm running for president. I am asking you to join me today as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least 1 million people from across the country. Say you're in: https://t.co/KOTx0WZqRf pic.twitter.com/T1TLH0rm26

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 19, 2019

Highlighting some of the key issues he has fought for throughout his political career—and notable victories he has achieved as a lawmaker in the Senate—the video concludes with a unifying theme and a voiceover of Sanders declaring, "If we are prepared to stand together, there is no limit to what the great people of our nation can accomplish."

In his interview with VPR, Sanders explained he was running for president for two basic reasons: "Number one, I think the current occupant of the White House is an embarrassment to our country. I think he is a pathological liar, everyday telling one lie after another—and it gives me no pleasure to say that. I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants."

Sanders said that he "cannot recall—certainly not in my lifetime or in modern history—that we've had a president that actually goes out of his way to try and divide the American people up based on where we were born or the color of our skin or our gender or whatever it may be. I think what a president has got to do is bring our people together and not divide us up."

The second reason, he added, is to complete the progress he started in the 2016 campaign by bringing serious solutions to the table—solutions once said to be too radical but, in fact, supported by large majorities of the American people.

In a letter sent to supporters, Sanders declared: "Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.  And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country."

Asked by CBS News in a separate interview that will air Tuesday what would be different in 2020 compared to 2016, Sanders said: "We're going to win."

In addition to vowing victory, Sanders said his campaign is going to "launch what I think is unprecedented in modern American history and that is a grassroots movement."

Powerful special interests may have the money, but we have the people. Supporters from all 50 states have donated to our unprecedented grassroots campaign. Say you're in: https://t.co/4YhCuNlKEk pic.twitter.com/d32UxxRi9q

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 19, 2019

Though not unexpected—with speculation rife in recent days and weeks about making his decision known—Sanders' status as the former candidate who won a number of state primaries and caucuses in 2016 and still the most popular elected lawmaker in the country, according to many polls, puts him in a strong position as the crowded Democratic field comes into further focus.

Supporters of Sanders who have been waiting patiently for the official announcement, celebrated the news:

IT'S HAPPENING: @BernieSanders is running.

Let's do this. Together: https://t.co/SVwNxmzZNs #FeelTheBern #Bernie2020 pic.twitter.com/ueKyirZNK8

— People for Bernie (@People4Bernie) February 19, 2019

He's running! #Bernie2020 pic.twitter.com/GgBLfQBTGl

— #Bernie2020 (@OFB2020) February 19, 2019

Norman Solomon, national coordinator of the independent Bernie Delegates Network in 2016 and now a coordinator of the relaunched Bernie Delegates Network, said Sanders is by far the most exciting candidate now in the running, especially because of his long history as a champion of grassroots campaigning and a proven commitment to transformative change.

"For decades he has made it clear he understands that the transformational power we need isn't handed down from on high—it's gained through grassroots activism and organizing to challenge injustice and the vast numbers of ills related to corporate power." 
—Norman Solomon, Bernie Delegates Network"Bernie is the only candidate for the Democratic nomination who has always been part of progressive movements," Solomon told Common Dreams. "For decades he has made it clear he understands that the transformational power we need isn't handed down from on high—it's gained through grassroots activism and organizing to challenge injustice and the vast numbers of ills related to corporate power."

Despite the virtues of other candidates in the Democratic field, Solomon believes Sanders "is qualitatively way ahead" of them all.

"The Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign offers us a much deeper and more sweeping vision of a humanistic society, in which great wealth and huge corporations will not only be strictly regulated—they'll also be compelled to serve the common good instead of the drive to maximize profits," Solomon said. "Whether the goal is Medicare for All, truly progressive taxation, tuition-free public college or absolute dedication to environmental protection, Bernie has been there first—and, by far, he remains the clearest, most authentic and most trustworthy candidate. For progressives, he's the real deal, not someone trying on progressive garb because of current political fashion."

Will it be easy? Not even close, Solomon acknowledged.

"Hold onto your hat," he warned. "The anti-Bernie mass media onslaught will become gale force. The only way to overcome that manifestation of corporate power will be via people power."

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Frank Thomas' comment:

Speaking about people power to defeat Trump, Nate White, an articulate, witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response to the question:

WHY DO SOME BRITISH PEOPLE NOT LIKE DONALD TRUMP?

"A few things come to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditonally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom,no subtlety, no sensittivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honor and no grace - all qualties, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generally blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty, or even faintly amusing - not once ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically. I mean it quite literally; not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact . He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults, - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There’s never an under-layer of irony, complexitity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans may see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heros are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedty fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privelege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a sniveling side kick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He paticularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans llook at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little stress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer to us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
‘My God … what … have… I… created?’
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

---

A brilliant, humourously crunching critique of Trump’s character written in a typically British self-deprecating style to point out personal weaknesses and shortcomings - this time to put down our president’s self-obsessed, self-immortalizing, megalomaniacal qualities.

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Medicare for All Has Been Embraced by 2020 Democrats for One Key Reason: Bernie Sanders

Published on Sunday, February 03, 2019 by Al-Jazeera English

Just a few years ago Sanders' call for 'Medicare far all' was deemed too extreme, but things are very different now.

by Cristina Tzintzun

 

7 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a health care rally at the 2017 Convention of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee on September 22, 2017 in San Francisco, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

When all is said and done, there may be as many as two dozen Democratic hopefuls for the 2020 presidential nomination. But nearly all of them will have one thing in common: they'll be trumpeting one of Bernie Sanders' signature causes - upending our healthcare system in favour of a single payer system. We progressives call it, Medicare for All.

Since 2016, when the Independent senator from Vermont used his White House bid to call for Medicare for All so that all Americans have access to high-quality healthcare, the Democratic Party has bolted to the left. Nearly all of the candidates who have, up to now, announced their intentions to run for president in 2020 - and many of those who seem to be preparing to enter the race - support Medicare for All. 

"Nearly every American has experienced up-close the failures of our current system. That's why Bernie's initiatives on healthcare have taken hold with voters and the cast of Democratic hopefuls."

 

Julian Castro has said that passing Medicare for All would be his first priority as president. Elizabeth Warren has declared that she supports Medicare for All so "everyone gets covered and no one goes broke" because of the cost of healthcare. And Beto O'Rourke has said, "Medicare for All is the best way to get people covered."

It wasn't that long ago that advocating for a single payer system was thought to be political suicide. Yet, today, running on Medicare for All is one of the most popular positions. A recent poll showed that 70 percent of Americans supported Medicare for All. 

Ultimately, providing affordable healthcare for every American will be an uphill battle for any presidential candidate. In fact, some may still question the viability of a healthcare for all system. But the undeniable truth is that our current system has failed. It has left millions of Americans uninsured and struggling to get the healthcare they need even if they have insurance.

I ought to know. I live in the state with the highest uninsured rate in the country - Texas. While our state's elected leaders have long touted the expansive benefits of the so-called "Texas economic miracle", that miracle apparently did not include access to basic things like healthcare. You see, one in six Texans don't have health insurance.

Medicare for All could be an effective rallying cry for Democratic candidates. After all, Americans are tired of footing the bill for the most expensive healthcare in the world that still leaves millions of them uninsured. While Obamacare helped close the uninsured gap significantly, it didn't go far enough. The costs of healthcare are still soaring, and millions of Americans still don't have healthcare coverage. 

Nearly every American knows someone who doesn't have healthcare. My mother is one of the estimated 27 million that don't have health insurance. She has diabetes, and she is forced to cut her $12 pills in half to manage the disease because she can't afford the full cost for the medication she needs. When she is sick, she is afraid to go to the doctor because she can't afford it. Yet, she also can't afford to not get the medical care she needs.

Even if you are lucky enough to have health insurance, it is a bureaucratic nightmare of a system that often still leaves you owing thousands of dollars after an illness or injury.

Of course, some say that - because healthcare makes up one-sixth of the US economy - the issue is too challenging to tackle. But who are we kidding? An inefficient and expensive healthcare system is crippling our economy. Besides, surely, the most prosperous nation in the world can do a better job of caring for the citizens who helped make it so prosperous in the first place. 

Nearly every American has experienced up-close the failures of our current system. That's why Bernie's initiatives on healthcare have taken hold with voters and the cast of Democratic hopefuls. Those candidates have to know that it won't be enough in 2020 to simply say that you want to reform our current system or just try or make prescription drugs more affordable. Voters aren't looking to make gains on the margins, they are looking to end a system that they believe has wholly failed them. That's why we need Medicare for All. 

In 2016, Sanders' ideas were thought to be too extreme for the Democratic Party establishment. But, just a few years later, they are now the mainstream. It's unclear whether Sanders will once again enter the race for President. But this much is clear: his ideas have already won it.

---

© 2019 Al-Jazeera English

A Bold, Progressive Agenda for a Happier and Healthier New Year

Published on

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

by

Common Dreams

In the New Year, let us resolve to fight like we have never fought before for a government, a society and an economy that works for all of us, not just those on top.

 

by 

Bernie Sanders

 

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A bird lands on then Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders podium as he spoke on March 25, 2016 in Portland, Oregon. Sanders spoke to a crowd of more than eleven thousand about a wide range of issues, including getting big money out of politics, his plan to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, combating climate change and ensuring universal health care. (Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images)

The following is a New Year's Day email message sent to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on January 1, 2019.

Dear friends,

Jane and I want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very healthy and happy new year.

It goes without saying that 2019 will be a pivotal and momentous time for our country and the entire planet. As you know, there is a monumental clash now taking place between two very different political visions. Not to get you too nervous, but the future of our country and the world is dependent upon which side wins that struggle.

The bad news is that in the United States and other parts of the world, the foundations of democracy are under severe attack as demagogues, supported by billionaire oligarchs, work to establish authoritarian type regimes. That is true in Russia. That is true in Saudi Arabia. That is true in the United States. While the very rich get much richer these demagogues seek to move us toward tribalism and set one group against another, deflecting attention from the real crises we face.

"Our job... is not only to oppose Trump but to bring forth a progressive and popular agenda that speaks to the real needs of working people."

The good news is that, all across this country, people are getting politically involved and are fighting back. They are standing up for economic, political, social and racial justice.

In the last year we saw courageous teachers, in some of the most conservative states in the country, win strikes as they fought for adequate funding for education.

We saw low paid workers at Amazon, Disney and elsewhere undertake successful struggles to raise their wages to a living wage – at least $15 an hour.

We saw incredibly courageous young people, who experienced a mass shooting in their school, lead successful efforts for commonsense gun safety legislation.

We saw diverse communities stand together in the fight against mass incarceration and for real criminal justice reform.

We saw tens of thousands of Americans, from every walk of life, take to the streets and demand that politicians respond to the global crisis of climate change.

As we enter 2019, it seems to me that we must mount a two-pronged offensive. First, we must vigorously take on the lies, bigotry and kleptocratic behavior of the most irresponsible president in the modern history of our country. In every way possible, we must stand up to the racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and religious intolerance of the Trump administration.

But fighting Trump is not enough.

The truth is that despite relatively low unemployment, tens of millions of Americans struggle daily to keep their heads above water economically as the middle class continues to shrink.

While the rich get richer, 40 million live in poverty, millions of workers are forced to work two or three jobs to pay the bills, 30 million have no health insurance, one in five cannot afford their prescription drugs, almost half of older workers have nothing saved for retirement, young people cannot afford college or leave school deeply in debt, affordable housing is increasingly scarce, and many seniors cut back on basic needs as they live on inadequate Social Security checks.

"It is imperative that the American people stand up and demand real solutions to the major economic, social, racial and environmental crises that we face."

Our job, therefore, is not only to oppose Trump but to bring forth a progressive and popular agenda that speaks to the real needs of working people. We must tell Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex, the National Rifle Association and the other powerful special interests that we will not continue to allow their greed to destroy this country and our planet.

Politics in a democracy should not be complicated. Government must work for all of the people, not just the wealthy and the powerful. As a new House and Senate convene next week, it is imperative that the American people stand up and demand real solutions to the major economic, social, racial and environmental crises that we face. In the richest country in the history of the world, here are some (far from all) of the issues that I will be focusing on this year. What do you think? How can we best work together?

Protect American democracy: Repeal Citizens United, move to public funding of elections and end voter suppression and gerrymandering. Our goal must be to establish a political system that has the highest voter turnout in the world and is governed by the democratic principle of one person - one vote.

Take on the billionaire class: End oligarchy and the growth of massive income and wealth inequality by demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes. We must rescind Trump's tax breaks for billionaires and close corporate tax loopholes.

Increase Wages: Raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, establish pay equity for women and revitalize the trade union movement. In the United States, if you work 40 hours a week, you should not live in poverty.

Make health care a right: Guarantee health care for everyone through a Medicare-for-all program. We cannot continue a dysfunctional healthcare system which costs us about twice as much per capita as any other major country and leaves 30 million uninsured.

Transform our energy system: Combat the global crisis of climate change which is already causing massive damage to our planet. In the process, we can create millions of good paying jobs as we transform our energy system away from fossil fuel and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

Rebuild America: Pass a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. In the United States we must not continue to have roads, bridges, water systems, rail transport, and airports in disrepair.

Jobs for All: There is an enormous amount of work to be done throughout our country – from building affordable housing and schools to caring for our children and the elderly. 75 years ago, FDR talked about the need to guarantee every able-bodied person in this country a good job as a fundamental right. That was true in 1944. It is true today.

Quality Education: Make public colleges and universities tuition free, lower student debt, adequately fund public education and move to universal childcare. Not so many years ago, the United States had the best education system in the world. We much regain that status again.

Retirement Security: Expand Social Security so that every American can retire with dignity and everyone with a disability can live with security. Too many of our elderly, disabled and veterans are living on inadequate incomes. We must do better for those who built this country.

Women's rights: It is a woman, not the government, who should control her own body. We must oppose all efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, protect Planned Parenthood and oppose restrictive state laws on abortion.

Justice for All: End mass incarceration and pass serious criminal justice reform. We must no longer spend $80 billion a year locking up more people than any other country. We must invest in education and jobs, not jails and incarceration.

Comprehensive immigration reform: It is absurd and inhumane that millions of hardworking people, many of whom have lived in this country for decades, are fearful of deportation. We must provide legal status to those who are in the DACA program, and a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

Social Justice: End discrimination based on race, gender, religion, place of birth or sexual orientation. Trump cannot be allowed to succeed by dividing us up. We must stand together as one people.

A new foreign policy: Let us create a foreign policy based on peace, democracy and human rights. At a time when we spend more on the military than the next ten countries combined, we need to take a serious look at reforming the bloated and wasteful $716 billion annual Pentagon budget.

In the New Year, let us resolve to fight like we have never fought before for a government, a society and an economy that works for all of us, not just those on top.

Wishing you a wonderful new year,

Bernie Sanders

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'The Civil Rights Movement of Our Time': Climate Action Advocates and Progressive Leaders Join Sanders for Latest Town Hall

Published on Tuesday, December 04, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Instead of spending well over a trillion dollars on weapons of destruction to figure out how we kill each other, think about making that investment in transforming our energy system. Think about how we can bring the entire world together in common cause."

by Julia Conley, staff writer

 

1 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday night hosted a town hall dedicated to discusssing bold solutions to the climate crisis, including a Green New Deal. (Photo: @DanielJCamacho/Twitter)

With the corporate news media devoting only a tiny fraction of its coverage of California's recent wildfires to the climate crisis, which set the stage for the historically destructive blazes, hundreds of thousands of Americans on Monday night turned to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and a panel of climate experts and activists for a discussion on the stark reality of the crisis and bold proposals to help avert further catastrophe.

In his latest town hall sponsored by progressive media companies including NowThis News and The Young Turks, Sanders and his panelists made the case for the Green New Deal and a sustainable economy, outlined bipartisan efforts that have so far succeeded in shifting toward renewable energy, and spoke of the climate crisis as a top issue that young voters, people of color, and low-income communities must unite to defeat as they decide who will lead the country in 2020.

"We are living in a moment in history that has never existed," Sanders said. "Instead of spending well over a trillion dollars on weapons of destruction to figure out how we kill each other, think about making that investment in transforming our energy system. Think about how we can bring the entire world together in common cause."

"This is going to be the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil rights movement of our generation," Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) added. "That is the scale of the ambition that this movement is going to require."

Fighting climate change is the Civil Rights movement of our generation! @Ocasio2018 #ClimateTownHall #climatechange #ClimateChangeIsReal #ClimateJustice pic.twitter.com/4BaZBPIXEH

— Jake Turner (@Astro_journey) December 4, 2018

Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, head of the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS), stressed that Americans are already facing the effects of the climate crisis, with California's wildfires burning through more than three million acres, increasingly powerful hurricanes causing more than $200 billion in damage, and the country's first known climate refugees being forced to flee parts of Louisana.  

"You have a diaspora in the country moving to other states," Ekwurzel said. "They may be temporary, they may be long term. These people are on the move, creatures are on the move, adapting to climate change. But it doesn't have to be that bad."

350.org founder Bill McKibben, activists Shailene Woodley and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, and Republican Mayor Dale Ross of Georgetown, Texas, who has embraced renewable energy, were also among the panelists.

The town hall came as Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive politicians have been fighting to form a House Select Committee whose mandate would include proposing a Green New Deal. The proposal would shift the U.S. to a renewable energy economy by 2035, working toward zero carbon emissions by 2050—and creating at least 10 million jobs in order to build the new infrastructure. So far, grassroots pressure from the youth-led Sunrise Movement has forced 18 representatives to endorse the Green New Deal.

"The core of a Green New Deal is simple: leave no person behind," said Ocasio-Cortez. "We cannot move forward into our future until every single American is part of that future."

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Why Vote? Bernie Sanders Offers Simple Last-Minute Reminder: The GOP Agenda Is Horrific

Published on Monday, November 05, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Our plan: make health care a right to all. Stop giving tax breaks to billionaires. Protect and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Transition to sustainable energy and leave behind a livable planet for our children."

by Common Dreams staff

 

25 Comments

On the eve of national midterm elections in the United States, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was not alone as he participated in the frenzied effort of final campaign pitches and tried his best to make sure people get to the polls on Tuesday to defeat the GOP and issue a resounding to the agenda of President Donald Trump.

In a tweet on Monday, Sanders' final get-out-the-vote message was simple: the Republican Party's policy goals represent an unmitigated disaster for families, working people, and the planet while the alternative being offered by Democrats and progressive candidates in races nationwide would supplant those attacks with sensible and far-reaching set of solutions to the nation's most pressing problems.

The Republican agenda is clear.

Our plan: make health care a right to all. Stop giving tax breaks to billionaires. Protect and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Transition to sustainable energy and leave behind a livable planet for our children. pic.twitter.com/cUCp1N5oI9

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 5, 2018

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'Are You Kidding Me?' Outrage as Democrats Push 'Incremental Steps' Over Bold Agenda Needed to Save Planet from Climate Catastrophe

Published on Thursday, October 18, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Gradualism is fundamentally incompatible with protecting civilization and the natural world. It's pathetic that the Democrats are continuing to pursue this approach."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

33 Comments

"The first and most important things Democrats should do is stop feeding the beast that's gotten us in this climate mess," David Turnbull, strategic communications director at Oil Change International, told Common Dreams. (Photo: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Hundreds of mammal species have been wiped out due to human activity, planetary warming has sparked a "bugpocalypse" that is horrifying scientists, and United Nations experts are warning that the international community has just 12 years to transform global energy systems in order to avert climate catastrophe—but House Democrats are reportedly brushing aside widespread demands for urgent action in favor of "more incremental steps and hearings."

"Dems make chicken-shit (and out-dated) short-game political calculations while the worst planetary crisis humanity has ever faced accelerates."
—Alex Steffen

 

"Democrats are unlikely to pursue major climate change legislation if they win the House majority, despite a growing body of evidence suggesting time is running out to address the issue," The Hill reported on Wednesday, citing House members who believe a piecemeal approach to climate policy will be more "pragmatic" in the face of GOP and White House denialism.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), co-chair of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, told The Hill that if Democrats retake the House in next month's midterms, they will "focus on the practical and the opportunistic" steps available while vaguely keeping in mind "the aspirational goals."

Environmentalists were quick to make clear that such a passive approach is unacceptable—and tantamount to climate denial—given that humanity has just a dozen years to enact fundamental changes to the world economy and energy production before the climate crisis inflicts catastrophic and irreversible damage.

While The Hill titled its news story, "Dems damp down hope for climate change agenda," author and climate activist Alex Steffen argued a more appropriate and accurate headline would have been: "Dems make chicken-shit (and out-dated) short-game political calculations while the worst planetary crisis humanity has ever faced accelerates."

In an email to Common Dreams, Margaret Klein Salamon, founder and director of The Climate Mobilization, added, "Gradualism is fundamentally incompatible with protecting civilization and the natural world. It's pathetic that the Democrats are continuing to pursue this approach."

The sentiment that the Democratic Party's business-as-usual incrementalism is simply not going to cut it in the fight against the human-caused climate crisis was echoed by author and environmentalist Naomi Klein, who offered a one-line, all-caps response to House Democrats' reported plans: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? https://t.co/1Cp6w8GYqq

— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) October 17, 2018

But while establishment Democrats indicate that they are ill-prepared to fight for the kinds of policies that are necessary to rapidly reduce carbon emissions, environmentalists said reasons for hope can be found in the young and growing progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

"Thankfully," said Salamon of The Climate Mobilization, "there is a bright spot in Congress: [New York congressional candidate] Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and her fellow Justice Democrats."

Any climate plan that doesn't stand up to the fossil industry and address the massive fossil fuel production the Trump administration is pushing would be incomplete at best, a wasteful distraction at worst."
—David Turnbull, Oil Change International

Any climate plan that doesn't stand up to the fossil industry and address the massive fossil fuel production the Trump administration is pushing would be incomplete at best, a wasteful distraction at worst."
—David Turnbull, Oil Change International

"Ocasio Cortez acknowledges the climate crisis as an existential threat demanding a WWII scale mobilization," Salamon told Common Dreams. "She understands the need to dedicate everything we have to the mission; to spend without limit to protect as much life as possible. This is such a fundamentally different approach from the mainstream Democrats, and so much more inspiring and heroic, I think its going to send a shockwave through Congress and win tremendous popular support."

Julian NoiseCat of 350 Action expressed a similar hope in a statement to Common Dreams, noting that the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report earlier this month—which warned that humanity must cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 to avoid the worst of the climate crisis—"shows that incremental steps to climate change are not an option."

"We have a little over a decade to shift our economy to clean energy. But that's also an opportunity: an opportunity to put millions of Americans to work in good, green, union jobs supporting families and creating prosperous communities," NoiseCat noted. "We are excited to work with ambitious progressives in Congress who understand the enormity of this moment and opportunity."

In addition to being absolutely necessary for the survival of the planet, recent polls have shown an ambitious climate agenda would be electorally beneficial for Democrats, who are favored to take back the House—and a longshot to take the Senate—in next month's midterm elections.

According to a Pew Research survey released earlier this week, 72 percent of Democratic voters view climate change as a "very big" problem, and research by the progressive polling shop Data for Progress found that Democratic voters enthusiastically support an agenda of green jobs and a just transition to 100 percent renewable energy.

"The first and most important things Democrats should do is stop feeding the beast that's gotten us in this climate mess," David Turnbull, strategic communications director at Oil Change International, told Common Dreams. "That means ending fossil fuel subsidies and starting a managed and just decline of fossil fuel production in our country."

As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among the lawmakers in Congress who has called for a bold and rapid transition away from oil, coal, and gas, declared earlier this month in the wake of the IPCC report:

The good news is that we have the technology to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels.

The bad news is that Congress and the White House lack the political will to stand up to the fossil fuel industry. Together, you and I will change that. https://t.co/XnmxGef10l

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 8, 2018

"Any climate plan that doesn't stand up to the fossil industry and address the massive fossil fuel production the Trump administration is pushing would be incomplete at best, a wasteful distraction at worst," Turnbull concluded. "In the context of ever worsening predictions, we need bold leadership, not half measures."

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In Rebuke to Trumpian Division and Authoritarianism, Bernie Sanders Champions 'Unity' and 'Common Humanity' in Visionary Speech

Published on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Our job is to build on our common humanity and do everything that we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other."

by Jon Queally, staff writer

 

16 Comments

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to protestors rallying against Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill, October 4, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

While Donald Trump took to the editorial page of USA Today on Wednesday to spew new lies about key social programs like Medicare and sow fresh divisions with unhinged rantings about the "radical socialist plans" of the Democratic Party, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday offered a scathing and far-reaching rebuke to Trump's brand of politics by tackling head-on the threat posed by the president's penchant for authoritarianism and his consistent stoking of social divisions.

"Authoritarians seek power by promoting division and hatred. We will promote unity and inclusion."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)In a speech delivered at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Sanders told the small audience that he wanted to "say a few words about a troubling trend in global affairs that gets far too little attention," as he proceeded to describe a trend that both describes the America under Trump, but one also seen in nations across the globe.

"There is currently a struggle of enormous consequence taking place in the United States and throughout the world," Sanders declared in his speech. "In it we see two competing visions. On one hand, we see a growing worldwide movement toward authoritarianism, oligarchy, and kleptocracy. On the other side, we see a movement toward strengthening democracy, egalitarianism, and economic, social, racial, and environmental justice."

Sanders continued by drawing a picture in which an increasingly wealthy and powerful set of elites—not just in the U.S., but in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, South America, Asia, and elsewhere—are actively fomenting anti-democratic angst while butressed by the rise of "demagogues" who, like Trump domestically, "exploit people's fears, prejudices and grievances to gain and hold on to power."

In response to such forces, argued Sanders, "Those of us who believe in democracy, who believe that a government must be accountable to its people and not the other way around, must understand the scope of this challenge if we are to confront it effectively."

And so, he added, "We need to counter oligarchic authoritarianism with a strong global progressive movement that speaks to the needs of working people, that recognizes that many of the problems we are faced with are the product of a failed status quo. We need a movement that unites people all over the world who don't just seek to return to a romanticized past, a past that did not work for so many, but who strive for something better."

With a direct hit on the Trumpian mantra of "Make America Great Again," Sanders warned that looking backwards, though valuable in some respects, is not where a better, more equitable world is to be found.

Instead, he said, what the world needs if it wants to defeat "the forces of global oligarchy and authoritarianism" is a powerful and organized "international movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people, and that addresses the massive global inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power."

In the end, Sanders observed,  "Authoritarians seek power by promoting division and hatred. We will promote unity and inclusion."

And, he concluded, "In a time of exploding wealth and technology, we have the potential to create a decent life for all people. Our job is to build on our common humanity and do everything that we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other. We know that those forces work together across borders. We must do the same. "

---

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Medicare for All's Time Has Come

Published on

Thursday, August 16, 2018

by

CNN

If every major country on earth can guarantee healthcare to all and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States of America cannot do the same.

by

Bernie Sanders

 

 24 Comments

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hold signs during an event on healthcare September 13, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Sen. Sanders held an event to introduce the Medicare for All Act of 2017. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Let's be clear. The American people are increasingly tired of a healthcare system that works for Wall Street investors, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry—but ignores their needs. They want real change, and poll after poll shows that they want to move toward a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system. And for good reason.

"The ongoing failure of our healthcare system is directly attributable to the fact that—unique among major nations—it is primarily designed not to provide quality care to all in a cost-effective way."

Today, the United States has the most expensive, inefficient, and bureaucratic healthcare system in the world. Despite the fact that we are the only major country on earth not to guarantee healthcare for all—and have 30 million uninsured and even more who are underinsured—we now spend more than twice as much per capita on healthcare as the average developed country.

According to a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development analysis, we spend more than $10,300 per capita on healthcare. Meanwhile, Canada spends just $4,826, France spends $4,902, Germany spends $5,728, and the United Kingdom spends $4,264.

Further, despite this huge expenditure, which now constitutes almost 18% of our GDP, our healthcare outcomes are worse than most of these other countries. For example, our life expectancy is 2.5 years lower than Germany's and our mortality rate for children under the age of 19 is at the top of the list compared to other developed countries.

The ongoing failure of our healthcare system is directly attributable to the fact that—unique among major nations—it is primarily designed not to provide quality care to all in a cost-effective way. Instead, the system makes maximum profits for health insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and medical equipment suppliers.

The Medicare-for-all legislation that I wrote, which now has 16 co-sponsors in the Senate, would provide comprehensive healthcare to every man, woman and child in our country—without out-of-pocket expenses. No more insurance premiums, deductibles or co-payments. Further, it would expand Medicare coverage to include dental and vision care. In other words, this plan would do exactly what should be done in a civilized and democratic society. It would allow all Americans, regardless of their income, to get the healthcare they need when they need it.

Under the current system, while thousands of Americans die each year because they lack access to the healthcare they desperately need, the top five health insurance companies last year made $21 billion in profits, led by the UnitedHealth Group, which made $10.56 billion.

As tens of thousands of American families face bankruptcy and financial ruinbecause of the outrageously high cost of healthcare, the CEOs of major insurance companies receive disgustingly high levels of compensation. According to Axios, in 2017, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Dave Wichmann, received $83.2 million; the CEO of Aetna, Mark Bertolini, received $58.7 million, and the CEO of Cigna, David Cordani, received $43.9 million.

Today, as an indication of how dysfunctional our current system is, about one out of every five Americans cannot afford to fill the prescriptions given to them by their doctors because we pay, by far, the highest price in the world for prescription drugs. A 2013 study showed that in 2010, the United States paid, on average, about double what was paid in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland for prescription drugs. Since 2014, the cost of 60 drugs commonly taken has more than doubled, and 20 of them have at least quadrupled in price.

While millions of Americans are unable to afford the medicine they desperately need, or are forced to cut their pills in half in order to save money, five top drug companies made over $50 billion in profits last year and, in 2015, 10 prescription drug CEOs made a combined $327 million in total compensation.

"The insurance companies, the drug companies, Wall Street and the Koch brothers will undoubtedly spend billions on lobbying, campaign contributions and television ads to defeat Medicare for all. But they are on the wrong side of history."

Would a Medicare-for-all healthcare system be expensive? Yes. But, while providing comprehensive healthcare for all, it would be significantly less costly than our current dysfunctional system because it would eliminate an enormous amount of the bureaucracy, administrative costs and misplaced priorities inherent in our current for-profit system.

Instead of doctors and nurses spending a significant part of their day filling out forms and arguing with insurance companies, they could be using their time to provide care to their patients. We'd be able to save up to $500 billion annually in billing and administrative costs. That money could be used to greatly expand primary care in this country and make certain that all Americans got the healthcare they needed when they needed it—saving billions on expensive emergency room care and hospital visits. Instead of paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, we could save hundreds of billions over a 10 year period through tough negotiations with the drug companies.

The benefits of a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system are so obvious that even a recent study done by the right-wing Mercatus Center estimated that it would save Americans more than $2 trillion over a decade, reducing the projected cost of healthcare between 2022 and 2031 from $59.7 trillion to $57.6 trillion. Needless to say, that wasn't the point the study attempted to emphasize. Rather, the author of the study was hoping the headline—"Medicare for All costs the federal government $32.6 trillion" —would frighten the American people and get them to oppose it.

While opponents of Medicare for all focus their criticism on the increased taxes the American people will have to pay, they conveniently ignore the fact that ordinary people and businesses will no longer have to pay sky-high premiums, co-payments and deductibles for private health insurance.

At a time when healthcare in 2018 for a typical family of four with an employer-sponsored PPO plan now costs more than $28,000, according to the Milliman Medical Index, the reality is that a Medicare-for-all system would save the average family significant sums of money.

A recent study by RAND found that moving to a Medicare-for-all system in New York would save a family with an income of $185,000 or less about $3,000 a year, on average. Even the projections from the Mercatus Center suggest that the average American could save about $6,000 under Medicare for all over a 10-year period.

A Medicare-for-all system not only benefits individuals and families, it would benefit the business community. Small- and medium-sized businesses would be free to focus on their core business goals instead of wasting precious energy and resources navigating an incredibly complex system to provide health insurance to their employees.

Needless to say, there is huge opposition to this legislation from the powerful special interests that profit from the current wasteful system. The insurance companies, the drug companies, Wall Street and the Koch brothers will undoubtedly spend billions on lobbying, campaign contributions and television ads to defeat Medicare for all. But they are on the wrong side of history.

Here is the bottom line: If every major country on earth can guarantee healthcare to all and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States of America cannot do the same.

 

 

Terrified by Progressive Enthusiasm Sweeping the Nation, Corporate Democrats Have Begun Planning a 'Counterrevolution'

Published on Sunday, July 22, 2018 by Common Dreams

"A reminder that these are the same people who tried to cut Social Security under Obama. Anyone who associates with Third Way is part of a plan to do it under the next president."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

129 Comments

Democratic leaders "need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down and saying, 'That wouldn't really work,'" said social worker Rachel Conner. (Photo: Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

Corporate Democrats are extremely worried about the wave of progressive enthusiasm that is sweeping the country in red and blue states alike, and—according to a report by NBC News on Sunday—they are beginning to organize a "counterrevolution" to beat it back.

Ignoring survey after survey showing that progressive priorities like Medicare for All, a living wage, and tuition-free public college are overwhelmingly popular among the American public, Democratic politicians and operatives with the notorious think-tank Third Way used an invite-only event in Columbus, Ohio on Friday to tout an alternative agenda that centers on "opportunity" and access rather than equality—a platform that explicitly avoids alienating the ultra-wealthy.

"You're not going to make me hate somebody just because they're rich. I want to be rich!" Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said during last week's closed-door event, which was titled "Opportunity 2020."

"Once again," added Third Way president Jon Cowan, "the time has come to mend, but not end, capitalism for a new era."

Real headline should be: "Democratic leaders: How can we keep preventing the things Democratic voters actually want?" https://t.co/TkYEeENEE0

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) July 22, 2018

Polls show stuff like Medicare for All, $15 minimum wage & debt-free college are mainstream. One of the most Orwellian tactics is to nonetheless label the corporate Dems who oppose these things as “mainstream.” They arent — polls show they are the fringe. https://t.co/uwYA7kZ8Wc pic.twitter.com/7kmbSrPkbm

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) July 22, 2018

Heartening tale of a closed-door “safe space” strategy session for Third Way Dems determined to save humanity by putting a stop to unhelpful billionaire-bashing (“I want to be rich!” sez Tim Ryan). https://t.co/YdlJw9XSwv

— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) July 22, 2018

As NBC's Alex Seitz-Wald notes, the "anxiety" centrist Democrats have felt about the rousing campaigns of democratic socialists and bold progressives like New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed "has largely been kept to a whisper among the party's moderates and big donors."

But now, with organized events and more frequent interviews with the press, corporate Democrats and strategists are beginning to openly state their plans to undercut surging progressive momentum, "with some of the major fundraisers pressing operatives on what can be done to stop" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) if he decides to launch another bid for the presidency, Seitz-Wald reports.

"Sanders' wing of the party terrifies moderate Dems," Seitz-Wald writes.

"They need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down."
—Rachel Conner, social worker

"They need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down."
—Rachel Conner, social worker

In terms of electoral strategy, Democratic insiders are advocating an approach that reaches out to so-called moderate Republicans who have supposedly broken with Trump, instead of placing the bulk of their focus on inspiring both non-voters and Democrats disgruntled by the party's corporate turn.

"Where progressives see a rare opportunity to capitalize on an energized Democratic base, moderates see a better chance to win over Republicans turned off by Trump," as Seitz-Wald explains.

The problem with this approach, as many commentators have noted, is that it was tried in 2016—and it failed miserably.

As a counter to progressive ideas like a federal jobs guarantee, Medicare for All, and expanded Social Security benefits, NBC reports that Third Way has put forth an "apprenticeship program to train workers, a privatized employer-funded universal pension that would supplement Social Security, and an overhaul of unemployment insurance to include skills training."

Progressives were quick to denounce such proposals as a thinly-veiled push to privatize Social Security and undermine more ambitious—and far more popular—left-wing proposals that have been winning big in Democratic primaries across the nation.

SHAMEFUL.

Funded by a random billionaire, 250 Democrats gathered together to discuss how they could make sure the party stands against progressives like Bernie & instead reminds people more of the Republican Party. https://t.co/31voFpORRO

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 22, 2018

A reminder that these are the same people who tried to cut Social Security under Obama. Anyone who associates with Third Way is part of a plan to do it under the next President. https://t.co/tQzqhiQnPu

— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) July 22, 2018

Warning: Third Way's "opportunity" agenda would give Wall Street a ton of taxpayer cash managing private retirement accounts instead of expanding Social Security. In 2011, their big idea was to cut Social Security. That's not "mainstream." That's radical. https://t.co/T6KieytFOD

— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) July 22, 2018

Responding to the Democratic establishment's attempts to dismiss the successes of bold progressives and uphold a toxic status quo, 27-year-old social worker Rachel Conner told the New York Times on Saturday: "They need to wake up and pay attention to what people actually want. There are so many progressive policies that have widespread support that mainstream Democrats are not picking up on, or putting that stuff down and saying, 'That wouldn't really work.'"

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Hundreds Arrested Nationwide as Poor People's Campaign Demands 'End to the War Economy'

Published on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 by Common Dreams

"We have a long history of wars against other people, mostly people of color, around the world. It's time we stopped calling it the Defense Department and started calling it what it is: the Department of War."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 41 Comments

In its demands unveiled last month, the Poor People's Campaign called for "a reallocation of resources from the military budget to education, healthcare, jobs, and green infrastructure needs, and strengthening a Veterans Administration system that must remain public." (Photo: Poor People's Campaign/Twitter)

Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning that "a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom," the Poor People's Campaign launched its third week of action in cities nationwide on Tuesday with the aim of confronting the American war economy, which pours resources that could be used to provide healthcare and food to the poor at home into the killing of innocents abroad.

Hoisting signs that read "The War Economy Is Immoral" and "Ban Killer Drones," demonstrators gathered at the capitol buildings of New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and several other states to denounce a militaristic system that profits "every time a bomb is dropped on innocent people."

As of this writing, hundreds have been arrested and many more are facing arrest as they gather outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) office in Washington, D.C.

 

#PoorPeoplesCampaign lining up outside McConnell’s DC office. Today’s theme: “challenge the war economy.” They’ll be facing arrest. pic.twitter.com/EcblF33ZOV

— Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) May 29, 2018

[VIDEO] The Rev. William Barber and his Poor People’s campaign hold a nonviolent protest at North Carolina statehouse. READ MORE: https://t.co/raxokUTH9D pic.twitter.com/rLGCDFBGMo

— AP South U.S. Region (@APSouthRegion) May 29, 2018

HAPPENING NOW: Dozens of Missourians have shut down the state capitol with the #PoorPeoplesCampaign for the 3rd time to call for an end to the war economy. We're fighting for our lives. And we all have a right to live. #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/nKLSZFhAJf

— Stand Up KC (@standup_kc) May 29, 2018

“If you want to thank me for my service, work for peace!” #PoorPeoplesCampaign pic.twitter.com/ImoBMmE2CM

— Union Seminary (@UnionSeminary) May 29, 2018

“We have a long history of wars against other people, mostly people of color, around the world...it’s time we stopped calling it the defense department and started calling it what it is: the department of war.” -John Braxton, Vietnam War draft resister #PoorPeoplesCampaign pic.twitter.com/nVrjcRMlDk

— PA Poor People's Campaign (@PennsylvaniaPPC) May 29, 2018

As Common Dreams reported, the Poor People's Campaign unveiled a detailed series of demands last month ahead of the launch of its 40 days of action in more than 30 states across the country.

"We demand a stop to the privatization of the military budget and any increase in military spending," the agenda reads. "We demand a reallocation of resources from the military budget to education, healthcare, jobs, and green infrastructure needs, and strengthening a Veterans Administration system that must remain public."

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Off the Top of My Head

Democrats Should Adopt Bernie Sanders' Program, Lock, Stock and Barrel

by John Lawrence, May 30, 2018

The Democrats should adopt the party's progressive wing program and completely dismiss the conservative wing started by the Clintons. They should stand for an economic program which benefits the middle class which is what Trump did more or less. People voted for Trump because they said 'what the hell let's give this guy a try and see what happens'. The old working class wanted their jobs back. Trump was all about giving them to them. Instead of old jobs back, Bernie's wing stands for demilitarizing the Federal budget and spending money on economic programs like free college, universal health care, creating jobs by rebuilding infrastructure - bread basket issues. Affordable housing should top the list and resolving the homeless issue. America is ready for a dose of socialism.

As opposed to the Clintons, the party should be anti-Wall Street. In the Bible it says, "Man cannot serve two masters." Hillary tried to have it both ways. Take money from Wall Street and be a populist at the same time. She was serving two masters. The reason why Bernie was so popular is that he said it like it is. Trump just basically talked about his pet peeves which resonated with the disenfranchised middle class workers. Demilitarizing and putting the money to use and the workers to work building infrastructure would appeal to the same workers and downtrodden middle class. Millennials are attracted by Bernie's desire to get rid of student loan debt and establish free tuition and training programs.

The nation has to be demilitarized and the rich need to pay their fair share of taxes. The US is spending trillions on war and is on the wrong side in its military alliances as long as it's against Iran and Russia and for Saudi Arabia. The US is creating a crisis in Yemen with its support of the Saudi's brutal campaign there. Saudi Arabia is the major support system for ISIS so why are we in bed with the Saudis? Trump said he was against wasting money on military adventures abroad. Putting America first was supposed to mean repatriating the money spent on military adventures abroad and building infrastructure at home. That would be putting America first. Trump is not doing it. Perhaps the Democratic Party should co-opt that slogan and really put America first by using the money spent on the War Department to fund American jobs here at home.

All-Time Highs for Stock Buybacks and Bank Profits as Workers Languish in Trump's America

Published on Tuesday, May 22, 2018 by Common Dreams

"We've got to repeal the outrageous corporate welfare of this tax plan and pass real tax reform that actually helps working families—not the one percent," said Sen. Bernie Sanders

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

8 Comments

For years, armies of bank lobbyists and executives have groaned about how financial rules are hurting them. But there's a big problem with their story—banks are making record profits," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) concluded in a tweet on Tuesday. (Photo: Alex Proimos/Flickr/cc)

As America's largest corporations continue their unprecedented stock buyback spree in the wake of President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut, new government data published on Tuesday showed that U.S. banks are also smashing records thanks to the GOP tax law, raking in $56 billion in net profits during the first quarter of 2018—an all-time high.

"The Trump/Republican tax plan has been nothing but a giant gift to corporations so that executives and shareholders can get richer."
—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

 

The new data, released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), comes as the House of Representatives is gearing up to pass a bipartisan deregulatory measure that would reward massive Wall Street banks like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup while dramatically increasing the risk of another financial crisis.

As Common Dreams reported, the Senate easily passed the bill in March with the help of 16 Democrats.

The banking industry's record-shattering profits fit with an entirely predictable pattern that has emerged following the passage of the GOP tax bill last December: America's most profitable corporations are posting obscene profits and using that cash to reward wealthy shareholders through stock buybacks while investing little to nothing in workers, despite their lofty promises.

"For years, armies of bank lobbyists and executives have groaned about how financial rules are hurting them. But there's a big problem with their story—banks are making record profits."
—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

 

According to a CNN analysis published on Sunday, "S&P 500 companies showered Wall Street with at least $178 billion of stock buybacks during the first three months of 2018." As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, major corporations are on track to send $1 trillion to rich investors through buybacks and dividend increases by the end of the year.

Most Americans, meanwhile, have said they are seeing very few noticeable benefits from the massive tax cuts and—according to a new study by United Way—nearly half of the U.S. population is still struggling to afford basic necessities like food, housing, and healthcare.

"The Trump/Republican tax plan has been nothing but a giant gift to corporations so that executives and shareholders can get richer," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday. "We've got to repeal the outrageous corporate welfare of this tax plan and pass real tax reform that actually helps working families—not the one percent."

How corporations are spending their tax breaks:

✅ Stock buybacks for their wealthy investors

❌ Long-term investments in their workershttps://t.co/sR1x3OYzoq

— Tax March (@taxmarch) May 22, 2018

Instead of addressing the deep-seated financial struggles much of the American public is facing even as the stock market continues to soar and as Trump boasts of an economic boom, Congress is preparing to provide an even greater windfall to wealthy bankers on Tuesday by gutting crucial post-crisis regulations and putting taxpayers on the hook for yet another bailout.

This morning, it was announced that America’s banking sector hit a new record high of $56 billion in net income in the first quarter of 2018.

This afternoon, the House is set to pass the #BankLobbyistAct to supposedly "provide relief" to the banking sector. What a shameful day. pic.twitter.com/OYNUc7FQf6

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) May 22, 2018

"For years, armies of bank lobbyists and executives have groaned about how financial rules are hurting them. But there's a big problem with their story—banks are making record profits," Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) concluded in a tweet on Tuesday. "Congress has done enough favors for big banks—the House should reject the Bank Lobbyist Act."

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Big Primary Wins for Socialists and Progressives Who Ran on 'Popular Demands That Were Deemed Impossible'

Published on Wednesday, May 16, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Welcome to the political revolution."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

8 Comments

Running on a platform including Medicare for All and free public education, democratic socialist Summer Lee defeated her Democratic establishment-backed opponent Paul Costa in Pennsylvania's 34th State House District. (Photo: Nathan Shaulis/Summer for PA)

"This is what happens when you run grassroots campaigns."

"We're just getting started."

"Welcome to the political revolution."

Defying national and state-level Democratic establishment forces that have worked to crowd out left-wing candidates and demonstrating that there is a deep hunger among the American electorate for a bold progressive agenda, candidates running on platforms of Medicare for All, free college, and a living wage emerged victorious in several state primaries on Tuesday and tore through the boundaries of what is conventionally considered politically feasible.

"They said it wasn't possible without institutional support. That we couldn't talk about Medicare for All, a living wage, about ending corruption in Harrisburg. And you know what we did instead? We built something."
—Sara Innamorato, Pennsylvania State House candidate

 

"It feels like a monumental shift," Arielle Cohen, co-chair of Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), told the Huffington Post after four DSA-backed candidates defeated establishment Democrats in Pennsylvania. "We won on popular demands that were deemed impossible. We won on healthcare for all; we won on free education."

Running in Pennsylvania's State House Districts 34 and 21 respectively, Summer Lee and Sara Innamorato—both running on platforms consisting of Medicare for All, strong environmental protection, and campaign finance reform—toppled what local news outlets described as a "political dynasty" by trouncing Democratic cousins Paul Costa and Dom Costa by a wide margin.

"They said it wasn't possible without institutional support. That we couldn't talk about Medicare for All, a living wage, about ending corruption in Harrisburg," Innamorato said during her victory party Tuesday night. "And you know what we did instead? We built something."

"The story is that the Costa cousins lost, but who they lost to, just as signifigant.

both of the challengers they faced were endorsed by @DemSocialists" #socialistscanwin pic.twitter.com/SHFV8Rsqrs

— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) May 16, 2018

"The establishment's scared," Pittsburgh DSA wrote on Twitter in response to the upset victories, which also included wins by Elizabeth Fiedler and Kristin Seale over their establishment counterparts. "When we fight, we win."

Signs of the grassroots progressive wave that some predicted will ultimately sweep across the country could also be seen in Idaho on Tuesday, where progressive Paulette Jordan handily defeated her establishment-backed Democratic opponent A.J. Balukoff in a bid to become the nation's first Native American governor.

If she wins in November, Jordan—who ran on protecting public land from corporate plunder and criminal justice reform—would be Idaho's first Democratic governor in over 20 years.

"Today's elections prove movement politics candidates, who rely on people power, can win, and win powerfully," Ryan Greenwood, director of Movement Politics for People's Action, said in a statement on Wednesday. "Candidates for public office who commit to a racial and gender justice agenda that puts people and our planet before profits are winning."

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Sanders Rips Bolton and Other Washington Hawks Who Push 'War and Militarism' as 'Answer to Everything'

Published on Sunday, May 13, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Maybe, just maybe, we might want to be investing in the American people rather than inflated military budgets and more and more wars."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

38 Comments

"This is a man who was a key adviser to President Bush, George W. Bush, in urging him to get involved to invade Iraq because supposedly Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," Sanders said of Bolton. (Photo: CNN/Screengrab)

Appearing on CNN early Sunday just moments after President Donald Trump's national security adviser John Bolton urged European nations to join the U.S. in violating the Iran nuclear accord, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) denounced Bolton as part of an influential faction of Washington ultra-hawks who push war as "the answer to everything."

"This is a man who was a key adviser to President Bush, George W. Bush, in urging him to...invade Iraq because supposedly Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," Sanders said of Bolton, who Trump selected to be his top foreign policy adviser in March. "As I think most Americans now know, that effort in Iraq was the worst foreign policy disaster in the modern history of this country."

The Vermont senator continued:

I think you have some people unfortunately in Washington—Bolton being one of them—who believe that war, and militarism, is the answer to everything. We have spent over $2 trillion in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and yet today our infrastructure here in the United States is crumbling, we have millions of people who can't afford to go to college or are leaving college deeply in debt. Maybe, just maybe, we might want to be investing in the American people rather than inflated military budgets and more and more wars.

Sanders' comments on Bolton—who in a separate interview on Sunday attempted to downplay and obscure his past support for regime change—come just days after the senator denounced the Trump administration's decision to violate the Iran nuclear accord, a move Bolton has pushed for since the agreement was finalized in 2015.

In a live-streamed response immediately following Trump's withdrawal announcement last Tuesday, Sanders called the president's decision "reckless" and said it moves the U.S. closer to yet another military conflict in the Middle East.

"By reimposing nuclear sanctions on Iran and withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise known as the Iran nuclear agreement, President Trump has put our nation on a dangerous path," Sanders added.

Monday evening, Sanders is set to elaborate his critique of Trump's violation of the nuclear agreement and discuss what comes next in a town hall hosted by The Intercept, The Guardian, NowThis, and other outlets.

We are partnering with @SenSanders to livestream a town hall addressing the consequences of President Trump pulling the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal. Tune in Monday at 7 p.m. ET: https://t.co/Usve7rFqEy pic.twitter.com/gTQmyxGpGC

— The Intercept (@theintercept) May 10, 2018

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Embracing 'the Sort of Bold Thinking We Need,' Sanders to Introduce Plan to Guarantee Every American a Job

Published on Monday, April 23, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Proponents trace the idea back to the New Deal Era, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pitched a 'Second Bill of Rights' to Congress in 1944. First on the list: the 'right to a useful and remunerative job.'"

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

 62 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) addresses a rally against the Republican tax plan outside the U.S. Capitol November 1, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

With the goal of eliminating "working poverty and involuntary unemployment," driving up wages, and curtailing income inequality, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is reportedly planning to introduce a federal jobs guarantee that would provide decent-paying employment to every American "who wants or needs" it.

"This is an opportunity for something transformative, beyond the tinkering we've been doing for the last 40 years, where all the productivity gains have gone to the elite of society." 
—Darrick Hamilton, The New School

 

First detailed by the Washington Post's Jeff Stein on Monday, Sanders' plan would "fund hundreds of projects throughout the United States aimed at addressing priorities such as infrastructure, caregiving, the environment, education, and other goals."

"Under the job guarantee, every American would be entitled to a job under one of these projects or receive job training to be able to do so, according to an early draft of the proposal," Stein notes. "Proponents trace the idea back to the New Deal Era, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pitched a 'Second Bill of Rights' to Congress in 1944. First on the list: the 'right to a useful and remunerative job.'"

In addition to providing workers with health benefits, Sanders' proposal would also require that Americans employed by the federal program be paid at least $15 an hour, which supporters say would lift the wages of all workers by boosting competition with the private sector.

"The plan's authors envision millions of Americans getting hired under the proposal," Stein notes.

Darrick Hamilton, an economist at the New School in New York, lauded Sanders' plan in an interview with the Washington Post, saying, "This is an opportunity for something transformative, beyond the tinkering we've been doing for the last 40 years, where all the productivity gains have gone to the elite of society."

Others embraced Sanders' proposal on social media:

This is the sort of bold thinking we need - disrupting the status quo back and forth in government between left and right and giving something for people to vote for. https://t.co/uvKWu2QcNQ

— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) April 23, 2018

News of Sanders' plan—which is still in the draft stage—comes as recent polling data has suggested that a federal jobs guarantee is immensely popular nationwide.

"We find that the job guarantee polls stunningly well in all 50 states," Sean McElwee, Colin McAuliffe, and Jon Green of Data for Progress noted in a recent article for The Nation. "Even in the state with the lowest modeled support, Utah, support is still 57 percent. Deep-red states like West Virginia (62 percent support), Indiana (61 percent), and Kansas (67 percent) all boast strong support for a job guarantee."

We modeled support for a job guarantee nationwide. It performs stunningly well. Democrats can run on a job guarantee everywhere. https://t.co/Uk3GR5Eu6Q pic.twitter.com/N4YPSY1Xpb

— abolish ice. send homan to the hague. (@SeanMcElwee) March 20, 2018

In addition to Sanders—who has also introduced legislation to guarantee healthcare to all Americans as a right—Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have also expressed support for a federal jobs guarantee.

"This is not a radical idea," Hamilton concluded in an interview with the Post. "It was well-couched in the Democratic platform that existed during its heyday."

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Recognizing Working Class Pain 'That Doesn't Make CNN,' Sanders and Rev. Barber Call for Building Truly Moral Economy

Published on Friday, April 20, 2018 by Common Dreams

"A moral economy is one that says, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, all of our people should be able to live with dignity and security."

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

4 Comments

"Every night on CNN they're talking about Stormy. The most pornographic thing that's happened in this country is the illicit relationship between the Supreme Court and big business that created Citizen's United," said Rev. William Barber. (Photo: Mary Helen Wood/The Duke Chronicle)

Coinciding with the launch of a new Poor People's Campaign that plans to bring mass action and a radical anti-poverty agenda to over 40 states in the coming weeks, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined Rev. William Barber at Duke University Thursday night to discuss the deep inequality and working class pain "that doesn't make CNN" and how to confront these crises on the way to building a truly moral economic system.

"Every progressive policy today that we hold dear was seen as impossible 100 years ago. And then a few people said, we're gonna believe, and we're gonna fight for what we believe." —Rev. William Barber

"When we talk about a moral economy, we talk about justice and we talk about the gross immorality of three people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of the American people," Sanders told the audience gathered inside Duke's Chapel. "A moral economy is one that says, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, all of our people should be able to live with dignity and security."

Titled "The Enduring Challenge of a Moral Economy: 50 Years After Dr. King Challenged Racism, Poverty, and Militarism," the discussion featured a wide range of topics, from the struggle for a living wage to voting rights to big money's influence on the Supreme Court—issues that Barber and Sanders argued are almost entirely ignored by the corporate media.

"Every night on CNN they're talking about Stormy," Barber, a leader of the new Poor People's campaign, said Thursday night. "The most pornographic thing that's happened in this country is the illicit relationship between the Supreme Court and big business that created Citizen's United."

Watch:

LIVE now @SenSanders and the @RevDrBarber at Duke U discuss “The Enduring Challenge of a Moral Economy: 50 Years After Dr. King Challenged Racism, Poverty, and Militarism” https://t.co/L882TqktiV #FightFor15 #PoorPeoplesCampaign pic.twitter.com/uiWT8aEDaz

— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) April 20, 2018

Highlighting Martin Luther King Jr.'s insistence that militarism is deeply connected to the crises of racism and poverty, Sanders and Barber also pointed to endless U.S. led wars overseas that have cost trillions of dollars as the poor in America lack healthcare and other basic necessities.

"We've been at war in Afghanistan for 17 years

We've been at war in Iraq for 15 years

We spend more than the following 12 countries combined

...Dr. King was very strong on this...

Do we want to be engaged in never-ending war?" @SenSanders pic.twitter.com/joLqnO77Yr

— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) April 20, 2018

 While much of the discussion Thursday night was centered on the systemic racial and economic inequities that continue to oppress vast swaths of the world's wealthiest nation, Sanders and Barber ended the event on an optimistic note, arguing that "when we stand together, we can do incredible things for the world."

.@SenSanders ends his discussion with @RevDrBarber on Dr. King: "We share a common humanity" pic.twitter.com/ceQPmJLeRT

— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) April 20, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Every progressive policy today that we hold dear was seen as impossible 100 years ago," Barber added. "And then a few people said, we're gonna believe, and we're gonna fight for what we believe."

Watch the full event:

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Watch: Sanders, Warren, Moore Headline National Town Hall on Inequality and Oligarchy

Published on Monday, March 19, 2018 by Common Dreams

 

"We need to ask the hard questions that the corporate media fails to ask: who owns America, and who has the political power? Why, in the richest country in the history of the world are so many Americans living in poverty?"

by Jon Queally, staff writer

 

55 Comments

Streaming live on Facebook at 7pm EDT on Monday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will be joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Michael Moore, along with other advocates and experts, as they explore inequality, the rise of oligarchy, and the death of the middle class. (Photo: senate.sanders.gov)

On Monday night, from 7:00pm to 8:30pm EDT, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is hosting a nationally televised town hall tonight focused on U.S. inequality and the threat posed by an increasing powerful oligarchy that has corrupted the nation's economy and politics.

"The rapid rise of oligarchy and wealth and income inequality is the great moral, economic, and political issue of our time."

In partnership with The Guardian, NowThis, The Young Turks and Act.tv, the event—officially titled "Town Hall on Inequality in America: The Rise of Oligarchy and Collapse of the Middle Class"—will feature a wide-ranging coversation with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, and other expert panelists who will discuss the economic issues that mainstream and corporate news too often ignore.

Watch it live here:

"We need to ask the hard questions that the corporate media fails to ask: who owns America, and who has the political power? Why, in the richest country in the history of the world are so many Americans living in poverty? What are the forces that have caused the American middle class, once the envy of the world, to decline precipitously?" Sanders wrote in an op-ed promoting the event last week. "We need to hear from struggling Americans whose stories are rarely told in newspapers or television."

Tonight at 7pm ET: Join me, @MMFlint and @SenWarren for a conversation about a topic too often ignored by the corporate media – wealth and income inequality. #InequalityTownHall pic.twitter.com/K9JRCnG3KL

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 19, 2018

"The rapid rise of oligarchy and wealth and income inequality is the great moral, economic, and political issue of our time," Sander tweeted on Monday. "Join us at 7 PM ET tonight on Facebook Live for conversation about inequality in America."

 

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Recognizing Populist Demand, Gillibrand and Booker Swear Off Corporate Cash

Published on Wednesday, February 14, 2018 by Common Dreams

In making pledge, Gillibrand and Booker join a small group of their Senate colleagues—Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Maria Cantwell and Bernie Sanders—who have also vowed to reject corporate PAC donations

by Jake Johnson, staff writer

 

22 Comments

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) speaks as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) listen during an event on healthcare September 13, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In moves celebrated by progressives as further evidence that grassroots pressure on the Democratic Party to ditch corporate cash is having an impact, two senators—Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.)—pledged on Tuesday to no longer accept corporate PAC donations.

"Our movement has shown that you can't expect to be a leader of the Democratic Party if you're going to keep taking money from Wall Street banks and large corporations."
—Justice Democrats

In making this pledge, Gillibrand and Booker joined a small group of their Senate colleagues—Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Maria Cantwell (D-Was.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who have already sworn off corporate PAC money.

"I will no longer accept donations from corporate PACs," Gillibrand announced in a video posted on Twitter Tuesday. "We really need to make every effort we can to get rid of the corporate money and dark money that is flowing into politics, and my effort to ban corporate PAC checks is just a first step in that direction."

Booker also made his announcement through Twitter, writing that decision was a result of discussions with constituents.

I heard from constituents today asking about corporate PAC contributions. I'm joining several of my colleagues & no longer accepting these contributions. Our campaign finance system is broken. I thank @StopBigMoney for their work—it’s time to pass campaign finance reform.

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) February 14, 2018

Responding to the senators' announcements on Tuesday, the progressive group Justice Democrats attributed the growing trend of candidates and incumbents refusing corporate cash to the burgeoning grassroots desire for a campaign finance system that elevates the voice of the public, not massive corporations.

"Our movement has shown that you can't expect to be a leader of the Democratic Party if you're going to keep taking money from Wall Street banks and large corporations," Justice Democrats wrote on Twitter, tagging other senators who have not yet vowed to reject corporate money. "This is a sign that we are transforming the Democratic Party. Keep pushing. Don't stop."

As the campaign finance reform group End Citizens United (ECU) observed in a statement on Tuesday, Booker and Gillibrand are part of a "growing trend of candidates across the country who are pledging to refuse corporate PAC money," including Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), who is vying to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2018, and Randy Bryce, who is challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).

"Americans' faith in the government is at an all-time low, with more than 90 percent believing the government is working for the benefit of a few special interests," ECU noted. "A robust reform agenda would help end the outsized influence special interests has on our politicians and helps build trust with constituents. ECU has found that 62 percent of Americans believe that a candidate who refuses to accept corporate PAC money is a sign that the candidate is serious about reform."

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Off the Top of My Head

Democrats Represent a Congeries of Minorities, Not Majority

by John Lawrence

It's great to stand up for the little guy, for the minority. The only problem is it doesn't work in American politics. Democracy represents the majority. It's the majority vote that counts. That means that in order to win you have to stand up for the majority. The majority rules. That's how Trump won. He appealed to the majority that happened to be white males and their female counterparts. The Democrats appealed to minorities. That's not a formula for success. Only Bernie Sanders had a message that appealed to the majority and included the minorities without specifically mentioning their problems.

Anthony Scarimucci on Bill Maher's show, Real Time, tried to get the point across that while his parents were aspirational, the majority of Americans are now desperational. That's not a word but it makes perfect sense. The majority of Americans is concerned about economic issues. Who was it that said, "It's the economy, stupid." As a Democratic Socialist, Bernie continually pointed out how the rich have taken over the economy, how a handful of billionaires own more wealth than the whole middle class. His issues were Medicare for All, free education up through the college level and other issues of this nature.

Trump hooked them with xenophobia and a promise to spend a trillion dollars on infrastructure. He promised to bring all those jobs back from Asia and Mexico. So far he's only increased the economic divide by giving huge tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy in return for a pittance of a tax break for the middle class. That pittance will be phased out if it doesn't disappear immediately for some people because of the elimination of property tax and state tax deductions.

Democrats need to follow in Bernie's footsteps and stick to economic issues which will only improve the lives of the middle class AND minorities without specifically mentioning them. Taxing the rich to pay for infrastructure and other programs will decrease the economic divide. Otherwise, we are returning to a neo-feudal system where billionaires replace the roles of kings, nobles and landed gentry and the 99% return to serfdom.

Watch: Bernie Sanders' Response to Trump State of the Union

Published on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 by Common Dreams

"Here's the story that Trump failed to mention..."

by Common Dreams staff

  

29 Comments

Following President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) offered a response.

"I want to take a few minutes of your time to respond to Trump's State of the Union speech," Sanders announced. "But I also want to talk to you about the major crises facing our country that, regrettably, Trump chose not to discuss."

And, he added, "I want to offer a vision of where we should go as a nation which is far different than the divisiveness, dishonesty, and racism coming from the Trump Administration over the past year."

Watch:

The complete text of Sanders' prepared remarks follow:

Good evening. Thanks for joining us.

Tonight, I want to take a few minutes of your time to respond to President Trump’s State of the Union speech.  But I want to do more than just that.  I want to talk to you about the major crises facing our country that, regrettably, President Trump chose not to discuss.  I want to talk to you about the lies that he told during his campaign and the promises he made to working people which he did not keep. 

Finally, I want to offer a vision of where we should go as a nation which is far different than the divisiveness, dishonesty, and racism coming from the Trump Administration over the past year.

President Trump talked tonight about the strength of our economy.  Well, he’s right.  Official unemployment today is 4.1 percent which is the lowest it has been in years and the stock market in recent months has soared.  That’s the good news. 

But what President Trump failed to mention is that his first year in office marked the lowest level of job creation since 2010.  In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 254,000 fewer jobs were created in Trump’s first 11 months in office than were created in the 11 months before he entered office. 

Further, when we talk about the economy, what’s most important is to understand what is happening to the average worker.  And here’s the story that Trump failed to mention tonight. 

Over the last year, after adjusting for inflation, the average worker in America saw a wage increase of, are you ready for this, 4 cents an hour, or 0.17%.  Or, to put it in a different way, that worker received a raise of a little more than $1.60 a week.  And, as is often the case, that tiny wage increase disappeared as a result of soaring health care costs. 

Meanwhile, at a time of massive wealth and income inequality, the rich continue to get much richer while millions of American workers are working two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water.  Since March of last year, the three richest people in America saw their wealth increase by more than $68 billion.  Three people.  A $68 billion increase in wealth.  Meanwhile, the average worker saw an increase of 4 cents an hour.

Very Unpopular Trump Reportedly Thinks Extremely Popular Sanders Would Be 'Easy to Beat' in 2020

Published on Tuesday, January 16, 2018 by Common Dreams

A White House insider says the president is "always asking people, 'Who do you think is going to run against me?'" 

by Jessica Corbett, staff writer

 

35 Comments

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has said he is not taking a 2020 presidential run "off the table," but he has declined to comment any further on his plans beyond this year's relection campaign for the U.S. Senate. (Photo: AP/Jacquelyn Martin/Seth Wenig/Photo montage by Salon)

In spite of his record low approval ratings and a series of polls that peg him as the loser in the next presidential race, President Donald Trump reportedly believes that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who is seen as a top challenger to Trump in 2020 and currently the most popular politician in the country—is not "a serious threat and would be easy to beat."

Politico reported late Monday that Trump had recently shared this view with "a Republican with close ties to the White House." The 71-year-old president's conclusion wasn't based on politics; according to the anonymous Republican, "Trump was hung up on Sanders' age, arguing that Sanders, now 76, wouldn't have the energy to run another national campaign."

Trump also brushed off a potential challenge from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a frequent target of the president's public attacks. "He's always asking people, 'Who do you think is going to run against me?'" the Politico source said of Trump. "I don't think he sees anyone, right now, being a serious competitor."

The report comes as Trump's approval rating remains below 40 percent, according to Gallup. 

Although recent polling focused on the 2020 race has shown former Vice President Joe Biden winning over more Democratic voters than Sanders or Warren—with media icon Oprah Winfrey also beating out Warren—since the fall of 2017, the senators have consistently defeated Trump in polls that pit them against the president. A November poll (pdf) had Sanders leading Trump 42 to 36 percent. 

Sanders has said he is not taking a 2020 presidential run "off the table," but he has declined to comment any further on his plans beyond this year's relection campaign for the U.S. Senate. However, political observers and analysts have suggested both Warren and Sanders are making moves that indicate they will enter the next race for president.

While Sanders has jumped into his role as the Democratic Party's outreach chair—pushing the party further left and fostering relationships with Democrats, even as he maintains his Independent status—Warren has, as Politico noted after the New Year, "amassed more money in her campaign war chest than nearly any senator in modern history, groomed political connections with Democrats who've been skeptical of her in the past, and worked to bolster her bipartisan and foreign policy bona fides."

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Sanders Slams Trump for 'Bragging' About Millions of Americans Losing Healthcare

Published on Sunday, December 24, 2017 by Common Dreams

The Vermont senator was referring to a provision in GOP tax bill that repeals ACA individual mandate, potentially throwing 13 million Americans off their health insurance

by Common Dreams staff

 

36 Comments

"Instead of bragging about more Americans without health insurance, we should join every other major country on Earth, guarantee healthcare for all people, and end the absurdity of paying twice as much per capita for healthcare, as every other major nation," Sanders said. (Photo: CNN/Screengrab)

In an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed President Donald Trump for "bragging" about a provision in the GOP tax bill that could throw 13 million Americans off their health insurance and argued that the U.S. should instead be working toward guaranteeing healthcare to all Americans as a right.

"Instead of bragging about more Americans without health insurance, we should join every other major country on Earth, guarantee healthcare for all people, and end the absurdity of paying twice as much per capita for healthcare as every other major nation," the Vermont senator said.

Sanders was reacting Trump's recent comments on the GOP tax bill's repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. Trump claimed that the provision "essentially" repeals Obamacare, and insisted that he "will come up with something better."

The Republican Party's previous healthcare push, Sanders was quick to note, resulted in a bill that would have thrown more than 20 million Americans off their health insurance.

Sanders' remarks came in a wide-ranging interview in which he also denounced Trump for lying about who benefits from his tax plan and said Republicans should be "very" worried about their 2018 electoral prospects, given the deep unpopularity of their tax legislation.

"What we're seeing in Alabama, what we're seeing in Virginia, New Jersey and in states all across this country, are large voter turnouts, are people standing up and fighting back and demanding that we have a government that represents all of us, not just the one percent."

The Vermont senator also denounced Congress's lack of action to protect dreamers, calling it a "moral outrage."

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