Bernie: No deal is better than a bad deal. Watch Bernie with Howlin' Wolf Blitzer.

[Scuba]

From my email....


Dear Scuba,


Here is something we all can agree on: Federal deficits are a serious problem.

Here is something no one seriously disputes: Today's big deficits were caused mainly by big tax cuts for the wealthy, two unpaid-for wars, a horrible recession caused by Wall Street greed, and an expensive prescription drug program rigged to favor pharmaceutical companies.

Here is something we should not agree to do: Cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

There is surprisingly broad consensus among Americans (except inside the corporate-dominated D.C. beltway) on what to do about deficits. In poll after poll, strong majorities favor making the wealthiest Americans, who, in many cases, have never had it so good, share the sacrifice and pay a little more in taxes. Increasing taxes on the wealthy is overwhelmingly supported by Democrats and independents. A majority of Republicans and people in the Tea Party movement also support taxing millionaires to help bring down deficits. Even many millionaires say they should be paying higher taxes. At a time when many profitable corporations pay nothing in federal income taxes, there also is widespread support for closing corporate tax loopholes. Taking a hard look at mushrooming defense spending also enjoys widespread support.


Watch Bernie on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer here: http://www.bernie.org/uncategorized/sanders-dems-must-work-for-middle-class-cnn/#scroll


For far too long, the Washington agenda has been set by powerful corporate interests and a right wing that do not represent the needs and aspirations of most Americans. For too long, the Democrats have gone along with Republican demands and caved in to these powerful special interests. Enough is enough! The Democrats must stand tall and continue to resist Republican demands to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, while leaving the wealthiest people and largest corporations in this country exempt from shouldering their fair share of the tax burden.

As a Thanksgiving deadline nears for action by the powerful Super Committee on deficit reduction, I am outraged (but not surprised) that Republicans refuse to listen to the American people and continue to insist on supporting their wealthy friends and corporate benefactors. I hope that Democrats will not once again capitulate just for the sake of an agreement but will instead demand that deficit reduction is done in a fair and responsible way. But that has, unfortunately, not been their pattern.

In December -- when Democrats controlled the Senate, the House and the White House -- Congress and President Obama not only extended Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy but also gave new breaks to heirs of the super-rich.

In April -- with a Democrat in the White House and Democrats still in the majority in the Senate -- Republicans threatened to shut down the government and delay the processing of new Social Security benefits for senior citizens unless their demands were met. Democrats went along with $78 billion in cuts from the president's budget request.

In August, in an outrageous display of unprincipled gamesmanship, Republicans put the United States on the brink of bankruptcy. Instead of invoking clear 14th Amendment powers to honor our nation's debts, the president and most Democrats agreed to a $2.5 trillion deficit-reduction package.

That's how we got to where we are today.

Incredibly, throughout all of these negotiations -- in December, in April, in August and again today -- the wealthiest Americans and the country's major corporations have not yet been asked to contribute one penny toward deficit reduction. That is despite huge cuts in life-and-death programs for working families.

The American people have had it. The Occupy Wall Street movement is growing, and energizing young people in particular in a way that we have not seen for many years. A virtual popular uprising forced Bank of America to drop an unpopular $5 monthly debit card fee. On Election Day 2011, in Ohio and many other states the American people said NO to right-wing extremism and corporate greed.

The American people are very clear. They do not want Democrats to reach another 'grand bargain' with representatives of the rich and powerful that eviscerates the most successful and popular social programs in the history of this country. They want Democrats to stand up for the 99 percent, not the 1 percent.

If the president and Democrats on the Super Committee go along with cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the three pillars of the New Deal and the Great Society, and permanently extend the Bush tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent, the American people will shake their heads in disbelief. They will arrive at the reasonably valid conclusion that there are no significant differences between the two parties controlled by corporate interests.

I think that Democrats, as the Super Committee deliberations near conclusion, may finally have gotten the message.

This is a pivotal moment in American history. The rich and large corporations are doing phenomenally well while the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing. Now is the time to answer the question that the Woody Guthrie song poignantly asked, "Which side are you on?" The Democrats must answer boldly that they are on the side of working families and the middle class and that they will fight to protect their interests.

What if the Super Committee ends in stalemate? Across-the-board, automatic cuts are set to kick in. That so-called sequestration wouldn't start, however, until 2013. That would make 2012 one of the most important election years in modern American history.

If Democrats stand with ordinary Americans and make it clear that they are prepared to take on the wealthy and the powerful, they could win both houses of Congress. They could give Obama a fresh infusion of boldness as he enters a second term in the White House.

Somehow I recall a few years ago millions of America

Sincerely,


Senator Bernie Sanders

[Vincardog]

1. IF the Democrats and BO stand up for American Citizens LOUDLY and PROUDLY NOW.

[JDPriestly]

2. The interview is great. Bernie Sanders is the only straight-talker in Congress.

[indepat]

3. But Senator Sanders: it's so in vogue for our elected representatives to

to favor huge cuts in life-and-death programs for working-class rather than to require the wealthiest and large corporations to bear even a reasonably equitable portion of the federal income tax burden. Seemingly even some on this board don't realize/are unwilling to accept just how brazenly and unconscionably depraved governance has become, just how extremely far to the right this administration has governed on the issues which Senator Sanders speaks. But that is the catch-22, for we all know any Republican would govern even further to the right. Sadly we have reached a watershed moment in our history imo through continued RW governance: the OWS movement seems to be telling us society will likely implode upon itself unless this pervasive RW governance is soon wiped from the face of America. Surely all on this board can agree that cutting the big three to enable the wealthy and large corporations to continue sucking at the public welfare teat is extremely RW. If we can't agree on this issue, what issue can we agree on? :patriot: