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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders to Discuss POVERTY in America
PRESS RELEASE
Sanders to Discuss Poverty in America
MAY 5TH, 2016

KIMBALL, W. Va. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday was in McDowell County, West Virginia, to meet at a food bank with people living in one of the worst pockets of poverty in the United States and to examine why 47 million Americans live in poverty in the richest nation on earth.
He will meet this morning with West Virginians at the Five Loaves & Two Fishes Food Bank, where Linda and Bob McKinney struggle to keep residents of the rural mountain county from going hungry.
The discussion is expected to focus on the urgent need to lift millions of Americans out of poverty and rebuild the middle class. Sanders will focus on how poverty can be a death sentence. In McDowell County, where deaths by suicide and from drug overdoses are among the highest in the state, men live on average to be only 64 years old. Sanders will contrast that to suburban Washington, D.C., just a six-hour drive away, where men in wealthy Fairfax County, Virginia, live on average until the age of 82. The average life expectancy for women in Fairfax County is 85, compared to just 73 for women in McDowell.
To read the senators prepared remarks, click here.
To read prepared remarks by panelists, click here.
To read Sanders interview on poverty in McDowell County with Steve Inskeep on NPRs MorningEdition today, click here.
To read more in The Atlantic about poverty and mortality, click here.
https://berniesanders.com/press-release/19214/
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Bernie Sanders to Discuss POVERTY in America (Original Post)
Segami
May 2016
OP
They count for me but Bernie is the one dismissing them, he made that statement. nt
Jitter65
May 2016
#8
His career directly contradicts your mischaracterization of his statement.
hellofromreddit
May 2016
#9
Segami
(14,923 posts)1. "...And if we stand together,..
"...men and women, gay and straight, black, white, Latino, Asian, and Native American, and say loudly and clearly that enough is enough! That this country belongs to all of us, not just a handful of billionaires, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish..."
- Bernie Sanders
- Bernie Sanders
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)2. Why? Since poor people don't vote. nt
bunnies
(15,859 posts)4. Because he cares.
Imagine that.
polly7
(20,582 posts)5. I think the point is ...
why don't poor people vote? Is it because they're working three jobs and can't get the time off? Maybe they don't have transportation or money to get there? Possibly, they can't afford to get a babysitter, hire a hospice worker to take over for a few hours, etc., etc., etc. That is the point he was making. Funny you missed it.
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)7. i know you don't like it, but they count even when they don't vote
Jitter65
(3,089 posts)8. They count for me but Bernie is the one dismissing them, he made that statement. nt
hellofromreddit
(1,182 posts)9. His career directly contradicts your mischaracterization of his statement.
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)12. nice pretzel









thebeautifulstruggle
(95 posts)6. what a sad a bleak picture he speaks to
very sad
Dragonfli
(10,622 posts)10. K&R for needed exposure /nt
benny05
(5,322 posts)11. It is Sad
Especially since no one has brought up the working poor since John Edwards. Obama and Clinton promised to talk about poverty as POTUS...and I guess with all of us possibly going into a ditch in fall 2008, somehow this issue got kicked down the road.
Thank you, Bernie. And yes, working poor often cannot vote because we don't make it easy for them to vote. Dems really need to do something about this.