Tag: Sen. Sanders

“Why I Oppose The Pentagon Budget”

My regular visitors know that I oppose that massive War Department budget that is being considered….I feel it is just a step for a total war….I believe tax payer cash should be spent on the tax payers not some mud hole half way around the world….and I have been very vocal for decades on the amount of cash authorized for our ‘defense’…..we are not defending the US just instigating and funding multiple wars around the globe.

Sen. Sanders has written an op-ed on why he opposes this waste of tax payer money…..

The US Senate is now debating an $886bn defense authorization bill. Unless there are major changes to the bill, I intend to vote against it. Here’s why.

As everyone knows, our country faces enormous crises.

As a result of climate change our planet is experiencing unprecedented and rising temperatures. Along with the rest of the world, we need to make major investments to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into more efficient and sustainable energy sources, or the life we leave our kids and future generations will become increasingly unhealthy and precarious.

Our healthcare system is broken. While the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry make hundreds of billions in profit, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, our life expectancy is declining, and we have a massive shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health practitioners and dentists.

Our educational system is teetering. While we have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty of almost any major country, millions of parents cannot find affordable and quality childcare. The number of our young people who graduate from college is falling behind many other countries and 45 million Americans are struggling under the weight of student debt.

Our housing stock is totally inadequate. While gentrification is causing rents to soar in many parts of our country some 600,000 Americans are homeless, and 18 million are spending more than half of their limited incomes on housing.

These are some of the crises our country faces. And we’re not dealing with them.

Why I Oppose the Pentagon Budget

Bernie is so much more eloquent than me…..I agree with every word of his op-ed….I do not stand against the Pentagon but it should live up to it’s name, the Defense Department, money saved should be used where it is most needed….in this country.

Making this country strong internally would be the best defense against any troublemakers.

I am sure someone has an opposing opinion….even if it is wrong.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Sen. Bernie Sanders: Man Of The People

There are not many in Washington that I would give the time of day……my two faves are Eliz.. Warren and Bernie Sanders……I have been a fan of Sanders since his days in state politics in Vermont……he has consistently been a person of the people…..there have been others that I respected their time in DC but not many…..

Sanders has always been a proponent of the poor and the middle class……he has been vocal and demanding….few in DC would listen and even fewer would have his back when it came to the nut cutting……

He and Warren are making a dynamite one two punch…….the Left is very fortunate to have these two people as their spokesperson…….Sen. Warren let the Congress have it over the latest government funding bill…..she withheld NO punches.

Remember 2008….I know it is a sore subject that few want to revisit……but to solve the problem from ever happening again there was a call to break up the big banks and eliminate the “too big too fail” syndrome where the taxpayer had to cover them for their bad business practices…….Sanders is trying again to do the right thing for the country with his 12 point plan………

Sanders detailed a 12-point economic program to,

– Invest in our crumbling infrastructure with a major program to create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools.

– Transform energy systems away from fossil fuels to create jobs while beginning to reverse global warming and make the planet habitable for future generations.

– Develop new economic models to support workers in the United States instead of giving tax breaks to corporations which ship jobs to low-wage countries overseas.

– Make it easier for workers to join unions and bargain for higher wages and benefits.

– Raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour so no one who works 40 hours a week will live in poverty.

– Provide equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make.

– Reform trade policies that have shuttered more than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs.

– Make college affordable and provide affordable child care to restore America’s competitive edge compared to other nations.

– Break up big banks. The six largest banks now have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product, over $9.8 trillion. They underwrite more than half the mortgages in the country and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards.

– Join the rest of the industrialized world with a Medicare-for-all health care system that provides better care at less cost.

– Expand Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs.

– Reform the tax code based on wage earners’ ability to pay and eliminate loopholes that let profitable corporations stash profits overseas and pay no U.S. federal income taxes.

I have NO problem with his plan…..which is unusual for I seldom find a plan coming out of the Senate that I agree with…….Americans need to get informed and back Sanders plan…….another 2008 is only a tick away from happening again…….

Because of the collective ignorance of the American people will ensure that we will face another economic crash…..and this one may not be as easy to repair as the last…….

Keep your head in the sand and you will make it possible for more suffering of the American people……I know most could care less about their fellow Americans and that is why we are doomed to keep making the same mistake time and time again……..