Bernie Gives It A Try
This headline seems unremarkable on any site I would normally be accessing: Biden must resist Republican debt ceiling demands. Here’s what he needs to do instead. Except the site it’s on is FoxNews.com/ So suddenly it seemed very remarkable. Then I looked closer, a lot closer. And it was Fox News’ best-ever contributor: Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Possibly appealing to Fox viewers, he wrote that “At a time when corporations are making enormous profits by jacking up the price of health care, prescription drugs, gasoline and groceries, do we finally end the huge loopholes that exist in our rigged tax code that allow large corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes? Or do we eliminate the corporate minimum tax passed last year that prevents giant profitable corporations from paying nothing in federal income taxes after making billions in profits?”
Yesterday, Data For Progress released a new poll showing that even a majority of Republican voters (56%) understand that the average worker needs to earn more than $20/hour to have a decent quality of life. Although less than the what the average American thinks workers should make ($26.20), the average Republican thinks workers should make $25.50— a lot more than the pitiful $7.25 it is now.
Would they be open to Bernie’s message as well? “At a time when we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” he wrote, “do we finally take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and substantially reduce the price of what Medicare and the American people pay for life-saving medicine? Or do we continue to allow the pharmaceutical industry to bankrupt Medicare and cancer patients by charging outrageously high prices at the pharmacy counter?”
Sadly, the Republicans have made their priorities abundantly clear throughout the budget negotiations.
If Congress does not agree to impose massive cuts on the needs of working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor — they will allow, for the first time in our history, the U.S. to default on the national debt.
This action will have a devastating impact on our economy, destroy millions of jobs and cause interest rates on mortgages and auto loans to skyrocket.
The hypocrisy of Republicans in Washington is truly breathtaking. Over and over again, we hear from the Republican leadership about how deeply concerned they are about the large deficit and national debt that we have.
Really? If that's the case, why have they been pushing for the complete repeal of the estate tax which benefits a handful of multi-billionaire families and would increase the federal deficit by $1.8 trillion?
Why are they pushing for an extension of the Trump tax breaks that disproportionately benefit the wealthy and large corporations and would increase the federal deficit by $3.5 trillion?
Why do they want huge increases in defense spending that would increase the national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars?
While defaulting on our nation's debt would be a disaster so would enacting the budget Republicans passed in the House in April. Here are just some of the estimated impacts of what is included in their budget to cut non-defense discretionary spending by at least 22% next year:
Deep and sweeping budget cuts that would push 790,000 Americans out of their jobs and push our economy toward a recession.
Up to 21 million Americans could lose Medicaid, ripping away the healthcare they need.
80,000 jobs would be cut at the Department of Veterans Affairs alone and millions of veterans would be forced to wait much longer for the care and benefits they need.
1.2 million women, infants and children would not receive the nutrition they need to stay healthy through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program.
Nutrition services, such as Meals on Wheels, would be cut for more than 1 million low-income seniors.
640,000 families would lose access to rental assistance and more than 430,000 low-income families would be evicted from their homes.
200,000 children would be thrown off Head Start and 180,000 kids would lose access to childcare.
2 million Americans would lose access to health care services through Community Health Centers.
In my view, there is only one option. President Biden has the authority and the responsibility under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to avoid a default.
The language in that amendment is quite clear. It says, "The validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned." This is a constitutional guarantee that the U.S. will always pay all its debts, period.
This is not a radical idea. Making sure that the United States continues to pay its bills regardless of whether the statutory increase in the debt ceiling is raised or not is an idea that has been supported by Republicans and Democrats.
Back in 2016, then-President Donald Trump was correct when he said: "This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money." In other words, while the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 90% of our population, and when 60% of our workers are living paycheck to paycheck, the Republican budget would cause massive suffering for the most vulnerable people in our country.
The willingness of Republicans to hold the world's economy hostage to their Draconian and cruel demands has made it extremely difficult to enact a bipartisan budget deal at this time.
So where do we go from here?
Using the 14th Amendment would allow the United States to continue to pay its bills on-time and without delay, prevent an economic catastrophe, and prevent huge cuts to healthcare, education, childcare, affordable housing, nutrition assistance and the needs of our veterans.
It must be exercised.
But forget Kandiss Taylor. Or don’t… for a minute. Remember her? She ran for governor of Georgia in the 2022 Republican primary, really just another typical MAGA candidate, no different from any MAGA candidate. She’s a teacher in Baxley, Appling County with a doctorate who had already run for U.S. Senate. The gubernatorial electorate didn’t favor her— but she did get 41,232 votes, coming in 3rd among 5 candidates. She was subsequently elected to the GOP first district chair, running on the platform of standing up to “the Luciferian Cabal.” She also hosts the MAGAt podcast Jesus, Guns, & Babies. She believes the earth is flat and that there’s a conspiracy to push globes on people. “All the globes, everywhere. I turn on the TV, there’s globes in the background… Everywhere there’s globes. You see them all the time, it’s constant. My children will be like ‘Mama, globe, globe, globe, globe’— they’re everywhere. That’s what they do, to brainwash. For me if it’s not a conspiracy. If it is real, why are you pushing so hard everywhere I go? Every store, you buy a globe, there’s globes everywhere. Every movie, every TV show, news media— why? More and more I’m like, it doesn’t make sense.” This is Marjorie Traitor Greene or Lauren Boebert… but not in Congress yet. You want her teaching children in a school? Click the tweet; listen... learn. I suspect she's not going to be open to Bernie's arguments.
"Although less than the what the average American thinks workers should make ($26.20), the average Republican thinks workers should make $25.50— a lot more than the pitiful $7.25 it is now. " The implication is that the average American thinks the average American should be paid the federal minimum wage? No. People think of themselves as "the average American". They think of other (lesser?) people as "minimum wage workers"
forget it. the nazis have had no reasonable members since Everett Dirkson. Bernie gets a nice headline, but he knows as well as I do that he's wasting his time.
Also, he's wasting his time instead of doing anything substantive to move his party left... and he also knows this.
He's perpetuating a myth here. And that myth will only be useful to the nazis.
Any of bernie's believers who believe in this fall into the very bottom of the category of democrap voters -- dumber than shit.