Bernie predicted Panama in 2011

[pinebox]

There's a new hit piece out in WaPo saying basically Bernie lied about Panama which is being pushed in the HC group.

Let me get out my DeLorean and set the clock to 2011.

[DanTex]

1. Bernie is wrong yet again. As the WP pointed out, Panama was already a tax haven

when the trade deal was signed, and since then things have improved, thanks to the fact that Panama agreed to tighter financial scrutiny in order to establish the trade agreement.

It's the normal pattern with Bernie: his heart's (usually) in the right place, but he doesn't really understand policy.

[quantass]

2. It's a funny world when Sanders is consistently on the right side of history and yet

is somehow abused by Hillary supporters. I've concluded the majority of Hillary supporters are not progressives. Like conservatives they want to keep things the way they are or even regress. I think her average supporter is mostly afraid and/or ignorant. Usually a sign of an older voter. What TV or radio and stick with what you've come to know. I think actual progressives really should leave the Democrat party.

[Octafish]

3. Bezos must really be worried his taxes are going up.

BERNIE SANDERS ON THE PANAMA PAPERS: TOLD YOU SO

ISSIE LAPOWSKY
WIRED, April 5, 2016

BACK IN 2011, Bernie Sanders told the Senate that Panama was “a world leader when it comes to allowing large corporations and wealthy Americans to evade US taxes.”

This week, those words are sounding eerily prophetic, and the Sanders campaign, for one, would like to remind you of that fact.

As the world reels from the so-called Panama Papers leak, which exposed the offshore tax havens of world leaders from Russia’s Vladimir Putin to Icelandic Prime Minister Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Sanders is calling attention to his opposition to the 2011 Panama Trade Agreement.

“I was opposed to the Panama Free Trade Agreement from day one,” Sanders said in a statement today. “I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared.”

As president, Sanders says he would terminate the agreement within his first six months in office and “conduct an immediate investigation into US banks, corporations, and wealthy individuals who have been stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes.”

SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/2016/04/bernie-sanders-panama-papers-told/

Bezos isn't so rich he can undo the past.

[eridani]

4. While Clinton Backed 2011 Trade Deal, Sanders Foresaw Panama Papers Fiasco

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/05/while-clinton-backed-2011-trade-deal-sanders-foresaw-panama-papers-fiasco

Who could have predicted that the global tax evasion by the world's ultra-rich, made public this week with the release of the Panama Papers, was ushered in with the help of a free trade agreement?

Turns out, Sen. Bernie Sanders did.

In fiery speech before the U.S. Senate in 2011, Bernie Sanders declared his "strong opposition" to the "unfettered free trade agreements" with Korea, Columbia, and Panama—agreements that were being pushed for by both President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sanders' current rival for the Democratic nomination.

"Panama is a world leader when it comes to allowing wealthy Americans and large corporations to evade U.S. taxes by stashing their cash in off-shore tax havens," Sanders stated. "And, the Panama Free Trade Agreement would make this bad situation much worse."