Sen. Bernie Sanders: Now is the Time

[babylonsister]

Sen. Bernie Sanders
Posted October 22, 2008 | 10:34 AM (EST)
Now is the Time

snip//

At this pivotal moment in our history, the American people are demanding fundamental changes in our nation's economic policies. Congress will be reconvening for a lame-duck session on November 17. What should we do? The proposals that have been coming out of Washington, in my view, are not sufficient.

If you could read the e-mails that pour into my office from Vermont and across the country, you would realize how furious the American people are at the greed, incompetence and irresponsibility of the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street who made billions while they drove our financial system to the brink of the abyss. Middle-class citizens of this country do not believe that they, who had nothing to do with causing this financial meltdown and who already have suffered as a result of Bush's reckless policies, should have to pay for Wall Street bailouts. They are absolutely right. Congress must demand that the cost of any bailout should be paid by those who benefitted financially from Bush's policies and those who can best afford it. I proposed an income surtax of 10 percent on families earning more than $1 million a year. I will continue to fight so that any bailout is progressively funded.

In terms of any federal intervention, we need to insist that if the government buys mortgages and mortgage-backed paper - the so-called 'toxic assets' - it should be at current market prices, not at the price the lender set at the time of the loan. We should require equity stakes for taxpayers - something a British initiative seems to have forced Secretary Paulson into imitating. We also need to follow the British model of demanding that banks taking taxpayer money put taxpayer interests ahead of corporate profits, executive payouts, and risky investment strategies. Congress, as soon as possible, needs to reverse years of deregulation, and require accountability and transparency in the financial industry. It is beyond insane that tens of trillions of dollars of credit default swaps are circulating with no one knowing who owns these complicated instruments or what role they play in the financial markets. We also must pass new anti-trust legislation to make sure that in the future no entities are "too big to fail." If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.

When Congress reconvenes, it is clear to me that it must pass a massive "Rebuild America" program in order to address the looming economic crisis. If we can put up $700 billion to rescue bankers from their irresponsible decisions, we must make a major investment putting millions of Americans to work rebuilding our country.

I agree with a number of economists who have told us that, in order to get our country back on sound economic footing, we should make a major investment in repairing our crumbling transportation systems and electric grid. After decades of delay, we must end our dependence on fossil fuel and foreign oil and move boldly to energy efficiency and new sources of sustainable energy.

We also need to address the social crises we face in terms of education, health care, nutrition, and poverty. In the midst of the current economic crisis, we must minimize the suffering of the most vulnerable among us, and we must ensure the future of our country by developing the best-educated workforce in the world.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-sanders/now-is-the-time_b_136822.html

[dhpgetsit]

1. Bottom-up, not trickle down.

Investment needs to come in the form of:

Tax relief to the working class, who have immediate needs.
Investment in green energy funded by taxes on the corporate elite and the investor class.

(Plug your ears cause the squealing will be loud and obnoxious, but they are the ones who can afford it).