Senator Sanders, "Deficit Reduction Requires Shared Sacrifice: Will the President Stand Tall? "

[ProSense]

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Deficit Reduction Requires Shared Sacrifice: Will the President Stand Tall?

<...>

The Republican House budget is the most radical right-wing extremist budget ever passed in the modern history of our country, and the more the American people learn about it the more they are rejecting it. The question is, however: Where are the Democrats? Where is President Obama?

Will the president remain strong in his demand that any deficit reduction agreement include an end to Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy? Will he really fight to eliminate corporate tax loopholes? Will he end the absurd policies which allow the rich and large corporations to avoid paying tens of billions in taxes by establishing phony addresses in off-shore tax havens? Or, as he has done within the last year, will he give Republicans almost everything they want at the expense of ordinary Americans.

As Vermont's senator and a member of the Budget Committee, I will not support a plan to reduce the deficit that does not call for shared sacrifice. At least 50 percent of any deficit reduction plan must come from increased revenue from the wealthy and large corporations.

Instead of ending Medicare as we know it and making savage cuts to community health centers and children's health care programs, we must ask the top 2 percent of income earners, who currently pay the lowest upper-income tax rate on record, to start paying their fair share of taxes. Instead of making it harder for working families to send their kids to college, we must end the foreign tax shelters that enable the wealthy and large corporations to avoid paying tens of billions in U.S. taxes. Instead of making major cuts in job creating programs in infrastructure, public transportation and sustainable energy we must do away with a wide variety of loopholes that allow Wall Street executives, whose profits and compensation packages are soaring, to have a lower tax rate than middle class workers.

The deficit crisis is real and must be addressed. But it cannot be solved on the backs of the weak and vulnerable. Every segment of our society, including those who have money and power, must contribute and must sacrifice.

[ProSense]

1. No comment?

This is a really good piece by Senator Sanders.

[Swede]

2. The one with the BS op is getting all the attention.

As usual.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

4. I see that. And even though Obama has pledge not to allow the Bush cuts to continue,

I see the Obama haters here on DU are struggling with reading comprehension. Bernie has nothing against the president.

[girl gone mad]

8. Deficit reduction is a fool's errand.

The public deficit represents private sector surplus. Reducing the deficit reduces the money available within our economy. That's unwise in the midst of a balance sheet recession.

[DJ13]

11. A sane voice

Thank you.

[ProSense]

12. "Deficit reduction is a fool's errand."

Sanders: "The deficit crisis is real and must be addressed."

Are you saying Sanders is a fool?

[girl gone mad]

15. Any politician who prioritizes deficit reduction over full employment..

at this moment in time is making a grave error in judgment.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

3. I often see Bernie walking around near the Capitol on my way to work.

Regardless of what the Obama haters here on DU say, Bernie supports the president and will continue to do so. He may want the president to fight harder, which is fair. But, this notion that Bernie Sanders is somehow the president's nemesis is wrong. In my discussions with him, he strongly supports the president and will continue to do so. But he wants us to push harder. Again, that's fair.

[Armstead]

17. So do most of the "Obama haters"

I think you have to seperate real "Obama haters" from those who do support Obama -- or desperately want to be able to support him -- but who are also frustrated and somewhat angry at his performance.

It is not that they blame everything on him. But many people believe the pattern of his presidency is basically shoring up the status quo rather than bringing the degree of change and reform that is necessary.

I could (and have) listed many specifics, but will not go into them here.

But "Obama hater" is a term that should be reserved for those who really deserve that characterization -- the right wing and GOP.

[dkf]

5. Apparently shared sacrifice means taxing the rich more and cutting entitlements for the not rich

[uponit7771]

6. Obama to Sanders: "...get me a liberal congress who'll stand with me..."

[great white snark]

10. Fucking post of the fucking day!

Thank you.

[damntexdem]

7. No, Bernie, deficit reduction should not require shared sacrifice --

it should involve sacrifice only by the rich. They created the mess, in part by already making the poor and middle-class "sacrifice" -- i.e., by stealing rights and resources from them. And they caused it by their stupid, unlimited greed that led to the economic meltdown. They alone should pay to get us out of this mess.

Of course, Bernie knows this very well. But he has to keep to the political language of "shared sacrifice" in order to try to impose any sacrifice whatsoever on the rich.

[yodermon]

9. the poor/middle class have *already* sacrificed.

keeping the terminology acknowledges that fact, while asking for the rich to *start* sacrificing.

[ClarkUSA]

13. Pres. Obama has repeatedly called for "shared sacrifice" and was attacked for saying so.

Funny how no one is attacking Bernie Sanders for being a RW shill.

[NorthCarolina]

14. Sanders has clearly defined what he considers acceptable shared sacrifice...

has Obama? When it comes to "shared sacrifice" I trust Bernie Sanders far more than Obama in protecting middle and low income Americans, including Medicare and Social Security.

[John_Adams]

16. On deficit reduction, no one stands tall.