Quote of the Day: Bernie Sanders Edition

Quote of the Day: Sen. Bernie Sanders Edition

Bernie Sanders Aganst Grand Bargain

Sen. Bernie Sanders sent out a press release stating he will not vote for the grand bargain that President Barack Obama has proposed for the sequester.

Not a Grand Bargain President Obama stepped up efforts to cut Social Security benefits and lower payments for disabled veterans and their survivors. “It’s a horrendous idea. It is totally absurd because for a start, Social Security has not contributed one penny to the deficit … But it`s not just seniors on Social Security. If you can believe it, this chained CPI [consumer price index] will make devastating cuts for disabled veterans. The men and women who lost arms and legs in Iraq and Afghanistan, the widows of people who were killed in Iraq, it will mean significant cuts for them,” Sanders said Thursday on MSNBC. Obama pushed his “grand bargain” over dinner Wednesday with 12 Republican senators and at lunch Thursday at the White House with House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan “The president historically has not been a strong negotiator,” Sanders said. “The fear is he is going to get a deal that will probably not be strong enough on revenue. That does worry some of us.”

It should be noted that Sen. Sanders hinted he was not going to vote for a health care bill without a public option. Sanders ended up voting for the Affordable Care Act. Republicans are likely to vote against any legislation to end the sequester. Harry Reid is going to ask Sanders to swallow his pride and vote for a compromise.

Road Block to Jack Lew's Confirmation

President Barack Obama needs 60 votes to get anything done in the Senate. Sen. Bernie Sanders is on record as saying he will not vote to confirm Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary.

“We don't need a treasury secretary who thinks that Wall Street deregulation was not esponsible for the financial crisis. We need a treasury secretary who will work hard to break up too-big-to-fail financial institutions so that Wall Street cannot cause another massive financial crisis.

“We don’t need another treasury secretary who believes in ‘deficit neutral’ corporate tax reform. We need a treasury secretary willing to fight to make sure that large, profitable corporations pay their fair share in taxes to reduce the deficit and create jobs.

“We don't need a treasury secretary who will advise the president that he should negotiate with the Republicans to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. We need someone who is going to strengthen these programs.

Another big problem with Jack Lew is he doesn't know shit about economics. Just ask Jack Lew.

SENATOR SANDERS: We are in the midst of a horrendous recession right now; 16 percent of our people are unemployed or underemployed. Clearly the immediate precipitating factor was the collapse on Wall Street. Do you believe that the deregulation of Wall Street pushed by people like Alan Greenspan and Robert Rubin contributed significantly to the disaster we saw on Wall Street several years ago?

MR. LEW: Senator, when we discussed it, as I mentioned to you, I do not consider myself an expert in some of these aspects of the financial industry. My experience in the financial industry has been as a manager, not as an investment adviser.

My sense, as someone who has generally been familiar with these trends, is that the problems in the financial industry preceded deregulation. There was an increasing emphasis on highly abstract leveraged derivative products that got us to the point that in the period of time leading up to the financial crisis risks were taken. They were not fully embraced. They were not well understood.

I do not personally know the extent to which deregulation drove it, but I do not believe that deregulation was the proximate cause. I would defer to others who are more expert about the industry to try and parse it better than that.

America is in trouble if we have another crash. Whatever misgivings I have about Tim Geithner, he at least spent his adult life working on economic policy. Lew is a smart Guy who is not qualified to handle an economy going through an L shaped recovery.

Bernie Sanders on Occupy Wall Street

Sen. Bernie Sanders tells Wolf Blitzer that he "applauds" the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Sanders also takes the Obama administration to task her not doing investigations of Wall Street.

Bernie Sanders Votes No on Debt Deal

Sen. Bernie Sanders issued this press release.

Sen. Bernie Sanders issued the following statement today after he voted against a Senate deficit- reduction proposal:

"The Republicans have been absolutely determined to make certain that the rich and large corporations not contribute one penny for deficit reduction, and that all of the sacrifice comes from the middle class and working families in terms of cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, LIHEAP, community health centers, education, Head Start, nutrition, MILC, affordable housing and many other vitally important programs.

"I cannot support legislation like the Reid proposal which balances the budget on the backs of struggling Americans while not requiring one penny of sacrifice from the wealthiest people in our country. That is not only grotesquely immoral, it is bad economic policy."

I guarantee Obama will act mystified when Republicans run ads that the president cut Social Security and Medicare.

Democrats can no longer accuse Republicans of supporting to cut SS and Medicare cuts (by supporting the Paul Ryan plan) when they themselves made actual cuts to the budget. This is a huge political win for Republicans. The GOP got their ideological cuts and can attack Democrats for making cuts to their sacred cows of the Left. The Republicans always intended to raise the debt ceiling. They knew Obama was a horrible negotiator. The Republicans bluffed and won.

Bernie Sanders Suggests Obama Faces A Primary Challenger

Progressives have talked about President Barack Obama facing a primary challenger. No one as prominent Sen Bernie Sanders has uttered the words until now.

SANDERS: Brian, believe me, I wish I had the answer to your question. Let me just suggest this. I think there are millions of Americans who are deeply disappointed in the president; who believe that, with regard to Social Security and a number of other issues, he said one thing as a candidate and is doing something very much else as a president; who cannot believe how weak he has been, for whatever reason, in negotiating with Republicans and there’s deep disappointment. So my suggestion is, I think one of the reasons the president has been able to move so far to the right is that there is no primary opposition to him and I think it would do this country a good deal of service if people started thinking about candidates out there to begin contrasting what is a progressive agenda as opposed to what Obama is doing. [...] So I would say to Ryan [sic] discouragement is not an option. I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.

Sanders is right about the politics. Obama is willing to offer Medicare and Social Security cuts because he feels no pressure from the Left. A formidable primary challenger would force Obama to govern more left of center. Besides Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and Howard Dean, there isn't a candidate that jump into the race and quickly raise money. Clinton and Gore have neoliberal governing tendencies like Obama. Dean has no interest in running in 2012. Dean will probably run in 2016.

A recent CNN poll shows Obama losing support among liberals. Sanders openly floats the idea of a primary challenger. If the economy gets worse the activists that made phone calls and volunteered hours to get Obama elected weren't vote Republican. They will stay home.

Team Obama Opposed Elizabeth Warren Nomination

I like to see how Obamabots frame this. Huffington Post reporter
Shahien Nasiripour cites sources that the Obama administration never had any intention of nominating Elizabeth Warren for the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. In 2010, Sen. Bernie Sanders asked President Barack Obama if would nominate Warren.

Last summer, during a White House meeting with first-term Senate Democrats, Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, asked Obama whether he'd nominate Warren for the role.

Obama held up a half-full glass of water and told him: "That's the problem with you progressives. You see this as half-empty."

Obama's tone towards Sanders makes it obvious that the president does not view himself as a progressive. Wall Street got a bailout. Americans are being foreclosed upon through illegal means. The President campaigned on change and gets pissed when people call him out for protecting the dysfunctional financial system.

Rahm Emanuel made it clear that he did not want Warren confirmed.

Last July, the night before a Senate vote on the administration-backed bill to reform financial regulation, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) told reporters that he was still unsure how he’d vote and was concerned about who might be named to run the soon-to-be-created consumer unit.

Hearing the news, Emanuel took the temperature of the administration on Warren's nomination and reported back to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that it was cool, according to Senate sources with knowledge of the call.

“We don’t like her either,” the then-White House chief of staff told the Nevada Democrat.

Ben Nelson's lack of support was unsurprising. Chris Dodd. Part of Dodd's problem was Warren publicly pushed back against Dodd to not soften the financial reform bill. Dodd was obsessed with getting bipartisan support for a financial reform bill that no Republican had any intention of voting for. What is it about Beltway Democrats that are obsessed with bipartisanship?

Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner is pro-corporatist. It wasn't surprising that he didn't support Warren's nomination. Warren also took Geithner to task for not knowing where money for credit default swaps went. AIG sold swaps and then couldn't cover the bets when the market crashed.

Quote of the Day

"Social Security is not going broke. Social Security has a $2.2 trillion surplus... The Koch brothers want to invest your retirement funds on Wall Street, and you may lose all your retirement savings when you get old."

Sen. Bernie Sanders

Compassionate Conservatism: Obama Cutting Off Heating to Poor People

I like to hear Benjamin Kirby, Joy-Ann Reid or other progressive Obama supporters defend this insane proposal. President Barack Obama is proposing to cut the current Low Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program budget to $2.5 billion the previous budget of $5.1 billion. The program is used to provide heating to the homes of poor people during the winter. You will not be surprised to learn that Obama got the idea to allow people to freeze from Republicans.

Sen. John Kerry has voiced his disapproval.

"I've always supported serious efforts to restore fiscal sanity, but in the middle of a brutal, even historic, New England winter, home heating assistance is more critical than ever to the health and welfare of million of Americans, especially senior citizens," Kerry wrote.

Rep. Ed Markey joined the chorus against Obama's uncompassionate proposal.

"Cutting off funding for this program now would mean that millions of familes could have their heating cut off this winter," he said at a press conference yesterday.

Add Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to the list of Democrats opposing the proposal.

"The President's reported proposal to drastically slash LIHEAP funds by more than half would have a severe impact on many of New Hampshire's most vulnerable citizens and I strongly oppose it."

Marc Ambinder speculates that Northeastern Republicans Scott Brown, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe would join Democrats in opposition.

Obama often says that he was too busy legislating to do politics in 2009 and 2010. The truth is Obama has always placed his political goals above policy. Obama remained silent as Democrats were getting chewed up by tea party activists at townhall meetings. Obama allowed insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists to help craft health care legislation. Obama dished the public option for the mandate because insurers wanted more customers. Billy Tauzin convinced Obama to not allow Medicare to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry. Both deals resulted in less cost savings.

The Obama administration waiting over a year to appoint many low level civil servants. The reason is the White House never got around to making the appointments.

Bernie Sanders has repeatedly told the media that he has been fighting with Obama on Social Security. Sanders has urged Obama not to cut Social Security benefits.

"What I'm hearing does not reassure me - that we have a president who is not prepared to defend the heart and soul of what the Democratic Party has been about since Franklin Delano Roosevelt," said Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.

Obama will go to the Chamber of Commerce and offer to cut corporate taxes. This will only add to the federal deficit. Yet Obama will cut off heating to poor people under the false pretense of fiscal conservatism. Obama made both proposals to prove how centrist he is. This is a man unserious about governing.

Progressives, tell me how this is part of Obama's brilliant master plan.

Why Bernie Sanders Position Is Smart Policy and Politics

Sen. Bernie Sanders tapped into something very special with his near-filibuster. The Senate server temporarily shut down. Obama's neoliberal tendencies and political team's decision that a tax cut deal would play well with independent voters in 2012. Sander's stirring floor speeches is proof that populism sell politically.

The Obama team is made the tax cut deal strictly for their 2012 re-election chances. As the bizarre Bill Clinton press conference illustrates this White House is disorganized. Obama's lame excuse that he couldn't talk about tax policy with President Clinton and the media was disaster. It made Obama appear as if he doesn't care and needs a former president to do his heavy lifting. I think there is truth to the latter. Another example of disorganization is Obama not consulting with leaders of the Democratic caucuses before making the tax cut deal. This was amazingly stupid Obama only has himself to blame for his caucuses being angry at him.

Obama's complaints that Congress should have handled this and progressives should be on his side. Whether you agree with his grievances, it appears that Obama expect other people to follow lockstep with him. At the end of the day Obama is the leader of the Democratic Party.

People have compared Obama to Bush I. The comparison I will make is George H.W. Bush was hated by the Republican establishment, the base, had a slumping economy and went back on a tax pledge. Bush lost his re-election bid.

Sen Sanders Call to Action

Sen, Bernie Sanders said he is issuing a "call to action" and not a filibuster. Progressives are urging 1,000,000 citizen calls to the Senate for a better tax bill. The phone number of the United States Senate is 1-866-338-1015.

Quote of the Day: Bernie Sanders Filibuster

"People are going cold. People don't have enough food. People are homeless."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, on the Senate floor.

Whether or not Sanders filibuster will be successful, he is doing a needed service of reminding America of the disadvantaged people in the country.

Sanders is on C-SPAN right now.

Daily Kos No Tax Deal Petition

Daily Kos is running a petition urging Democrats in Congress not to support extending the tax cuts for those making over $250,000-a-year.

We cannot support the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Thank you, Senator Sanders and Representative Welch, for staying in the fight against any extension of the Bush tax cuts for millionaires. Keep it up!

Sen> Bernie Sanders has threatened to block passage of the tax cut deal struck between President Barack Obama and Republicans. Here is Sanders' contact page.

Moveon.org is also running a petition.

Update: Sen. Sanders released this statement.

In my view, it is a moral outrage that at a time when this country has a $13.8 trillion national debt, a collapsing middle class and a growing gap between the very rich and everybody else that the Republicans would deny extended unemployment benefits to 2 million workers who are desperately struggling to pay their bills and maintain their dignity. It is also beyond comprehension that the Republicans would hold hostage the entire middle class of this country so that millionaires and billionaires would receive huge tax breaks. In my view, that is not what this country is about and it is not what the American people want to see. Our job is to save the disappearing middle class, not lower taxes for people who are already extraordinarily wealthy and increase the national debt that our children and grandchildren would have to pay.

The immediate political task in front of us is to rally the American people so that in the next several weeks we can find at least a few Republicans who will join us in saying no to increasing the deficit by giving tax breaks to the wealthy and no to holding the unemployed and the middle class hostage.

I believe that we have the American people on our side on this issue. My office, and I come from a small state, has received more than 600 calls today, 99 percent of them in opposition to this so-called compromise that the president negotiated with the Republicans.

I will do everything in my power to stand up for the American middle class and defeat this agreement.

Bernie Sanders Threatens Filibuster

Sen. Bernie Sanders is threatening to filibuster on the tax cuts deal struck between President Obama and the Republicans.

While Republicans are fighting for upper-income tax cuts, a Census Bureau report more Americans are falling into poverty.

The poverty rate in 2009 was the highest since 1994, but was 8.1 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available, the Census Bureau said.

Median income declined between 2008 and 2009 for non-Hispanic white and black households in the United States, while Asian households had the highest median income in 2009. Median income for Hispanic-origin households was about the same in 2009 as in 2008, the report said.

The number of working men fell since 2007 by 2.5 million, while the number of working women fell by 1.3 million, the report said.

During the health care debate Republicans argued to either slow down reform or none was needed. The Census Bureau report shows more Americans losing health care coverage because of current economic conditions.

The number of people covered by private health insurance fell from 2008 to 2009, while the number with government health insurance rose, the report said.

Some 194.5 million people in 2009 have private health coverage, compared to 201 million in 2008. The number of people covered by government plans rose to 93.2 million in 2009, from 87.4 million in 2008.

This is what the political conversation should be about right now.

Bernie Sanders On Bush Tax Cuts

Via Joy-Ann Reid: Bernie Sanders gives a speech on how Republican policies and tax cuts are shrinking America's middle class. This is a speech that needs to be heard.

Bernie Sanders Not Voting For Current Health Care Bill

Sen. Bernie Sanders told Fox News' Neil Cavuto he cann not vote for the current Senate health care bill.

Cavuto: So they gain Joe Lieberman and lose you. That sounds like a wash.

That is exactly what it is.

Bernie Sanders on Public Option

Senator Bernie Sanders explains to Ron Reagan how a health care insurance public option is important to the currently uninsured. Sander stresses that the moral factor of providing health care has been undersold.