Changing Our National Priorities
There are three major trends in American society that must be addressed when the Senate next week debates the federal budget. First, the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major nation in the industrialized world, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider. Second, it is a national disgrace that we have, by far, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. More than 18 percent of our kids live in poverty. Third, year after year, we have had record-breaking deficits and our national debt will soon be $10 trillion. That is a grossly unfair burden to leave to our kids and grandchildren. It also is economically unsustainable.
I plan to offer an amendment that addresses these issues, to change our national priorities, and to move this country in a very different direction than where we have been going in the last seven years.
According to the latest available statistics from the Internal Revenue Service, the top 1 percent of Americans earned significantly more income in 2005 than the bottom 50 percent. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reported that the wealthiest 1 percent saw total income rise by $180,000 in 2005. That is more than the average middle-class family makes in three years. The CBO also found that the total share of after-tax income going to the top 1 percent hit the highest level on record, while the middle class and working families received the smallest share of after-tax income on record.
Meanwhile, while the rich have become much richer, nearly 5 million Americans have slipped out of the middle class and into poverty over the past seven years, including over 1 million of our children.
We have a moral responsibility to put children ahead of millionaires and billionaires. That is why, during the Senate’s consideration of the budget resolution, I will offer an amendment to restore the top income tax bracket to 39.6 percent for households earning more than $1 million a year.
Restoring the top income tax bracket for people making more than $1 million to what it was in 2000 would increase revenue by $32.5 billion over the next three years, according to the Joint Tax Committee, including $10.8 billion next year alone.
I would devote that revenue the needs of our children; job creation; and deficit reduction.
Instead of giving $32.5 billion in tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, my amendment would, over the next three years, provide:
- $10 billion for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to help about 7 million children with disabilities and, in the process, relieve pressure on local property taxpayers.
- $5 billion for Head Start — a program which has been cut by more than 11 percent since 2002. Today, less than half of all eligible children are enrolled in Head Start. Only about 3 percent of all eligible children are enrolled in Early Head Start. My amendment would begin to correct this situation.
- $4 billion for the Child Care Development Block Grant. Today, due to inadequate funding, only about one in seven eligible children are able to receive federal child care assistance. Already, 250,000 fewer children receive child care assistance today than in 2000.
- $3 billion for school construction. According to the most recent estimates, schools across the country have a $100 billion backlog in badly-needed school repairs. Investing $3 billion is a small, but important step to help repair crumbling schools across the country and, in the process, create tens of thousands of jobs for painters, carpenters, electricians, and construction workers.
- $4 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program so that low-income families with children, seniors on fixed incomes, and persons with disabilities will be able to stay warm in the winter. After adjusting for energy prices and inflation, the heating assistance program has been cut by 34.5 percent or $1.3 billion compared to 2002. My amendment would begin to reverse this trend.
- $3 billion for food stamps, so that we can begin to reduce the growing number of children and adults living with food insecurity. x
- $3 billion to reduce the deficit.
This amendment is a fiscally responsible way to reduce childhood poverty, address an income gap greater than at any time since the Roaring Twenties, and lower our deficit.
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
Go Bernie
It’s a nice start, but it’s not nearly enough. Repeal the REAGAN tax cuts and put the ultra rich back to a 72% tax rate. And don’t allow any deductions from that rate, either. They can afford it, and it’s time they start paying their fair share again. Coddling the rich with welfare is just plain foolish, if not suicidal. Welfare before the Clinton “repair” never took more than 1% of the total federal budget, but that was intolerable, even though it kept people and especially children out of destitution, if just barely. Now, we give the rich, who don’t need any help at all, untold billions in tax breaks so they can move our jobs offshore and destroy the country.
Nice start, Bernie, but take it to the point where we can actually survive as a nation. Oh, and let’s put a cap on CEO compensation, too. If we have a minimum wage, why not a maximum wage? When you could hire (on average) 500 employees or ONE ceo, something has to give. And when those CEOs pay 18% but their secretary pays 36%, that is ridiculous, scandalous, and wrong.
But Bernie,
Isn’t it that “the top 1 percent of Americans earned significantly more income in 2005 than the bottom 50 percent” because they are harder workers, more skilled, more educated.
That would explain why George W. Bush is the President, he’s the most qualified American, the hardest working, best mind in America.
It would also explain why CEOs get millions for running their corporation. CEOs are the most valuable workers in their corporation, more so than any other. They do the really hard work, requiring intelligence and skill. Just see what Charles Prince of Citigroup, Dick Parsons of Merrill Lynch, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide recently did for their company’s profits, their shareholders, their employees and the country in general.
Further, “The CBO also found that the total share of after-tax income going to the top 1 percent hit the highest level on record” because the Congress and the President rely on this base to get elected (as a matter of fact, most congressmen and senators are in this group). And laws get passed, quid pro quo, that reward this 1 percent group. It’s the American Way!
So don’t take money away for this group and give it to children, and education, and low income people or we’ll have to label you an economic terrorist trying to destroy our American way of life.
I listen to Senator Sanders, guest of Thom Hartmann on Fridays, on Talk America. He is accurate and informative with the problems that face our country and should be heard to a wider audience. We need more Legislators like Senator Sanders!!!!
on top of that, we could cut the pentagon budget in half, progressively tax social security so that not only those who make more than $102,000 for 2008 will have their full income taxed but would pay a higher percentage than those at the bottom and keeping in line with the views of Thomas Jefferson:
“Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785.
Bernie has been part of the system for a long time and I admire him greatly. But, it’s not correct to think that legislation will change America. Legislation coming out of a corrupt system won’t work. This country needs a complete change of priorities, which could be brought about by a government that had some integrity. Until we have integrity back in our government all the legislation you can pass won’t stop America from becoming a third world country.
Hoa binh
We only need 49 more like ya Bernie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bernie Sanders has been saying good things for a long time.
But then the former self-described socialist became an “independent.” Being a Vermonter, he has vigorously opposed gun control, with some lip-service support. And he supported one of Clinton’s 3-strikes proposals in a trade-off for other milk-toast “progressive” legislation. (That’s when I stopped contributing to him even though I never lived in Vermont). And he led the effort to dump Vermont’s nuke waste into Nevada or Texas — a truly enlightened position that allows him to avoid the question of whether Vermont, or anywhere else, should be producing that life-ending garbage — not to mention what should we do with it now. His answer is to dump it on Native American lands or hide it in Nevada where it will pollute THEIR water. Etc, etc, etc
So, as time goes on, the words and acts diverge.
I can pretty well predict with confidence that if Billary win the Dem nod, he’ll aggressively be on board. And his rationale will continue to sound really good.
Please hang on, Mr. Sanders. We, out here in the grass roots, are trying to send you a president who will actually sign (not veto) your Congressional initiatives. This and the Supreme Court are most of what ___________vs. McCain are about. All the rest (even how best to wind down the wars) are the side issues.
I have referred to this site before, but if you have not looked at it, please do.
http://www.inequality.org/
Click on “By the Numbers” and page down to the pie charts.
In 2004, the richest 10% of the people in this country had over 70% of the wealth. The rest of us, 90% have less than 30%. For stock ownership, it was worse. The richest 10% had nearly 80% of the stocks.
The data was from 2004. I am sure that more has “trickled up” since then. This is unreasonable.
Moreover, power goes along with wealth. So, what does “We the People” mean now? It seems a farce.
Very, very modest proposals indeed. You also failed to mention that all three major deficiencies you mentioned (unequal distribution of wealth, highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth and finally record-breaking deficits approaching a national debt of $10 trillion), are directly attributed to the Military Industrial Complex. 10 billion alone will be spent this years on the Star Wars farce for no other reason than to give middle class tax dollars to the already obscenely wealthy and to prevent those tax dollars from going to AVERAGE AMERICAN concerns such as child poverty or narrowing the income gap.
Here’s a proposal you should make. Slash all military spending by 50%, cancel silly programs like the missile defence shield, withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, close all military bases abroad and redistribute that savings to much needed domestic problems.
A good start, Senator!
I applaud your efforts to rein in the insane corporateers, the wealth inequality, the excessive, and unjustified, pay packages for CEO’s etc. etc. etc.
We, as every society, will be judged by the way we trea the least among us: our children, healthcare, a fair, livable wage, and on and on.
America’s motto has been for a long time: “I got mine, sorry about you.”
Indeed, they aren’t even sorry anymore.
The above posters who argued for higher taxation on the rich, closing the gap between wage earners and financiners, are just symptoms of a corrupt, degenerate system in which most people vote against their own interests on the belief that they too may become rich when the rapture comes.
GET A GRIP!
Forget the 1%; look at the .001%. It’s no wonder that the 150 million on the lower half of the scale, are badly educated, by and large, have no healthcare, play no role in democratic processes, and so on.
I’m not a holy roller, but this is as close to Sodom and Gomorrah as one can find.
Go Bernie, at least it’s a start.
Bernie, let’s put the people in charge of their own destinies. Why don’t you talk about expanding the role of the citizen and reducing the role of the bureaucrat? We have 300 million. Some of us see great potential in this number. Bernie, give the people information and responsibility. Stop giving them cotton candy. When are you going to turn the page there in Washington?
Go Bernie!…but why? Here’s why: The Senator has made a career of empowering people. The programs devised in Vermont originated “from the top”, but always with an eye on empowerment in the workplaces, in the neighborhoods, etc. Secondly, the Senator has never been aligned with any political party(and in this, I can only hope that he is the wave of the future). As a Congressperson, he made a mistake or two. That is part-and-
parcel of the human condition. For the most part, he has been on the right side of the issues.
It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and this may be true, but without good intentions, hell is right at hand. In my state, I have had virtually no representation in Congress in thirty years.
Mr. Sanders has been the person I have consistently been able to contact with my concerns during this time, though I am not a proper constituent.
Go, Bernie, and let’s pray for a few more Bernies.
pattmarty sez: “We only need 49 more like ya Bernie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Right sentiment; wrong math. Until the Senate actually restores filibuster rules (forcing the fascisti to rail publicly for days — a la “Mr. Smith” — against children’s health and for criminal immunity), Bernie will need 60 fellow socialists in that August body. Good luck with those elections, Amerika.
Why can’t politicians in my home state of Pa. think like that. Go Bernie ! Go Vermont !
MJM, I am assuming you meant well when you wrote “it’s a nice start, bernie, but not nearly enough”. . . . but, geez, I get really worn down by this kind of discourse. Why can’t we ground our comments in affirmation? Bernie is a U.S. Senator in the real world, not the world of rhetoric, he can’t change everything all at once.
Nothing will ever be enough. Let’s give people positive affirmation when they come up with good efforts instead of ranting for more.
Write you own column WJM, with your own ideas without criticizing, maybe? Just try it.
Like Goebbels points out. . .Bernie needs a whole lot more company in the Senate before the ideas he presents here see any traction. We don’t have to dampen his positive efforts by telling him it isn’t enough. Bernie knows that, I am sure.
And to you, Goebbels, is that your real name? Because if it isn’t, if you are using it to invoke Goebbels of the Third Reich, that is another example of our cultural degradation, how too many people in this country thinking invoking negativity, even as a joke, is ever going to bring about positive, appreciative futures.
We all have to take responsibility in every moment for being positive.
And, as I wind down, i am aware that I am taking swipes myself. Sorry to WJM and Goebbels. I am not really feeling negatively towards you, just thinking aloud about the texture of discourse in a real democracy. I think we’d get a lot farther, a lot faster if everyone tried to frame their communications from a positive, life-affirming framework. . . and this is very hard work and, maybe, this is the only work that is really needed.
Time for my nap.
bernie sanders you are one of my heroes!!!!
the country needs to juxtapose income disparity with the core concept of democratic participation. how can we have a fair just society, as we live in a society that places one human’s life above the lives of many, based on one human’s capacity to generate money.
the status quo demands these dignitaries (aristocrats) receive more than the rest. we need a world government that respects the dignity of all people, across the globe. the sooner we recognize these truths in america (the impacts of inequitable distribution of wealth in the US), the sooner these ideas become more relevant in the global community. the sooner americans understand the concept of illegitimate elite rule/masses, the sooner the unjust authority of the wld bnk, the wto and the imf will recede. redistribute wealth now, repeal tax cuts. thank you again sen sanders for your voice in congress and for reminding us of universal truth..(greed is bad)……
…peace…..
Bernie’s message has been very consistent. Consistently safe. I am in VT, and I have gone from celebrating with him at his victory parties to not voting for him. What changed my mind was his so-called Town Meeting and panel discussion on Kosovo in Montpelier many years ago. He told people that disagreed with him to “Get out!” His non-support for the Progressive Party candidate for Lieutenant governor, Anthony Pollina, was the last straw for many VTers. Bernie had to be prodded and pushed into supporting Anthony and he finally did so about 2 weeks before the election. Bernie may come across as an independent but he walks and talks like a Democrat, and suspicion runs high that quid pro quo deals with them have been struck. US Rep. Bernie very adeptly put off the issue of impeaching Dick and George until he would not have to face it running for the Senate. And yes, he could filibuster any additional spending on the illegal occupation. One benefit of being an incumbent independent is that you never have to waste your time, energy and resources running in a primary. Then there was Nader’s visit to Vermont in a packet high school auditorium where Bernie left early and was rather unhappy that Ralph would show up. As one person in Bernie’s campaign said to me the day after the Kosovo “town meeting”, “Bernie didn’t need the Left to win and he doesn’t need them now.” Liberal and Left have only on thing in common. They both start with the letter “L”.
fpal: I really like your post.
Nice sentiments by Sander’s but if he thinks the corporate owned Senate or House is going along for the ride he is a bigger dreamer than his friend Hartmann. The problem has always been the corruption of elected officials in both houses. They all feed from the collective trough stuffing their pockets with cash, and other material gratuities. They get the best medical care in the world but cannot deliver the same standard for the people they claim they serve. Did not Sanders vote on behalf of the Israeli Lobby by sanction the Israeli invasion of Lebanon which resulted in a massive humanitarian nightmare for non combatants? The Israeli war machine destroyed Lebanon’s infrastructure for decades to come. This type of hypocritical political two step by Sanders offering humanitarian values out one side of his mouth while sanctioning the Israeli war machine out the other side of his mouth just will not cut it. Sanders and his brethren in the Senate are all owned by someone. Calling these people human is a gross mischaracterization of fact. They are nothing more than parasites who happen to suck air.
Who could be against helping the poor and children and still be a Christian? I have some great ideas too but I can’t get them passed into laws. Can Bernie Sanders?
As much as I like Mr.Sanders, he has limited himself to discussing and treating the symptoms, but not the disease. Like bad practice of medicine, this perpetuates the disease.
Take the income disparity. Why is there income disparity? Because congressmen are from the rich class and supported by the rich class. Why are they from the rich class? Because of the electoral system. How about electoral reform?
Why are the children poor? Because their parents are poor? Why are they poor? The income disparity……..electoral reform.
If the system is corrupt, why suggest laws a corrupt system won’t accept? To perpetuate the disease?
Basically I agree — with one exception.
Instead of (or along with?) increasing aid to help poor families pay for heat, provide money for a Job Corps-type program to weatherstrip houses, replace leaky doors and windows, and all that to reduce the need to burn more oil and gas. That’s a three-fer: help family budgets, reduce CO2 emissions, and provide publicly funded jobs.
Once that’s done, helping people (especially renters and/or landlords) replace their refrigerators with energy-efficient ones would be the next priority.
Then add federal grants for retrofitting public buildings for energy efficiency.
Tax credits for energy upgrades, like the ones that just expired, aren’t useful — many of the folks who need this help most don’t have much tax liability anyway.
I remember Bernie as mayor of burlington, he caught crap for not being ‘left’ enough back then, from the greens and some other groups. the thing is, where would progressive politics be in vermont if there was no bernie?
now he gets crap for introducing progressive legislation in the senate…from the left. it doesn’t go far enough, or the argument is wrong, or he’s actually a tool of the democrats.
we really do eat our own don’t we…take an arm, take a leg…
May I add the fourth one? Exploitation of foreign workers.
Read this news in an Indian newspaper:
“Over 100 Indian workers have quit their jobs at a Mississippi shipyard, protesting alleged “slave treatment” by their employer, after being “tricked” into coming to the US and are demanding a probe against the firm which faced similar accusations in 2007.
The workers, mostly welders and pipe-fitters, alleged they lived “like pigs in a cage” in a “work camp” run by Signal International in Pascagoula shipyard.
Signal allegedly forced them to live in a sub-standard housing with 24 men crammed into a small room for which they were charged more than $1,000 a month, the workers claimed.
The Indians symbolically threw their hard hats at the company gates as they walked out, alleging that it had brought them to the US by promising permanent residency in exchange for $20,000 fee. Instead they said they were given 10-month work visa.
Signal International, however, strongly denied the workers’ allegations. “Unfortunately, a few of the workers whom Signal had sponsored for H2B visas and recruited have made baseless and unfounded allegations against Signal concerning their employment and living conditions,” it said in a statement. The workers told the local media that they plan to “report themselves to the department of justice as victims of trafficking, and demand federal prosecution of Signal.”
“For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves,” a former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan was quoted as saying by ABC. “Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end.”
A similar protest was held by neary 300 Indian workers at the shipyard in March 2007, local media reports said. (PTI)
www.asianage.com, 8th March 2008
Hey I wonder if Barnie is reading these responses?
If you are, how about inspecting State compliance with congressional mandates? Ya’all and our Old Pal Bubba Clinton rescinded social services for hundreds of thousands of people in the 90s. You authorized job-search exemptions for a percentage of recipients, specifically citing families with DISABLED children at home.
But now even big deal liberal states like Washington DENY BENEFITS to single mothers with severely disabled children at home. They require them to look for work or work, then drop them, if they’re even granted help in the first place. And god forbid they should have a second 400 dollar car in their driveway… NO FOOD STAMPS EITHER.
Yeah, try ENFORCING THE PROGRAMS WE HAVE, then tell me about your new ones.
I’ll agree with many of the posters here. First off–push for this Bernie. For a start. As noted by others, we don’t need to push back just to the start of the Bush administration, but all the way back to the start of the Reagan era. There is no mention in the article about corporate tax rates, which need to go back to where they were in the 60s.
Someone else above mentioned how it’s not the wealthy 1% so much as the .001%. Have a look at this article that talks about the .0003%:
The Fortunate 400
Bernie I have a New Amendment for you to propose, its called the
Truth In America Politics Amendment.
1. Any elected politician in the United States is sworn in when they take the oath of office. In addition they should be sworn in to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, for the duration of their term of office.
The Penalty for lying under oath shall be no less then 10 years in federal prison, and if their lies resulted in death of anyone, they will be subject to the death penalty.
It looks like most of our current administration has lied, numerous times and they have also greatly profited by it. Its time to see if we have any politicians who have any decency and morals left in this country. Its time to stand up to these filthy bastards, They are lying murdering loathsome creatures from the depths of hell. Do you think they are building all their mercenary camps, and BlackWater armies to stop the slave labor they have been letting over the boarder for years? Its for those who choose to fight for the constitution of the United States. To them its a document that they loath. They don’t want people to Vote, they want only self enrichment and power, and any cost. They are the very root of the problems in this country.
Give me the constitution of the United States of America. Anyone who undermines our constitution, in in a time of war, should be subject to the maximum penalty available by law.
anyone pushing fear, should be show for the worthless looser that they are representing should be suject to federal law, no excused.
Since our justice system is turned cock-eyed, if not upside down … … …
¿ For politicians, how about we reverse our normal burden of proof of guilt, and assumption of innocence ?
Or are there other clever ways to re-insert a liberal media into our system?
Namaste
Here’s an easier and far more profitable way of fixing the problem: Abolish the Federal Reserve and seize the assets of those individuals and private banks that have been so obscenely profiting from it and return that money to it’s rightful owners..the American people.
Yes, I do have this fantasy of walking down the street in Manhattan and having a homeless, toothless groveling David Rockerfeller begging for some change…I mean really…who wouldn’t enjoy that?
In nature, nothing is equal. Rivers and oceans are not equals, mountains and giant trees are not equals. Equality is UNNATURAL, thus aganist the law of nature. The issue I have with Bernie, and others here, are that you do not observe the NATURAL process, but reject it for an IDEA of what’s “equal”. If each of us here were given $5.00, (an equal amount), and were told to show up tomorrow and report what we did with the $5.00, each of us would have a different story from, “The Dog ate it”, to “I hit Megabucks!”. That’s life, whether we are hunting and gathering or living in a communist or fascist dictatorship.
What I don’t like about Bernie or other posters here perspective on “equality” is the idea that the government is to provide and protect this UNNATURAL idea. It is my understanding that the Constitution and Bill of Rights provide we the people a government that protects our right to protect ourselves, and very little else, because it gave us the ability as HUMAN living in an unfair and unequal world, the FREEDOM to protect ourselves, to provide for ourselves.
Today the USA is a POLICE state. We are the biggest POLICED PRISON NATION on the planet. This is government control. This is not freedom or equality or protection, but ultimately, this is all the government can provide. And I’m sure some of you have seen the YouTubes of what’s being called FEMA “concentration camps”.
I believe most of the world is under communist, socialist and fascist dictatorships. Capitalism died in 1913 with President’s Wilson giving we the people’s power to the Federal Reserve. Nothing has ever been equal and on earth, it will never be, it’s unnatural.
Government is not able to create an equal planet or create a heaven on earth. Asking government to do that is why we’re getting a prison nation…it’s the best way humans can provide equality in this world.
Jeanette Doney,
A large population (such as a nation) living under a set of abstract rules (such as laws and customs and shared ideals) is itself unnatural. I have a suspicion you’d agree, but if you’re not sure, check out http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/monkeysphere.html and let me know.
It’s not about everything and everyone “being” equal.
Unless you’re advocating anarchy, tap this idea into your calculator and see if it changes the sum: equal opportunity. The Constitution and Bill of Rights was a fantastic idea, but it wasn’t perfect. Democracy is an ongoing experiment, and the changes Senator Sanders is proposing is just another example of tweaking this unnatural Monkeysphere experiment to keep from running over a cliff.
So run to the head of the crowd and let us know how far down the drop goes, but if we turn and you don’t notice, the only thing you should be cursing when you hit terminal velocity is your pessimism.
And let’s not forget that the IRS and CBO are giving us statistics based on “available” information. How much wealth (un-available info.) of this 1 percent is being hidden in offshore tax havens like Liechenstein; Switzerland; Luxembourg; Belgium; Austria; Hong Kong; Singapore, etc….?
Wow! Imagine how much more “significant” their alleged earnings would become if that information were made public!
The real clue here is that capitalism has failed to deliver to most of us a media that does not filter news, health care system that does not need pre approval, a transportation system that is safe, and most of all a living wage afforded to everyone.
Hmmmmmm it looks like congress has failed in all of the above, and failed to protect the constitution with its check and balance authority, as well.
Great start Bernie but, as has been mentioned on here, the military budget in this country is a joke and a disgrace. When we spend as much as the rest of the planet on “defense” you know something is horribly wrong.
Eat the rich.
I wish my senators in WA thought this way!!! Only campaign I contributed to was Bernie Sanders.
Good ideas, Bernie.
It is too easy to say Congress is controlled by big money and the deck is stacked and then go on blogging.
We still have the vote (at least for now) and we must use every tool at our disposal. Tell me, why can’t we organize to expose and vote out fascists and toadies and vote in independents, peace candidates and candidates who support economic justice? Vermont elected Bernie.
Freedom is a constant stuggle.