Pelosi distances Democrats from Sanders's plan to raise taxes

[Beacool]

By Mike Lillis
1/27/16

Democrats are not on board with the tax hikes Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has proposed to pay for his single-payer healthcare proposal, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday.

"We're not running on any platform of raising taxes," Pelosi said during a press briefing to launch the Democrats' yearly issues conference in Baltimore, Md. "We do want to have a fairer tax system, and … we hope that we can do that this year."

Sanders on Monday acknowledged that his "Medicare-for-all" healthcare plan would require tax hikes on the middle class.
“We will raise taxes, yes we will,” Sanders said during a Democratic town hall in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Vermont senator, who's running neck and neck with front-runner Hillary Clinton in Iowa just days ahead of the state's caucuses, emphasized that the individual savings achieved under his healthcare plan would offset the costs of the tax increase. He called critics of the strategy “disingenuous.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/267236-pelosi-distances-dems-from-sanderss-plan-to-raise-taxes

If he can't convince Democrats in Congress, how is he going to convince the opposition?

[TCJ70]

1. Maybe HE can't...

...but WE can. Besides, nothing happens until we root out the influences of the pharmaceutical and insurance industries anyway.

[jkbRN]

3. BOOM

No great change comes without people demanding it.

[Beacool]

5. Who is this magical WE?

The Republicans hold on the House is here to stay for the immediate future. The Senate will hopefully change hands, if not this year, next cycle. The sitting Democrats are still licking the wounds of the battle to pass the ACA. Who are the magical people who are going to pass his agenda?

[RobertEarl]

19. Good point

The people with all the power, with the influence and money who support the democratic party right now will leave before they would support a candidate like Sanders.

[TCJ70]

49. We are you and me...

...and every other voter who needs to wake up to the fact that our government is way out of whack. Hillary won't change it, a Republican won't change it. Bernie will at least call it out when he sees it and work to change it. You're so focused on letting a few people in a big building far away do the work you seem to forget your part in it.

[Nite Owl]

37. stage one of the revolution:

Get Bernie elected
stage2: Make the Congress work for us or get rid of them

[Beacool]

42. What revolution?????

This is not Cuba.

[cali]

2. Of course she does. She's in Hillary's camp.

[Beacool]

7. Regardless of who she privately supports, she's the Minority Leader.

She has a finger on the pulse of her caucus.

[cali]

14. Hardly privately.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/238837-pelosi-endorses-clinton-just-not-officially
http://time.com/4153228/hillary-clinton-nancy-pelosi-endorsement/http://www.politicususa.com/2015/07/14/nancy-pelosi-hillary-clinton-enters-oval-office-prepared-people-history.html

[pangaia]

22. "She has a finger on the pulse of her caucus."

Oh wow, isn't she smart.

Shit, I'm sitting here in my chair in front of a computer and even EYE know what the 'caucus' thinks.

That's the whole fucking point !!!!
Get rid of the corporate puppets.

[brooklynite]

24. Please enlighten us...

...tell us how "we the people" will get Sanders' agenda implemented. I've met most of our new candidates, and none of them are chomping at the bit to raise taxes radically (and yes, that's what Sanders is proposing), and you folks apparently don't have any candidates lined up to challenge them: all there are are the two incumbents and two Primary candidates for Republican seats.

[QC]

25. She also has about $30,000,000 that she wants to hang on to.

She will never know what it is to choose between heat and medicine.

[pangaia]

35. BINGO !!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so sorry if you are facing that dilemma.

[Beacool]

28. So, is this part of the so called "revolution".

Get rid of the majority of Democrats in office and replace them with people more attuned to Sanders. While at the same time trying to elect Democrats in Republican districts?

Wow, good luck with that one.

[frylock]

47. Yep. Get on board or get out of the way.

[Gothmog]

4. Sanders proposals would kill down ballot races

[RobertEarl]

10. Sounds like a Rove meme

This: ""Health care for everyone will kill.""

You should probably think through your comments a bit more before posting here on BU?

[Gothmog]

43. Socialism is not a popular term in many parts of the country

http://www.fortbendstar.com/2015/08/05/theres-no-room-for-socialism-in-fort-bend-county/

[NurseJackie]

11. Yes it would.

Thus killing any chance of any sort of progress. Actually making things WORSE.

[Beacool]

12. That's the risk of nominating someone who just joined the party.

Democratic elected officials feel zero loyalty to him. Notice that only one person in the House endorsed him and no one in the Senate. How would his nomination help the party as a whole?

[NurseJackie]

17. "How would his nomination help the party as a whole?"

How would his nomination help the party as a whole?

It wouldn't.

[RobertEarl]

21. Can't piss off the rich

The people with all the power, with the influence and money who support the democratic party right now will leave before they would support a candidate like Sanders.

[Gothmog]

55. Being part of a party means caring about the other candidates running on the ticket

Pelosi is correct to run away from Sanders' policies because these policies would kill down ballot races

[RobertEarl]

59. Not true

But what is true is that the DNC ran away from and deserted Obama in 2010. Seems the rich and powerful didn't like Obama's ACA and his potential hope and change.

[Gothmog]

60. I have worked long and hard in the Democratic Party

If you want to be the nominee of the party, then you need to be part of the party. Sanders is refusing to help down ballot candidaes while Clinton is raising money for the DNC

[Odin2005]

31. Bullshit.

[Gothmog]

54. Promising to raise taxes worked very well for President Mondale

Sanders' proposals would kill candidates in down ballot races. If Sanders wants to be part of the Democratic party, then he may want to raise money for the party and consider how to elect other democrats. Clinton raised $18 million for the party last cycle and Sanders raised zero. Clinton's policies would not kill down ballot candidates

[RobertEarl]

6. Pelosi is rich

She loves her rich friends and they are getting worried.

Note that she says nothing about health care, only complaining that she and her rich friends might have to pay a little bit more tax.

[Beacool]

8. Pelosi deals in reality, not wishful thinking.

She's telling it as she sees it.

[RobertEarl]

15. Exactly. Here's how Pelosi sees it

We rich people do not want to pay a dime more in taxes. We have screwed over all you poor people and we ain't gonna quit.

[frylock]

48. Pelosi lives in a bubble..

that bubble is going to get burst.

[Cali_Democrat]

9. Saying you want to raise taxes on the middle class is political suicide.

Pelosi knows this.

As Democrats, we need to distance ourselves from Sanders.

[NurseJackie]

13. Thank you! (nt)

[RobertEarl]

16. No health care for you~~ says Pelosi

We rich people did not get rich by providing health care for you poor people

[Beacool]

20. Saying that you will raise taxes is the kiss of death in an election year.

No matter how a candidate parses it, people only hear that the candidate will raise taxes. I still remember Bush Sr.'s statement about taxes: "Read my lips, no new taxes." Well, come election time he got pummeled for raising taxes.

[scscholar]

51. But a broad increase is needed...

to pay down the debt. The middle class in this country has more than even the rich had in the past. We need to sacrifice for the greater good. Sanders is right on this issue.

[Nanjeanne]

18. Pelosi hasn't endorsed yet

and I have no idea what camp she is in - nor do I personally care. I make my own mind up and vote accordingly.

What I care very deeply about is the years and years that the Democratic Party has borrowed Republican talking points - and refused to STAND UP for things that once were core principles. I still think Biden was right when he said "it's Patriotic to pay taxes". And I still think that the taxes we pay are our commitment to the commons.

The Democrats are always playing defense. Why did they allow "pro choice" and "pro life" to be the way we identify. I have said for years it should always have been "pro choice" and "anti choice" - and finally I hear a few people say it. But to let Republicans co-opt "pro life" when nothing they truly stand for is "pro life" - is crazy.

Same thing with bigger and smaller government. Why just give in and give up. Why not talk about what role government really has and educate people on how government is good. Government programs work well - they help people - they improve our lives. It's a fallacy to believe that government is wasteful. In most cases, government beaurocracies are not as wasteful as many corporations - and much more efficient. Free market capitalism does not work without active government. Most of society's problems stem not from government but from the public sector (like poverty, pollution, healthcare). Freedoms are not restricted by government - we more likely face threats to our civil liberties in the workplace than in government . . . and on and on.

But the Third Way Democrats and the "no labels" crap and all that nonsense about every side does the same thing - have severely hurt our ability to move forward with a progressive agenda. Letting Republicans dictate the language we use is a big problem and we should be educating people about what our taxes do --- and SHOULD DO -- and we, as Democrats, should not be running from the word.

<End Of Rant>

[Beacool]

23. Pelosi is in the camp of most other elected Democrats.

From Obama down, the vast majority of Democratic elected officials prefer Hillary for various reasons. A) She has been a Democratic first lady, senator and SOS. B) After her loss in 2008 she campaigned very hard for Obama. C) She's the wife of a successful Democratic president. D) Over the years, Hillary and Bill have raised $100s of millions for other Democrats. Hillary alone raised $18M last year. Sanders? Nothing.

Why would people who have been Democrats for years feel loyalty to someone who refused to join the party for decades and only did so now to run for president?

[Nanjeanne]

27. You may be right

Or not. She hasn't endorsed. And as I said I don't see what it matters. I'm capable of making up my own mind.

[Beacool]

33. Of course, unlike the supporters of her esteemed opponent,

I don't try to browbeat anyone into voting for Hillary. BTW, I do get your point about government. I think that all Democrats agree on the importance of government in our lives. Where both sides disagree is on what can be accomplished based on the reality on the ground and who is the best person to do the job.

[Armstead]

26. The Democrats in Congress are part of the problem

Not all of them,. but they too often "go along to get along" and are either too cautious or too corrupt to actually stand up for things that are needed.

Peolsi has been good in many ways, and a fighter, but on this she is being a go along.

[Beacool]

36. I have had issues with Pelosi, but she definitely is a fighter.

The ACA would not have passed without her hard work.

[bkkyosemite]

29. I like the way they don't finish his tax hike comment regarding the fact that

you pay no more insurance premiums and that you save thousands of dollars in a years time.

[Nite Owl]

39. Exactly

maybe Bernie should call it the Medicare Premium instead of a tax
They should be told of all the ways we are taxed especially though 'privatization' and letting corporations make us pay up up for things like cable, electric and and gas etc.

[Odin2005]

30. Cowards.

[lumberjack_jeff]

32. "distances democrats"? Not this one. n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

34. Pelosi wooed us in 2008 for the Bail-out, when Bernie Called foul!!!

[KingFlorez]

38. And she represents one of the most liberal places around

You can get many people to get on board with raising taxes on the 1% so that they pay a fairer share, but a tax increase that would effect middle income earners and possibly lower income earners is a big no no.

[Beacool]

41. Yes, she does.

Pelosi has enough years of experience in the House to know what has a chance of passing and what will not.

[mmonk]

40. Fake liberals.

[libdem4life]

46. She politically regressed...seriously.

[DefenseLawyer]

44. Ewwww We're afraid to go with you, Bluto!

We might get in TROUBLE!!!!!!

[LWolf]

45. You mean "impeachment is off the table" Pelosi? nt

[Broward]

50. Pelosi sold out years ago.

[Thinkingabout]

52. Another one under the bus

[Autumn]

53. Nancy 'Impeachments Off The Table for War Crimes' Pelosi

She knows all about working with the opposition.

[Samantha]

56. Where is the part where premium payments to health insurance providers would be canceled?

The raising of taxes but the canceling of premiums nets the average taxpayer about a $5,000 annual savings in health care expenses. It is very disingenuous to bring up the tax increase part but leave out the premium cancellation part and the overall net savings to the tax payer.

Pelosi knows this.

Sam

[AgingAmerican]

57. Stockholm syndrome

They now believe that right wing policy is Democratic party policy.

The assimilation is nearly complete.

[Prism]

58. Single payer is . . . off the table?

Thanks, Nancy. Your attitude worked so well for us during the Bush years.

[Beacool]

62. Sanders himself said that there were only 8-10 votes in the Senate for single payer.

[Alfresco]

61. DOA KICK