Billionaires should help pay for affordable housing, Bernie Sanders tells Reno crowd

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

“When I talk about infrastructure, I’ll tell you what else I’m talking about: The need to build millions of new units of affordable housing,” Sanders said in front of a diverse crowd of more than 1,500 supporters gathered for a rally in City Plaza. “All over this country, you have people paying 40, 50, 60 percent of their limited incomes in housing

(snip)

Noble made headlines this month after going public with a 45 percent rent hike slapped on her Midtown Reno apartment. Without major government intervention, she fears many more will be priced out of their homes.

(snip)

“At this rate, Nevada won’t have any Nevadans left in it.”

(snip)

She and her husband agreed the real estate market had turned into a game of Monopoly, with very few property owners holding most of the cards.

(snip)

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/29/bernie-sanders-reno-rally-affordable-housing-crunch/1279248001/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. There is a virtual mountain of things billionaires should pay for or help pay for

but the ONLY way to achieve those things is by creating a broad based support system within a political party.

The person wanting to accomplish this has to have tremendous support within a party, has to be known as someone they can work with.

For shit to get done, that is.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

2. If Bernie is

for affordable housing I'm against it.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Thank you for your candor obnoxiousdrunk.

[obnoxiousdrunk]

6. Welcome

Uncle Joe.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

14. Lol. That's about the size of it.

[George II]

4. What's the plan?

[wasupaloopa]

5. Again Mr Sanders, what is the plan? I can say the same words. To bad so many

fall for words without asking how.

[SouthernProgressive]

7. His messaging is much worse this time around.

His thoughts aren't as clear.

I do hope people watch the video.

"in front of a diverse crowd"

I guess there are lots of ways to define that.

[George II]

15. Diverse:

[oldsoftie]

8. So now the billionaires are to fund housing, free college, medicare for all, a basic income, etc.

Has anyone told him that there arent enough billionaires to actually pay for anywhere NEAR what all that would cost?
You could double their tax rate & it would still be pocket change.
But in his defense, NO candidate has proposed anything that would raise the real revenues required.

[Kahuna7]

11. I posted on twitter yesterday, that with all these candidates, there are so many

plans, it's becoming white noise at this point. Voters aren't stupid and know that the majority of the plans will never become actual policy. These "plans" will also allow the gop to once again label Democrats as tax and spend socialists (not even tax and spend liberals).

IMHO, the candidates should pare their platforms to 2 or 3 major issues, so that voters can better identify what they actually stand for.

[Honeycombe8]

13. This talking about billionaires paying for everything isn't sounding good to my ears.

There's no doubt they have the money. The billionaires own more wealth together than all the remainder of citizens together. So they have it.

But I'm uncomfortable with this sort of plan that sounds more like punishing someone for making a lot of money than seriously helping others.

The way to handle billionaires is a fair tax system. Then the govt needs to fund certain things; people will pay for the funding in accordance with the fairer tax system.

[billpolonsky]

9. Looks like the Hope and Change crowd...

...has left the building.

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain

[Uncle Joe]

10. ...

[appalachiablue]

12. Will no one think of the poor billionaires?/ s

[GulfCoast66]

18. Don't like Bernie but he definitely points out a problem.

However, it not just billionaires that need taxing, putting aside the fact the we tax income not wealth.

30-40% of Americans are really struggling. 25-30% are barely holding their own. 25% are doing very well. And of course the 1%.

To fund the things this nation need we have to do so many things. But first off is tax the top 25% at a more reasonable level. A group I’m in. And my tax rate is absurdly low.

We might be able to sell Americans on that. Might.

But the elephant in the room is defense spending. If we do not cut it by at least 40% there is no way we can take care of the people in this country. I can’t see that happening.

Unfortunately, the voting rate of Americans is directly tied to their income. The more money they have, the more likely to vote. Tie that in with the numbers of Americans willing to vote against their interests in support of racist policies and we have a real toxic stew.

[LibFarmer]

21. No way to cut defense spending

All those F-35s must be built in Vermont.

[Blue_true]

19. I agree in principle.

The way that I think it can be done is to tax every stream of rich people's income at the highest tax rate for the level of income. Super rich people get most of their new wealth through carried interest on investments, currently the tax rate on that is 15% if held beyond a certain time, it should be based on the dollar amount of the income with no games to hide that dollar amount. Also, US citizens (I say ALL rich people in the world) should have to report offshore income and be taxed on it, taking into account foreign income taxes that they pay.

[LibFarmer]

20. There aren't enough billionaires in the world

to pay for all of Bernie's slogans.

Bernie's proclamations are already topping $5 trillion in costs. Even if you stripped the Forbes top 400 richest people of every penny of their wealth, it will barely reach $1 trillion.

Math is so nice -- I highly recommend it.