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Journalist Defends Bernie Sanders on CNN

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Bernie Sanders: My plan to take on Wall Street...

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https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/break-up-the-banks?source=em150819banks-a

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Wall Street's greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior drove this country into the worst recession since the Great Depression. For too long, the billionaire class has corrupted our political system. We must act decisively to make our economy fair again.

Wall Street's dangerous manipulation of our economy has helped divert most of all new income to the top one percent, contributing to the most unequal level of wealth and income distribution of any major country on earth.

Today, we live in the richest country in the history of the world, but that reality means little because much of that wealth is controlled by a tiny handful of individuals. The skyrocketing level of income and wealth inequality is not only grotesque and immoral, it is economically unsustainable.

The reality is that for the past 40 years, Wall Street and the billionaire class have rigged the rules to redistribute wealth and income to the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country. As a result, Wall Street exists as an island unto itself, benefiting only the extremely wealthy while using our money to get rich.

That ends when I am president. Let me tell you what I'm going to do, then sign on to endorse my plan to take on Wall Street.

Tax Wall Street Speculation to Make College Tuition Free

Too many firms on Wall Street use high-speed trading to try to make a quick buck. But it's risky and unproductive. Banks can execute thousands of stock trades a second thanks to sophisticated computer algorithms.

Wall Street can keep doing this if it wants--but they'll have to pay a tax on every one of those trades. And this tax on Wall Street speculation would be enough to pay for my plan to make tuition free at every public college or university.

Break Up Banks that are Too Big to Fail

In the midst of all of this grotesque inequality in our country sits a handful of financial institutions that are still so large, the failure of any one would cause catastrophic risk to millions of Americans and send the world economy into crisis.

Most of the major Wall Street financial institutions that we bailed out because they were "too big to fail" are now bigger than they used to be. The six largest financial institutions now have assets equivalent to nearly 60% of our GDP, issue 35% of the mortgages, and oversee 65% of credit cards.

My view: If it's too big to fail, it's too big to exist. That's the bottom line. As president, I will break up the big banks and restore some sanity to our banking system.

Make Banking Boring: Reign in the Recklessness

Banking should be boring. It shouldn't be about making as much profit as possible by gambling on esoteric financial products. The goal of banking should be to provide affordable loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the productive economy, and to Americans who need to purchase homes and cars.

That is not what these huge financial institutions are doing. They're instead creating an economy which is not sustainable from a moral, economic, or political perspective. It's a rigged economy that must be changed in fundamental ways.

We need banks that invest in the job-creating productive economy. We do not need more speculation with the American economy hanging in the balance.

Unrig the Tax System

Our tax system is wildly unfair — rigged to benefit the very rich. Major corporations that earn billions in profits stash their money in tax havens and pay nothing in federal income taxes, while billionaire hedge fund managers pay a lower effective tax rate than nurses or teachers.

In order to reverse the massive transfer of wealth and income from the middle class to the very rich that we have seen in recent years, we need real tax reform which makes the wealthy and profitable corporations begin to pay their fair share of taxes. It is fiscally irresponsible that the U.S. Treasury loses about $100 billion a year because corporations and the rich stash their profits in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and other tax havens.

We need a tax system which is fair and progressive. Children should not go hungry in this country while profitable corporations and the wealthy avoid their tax responsibilities.

We Can Do This

The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time.

I can understand how this might feel daunting. We are up against a billionaire class that has bought our political system to enrich itself, and is now faced with the breakup of their oligarchy.
Know this: when people come together to organize, we can beat any amount of money thrown around by the Koch Brothers, Goldman Sachs executives, or anyone else.

Our political revolution is underway, and when it is built, we will win not just against Wall Street, but we will win the White House.

Add your name to endorse my plan to take on Wall Street and the billionaire class.

We can do this, Jim. Thank you for standing with us.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Toon: Two Billionaires...

Bernie Sanders Has Heard About That Hashtag

Do you think President Obama is a socialist? No.

What is your elevator pitch for socialism? My elevator pitch is that the United States has a grotesque level of income and wealth inequality where the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, where almost 20 percent of our children are living in poverty, 40 percent of African-American children are living in poverty. We are moving rapidly toward an oligarchic form of society where a small number of families control not only the economy but our political system as well. It is imperative that we develop a strong political movement that says to the billionaire class they cannot have it all.

A recent poll showed that Americans are more willing to vote for a Muslim or an atheist for president than a socialist. Do you think you could take back the word ‘‘socialism’’ and keep it from being what it is right now, which is almost a nasty word? Actually, what surprised me about that poll was, given the negative publicity that the word ‘‘socialism’’ has, that — what was the number of the people who were prepared to vote for a socialist?

It was in the high 40s. Yeah. Well, that’s pretty good, and it’ll get higher.

One of the few clear ideas that Americans have about socialism is that it involves high taxes. Can you sell that, the idea that you might have to raise taxes? I think we can sell the idea that when the rich are getting much richer and corporations are enjoying record-breaking profits that yes, they should start paying their fair share of taxes.

Are you familiar with the hashtag #Bernie­SoBlack? I’ve heard of it.

A lot of black activists felt as if, when they criticized you, the response they got back was ‘‘but he marched on Washington,’’ as though that were an absolution. And so it became this joke on Twitter: ‘‘Bernie’s so black, he’s the first one killed in horror movies.’’ ‘‘Bernie’s so black, he’s dropping a mix tape.’’ Well look, Black Lives Matter is a very, very serious issue. And clearly, as a nation, we have to move away from a situation where black women are dragged out of their cars, thrown to the ground, assaulted and then die in jail three days later for the crime of not signaling a lane change. Or more recently, a fellow named Samuel DuBose got shot in the head for the crime of not having a license plate on the front of his car.

Were you surprised that black activists responded so negatively to you at first? Yes, I was, because I think if you check the record, you will find that I have one of the strongest civil rights records in Congress, and this is an issue I feel strongly about.

What do you think of Donald Trump’s surge in the polls? Not much. I think Donald Trump’s views on immigration and his slurring of the Latino community is not something that should be going on in the year 2015, and it’s to me an embarrassment for our country.

Do you think it’s fair that Hillary’s hair gets a lot more scrutiny than yours does? Hillary’s hair gets more scrutiny than my hair?

Yeah. O.K., Ana, I don’t mean to be rude here. I am running for president of the United States on serious issues, O.K.? Do you have serious questions?

I can defend that as a serious question. There is a gendered reason — When the media worries about what Hillary’s hair looks like or what my hair looks like, that’s a real problem. We have millions of people who are struggling to keep their heads above water, who want to know what candidates can do to improve their lives, and the media will very often spend more time worrying about hair than the fact that we’re the only major country on earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people.

It’s also true that the media pays more attention to what female candidates look like than it does to what male candidates look like. That may be. That may be, and it’s absolutely wrong.

Interview has been condensed and edited.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/magazine/bernie-sanders-has-heard-about-that-hashtag.html?_r=0

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