Donkees
Donkees's JournalVideo: Senator Sanders Introducing the Inclusive Prosperity Act - Robin Hood Tax
Published on May 22, 2019
''The first thing Bernie says when he meets you: 'What can I do for you?' And then...he delivers.''
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1131321709381005314I had the opportunity to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery ...
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1131211121690644480https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1131211125322858499
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1131211127885582338
Sanders Leads Bicameral Legislation to Hold Opioid Executives Criminally Liable
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
WASHINGTON, May 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a bicameral group of lawmakers in introducing the Opioid Crisis Accountability and Results Act, as Vermont Attorney General T. J. Donovan announced a lawsuit today against former Purdue Pharma CEO Richard Sackler and seven family members who served on Purdue’s Board of Directors for deliberately misrepresenting the risks of the drug OxyContin.
The Opioid Crisis Accountability and Results Act, introduced with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Representatives Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), prohibits illegal marketing and distribution of opioids; creates criminal liability for top company executives; penalizes drug manufacturers who illegally advertise, market or distribute an opioid product; and requires drug makers to reimburse the country for the negative economic impact of their products.
The opioid epidemic is estimated to cost the United States over $78 billion per year. In 2016 alone, over 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses. From 1999 to 2016, the number of opioid overdose deaths more than tripled, and U.S. life expectancy as a whole fell for the third year in a row in 2017, due in part to the increase in opioid-related deaths.
“We know that pharmaceutical companies lied about the addictive impacts of opioids they manufactured. They knew how dangerous these products were, but refused to tell doctors and patients. While some of these companies have made billions each year in profits, not one of them has been held fully accountable for its role in an epidemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year,” Sanders said. “At a time when local, state and federal governments are spending many billions of dollars a year dealing with the impact of the opioid epidemic, we must hold the pharmaceutical companies and executives that created the crisis accountable.”
“Communities across the country are being ripped apart by the opioid epidemic. Multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical companies and their executives reaped large profits for years while their questionable marketing and distribution practices precipitated a devastating public health crisis,” Bennet said. “It is far past time for Congress to ensure opioid manufacturers, distributors, and executives fund our response to the crisis they created. Our bill will support programs that combat the opioid crisis and ensure we hold companies and their executives accountable for any future misconduct.”
“When I visit the communities that have been ravaged by the opioid epidemic, I see the victims of unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies that have put profits over the patients they were intended to serve,” said Khanna. “This bill holds opioid manufacturers and their executives accountable for decades of dishonest sales practices and malicious drug distribution. Over the past 20 years, more than 400,000 people have died of opioid overdoses, and millions more have been stricken by addiction. Their loved ones deserve justice.”
“Opioid companies have lied, cheated, and profited from the addiction and death left in the wake of the crisis they helped create. The criminal nature of these companies’ actions have destroyed families as well as strained the criminal justice and public health systems,” said Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. “This bill would create tools to hold companies and executives accountable for preying on patients using deceptive marketing tactics, as they proliferated these highly-addictive and destructive drugs on our streets.”
Any company found in violation of the Opioid Crisis Accountability and Results Act would be fined 25 percent of the profits from their opioid products. Drug manufacturers who illegally advertise, market or distribute an opioid product would also be stripped of any remaining period of market exclusivity for that opioid product, and would lose half of the remaining exclusivity period on other opioid products they have on the market. The legislation would also fine any company found liable for contributing to the opioid epidemic $7.8 billion—10 percent of the annual cost of the opioid crisis.
Organizations endorsing the legislation include Public Citizen, CREDO, American Medical Student Association (AMSA), National Collaborative for Health Equity and Prescription Justice.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-leads-bicameral-legislation-to-hold-opioid-executives-criminally-liable
Bernie Sanders is bringing back the most underrated education policy
Ryan Cooper
May 21, 2019
Excerpt:
Last week, Bernie Sanders released a plan to revitalize school integration efforts. It's both an excellent plan and brings attention to a vitally important racial justice issue.
So what would Sanders do? He would end the prohibition on funding desegregation transport (a relic from that 1970's backlash), provide several pots of money to encourage schools to desegregate, triple funding support for the poorest schools, expand funding for minority teacher education, ramp up desegregation orders, and provide more money for school construction and maintenance, (as well as several other policies not directly related to desegregation). It's an excellent start, to say the least.
Now, integration is not a panacea; a disproportionate number of African-American children still come from impoverished families or face other problems rooted in systemic racism. And the biggest overall problem with American education is certainly America's hideous income inequality, as household income is very closely correlated with educational achievement. But integration does prevent them from being stuffed into essentially fake schools where rich white elites can simply let them drown — and it doesn't harm white children either.
It's also true that the federal government's power over the school system is not that great, as most power is still exercised locally. But a committed president could still achieve a lot, and more still with the support of Congress. School integration has been outside the main political discussion for a long time, and it's long since time we started talking about it again.
Bernie Sanders deserves enormous credit for bringing it back on the national radar and offering a meaningful plan to address it.
https://theweek.com/articles/842453/bernie-sanders-bringing-back-most-underrated-education-policy
.webp
Bernie Sanders Q&A with New Georgia Project Action Fund (1 of 9) May 19, 2019
Published on May 20, 2019
Our Executive Director Nse Ufot and South Fulton City Councilman khalid kamau moderated a short Q&A with Senator Bernie Sanders on May 19, 2019 with some members of the local activist and organizing community in Atlanta, GA.
In this first clip, Bernie Sanders has opening remarks and Nse Ufot introduces the organization and the space.
Bernie Sanders brings 'us, not me' campaign message to Alabama church
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, speaks at the Mt. Zion AME Zion Church in Montgomery. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)
Updated 4:15 PM; Today
By Mike Cason
Excerpt:
The audience at the church today interrupted Sanders regularly with applause and cheers and briefly broke into a chant of “Bernie, Bernie” when he finished his remarks.
Abraham White of Opelika said the senator echoed many of his own thoughts and inspired him. White said he believes the ideas that Sanders has built his campaigns on could become reality.
”I think it will take a lot of people coming together. But it’s definitely something that’s possible. He gave me hope today. He really did," White said.
Before appearing at the church today, Sanders visited historical sites from the civil rights movement in Lowndes and Montgomery counties. He visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, the memorial to lynching victims established by the Equal Justice Initiative last year.
https://www.al.com/news/2019/05/bernie-sanders-brings-us-not-me-campaign-message-to-alabama-church.html
Profile Information
Member since: Sun Sep 30, 2012, 09:51 AMNumber of posts: 31,501
