September 24, 2019

Sanders Campaign releases plan for Tax on Extreme Wealth

Only applies to those with a net worth of $32million or higher for married couples and $16million or higher for singles. Would fund his plan for affordable housing and universal childcare and would put a good dent into medicare for all. Full text at the link.

https://berniesanders.com/issues/tax-extreme-wealth/

How the Tax on Extreme Wealth Would Work

This tax on extreme wealth would have a progressive rate structure that would only apply to the wealthiest 180,000 households in America who are in the top 0.1 percent.

It would start with a 1 percent tax on net worth above $32 million for a married couple. That means a married couple with $32.5 million would pay a wealth tax of just $5,000.

The tax rate would increase to 2 percent on net worth from $50 to $250 million, 3 percent from $250 to $500 million, 4 percent from $500 million to $1 billion, 5 percent from $1 to $2.5 billion, 6 percent from $2.5 to $5 billion, 7 percent from $5 to $10 billion, and 8 percent on wealth over $10 billion. These brackets are halved for singles.

Under this plan, the wealth of billionaires would be cut in half over 15 years which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small privileged class.

Under current law, the IRS is already required to assess the net worth of the wealthiest Americans when they pass away, to calculate estate tax liability. A federal wealth tax would require the IRS to make the same assessment on an annual basis for the wealthiest Americans. Steps would also be taken to streamline the process for purposes of the wealth tax.

For assets that are difficult to appraise, the Treasury Department would have the option of allowing taxpayers to have appraisals done periodically instead of annually. The Treasury Department would establish the average rates of appreciation for several classes of assets. Those appraised only every few years would be assumed to appreciate in the intervening years at the average rate established for their designated class.

Assets placed in a trust would be treated as owned by the grantor of the trust (by the person giving assets to the trust) until that person’s death.

September 24, 2019

A to F+: Grading the Presidential Candidates on Their Labor Plans

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/presidential-candidates-2020-labor-plans.html

In order:

Sanders: A
Warren: A
Buttigieg: B+
Biden: B
Booker: B
Castro: B
Harris: B
O'Rourke: B
Klochubar: B-
Yang: C+

EDIT: The F+ was Trump, but we all knew that already.

September 24, 2019

Unless something dramatic happens, I think Elizabeth Warren is going to run away with the nomination

She's gaining in every poll, her favorability ratings are among the best of any candidate with room to improve, she's energetic and well-spoken, and she's progressive. This thing could be over by Super Tuesday with Warren the undisputed winner.

September 21, 2019

Bernie supporters arrive late to the Steak Fry after knocking on 7,500 doors and making 27k calls.

https://twitter.com/adamkelsey/status/1175468654391103489/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1175468654391103489&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Fd7efh5%3Fresponsive%3Dtrue%26is_nightmode%3Dfalse

September 14, 2019

Bernie Sanders: Donald Trump, you're a goddamned liar

Great interview with Rolling Stone talking about the debate and how to beat Trump. It also goes into detail how some of our candidates are, unfortunately, beginning to use language similar to the health insurance lobby against Medicare for All.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bernie-sanders-debate-interview-exclusive-884254/

Taibbi: I want to talk a little bit about what your strategy would be if you were in the general election. A lot of the candidates, both in the last race and in this year already, they fall into the trap when they’re campaigning against Donald Trump of trading insults with him, getting into this endless cycle of barbs, and the media loves to cover that.

Correct me if I’m wrong, I feel like you have a different strategy. You don’t seem to want to engage Trump on that level. You always seem to want to continue talking to voters, almost past him, and focus on the issues, focus on your message of opposing corporate power.

If you were the nominee, how would you deal with Donald Trump differently from the other candidates?

Sanders: I think, Matt, that what you said is basically correct. On one hand you cannot ignore his pathological lying, his racism, his sexism, his xenophobia, his religious bigotry. I mean you can’t do that. You have to defend people who are being attacked by this racist president.

But on the other hand, if you become obsessed, and I think this is the point you’re making, if you become obsessed with Donald Trump’s tweets, you fall into his trap. So I think the main point we make, when we go to states like Michigan, when you go to Wisconsin, when you go to Pennsylvania, when you go to Florida, is you say to the working people of those states, “You know what, not only is this guy a liar, he’s a fraud.

He told you that he was going to stand with the working class of this country, he told you he was going to take on Wall Street and the drug companies and the insurance companies. Well the evidence is clear, he lied to you.”

You don’t stand with the working class when you try to throw 32 million people off of health insurance. You don’t stand with the working class of this country when 83% of the tax benefits that you push for, that you succeeded in getting, go to the top 1% at the end of 10 years. You’re not standing with the working class.

You remember, Matt and Katie, that when he campaigned he said, “I’m a different type of Republican, I’m not going to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.” Absolute lie. His budget does exactly that.

So he said, “I want American companies not to go abroad.” Well he’s producing products for his own company abroad. “Oh my God, it’s terrible that we have all these undocumented people in this country, I hate undocumented people.” Oh yeah? Well they’re working in your companies.

They’re working at your resorts, Donald Trump, you’re a goddamned liar. Forgive me. Shouldn’t say that.

Taibbi: Everybody’s using profanity now, it’s okay.

Sanders: All right. And that’s what you expose him, is the fraud. Here he is hiring undocumented people in his own resorts, after he is ranting and raving and demonizing undocumented people. So I think that is the point you make to working-class people: he lied to you.

And I think we also have to understand, and you’ve heard me say this a million times, Matt – that is to my mind, it wasn’t that Trump won, it’s that the Democratic Party lost. And the Democratic Party forgot about the tens of millions of working-class people in this country, black and white and Latino, Native American, Asian-American, people who are struggling.

Half of the people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck. Car breaks down, they’re in severe trouble. They can’t afford to go to the doctor. Those are the folks we have to start paying attention to. And when we do that, you’ll defeat Donald Trump.

September 12, 2019

New McLoughlin & Associates Poll: Biden 28 (n/c), Sanders 21 (+6), Warren 12 (+3)

https://mclaughlinonline.com/pols/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/National-Monthly-Omnibus-September-Public.pdf

Uptrend continues for Sanders and Warren.

September 11, 2019

New Economist/YouGov Poll: Warren 26%, Biden 26%, Sanders 16% among Registered Voters

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/hrk03f83zc/econTabReport.pdf

Things are tightening up ahead of the next debate.