Bernie Sanders is technically a social democrat, not a democratic socialist

[Sancho]

12. Here's a few...got to go to work now, but this should do...

Bernie has supported the military establishment more than I would like. He was often criticized on socialist and green websites. My observation (and discussions with buds from Norway and Finland) see a different level of support or goals for the military. Scandinavians are very tired of "invasions" so they would not put hundreds of military bases everywhere. Pretty much defensive only. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_defence_union

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/24583-bernie-sanders-doubles-down-on-f-35-support-days-after-runway-explosio
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/30/the-myth-of-bernie-sanders/
http://socialistworker.org/2012/08/09/vermont-says-no-to-the-f35
http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2015/02/hypocrisy-alert-bernie-sanders-wanting.html
http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com/2013/11/how-lockheed-and-sandia-came-to-vermont.html
http://www.libertyunionparty.org/?page_id=363
http://gui.afsc.org/birddog/bernie-sanders-calls-out-defense-contractors-and-lobbyists
https://thewordsmithcollection.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/bernie-sanders-supports-the-right-wing-war-lobby/

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Bernie's Robin Hood tax is bad for union and public employee retirement funds. This is one reason some unions like FEA/AFT have not endorsed him. His way to pay for education is ultimately paid for by taxing many regular state pensions. You'd have to study this a bit to see how it works, but Hillary's plan is better. Here in FL there are 200 billion in state employee funds that would be taxed by the Bernie tax. Besides the way he pays for education, Bernie suggests controls for education that seem different than Scandinavia.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/collegeforallsummary/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/31/why-free-college-is-really-expensive.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/29/1388484/-Bernie-Sanders-big-idea-has-a-math-problem#
https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalDiscussion/comments/36vmm8/what_are_some_legitimate_arguments_against_bernie/
http://chronicle.com/article/Bernie-Sanderss-Charming/231387?cid=megamenu
http://www.sbafla.com/fsb/
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/07/08/Pros-and-Cons-Bernie-Sanders-50-Billion-Tax-Idea
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/2000287-Financial-Transaction-Taxes-in-Theory-and-Practice.pdf
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/07/22/bernie-sanders-doesnt-have-a-case-for-a-financial-transactions-tax-it-would-lose-money/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/opinion/the-case-for-a-tax-on-financial-transactions.html?_r=0

One example:

Apparently (according to a tax lawyer who was running around one of the earlier threads), there was no exception for 401k's, meaning that every time the mutual funds in your retirement fund rebalance, which should be a few times a year, you're paying a tax and losing money from your retirement.

Edit: just used the calculator found here to calculate the costs of 0.5% over 40 years assuming you were investing just $5500/year (the max allowable to an IRA). Using these assumptions, this tax would cost you, the average investor, $157,000 over the 40 years you're investing. This is money that I'm sure you'd prefer going towards your retirement.

Note: this isn't 100% accurate as I'm treating this as an addition to the expense ratio which isn't totally correct, but it's a ballpark figure to give the tax some context

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Bernie seems similar to Scandinavia's views on immigration (a little restrictive), but he has not addressed the issue of tuition fees for non-citizens. Even in Scandinavia this is getting some attention [ http://www.studyinfinland.fi/tuition_and_scholarships/tuition_fees/recent_news ]. For example, and I realize it's not completely Bernie's choice, Vermont is a state that does NOT have tuition equity for colleges for immigrants. In NY and Maryland, for example, an "undocumented" immigrant brought to the US as a child would likely grow up and pay in state tuition. In Vermont, they would pay "out of state" or "international" tuition. Hillary and Martin have advocated for those equity laws. I can get you links if you want, but Bernie has been silent at the minimum on that issue, even while advocating for "free tuition". That's something that the 25% in Fl born outside of the US have noticed.

One issue is the path-to-citizenship that Hillary and others have advocated for a while. The other is social justice for those in the US already and undocumented. Again, Bernie picks and chooses. He is for free tuition, but to have social justice there would need to be a strong position on getting citizenship (so tuition is free) or else allowing an undocumented person brought to the US as a child who grew up here to get an education without documentation while policies are sorted out. There may be as many as 30 million "Americans" in this boat (pun intended). Certainly, the low estimates are 10 million. No one knows.