Repost: Why Democrats Should Beware Sanders’ Socialism

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14. It's so dishonest of Sanders to liken his socialism to the New Deal.

As the article explains:

During the mid-20th century, the United States was fortunate to avoid the program that socialists were calling for at that time. While Roosevelt experimented with different strategies in the New Deal, he did not undertake any large-scale nationalization, and the primary legacies he left behind were Social Security and regulatory agencies that not only maintained capitalism but also saved it from self-destructive excesses. Far from embracing socialism, Roosevelt rejected it and ran against socialist opponents, who had no doubt that socialism and the New Deal were very different.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-2016-socialism-213667#ixzz441qDkQy3 
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And it also explains why Sanders' "Democratic Socialist" label and claims he just wants what Denmark has is dishonest:

As the old socialist program of state ownership and planning became harder to defend in the era after World War II, “social democrats” and “democratic socialists”—terms intended to emphasize they weren’t Bolsheviks—championed expanded social-insurance programs and progressive taxation. These redistributive policies have been at the heart of the northern European model Sanders invokes, except that he misses one key aspect of it. Based on a “class compromise,” that model includes trade and tax policies sought by business. The northern European countries tax labor and consumption heavily, but they have open-trade policies and lower taxes on capital to foster growth.
...
The Vermont senator calls for increasing the top marginal tax rate on capital gains to 64.2 percent, which would not only be nearly triple the current rate and a peacetime record in the United States but also far higher than in any of the countries Sanders admires. In contrast, Denmark’s tax rate on capital gains—the highest rate in Europe—is 42 percent; France’s, 34.4 percent; Sweden’s, 30 percent; and Germany’s, 25 percent. Under Barack Obama, the U.S. rate has risen from 15 percent to 23.8 percent, a significant increase but well within both recent U.S. experience and current patterns abroad.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-2016-socialism-213667#ixzz441qnYmO0 
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