2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)I think it is disingenuous of Bernie Sanders to state, in response to a very good question about [View all]
how he (Bernie Sanders) is going to get his radical agenda through a previous reluctant GOP controlled congress, that "he has always been able to find common ground as a Senator", when there is no common ground to be found between Bernies agenda and the GOP Congress specifically related to:
Universal Health Care for all whereby Bernie has propose an increase in Federal Taxes AND an increase in the Payroll tax to pay for it;
Free college Tuition for all which he will make Wall St pay for through a new tax on Wall St speculation;
Expanding Medicare to close the donut hole to include making all drugs affordable;
Make Mental Health Care available to all who need it and have it covered by the universal health care for all;
Raising the cap on Social Security funding by eliminating the current cap on income earned and make the Rich pay for it;
Doubling the size of the social security pay out ( and I presume that the wealthy will also pay for this);
etc, etc, etc.
It is one thing for Bernie to say that he has worked with the GOP to find common ground on "funding benefits for Veterans". It's another whole different ballgame for Bernie to believe that the GOP who have all taken Grover Norquist pledge to not raise a single tax.
For the record, I make no bones about the fact that I am not a supporter of Bernie Sanders because I'm not buying that he can anywhere near deliver on his pipe dream at where we are currently as a nation with the GOP in control of both Houses of Congress and likely to maintain at a minimum the House. I have also listened to Bernie on three separate occasions, outside of viewing all the debates, (Democratic and Republicans) and I think I can give Bernie's stump speech myself, because he constantly repeats the same things, without talking about how he's REALISTICALLY going to pay for all this stuff. He won't find common ground between his ideas and the GOP because there is no COMMON GROUND. The GOP is not going to participate in growing the Federal Government to the tune of trillions of dollars, taking over the entire Health Care Industry after voting 52 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and creating a new drug entitlement program, a new free college tuition program, a new mental health entitlement program, while doubling the Social Security payout.
It just ain't going to happen; WITH OR WITHOUT a revolution.