2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Does anyone know how much Senator Sanders pays his campaign workers. [View all]BainsBane
(53,032 posts)It's not a lame excuse. I have been told time and time again that Bernie has so much more integrity than other politicians. If that is true, he should be acting on his convictions, walking the walk.
All the candidates are proposing an increase in the min wage. Bernie isn't even the only one to propose $15 an hour. O'Malley proposes that same level. So I don't need to excuse his paying workers less than that amount in order to support a minimum wage. In fact, one doesn't even need to excuse it in order to vote for Sanders, since there are plenty of policies and actions by Clinton I don't excuse. Voting for a politician is something I do. It's not a religion.
Sanders says he wants a $15 minimum wage, but what plan does he have of getting the GOP congress to approve that? You know the House at least will remain GOP, if not both the House and Senate. I can say I would like a $25 an hour wage, and it doesn't mean it can become law. What I actually want is a minimum wage indexed to the cost of living so that every increase doesn't have to get by a recalcitrant congress. I rather see a $12 indexed minimum than a $15 rate that won't increase for another 20 years.
I am supposed to take Bernie's word for what he says he will do, despite no discussion of how he will implement it. Yet he doesn't even implement that wage in his own campaign. We now in this country have employers who are paying their employees that much, who have cut their own salaries to pay workers a living wage. The poster above says Bernie can't afford it, despite $17 million plus in donations. Lots of businesses say they can't afford it either, some of which have net worth far, far less than $17 million. That is in fact the argument against increasing the min wage, and now we hear it as a defense for why Bernie shouldn't have to pay a higher rate.
I don't take anything he or any pol says on face value, and I see no reason Bernie deserves more credibility than any other. I've seen inaccurate statements from him about Super Pacs, his PAC fined for failing to comply with the already meager campaign finance restrictions, and now canned explanations for immigration policy blaming the "Kochs," as though that were enough to explain 100 years worth of US border policy regarding Mexican migration for agricultural labor. So no, I don't believe him superior to other pols or most importantly to the citizens he represents. He has to earn every last vote. That is something people here forget. They think he is owed people's votes. No politician is owed a damn thing.