Intro: "In the coming weeks I will step up my efforts to generate strong grassroots support for a constitutional amendment I have introduced to overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision of two years ago. It seems to me that there are about five people in this country who believe that a corporation is a person. Unfortunately, they are all on the Supreme Court."
Sen. Sanders introduces Scott Johnstone (center), executive director of Vermont Energy Investment Corp., at a Feb. 1 forum on jobs at the U.S. Capitol. (photo: Bernie Sanders Newsroom)
Can't Stop Now
02 February 12
hese are tough times for our country. We must continue to push forward. This struggle is not just about you or me or our generation. It is about the future of the country and our children and grandchildren.
There are many short- and long-term challenges we face as a nation.
Citizens United
In the coming weeks I will step up my efforts to generate strong grassroots support for a constitutional amendment I have introduced to overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision of two years ago. It seems to me that there are about five people in this country who believe that a corporation is a person. Unfortunately, they are all on the Supreme Court. The result of this misguided 5-4 decision, one of the worst ever handed down by a Supreme Court, is that corporations can now spend, without disclosure, unlimited sums of money on political advertising. And we are seeing the results of that ruling right now with big money interests and Super PACs spending huge sums on television and radio advertising in the Republican primaries and in Senate races. Unless we change it, that situation will only get worse in future years.
The good news is that throughout the country grassroots activists are working hard to reclaim our democracy and defeat Citizens United. Resolutions in support of a constitutional amendment have already been passed in cities and towns all over the country including New York, Los Angeles, Boulder, Pueblo, Duluth, Oakland (CA), Albany (NY), Portland (OR), and Burlington (VT). In Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state legislators have introduced similar type resolutions.
If we value our democracy, we must all get involved in this issue - demand that our local governments and state legislatures take a stand in demanding that Congress pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. To a significant degree, this is not a partisan issue. Most Americans, regardless of their political ideology, do not believe that a handful of wealthy and powerful special interests should be able to dominate our political process and elect - or defeat - the candidates of their choice.
Postal Reform
Another issue that I am currently working on is postal reform legislation. While this is not a very sexy issue, it is extremely important, not only for the 600,000 employees of the U.S. Postal Service, but for our entire economy.
As a result of a very onerous and unfair requirement that they pay $5.5 billion a year into a health-benefit account for future retirees, as well as a significant decline in first-class mail because of increased e-mail use, the Postal Service faces serious financial challenges. Their response has been to develop a draconian proposal which would eliminate up to 200,000 jobs by shutting down more than 3,000 small post offices as well as half (252) of their mail processing plants, and to end Saturday and next-day mail delivery.
This plan would result in a significant decline in the speed of mail delivery service and, in my view, the beginning of a "death spiral" for that vitally important agency. With a diminishment in the quality and timeliness of the services the Postal Service provides, fewer and fewer businesses and consumers will be interested in using the mail. The result will be that postal deficits will grow larger, more cuts will continue to be made, and eventually the Post Office will be a pale shadow of what it is today.
During the next several weeks I, and a number of my colleagues, will be working to improve the existing postal reform legislation, which is due to come to the floor of the Senate very shortly. Our goal will be to save jobs in the Postal Service and maintain a high quality of service. We will also be demanding that the Postal Service create a new and aggressive business model so that it can effectively compete in today's market and increase their revenue in the digital age in which we live.
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
I want to alert you to an ongoing issue I have been involved with during all of my five years in the Senate. Sadly, virtually every Republican in Congress and too many Democrats are determined to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the name of deficit reduction. This is wrong! We must not allow them to do that.
At a time when we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth, and when working people are suffering through the worst recession since the Great Depression, we must not make savage cuts to programs which maintain the well-being and dignity of tens of millions of struggling Americans. With 45,000 Americans dying each year because they don't get to a doctor when they should, and when 50 million Americans already lack health insurance, how could anybody be calling for cuts in Medicare or Medicaid? The truth is - we should be moving toward a universal, single-payer health care system, not decimating the limited public health programs we now have in place.
In terms of Social Security, please remember that Social Security today has a $2.5 trillion surplus, can pay out all benefits owed to every eligible American for the next 25 years and, because it is funded independently by the payroll tax, has not added one penny to our national deficit or debt. Social Security must not be cut!
Yes, we need to address the deficit crisis, but there are fair and responsible ways to do that. While the rich get richer, their effective tax rate is the lowest in decades. The top 1 percent must be asked to pay their fair share of taxes. While corporations are making record-breaking profits, many of them enjoy outrageous tax-loopholes which enable them to pay little or nothing in taxes. We must end corporate tax loopholes.
Also, the United States now spends three times as much on the military as we did in 1997, and more than the rest of the world combined. We must cut wasteful military spending.
Let me conclude by thanking you for your activism in the fight for progressive values and for a government which represents all the people, and not just the wealthy and powerful. These are tough times for our country. We must continue to push forward. This struggle is not just about you or me or our generation. It is about the future of the country and our children and grandchildren.
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Comments
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UPS in cities like Chicago does a bad job of getting things to individual customers, sticking to hours in the middle of working day as if it were still 1950 and women were at home just waiting for them to show up. I make a point of always asking that my pkgs. be delivered by the post office.
Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
www.rense.com/general37/char.htm
But for right now, quick & dirty:
1. Citizens United made your and my votes irrelevant.. WE THE PEOPLE have been trumped by WE THE MONEY. Support Bernie's Amendment.
2. The mandate for massive future funding of USPS pensions is clearly an initiative to weaken or destroy the USPS in favor of competing commercial services. The concurrently busting of the politically powerful Postal Workers Union comes as a solid gold bonus to America's fascists.
3. Since the 1970's Congress ( which in great measure, has been bought and paid for by Corporate America & the 1% ) created & maintained a massive, brutal & very efficient money-dredging system which - contrary to the highly touted "trickle-down" theory - pumps massive amounts of (tax) money directly from our pockets, straight into into the pockets of the 1%. The so-called "Entitlement" monies have long been a lucrative target for the vultures, and now our war-and-tax-cut-caused economic crisis has presented them (the vultures) with an unparalleled opportunity & excuse to strike.
Again: Follow Bernie Sanders lead!
WE need many more like Bernie all around the country. Help Bernie help us by making your voice heard in your state. Insist that your Governor & leaders pass laws against Citizens United like LA & Montana. Then support your local 99% organization. Start collecting sleeping bags & other needed items for the long summer ahead. Start now so you're ready.
Once again, Thank you Bernie
It is High Time for a Publicly Funded re-election of our Entire Congress, after STOPPING ALL POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS COMPLETELY
That needs to change immediately.
How about the USPS as the National wall to wall provider of wireless internet access that provided privacy to its users in ways that Google, Facebook etc do not?
What Washington needs are massive brain transplants. Remember 2012 elections give us a chance to get rid of some of them.
Vote your conscience, not a party.
"I pray "to whatever gods may be" to give Bernie Saunders strength"
He addressed major issues the candidates for POTUS should be talking about.
the Supremes will eventually make a ruling!
1. You must be 18 years old to vote or to contribute to any election process (no mergers, name changes or foreign board members allowed).
2. You must be born (chartered) in the US from the get-go.
3. No foreign board members or controlling interests by foreign corporations.
4. You can be drafted (like, the government can draft you to make products needed by the military needs, at cost plus the same insurance benefits, etc. that GIs are promised.
5. You must pay the same taxes as the ordinary worker and be allowed only deductions workers are allowed. Same with dividends and capital gains claimed by your stockholders. Level the field.
6. If you move your company facility overseas, you can incorporate there and they can put you in prison and torture you, if that is the way they treat their citizens, but we won't send in US troops to protect your property. You are not an ex-pat, but a deserter.
7. If you hire illegals and you are detected, the govt. will grant them US citizenship on the spot and you will be required to pay all their back pay differential, benefits and provide medical and housing as a condition of your continuing to pay them competitive wages. Thanks for your benevolence. Raise your hand a pledge to defend the Constitution of the US. (Assume all your employees can pass the Citizenship Test.
That plus repeal the REAL financial problem in the Post Office: i.e., The regulation that requires the USPS very year to lay aside billions of dollars in pension funds for people it hasn't even hired yet! Obviously it's a (GOP) scheme to weaken & destroy the USPS in favor of commercial services . . . and in the process, destroy the politically powerful Postal Workers' Union.
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