Bernie Sanders: Here's why Americans don't feel good about the economy:

[Playinghardball]

[aspirant]

1. President Bernie

Going behind the curtain to reveal the Wizard of Oz.

[Thinkingabout]

2. Bernie needs to sponsor a bill in the Senate for an increase in the minimum wage, this should be a

Starter. Next he needs to contact other members to get the necessary votes to pass the bill and do the leg work to get the House on board with the increase. Those who are taking the minimum wage jobs knows there us not enough. It is time for Congress to step up and do some work.

[Autumn]

10. Hate to burst your bubble but he has. You can look them up.

[BrotherIvan]

11. LOL

Here's a link for anyone interested

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/raise-the-minimum-wage0212

[Autumn]

13. Did Hillary ever sponsor one in her time in the Senate? I don't remember, Bernie sure has

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/republicans-block-minimum-wage-increase

[BrotherIvan]

15. I'm not sure

But I think it's funny when people blast Senator Sanders, of all people, for not fighting for the working class.

[Thinkingabout]

17. Yes she did in 2006 and tried to tie it to salary increases in Congress.

[Thinkingabout]

12. Did it pass in the Senate and House?

[Autumn]

14. You said "Bernie needs to sponsor a bill in the Senate" He has

Just so you know, the republicans blocked them. Did Hillary sponsor any?

[Thinkingabout]

18. Yes, she has and wanted it tied to Congressional lay raises.

[fasttense]

22. Funny how no one talks about the elephant in the room

Yes a half decent minimum wage would help a little. But good paying jobs would be better. So since corporations won't provide those jobs then the government should. The government should be hiring at high wages to make up for the failures of capitalism. Just like the government was the lender of last resort to save the banksters so they should be the employer of last resort to save the American middle class.

Funny how no one dare introduce a bill like that.

[JDPriestly]

39. Did you miss this story?

The Senate voted on Wednesday against going ahead on a bill that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour, another rejection for legislation that has been a major focus of the Democrats' 2014 midterm campaign.

The final vote count was 54 to 42, with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who supports the legislation, taking the procedural step of voting against the bill so that he can reintroduce it at a later time.

In a news conference following the vote, top Democrats vowed to reintroduce the bill this year.

"Soon," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, (D-N.Y.), as he ducked into an elevator following the vote. "Sometime soon."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/30/senate-republicans-block-minimum-wage-increase-bill/

[Brigid]

3. People look at their paychecks . . .

And judge accordingly.

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. With GOP In Control U Will Get - Lower Taxes On Rich/Higher Taxes On Rest/Shredded Safety Net.

And even lower wages. They support the Reaganomic trickle down business model. Obama cannot change that by themselves. And we must change our trade policies.

[grahamhgreen]

6. You mean no TPP?

[lonestarnot]

38. Yes that too.

[JDPriestly]

5. K&R.

[cantbeserious]

7. K&R

eom

[BlueJazz]

8. Rick Scott yelled that "Job Creation" crap all through the race for Governor.

I got into MANY arguments with the right-wingers down here about "Jobs" does not equal "make a living"

Some of them wanted to actually hit me. I'm not kidding.

[Wella]

16. Exactly. A part time minimum wage job may "count" for a politician, but it does nothing for people

I've really had it with their disingenuousness on this matter.

[geretogo]

45. It just shows you the massive brain washing that has been going on for 34 years . I remember life

before Reagen . The Right wing owns and controls radio , TV , magazines , news papers and then they
tell you you should hate government and the " Liberal Media " and then put all your trust in Ayn Rand and
a hand full of Oligarchs to govern you . They are modern pied pipers leading the the sheep over the cliff .

[geretogo]

9. It's more than a feeling . We are living in the after math of 34 years of Reagenomic ,Thathernomic,

and Ayn Randian completely insane and civilization destroying policies that will continue until there are
millions in the streets threatening to bring the corrupt system down if there is no repudiation of these policies .

[Maineman]

19. YES

[Enthusiast]

23. Plus one a whole bunch. "civilization destroying policies"

Republican policies completely neglect the General Welfare of the American people.

[geretogo]

44. To say the least .

[Maineman]

20. We need more than jobs. We need broad ownership of wealth producing assets.

For several years now, many new businesses have made a small number of people very rich (Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and many others (you know many of them). Most are internet based and require relatively few workers. The only way to deal with this new paradigm is for many people to become part owners. Of course, many have no way of buying stock, so there needs to be a mechanism for creating broad ownership, probably government based processes and programs. Ownership that produces dividend payments would be good. Currently all the money in the economy is going to a few at the top. That needs to change. THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE!

[taught_me_patience]

41. You're free to open up a brokerage account and buy stocks and bonds

thereby owning equity shares of any public company in the United States. Many even have dividends too! Commissions are extremely low. However, it might take about an hour of your time or so, though.

[Cryptoad]

21. Even Still,,

the SSA says the Median yearly income of wage earners is $28 K for 2013. That is alot of poor working folks, but heh,,,, the Corps don't mind sharing some those record breaking profits with upper management executives.

[progree]

24. Interesting. Net compensation, 2013: Median: $28,031, Average: $43,041

Last edited Mon Dec 1, 2014, 12:48 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/central.html

and the median to average ratio is falling -- an indicator of growing inequality.



It would be interesting to see the above adjusted for inflation.

This shows the actual distribution of net compensation (the top of it also defines what "net compensation" is -- it includes deferred compensation employer contributions, but doesn't include any benefits other than that, from what I can tell):

http://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2013

[stevenleser]

25. Looking forward to Sanders sponsoring a bill to fix it and convincing the senate to pass it...

... through his leadership.

I like Bernie. I think he has the right take on the issues most of the time. I think he would bring something to the table in a Presidential run.

But this kind of attempt by him to offer some oblique criticism of the President doesn't work because as a sitting senator, it's just as much up to Bernie to try to fix it.

[TheKentuckian]

26. Come off of it. Our President didn't do anything in the Senate but ride Lugar's coattails

on non proliferation and run for President. Clinton, about the same.

[stevenleser]

28. Nope. If he is going to complain and imply he could do it better, let's see him lead.

Being a senator is a powerful position. Let's see it.

[TheKentuckian]

31. Yep, Obama and Clinton as Senators claimed to be able to do better and hadn't done shit.

[Autumn]

37. I've been told Bernie should lead by sponsoring bills and passing them.

Because it's up to him to fix ya know, stuff. Yeah I got a big kick out of that one. The democrats in the house and senate get a pass, a democratic president gets a pass. Yeah Bernie can't lead and has done nothing that shows he could president his way out of a paper bag. I haven't seen Fox in a decade but the tactic seems familiar. I often wonder where do they get this shit to pass around.

[JDPriestly]

40. Congress considered a bill to raise the minimum wage which would raise all wages at least

for the time being. Here is what happened.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/30/senate-republicans-block-minimum-wage-increase-bill/

Sanders does not need to introduce a bill. It was already introduced and defeated by Republicans. One Democratic senator was absent at the vote.

[One_Life_To_Give]

43. One Bill is not going to fix the economy

There is no magic bullet that will fix the economy. Atleast not one less than 1000 pages and then you don't want to know what the lobbyists would hide in there. Providing several million $30/hr + benefit jobs is not going to happen without change in multiple area's. From H1B/Immigration programs, education, code compliance, to Corporate culture and tax structure. Creating an environment favorable to the generation of such jobs will take alot of work. Too many parts of the current structure favor the status quo.

[cheapdate]

27. The "middle class jobs" train left the station 30 years ago.

[doc03]

29. Well that is obvious but what has the Democratic party done in the last

40 years to save middle class jobs? The Democratic party has totally abandoned its Union base and has done all it could to
eliminate manufacturing jobs.

[demigoddess]

30. also war, and war , and more war,

and even more war, and again more war.

[liberal_at_heart]

32. K&R

[santroy79]

33. I would love to see Bernie

as our next President !

[dotymed]

35. +9000000000000000000000

we the people would have to work our asses off. Maybe then we would see if elections count.

[no_hypocrisy]

34. Professor Richard Wolff has always maintained that we are not in recovery

in any way.

Listen to his show, Economic Update: http://www.democracyatwork.info/radio/

[Javaman]

36. He already has my vote.

even if he doesn't run, I'll write him in.

[clarice]

42. Don't forget our crippling debt. nt

[Avalux]

46. I love Bernie, but I wish we would stop using the term "middle class".

It's an outworn term that really doesn't exist in the present economy. What does a middle class wage look like anyway?