politicaljunkie41910
politicaljunkie41910's JournalSo yesterday Bernie announced that every woman should have 3 months FREE maternity leave
Is this part of the official Bernie Sanders platform, or is this just Bernie being Bernie? You know..."If you say FREE, they will come caucus for you."
I recall several months ago when some groups were demonstrating to raise the minimum wage and also calling for mandatory sick leave for employees. They were asking for either 5 or 7 days mandatory sick leave and meeting with strong resistance even from the Gov of New Jersey. Now I happen to think everyone who works should have some paid time off, including paid sick leave and paid vacation time off; even those who work part time. No one wants someone coming into the office or restaurant, or grocery store who's sick and passing it on to everyone else. However many small and some not so small employers have been reluctant to past laws even when they are popular.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/05/27/3662199/christie-paid-sick-leave/
I live in California, where most women I know get 6 weeks maternity leave. Some employees can purchase a disability policy on their own from the state which guarantees them 6 weeks maternity leave, even if their employer doesn't offer it. Who wouldn't love 12 weeks maternity leave, but if employers say they can't afford to pay 7 days sick leave, what makes Bernie believe employers can afford to pay 12 weeks maternity leave. Bernie says he will pass legislation and make it mandatory. But will they have to make it mandatory for men also. After all, men would want to bond with their newborn child also. Of course Bernie will.
Bernie supporters have asked in a previous thread how will
Hillary be able to strengthen the Affordable Care Act as some of us believe she can, or get any agenda through the GOP congress, if we don’t think Bernie can get his agenda through the current Houses of Congress.
I think that with Hillary in the WH, she would be able to work with the GOP. For the record, I recorded and watch the entire 11 hour Benghazi congressional hearing when Hillary testified a while back. At the end of the hearing, while the C-SPAN cameras were still rolling, I watched as the chairman Trey Gowdy, who had by then come down from the bench, approached Hillary where she was speaking with other people at her table and he spoke to her and they were both laughing and nodding, and this went on for a couple of minutes. I was just shaking my head in disbelief at how much of a joke these hearings had been for the GOP as they feigned outrage after outrage, one by one, but once the hearing was over they come down, and shake hands and smile and make small talk with one another, just like they had not just previously accused her of everything including being the spawn of satan. These people have worked with Hillary in the past and they will work with her in the future because they have been sitting on their hands for the past 8 years, in their attempt to stifle any progress by President Obama, and have no significant accomplishments of their own to show for it.
If the GOP is listening to their "angry" constituents, they are angry because they feel that their party leadership has let them down and that they are not better off than they were 8 years ago. Well, if those people are honest with themselves, they realize that it’s not the Kenyan in the WH that sold them out, it’s; the GOP who did. It’s the GOP that didn’t want to turn the economy around while Obama was in the WH, and that is the reason that their college grad kids can’t find employment and are still living at home, or they themselves have seen their wages remain stagnate over the past couple of decades, if they're lucky to have a job themselves. Or that the shine has come off the TEA Party members of Congress who were disingenuous when they came to power with the plan to destroy government and the ACA, while they drew a government salary upwards of $170K, while accomplishing nothing for their constituents back home, while voting to repeal the ACA more than 50 times.
It is the GOP’s SCOTUS appointments who failed to delivery to them the death of the ACA, approved Gay Marriage, failed to overturn Roe v. Wade and even slapped down their ridiculous attempts to close Women’s clinics across the country by applying drastic building codes for women’s clinics that were not required to other clinics performing other low risk surgical procedures. So now having felt left out in the recovery that did result in the largest redistribution of wealth they want something to show for the country’s rising debt for themselves and their children, and they want to “Make America Great Again”. They appear to be leaning towards accepting a carnival barker and his sidekick to make that happen. The evangelicals have shown that they are willing to sell out the Canadian born son of the twice married Baptist preacher and his wife, who were willing to relinquish her US citizenship to get their share of the Canadian pie in the form of secure jobs and welfare benefits.
The GOP may call Hillary a liar to their constituents, but as members of the “establishment” they know that their goose is cooked if they return to Congress and think that they can sit on their hands and fiddle while Rome burns for another four years. They know that Hillary is pragmatic, and she is not the ‘big government socialist’ that Bernie Sanders wants to be. They have worked with her before and they will work with her again. They know that compromise will be required to get anything done, and they will find common ground, unlike Bernie Sanders whose Big Government proposals leaves no room for common ground.
So I believe that the establishment GOP (should they survive 2016) who were willing to accept Cruz or Trump as an acceptable candidate, would accept Hillary before a self described Democratic Socialist. Members of the Democratic Party don't believe in Santa Clause, or the Tooth Fairy. There is no Free Lunch. Someone has to pay for Bernie's ambitious agenda, and any new entitlement programs will have to be paid for, and their are enough millionaires and billionaires to pay for all these new entitlement programs that Bernie has proposed without eventually everyone having to pay much more in taxes than Bernie has been willing to acknowledge. We have known for some time that Social Security may have to cut benefits in order to save the program for everyone, and Bernie wants to double current Social Security payouts. Removing the cap limiting the amount of income that is taxed won't do it by itself with people living longer.
The problem with Bernie getting 'angry' and calling for a revolution while not being honest with his constituents is that when you can't deliver, and they don't get what they want, you're stuck with just a bunch of 'angry' people. So perhaps Bernie should stop calling for a revolution, because when people's hopes are raised and then you can't deliver on the promise, some people take it literally, especially young people, and that never works out well for anyone.
I think it is disingenuous of Bernie Sanders to state, in response to a very good question about
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 Bernie’s 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.
I know DU is Bernie Country, but in response to an earlier thread about Rachel's Interview of HRC
I submit the following:
Anyone who thinks that disenfranchised members of the GOP, Independents, or Non-Trump Supporters are going to vote for a self-professed Socialist, regardless of how he describes himself today, is delusional. Bernie, with his laundry list of freebees and government giveaways, cannot win in a General Election. The nation is BROKE and cannot afford Bernie Sanders, and a GOP controlled Congress is not going to vote through Bernie Sanders laundry list of new entitlement programs. People here who think that Bernie Sanders can win when Democrats don’t control either House of Congress, and while we might have a chance of regaining the Senate in 2016 if all the stars align, we have little to no chance of controlling the House of Representatives before the next Census is taken in 2020, (due to gerrymandering), and the possibility of subsequent redistricting should be successful in 2022. Anyone who thinks otherwise, is delusional.
I saw the thread earlier today regarding Rachel Maddow’s comments that Bernie Sanders doesn’t have any enemies. I say any politician who doesn’t have any enemies, hasn’t tried to accomplish anything Big. Trying to do BIG things creates enemies, which is why Bill and Hillary have plenty.
Bernie who hails from 96% white Vermont, has spent much of his lifetime as first, mayor of a small town and about 25 years in Congress between both Houses, with his socialist agenda and WHAT BIG THING does he have to show for it. What BIG agenda item has he sponsored, that has passed. And yes I know about Bernie’s Civil Rights background and I only bring up the point about Vermont’s ethnic background to make the point that Bernie represents a homogenous group of constituents who look and think like he does which has enabled his political successes thus far. The Presidency is a whole new ballgame.
Bernie and his 'socialist' ideas have not been fully vetted because he hasn’t been a threat to anybody before now. You can sit in the House as one of 435 voting members and have radical ideas as long as you pose no threat to anyone or anything. You can be sure as a General Election candidate he will be fully vetted, as will his laundry list of government giveaways, and Democrats will lose.
I know he likes to tout the fact that he has a large backing of young people who are active members of his campaign. Are these the same young people who are looking for a free college education or student loan forgiveness after racking up tens of thousands of dollars of student loans. The GOP is never going to allow this to happen as long as they are in charge, and as long as the Democratic Party looks like it’s the party of “Free Stuff” at other people’s expense we are never going to regain control of the House of Representatives. The nation is broke. The stock market is down more than 8% since the first of the year and people are fearful for their own jobs and funding of retirement savings. There is NO MONEY for Freebies. Stop the Insanity that perpetuates the myth that we can do all these things that Bernie is proposing.
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Member since: Fri Oct 19, 2012, 10:01 AMNumber of posts: 3,335