20 Big Ideas From Bernie Sanders to Reverse Inequality, Expand Safety Nets and Stop America's Plutoc [View all]

[marble falls]

20 Big Ideas From Bernie Sanders to Reverse Inequality, Expand Safety Nets and Stop America's Plutocrats
Sanders outlines his platform in a major hometown speech.
By Steven Rosenfeld / AlterNet
May 27, 2015

On Tuesday, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernard Sanders gave a major speech in Burlington, Vemont, where his political career began three decades ago when he was elected mayor of his state’s largest city. Sanders, who is seeking the 2016 Democratic nomination for president, described 20 ideas that will be the hallmarks of his campaign.

1. Time for big thinking and new ideas: “Brothers and sisters: Now is not the time for thinking small. Now is not the time for the same-old-same-old establishment politics and stale inside-the-beltway ideas. <snip>

2. America’s problems are worse than ever: “This country faces more serious problems today than at any time since the Great Depression....
<snip>

....... Here is my promise to you for this campaign. Not only will I fight to protect the working families of this country, but we’re going to build a movement of millions of Americans who are prepared to stand up and fight back.”

3. Economic inequality is the top issue: “In America we now have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth, and the gap between the very rich and everyone is wider than at any time since the 1920s. The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time, it is the great economic issue of our time and it is the great political issue of our time. And we will address it.”

4. The middle class is being destroyed: “It is the tragic reality that for the last 40 years the great middle class of our country—once the envy of the world—has been disappearing. Despite exploding technology and increased worker productivity, median family income is almost $5,000 less than it was in 1999. In Vermont and throughout this country it is not uncommon for people to be working two or three jobs just to cobble together enough income to survive on and some healthcare benefits.”

5. Poverty is worse than is acknowledged:
<snip>
Today, shamefully, we have 45 million people living in poverty, many of whom are working at low-wage jobs. These are the people who struggle every day to find the money to feed their kids, to pay their electric bills and to put gas in the car to get to work. This campaign is about those people and our struggling middle class.”

6. The country needs a real jobs program: “If we are truly serious about reversing the decline of the middle class we need a major federal jobs program which puts millions of Americans back to work at decent paying jobs. At a time when our roads, bridges, water systems, rail and airports are decaying, the most effective way to rapidly create meaningful jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. That’s why I’ve introduced legislation which would invest $1 trillion over 5 years to modernize our country’s physical infrastructure. This legislation would create and maintain at least 13 million good-paying jobs, while making our country more productive, efficient and safe. And I promise you as president I will lead that legislation into law.”

7. Raise the minimum wage and fight for living wages. “The current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is a starvation wage and must be raised. The minimum wage must become a living wage, which means raising it to $15 an hour over the next few years—which is exactly what Los Angeles recently did, and I applaud them for doing that. Our goal as a nation must be to ensure that no full-time worker lives in poverty.”

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/20-big-ideas-bernie-sanders-reverse-inequality-expand-safety-nets-and-stop-americas

This is well worth the read.