There is an idiotic article now up on a traditional national media's organization website about Bernie Sanders that is such a piece of shit (stupid, predictable, dishonest) that I was compelled to offer a real, in-depth discussion with Sanders that took place just two days ago. It's on Iowa Press, a local Iowan show--it's concrete, lengthy, substantive.
Asked about running for president Bernie Sanders says: "...I want to ascertain is whether or not there is the support to say government has got to start working for ordinary people and not just for billionaires."
The whole video is here. Excerpts:
Asked about the challenge running a 50-state campaign:
It is very difficult and I have been told, I'm not an expert on this, that there are some states where the system is so rigged in favor of the two party system but it's almost impossible to get on the ballot. And that is one of the issues that we have to consider. But this is what I will say, I think there is a great deal of anger in this country, both among Tea Party people on the right and Occupy Wall Street people on the left who are asking very simple questions. We have seen a huge increase in productivity. Every worker in America is producing more. Why is that worker earning less? How does it happen that the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country? One family, the Walton family that owns Wal-Mart, they own more wealth than the bottom 40% of the American people. And as a result of Citizens United the billionaire class can now buy elections, put huge -- I know here in Iowa you have experienced what money can do in terms of TV ads. These guys have an endless supply of money. So I think what all over the country people are saying maybe enough is enough, maybe we want to restore the middle class and restore American democracy.[emphasis added]
This is a crucial point that a number of us have been making, and what makes me interested in a Sanders campaign: if you want to blow up the system, you need to see that the support for taking on the elites, the banks, Wal-Mart, and the like has roots in the Tea Party as well as the "left."
He was asked about how he would pay for rebuilding infrastructure:
Well the money is going to have to come from the same place that it came from to fight a war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into. In other words, if the attitude of republicans is we can't spend any more money, we can't invest in education, we can't invest in infrastructure, then the future of this country is very bleak. Where the money comes from is asking the wealthiest people in this country to begin paying their fair share of taxes.[emphasis added]
Was the Affordable Care Act the right way to go?
I think it should have been handled in a different way, no question. And I think the layout of the Internet was clearly a disaster. But let's back up a little bit and understand this. Many people may not know this. There is one major country on Earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right. That country is called the United States of America. So as of today despite the modest gains of the Affordable Care Act you've got 40 million people with no health insurance. Many people have high premiums, high deductibles, cannot afford to go to the doctor. Frankly that is a national disgrace. So my own view is that we should take Medicare as it is right now, expand it for all, right now it's just for seniors, you expand it for all people. You have Medicare for all single payer program guaranteeing health care to all people and we could provide health care far, far more cost effectively than we do now.
Borg: And how do you pay for that? Medicare right now is not financially stable.
Sanders: You know how we pay for it? The good news is you're not going to have to pay any private insurance. Your company that you work for is not going to have to pay any private insurance. Look, we are the only major country on Earth that allows private insurance companies to make huge sums of money off of health care, which I believe is a right. So what you're doing is doing a transfer, you're saying sorry private insurance companies, you're not going to be making huge profits, you're out of the business and we are going to have a Medicare, which is a government program, health insurance program for all people. I think if you talk to most seniors, and Medicare needs some improvements, but most seniors feel pretty good about Medicare. Let's expand it to everybody.[emphasis added]
This is just a small portion.
Listen to it.
Pass it around.