Bernie Sanders goes old school
I suspect Bernie Sanders has made himself into a star.
Yes, his eight-and-a-half-hour speech was a stunt. But it seemed to be a stunt born out of sincere passion. Liberals angry at the lack of backbone shown by Obama and other Democrats in Washington are rallying to the sight of an elderly man putting on a spirited marathon saying things not often heard in the national debate.
Nine hours of speaking creates a lot of soundbites, many of which will be dissected over and over again. Politifact has already taken a look at this Sanders’ claim:
“Mr. President, in the year 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income,” Sanders said. “The top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income–more than the entire bottom 50 percent.”
“So, we’re left with three studies that vary slightly but which all point in the same general direction — showing the top 1 percent earning between 21.4 and 23.5 percent of the national income in 2007. The studies also show that this share exceeds what the entire bottom 50 percent of the United States earns. So we rate Sanders’ statement True.”
UPDATE: Judging from some of the comments, Senator Sanders seems to gotten a few folks a mite excited, hasn’t he?
I don’t agree with all he has to say, but I do agree with a lot of it. I also get a kick out of people on this blog and elsewhere who seem to be scandalized that such things have been said in this country.
Sanders makes a helluva lot more sense and hews much closer to reality and truth than such shining stars on the right as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Jim DeMint, Michele Bachman and a whole raft of others who have been spewing rhetorical nonsense for so long that it has become an accepted part of the political environment.
And that’s a fact.
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992 comments Add your comment
LC
December 10th, 2010
7:45 pm
Go get ‘em, Bernie!
Del
December 10th, 2010
7:45 pm
Bernie Sanders a star I’d say more an old fool.
ty webb
December 10th, 2010
7:53 pm
Can you give what share of the tax burden they paid, Jay? I’m thinking it might be higher than 21%.
ty webb
December 10th, 2010
7:54 pm
sorry, meant “23%”.
ty webb
December 10th, 2010
7:56 pm
And why do I picture Jay wearing his Che Guevara t-shirt as he type this crap?
Adam
December 10th, 2010
7:58 pm
That was awesome.
Jack
December 10th, 2010
8:01 pm
Maybe we ought to let the bottom 50 percent of the wage earners run the nation’s economy.
Moderate Line
December 10th, 2010
8:17 pm
If taxes go up everyones taxes should go up. Not just the top 1%. Why should only the top 1% have to make a sacrifice?
David
December 10th, 2010
8:32 pm
The tax cut was temporary. It was meant to expired. It should expire. Bernie Sanders is a hero of the people. We need more like him.
josef nix
December 10th, 2010
8:32 pm
This will be here tomorrow, downstairs now….
But way to go Bernie…!!! That’s what a filibuster is SUPPOSED to be!
Kamchak
December 10th, 2010
9:04 pm
And why do I picture ty wearing his Michael Milkin t-shirt as he types his crap?
Doggone/GA
December 10th, 2010
9:12 pm
“Why should only the top 1% have to make a sacrifice?”
Because they can afford it. Making a sacrifice, to them, won’t mean losing their homes – for example. They didn’t have to sacrifice while we started two wars – remember “go shopping”? Well the piper is playing and it’s time for them to pay.
Dusty
December 10th, 2010
9:18 pm
Ho hum…We finally get a compromise in Washington with both sides getting less than they wanted but moving out of total stagnation.
.
So what happens? Democrats act like someone stole their candy and they are going to stomp their feet. That’s what.
Obama was supposed to be their Santa Claus. Turns out he’s Rudolph just pulling a load.
Poor Bernie Sanders. I think he was sincere but….he looked like an old guy stuck in a time warp of New England stickiness. No progress. Just stuck. Kinda like Bookman. Stuck in the old liberal ways and aint nevah gonna surrender (his paycheck)!!! At least Sanders seemed honestly motivated..
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 10th, 2010
9:24 pm
Why is it that liberals are so rabidly desperate to raise taxes on the “wealthiest two percent”?
If it’s because they care so much about reducing the deficit, you would think they could come up with say $10 billion in annual budget cuts…can you name them?
Del
December 10th, 2010
9:27 pm
So we have Bernie Sanders the self avowed socialist that he is being lifted up as a hero on Jay’s blog and some of these dips wondering what far-left means. Yeah right.
Kamchak
December 10th, 2010
9:29 pm
…reducing the deficit…
But…but…but… Cheney said that Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 10th, 2010
9:31 pm
Jack: Maybe we ought to let the bottom 50 percent of the wage earners run the nation’s economy.
————–
So they can run it into the ditch, as they’ve done with their own lives? No thanks!
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 10th, 2010
9:32 pm
OK, so we see that Kamchak can’t or won’t answer the question. Still stuck in the past.
Loser.
Del
December 10th, 2010
9:36 pm
Christian charities do far more than the federal government in addressing the needs of the poor. The far-left does essentially nothing in comparison except to cry out for income distribution without putting their dollars where their mouths are but they think their lemming mentalities solve all of our problems. Obama was correct when he said sanctimony.
Kamchak
December 10th, 2010
9:42 pm
OK, so we see that Kamchak can’t or won’t answer the question.
Puh-leeze.
Spare me the crocodile tears over a question that only recently got your thong all atwist.
Dusty
December 10th, 2010
9:44 pm
Shhh Lil’ Barry, 9:32
Don’t tell Kamchak that Cheney is out of office and Reagan is dead. MIght get him all torn up…nobody to quote and all that.
Tthere’s not a liberal around our Kammie wants to quote. aint it a shame…..
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 10th, 2010
9:47 pm
It’s a simple question; perhaps one of the liberal regulars would care to answer it. Why do liberals so desperately want to raise taxes on the highest income earners?
Kamchak
December 10th, 2010
9:48 pm
Don’t tell Kamchak that Cheney is out of office and Reagan is dead.
When you start calling out others for bringing up Carter and Clinton, you will begin to have a point.
But until then….
Del
December 10th, 2010
9:50 pm
The liberal left has never looked so much as fools as they’re looking now, so hung up on hating the achievers in this country that they refuse to do what needs to be done at this critical time.
Lil' Barry Bailout
December 10th, 2010
9:52 pm
You know damn well that any additional revenue they can confiscate by whatever means is simply going to be spent. Not a dime of it will go to deficit reduction.
josef nix
December 10th, 2010
9:53 pm
L’l Barry
“It’s a simple question; perhaps one of the liberal regulars would care to answer it. Why do liberals so desperately want to raise taxes on the highest income earners?”
I’ll go for it…because they have profitted most from the profligate economic insanity of the last 40 years or so and it’s time to pay to piper and replenish the public coffer…they can best afford it…
Del
December 10th, 2010
9:55 pm
The only thing that Democrats are committed to is vote pandering to create voting blocks that keep their worthless butts in office.
Mick
December 10th, 2010
9:55 pm
Fools – Bernie sanders is an american hero and patriot, you can’t handle the truth because that is what he speaks. This compromise will cost an estimated 850 billion. Wasn’t the whole debate before this election runaway spending? Let all the damn bush tax cuts expire and lets start paying off the bills. In the meantime, strengthen social security the last bastion of hope for the millions who PAID into it and let them get their return. A promise made should be a promise kept…
Paulo977
December 10th, 2010
9:56 pm
Del
@9:50pm
“Hating achievers “?????….Hmmmmmm who are these achievers that they are supposed to hate??
Dusty
December 10th, 2010
9:59 pm
Del,
Christian charites do a LOT!! According to all sources, they are really having a tough time this year. Donations are down and so many people are calling on them for help. Lotsa people having a bad year.
Del
December 10th, 2010
10:04 pm
josef,
You can only milk the golden cow for so long until it finally dies. When you have this much disparity in tax revenues common sense alone tell you we’re in deep trouble. You don’t need to be an economist to understand that fact and in fact the economists in this country sure were asleep at the switch or didn’t really know crap about economics to begin with or we wouldn’t be in this condition.
Mick
December 10th, 2010
10:04 pm
dusty
You got that right, this a tough year and we the people are the gov’t. Why in hell’s creation do people defend the rich? I guess having your own personal jets, yachts, multiple mansions, they are delighted that people of the almost extinct middle class will fight your battles for less taxes when in reality, it’s inconsequential to them…really…think about it.
Andrew
December 10th, 2010
10:05 pm
I think it’s safe to say that Mr.Sanders has said what any rational person has been thinking.
Kudos to you, Sanders.
Sid Farcas
December 10th, 2010
10:08 pm
Bernie Sanders is an admitted socialist Book Man and you are proud of his passion? You and Tucker are f*cking liberal hacks. You lost and now you are glorifying a socialist. You are a joke.
Mick
December 10th, 2010
10:10 pm
sid farc
Get off your high horse and take a good long look in the mirror, which label are YOU??
Del
December 10th, 2010
10:13 pm
mick, who in the hell will pay off all the bills the top 2%, the next 5% or the next 10%. you’ll have to come up with a formula better than that because it just has not worked. We better get back to supply side and pray it can still work because your guys have proven that they don’t have the answers.
Sid Farcas
December 10th, 2010
10:15 pm
I am for the Obama tax cuts slap nut, what label are you?
Dusty
December 10th, 2010
10:16 pm
JOSEF,
Where in the world does out constitution say we must equalize everybody’s money? It says we are created equal. That’s it. Then we have independence to do with what we are given.
Don’t start with” Aren’t you a Christian?” Yes, I am. Christ did not say or demand that all money be given equally or by demand. He wanted us to give from the heart, not by law. There is a difference. The widow’s mite was just as important to him as anybody’s gift. She had the heart to give her mite which was all she had. ..
Del
December 10th, 2010
10:18 pm
Dusty, of course they’re having a tough time because the economy hurts us all but none the less community based charities that very much include the churches have been doing a far better job than the Fed in feeding the hungry and providing a Christmas for the poor. Unfortunately, that’s an unreported fact.
RW-(the original)
December 10th, 2010
10:20 pm
“The top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income–more than the entire bottom 50 percent.”
The top 1% pays more of a share of federal income taxes than the entire bottom 90% too.
tiddlebug
December 10th, 2010
10:22 pm
Someone said that we should figure out a way to reduce spending…
I have some ideas.
1) reduce congressional salaries and benefits. Let them keep their health care and business expenditures, but reduce their overall salaries.
2) increase taxes on companies that have outsourced jobs. also, give larger tax breaks on any country that brings outsourced jobs back, or creates jobs here in America.
3) give tax incentives to businesses like health care, agriculture, and education. Granted, this will not generate or save quick money, but it WILL help our country in the long run. Enough quick fixes. Lets make some REAL investments in our future.
4) rethink our ‘war on drugs’ (especially marijuana.) we spend billions of dollars every year on drug prohibition. Hard drugs like cocaine and heroin are classified as “schedule 2 drugs” while relatively harmless drugs like marijuana are “schedule 1″ (which means it is more serious and has NO medical uses.) If marijuana was legalized, regulated, and yes stoners-taxed, we would save billions a year in prohibition, generate millions a year in tax revenue, reduce alcohol consumption (a much more deadly and addictive substance) and reduce overall crime and power from the black market aspect.
Of course to do this, we’d have to get some senators on board as well. (THAT’S the hard part…)
Rudolph
December 10th, 2010
10:22 pm
Jay Bookman and Bernie Sanders are both idiots!!
Sid Farcas
December 10th, 2010
10:26 pm
And with Rudolph’s comment, which sums it all up, what more has to be said?
tiddlebug
December 10th, 2010
10:26 pm
Why do people always think that higher taxes are supposed to “punish” the wealthy? It has nothing to do with punishment. It has everything to do with necessity.
The fact that the wealthy can most afford an increase of taxes means they are the ones that should be paying them. That’s part of living in a civilized society.
The fact that the wealthy are (mostly) responsible for our current situation also should suggest that they are the ones that need to clean it up.
Nobody is trying to PUNISH anyone.
I don’t like taxes either, but I realize I have to pay them for the privilege of living in a civilized society.
Dusty
December 10th, 2010
10:27 pm
Mick,
I”m sorry but I don’t believe we have the right to take anybody’s money and give it to somebody else. Most rich people have made their money by honest integrity and hardwork. Some received it through inheitance but still , somebody in their family worked hard and diligently to make it.
I think our “freedom” is shot to pieces when we start acting like bandits to make ends meet. Rich people contribute much to society and although we may think so, their lives don’t seem any “smoother” than the average person. Neverytheless, I still say it is their money . To raise only their tax rates is plain old thievery based on envy.
Del
December 10th, 2010
10:27 pm
Rudolph,
I don’t think Jay’s an idiot but Bernie Sanders sure as hell is. Of course as the old saying goes, “birds of feather, flock together.”
MrReality
December 10th, 2010
10:31 pm
Bernie Sanders is everything that is wrong with this country. An old white man who has spent so much time feeding at the public trough that he only knows the ways of force as a means to move society. He knows nothing of volunteerism, mutual exchange, win-win business transactions or the inherent way that the marketplace raises everyone up when free exchange can happen without ANY involvement by the oppressive state.
Ron Paul is the only man in congress speaking any common sense.
Mick
December 10th, 2010
10:31 pm
dusty
What in tar nation do you mean “give it to somebody else”? We the people have a huge deficit and the rich benefit the most by the full faith and credit of the U.S. gov’t they SHOULD pay the most – they can AFFORD it..Don’t you get that???????????
Del
December 10th, 2010
10:32 pm
tiddlebug, if you continue to penalize financial achievement you will begin to have fewer achievers and guess where that leads.
Mick
December 10th, 2010
10:34 pm
mr. reality
Ron paul is cool – see how he defends wiki leaks? Bernie sanders has passion for he people, the people of this great country who have taken a shellacking, not the rich, in fact they have profitted, have you?????