Bernie Sanders: 'I Wish Obama Was Waging The Kind Of Fight We Would Like To See...He Is NOT'

WED JUL 20, 2011 AT 06:21 AM PDT
Defending the American Social Safety Net
bySenator Bernie Sanders

................

I wish I could tell you, in the midst of all of this, that President Obama was waging the kind of fight against these draconian Republican proposals that the American people would like to see. He is not. In my view, he is compromising far too much with right-wing Republicans and is not rallying the American people around an effective and fair deficit reduction proposal that would demand that the wealthy and large corporations contribute at least fifty percent toward deficit reduction, and that there be significant cuts in military spending as well.

Instead, he is proposing three dollars in cuts to every dollar in increased revenue and only modest cuts in defense spending. Most incredibly, despite campaign assurances to the contrary, he has embraced the long-held Republican dream of making major cuts in Social Security and raising the eligibility age for Medicare.

Where do we go from here? Please let the President know that he must not cut Social Security or raise the eligibility age for Medicare. https://services.myngp.com/ngponlineservices/petition.aspx?X=Ja5OPsDYzMY%3d Please let him know that the American people will back him if he demands that corporate America and the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes so that we can move to deficit reduction without decimating programs that working families desperately need.

These are tough times, but despair is not an option. The fight must continue, not just for ourselves but for the well-being of future generations and for the very future of the planet that we inhabit. Together, we WILL defeat the right-wing threat and their big money backers and we will move this country forward toward economic and social justice, peace and environmental sanity.

Thank you for all that you do.


U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

correctly is. It was just a head's up to the OP, who I know would want to be notified of it.

The conditional mood thing is just too hard to explain and so widely ignored that it would have been nitpicking. It it were easy to explain, I might have done it.

n/t

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/07/19/obama-wants-to-cut-medicare-and-social-security-benefits/

these petitions are useless!

And I will have friends from the Rebuild the American Dream group with me.

We have to organize around the issues that unite us.

Excellent word choice! :thumbsup:

my choice of words tends to get deleted :)

The goal is always there and it's not about policy, it's about an individual.

in the street protesting. Maybe then he'll get the idea.

they are done and everything will be ok...that they did their part.

At first when I signed petitions, and called my Senators, Representatives and the White House, it gave me hope. I see now that it was false hope.

But let's face it, we are victims of an elaborate scam. There are billions of dollars at stake that corporate America and the wealthy believe they are entitled to. They own the government almost to a congressman.

Does anyone stop and think about the fact that we don't have a progressive congress?

:sarcasm: only partially

Better to let members of Congress know what will happen to them if they go along with any of these Global Capitalist 'Austerity Program' ideas. This president needs to understand that the New World Order crowd were not elected to run this country.

Does anyone believe that the White House and the party leadership does NOT already KNOW this?

Obama & The Democratic Party Leadership already KNOW what the vast Majority of American citizens want.
They just don't care.
ALL we are watching NOW
is the appearance of a fight
in order to maintain the illusion of a difference.


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

"It was ALL Joe Lieberman's fault." :cry:

these cuts to Social Security and Medicare? Now a few days later you are confirming it? You must be as happy as a pig in shit that these cuts are going to happen. Enjoy your reverie....AW

for the last decade. The ruling class will get what they want, and the rest of us can go pound sand.

Obama is just ice cold when it comes to the problems of anyone who isn't on Wall Street.

He seems to just not care at all.

he will by 2012.

and the PTB/WallST/CorporateAmerica 'fix' his re-election bid. ya:think:

:kick:

Yeah, now that's someone I can relate to.
:woohoo:
Run for President Senator, and I will spend all my free time campaigning for you.

Bernie for President.

I made up my mind on that score months ago, and it goes double now.

And disagrees with Bernie.

That would explain things.

i will never vote for a pro-corporate Dem ever again. EVER. Bernie Sanders 2012.

Apparently, some counties may not be sending out absentee ballots in California in the future.

That's how tight the government's belt is in California.

What a contrast from his election to now. I actually believed and defended Obama on not doing this. Republicans say you can't raise taxes in a recession..but you can cut insurance that we pay for retirement. People on fixed incomes for god's sake. This is not what I voted for. Even if this doesn't pass he's revealed who he is. Even so much so that he's willing to risk his presidency on it. What kind of a democrat does this? I don't think I can support him anymore. We've gone from 'yes we can' to 'this is the best we could get'. Very demoralizing.
:-(

In answer to "What kind of a Democrat does this?"

He is no Democrat. We were played.

Yes. We. Were.

}(

EXACTLY!

And don't anybody even think of trashing Bernie when this is over.

Wrong place

If only President Obama had Bernie Sanders` courage and principles....

But, but... A bill hasn't been signed, so why all the outrage?? I want a link from Senator Sanders showing where Obama is cutting Social Security and Medicare!!

:sarcasm:

Must be tough to be a shill when your talking points are eliminated almost daily.

Thank you, Bernie, for being one of the very few on the side of working people!

If the New Democrats don't get this, they don't get how to be re-elected.

He is the best. :patriot:

I'm completely serious. I will not waste another vote on Obama. If necessary I will write in Sanders.

If Obama had one tenth the morals and public spirit of Bernie Sanders, he would not slash this country's safety net. Obama's mother and grandparents would be heartsick to see how he has sold the office of president to special interests and abandoned the poor and elderly.

I doubt they hurt.

There was a day when those who did had a (D) after their names.

best weapon he will ever have. Us. The ones of us who elected him and the ones who weren't sure but now basically support him, and virtually everyone on SS and Medicare.
The newbees to SS are going to soar from this year forward for about a decade as we are just beginning to turn 65 and are taking our SS Medicare investments very seriously. Especially since our nest eggs disappeared twice under Duhbya.

Our very lives now depend on SS. Does he not realize that and what a mighty weapon that could be for him if he would just use it?

Instead he calls us Entitled, not the investors we really are, and implies we are lazy and retards and selfish are are so pathetic we will again vote for him even if he is awful, simply because he will be sure to be just slightly less awful than the other candidates.


If George Wallace had been nominated by the Democratic party I would have voted for him over Nixon. Wallace was at least honest about where he stood on issues. There is a chance that you can work with an honest opponent. There is not way to work with someone who is constantly disingenuous.

He has regained only 1/2 of it in spite of the increases in stock values.

He is in his 70s. Victim of the tricks of the bankers.

Obama did nothing to reign in the excessive banking bonuses -- absolutely nothing. That was one of the first signs that he was a fake. The very first signs were his appointments -- but I trusted him too much to doublecheck the histories of his appointees at the time.

GD would be unglued. Flame away.

If he had waited and run this year, many more people would have been interested in what he was saying.

He ran when the economy appeared to be very good. And he ran against Gore, an environmentalist and a relatively good man -- albeit a run-of-the-mill Democrat.

The only way we can save our Democracy..

his makeup to say Enough! Otherwise he would have done it by now.

Ed wasn't dissing him, he was being objective. I can kind of identify with that character trait, and I hate it in myself. I just want everyone to be happy and I feel bad when I have to be "tough". Don't really know if Obama is the same or if he's just hyper sensitive about being bi-partisan. He HAS been shredded on every step he's taken.

Regardless, even considering The Big Three (as Ed referred to them) is going too far. He should know he'd have the country backing him if he refused to "put it on the table".

I think that we are going to have "tough" times, and a lot of weak people will become very "tough."

When enough people have it "tough" enough to become pretty "tough" (not violent just hard-nosed and realistic), then we will have real change. Not until then.

or mean! :7

The arrogance of him to think we have the luxury of allowing him to fiddle around with people's safety net because he can't bring himself to be 'tough.' As if his being president supersedes his responsibility to act like one.

We can't even get a candidate to challenge Obama in a primary. Why should anyone care what we think?

There's no link in the OP. Here is where Sanders' statement may have originated: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/20/996165/-Defending-the-American-Social-Safety-Net

class, i.e., those who must work for a living. So, while despair is not an option, neither is blind allegiance to a party and candidates who do not represent my interests. I'll be voting Dem Socialist in 2012 both for Pres and for many down-ballot races.

I would love to see Bernie Sanders challenge Obama in the primaries.

Bernie is 68 and has a secure seat in the Senate. Please Bernie. Stand up for us.

Obama either doesn't really care or has sold out or is just too weak to do what is right, to say what is right.

Please help.

I feel Bernie is the only person fighting for us. He's the only one who's trying to get the word out about what Obama and the republicans are trying to do (yes, I group Obama with the republicans these days as there really isn't a difference) and our so-called democrats are just going along with this insanity.

which side he would support, and Wall Street won. Never ending wars are E.X.P.E.N.S.I.V.E., and we have three of them ongoing simultaneously. The money to continue to wage them has to come from some place. Taxes on the wealthy are a non-starter with the GOP and the conservative New Dems, but the 2.2 trillion in the Social Security trust fund sure can buy a few bullets.

I. You believe what the WSJ says?
II. You believe what the NYT says?
III. Nothing has been signed yet.
IV. By moving to the far right, the president is forcing the republicans' hand
V. He had to cave in due to the prevailing political climate
VI. What are you going to do, vote for Bachmann?

Best Of Luck, Bernie.

The main problem is that he WANTS to cut SS, Medicare, Medicaid. He's not the man I thought I was voting for

Another 418,000 people applied for unemployment.

I think that I'll be going into hibernation. Someone wake me up when the nightmare is over.

;(