Bernie Sanders: Congress spends day and night worrying about the wealthy

At a congressional summit Wednesday about the Citizens United decision, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said the U.S. Congress was only concerned about the “wealthy and powerful” because of the influence of campaign contributions.

“This country faces enormous problems, the middle-class is declining, poverty is increasing, we’re worried about global warming, we’re worried about health care, we’re worried about education,” he said, “and the American people are looking to Washington and saying, ‘What’s going on? We have enormous problems, and you’re not addressing those problems.’”

“One of the reasons that Congress is not addressing those problems is the power of big money in terms of campaign contributions and in terms of lobbying,” Sanders continued. “Working people are trying to keep their heads above water, and here on Capitol Hill all kinds of money is flooding into this institution so that Congress spends day and night worrying about the wealthy and powerful, and forgetting about the middle-class and working families.”

Source

I do not have much to add except that I agree with just about everything Sanders has said.

Other than Ron Paul,Sanders is one of the only other politicians that I have some respect for,that and they both want to either abolish or expose the Federal Reserve for the corrupt,greedy monopoly that it is .

You can check this out if you are interested or have not seen it yet - The Fed Audit

No taxation without representation.

By that principle, this is an illegal government. Of course, it could be argued that it's been an illegal government for decades, perhaps more like a century.

This only proves that campaign contributions should be illegal. All candidates should have equal time on television to speak and get people familiar with their platforms and ideas. The television stations should be able to write off the free time on their taxes.

All travel expenses, commercials and campaign posters would come from one pool of funds that people allow to be taken from their taxes...Say, $5 to $10 a year per person. Those expenses would be divided equally among all qualified candidates. No contributions of any kind to be allowed from anybody privately.

Since this will never happen, and the courts have allowed unlimited campaign contributions from scuzz-bag corporations and manipulative billionaires, expect us to go down the drain like all other empires in the past have done. We're pretty much there already.

So all our representatives and senators in congress are worried about 1% of the population, while telling the other 99% to piss off....And they wonder why people detest them.

Bet ya a pig in a poke...when the IRS starts taking away the passports of those who owe back taxes...there won't be any passports of those same wealthy in the pile.

They'll get waivers, just like the big corporations are getting now on Obamacare.....

The division in this once Great Nation is leading to class warfare....Who'll pay taxes then....not me.

Des

Originally posted by FissionSurplus

So all our representatives and senators in congress are worried about 1% of the population, while telling the other 99% to piss off....And they wonder why people detest them.

What makes me wonder is how these very same people get 99% of the population to vote for them. Lesser of two evils? Yeah, that'll work well.

While I applaud the common sense behind this...

The establishment has nothing to fear from movements like this.

They have nothing to fear from any effort that requires "political consensus."

They are completely defended.

They are the gatekeepers. They are at all the doors, they have all the keys, and they have no fear or feel any threat from "popular" movements.

I know this comes across as a downer... and I urge you not to lose hope... because I expect a new factor to come into play... but that is a topic for another thread.

Movements like this, in order to reach the audience which must be engaged to overcome this politically, can only do so effectively on the internet.

We have seen the proof of this many times. For those of you who remember... my first outright "slap in the face" proof of this came on October 3, 2008.... after the White House, Senate, and Congressional switch board were literally shut down - due to the volume and speed of the "public outcry" over the initial relief the political parties decided to offer the Big Businesses of the world (I say world because precious few Big Businesses are truly owned by a single country's investors.)

The "HELL NO! " sentiment was loud and clear in the streets, among the people, and thus.... the media reported that our government had received overwhelming support form the public prior to giving the Act their blessing... and passed the relief package....

The medium of information flow effectively 'told' us then, as it 'tells' us now... whether a thing is good, a person is reasonable, or an idea is dangerous. Lacking the press, we have only 'processed' and 'produced' information reaching us via all the regular channels.... the internet is as of yet 'untamed.' Therefore... note the press reporting what they have learned on the internet? No? Of course not. We're supposed to believe their productions are actually 'investigated' and 'researched'... as they roll their eyes at the people who call their mastery into question.

We are now in a virtual state of "citizens with no redress." So much so, that it has engendered such apprehension in our political leadership that they eagerly pass laws to watch us, detain us, and establish vague and broad 'criminal' categories for what they call 'crimes against the state.'

It is not up to the political parties to fix whats wrong with the political system.... THEY CANNOT DO IT... and most don't want to - or couldn't cope with any change that levels the field to honor equality and dignity. Hence the foresight of our government 'checks and balances' construct... which is being further dismantled almost every day. The function of the three branches was to ensure that their powers offset the moral hazards of abuse. Now the Supreme judicial is playing philosopher's games with our lives, while the political parties choose who get to be in which branch... as long as it's "their *best* choice."

We need to abolish and remove the standing political parties. We must reorganize the people of this country (and also similarly all over the world) to recognize the reality that we are perpetually given 'false choices' on 'manufactured issues' by the same small group of people who 'risk nothing' and are sponsored by theatrical producers - sometimes I suspect more for their own amusement and satisfaction than ours.

There is a problem within any system that reduces governance to game theory. The same can be said of economic planning. The same can be said of any institution where 'gambling' would be a moral hazard to insert.

As I have stated before... the information we are receiving from the political elite is all for one purpose - THEIR purpose. It may sounds sweet to the ear, it may even seem reasonable... but in the end... it's not for our benefit... it's for THEIR political expedience.

The idea of revoking corporate person-hood sounds quite appropriate - but in the end it will be the corporations THEY want crippled that will be hurt - not their sponsors or buddies, the future employers of their progeny, or the place where they've invested for their own posterity.

Oh my... I've ranted.... please forgive me... I mean no offense of course, after all this is just a kooky conspiracy-type wacko on the internet.... or that's what the media would say.... they just couldn't resist characterizing such a message ... "journalism" is not compatible with public relations.... which is why we call it 'propaganda.'

My biggest concern is that when these perennial political thespians finally get the chance to live up to the script... the director yells, "Cut!"... "Rewrite!" and suddenly we have to pay a tax for their grand schemes.... none of which we are generally privy to until we have to pay for it.

reply to post by Maxmars




Much in Congress has disgusted me over the years, but a personal favorite was the 108th Congress, 2003-2005. At a time, following the 2002 build up, when we were about to go to war in Iraq, these great leaders patted themselves on the back and made headlines with their great piece of legislation...Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003!

And there were enough exceptions in the law to continue to keep phones ringing...about the only phone call I quit getting was the one to sell me lightbulbs! And I was confused, as all this was a waste of money coming from a party that was for less govt and personal responsibility...don't like the call?, then say "No!" and hang up, why did this build up to a federal case??

Oh, the media said Americans hated the unsolicited phone calls, and Congress rushed to the rescue. What a bunch of self-serving nonsense. It was signed by Pres Bush days before we invaded Iraq. But, hey, maybe it gave Americans peace of mind when the bombs fell on Baghdad.

There were other pompous, self-serving pieces of legislation, but the most expensive one was the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, or as should be correctly called, The Big Give-Away to Big Pharma. This piece of work was passed in the wee hours of the morning after an all nighter, with votes switching and "substantial and aggressive campaign support" (i.e. money) being offered.

So, non-wealthy taxpayer got a phonecall less an evening, and got stuck with the bill from Big Pharma for billions of dollars. The wealthy got the goldmine, and we got the shaft. We ended up deeper in debt, with more govt and more entitlement, courtesy of a Congress who the media said was against it all. Joe Smoe was used to get more money to Big Pharma, WalMart and drugstore chains.