Sunday, October 26, 2008

What does a socialist sound like?

Sarah Palin, Joe the "Plumber" and GOP loyalists have been accusing Obama of espousing socialism when he says we should spread wealth around through tax cuts for 95% of tax payers and an increase on those earning over $250,000.
Obama isn't a socialist, but check out the Op-Ed by America's only socialist congressman Senator Bernie Sanders. Here's an excerpt:


The current financial crisis facing our country has been caused by the extreme right-wing economic policies pursued by the Bush administration. These policies, which include huge tax breaks for the rich, unfettered free trade and the wholesale deregulation of commerce, have resulted in a massive redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy
...Since President Bush has been in office, nearly 6 million Americans have slipped into poverty, median family income for working Americans has declined by more than $2,000, more than 7 million Americans have lost their health insurance, over 4 million have lost their pensions, foreclosures are at an all time high, total consumer debt has more than doubled, and we have a national debt of over $9.7 trillion dollars.While the middle class collapses, the richest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s. The top 0.1 percent now earn more money than the bottom 50 percent of Americans, and the top 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. The wealthiest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion while Bush has been president. In the midst of all of this, Bush lowered taxes on the very rich so that they are paying lower income tax rates than teachers, police officers or nurses...This is the most extreme example that I can recall of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor.

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