Bernie Sanders Wants Bold Action

Below I cut and pasted words from an article published in the Wall Street Journal by Bernie Sanders. I promise that while I didn't want to take all his words, I did not misrepresent his meaning. I took enough words so you could see what this guy wants to do to our country. 

Looking at each individual item, you might say he sounds reasonable. There is a lot in the USA that should be fixed. 

But pay attention to his last line where he concludes by saying "it is time for bold action."

Make no mistake, he wants to do it all at once within the scope of a $3.5 trillion Reconciliation Package. 

I don't need to say much else. I just ask you to read his words and then wonder if we can handle bold action. He is not the least bit shy here. And he shows absolutely no worry that we can make significant progress on so many fronts. You might say that if you don't wish big you won't ever reach your dreams. I could also say that if you wish too big then maybe you are in the wrong profession. Is he a politician or a preacher? 

It reminds me of you or me declaring that we are going to get really smart. It is time to act and so we are going to become really smart with respect to biology, economics, physics, astronomy, leg pain, cooking, habits of crows, and a few other things. 

It sounds good, right? But really, how do you quickly become an expert in all those areas? Bernie has no worry about doing a lot of things boldly at once. His actual words are below my summary of his list. What do you think? 

My summary: Make rich people pay their fair share of taxes, reduce the greed of pharmaceutical companies, reduce child poverty by extending tax credits, reduce our dysfunctional child care system by capping childcare expenses, expand higher education and job training by making community colleges free, guarantee paid family and medical leave to all, expand Medicare for seniors by making hearing aids and glasses free, provide healthcare to all uninsured people, provide enough doctors, dentists, and nurses in underserved areas, help seniors and others with disabilities to get care without leaving their homes, make unprecedented investments in affordable housing, provide pathways for citizenship for undocumented persons, move our transportation, electrical generation, buildings and agriculture towards clean energy,  and hire hundreds of thousands of young people to protect our natural resources and guard against global warming. 

That's all he wants to do. All we need is bold action. Below is much of the article he wrote. 

Bernie Sanders: Why We Need the $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Package

• August 3, 2021

By: Bernie Sanders; Wall Street Journal

THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN BOOSTED THE ECONOMY DURING THE PANDEMIC. BUT IT DIDN’T GO FAR ENOUGH.

The bad news is that the American Rescue Plan didn’t address the long-neglected structural crises that many U.S. families face.

 We need structural reforms to improve the lives of U.S. families. If Democrats can’t get Republican support for these reforms, then we have to do it alone through the reconciliation process.

But we will use it (the reconciliation process) to support the middle class and struggling families and, in the process, create millions of good-paying jobs.

Here is some of what is in the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that the Senate Budget Committee agreed to:

We are going to end the days of billionaires not paying their fair share of taxes by closing loopholes, while also raising the individual tax rate on the wealthiest Americans and the corporate tax rate for the most profitable companies in our country.

We will take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which charges U.S. residents the highest prices in the world by far for prescription drugs. Under our proposal, Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices with the industry.

We will end the absurdity of the U.S. having the highest levels of childhood poverty of almost any major nation by extending the Child Tax Credit so families continue to receive monthly direct payments of up to $300 a child.

We will radically improve our dysfunctional child-care system so that no working family pays more than 7% of its pretax income on child care, and we will provide universal pre-K to every 3- and 4-year-old.

We will expand higher education and job-training opportunities for students by making community college tuition-free for all Americans.

We will end the international disgrace of the U.S. being the only industrialized country not to guarantee paid family and medical leave. Women shouldn’t have to return to work a week after giving birth because they have no paid leave and can’t afford to stop working.

We will expand Medicare for seniors to cover dental needs as well as hearing aids and glasses. We will also make sure that we have enough doctors, nurses and dentists in underserved areas, while expanding Medicaid to provide healthcare to the uninsured.

We will give hundreds of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities the ability to get the care they need in their own homes instead of in expensive nursing facilities.

We will also address homelessness and the national housing crisis by making an unprecedented investment in affordable housing.

Further, we will provide undocumented people living in the U.S. with a pathway to citizenship, including Dreamers and the essential workers who courageously kept our economy running in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

Perhaps most important, we will begin the process of shifting our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward sustainable energy to combat the existential threat of climate change. This effort will include a nationwide clean-energy standard that moves our transportation system, electrical generation, buildings and agriculture toward clean energy. We will also create a Civilian Climate Corps, which will hire hundreds of thousands of young people to protect our natural resources and fight against climate change.

Now is the time for bold action.