Padawanbater2
Well-Known Member
As DD has the TMZ of the politics section pretty much covered, I thought it would be interesting as well as more informative for the rest of us to talk about the candidates actual positions and why you support or oppose them
I'll be supporting Bernie Sanders for president
He's essentially the perfect candidate for any left leaning/liberal person (which is why the conservatives won't stop crying about him)
-opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): he believes it will increase economic disparity, lower wages and make American workers compete with lower paid citizens of the countries included in the deal and have a more detrimental effect than NAFTA did for the American middle class
-supports free college for students: he believes students shouldn't be burdened with outrageous amounts of debt they can never possibly pay off just for earning an education. His plan is to tax high frequency trading at a rate of over $200 billion a year, affecting only those in the financial sector (Wall street) at the very top of the income bracket (0.1% of the American population) to eliminate the burden and ensure any American who wants an education has the ability to get one
-supports raising the minimum wage to $15/hour: "The good news is that the economy today is much better than when President George W. Bush left office. The bad news is that despite improvements the 40-year decline of the American middle class continues. Real unemployment is much too high, tens of millions of Americans still lack health insurance, and more of our friends and neighbors are living in poverty than at almost any time in the modern history of our country.
Meanwhile, as the rich become much richer, the level of income and wealth inequality has reached obscene and astronomical levels. In the United States, we have one of the most unequal wealth and income distributions of any major country on earth. Our inequality is worse now than at any other time in American history since the 1920s. Today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent of our nation owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined. One family, the Walton family of Walmart, owns more wealth than the bottom 42 percent combined. In terms of income, nearly all of the new growth since the recession has gone to the top 1 percent.
At a time when millions of American workers have seen declines in their incomes and are working longer hours for lower wages, the wealth of the billionaire class is soaring in a way that few can imagine. If you can believe it, between 2013 and 2015, the 14 wealthiest individuals in the country saw their net worth increase by over $157 billion dollars. We live in the one of the wealthiest countries on earth, yet children go hungry, veterans sleep out on the streets and senior citizens cannot afford their prescription drugs. This is what a rigged economic system looks like."
-supports getting big money out of politics: "Freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to buy the United States government. Oil companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, Wall Street bankers and other powerful special interests have poured money into our political system for years. In 2010, a bad situation turned worse. In a 5-4 decision in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for corporations and the wealthy to spend unlimited and undisclosed money to buy our elected officials. The Supreme Court essentially declared that corporations have the same rights as natural-born human beings.
Our democracy is under fierce attack. Billionaire families are now able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the candidates of their choice. These people own most of the economy. Now they want to own our government as well. The Koch brothers, the second wealthiest family in America, plan to spend some $900 million in the coming 2016 election — more money than either of our major parties spent in the last election. That is not democracy. That is oligarchy. To restore our one person-one vote democracy, Congress must pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and move toward public funding of elections."
Unless we take bold action to address climate change, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to look back on this period in history and ask a very simple question: Where were they? Why didn’t the United States of America, the most powerful nation on earth, lead the international community in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and preventing the devastating damage that the scientific community was sure would come?"
What are the most important issues to you this election cycle, and which candidate do you believe will best accomplish solving them?
I'll be supporting Bernie Sanders for president
He's essentially the perfect candidate for any left leaning/liberal person (which is why the conservatives won't stop crying about him)
-opposes the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP): he believes it will increase economic disparity, lower wages and make American workers compete with lower paid citizens of the countries included in the deal and have a more detrimental effect than NAFTA did for the American middle class
-supports free college for students: he believes students shouldn't be burdened with outrageous amounts of debt they can never possibly pay off just for earning an education. His plan is to tax high frequency trading at a rate of over $200 billion a year, affecting only those in the financial sector (Wall street) at the very top of the income bracket (0.1% of the American population) to eliminate the burden and ensure any American who wants an education has the ability to get one
-supports raising the minimum wage to $15/hour: "The good news is that the economy today is much better than when President George W. Bush left office. The bad news is that despite improvements the 40-year decline of the American middle class continues. Real unemployment is much too high, tens of millions of Americans still lack health insurance, and more of our friends and neighbors are living in poverty than at almost any time in the modern history of our country.
Meanwhile, as the rich become much richer, the level of income and wealth inequality has reached obscene and astronomical levels. In the United States, we have one of the most unequal wealth and income distributions of any major country on earth. Our inequality is worse now than at any other time in American history since the 1920s. Today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent of our nation owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent combined. One family, the Walton family of Walmart, owns more wealth than the bottom 42 percent combined. In terms of income, nearly all of the new growth since the recession has gone to the top 1 percent.
At a time when millions of American workers have seen declines in their incomes and are working longer hours for lower wages, the wealth of the billionaire class is soaring in a way that few can imagine. If you can believe it, between 2013 and 2015, the 14 wealthiest individuals in the country saw their net worth increase by over $157 billion dollars. We live in the one of the wealthiest countries on earth, yet children go hungry, veterans sleep out on the streets and senior citizens cannot afford their prescription drugs. This is what a rigged economic system looks like."
-supports getting big money out of politics: "Freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to buy the United States government. Oil companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, Wall Street bankers and other powerful special interests have poured money into our political system for years. In 2010, a bad situation turned worse. In a 5-4 decision in the Citizens United case, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for corporations and the wealthy to spend unlimited and undisclosed money to buy our elected officials. The Supreme Court essentially declared that corporations have the same rights as natural-born human beings.
Our democracy is under fierce attack. Billionaire families are now able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the candidates of their choice. These people own most of the economy. Now they want to own our government as well. The Koch brothers, the second wealthiest family in America, plan to spend some $900 million in the coming 2016 election — more money than either of our major parties spent in the last election. That is not democracy. That is oligarchy. To restore our one person-one vote democracy, Congress must pass a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and move toward public funding of elections."
- Introduced the Democracy Is for People amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.
- Voted for the DISCLOSE Act to shine a light on the exorbitant amounts of dark money in our politics.
- Promised that any Sanders Administration Supreme Court nominee must commit to overturning the disastrous Citizens United decision.
Unless we take bold action to address climate change, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to look back on this period in history and ask a very simple question: Where were they? Why didn’t the United States of America, the most powerful nation on earth, lead the international community in cutting greenhouse gas emissions and preventing the devastating damage that the scientific community was sure would come?"
- Introduced the gold standard for climate change legislation with Sen. Barbara Boxer to tax carbon and methane emissions.
- Led the opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.
- Secured $3.2 billion in the economic stimulus package to fund grants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a program that has funded upgrades for more than 86,000 buildings and installed more than 9,500 solar energy systems.
What are the most important issues to you this election cycle, and which candidate do you believe will best accomplish solving them?
