Bernie Sanders

From The Bottom Up: The Case For An Independent Left Party

December 23, 2018 By Howie Hawkins, International Socialist Review Educate! Bernie Sanders, Socialism, third parties

If the 13.2 million votes received by self-styled “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries accomplished nothing else positive, it put the questions of socialism and independent working-class politics up for public discussion. I have been critical of Sanders’s socialism because his policy platform was New Deal liberalism, not socialism. More importantly, by entering the Democratic Party, Sanders broke with the socialist principle of independent working-class political action.

Open Letter To Senator Bernie Sanders

November 29, 2018 Staff, Worldbeyondwar.org Create! Bernie Sanders, Electoral Politics

We support the position of more than 25,000 people who signed a petition during your presidential campaign urging you to take on militarism. We believe that Dr. King was correct to assert that racism, extreme materialism, and militarism needed to be challenged together rather than separately, and that this remains true. We believe this is not only practical advice, but a moral imperative, and — not coincidentally — good electoral politics. During your presidential campaign, you were asked repeatedly how you would pay for human and environmental needs that could be paid for with small fractions of military spending. Your answer was consistently complicated and involved raising taxes.

Democrats Trash Constituents Over F-35 Base In Vermont

April 22, 2018 William Boardman, Reader Supported News. Educate! Bernie Sanders, Empire Economy, Wars and Militarism

On April 11, the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, announced that he was betraying a 55% majority of Burlington voters and a 75% majority of his city council that had opposed basing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at the Burlington Airport in South Burlington. The mayor betrayed his constituents in the limpest way, not by vetoing the popular resolution opposing the F-35, but by sending it on without his signature, while appending a dishonest and misleading cover letter inviting unelected leaders to have their way with Vermont.

People For Bernie Kicks US Whistle Blower Off Panel

November 12, 2017 Staff, www.rt.com Educate! Bernie Sanders, CIA, John Kiriakou, People For Bernie

By Staff for RT. John Kiriakou, a former CIA counterterrorism officer, has told RT that he was kicked off a panel at the European Parliament because a fellow panelist objected to his association with Russia as a Sputnik Radio host. Kiriakou, who spent two-and-a-half years in jail for exposing the CIA’s torture program in 2007, was invited to address the European Parliament on national security whistleblowing Wednesday. However, he was bounced from the panel at the last minute, because one of the other panelists objected to his presence. Kiriakou told RT he “thought it was a joke” when Winnie Wong, co-founder of the progressive organization, People for Bernie, refused to appear on the panel with him, because “she didn’t want the appearance of Bernie Sanders appearing to endorse the Russian media.” “I laughed when she first said it because it was so ridiculous that I thought she was joking,” Kiriakou said. “Then she walked away, and one of the aides handed me an updated schedule, and my name then, was not associated with the first panel.”

Corporate Media Fails To Report Truth About Single Payer

November 12, 2017 Michael Corcoran, www.fair.org Educate! Bernie Sanders, Canada, Media, Single payer health care

By Michael Corcoran for FAIR. It is a sad reflection on the state of healthcare reporting in the United States that one can so easily predict how many media outlets will respond to a news event before it even happens. Yet for many familiar with years of media either ignoring or rejecting the merits of a universal public healthcare system—Canada’s in particular—it was hard not to expect dismissiveness and/or mockery from outlets such as the New York Times and Vox, who sent reporters on the tour. The results were unsurprising. Vox (10/31/17) used the occasion to explain why single-payer is likely a pipe dream that doesn’t fit with American values. Much of the Times article (11/2/17) read like satire aimed at mocking Canada and Sanders. A New York Times ad circulating on Facebook proudly declares: “Evidence-driven reporting. No matter what the subject.” It’s a hollow boast to those familiar with the paper’s uniformly negative coverage of single-payer.

Single Payer Movement Has Transformed The Healthcare Fight

October 1, 2017 Theo Anderson, www.inthesetimes.com Educate! Bernie Sanders, Health Care, Medicare for all, Single payer health care

By Theo Anderson for In These Times. The grassroots fight for single payer, championed by Bernie Sanders, has thoroughly reframed the healthcare debate over the past year. That became clear during CNN’s Monday night healthcare debate between Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). The debate came as Republicans labor, Sisyphus-like, to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Graham said in his opening remarks that the debate was about “who we want to be as a nation.” Cassidy said that it was about who has power.

Sanders Health Bill: Cover For Democratic Party Deals With Trump

September 17, 2017 Patrick Martin, www.wsws.org Educate! Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Healthcare, Single payer health care

By Patrick Martin for WSWS. Senator Bernie Sanders took his campaign to whitewash the right-wing character of the Democratic Party to a new level Wednesday, introducing single-payer, “Medicare for all” legislation, co-sponsored by 15 Democratic senators, on the same day that House and Senate Democratic leaders were to visit the White House for cozy talks with President Trump on corporate tax cuts. The bill was given full-scale media promotion, including an op-ed column by Sanders in the New York Times, lengthy articles in all the major daily newspapers, and reports on the network and cable television news programs. This for a bill which has not the slightest chance of passage by the Republican-controlled Congress, which will never even hold a committee hearing, let alone bring it to a vote. This makes co-sponsorship an opportunity to strike a left pose without actually incurring the wrath of the insurance companies and other giant corporations that control the provision of health care in the United States. Accordingly, a half dozen Democratic senators who are beginning to promote themselves as potential 2020 presidential contenders signed on as co-sponsors—up from zero co-sponsors the last time Sanders introduced such a bill.

Sanders, Controlled Opposition And Building Popular Power

August 7, 2017 Michael Ippolito, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Bernie Sanders, Democrats, Republican Party

By Michael Ippolito. This letter was inspired by a conversation that took place in response to the video below posted by Dr. Margaret Flowers after the Republicans offered up a vote on HR 676: The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act in the Senate. HR 676 would expand health care coverage in America to all Americans; it would have cost tremendously less money; it would have helped make American business more competitive; and it would have been Medicare for All. None of the people who pay lip service to supporting Medicare for All voted for it, with Bernie Sanders leading the way as political cover for the rest of the Democrats. Meanwhile, the movement that pre-dated the Sanders campaign & helped to propel Sanders into the spotlight of American politics continues to push forward organizing allies to support HR 676 Improved Medicare for All.

Head Of National Nurses Encourages Sanders To Start A People’s Party

June 13, 2017 Medea Benjamin, www.codepink.org Create! Bernie Sanders, Democracy, Peoples Party, third parties

By Medea Benjamin for CODE PINK. NNU’s RoseAnn DeMoro looked directly at the Draft Bernie people in the audience of the Peoples Summit and grinned. “We’re going to take a few questions but I want to thank all the Draft Bernie people here,” she said. Then came the zinger. “I’m with you,” she added, as she turned around to look at Bernie and his wife. Then she pivoted back to the audience, “Nurses, are we with them?” As they roared their approval, DeMoro turned to Sanders again. “I always say: ‘heroes aren’t made, they’re cornered.” I don’t think most people in the audience realized the potential significance of the DeMoro’s endorsement. Her union has about 150,000 members and spent about $1 million on the Sanders campaign. It’s one of only six national unions that backed Bernie Sanders for president. Under DeMoro’s leadership, the nurses have become heavyweights in the progressive world, championing everything from universal single payer healthcare to a Wall Street tax to pay for free college education. Just imagine if DeMoro could get her whole union to back a new party, and leverage that to get other unions and progressive institutions on board.

Bernie Sanders Throws Palestinians Under The Bus

May 10, 2017 Michael F. Brown, www.electronicintifada.net Educate! Bernie Sanders, Palestine

By Michael F. Brown for The Electronic Antifada - A majority of Democrats now backs economic sanctions or tougher action on Israel over its continued colonization of occupied Palestinian land, a University of Maryland poll revealed this week. But progressive Democrats cannot count on a single member of the US Senate to stand firm for Palestinian rights: not Patrick Leahy, not Kamala Harris and not “progressive” firebrand Elizabeth Warren. Even Bernie Sanders has caved in to pressure from AIPAC. His signature appears with those of all 99 of his Senate colleagues on a 27 April letter reaffirming key talking points of the powerful Israel lobby group. The diverse coalition Sanders brought together will be jeopardized if he thinks Palestinians can be thrown under the bus with no reaction. The letter, addressed to the UN secretary-general, claims absurdly that Israel is being picked on and singled out by the world body – even though Israel has flouted international law and UN resolutions for decades without ever once being subjected to UN sanctions. It also smears UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, whose overstretched resources mean the difference between subsistence and hunger for a million Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under a decade-long Israeli siege.

Bernie’s Tuition Plan Is Doomed To Fail

April 13, 2017 Alan Collinge, www.thehill.com Educate! Bernie Sanders, Higher Education, Reform, Tuition

By Alan Collinge for The Hill - Bernie Sanders unveiled his free-tuition plan this week. The plan, which would eliminate tuition charges for undergraduate students whose families earn less than $125,000 annually, looks much like the proposal from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and also like Hillary Clinton’s revised plan from 2015. Sanders’s plan would provide $47 billion to states to cover “tuition and fees” at public colleges with the requirement that states come up with the remaining $23 billion, thus making public college tuition-free. While Sanders’s plan certainly does dedicate far more money (per student) than Cuomo’s or Clinton’s plans would, it’s ultimately doomed to fail — just like Clinton’s plan and Cuomo’s plan.

Single Payer Sanders Morphs Into Public Option Dean

March 27, 2017 Russell Mokhiber, www.singlepayeraction.org Educate! Bernie Sanders, health, National Improved Medicare for All, Single payer health care

By Russell Mokhiber for Single Payer Action. Right before our eyes, we are seeing the transformation of single payer Bernie Sanders into public option Howard Dean. During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Sanders took off like a rocket, fueled by the promise of a single payer, Medicare for All single payer system. His single payer plan paralleled HR 676, the single payer bill in the House of Representatives that now has 72 co-sponsors. HR 676 is the gold standard of single payer bills. It would deliver one public payer, no deductibles, no co-pays, lower costs, everyone in, nobody out, no more medical bankruptcies, no more deaths from lack of health insurance and free choice of doctors and hospitals. That was the promise of Bernie Sanders during the 2016 campaign. But since then, Bernie Sanders has endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Then become part of Senator Chuck Schumer’s Senate Democratic leadership.

Single Payer Bernie Sanders Mark Cuban Ralph Nader Indivisible — Not

March 15, 2017 Staff, www.singlepayeraction.org Create! Bernie Sanders, Health Care, Single-Payer

By Staff of Single Payer Action - Bernie has yet to introduce his single payer bill into the Senate — despite promises from his health care legislative assistant that he will do so. (A Sanders aide told one single payer supporter that “Senator Sanders will definitely introduce a single payer bill in the Senate this Congress.” When asked to be more specific, the aide told the caller they can’t be more specific “because we don’t want to give the opposition time to organize against the bill.”) And at a CNN healthcare debate with Senator Ted Cruz earlier this year, Bernie embarrassed himself when he was asked a question by a small business owner in Texas.

Republicans Lead In Obamacare Replacement, Act Now

February 17, 2017 Margaret Flowers, www.healthoverprofit.org Resist! Bernie Sanders, Health Care, National Improved Medicare for All, Single payer health care

By Margaret Flowers for Health Over Profit. Roll Call reports that the Republicans introduced legislation, the Obamacare Replacement Act, in both the House and the Senate. The plan, known as the Sanford-Paul Plan for its lead sponsors, has the support of the strongest Republican caucus, the Freedom Caucus. Leaving insurance plans up to the market to determine means that low cost plans will cover very little and the fact will remain that people in the US will only be able to receive health care if they can afford it. In order to make progress in the demand for National Improved Medicare for All, we need a companion bill to HR 676 in the Senate. Senator Sanders, a long-time advocate for single payer health care, is the most obvious senator to be the lead sponsor but he has refused to make a commitment to introducing single payer legislation. We must push Senator Sanders to introduce a senate companion bill to HR 676 quickly.

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