3/8 News Roundup – Bernie Sanders Discusses Trump’s Tariffs On CNN, Democrats Introduce An Infrastructure Plan & More – The Progressive Wing

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Home→Bernie Sanders→3/8 News Roundup – Bernie Sanders Discusses Trump’s Tariffs On CNN, Democrats Introduce An Infrastructure Plan & More

More news/tweets/videos/etc. in the comments, including:

*Keith Ellison takes over the Democrats’ universal health-care bill
*Bernie Sanders tells Democrats to back off primary attacks
*Schumer Denounced for ‘Absolutely Disgusting’ AIPAC Speech
*Bernie blasts Pentagon official over defense contractor CEO pay
*Pipeline news, Water Protector updates & More

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Tips, Comments, Complaints, Etc!

I don’t remember who posted this link, but it’s something you should look at. https://stateinnovation.org

Thanks @la58!

Sen. Bernie Sanders challenges Pentagon official over defense contractor CEO pay

Nobody spends money on defense like the United States, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wants to know why so much of taxpayer dollars are going to the CEOs of defense companies.

“I think the elephant in the room here is the relationship of the DoD to defense contractors. I think that’s the area that needs the most research,” Sanders said during a Senate Budget Committee hearing Wednesday on the Department of Defense’s business operations.

The Pentagon requested one of the largest budgets in history with its recent proposal of $686 billion and an additional $30 billion for non-defense agencies including the Department of Energy, which maintains the country’s nuclear weapons.

For perspective, the U.S. allocates more money to the military than the next 10 highest spending countries combined.

Sanders hit on two points during the session:

*Roughly half of the Pentagon’s budget goes directly to defense contractors.
*The CEOs of the top five defense contractors in the U.S. earned a cumulative of $96 million in compensation last year.

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Essentially, Sanders said, “Lockheed Martin is a government agency, a private one, but a government agency virtually fully funded by U.S. government.”

Does it make sense that we pay the Secretary of Defense $200,000 or less and we give a contractor, who gets 92 percent of his revenue from the taxpayers of this country, $18 million in taxpayer money? https://t.co/cAuXirW5FU

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 7, 2018

{oops, I put these in the wrong spot… oh well! Just imagine they are down a few stories.)

Rep. Keith Ellison is taking up the Medicare-for-all mantle in the House

Minnesota Democrat steps up to lead House fight for ‘Medicare for all’

Oh boy, Bernie taking on the MIC sweet taxpayer-funded executive salaries?

Please watch your back Bernie!

No kidding, Hopefully he has an remote start he can use on his car or have his brake lines checked regularly.

Sanders, Leahy back party’s infrastructure plan

Both Vermont senators joined a slew of Democrats pitching a proposal that would invest $1 trillion in infrastructure initiatives.

Senate Democrats offered the proposal as a response to an infrastructure plan President Donald Trump released last month.

Trump’s plan would use about $200 billion in federal funds with the intention of leveraging a total of $1.5 trillion from private companies and state and local governments.

The proposal Democrats rolled out Wednesday would undo some key parts of the tax overhaul package Republicans passed last year and use the funds to pay for infrastructure initiatives.

They would restore the top income tax rate, the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax — all of which were cut in the new law. They propose to invest $1 trillion in projects including improving roads, bridges, train service, and water and sewage systems.

The plan also would appropriate $40 billion to build out universal access to high-speed internet connections.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ranking member of the Budget Committee, said there’s a major need for improving infrastructure in the country.

“We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world,” Sanders said. “And yet from Vermont to California, people look around them and what they’re finding is their roads and their bridges and their water systems and their wastewater plants are falling apart.”

Democrats Infrastructure Plan Would Roll Back GOP Tax Cuts for Rich, Corporations

“Making the rich and corporations pay their fair share means we will be able to rebuild our communities from the ground up.”

Bernie Sanders tells Democrats to back off primary attacks

Bernie Sanders is warning the Democratic Party not to attack its own candidates in primary battles, as happened in a Houston-area congressional race.

The Vermont senator said it’s “appalling” that the party’s congressional campaign arm targeted Laura Moser ahead of Tuesday’s primary election. Moser, an activist, is endorsed by Sanders’ Our Revolution group.

Sanders told The Associated Press on Wednesday that such attacks are “not acceptable.”

Moser advanced to a runoff with Democratic front-runner Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, despite the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee publishing an opposition research memo calling her “a Washington insider who begrudgingly moved to Texas” to run for Congress.

A Houston native who attended high school there, Moser was also targeted by the campaign arm for joking that she’d “rather have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia” than live in small-town Texas.

“What these organizations should not be doing is doing negative attacks on Democratic candidates,” said Sanders. “That just continues the process of debasing the Democratic system in this country and is why so many people are disgusted with politics.”

I got this email yesterday(it’s from my spam folder)

Lawrence —

Breaking news from Texas: Democrat Beto O’Rourke just won the Texas Senate primary and is now our official nominee to take on Ted Cruz in the general election.

Already, CNN is reporting that “Texas is no longer Solid Republican.” Now Beto is counting on us to keep the momentum going. He and all our Democratic Senate candidates need our urgent support to kick off the general election with the strongest possible start.

Pitch in $1 right now to help Beto and all our Democratic Senate candidates take on Republicans like Ted Cruz everywhere >>

All eyes will be watching right now to see if Democrats have what it takes to fight for every seat. This is a crucial moment in the fight for the Senate and Democrats are counting on your support.

Thanks for stepping up,

Team DSCC

Not a dime! I may support Beto directly, but NEVER thru the DSCC.

The DCCC’s Texas-Sized Screwup

“We have to fix our broken politics – and that starts by rejecting the system where Washington party bosses tell us who to choose,” Moser said in an ad. “We tried that before and look where it got us.”

Indeed, it’s hard not to smell the stink of the 2016 primaries all over this race, when the DNC decided early on that Clinton was its candidate, no matter how the actual elections shook out. (No, this does not mean anything was “rigged.”) Our Revolution, which formed from independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ unexpectedly vigorous presidential campaign, endorsed Moser at the end of her race. Labor, too, seems like it will have her back, as Fletcher’s law firm has done some nasty anti-union work. It looks possible the election in May will be a tight one.

There are two lessons to take away from the DCCC’s own goal, then, and the other meddling in which it engages across the country. The first is that the national Democratic Party needs to realize in many places its brand is so toxic that telling voters to do one thing basically guarantees they’ll do something else. This is particularly true after the 2016 election, when a supposed slam dunk resulted in a reality television actor taking the presidential oath of office.

Intervening also has the potential to make everyone’s life much more difficult. To wit, the DCCC didn’t want Moser in the race, but it’s now not only likelier that she wins the nomination, but also the case that the news cycle is focused on one of the political media’s favorite topics: Democrats being in disarray, unable to get their act together.

Bang up job, everybody.

Far more importantly, national apparatchiks and consultants need to stop trying to press an outdated model onto every election. According to the pundits and prognosticators, to win in places that have traditionally been conservative, Democrats need to sound and act like Republicans. Perhaps, though, that’s not the case: Maybe they just need to sound and act differently than other Democrats. If that means anti-corporate, inequality-focused populism that calls for single-payer health care, maybe it can work.

A Democratic war in Texas’s seventh district

Ms Moser’s campaign is now more likely than ever to highlight and inflame divisions between the progressive and establishment wings of her party. And further afield other candidates in crowded fields may be emboldened to continue their campaigns, even if their party tries to dissuade them.

A proxy war between the centrists and the moderates. I was rooting for Moser even before all of the brouhaha, now I REALLY want her to win.

The third place candidate was actually fairly progressive also (definitely better than Fletcher) and he finished just behind Moser. The DCCC’s actions probably ensured that Moser became the favored progressive alternative not him. Perhaps his votes will now go to Moser. The DCCC’s actions definitely backfired.

I liked Westin and if his 19ish percent of the vote swings to Moser she has a fighting chance.

“If that means anti-corporate, inequality-focused populism that calls for single-payer health care, maybe it can work.”
———————————————
On really? US News and World Report has been a RW rag for years. No wonder they wrote “If.” The FRightwing is starting to notice. Good. (I hope.)

GatesHayes

What jumped out at me was the “Why not try something different ?” Because really, the last ten years of losing have been so profitable for all the right people.

What issue do you think got more coverage on CNN today, the effort to deregulate the major banks or Donald Trump and a porn star? Think hard! pic.twitter.com/zVHuZk2kjB

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 8, 2018

Unfortunately, there’s no way that’s ever going to change. At least the porn star story does have political implications. Was that hush money illegal?

Edwards got away with it, wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Trump does.

I would argue Trump is getting away with it and Edwards did not. I’ve often wondered why the DOJ went after Edwards in the first place. What did it prove, considering he did not win any primaries that cycle? That Edwards lied to the public about his paramour and their daughter? He did. No doubt. As he said at his pressers during the trial, he had committed some sins, but nothing was illegal. Some of the things brought up at the trial were more to shame him publicly than prove his guilt for potentially violating FEC rules. The testimony culled out about the Edwards’ spirited disagreements on the campaign trial was uncalled for. They had nothing to do with the allegations other than he was hiding the truth from his wife.

(This is a sore subject with me, so pardon my rant. I was one of the blog troll sweepers at his blogs as well as one of Elizabeth’s acquaintances. JRE, as he was known to us, was benign towards many of his supporters, whereas his wife was more in tune with us, so it was disheartening to see how disgraceful that whole trial was and how his children, through no fault of their own, had to bear witness to it.)

If the attorney can prove it was a gift and not from campaign funds, Trump is likely to win a case (if there is one).

But I’m with Bernie on this, the media likes tawdry affair dirt more than hearing Elizabeth Warren calling out her Dem colleagues for voting to end debate on weakening consumer protections and bank regulations in Dodd-Frank.

GatesHayes

For the media I think it’s even baser than that. All the old (usually) white guys that run these shows figure they have a shot. “She got with him, if I can just get her to notice meeeee…”

It’s the Office Party Theory of hiring as content programming.

When it comes down to news reporting sex sells and the masses will check it out before anything else.

Keith Ellison takes over the Democrats’ universal health-care bill

Rep. Keith Ellison, the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has replaced former congressman John Conyers Jr. as the sponsor of the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act. Early Wednesday afternoon, Ellison asked for and received unanimous consent to take over H.R. 676, the single-payer health bill that has become a focus of left-wing energy and is supported by most of the Democratic caucus.

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His pitch: He could and would lead a campaign for the legislation, separate from his DNC role but building on the success he’d had as a far-traveled advocate for the party.

“Until the platform committee of the DNC adopts this, it’s really more of a congressional effort and a community effort, so we respect the difference,” Ellison said. “But I am going to talk about it as a member of Congress. We’re going to be working on this thing as a team. One of the consistent applause lines we’re all hearing is: We need Medicare for all. There’s a lot of folks who feel that it’s time for us to organize around that. It’s a better policy, at a better price. People in labor, people all over the country, they’re going to be driving the public conversation, raising the dialogue about this.”

On Tuesday night, as Texans voted in the first round of primaries, supporters of the Medicare-for-all approach made gains. In the 23rd and 32nd districts, both of which saw crowded Democratic races, the candidates who made it to May 22’s runoff were all supporter. Ellison wasn’t surprised.

“Here’s the problem: We’re at a point in American history with more income inequality than at any point since the Gilded Age,” Ellison said. “So you’re seeing more support for Medicare for all. Of course you are. If you run to the center, you’re not meeting the needs of the average voter. Millennials are the most screwed voters out there, and the last thing they want is a giant debt load from health care coming on top of their debt load from college. What some people think is a really progressive position is just what the rest of the industrialized world does.”

Pretty sure Fararakhan is mentioned in this article more than single payer… but its the WAPO so wouldn’t expect much different.

I just received unanimous consent from my colleagues to assume leadership of former Rep. John Conyers' historic single-payer health care bill. Health care is a human right, and Medicare for All is an idea whose time has come. pic.twitter.com/kcmbvZRtud

— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) March 7, 2018

I am excited to have @keithellison take the lead in the House on the fight to pass a Medicare-for-all health care system. With his leadership, I know we will be able to take on the greed of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and finally guarantee health care to all. https://t.co/SL1Ik02Yzh

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 7, 2018

Because It’s “An Idea Whose Time Has Come,” Rep. Keith Ellison Takes Lead on Medicare for All Legislation

Universal coverage, Ellison said Wednesday, “is a crucial linchpin in our fight for fairness and economic justice.”

Yeah I read that yesterday and skipped over it because of all that Farrakhan

WAPO brought to you courtesy of Jeff Bezos. Screw both of them!

How to see Sen. Bernie Sanders this weekend at his downtown Phoenix rally

Bernie Sanders, the left-leaning independent U.S. senator from Vermont who gave Hillary Clinton a spirited challenge for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, is set to rev-up his fellow progressives Sunday in downtown Phoenix.

Sanders will be joined at the noon rally at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 W. Adams St., by Democratic U.S. Reps. Ruben Gallego and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, who is now president of the Sanders-aligned organization Our Revolution.

Per Sanders’ website, Sanders intends to address various topics, including “the need to move forward and pass comprehensive immigration reform that will allow people to come out of the shadows and will unite families — not divide them — and the urgent need to ensure health care as a human right.”

Doors open at 10:30 a.m. Admission is first-come, first-served, and the Sanders team encourages RSVPing online at BernieSanders.com.

Here is why I am opposing the bill being voted on in the Senate now to deregulate some of the largest banks in America. pic.twitter.com/bF85IPDPrN

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 6, 2018

Bernie Sanders: Trump Diagnosed the Problem on Trade. But His Solution Doesn’t Work.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) believes Donald Trump may be on to something.

The Independent Democratic-Socialist from Vermont, known as one of the Senate’s immoveable progressives, says he has found a patch of ideological common ground with a man who progressives bemoan on a daily—no, hourly—basis. But as the president prepares to announce on Thursday new tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from overseas, Sanders isn’t sure that he is going about addressing their mutually-agreed-upon problem in the right manner.

“We need to fundamentally rethink our trade policies and move to fair trade rather than just unfettered free trade,” Sanders told The Daily Beast in an interview on Wednesday afternoon. “So Trump is identifying a problem. Certainly China’s role in dumping an enormous amount of steel, not only in the United States, but all over the world, is very very clear. It has to be dealt with.”

“In my view though, what you need is a comprehensive, a more comprehensive approach than Trump is laying out,” Sanders continued. “So what I would like to see is Congress begin to rethink our trade policies and hopefully we will have a president supportive of that. So he is identifying the problem correctly but I’m not sure that his particular solution at this moment is exactly the right one.”

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