CNN tried to slow-down Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
with a slew of Republican shrieking points, but all they got for their
efforts was heavy dose of the liberal policies that reflect the leftward
shift of the country.
Transcript via CNN’s New Day:
CUOMO: So you’re saying you’re not going to be
about the big money, but you have that big Supreme Court case, Citizens
United. I mean that – that says that money is speech and they can play
the game and it seems like everybody takes money in politics these days.
You’ll never change it.
SANDERS: No, Chris, we – look, Chris, let’s be very
clear. When you have a handful of billionaires able to spend as much
money as they want, supporting their candidates, so people like the Koch
who are extreme right wing, what you are looking – and let’s be clear –
is the undermining of American democracy and moving our nation to an
oligarchic form of society – and I mean that very seriously – where a
handful of billionaires will determine who are elected officials are.
We’re not going to do that. I’m not going to take – establish a super
PAC. We’re getting small contributions from working people. I think we
can raise the kinds of money we need, not to outspend our opponents,
that won’t happen, but to run a credible and, in fact, winning campaign.
….
CUOMO: How do you get them out on the polls?
SANDERS: Ah.
CUOMO: Because when you say things about expanding
entitlements and giving more to the have nots, that’s unpopular. It
sounds like it’s expensive. And the people who vote may not like it.
SANDERS: I disagree with you, Chris. First of all,
it is not expensive in the sense that if you say to people all over this
country, should large profitable multinational corporations, who today
are not paying a nickel in federal taxes because they’re stashing their
money in Cayman Islands and other tax havens, start paying their fair
share? The American people, across the political spectrum, say, yes,
they should.
We’re losing well over $100 billion every single
year because of those taxes. I’ve introduced legislation that would end
that. Talk to Warren Buffett, one of the richest guys in the world. He
says, you know, it’s absurd. My effective tax rate is lower than my
secretaries. The American people understand that. So what we have got to
do is spend money intelligently.
We have got to make college affordable for
our young people if we’re going to compete in the global economy. I’ll
tell you what else we need to do. Real unemployment in this country is
not 5.5 percent, it’s 11 percent. We need to rebuild our crumbling
infrastructure. And when we do that, in terms of roads, bridges, water
systems, rail, airports, we can put some 13 million people back to work.
And that’s the kind of agenda that I’m going to be fighting for.
Chris Cuomo’s questions were completely detached
from reality. There is no polling anywhere that shows that expanding
entitlements is unpopular. A September 2014 poll
revealed that 73% of Republicans support expanding Social Security
benefits. The idea that the American people would hate it because it
would be “expensive” is straight out of the Republican talking points.
The attitude that Citizens United money can’t be
removed from politics is exactly what Sanders and everyone who is trying
to prevent the conservative billionaire purchase of the government is
fighting against. There was a time when elections were publicly funded.
The idea that the dark money can’t be removed from the system is absurd.
Anytime a Democrat or a liberal is on national
television, the anchor feels compelled to “balance out” the program by
asking questions that are based on Republican shrieking points.
One of the benefits of Hillary Clinton’s move to the
left and also of the Sanders presidential campaign is that the
corporate media is being forced to give airtime to popular Democratic
positions. CNN tried their best to knock down any momentum for liberal
ideas that are popular with the American people, but the truth did shine
through.
The
reality that the media hasn’t caught up to yet is that Republicans are
claiming that America is a conservative nation while the ground is
moving left beneath their feet.
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