First thing that attracts me to Bernie Sanders is the fact that he is an independent, i.e. not part of the “establishment” running as a democrat for political exposure reasons. I honestly do not trust the vast majority of Washington. Politicians that take money from the interests they regulate ignoring the wishes of the people they represent is everything that is wrong with modern day politics. If I had my way, I would have all of the establishment forced onto a boat and let the US navy use it for target practice.
As someone who hails from the UK where single payer healthcare has existed for 68 years, this is a common sense decision. Right now, the US healthcare system is broken so badly that people choose to not take essential medication to keep them healthy, get treatment when needed and in some cases, choose to die so family members don’t have the financial burden of being treated for terminal illnesses.
The cost of prescription drugs is insane, even if you have medical insurance, often you have to pay a hefty deductible before insurance will pay. From a personal perspective, this has affected our life immensely, my wife suffers from fibromyalgia and requires a number of drugs that costs hundreds of dollars each.
Finally, although I believe Obamacare to be a step forward, it has flaws, the individual mandate is a big stumbling block. Having to pay a significant penalty tax should you choose either through hardship or free choice to not buy insurance is crazy. Even with a subsidy, some people still can not afford to buy insurance due to financial hardship. A single payer system would mean more taxes, but overall Americans will pay less each year due to not needing medical insurance and lower treatment and drug costs.
I support a living wage for all and equal pay for women; i.e equal pay for equal work, however I do not necessarily support $15/hr as a blanket minimum wage. $15/hr in New York is barely a living wage, but here is Kansas, $15/hr is significantly more than a living wage. I think we need to have a minimum wage that will be based upon living costs in any given area, which can vary massively from state to state.
In the USA today, mega-corporations receive massive tax breaks and subsidies, in some cases, these corporations pay a negative tax rate after subsidies. How can this be right when as individuals we pay a higher percentage of tax than companies making billions of dollars? The US has massive debts, yet the GOP’s trickle down economics is still prevalent despite it been proven to not work. These corporations take the money and put it in offshore accounts and make little to no investment in jobs and infrastructure.
Bernie’s plan would tax these corporations at a fair corporate tax rate to pay for all his plans he has should he become president such as free community college, medicare expansion etc. Bernie also wants to break up the big banks while stopping said banks from making risky investments, knowing they will be bailed out by American tax payers money when it all goes wrong like what happened in 2008.
Again, this is a common sense move, our government is supposed to represent the interests of the people of America, not corporations who pay for their election campaigns. Anyone who believes that these companies give money out of the goodness of their heart are delusional, just follow the money and see how senators and congressmen who received the money vote in congress. Another reason to like Bernie, he is almost completely funded by individual donations and workers unions, not super-corporations.
This one I partially agree with, I believe we should have a system that doesn’t cripple people financially for decades just because they want a better standard of education and prospects for the future.
But, I believe it should be a means based system, for families that can afford to pay or partially pay for college without hardship, I don’t believe college should be free. The taxpayer should not have to foot the bill for people who can afford to provide for themselves and/or their children, this seems a fairer system.
This has been a major bugbear of mine for years, I always felt that it is not America’s role to be the world’s policemen. The cost, both physical and financial has been high, how many civilians have been killed? how many soldiers killed? how much money spent war that could have been used fixing the US’ internal issues? I’m a firm believer in getting your own house in order before telling others how to run theirs.
America as a country has no right to dictate what other countries can and can not do, frankly it’s none of America’s business. If America does not like what countries like Iran are doing, leave them alone, don’t dictate to them. There are plenty of examples where America’s involvement has had undesired effects such as removing Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya, which has now become a stronghold for ISIS.
I firmly stand with Bernie on his stance of equality for all, whether it be marriage, income or religion. While the idiotic Republican candidates want all sorts of harassment and even torture of Muslims because of the actions of the few, Bernie’s message is “fight the terrorist, not the religion”. This evil group of people only represent a fraction of Islam, less than 0.002% are believed to be ISIS fighters.
The hate message coming from the Republicans is not at all American. The US is melting pot, a country based upon immigration, most American’s are effectively immigrants or children of immigrants.
I often hear how the Christian right are being suppressed, their religious freedom being infringed, yet that doesn’t seem to apply to non-Christian religions, this is hypocrisy of the highest order. Just look at the amount of hate crimes and terrorist acts committed by Christians, yet there is no talk of banning Christians entering the country from Trump or patrolling Christian neighborhoods like Cruz suggests.