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Sen. Bernie Sanders exposed the Wall Street greed and destruction of the middle class that is behind the “insane” cromnibus government funding bill.

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Sen. Sanders said,

I am going to vote against it for a number of reasons. I think Senator Warren listed one of the reasons. Look, Wall Street’s greed and illegal behavior drove us into the worst recession since the Great Depression impacting millions and millions of people. The idea that we deregulate again is. We allow these guys to make risky investments with taxpayer supported money is absolutely insane. It just speaks to the power of Wall Street.

But that’s not all that’s in this bill. This bill will cut pensions. Pensions that were guaranteed for a whole lot of working people at a time when so many people in the middle class are struggling…This bill puts much too much into the military and not enough into our crumbling infrastructure, or making it easier for young people to go to college or pay their debts. There is a lot in this bill that I think does not work for the middle class and should be opposed.

I think most people in this country are profoundly disgusted with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision and the ability of billionaires to buy elections the idea that we would pass legislation. I don’t know if it came for Democrats, Republicans, or both….At the end of the day, the idea that we give even more political influence to the wealthiest people in this country to buy elections. I don’t know who in America thinks that that’s a good idea.



Bernie Sanders is correct. No Democrat or Independent that cares about the middle class should support this bill. Between the gift to Wall Street and the continued rollback of campaign finance laws, this is a bad piece of legislation.

Some Democrats will support this bill, and the White House has signaled that the president will sign it. It is not a devastatingly bad piece of legislation, but it is not good either.

The president did get everything he wanted. He is the clear winner, because the government is funded for most of the year with the exception of Homeland Security. The Republicans probably aren’t going to do much of anything on his immigration executive orders.

Compared to recent history, this is an improvement, but it is an improvement from horrible to merely bad. Republicans have managed to set the bar so low that avoiding an economic collapse is considered a victory.

While the political leadership celebrates, in the real world, average Americans continue to suffer.