Advertisements

In response to Buffett Rule being blocked by Senate Republicans, Bernie Sanders opened up a can on the GOP and connected the dots between Citizens United and taxing the rich.

Here is the video from MSNBC:

Advertisements

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Partial transcript from MSNBC:

SCHULTZ: I kind of viewed the buffet rule as a start, really as a start. SANDERS: Exactly. SCHULTZ: You think we should have gone further. SANDERS: Absolutely, here is what worries me very much. if we don’t turn this around, we are going to lose the democratic foundations that have made this country the nation that it is and we are going to move very rapidly, which is where we’re going right now into an oligarchic society where a handful of people control not only the economics of the nation, they control the politics as well. SCHULTZ: I think when you’re looking at 72% of the American people want something and the congress doesn’t deliver, what does that tell you? SANDERS: That tells you that our Republican friends are in the pocket of big money interests and they understand, by the way, this should also concern us that with Citizens United Supreme Court decision, these billionaires are pumping huge amounts of money into the political process so they can become even wealthier. SCHULTZ: Republicans love to talk about the percentage of Americans who pay no federal income taxes. What they want to do is take blood out of a rock, that’s what they want to do. They want the working poor to ante up. What’s your response to these folks that say everybody’s got to pay? SANDERS: The reason is you’re quite right. Median family income has gone down in the last ten years. We’ve lost millions of good paying jobs. You have the top 1% now earning more income than the bottom 50%. You have millions and millions of people today, Ed, who are struggling to pay their mortgage or rent to buy food, to put gas in the car. You know what, they are paying federal taxes but you’re quite right. You can’t get blood out of a stone when the middle class is shrinking.

Bernie Sanders is talking about things that the corporate Republicans in Congress don’t want you to know about. Sen. Sanders said something small but incredibly significant in his remarks. Republicans want you to believe that they voted against the Buffett Rule today based on some sort of no tax hikes principle that they claim to hold. The truth is that their vote today was related to Citizens United.

Thanks to the Citizens United decision, Republicans are free to ignore the wishes of the vast majority of their constituents. Sure, the United States is still a representative democracy, and the Republican vote today, minus Susan Collins, made it clear who the Republicans are representing. Joe and Jane Six Pack are now props to be pulled out when the GOP needs some rage to hit the streets against Obama.

The Republican Party no longer represents the common man and woman. Thanks to Citizens United, they have moved up to a much trendier and exclusive clientele. Koch, table for two? Sen. McConnell will be your server this evening, and Sen. Brown will be around to remove the dirty dishes as soon as you’ve finished.

Today’s GOP showing wasn’t just a statement against a fairer taxation system. It was the super-rich minority flexing their power to deny the majority what it wants. By talking about inequality and how our political system now serves the top, Bernie Sanders is dangerous. He is spreading a message that the conservative billionaires don’t want out there.

The remarkable thing about Sen. Sanders is that he still believes in the power of the American people. He goes to work every day fighting to spread a message that if it were understood and acted on by the majority of the people would change this country. Sen. Sanders knows the power is out there to defeat the oligarchs. We’ve seen it happen in our own history. It can happen again.

The battle for control our economic and political systems has intensified, and people like Bernie Sanders are leading the congressional fight.