Bernie Sanders has exposed where elite priorities lie right now in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. And his assessment rips apart establishment arguments that bold plans for our future are somehow ‘unaffordable’.

Establishment priority: ‘protect the powerful, not the people’

On 12 March, US stocks had their “worst day since the 1987 crash”. This was largely due to fears about the rapidly spreading coronavirus and its potential economic impact. In response, the New York Federal Reserve announced it would be injecting around $1.5tn into the financial system.

Sanders has stressed that the impact of the pandemic “is on the scale of a major war” and that “the United States is at a severe disadvantage because unlike every other major country on earth, we do not guarantee health care as a human right”. He has long led the way in the campaign for universal healthcare, and he believes it’s a key step towards dealing with coronavirus. So he was crystal clear in his response to the stock market bailout:

And others felt the same way. Progressive commentator Jimmy Dore, for example, said:

It’s almost like they can invent unlimited amounts of money at the drop of a hat for banks. And people are STILL gullible enough to believe having healthcare & education is pie in the sky. https://t.co/FMN97tI0PR — Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) March 12, 2020

Hours before, Sanders had also pointed out that:

The annual Pentagon budget is $738,000,000,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is 1.5% the size. If we can find money on bombs and missiles to kill people, we can damn well afford to protect everyone's health and take care of each other. pic.twitter.com/u7kmxgpwFc — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 12, 2020

In short, elites can easily find billions to protect banks and wage wars. So why the hell should we believe them when they say we can’t afford healthcare?

This is a powerful argument about priorities that Sanders applies to other policies too. For example, he wants to tackle the climate crisis with a bold Green New Deal (i.e. boosting the economy and job growth by building up environmentally friendly infrastructure, taxing emissions, encouraging renewable energy projects, and ending fossil-fuel subsidies). And as he previously stressed:

If the environment were a bank it would have been saved already. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 30, 2019

Keep your eyes open

Award-winning author Naomi Klein has warned that, far from seeking to prioritise ordinary people’s wellbeing during the pandemic, the political and economic establishment is seeking to:

bail out industries that are at the heart of most extreme crises that we face, like the climate crisis: the airline industry, the gas and oil industry, the cruise industry.

This is all part of ‘disaster capitalism‘ – where elites exploit serious crises to further their own interests. The bank bailout strategy of 2008 was a prime example of this, along with the devastating austerity which governments then forced on ordinary people in order to pay for it. As one person said this week:

If you’re upset about regular folk hoarding toilet paper, wait till you hear about how a tiny percentage of rich people have hoarded most of the world’s wealth. — Jason Reid (@JasonReidUK) March 11, 2020

Over in the UK, the Conservative government’s strategy for tackling coronavirus has faced widespread criticism. It’s trying to foster “herd immunity” by allowing 60% of people to get infected. As one person responded:

When they talk about ‘herd immunity’, they mean letting the ‘weak’ members of the herd take the hit. Old, sick and poor. — Paul Bernal (@PaulbernalUK) March 12, 2020

8. Vaccines are a safer way to develop herd immunity, without the risks associated with the disease itself. Is it ethical to adopt a policy that threatens immediate casualties on the basis of an uncertain future benefit? — Anthony Costello (@globalhlthtwit) March 13, 2020

THREAD: I believe Boris Johnson's strategy on #COVID_19uk is fundamentally flawed & at odds with available scientific data. I'm NOT an epidemiologist, but I am a complex systems analyst specialising in societal collapse risks. This is why I'm concerned /1 https://t.co/UXDFd44NVl — Dr Nafeez Ahmed (@NafeezAhmed) March 13, 2020

One right-wing journalist even spoke about the potential economic benefits of elderly people dying in the crisis.

Many professionals, meanwhile, say the health system is simply not ready. And critics have slammed the government for its failure to commit sufficient resources to deal with the pandemic:

Part of my job is speaking truth to power. And the UK govt is (in my view) getting it wrong. Other countries have shown speed is crucial. There is a middle path between complete shutdown & carrying on as normal. — Devi Sridhar (@devisridhar) March 13, 2020

"The idea that countries should shift from containment to mitigation is wrong and dangerous.” Dr Tedros Director General WHO https://t.co/LHu78iWWaS — Anthony Costello (@globalhlthtwit) March 13, 2020

Fight back

The priority right now should be funding healthcare properly and ensuring people get decent levels of sick pay. Instead, political elites seem to care more about the struggling financial markets. That should tell us all we need to know about whose side they’re on. And the tweet from Sanders shows exactly whose side he’s on.

Featured image via Gage Skidmore