Bernie Sanders to propose "an investigation of money and power" in America

[Dob Bole]

This interview is a few weeks old, but I didn't notice it anywhere in this forum.

"Money in America — who owns and controls wealth — has been a dead issue in Congress since the New Deal petered out in the 1960s. But the growing gap between rich and poor has put the topic back on the agenda for the new Democratic majority, and Vermont Senator-elect Bernie Sanders says he will propose an investigation of money and power when he joins Ted Kennedy's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in January.

Though technically an independent, Sanders will caucus with the Democrats in the Senate, as he has in the House since he was first elected as Vermont's single representative in 1990. The Dems' one-vote margin should give him considerable leverage: Nobody seriously thinks he would routinely vote with the GOP, as fellow independent Joe Lieberman might well do on some issues, but Sanders is also not a party-line man and in the past has joined Republicans on votes against NAFTA, trade with China, and other issues.

When I stopped by his office last week — still his old digs in the Rayburn House Office Building — Sanders, in his standard sport coat and slacks, first excused himself to make a quick phone call: "Hello," he said, "this is Senator-elect Bernie Sanders. Would Senator Kennedy have a little time this afternoon?" He was still getting adjusted, he confessed, to being part of what he calls the "House of Lords." He demurred on my questions about Robert Gates, Bush's nominee for secretary of defense ("I don't know anything about him") and the Murtha-Hoyer leadership fight among his former colleagues in the House. Instead, he insisted on talking about wealth."

More: http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2006/11/bernie_sanders.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. CLASS WARFARE!

BAD BERNIE! SIT! BAD!

[smirkymonkey]

2. Hear, hear.

It's about time.

[smirkymonkey]

3. Also, this should be in GD - this is one of the biggest issues

facing the country, and even the world today. Almost every important issue can be traced back to the imbalance of power between the very few at the top and the rest of us.

The elite makes the decisions on war, the economy, issuse that affect the environment, etc. - it's about time they are held accountable and that we all know who they are and what they are involved in.

[Robson]

4. What viable middle class?

Agreed.

The USA had a strong, viable middle class, until the capitalist elite began to learn in the early 1980s that they could skim hundreds of billions if not trillions off the GDP in the form of excessive CEO pay, and huge compensation and commisions sucked out of the country by the financial sector through banking, credit, mergers and acquisitions, investment banking, mortgage servicing, etc.

The USA formerly used those billions and trillions to fund secure retirements and benefits for employees and good jobs for average Americans. They've been displaced by a tiny minority of very wealthy CEOs, financiers, celebrities, etc., that are being paid far more than what they are worth.

As one example, New York City has tens of thousands in the financial sector that are paid millions for doing nothing of any significant redeeming long term value to the country, and it must end before we destroy the middle class.