Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign megathread v2 (pg 77 - declares victory in Iowa)

[Nyvin]

Bernie:

- Billionaires will help fund my Medicare for All program
- Billionaires should not exist


Pick one.

If Billionaires don't exist you don't need them to fund any program because the wealth would be distributed downward,  pretty simply concept.

Even assuming the wealth would still distributed downward one way or another in the same total amount, Bernie's plan would not tax that wealth at the same rate per dollar and so there would be less tax revenue. 

Adjust the rates.

[We Live in Black and White]

He's an egomaniac, but on this issue he's 100% correct.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Before it gets tossed about further in this thread:

Communism is not merely the elimination of '"duh billionayhs", nor even of the bourgeoisie (a rather more specific thing) but is rather the abolition of Capital , a social relation perpetuated by the value form inherent in production for exchange (contra use); the class struggle is really a struggle against the logic of the capitalist mode of production, which reproduces the bourgeoisie almost as an afterthought (and who are non-essential to its function). Communis manifests as a movement of the working-class, completely outside of the bourgeois Democratic process.

A wealth tax which redistributes wealth perpetuates wealth, and would redistribute it simply to create a bunch of little embryonic capitalists. Accordingly, a wealth tax is a capitalist project. There is infinitely more of Huey Long than of Karl Marx in this, because there is no Marx in it at all. And there is more of Communism in a worker taking a five minute longer break than is permitted than in this policy.

Good thing Sanders isn't a dumb communist then.

[Pyro]

He's absolutely right, although his wealth tax proposal is not nearly as radical as his rhetoric implies.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, either that or they need a ludicrously higher tax rate. But he's got a point.

[GeneralMacArthur]

I'm not at all opposed to the wealthy paying their fair share, but rhetoric like this is empty populism. There really is no way to eliminate billionaires without creating a maximum wage and that's probably not even a viable proposal.

And yes, he clearly doesn't understand that net worth is not cash. Some people have great net worth, but don't have much cash flow.

A maximum wage wouldn't solve billionaires.

Let's say I get a Ph.D in mechanical engineering and an M.F.A in design.  Then I go buy a garage full of old beaters for about $100,000.  Over two decades of painstaking work, I transform each and every one of them into a brand new limited-edition Ferrari, and sell the whole lot for $1,000,000,000.

Now I'm a billionaire.  How you gonna stop me, Bernie?

This is literally analogous to the way the vast majority of billionaires make their money, which is by starting (or taking ownership of) a company and dramatically increasing its value.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As I posted when Warren made her wealth tax proposal: as made, Bernie's proposal is blatantly unconstitutional. A wealth tax, as has been well litigated before the Supreme Court, is definitely a direct tax and thus subject to all the arcane rules thereof that essentially make Federal direct taxes impossible to implement. Note that the  16th Amendment wasn't needed to tax earned income, just unearned income such as capital gains, dividends, and rent. (Basically the stuff reported on Schedules B, D, and E of Form 1040.) That's because the court had ruled that those sorts of income were taxes on wealth and thus were direct taxes.

Rather than a wealth tax, either increase the income or the estate tax (which effectively is a specialized income tax) if your goal is to punish people for being billionaires. That might not be as politically popular as passing a wealth tax, but it wouldn't run afoul of the Constitutional problems that make a wealth tax effectively impossible to implement Federally.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

https://twitter.com/zekejmiller/status/1176565260096016384?s=21

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://twitter.com/zekejmiller/status/1176565260096016384?s=21

A guy you want with you in a foxhole.
Not.

[GeneralMacArthur]

https://twitter.com/zekejmiller/status/1176565260096016384?s=21

A guy you want with you in a foxhole.
Not.

Washington (CNN) - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Sunday that rival Hillary Clinton's email controversy is a "very serious issue," even though he has refused to attack the former secretary of state on that front.

Asked Sunday by CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" whether voters should interpret his refusal to engage Clinton on the email issue to mean that Clinton did nothing wrong, Sanders replied with a firm, "No."

"Nope, nope. That is not, I think, a fair assessment. That is, I think, a very serious issue," Sanders said. "There is a legal process taking place, I do not want to politicize that issue. It is not my style."

[Morning in Atlas]

https://twitter.com/zekejmiller/status/1176565260096016384?s=21

jfc.

[KaiserDave]

https://twitter.com/zekejmiller/status/1176565260096016384?s=21

Quite a change from not caring about those damn emails.

[James Monroe]

https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1176507686587981824

[Canis]

hes not wrong fools

[Landslide Lyndon]

https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1176669490584723458

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1176574138129010688

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

https://twitter.com/zekejmiller/status/1176565260096016384?s=21

why should he have an opinion on how a developing news story affects another candidate's prospects?

[John Dule]

Boy oh boy, I sure would like to live in a country with no billionaires!



Hmm... Somalia, the Congo, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Iran... so many choices!

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Boy oh boy, I sure would like to live in a country with no billionaires!



Hmm... Somalia, the Congo, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Iran... so many choices!

I hear everyone in Luxembourg is starving to death.

[John Dule]

I hear everyone in Luxembourg is starving to death.

Yes, and as that map illustrates, Luxembourg is clearly the rule rather than the exception with regards to how billionaires per capita correlates with the human development index.

[JA]

Reading through the comments in this thread really reinforce why I'm a Sanders supporter, whether he wins or not. And why I'm glad Sanders doesn't self-identify as a Democrat or a Liberal.

[ElectionsGuy]

Reading through the comments in this thread really reinforce why I'm a Sanders supporter, whether he wins or not. And why I'm glad Sanders doesn't self-identify as a Democrat or a Liberal.

This is somewhat off-topic, but I find the people like yourself (green avatars and the left-wing independents) so much more tolerable to read and interact with on this forum than the rank partisan red avatars. It is really refreshing to hear perspectives that are free from tribalist dogma.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Reading through the comments in this thread really reinforce why I'm a Sanders supporter, whether he wins or not. And why I'm glad Sanders doesn't self-identify as a Democrat or a Liberal.

This is somewhat off-topic, but I find the people like yourself (green avatars and the left-wing independents) so much more tolerable to read and interact with on this forum than the rank partisan red avatars. It is really refreshing to hear perspectives that are free from tribalist dogma.

Of course you do. There is a reason why the horseshoe theory exists.

[James Monroe]

Reading through the comments in this thread really reinforce why I'm a Sanders supporter, whether he wins or not. And why I'm glad Sanders doesn't self-identify as a Democrat or a Liberal.

This is somewhat off-topic, but I find the people like yourself (green avatars and the left-wing independents) so much more tolerable to read and interact with on this forum than the rank partisan red avatars. It is really refreshing to hear perspectives that are free from tribalist dogma.

Of course you do. There is a reason why the horseshoe theory exists.

DSA socialists are just Republicans who want free healthcare, free marijuana, and free gummy bears.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No...and he obviously won't although the DSA would no doubt want him to.