Bernie to introduce new Billionaire tax with benefits going to needs of THE PEOPLE!

[jmbar2]

$ would be directed to:

- $3K stimulus checks per person earning under $150K/yr
- Expand Medicare to cover dental/vision/hearing for all seniors
- Ensure every public school teacher gets paid at least $60K/yr
- $850B for affordable home construction (“abolish homelessness”)
- Universal childcare
- Reverse Trump Medicaid cuts

Link to tweet

[sop]

1. The Democratic Party needs to run on this in '26 and '28.

[MineralMan]

2. To What Effect?

He can introduce anything he wants, but nothing will come of it. I'm not even sure it's newsworthy.

[jmbar2]

3. I think we are at a tipping point

It could gain traction in the wake of America's growing revulsion toward the corrupt oligarch class.

Ro Khanna is introducing the same in the House. He is a potential presidential candidate who will push this idea into the mainstream.

[MineralMan]

4. Actually, we aren't.

We remain at the same stalling point we have been at for some time. Congress cannot act on much of anything right now, much less something extraordinary like Bernie's tax idea.

Before anything can happen one of the parties is going to need a solid majority in the House and at least a 60-vote majority in the Senate. Both are required.

Until that happens, we will remain stalled, with the Executive branch making the calls and the Judicial branch sometimes blocking the most unconstitutional of those calls.

Bernie Sanders has very, very little success during his career with introducing bills that end up becoming law. That is his weakness. He introduces things. They die. And that's the story, every time. It's not his ideas that are flawed; they're good. It's the balance of power in Congress.

[jmbar2]

7. I agree with some of what you are saying

Bernie doesn't have enough influence to make this happen at this time. But he is a persistent advocate. And young folks are now starting to pick up on his ideas, improve on them and run with them. I think that's been his goal for years.

AOC, Mamdani, Talarico and others are rising stars with younger voters. If we can sweep midterms and the presidential elections - big ifs - I see major change as a possibility.

[MineralMan]

8. People Have Been Saying That for Many Years

It still does not happen.

We elect a few truly progressive people to Congress, but never enough to implement things like that. They're good aspirations, but exceedingly unlikely.

Frankly, in today's political environment, we're lucky when we have Democratic majorities to work with. Even more rarely do we have all three - both houses of Congress and the Presidency. That has happened not too long ago, but we still could not enact things like universal health care.

What we forget is that having such majorities lets us move toward the ideal, but never guarantees reaching that Ideal. Sadly, we allow ourselves to become discouraged and then we lose even the small majorities. That's what is going on right now. We have missed the boat a couple of times in recent years, ending up with people like Trump in the White House and weaknesses in Congress. So, we stall, as we are now stalled.

We insist that only the ideal will do, and end up with just the opposite. We should learn from experience, but we never do.

[jmbar2]

9. I am more optimistic

I am inspired by the civil rights movement. It took years of persistent protest and resistance, making incremental changes in awareness, until a tipping point was hit to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today, rapid destruction of jobs by oligarchs and their technology is snowballing. I think growing ranks of laid off workers losing everything will be a catalyst for this change.

[MineralMan]

11. I am not.

[jmbar2]

12. OK, I'll get off your lawn now.

[Happy Hoosier]

6. I doubt it.

There is no chance this passes without a supermajority in the Senate.

This is more "shaking a fist at the clouds" stuff. I think we'd be better off formulating a strategy for the mid-terms that is easily digested and understood by the voters. Bill slike this aren't it. Bernie introduces stuff like this all the time. It goes nowhere and gets NO attention.

[leftstreet]

5. I'll take the $3k, but we need Medicare For All

We're way, way, WAY beyond tweaking privatized insurance

DURec all the same

[Nanjeanne]

10. Bless this man -- He keeps trying to have our government reflect the decent values we like to

pretend matter in Congress. If only there were more like him we might have the kind of country I keep hoping we could become.