President Bush may or may not go to war against Iraq, but we do know that he has already declared war against the economic well-being of the middle class and working families of this country. While he cuts back on Medicare and the needs of veterans, he wants even more tax breaks for the very richest people in this country. While… return to article
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Reader Comments (20)Page 1 of 1 pagesThanks Congressman Sanders, at least you are voice. I was Republican for years, but no more. Corporate CEO’s like IBM’s Gertsner who walked away with $630 Million in wealth from IBM, finally broke the camels back. CEO’s, Corporate America and the greed that infiltrates Boardrooms should be stopped and quick. Repubicans have brainwashed their constituants to think, Corporate America provides jobs and therefore deserve their compensation and few restrictions on Compensation and anything to limit their freedom to provide jobs. Well, I don’t consider $5 to $7 an hour job a job, that is slave wages. No man can feed and clothe a family for $7 an hour even with 3 jobs working 7 days a week especially when CEO, Executives are making outrageous amounts of money. Pressure needs to be applied to get CEO’s to get in the same playground as America’s workers and not some aristocratic club of CEO’s who stripped away wealth in the 90’s from Americans. Do you realize how much money Louis V Gertstner has, $630 million with 600,000 stock options yet to be exercised(another 500 to 600 million dollars. While eroding the Pension surplus from $17 Billion to $500 million in two years. We need a Teddy Roosevelt, not a George Bush. I guess Bush is what we get, with someone who never amounted to much, who is going to make him and his elite friends rich from the power of the President. Bush needs to realize he is the only one that is directly elected by the people and their only direct representative and not just his rich croney friends who are getting very rich, aka the US Treasury nominee, who is from the CEO Greed culture, whose agenda is to convert defined Benefit Pensions to Cash Balance and use the excess to boost profits and stock prices to convert to Stock Options for Executives to get rich. In 1997, stock options of the Fortune 500 represented 6% of the corporate profits, in 2000, stock options grew to 18% of all profits, the damage done, to the integrity of Wall Street and Corporations, can really screw up this country. In the Soviet Union, prior to the fall, people could not trust their banks, finances or government and put their money under their mattresses. If I had known that IBM Gertsner was going to convert $43 Billion in Profits to Stock Options, I would have sold my stock immediately. I am going to gradually get rid of my IBM Stock. How many average families have dividends? Really sad and we have to put up with Bush two more years.
Posted by Mike Saville on Jan 21, 2003 at 8:24 AM Every single day, our pseudo-president does something appalling, most of which are little goodies for the rich. If he had started out deliberately to foment class warfare, he could hadly have done more.
Anyone who is NOT wealthy must be wondering what is the reason for this. After all, we of the middle and lower classes vote, too!
But, on the other hand, few of us are able to pour the astronomical sums of money into Mr. Bush’s outstretched hands.
A rather neat example of “them that has, gets.” Not to mention the final chorus of an old song from the twenties (when similar shenanigans were going on): “the rich get rich and the poor get poorer; ain’t we got fun!!”
My private opinion is that he was, as the French say, “mal elevee”. Translation:
“badly brought up”.
Thank you for your attention, jan
Posted by Jan Overstreet on Jan 21, 2003 at 10:43 PM Dear Rep Saunders,
Report after report that I read about the current adm. policies are devestating to most Americans. I am staggered by what has passed in the congress in the past 2 years and it gets worse and worse. I feel like I am living in a nightmare mose of the time. Treatened by a war nobody wants, let me correct that, a war right thinking, feeling people don’t want. An economy that is barely breathing and now another phoney tax cut by W. Enough is enough.
Thank you for speaking out, I was begining to think most Dems were asleep or down right stupid, or worse. Keep up the good work. Thanks, Geri DeVoe
Posted by Geri DeVoe on Jan 22, 2003 at 4:58 AM Prove It! I’m in favor of cutting Fed. emp. pay. Fed. “jobs” produce nothing! Social Security is a joke. One should take ressposibility & take care of one’s own retirement!! As for the fox guarding the hen house, all of you polititians are guarding the hen house. That’s why my taxes are so high!!!
Posted by Jeff henley on Jan 22, 2003 at 5:47 PM An employer can terminate a pension plan and replace it with nothing, and there is no outcry. An employer can terminate a pension plan and replace it with a 401(k) plan, which resembles a cash balance plan (but passes the investment risk to the employee) , and there is no outcry. But when an employer converts a pension plan into a cash balance plan, suddenly there is an outcry. Why?
Posted by Lee Buchele on Jan 22, 2003 at 8:40 PM Congressman Sanders, I have a hard time with comments such as yours coming from the general public; but from a congressman, it is a disgrace.
Traditional Defined Benefit plans provide subsidies to older workers by their design. It is the younger worker who is given less in these plans. Cash balance plans can be designed to mimic traditional DB plans, mimic Defined Contribution plans, or anything in between. How a plan is designed is based on the goals of the employer and their cost constraints.
A legitimate plan design issue to be addressed by employers is why should a particular group of employees (older employees) receive greater benefits than another group (younger employees).
Please Congressman Sanders educate yourself. Your constituents deserve better.
Posted by Bill Bettag on Jan 22, 2003 at 10:53 PM Why doesn’r Bush stick to making war on Saddam instead of seniors.
Posted by E. Dadison on Jan 23, 2003 at 1:56 AM The proof is in the pudding and it isn’t feeding anyone at the middle-class or lower levels. 3 jobs to pay the bills isn’t a decent quality of life. I didn’t elect W. and I don’t think the elections were valid but no one is crying out about that-least of all the democrats. When are we the people going to take our government back so it can do the job it is supposed to be doing? Your essay is interesting but so what? What is your party doing? It puffs and puffs and goes along with the Bush Agenda. You lost big because you had no real backbone and didn’t stand up to a man/woman on the issues. Election reforms - real ones might help put the power back in the hands of real working people. Now we have Dickens in Amerika.
Posted by S. Langer on Jan 23, 2003 at 5:06 PM Note that the article makes no mention of the fact that after the tax cuts, the richest 10% and 50% of the population will pay a GREATER share of the overall tax burden than they do today.
As for the paltry $5.15 an hour, all it requires is the paltry skills of showing up on time and being clean. I am not sure if those skills are even worht that much, since those skiils should have been instilled at a young age - show up on time and be clean. Now, if $5.15 was the minimum wage for a heart sugreon, then you could complain.
Oh, and by the way, if the only skills that you have qualify youfor a minimum wage job, that it is your personal responsibilyt NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IF YOU CAN NOT AFFORD TO FEED, CLOTHE, and HOUSE THEM. I know the liberals are screaming in pain from the sound of the words personal responsibility, but get over it.
Posted by Mike on Jan 28, 2003 at 6:25 AM Not suprised to read this ,Jr.Bush
is a criminal and should be in prison for his part in the raping of the American savings and loan scandal .In addition to being a thief.
He did after all steal the election from President Gore 2 yrs. ago.When will Americans wake up and use their brains and intestinal fortitude instead of sheepishly following the wolves to be slaughtered?
Posted by ART on Feb 1, 2003 at 5:44 AM Your article is a big piece of crap. Trade helps, not hurts, workers. There is nothing fundamentally wrong about social security privatization—the returns in the market are far greater than what the government has returned. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
Posted by X on Feb 2, 2003 at 10:57 PM Reply to comments by Mike(Chicago) and Bill ( Denver),
You must not understand that the Upper Classes are CRUSHING the Lower Classes in the Class War lead by the Bush Junta as a continuation from the “liberal” (1996 Telecommunications Act and the 1994 or 1996 Welfare “Reform” Bill) Clinton administration and begun much earlier.
Bill, is it a “disgrace” that Mr. Sanders’ opinion is different than yours since he cares about the Lower Classes of this country, young and old? Or is it a disgrace that he mentions that the pharmaceutical industry is writing laws (to be rubber-stamped by Bush) to benefit itself, while harming the 99.7% of the population that does not own stock in pharmeceuticals? The drug industry is one of the most profitable industries in the world—according to their own reports to shareholders—yet combined they spend $100 million/year lobbying against injured and ill Americans, and (despite many drug companies recently losing lawsuits for lying in their advertisements) they continue to increase funding of advertising that is misleading at the very least.to influence people to take drugs that they do not need?
Mike from Chicago, have you tried to survive on mimimum wage living alone and attending college? How about a couple both making $6 an hour since both were laid off from technology companies that gave their incompetent CEO millions for his/her “firing” bonus? Perhaps they are skilled, work hard, have one child. Have you ever thought about situations like these or does the close-minded George Will guide you to come to such conclusions as “all those on minimum wage should be lucky their sorry asses are getting paid.” It is the “they” or “other” argument used by right-wing hacks to differentiate between themselves and those “less advanced” people. Mike are you an advocate to lower the minimum wage? Why don’t both of you look at the world with your eyes and your hearts open. Rather than be mad at Mr. Sanders or myself, why not challenge yourself to listen to the opinions of the majority of the Worlds’ citizens.
Sincerely,
Mike (from Oregon)
Posted by Mike on Feb 4, 2003 at 1:01 AM .......Apparently, a lot of well off, conservative, Republican assholes have responded to this article violently, as they wallow in their self-righteous bullshit; they have forgotten struggle, if they ever did do it, and think that God must love them more, since he gave them so much. They deserve to be stripped of their wealth, and thrown in a furnace. That would be America’s poor taking care of a long neglected responsibility: The ‘firing’ of the upper class, and the end of their economic tyranny! Fire is the best way to kill vampires…...
Posted by Bobby on Feb 9, 2003 at 9:08 AM THANK YOU CONGRESSMAN SANDERS . I SEE YOU HAVE ALSO FIGURED OUT THAT GEORGE BUSH IS A DIRTY WHITE BOY. THERE WILL BE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.GEORGE CANNOT AFFORD FOR NONE TO BE FOUND. WHY ELSE WOULD HE WANT OUR BOYS THAT ARE KILLED IN IRAQ CREMATED. KEEP UP WITH THE GOOD MESSAGES
Posted by SUKYSAM YOSEMITY on Feb 9, 2003 at 8:24 PM Thank you Congressman Sanders, for your excellent article. Also of great concern to retirees is the continually rise in insurance benefits through their company plans. This is happening all over the country and is not being reported. As for the Bush Administration, it is a nightmare for the average working person. Heaven help us all from these greedy pigs!
Posted by Judith Squires on Feb 10, 2003 at 7:17 PM A very small group of people run things here. These people do not care about things like poverty or justice, only their money and their power. The world is a game and these people are the only players. They have become more audacious in their disregard for us. Make no mistake, they would have us as slaves if they could get away with it, and it appears that they are doing just that. These people are not going to be stripped of their wealth, ever. They make the rules, and the first rule is that they get to do whatever they like. And did I mention, they DO NOT care about us. Their grotesque charade of caring is nothing but a sad testament to how willing people are to identify with their oppressors to avoid acknowledging the oppression.
We are all in the gutter. We are all nothing to the ruling elite but cheap and compliant labor. I’m beginning to wonder if we do not deserve our fate.
Posted by ruth drier on Feb 10, 2003 at 7:49 PM Did anyone—any of the Democratic senators who supposedly would save the country if only they’d won two more seats—bring any of these facts to light during Mr Snow’s confirmation hearing?
Posted by Robert Lipton on Feb 28, 2003 at 10:19 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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