Thursday, January 30, 2020

BERNIE SANDERS - THE LIES AND INCONSISTENCIES PILE UP - "Nobody should earn more than a million dollars," he said in 1974. When he first ran for the Senate, he called for a 100% tax on wealth of over $1 million a year. These days, that’s just how much he makes.

The Myth of Bernie’s Integrity and Consistency

After almost 50 years in politics, Bernie Sanders will say anything to get ahead.
 
Daniel Greenfield

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
"I'll probably vote for Bernie," Joe Rogan told listeners. "He's been insanely consistent his entire life. He's basically been saying the same thing, been the same thing his whole life."
The podcaster was repeating a popular myth about Bernie Sanders.
Sanders has been the same thing his entire life. A political activist or a politician. He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in political science and began his political career not long after moving to Vermont. He’s either been running for political office or holding political office for 48 years.
Over those nearly 50 years, he’s said a lot of insanely inconsistent things.
In 1971, he argued that it was a disgrace that there were so many millionaires in the Senate.
"Nobody should earn more than a million dollars," he said in 1974. When he first ran for the Senate, he called for a 100% tax on wealth of over $1 million a year. These days, that’s just how much he makes.
“I wrote a best-selling book,” he told off critics. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”
Millionaires suck and should have all their money taken away. Until you become one.
But that’s just an inflation issue. Right? These days Bernie opposes billionaires instead of millionaires. And if he somehow became a billionaire, he would almost certainly give away all his money to the poor.
You can tell because the first year he made a million bucks, he gave a whole 1 percent of it to charity.
Bernie is a real 1 percenter.
But forget the money. Washington D.C. is full of guys who came there to fight corruption and then cashed in. Nobody’s too surprised when politicians find ways to cash in, like Sanders did with the Sanders Institute which employed his wife and stepkids to ‘institute’ whatever it is Sanders does.
What about his actual political beliefs? Has Bernie been saying the “same thing” his whole life?
Bernie Sanders moved from Vermont to Washington D.C. because a little organization called the NRA sent out a letter to its members telling them, “Bernie Sanders is a more honorable choice for Vermont sportsmen than Peter Smith.” Bernie ended up voting against a seven-day waiting period to buy guns, against the Brady Bill, and voted for a bill to protect firearms manufacturers from lawsuits.
And there’s nothing wrong with that except that now Bernie keeps talking about taking on the NRA.
But Bernie’s pitch to a gun rights group was, “I won’t change my views on the subject.”
That’s the same pitch that Joe Rogan fell for. Except that Bernie changes his mind when it’s politically convenient. And it doesn’t take 48 years for him to change his mind. Try a decade.
In 2005, he voted for The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a bill backed by the NRA to stop lawsuits against firearms manufacturers. In 2016, when it became an issue in the Democrat primaries, he agreed to cosponsor a bill to repeal that protection.
“If you passed the strongest gun control legislation tomorrow, I don’t think it will have a profound effect on the tragedies we have seen,” Bernie Sanders had argued in 2013.
Fast forward 5 years and Bernie Sanders blamed school shootings on a "three-letter word".
"It’s the NRA,” the elderly socialist ranted. “And it’s Trump and the Republicans who don’t have the guts to stand up to these people and that’s pretty pathetic."
Pretty pathetic indeed.
It’s not that Bernie Sanders evolved over his two generations in public life. Just as with the NRA, he adopted positions for political convenience and then jettisoned them when they became inconvenient.
These positions were often somewhat conservative, balancing out his socialist class warfare with common sense views that would help enlist the support of more conservative voters in Vermont.
Take immigration.
In 2015, when Bernie was asked about “sharply raising the level of immigration we permit”, he retorted with, “Open borders? No, that's a Koch brothers proposal.” He went on to argue that, “It would make everybody in America poorer —you're doing away with the concept of a nation state.”
That argument could have and would come from Donald J. Trump. And the backlash was severe. The transition from open borders opponent to open borders advocate didn’t take years, it took months.
His current immigration plan calls for abolishing immigration enforcement, breaking up ICE and CBP, ending detention of illegal migrants, ending border enforcement, legalizing sanctuary cities, and allowing migrants who come here for welfare and for just about any and every reason.
Who knew Bernie was one of the Koch brothers?
“One of the struggles that you’re going to be seeing in the Democratic Party is whether we go beyond identity politics," Bernie had suggested in 2016. It didn’t take long for Bernie to embrace identity politics. He went from not wanting to talk about race, to compulsively running on race.
"Do I think we need some more jails? Yup. Do I think we have to get tougher in certain instances? Yes, I do," Bernie Sanders said, when discussing the 1994 crime bill that he supported. "So what you have is a balance here. You have more money going to law enforcement, more money going into jails. You have, on the other hand, significant sums of money going into prevention."
That’s another common sense position that he has completely disavowed.
These days, Bernie denounces the “prison-industrial-complex”, calls for an end to bail, and proposes cutting the national prison population in half, which would put dangerous criminals back on the street.
At a CNN town hall, he even suggested that the Muslim terrorist who set off a bomb at the Boston Marathon should be able to vote from prison.
Most people took that as a typically radical Bernie position. But it’s a radically inconsistent one.
Bernie has been an inconsistent flip-flopper on gun control, on immigration, on identity politics, and on crime.  The only two places he has been consistent is on class warfare and national defense.
And even there, he’s been inconsistent on class warfare once he made it to the 1 percent.
Sandernistas launched his campaign by sharing pictures of him flying coach. Once the money began coming in, he was flying luxury jets as often as he could. The jets remained a sore point with other Democrats. As impeachment got underway, Bernie’s campaign plotted to use more private jets.
That’s not just personal hypocrisy, it’s environmental hypocrisy for the Green New Deal candidate.
When it comes to his own personal interests, Bernie can’t even consistently identify which party he belongs to. When he first ran for president, on the Democrat line, he denied that he was a Democrat.
"No, I am an Independent," he said.
By the summer, he'd come around. "I am a Democrat obviously," he told USA Today. "That’s where I am and that’s where I’ll stay."
"Do you consider yourself a Democrat?" he was asked next year.
"No, I am an Independent," he replied.
This year, he signed a DNC loyalty pledge, stating, "I am a member of the Democratic Party."
Meanwhile he also filed to run for Senate as an Independent.
That’s insanely inconsistent.
Bernie is whatever he wants to be. He can be a Democrat and an Independent. A millionaire and an opponent of millionaires. He can denounce open borders and support them. He can support more prisons and call for freeing all the inmates. He can support and oppose guns when convenient.
What the elderly socialist isn’t is principled.
Few politicians can spend 48 years in politics and remain principled. Bernie isn’t one of them. Like most politicians, he has a few pet issues he strongly believes in, but not when they interfere with his career. Between 2013 and 2020, he tossed away his positions on multiple issues without blinking an eye.
Bernie is no more principled than the other senators running in 2020. That’s just another one of his lies.

Bernie Sanders: ‘Of Course’ Cheap Illegal Workers Drive Down U.S. Wages

Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) admits cheaper illegal alien workers drive down wages for America’s working and middle class but continues to support amnesty for illegal aliens, decriminalization of the United States-Mexico border, and throwing out President Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” executive order.
Sanders navigated through the issue during an interview with the New York Times, attempting to explain his previous statements where he has admitted that opening the U.S. border is detrimental to the nation-state and has slammed the concept of hemispheric open borders.
During the exchange, Sanders says “of course” cheaper illegal alien workers hired by businesses at “$5 an hour” will “lower wages” for America’s working class, who are often looking for entry-level jobs.
“Yeah, if you’re being paid $5 — if you’re being paid $5 an hour, now of course it’s going to lower wages,” Sanders said. “Why would I hire at a higher wage?”
Later in the interview, though, Sanders backs away from immigration’s wage-suppression impact on Americans and focuses on a $15 minimum wage — suggesting that illegal aliens be legalized and paid the same wage as Americans.
“All I am saying is that if for whatever reason, I’m paying you $5 an hour, okay,” Sanders said. “You don’t think that’s going to lower the wages that she gets?”
Legal immigration levels, where 1.2 million mostly low-skilled legal immigrants and hundreds of thousands of foreign visa workers are admitted to the country annually, have driven the number of foreign born workers in the U.S. to its highest level since 1996. This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who enter the country every year.
Most immigrants to the U.S. immediately begin competing for blue-collar and white-collar jobs against millions of Americans who want full-time employment.



No Labor Shortage: 11M Americans Out of Work but Want Full-Time Jobs



Extensive research by economists like George Borjas and analyst Steven Camarota reveals that the country’s current mass legal immigration system burdens U.S. taxpayers and America’s working and middle class while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth every year to major employers and newly arrived immigrants. Similarly, research has revealed how Americans’ wages are crushed by the country’s high immigration levels.
For every one percent increase in the immigrant portion of American workers’ occupations, their weekly wages are cut by about 0.5 percent, Camarota finds. This means the average native-born American worker today has his weekly wages reduced by perhaps 8.75 percent since 17.5 percent of the workforce is foreign born.
In a state like Florida, where immigrants make up about 25.4 percent of the labor force, American workers have their weekly wages reduced by about 12.5 percent. In California, where immigrants make up 34 percent of the labor force, American workers’ weekly wages are reduced by potentially 17 percent.
Likewise, every one-percent increase in the immigrant portion of low-skilled U.S. occupations reduces wages by about 0.8 percent. Should 15 percent of low-skilled jobs be held by foreign-born workers, it would reduce the wages of native-born American workers by perhaps 12 percent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder



Bernie: On Day One, Executive Order to Reverse Trump’s Border Actions

PENNY STARR

 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said at the Democrat debate in Miami on Thursday that on his first day in office if he is elected president, he would issue an executive order to reverse everything President Donald Trump has done to secure the border and end the flood of illegal immigration that the government has said could amount to more than one million migrants entering the United States in 2019.

 

“On Day One, we take out our executive order pen and rescind every damn issue that Trump has done,” Sanders said.
“What we have got to do on Day One is invite the presidents and the leadership of Central and Mexico together,” Sanders said. “This is a hemispheric problem.”
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. State Department and Mexico have been working with Central American countries to provide support, including financial aid, to address problems that are blamed for people fleeing Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. 
Trump has also been able to gain cooperation with Mexico to step up efforts to police its southern border to stop the flow of hundreds of thousands of migrants who have been flooding across the U.S. border with Mexico.
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter.

 

 

Bernie Sanders Delights Democrats With Plan For Free Healthcare For Illegals

https://townhall.com/columnists/marinamedvin/2019/04/15/bernie-sanders-delights-democrats-with-plan-for-free-healthcare-for-illegals-n2544768

Bernie Sanders, that socialist curmudgeon we love to hate, has come up with a new way to smother American prosperity: FREE healthcare for illegal aliens. 
As has become expected in these neo-socialist times, Democrats were delighted by the proposition of robbing hardworking Americans for the benefit of those who break federal laws
But when Bastard Bernie says FREE, what does that mean? Redistribution of wealth via taxation, of course. Take monies from the rightful owner by force and intimidation and give it to the wrongful owner. What does Bastard Bernie get out of it? Power and control over the unethical transaction. That power, the ability to say who keeps what is the ultimate control; for no one can control their own destiny, only Bastard Bernie and the other glorified thieves in power control each American's destiny when they take your money. The more that he takes from you, the more power he has over you, and the less you control your own life. This is precisely why taxation amounts to economic slavery. 
Bernie Sanders understands better than anyone, that the one who controls the money is the one who controls freedom and destiny. If Bastard Bernie doesn't take your earnings from you, then you maintain power and control over your life and your destiny. If, on the other hand, he takes what you earned, then you and your labor belong to the state. When Bastard Bernie hands your cash to illegals, he simultaneously hands them control over your life. This is exactly what Bastard Bernie wants: to dilute your control over your own destiny. Bernie now also wants to give illegal immigrants power over you. 
This diabolical plan for the diminution of Americans isn't restricted to Bastard Bernie; he is joined by the other democrat neo-socialists like Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Kirstin Gillibrand. They call their politics by various names in an attempt to convolute and conceal the simplistic socialism that drives their agenda. Don't get lost in the words they use; just look at what they are plotting. They advocate for increased taxation, redistribution, and government control over your life. Bernie Sander's bill "Medicare for All" was co-sponsored by these con-artists, and their control effort would cost you an estimated $32 trillion. Nice people.
More harrowingly, the neo-democrats prioritize the interests of illegal immigrants over the basic needs of the Americans who they are sworn to represent. But why are illegal immigrants of particular interest all of a sudden? 
On the one hand, because democrats prey on weakness or the appearance of weakness, and illegal immigrants are the perceptively weak concern du jour that strikes the Democrats' fancy. That's it; there's not much more or less to it. On the whole, Democrats are not deeply concerned with the plight of an illegal immigrant; they are just using these people to advance their political agenda amongst their bleeding-heart base. Remember how the Democrats were vividly trying to save the whales in the '90s? Whatever happened to the whales? Who's saving them nowadays? Maybe they went the way of the ozone hole that was all the craze in the '80s. Do you ever wonder what the illegal immigrants were doing in the '80s and '90s when the ozone and the whales were the weaklings du jour?
Donald Trump is the reason why illegals became the attraction of the day, as they are the group he is attempting to regulate, rendering them weaklings du jour for Democrats. Had Trump decided to build a barrier to keep dangerous sharks away from U.S. beaches, then "Save The Sharks!" would have been the prime democratic platform. Anything anti-trump is magically and automatically converted into pro-democrats. This how the gays and Islamists came to political joinder in the same party; they call this "intersectionality."
On the other hand, because Democrats are clawing at well walls, trying to find a way out of the deep loss to Donald Trump. They need more bodies, more votes. It's a bid to stay in power. Aside from attempting to entice illegals with free healthcare, they are also attempting to give illegals the right to vote, followed by attempting to change the American voting system to be a rule by majority, which they would easily get if illegals can vote for the hand that feeds them. It's all about power, about control. It's about eroding America and capitalism. 
Think about the Democrats' plan from the perspective of a would-be illegal border crosser. The proposition that those who break U.S. laws will be rewarded with admiration and riches in the form of Spoils of Taxation, is a rather attractive bargain. Why not break the border law? You will receive free lawyers, free food, free shelter, free healthcare, free legal advice from a local Sanctuary Sheriff, and unfettered admiration by the neo-socialist clique growing in the United States. Seems too good to pass up, no? 
Neo-socialism is a lucrative invitation for the illegal bypass of American laws.
In Vermont, "that giant sucking sound" is not jobs moving to Mexico — it is jobs being concocted in Montpelier.  Of course, Governor Scott shields illegal immigrants working in Vermont, and Vermont provides driver's licenses to them.  The capital city also grants non-citizen residents the right to vote.  It is no surprise that Vermont is #1 in the country for illegal northern border crossings


Trickle-Down Bureaucracy Is Destroying Vermont

 

"Trickle-down economics" describes tax cuts for corporations, wealthy investors, and entrepreneurs intended to assist lower-income citizens by stimulating investment and economic growth.  Also called "supply-side economics," the doctrine was championed by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman but denigrated by many — including economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who characterized it as "feeding the sparrows by giving oats to the horses."
Consider that in Vermont, the government has grown to be a mammoth corporation (the state's largest employer by far) and sucks up working Vermonters' wealth in a trickle-up bureaucratic behemoth.  So much money is spent on reports, studies, and employment for state workers that Vermont's property tax rates are some of the highest in the nation.  To the extent that any of the money does come back down, it is indeed a mere trickle.
Vermont demonstrates the government bloat that plagues many states, and the effects are becoming apparent.  Vermont now has fewer than 700 conventional dairy farms — but the Vermont Department of Agriculture and the UVM Extension Service steadily increase employees, and salaries.  This is quite typical of the virus-like quality of the Vermont bureaucracy — it grows, and citizens lose wealth or leave.
Vermont has nearly twice as many full-time state employees per 10,000 residents as New Hampshire, yet Vermonters are struggling much more than their thriving neighbors.  There is no growth, and the governor has infamously offered $10,000 bribes to out-of-state earners to reside in Vermont.  Perhaps the gargantuan proportions of Vermont's state government explain why Vermont's median income is $57,808 and New Hampshire's is $71,305.
The math is revealing.  In a very thick and expensive "workforce report," it is revealed (Table 13) that "Comparing Fiscal Year 2013 to Fiscal Year 2017, both the number of classified employees and FTEs grew, with the number of employees increasing 4.9% (362) and FTE's increasing 5.0% (365.9)."  Table 14 reflects that the agriculture department grew by 28% in those years; the Department of Health Access by more than 110%.
Granted, Vermont's VAAFM has taken on water quality and other issues.  Yet still, as it increased employees, it steadily increased their wages — by 15.1% over the covered period (Table  40).  Vermont's farmers are not so fortunate — "Net farm income ... decreased from 2014 through 2016 due to drops in commodity prices."  And Vermonters on the whole saw only a 14.26% increase in median income over the same period, from $55,418 in 2013 to $57,513 in 2017.  Yet fully 7.7% of Vermont employees report that they "disagree" with the statement that "The work I perform is meaningful and rewarding" (Table 61).
Meanwhile, Vermont has failed to properly fund its teacher and employee pensions and health care policies, to the tune of $4.5 billion.  Admittedly, this number is based on unrealistic earnings projections of the funds it has set aside, so the actual number is certainly much larger — but the state has avoided calculating the actual figure.
Vermont's government has become an unwieldy, corrupt bureaucracy that funnels money from taxpayers' pockets through the Legislature (always eager to create new programs and jobs, regardless of taxpayers' plights).  The camel's back is being broken straw by straw, and it is inevitable that this unsustainable, predatory abuse will implode.  As the pension problem is ignored, how long until Vermont's credit rating is again downgraded, increasing borrowing costs in a disastrous cycle?
This is what trickles down in Vermont — government domination.  Lifting that domination would be a new sort of trickle-down economics: not of raising all boats by rewarding wealthy individuals and companies, but improving all lives by unleashing the economic potential being stifled by government excess.  History shows that government always grows bigger and bigger, until it becomes not servant, but master, and then it must be torn down and revamped.
Vermont is at that point.  Where once it was profitable to own land for investment, most land ownership is now a liability in Vermont — no amount of capital appreciation will offset the intervening property taxes, and the taxes generally exceed the productive value of the land for farming or logging.  The only growth industry in Vermont is...government employment.
This tumor must be surgically amputated.  If Vermonters are to survive a forecasted national economic downturn, they must not be economically downtrodden in the good times by those sworn to serve them.  Nationally, these are good times — just not for Vermont.  Forbes rates Vermont 49th in growth prospects, 47th in business costs, 44th in economic climate, and 46th in regulatory environment.  The Vermont bureaucracy dwarfs other businesses and does not wish to permit competition for its steady growth.  It is in the business of enacting regulations.
And that business is in growth mode — 2020 promises new taxes at 29% on marijuana, a carbon tax (which hurts poor Vermonters most), a family leave mandate for employers, and a minimum wage (which Milton Friedman warns causes inflation).  And reams of regulations for farmers, loggers, car-drivers...  If legislating were productive, Vermont would be in boom times.
In Vermont, "that giant sucking sound" is not jobs moving to Mexico — it is jobs being concocted in Montpelier.  Of course, Governor Scott shields illegal immigrants working in Vermont, and Vermont provides driver's licenses to them.  The capital city also grants non-citizen residents the right to vote.  It is no surprise that Vermont is #1 in the country for illegal northern border crossings
Many fear-mongers predict global implosion in twelve years, from global warming.  If Vermont does not change course, it will implode financially before then.  Inflation and fiscal profligacy can destroy people's lives very quickly: the Vermont Legislature is warming to the task.
Many native Vermonters (especially those who work) are fleeing the state with the worst business climate and one of the highest welfare benefits for those who don't work, more concerned for "unauthorized entrants" than it is for citizens.  Most Vermonters are starting to comprehend that when it comes to their state government, most of what it is enacting lately "is not meaningful or rewarding."  It behaves more like a monopolist predator than a servant institution.
That is something Vermonters can no longer afford.  They are fed up with being sparrows, eating the pickings left for them after the legislative horses have eaten all their oats.  It's time to clean out the barn.





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