Dream Deep

Friends –

Many of you will know of Bernie Sanders and his record. We are lucky to have such a person in our Senate. I am pasting in a recent letter that I received from him, and a link to an interview.

If you agree with what he says, it is important to act quickly and decisively. The shutdown has already hurt our country (People are joking about us) – but jokes are nothing compared to what our not being to pay our debts might mean. The recession has not stopped hurting millions of people all over the world. What might happen if we default on our debts may be far worse.

Please pass this around, and do everything you can to get us back on track.

Thank you, and peace –

Haj

Dear Haj,

It is not acceptable that a handful of right-wing extremists in the House have shut down the government and are now pushing for the United States, for the first time in our history, to not pay its bills — precipitating a likely international financial crisis. It is widely believed that there now exists in the House a majority of members (virtually all Democrats and some moderate Republicans) who are prepared to vote for a clean continuing budget resolution which would immediately re-open the government. House Speaker Boehner must allow the House to have that vote.

It is also important that people understand that the real issue here is not just the desire of Republicans to defund Obamacare. At a time when the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing, these right-wing ideologues want to repeal virtually every piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years which protects the elderly, the children, the sick, the poor and the environment. The truth is that ending Obamacare is just a small part of the right-wing extremist agenda, which is heavily funded by the Koch brothers and other very wealthy and powerful special interests. Their full agenda includes privatizing Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, slashing Medicaid funding, eliminating the EPA and the Department of Energy and abolishing the concept of the minimum wage. Needless to say, they also want more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations. It should be clear to everyone that their long-term goal is to move this country into an oligarchic form of society in which billionaires completely control the economic and political life of this nation.

A recent interview I gave on MSNBC deals with some of these issues.

http://www.bernie.org/news/the-political-crisis-in-washington/