~ Amid speculation over 2016 presidential run, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lays out 12-step plan to combat 40-year decline of middle class and rampant inequality. ~ 1.Invest in our crumbling infrastructure with a major program to create jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges, water systems, waste water plants, airports, railroads and schools. 2.Transform energy systems away from fossil fuels to create jobs while beginning to reverse global warming and make the planet habitable for future generations. 3.Develop new economic models to support workers in the United States instead of giving tax breaks to corporations which ship jobs to low-wage countries overseas. 4.Make it easier for workers to join unions and bargain for higher wages and benefits. 5.Raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour so no one who works 40 hours a week will live in poverty. 6.Provide equal pay for women workers who now make 78 percent of what male counterparts make. 7.Reform trade policies that have shuttered more than 60,000 factories and cost more than 4.9 million decent-paying manufacturing jobs. 8.Make college affordable and provide affordable child care to restore America’s competitive edge compared to other nations. 9.Break up big banks. The six largest banks now have assets equivalent to 61 percent of our gross domestic product, over $9.8 trillion. They underwrite more than half the mortgages in the country and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards. 10.Join the rest of the industrialized world with a Medicare-for-all health care system that provides better care at less cost. 11.Expand Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and nutrition programs. 12.Reform the tax code based on wage earners’ ability to pay and eliminate loopholes that let profitable corporations stash profits overseas and pay no U.S. federal income taxes. MORE READ & VIDEO..... commondreams.org/news/2014/12/02/counter-rise-oligarchy-sanders-pitches-progressive-economic-vision
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:28:18 +0000
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