Author: Joe Fletcher
There is a video mash-up of Bernie Sanders and Ronald Reagan that you just have to see. The video features both Sanders and Reagan speaking on topics such as tax loopholes, social security, budget deficits, and even gun control. Guess what? They are both almost identical in their rhetoric.
The video stats out by comparing the two’s positions on closing tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy. First up is Reagan:
“…going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing. But a bus driver was paying 10% of his salary and that’s crazy.”
Then Sanders:
“Furthermore, not a whole lot of people know this, one out of four profitable corporations pay zero in taxes. These guys are putting their money in the Cayman Islands. Bermuda. Other tax havens. I have the radical idea that as we deal with deficit reduction, maybe we don’t cut social security and benefits for disabled veterans. And Medicaid, and Medicare, and education. Maybe we plug these loopholes and ask these guys to start paying their fair share of taxes.”Reagan:
“Social security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on the employer and employee. If you reduce the out go of social security that money would not go into the general fund to reduce the deficit. It would go into the social security trust fund. So social security has nothing to do with balancing a budget, or reducing or lowering the deficit.”Sanders:
“Today, social security has a surplus of $2.76 trillion dollars… and then we hear the argument that, ‘we’ll you know we have a large deficit. Social security is one of the causes of our deficit and our national debt.’ That is absolutely inaccurate, social security has not contributed one nickel to our deficit or our national debt. Because, as every worker knows, social security is independently funded through payroll tax contributions through workers and their employers, 6.2% from each. It does not receive funding from the federal treasurer.”Every single 2016 Republican presidential candidate has promised to either privatize or reduce social security, with the exception of Donald Trump. Trump, who is in many the ways the most reasonable candidate (compared to the rest of GOP clown car) on some issues, has even lashed out against his Republican opponents for their insane ideas on social security.
It is hard to believe that we live in a day and age where a self-described democratic socialist has more in common with Reagan on many important issues than almost the entire GOP playing field. It just goes to show how far off the deep end the Republicans have gone, and proves that a hard turn left in our political economy would actually just be a move to the center.
You can watch the video in full, below.