Now is the Time

These are frightening and unusual times. The world of finance and the overall economy are both in perilous condition. Almost every day a new crisis erupts. The stock market has plunged dramatically, and is more volatile, than at any time in memory. Loans between banks have dried up. Major financial houses have either failed or merged. Government bailout follows government bailout.

Just how deep the financial crisis is can be seen from this paradox: the Bush administration, the most wild and irresponsible defender of right-wing economic ideology and free markets in our nation's history, now has to muster one initiative after another to intervene in the financial markets. It is even in the process of nationalizing banks.

The economic crisis has received less attention in the media than the financial crisis, but it is no less real or threatening. Unemployment, which is conservatively estimated in our country, last month hit a five-year high of 6.1 percent, and it is rising. In July, home prices - the main source of most Americans' wealth - fell 16 percent in 20 U.S. cities from a year earlier. The bottom is nowhere in sight. Foreclosures are at the highest rate in almost three decades. Health care, food and educational costs are rising, and more and more Americans are lining up at emergency shelters and food shelves.

Meanwhile, during President Bush's tenure in office, the gap between the very wealthy and everyone else has dramatically increased. While 6 million Americans have slipped into poverty, while median income for working families has declined by more than $2,000, while 7 million people have lost their health insurance and 4 million workers lost their pensions, the highest income Americans have made out like bandits - which many of them are.

In Bush's first seven years, the top 400 individuals in America saw an increase in their wealth of $670 billion, so that by 2007 the top 1 percent earned more income than the bottom 50 percent. Tax cuts for the wealthy, unfettered free trade, no-bid contracts, deregulation of every conceivable market and a belief that markets are the best determinant of social policy have together brought about a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy. The backbone of the American economy for the past 50 years, a strong and prosperous middle class, has been severely weakened by the extremist policies of this administration. The economic future for the next generation looks bleak.

At this pivotal moment in our history, the American people are demanding fundamental changes in our nation's economic policies. Congress will be reconvening for a lame-duck session on November 17. What should we do? The proposals that have been coming out of Washington, in my view, are not sufficient.

If you could read the e-mails that pour into my office from Vermont and across the country, you would realize how furious the American people are at the greed, incompetence and irresponsibility of the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street who made billions while they drove our financial system to the brink of the abyss. Middle-class citizens of this country do not believe that they, who had nothing to do with causing this financial meltdown and who already have suffered as a result of Bush's reckless policies, should have to pay for Wall Street bailouts. They are absolutely right. Congress must demand that the cost of any bailout should be paid by those who benefited financially from Bush's policies and those who can best afford it. I proposed an income surtax of 10 percent on families earning more than $1 million a year. I will continue to fight so that any bailout is progressively funded.

In terms of any federal intervention, we need to insist that if the government buys mortgages and mortgage-backed paper - the so-called 'toxic assets' - it should be at current market prices, not at the price the lender set at the time of the loan. We should require equity stakes for taxpayers - something a British initiative seems to have forced Secretary Paulson into imitating. We also need to follow the British model of demanding that banks taking taxpayer money put taxpayer interests ahead of corporate profits, executive payouts, and risky investment strategies. Congress, as soon as possible, needs to reverse years of deregulation, and require accountability and transparency in the financial industry. It is beyond insane that tens of trillions of dollars of credit default swaps are circulating with no one knowing who owns these complicated instruments or what role they play in the financial markets. We also must pass new anti-trust legislation to make sure that in the future no entities are "too big to fail." If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.

When Congress reconvenes, it is clear to me that it must pass a massive "Rebuild America" program in order to address the looming economic crisis. If we can put up $700 billion to rescue bankers from their irresponsible decisions, we must make a major investment putting millions of Americans to work rebuilding our country.

I agree with a number of economists who have told us that, in order to get our country back on sound economic footing, we should make a major investment in repairing our crumbling transportation systems and electric grid. After decades of delay, we must end our dependence on fossil fuel and foreign oil and move boldly to energy efficiency and new sources of sustainable energy.

We also need to address the social crises we face in terms of education, health care, nutrition, and poverty. In the midst of the current economic crisis, we must minimize the suffering of the most vulnerable among us, and we must ensure the future of our country by developing the best-educated workforce in the world.

Let me be specific about what a "Rebuild America" program should include:

We should make a major financial commitment to improving our roads and bridges. We must develop energy-efficient rail lines for both freight and high-speed passenger service and promote public transportation. We need to bring our water and sewer systems into the 21st century. In terms of job creation, every billion dollars invested in the physical infrastructure creates 47,000 new jobs.

We should make a major financial commitment to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. With a major investment, we could stop importing foreign oil in 10 years, produce all of our electricity from sustainable energy within a decade, and substantially cut greenhouse gas emissions. We can make the United States the world leader in the construction of solar, wind, bio-fuel and geothermal facilities for energy production, as well as creating a significant number of jobs by making our homes, offices, schools and factories far more energy efficient.

We should make a major financial commitment to education. We must end the disgrace of millions of children under five attending totally inadequate child-care facilities while millions of other families are unable to afford a college education. We must invest in new classrooms, new computers, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. That would not only create jobs, but relieve some of the burden on the regressive property tax.

In these harsh economic times, we should provide at least a seven-week extension in unemployment benefits, so benefits don't dry up for more than 1 million Americans by the end of the year. We should increase eligibility for food stamps and other nutrition programs to assist the hard-pressed middle class as well as the poor. We should substantially increase funding for the highly-effective community health center program so that, at a minimum, all Americans have access to affordable primary health care, dental care, and low-cost prescription drugs.

Finally, with cities and states facing deep deficits and cutting basic services, we must make a major, immediate financial commitment to states and municipalities. Their crisis will only grow worse as homes are foreclosed, as income and capital gains decline, as fees on sales of homes and motor vehicles diminish. For too long, unfunded federal mandates have drained the budgets of states and communities. The strength and vitality of America's communities must be restored.

The American people today are angry and confused. They feel they have lost their grip on the reins of power in our democratic society. While crooked Wall Street executives walk away from failing companies with millions in golden parachutes, middle-class Americans are seeing their life's savings disappear and their dreams for their kids evaporate.

I hope a new Democratic president will take office in January along with expanded Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. With strong grass-roots participation, we can pass legislation which creates millions of good-paying jobs as we address the major economic and social crises that confront our country. Now is the time to begin restoring the faith of the American people in our government. Now is the time to make government work, not just for the wealthy few, but for all Americans.

Comments

[joebhed]

Bernie,
you know I have been there with you ALL this time.
Still have some '88 bumper stickers for posterity.
Went door-to-door for you in that election.
But even YOU are missing the boat here.

The Chicago Plan.

THAT is what we need.
Not some more banker-debt-funded Reconstruction America Project.
Come on, Bernie.
It's the money system that has us by the balls.

Look up "The Treasury System versus the Federal Reserve System".
Bernie, you can start this revolution.
Because now IS the time.
Your friend.

[PT6]

McCain PLAYS GAMES and GIMMICKS While the World's Markets BURN!

Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned!

Asian markets extended their slide Monday on fears about a U.S. recession and global economic slowdown and Hong Kong and Shanghai fall on decelerating corporate earnings growth.

CONFIDENCE must be restored and Bush and McCain can not do it!

We need Obama and his team ready to work on this to help restore Confidence in American Markets!

The Bush Company must step down following the Election as AMERICA can NOT Wait!

[sm2tely]

Hello; It seems the bailout money for wallstreet is not working. How long will they continue this non-bailing, bailout? I can't help but wonder what the effects would be to this country if, instead they would take all this money and re-tooled across the country the closed manufacturing and just open up the Labor Industries so we could go to work. After all its not like the experienced employee's went abroad with companies that left. The people in the companies always knew more than pencil pushing bosses anyway. The bosses took the credit because they wrote something, but they were never able to tell the people, (how what they wrote should work.) The employees were smart enough to take the conscepts of what they wanted, and turn them into a realistic function for productivity. Tool them Up Open them Up. MAKE A WAY FOR US TO WORK!!! Americans will Do what we Do best!

[Americanwhiner]

I live in Nevada and have "Bernie Envy". What a guy. Need more folks like Bernie in Washington.

[TheAlchemist]

You've coined a worthy phrase.

"Bernie Envy"

I like it.

[DonReinaldo]

The Senator"s analysis and anger are on the mark. As I read the article I hear the voice of a Dodger fan at Ebbets Field when the Giants visited Brooklyn and Leo Durocher paced the coaching box near third base.

I agree with Senator Sanders call for congress to "reverse years of deregulation and accountability and transparency in the financial industry." Congress, however, Democrats as well as Republicans, are elected and paid by American taxpayers and are responsible for the current financial meltdown. For decades, Congress passed laws and unburdened itself and government departments of the regulatory authority that unleashed the "greed, incompetence and irresponsibility of the Masters of the Universe."

Part of a long term solution includes limiting the number of terms they can serve in congress and campaign finance reform. This will allow Senators and Congressmen to spend more time doing the job they were elected for rather than raising campaign funds. The reform should include limits on the duration of electoral campaigns. In Europe, they last from 30 to 60 days which is more than enough time for politicians to put their case to voters. While this may lead to unemployment among political and media consultants, Senator Sanders "Rebuild America" program could include a set-aside to retrain them to repair our water and sewer systems and rebuild the cities and towns ravaged by recent hurricanes.

[Kassandra]

Please, no nuclear, please! There's not enough Uranium and they use tremendous amounts of fossil fuels and it take s 10-15 years to bring one online. Plus, there's nowhere to put the waste.
It would just create a two way street form Exxon and friends to Bechtel and friends, transferring the wealth from us.

Also, I don't like bio-fuels that need to cut down the Brazilian rain forest to grow grasses to feed our cars.

I could power my neighborhood with the solar energy I get on my back roof.

We don't have much time. Let's do this and fast.

thank you Mr. Sanders

[batguano]

Kudos and respect Senator; you are the conscience of the Senate at this critical time. The rise of greedy inhumane Capitalism has brought our Republic to the brink, and we must struggle to return to what the founders spoke of as the "common good" and to "promote the general welfare". The obscenity of wealth beyond imagination and poverty so extreme is a contrast that cannot be allowed for any nation. The "reallocation of wealth" has already occurred and the majority of Americans are paying for the give-aways to the super-rich with much higher local property taxes, state taxes and numerous "fees", and the neglect of our infrastructure, schools, environment, and people.

[macohmz]

Thank you Senator Sanders, I think you're the only political figuire I know of that has a sense of urgency about America's troubles. If it were me, I'd find out all the different ways taxpayer's money is being wasted. I read "Inside Congress" by Ron Kessler in 1996. He mentioned how the books of many government agencies have been so poorly kept that millions and billions can't be accounted for. Knowing this has made me wonder why taxes should be raised when government can't keep track of the money they already take in. There's no accountability in government on many different levels. If accountability was applied to government now, it would break apart.

[ajax2]

"What should we do?"

Lock the safe. Investigate and indict the criminals.

[gretchenart]

Make sure the military Bush deployed on American soil is redeployed elsewhere, repeal the law making it easier for Bush to declare martial law and make Congress essentially obsolete, undo the deregulatory laws that can be undone and take away some of the all-encompassing power given so carte blanche to Paulson--more oversight and accountability as to how the tax dollars for the bailout are spent--or rename the bailout to its real result--"ripoff" if you won't/can't reign in and control the corporations from just wasting our dollars on their own lavish parties and fancy wardrobes.

[Stirner]

"What should we do?" -- Please, please don't do anything! You "lawmakers" inside the Beltway have screwed up our nation with your "doings" and "fixings". Thanks to your Fed Reserve, thanks to your huge "defense" budget to protect us from enemies you have created, thanks to your "Freedom Acts" and the taxation, we are now being swept into wars we don't need, having programs we don't need, and stifling regulations we don't need. What should you do? Well, just get out of our pockets and off our backs. What you can do, personally, is to give up your plump paycheck and perks -- that would help. Then go home and get a real job, and take the rest of the pols and time-servers along with you. Oh, and lest I forget, please turn off the lights before you leave the beltway.

[LadyXoc]

Right - and wrong. The government "got off the backs" of some very nasty trolls, who promptly used their new freedom to make a lot of money and buy elections to make sure they increased their power.
Would that somebody had the genius to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.

[robbor]

I saw Senator Sanders on Bill Maher's show last Friday. I was so impressed and interested in what this man had to say that I could have listened to just him the whole hour. So fresh and levelheaded, so thoughtful and non Washington were his ideas. But Bill being Bill the Comedian kept interrupting the Senator like a child who wanted the spotlight. Regardless, Senator Sanders shone through and it is evident he is a great man who is in government to help the people. I hope President Obama has a seat for him in his cabinet. He'd be a very real asset in this time of craziness.

[twofish]

The Senator spends an hour with Thom Hartmann every Friday, chatting and taking listener phone calls. Thom is on Air America and can be picked up as a podcast if it isn't on the air in your city.

http://thomhartmann.com
http://airamerica.com

[Elysiumfire]

'Now'! is always the time. In other words, 'now' is every present moment, and if passing moments were ever attended to with the same sense of 'crisis', what 'now' would already have been achieved?
A honest and transparent voting infrastructure representative of the people's democratic trust in the process? Two conflicts that might never have occurred? A military industry (along with unaccountable law enforcement agencies) that sap the nation of its domestic spending. A global reputation that would not lay in tatters upon a global cesspool of hateful criticism?
How about a judiciary that defends the Constitution from being shredded, and accountable to the people? How about a 'free' press and media relaying honest and open 'objective' news, instead of the 'creeds' of its owners?
How about promoting genuine racial equality and religious toleration? How about never ever having to say...'now is the time...'? For if you have a need to do so, it is already too late!

[radmul]

I would like to see the lame duck session establish a truth commission to investigate the crimes of the Bush administration.

[VikingQuest]

Every session is going to be a lame duck session as long as Pelosi is in charge of anything.

[CatfishJohn]

...I beleive i heard the phrase "Now is the time!" in "a dream " once...NOW IS (AT LAST) THE TIME!....thank you and God bless you for remaining steadfast to this Dream all these years Senator....