Sanders Filibuster Begins...

Saying he was prepared to speak "as long as possible" against a tax deal between the White House and congressional Republicans, Sen. Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor to make the case against deepening the deficit and widening the income gap in America by extending Bush-era tax breaks for the very wealthy. "I am simply here today to take as long as I can to explain to the American people the fact that we have got to do a lot better than this agreement provides," Sanders began.

After eight and a half hours of speaking without leaving the Senate floor, Sanders brought his day-long stand to a close Friday night. He concluded, "If the American people stand up and say, we can do better than this, that we don't need to drive up the national debt by giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, that if the American people are prepared to stand -- and we're prepared to follow them -- I think we can defeat this proposal. I think we can come up with a better proposal which better reflects the needs of the middle class and working families of our country and, to me, most importantly, the children of our country. And with that, Madam President, I would yield the floor."

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• politics
• us senate
• tax bill
• tax cuts
• obama tax deal
• filibuster
• bernie
• bernie sanders

[BigMikeMcBastard]

@kydenj28 You can't get blood from a stone. Taxing everyone a flat 10% wouldn't even come close to generating enough revenue to sustain the society as it exists now. That's where the US is now. Not enough revenue. So, the options are to either tax the middle class until they're poor, cut services like education, police/fire services, etc, or you tax the top earners and deny them another new yacht or summer home that year.

Those are the options. Destroy mid-class, destroy society, or anger Repubs

[H1TMANactual]

@BigMikeMcBastard If you don't know what you're talking about, then there is no shame in admitting it. Capital flight isn't a "talking point", it's an economic fact supported by empirical evidence. Low taxes have been proven to work in countries like Hong Kong, Estonia and Bahamas (look it up).

No what can be demonstrated is inefficiency and waste prevalent in govt programs. $120 billion is lost in fraud ALONE in medicare. Ya think people could have been helped with that money?

[H1TMANactual]

@wangsta25 There is already an estimated $10 trillion sitting outside US.

[wangsta25]

@H1TMANactual Capital flight won't happen to the U.S. because we are one of the lowest taxed countries in the world. Where is the human capital gonna flee to? Europe? They have a much higher effective tax rate.

[wliiaIScool]

@gdsm93 Yes sir! Nice catch

[gdsm93]

@wliiaIScool West Wing reference?

[freakylocz14]

RON PAUL 2012!!!

[H1TMANactual]

@BigMikeMcBastard Nope. I am advocating for the common man. Where do think jobs come from? If you knew what I know.

[BigMikeMcBastard]

@H1TMANactual All hail the corporate overlords, I will advocate for the interests of people who give a shit about neither myself nor my country as long as it's in lockstep with the whims of my affluent political party leaders.

[H1TMANactual]

@BigMikeMcBastard 1. No one is advocating loop holes. And there is no such thing as corporate taxes, cost is either paid by owners, share holders or consumers.

2. Fairly silly? I think I am wasting my time here. You don't know much about these topics.

3. Half of healthcare is govt run actually. Private covers 3 times the people at the same cost.

[BigMikeMcBastard]

@H1TMANactual Once again, taxes are the lowest they've ever been and many corporations avoid them entirely via loopholes and zero benefit has been reaped.

Comparing it to other countries is fairly silly as the issue is far more complex than "well look at Estonia, that country is clearly comparable to America!"

You want to talk about inefficiency? Americans spend vastly more than anyone else in the world on their medical coverage, and they have terrible infant mortality and lifespan