Why I didn't support Bernie Sanders

Politics & Elections
1

One of the big “inside baseball” sleeper issues in DC is a variety of budget related policies coming to a head in the next few months.

First, there’s the debt limit. The White House is now saying that our debt limit needs to be raised ASAP, and if it isn’t done by late September, the Mnuchin hits the fan and we are all in for a cataclysm if the US defaults on its debts.

Second, there’s tax reform that will be the next big issue. Trump wants to slash rates, maybe even eliminate part of the home mortgage interest deduction, for moderate to higher earners. Virtually all nonpartisan experts agree that the tax plans, though vague, are likely to explode the deficit.

Finally, Trump has asked for a big increase to the military, while making equal cuts to domestic programs (including NASA, law enforcement, medical research, etc.). This is actually giving leverage to Democrats, as Trump will need their votes for the defense spending, which allows Dems to seek more domestic spending.

That brings us to Bernie Sanders. He’s the top Democrat - errr, non-Republican - on the Senate Budget Committee. That committee is squarely in the middle of all those issues. What is Sanders saying and doing about those issues?

I had problems finding out, because when I googled “Sanders debt limit” and whatnot, all I got were stories about Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her talking points. I tried a few different times, and it seems that Ranking Member Sanders recently signed a letter with 44 other Senate Dems, led by Chuck Schumer, saying big tax cuts aren’t smart. I literally can’t find anything Sanders has done in the last few months on these issues.

What has he been doing? Well, he visited Iowa recently, fueling rumors he wants to run in 2020. Hrs writing a book for young people about politics. He’s pretty pissed at Nissan for being anti-union. He’s talked a little about single payer health systems. That’s all I can really find.

In certain ways, it looks like Sanders is kind of a liberal version of Trump: doesn’t really sweat the work all that much. It’s all about the big picture, with no actual plan to do anything.

2

Wait, so the reason you didn’t support Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election was because of what he did during the summer of 2017?

3

When you are in the minority party, is there much you can do? Here’s a blurb he published on cnn.com.

I think he was pretty clear during the election about what his fiscal plan was. I didn’t agree with much of it, but I still supported him since I knew it wouldn’t get anywhere. But he was the least hawkish of the major players, and that sounded good to me.

4

He’s never really been Mr. Achievement. My guess is that Ravenman isn’t going solely off ‘the summer of 2017.’

(In my view he (Sanders, not Ravenman) is Mr. Opportunist and bears a large part of the responsibility for giving us the thing in the White House, but I realize that’s a controversial opinion.)

5

The following cite is provided merely for long listy purposes, and is 2 years old. Some of The Burn’s doings in Washington:

6

I was pretty confident last year that he wasn’t a workhorse. What has actually surprised me a little bit is that despite his newfound popularity, he isn’t really trying to do anything at all in the policymaking realm.

You know that kind of guy we have all worked with, who constantly complains about the way the business is run, and talks about all his big ideas, and how if he only got a promotion, he’d fix everything and everybody would get raises, and… the guy barely manages to show up to work on time so there’s no chance he would ever be promoted? Well, DC has those people too.

7

The Senate is a collaborative body, and it’s hard for an individual Senator to claim that a certain result is his or her doing. If you’re in the majority party, and especially if you are the Majority Leader or the Committee Chairman, you can shape the outcome in ways that ordinary Senators can’t. But when you’re an (I) like Bernie, it’s going to be tough. He has never been the Chair of a committee.

Can anyone really say that Senator Clinton was responsible for any particular action by the Senate? What, specifically, did she do by herself? And I don’t say that as a dig against her, but more to point out that Senators just don’t have a list of accomplishments they can whip out to prove how effective they are. I co-sponsored this bill, or voted “yes” or “no” on that bill. I flapped my mouth in front of the TV cameras during the Senate Hearings on Blah-Balh-Blah. That’s what they mostly do.

8

It certainly is a long list, but let me make a few observations. First, the VA Choice Act is probably the most important accomplishment on that list. However, the program he created is one of those things that everyone agrees with in principle… but hasn’t worked out in practice. Trump Signs Extension Of Troubled VA Program : Shots - Health News : NPR

Is that because the VA screwed up the implementation? Maybe. Is that because the original bill wasn’t well done? I certainly can’t rule that out. But he did pass major legislation, and that is to his credit.

And on that list are quite a few amendments to add funding for various programs. Let me tell you, they are gimmick amendments. I would be shocked if even 10% of them survived conference. Such amendments are good for a press release and are almost always discarded in conference.

Aside from those which I know are total gimmicks, how many of those achievements on that list do you think made their way into law?

9

Just out of curiosity, who would you call "Mr. Achievement "?

10

I’m gonna make a wild, wild guess, and guess Barack Obama.

11

I seem to remember Bernie being called the King of Amendments during the primaries. He did also argue forcefully against the various Republican repeal/replace/tread water plans, but then so did many Democrats.

12

That’s a really bad guess.

13

I didn’t vote for Bernie Sanders for president, because I didn’t think he had the 360-degree view of the world to be president. But I’ve been a big fan of Sanders as a senator. I referred to him on another thread as a gadfly, and while I would acknowledge that it’s disparaging to refer to him that way as a presidential candidate, I like Sanders the gadfly as a senator. He’s a great senator. I just didn’t think he had what it took to be president. “It’s a different beast,” as the saying goes. I liked Bernie Sanders, and still do. It’s some (not all but some) of his supporters I just get fecking stand.

14

I didn’t support Sanders because I’ve seen this movie before. As I get older, I have less patience for those who have anger for the sake of anger. They want to rant about “Republocrats” and ‘the system’ but have no clue as to exactly how they’d change things for the better. It seems more important to punish Wall Street or Starbucks or Uber or whomever is the target of the day than to actually try to accomplish anything.

Sanders has been known as a one trick pony ever since he entered congress.

His main claim to fame is long rants on an empty senate floor that get shared on social media. Before that, he was known for Radio Pacifica interviews.

It’s quite stunning that he developed such a cult and continued to inject poison into the presidential race long after his Use by date had expired. The New York Daily News article showed what a clueless clown Sanders is. They didn’t take cheap shots like asking him about the president of Botswana or obscure economic numbers. All Sanders knows is that big banks are bad because they’re bad. Wall Street is bad, yet he doesn’t know the difference between a call option and a call girl.

When the 2018 races start to heat up next year, hopefully Sanders will be on the outside looking in. He can still try to hang on and be the Tim Tebow of politics, but for serious DC polticos, Sanders is about as relevant as Jesse Jackson.

15

Barney Frank dislikes Bernie. News at 11. But he’s right about one thing: Bernie is not a traditional Democrat. Frank backed the “traditional Democrat” in the election and she lost. I’m not seeing why his opinion on the matter is definitive. 2016 was the year of the outsider, so the fact that Bernie was an outside was a plus, not a negative. How do you think Trump ended up winning?

16

What are you talking about? Sanders specifically references the dangers of “too big to fail”, and refers to subprime mortgage fraud, and deceptive “teaser” mortgage rates.

17

Is there something specific in that rather long transcript you wanted us to notice?

18

I didn’t vote for him because I thought that Republican voters and some Democrats would equate Socialism with Demonology. I also thought that if Hillary Clinton were half the President Bill Clinton was, we would be in excellent shape for eight years.

Sanders suggestion that everyone be eligible for Medicare is good. Government would be on medical costs like a ton of bricks if they were paying for it. I would do it slowly, though. I would lower the eligibility age by five years every year. That would give health insurers time to get into a new business, and government time to hire some of them for Medicare expansion.

19

I wouldn’t say that, though I understand why you would.

Sanders doesn’t do details. But I think his goals are mostly achievable. Trump doesn’t do details and his goals are mostly ridiculous (we’ll pay less money for health care and everyone will be covered and it will cost $12 a year!)

But I do think Sanders simplifies things too much, then people take what he’s saying as a finished product rather than a starting point, and life gets stupid.

20

I’m curious. What senator(s) are, in your view, the opposite of what you just described (swapping Wall Street for immigrants and whatnot as needed)?