As this administration's tenure goes on one, and only one, Senator stands out as an example to all. That Senator is Bernie Sanders from Vermont. The Senate has been the focus on the health care attempt since the House did its thing. Bernie is standing firm and exercising leadership as always. Bernie comes to be this way because he has a passion and a compassion that is his only reason for being in government. It makes wonder why an independent can function so well while party members on both sides seem to be more concerned with party politics than they are about the people. Read on below to see examples of what I mean.
Besides his strong stand on health care: .Sanders adamant on 'public option' here is another example from Bernie's website: Proposal to allow breakup of huge banks gains momentum.
Momentum is growing in the U.S. and abroad to deal with the problem of gigantic financial institutions deemed too big to fail by breaking them up before they can threaten the economy.
Angered by bailouts that have kept corporate titans such as American International Group Inc. afloat, members of a key House committee last week voted to give the government vast new power to downsize private companies, something that happens now only in the most egregious antitrust cases.
Instead of helping cushion the fall of Wall Street powerhouses through government aid or variations on traditional bankruptcy, there is growing momentum in Congress to cut those firms down to size before they start teetering to limit the damage if they do collapse.
"The era of the big bank is over," said Simon Johnson, an MIT professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
The dramatic idea -- unthinkable before the financial crisis -- carries important ramifications for the future of the economy and the ability of U.S. financial institutions to compete with giants abroad.
Critics of the proposal point out that only a handful of the world's largest financial firms are based in the U.S. They say mega-corporations need mega-banks to meet their needs.
Nevertheless, the call to limit the size of financial firms has come recently from former Federal Reserve chairmen Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, as well as some prominent economists. Europeans are considering a similar move, while the Fed's British counterpart, the Bank of England, this month said it would require three of its bailed-out behemoths -- Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock -- to downsize.
Seizing on that momentum and the continued outrage over Wall Street's bailouts and bonuses, a House committee last week voted to give U.S. regulators the power to preemptively break up large financial institutions that pose a "grave threat to the financial stability or economy of the United States."
Here's his Thanksgiving message: Freedom from Want
Norman Rockwell painted Freedom from Want in 1943 while he lived in Arlington, Vt., a place the native New Yorker once likened to having "fallen into Utopia." The painting for the Saturday Evening Post illustrated one of the "Four Freedoms" President Franklin D. Roosevelt propounded in his 1941 State of the Union address: Freedom from Want, Freedom of Speech, Freedom to Worship, and Freedom from Fear. This Thanksgiving Day, Americans counting their blessings might take a moment to remember those less fortunate still aspiring to Freedom from Want.
I could go on, but either you see what I mean or you don't. I urge you to follow this man's web page and get on his e-mail list. It often is a ray of sunshine during very dark days