Dear Citizens and Elected Officials:
I think this is a needed and very fair additional response to the economic situation we are now all facing given the Pandemic’s impact on the bottom 50%. (using Thomas Piketty’s breakdowns for income and wealth: the top 1 & 10%, the middle 40% and the bottom 50%)
And it’s a fair test of the morality of the man whom President Obama just so profusely praised for his character. Today, the New York Times is covering the kisses flying back and forth between Biden and Sanders. Here’s the article: www.nytimes.com/… The title is “The Democratic Establishment Suddenly Loves Bernie Sanders.”
And here was my comment about it, just posted in the Times, today, Thursday, April 16:
This is sickening, even if it is familiar. But this is no time for grudges. If Joe Biden and the Party want to make we former Sanders backers feel better, do something for the whole country now, and prove where your allegiances lie - and your famous "compassion." In May of 2019, Senator Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced legislation which would enable states once again to set credit card interest rates at a less Olympian level, 15%, which under today's circumstances, national economic collapse, seems way too high and ought to be 10%. The bills were S-1389 and HR-2930. In the Senate, Sanders bill go no support which tells you where the Democratic establishment is: afraid to challenge the Big Six and the credit card companies. The House bill did a little better, having 9 supporters. Events beyond anyone's control, once the virus was loose in the US, now mean debt city for most Americans, who already averaged about 7,000 dollars in credit card debt with an average interest rate of 17% and for those with lower credit ratings, in the range of 22-25% - many millions paying those outrageous rates. The "justifications" are laughable and the system needs to change. Sorry Joe, that's reality. Whose side are you on?
The idea, without naming rates, also occurred to a New York state assemblyman from the Albany region, Angelo Santibarbara, asking Governor Cuomo to act; I bump the notion up to the higher level. Here from cbs6albany.com/…
Am I asking too much of Joe Biden? Will Senator Sanders and his collaborating team ask the Biden people themselves? I’m not counting on it.
An article at Truthdig (which has now suspended operations due to a feud between the publisher and prominent editors and writers) from the spring of 2019 indicated that polls showed an overwhelming number of Republican and Democratic primary voters supported the measure. Yet it was weak tea to begin with; the economic numbers now pouring into the news show we need something stronger.
Is Joe Biden in all his “bipartisanship” afraid to back something which even Republican primary voters supported? I would remind the nominee that he is in a permanent campaign, there is no timeout, Trump campaigns every minute of every day, and it doesn’t matter whether the measure could pass the US Senate, the appeal should now go to the American people. It puts pressure on the banks to help, even in the absence of binding legislation. And it would be a truer signal flag of Biden’s willingness to work with Sanders — and that public policy inside the Democratic Party has truly shifted to the left — than all the nonsense flowing between them the Times just reported.
And of course, the black middle class leadership who sided so decisively with the former Vice President, and against Senator Sanders, will find what excuse not to back a measure which would immeasurably help the millions of less well off black American citizens…
Best,
Bill of Rights
Frostburg, MD