Tonight, Donald Trump kicked off his campaign in Orlando, and Bernie Sanders said that 45 was living in a parallel universe. Bernie Sanders came on following Donald Trump’s speech, and I have to say that Bernie was as red-faced and angry as I’ve ever seen him. He hinted as much, given that he sat through and watched the whole 90 minute speech of Donald Trump enjoying the sound of his own voice.
Bernie Sanders focused on all the things Donald Trump didn’t say in his 90 minute speech. Trump ignored the fact that the major crisis we are dealing with is climate change. I would interject that Trump knows as well as anyone. His own White House painted a scenario much more apocalyptic than even the IPCC report. I submit that Donald Trump’s whole goal is to get as much as he can, as the planet is going to burn anyway.
Donald Trump then touted the fact that unemployment is low and the stock market is high. But as Bernie Sanders pointed out, half of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck. This is from Marketwatch, hardly a friend to the working class. Most Americans also have no life savings.
Donald Trump then touted his tax plan. However, he conveniently ignored the fact that 83% of his tax savings will go to the top 1% by 2027 and that Amazon pays $0 in taxes under his plan even though they make $11 billion a year.
Next, the President touted healthcare. However, his effort to repeal the ACA, which fell one vote short, would have meant 32 million Americans would have lost their health insurance. Furthermore, the repeal of the ACA would have meant that insurers could once again deny coverage for preexisting conditions, which was one of the main reasons why it passed in the first place.
Moving to education, Bernie Sanders pointed out that Donald Trump planned to cut Pell Grants, to the tune of $3.9 billion. By contrast, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and 16 other Democratic candidates support some form of free college. By contrast, Bernie Sanders was the only candidate in 2016 to support it, and everybody derided it as being too radical until Hillary Clinton adopted a plan for free college for households with incomes less than $125,000. There are 45 million Americans with student loan debt totaling over $1.5 trillion. Bernie Sanders said he planned to get rid of most of it.
Returning to healthcare, another broken promise of Donald Trump’s related to prescription drugs. He ran, in part, on a promise to lower prescription drug prices. However, in fact, they continue to go higher. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill, by contrast, would cover prescription drug costs completely.
Many other facts, as Bernie Sanders rightly said, were conveniently ignored by Donald Trump. Infrastructure continues to crumble. The minimum wage has not gone up in 10 years. Over 40,000 die from gun violence; nonetheless, Donald Trump opposes universal background checks, supported by 97% of the country.
Sanders said that the answer to Trump is to bring people together around an agenda which works for all of us. He said that economic rights, education, protecting the planet, criminal justice reform, and comprehensive immigration reform should all be seen as human rights. It’s not just a matter of the planet being in danger; he noted that 500,000 sleep on the streets each night and millions more spend over 50% of their income on rent. He said that we have to resist all efforts to divide us up, since the ultimate goal is to beat Donald Trump.