[Occupymendocino] The Face of Class Warfare

[Richard Karch]

November 29, 2012
The Face of Class Warfare


Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein came to Capitol Hill this week to call for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. As Congress and the White House are negotiating a year-end deficit deal, Blankfein blustered about the need to “lower people’s expectations” about their retirement and health care. He was loose with his facts. He spoke with all the sympathy for someone struggling to get by on a $14,000-a-year retirement that you’d expect from a Wall Street banker paid $16 million last year. To Bernie, Blankfein’s attack on working families is obscene. “Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system, and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families,” Bernie said. “This is what class warfare is all about.”

Watch Bernie’s floor speech »
Listen to the Ed Schultz interview »

	
A Good Step on Social Security

Bernie welcomed White House assurances that Social Security benefits won’t be cut as part of the budget negotiations. “This is a step in the right direction,” said the founder of the Senate’s Defending Social Security Caucus. “The simple truth is that Social Security has not contributed a nickel to the national debt so it makes no sense for it to be part of deficit negotiations.”

Read more » 
Sign Bernie’s petition »

	
Sandy and Global Warming

A hard new look at global warming should come in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and other extreme weather events. “We’ve been given a warning by science, and a wake-up call by nature; it is up to us now to heed them,” environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote in The New York Review of Books.

Read Bill McKibben’s column »

	
Get Breaking News Buzz Updates

One of the goals of my office is to keep people as informed as possible about major issues and the work that we are doing. The Bernie Buzz is a great way to stay informed.

In addition, my office sends email updates with breaking news on important topics. Please take a moment to tell me what issues concern you most.You will then receive “Bernie Buzz Updates” – often before you read about issues you care most about in newspapers or online. 


Bernie Sanders 
United States Senator 

Watch the Video & Sign Up »

SHARE THIS



What do you think?

TAKE THE POLL

Compared to 10 years ago, the gap in living standards between the middle class and the rich is A) Wider B) Narrower C) No change D) Don’t know »

BLANKFEIN FACTS

Lloyd Blankfein was paid $16.1 million in 2011, a 14 percent increase, while Goldman's earnings fell 47 percent »

During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury »

Goldman Sachs received a $278 million refund from the IRS in 2008, even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion that year »



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: new_TheBernieBuzzHeader.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 31670 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: blankfein.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 28422 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0001.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: backofftn.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 7646 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0002.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: warmingtn.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 7876 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0003.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: emailtn.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 4418 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0004.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: bsig.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 18743 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0005.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sanders_fb48.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2293 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0006.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sanders_tw48.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2426 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0007.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sanders_g+48.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2298 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0008.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: sanders_yt48.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2988 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/occupymendocino/attachments/20121129/9a7fa105/attachment-0009.jpg