Bernie Sanders Rocks!

Outrage

Bernie Sanders on outrage (via David Sirota) (emphasis added):

One of the difficulties many of us have in dealing with the Bush Administration and the extreme right-wing group that now controls Congress is that the word "outrage" has increasingly lost its meaning...

What does "outrage" mean anymore when we have an Administration that took us into a war under false premises--a war that has cost us over 1,600 dead, 12,000 wounded and $300 billion--in addition to the terrible suffering of the Iraqi people?

...What does "outrage" mean anymore when we have a White House that tells us how much they love our troops but ... brings forth a budget this year which devastates health care for our veterans ...?

...What does "outrage" mean when we have a president who tells us in every speech how much he believes in "freedom," but who proposes legislation like the USA Patriot Act and other bills which are undermining the basic freedoms and constitutional rights of the American people? All this talk about "freedom," and yet he wants to deny the women of this country the freedom to control their own bodies.

...Our challenge now is to determine how we bring people together to end this horrific period of American history, and how we create a government which represents all of our people, and not just the CEO's of large corporations and extreme right-wing fundamentalists.

I will tell you what the major issue will be: and that is the collapse of the middle class, the increase in poverty and the growing and obscene gap between the rich and the poor.

...We must put an end to the disgrace of the United States being the only major country on earth without a national health care program that guarantees health care for every man, woman and child.

...We must put an end to the reality that many of the new jobs that are being created in our country do not pay a living wage or provide decent benefits. That is why we must raise the minimum wage to a living wage.

...We must put an end to the anti-union national labor board approach which is making it almost impossible for workers to form a union ... The right to form a union is a constitutional right and must be protected so that workers can negotiate fair wages and working conditions.

We must end the absurd national priorities of the Republican leadership which provide hundreds of billions in tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent, and then cut back on health care, education, affordable housing, veterans needs and programs for the poor.