Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:58 pm
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders appeared on four of the five Sundays shows, and even though the programs were dominated by talk about the Democratic primary, Sanders was still able to deliver a reality check to the corporate media by talking about a few often ignored issues.
Sanders on Meet The Press:
On NBC’s Meet The Press, Sen. Sanders argued that Hillary Clinton’s support for trade agreements is bad for working families, “Well, when you vote for virtually every trade agreement that has cost the workers of this country millions of jobs, when you support and continue to support fracking, despite the crisis that we have in terms of clean water, and essentially, when you have a super PAC that is raising tens of millions of dollars from every special interest out there, including 15 million from Wall Street, the American people do not believe that that is the kind of president that we need to make the changes in America to protect the working families of this country.”
Sanders on ABC’s This Week:
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On ABC’s This Week, Sanders discussed the economic struggles of those who are living on Social Security, “Let me go back to Social Security. There are millions of disabled veterans and seniors who are trying to make it on 11,000 or 12,000 a year Social Security and they can’t. The Republicans in many instances want to cut Social Security, what I want to do is expand it. And what I said yesterday is we have legislation and it has good support that says you lift the cap on taxable income. Right now, somebody makes millions, somebody makes $118,000, they pay the same amount into it. If you lift the cap starting at $250,000 and above — $250,000 and above — we can improve benefits for seniors earning $16,000 a year or less by $1,300 a year. Not insignificant. And extend the life of social security for 58 years. That is my view.”
Sanders on CNN State Of The Union:
Sanders took on multinational corporations who avoid paying taxes in the US, “It wasn’t just that — you know, it was talking about the greed of corporate America, including General Electric. And what I was saying, which is absolutely true, is, you have a large multinational corporation that was in a sense born and raised right here in the United States, I think in Schenectady, in New York, as a matter of fact. And here is a corporation that has shut down plants all over this country, moved to countries where they could find the cheapest possible labor. In fact, the guy who was head of General Electric before Jeff Immelt, he basically said that, you know, he’d like to see his manufacturing plants on a barge, so they could move to the cheapest labor. They have, in a given year, paid nothing in federal income taxes. You know, they are part of lobbying efforts in Washington to protect the interests of the wealthy.”
To hear any presidential candidate talk about people who are struggling to survive while big corporations avoid paying their fair share of taxes is always welcome, but it is especially refreshing to hear these subjects being discussed on the most corporate-driven public affairs programs on television.
The Sanders interviews were mostly consumed with 2016 election talk, but a few moments of issue discussion snuck into each one. Sen. Sanders does have a very important message to deliver to the country, which is why he and his campaign shouldn’t get bogged down in the back and forth that can quickly consume nominating contests.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is finally getting a national platform for his message about getting the special interests out of American politics. Here’s hoping that he can use the media attention that he is getting to keep these vital issues in the national spotlight.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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