Vermont senator values independence
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Editor,
When it comes to politics, while I have some very strong opinions, they always are based upon values such as integrity, honesty and peaceful solutions. I really don’t know that much about details of individual legislation. Character means much to me.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, born exactly three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, is the Independent Vermont senator. He cuts through all the political posturing, the evading of problems’ root causes, and the bobbing and weaving of so many politicians. He seems to speak for the vast majority of Americans.
On the deficit issue, Sanders says, “McConnell is dead wrong,” in reference to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statement ruling out more revenues to help lower deficits. He goes on: “Large corporations and the wealthy are avoiding more than $100 billion in taxes every year by setting up offshore tax shelters in places like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the Bahamas. I look forward to a serious debate in the Senate about how we do deficit reduction in a way that is fair. At a time when the middle class is disappearing and the number of people living in poverty is at an all-time high, do we cut programs that working families desperately depend upon, or do we ask the wealthiest people and largest corporations to start paying their fair share of taxes?”
One more item, the appointment of Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary. Mr. Lew spent three years with Citigroup (we bailed them out) as COO of its failed alternative investment unit, then walked away in 2008 with over $2 million in salary and bonuses. Sanders says, “In my view, we need a Treasury Secretary who is prepared to stand up to corporate America and their powerful lobbyists and fight for policies that protect the working families in our country. I do not believe Mr. Lew is that person.”
As a Montanan, you’ve got to love this man. He speaks as an Independent, and independence is the spirit that both built and sustains our great state of Montana, regardless of our sacred party affiliations.
Bob McClellan
Polson
