The Gambling Addicts at Goldman Sachs....

caused the economic global meltdown.....

We need 99 Senators like Senator Sanders willing to defend the public interest, speaking the Truth to Power, taking a stand for what's right for the future.

Thank you Vermont for electing him as your Senator!

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 »


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 »

In other news

THE HYPOCRISY OF LLOYD BLANKFEIN

“… and other corporate leaders who have inserted themselves into the debate over major tax and spending decisions … is nothing short of repugnant,” Ethan Rome blogged at The Huffington Post »

CORPORATE TAX BREAKS

CEOs who have made a high-profile foray into deficit negotiations head companies that received trillions in subsidies, bailouts, special tax breaks and loopholes that virtually eliminate their tax bills, The Huffington Post reported »

SAY NO TO SIMPSON-BOWLES

Bernie urged colleagues to reject proposals by former Sen. Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles that would hurt working families and help the wealthiest Americans »

FILIBUSTER REFORM

“Sanders, who in 2010 conducted the closest thing the Senate has seen in recent years to an actual filibuster, has been an increasingly vocal advocate for making changes that would restore real debate to the chamber,” John Nichols blogged for The Nation »

 

 

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 »

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