Read on Twitter
A lot of people like to ask not Berners “how would you fight poverty and create an equitable economy if you don’t support ‘populism?’” Great question. A quick responsive thread...
1. I would ask for a modest, reasonable 10% Pentagon cut, or at a minimum keeping spending flat for a decade. Create about $750 billion a year.
2. A modest, reasonable return to Clinton era income tax rates, especially on the top rates. 39% wont hurt anyone.
3. I almost never agree with AOC, but I do on a “windfall” tax rate. I don’t believe it will create a ton of revenue, but it would effectively cap high earners and encourage companies to spread the profits further with their workers. There’s no sense making money you can’t keep.
4. Lift the cap on payroll taxes back to the Reagan era 90% of all earnings. We have not kept up with that rate. You would insure social security and Medicare as far out as you can see.
5. Set a minimum income for every American. You could do it regionally, and it doesn’t have to look like UBI, it could be insured through tax returns, for instance. The point is that we do know what people *need* to earn, in order to live.
6. Scrap and re-write the corporate tax code to change the incentives from outsourcing and pollution, and give companies their loopholes to accept unions, be eco-friendly, and offer generous benefits and retirements.
7. Fully fund federal education mandates, protecting our poorest, most vulnerable school districts.
8. Insure union organizing rights for everyone. Do card check. Stop employers from intimidating workers or forcing them into disinformation sessions.
9. Robust consumer protection through the CFPB and other institutions of banks, health care, and other necessary utilities.
10. Direct government lending of student loans, bypassing the “middle man” that needs interest back. Make this available for college, grad school, community college, and trade school.
11. Now I know the retort- this costs too much, it penalizes the rich, or on the left, it’s insufficient. All nonsense.
12. The “costs” of what I’m proposing are both offset by revenue and savings in welfare spending we do now. They’re also offset by increased tax revenue from rising wages. Success pays for itself, greed doesn’t.
13. The rich are not penalized at all. Oh sure, there’s logical limits on them, but the CEO is not 1,000x as valuable as the assembly line worker. They get to keep capitalism, still live well, and avoid a punitive revolution against their greed. Seems like a win.
14. And the idea this isn’t far enough is ridiculous. The Bolshevik Revolution was less successful than the New Deal. Let’s be honest.
15. Folks will bring up the minimum wage, which I’m again fine with tying to a living wage and inflation, but we already created minimum income here.
16. People will bring up health care, which more employers would cover if they were incentivized to, but I would totally create a robust public option through Medicaid to handle. Set the buy-in to relative proximity to income poverty.
17. And finally people question how to deal with climate change then. I say the carbon tax remains the best way to force polluters to stop polluting or hurt their bottom line.
18. But also, invest in green energy and renewables. Move the incentives out of fossils.
19. Can all of this pass? Probably not at once. But incrementalism isn’t a dirty word when you count the people you help. And this isn’t a 50 year plan, it’s probably the next decade.
20. So that’s my plan. If I were President, that would be my platform for poverty.
