Summary

Bernie Sanders criticizes the Democratic Party for neglecting the working class, leading to their recent election losses.

He highlights issues like economic inequality, job displacement, healthcare costs, and foreign policy as key concerns for the American people.

Sanders questions whether the Democratic leadership will address these issues or remain beholden to big money interests.

  • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I appreciate the sources and the rigor. But is it not the left that’s consistently pushing for a higher minimum wage? For exploring solutions like UBI or even just expanded social safety nets for the people who fall out the bottom?

    The costs of healthcare continues to skyrocket, when we’re already paying twice what other nations are. Healthcare bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy. But is it not the left (sorry, I started the “is it not” thing, and I feel like I need to keep it going, ahem…) that’s been pushing universal healthcare? For transparency in hospital costs?

    I’m just saying that I don’t think it’s accurate to say the DNC has “abandoned the working class.” The DNC’s never been able to communicate effectively (or perhaps they’ve just never been believed) when they try to explain that they haven’t abandoned the working class. And they’re not very good at fellating microphones.

    • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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      1 month ago

      Democrats passed the ACA without any Republican support. They should have passed MFA then. It was terrible and made my life much harder at the time. It’s better now, but barely. My wife has a low paying government job and her health insurance costs went up significantly more than her 2% raise. Both of us took cuts in net pay while food, property taxes and seemingly everything else went up. What have Dems done about housing, pay, taxes, food costs in the last term? Nothing. Oh, Biden got one drug to be cheaper. But I’m not a diabetic. Yet.

        • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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          1 month ago

          I only have an associate’s degree which was very affordable and I worked thru school but I guess I get to help pay for those who took on a lot more debt. If that had been on the table maybe I’d have gotten more education.

          • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            This is temporarily embarrassed millionaire rhetoric. This is the reason the DNC gets away with platforming milquetoast horseshit in the first place.

            • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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              1 month ago

              When you’re struggling to feed your kids, yeah, mine is on the list. That doesn’t mean I don’t help other people but our government taxes the struggling and literally sets cash on fire as a thank you.

              • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                Reduction in access to abortion and contraceptives will only increase the number of people in this country struggling to feed kids. We could also talk about school lunch programs and support services in general.

                • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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                  1 month ago

                  I constantly bring up school lunch programs but I get downvoted on sites like this because I choose unpopular context. For example, Biden spent money on something, I say - he could have funded school lunches, but instead lunch ladies get to go back to collecting food debt.

                  • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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                    1 month ago

                    President Biden included funding to expand the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) in the his Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

                    The budget earmarks over $15 billion in funds to allow more school districts to take advantage of CEP, which allows schools that have a high percentage of low-income students serve universal free meals.

                    The White House has advocated for the expansion of universal free meals at school and aims to provide free school meals to 9 million more students by 2032 as part of its National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. [March 2023]

                    They also apparently made them more nutritious.

      • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Well yeah, but it’s not like they haven’t tried. I’ve certainly been frustrated watching the DNC try for decades to get some version of progressive policy passed only to succeed in the most compromised ways. But usually the reason is simply Americans. My office mate is certain that Jesus is coming back soon. What do you do with that?