Our economy is working only for those who make enough money to afford housing, health care and reliable transportation. While unemployment statistics show full employment, reality paints a picture of wage earners having to work two or more jobs for family subsistence, living paycheck to paycheck.
American infrastructure is crumbling while our national treasure goes into trillion-dollar tax cuts for the rich, and 55% of our total discretionary budget goes to the Pentagon and military adventures around the world even as our communities deteriorate.
Scientists say we have a decade to make radical changes in our CO2 emissions if we hope to reverse the worst outcomes from climate change. Our last opportunity to pull ourselves out of this spiral is fast approaching. November’s election is the most important in our lifetimes. We can’t afford another term for Trump, nor can we afford another slow-walking Democrat. We must start now to address these critical climate issues or we will be caught in devastating climate feedback loops. Our best hope is to address economic insecurity while arresting our climate threats.
Bernie Sanders proposes rearranging national priorities in a way that will go far toward solving these problems. His plan for a Green New Deal shifts our carbon-based economy in a direction that would create millions of new jobs in the tech and alternative energy industries. His Medicare for All plan shifts money from the rapacious insurance industry into direct health care for physicians, nurses and administrative support. Millions of health-care workers will circulate payrolls broadly into our domestic economy versus the trillions of dollars now being siphoned by insurance and big pharma executives into international tax shelters that return little to our economy.
President Franklin Roosevelt rescued America from the grip of the Great Depression with his New Deal and Economic Bill of Rights, investing in the working-class poor by creating meaningful jobs that built skills for workers. Armies of workers recirculated payrolls into local and state economies, paying dividends like Social Security that continue today. This is precisely what Bernie Sanders proposes with his bold American Reinvestment Plan, which would provide the critical priority of defusing our carbon time bomb before it is too late.
Larry Dennison
Port Townsend
