Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont and former Presidential candidate, had plenty to say after listening to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent address to Congress. He recorded a 14-minute video, which he posted to Facebook, railing against the president more for what he didn’t say, than what he did.
Nothing about environmental issues
In the video included bottom article, Sanders took us through the various omitted subjects that Trump should have addressed. He noted that Trump didn’t speak on important issues, like climate change, income inequality, or criminal justice reform.
Sanders said he didn’t hear Trump say “one word, not one word” about the important need to combat climate change and what is the “greatest environmental threat” facing the planet today.
Increase to military spending instead of educating Americans
As reported by the Boston Globe, Sanders then went on to speak about how Trump is proposing to increase military spending, slamming this by saying the Pentagon budget is already bloated and that he thinks these priorities are totally wrong. Sanders said the money should, instead, be used to help American students with their education and to fight student debt. He asked if we should give another $80-plus billion to the Pentagon, or should the U.S. rather allow every qualified young American to study at a public college or university tuition-free, adding that to him, the choice is clear.
Bernie then headed into the subject of tax breaks, saying Trump wants to give the richest people in the country $3 trillion in tax breaks, and that this is an outrage. He pointed out that while campaigning, Trump promised to “drain the swamp” in Wall Street. What he has ended up doing, however, is giving Wall Street jobs in his cabinet.
Taking healthcare away from millions
Speaking of healthcare, Sanders went on to say how appalling it was that Trump is planning on repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which would, in effect, throw 20 million Americans off of health insurance. This would have the further effect of privatizing Medicare, making huge cuts in Medicaid, raising the cost of prescription drugs for the elderly, while eliminating Planned Parenthood funding.
This would severely affect millions of Americans, while his tax breaks would only benefit the wealthiest of Americans.
Who knew healthcare could be so complicated?
SF Gate reports how Bernie had laughed during an interview on CNN, about how Donald Trump had said that “nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated,” a statement made on Monday during a White House meeting with governors.
Sanders concluded his latest speech by saying Republicans are now getting very worried about the healthcare situation, saying they are “not so cocky anymore” about repealing Obamacare. Bernie said they should be worried, indeed, and he went on to call upon Americans affected by Trump’s healthcare decisions to keep calling on Congress and keep up the fight, telling them they must continue to push back against Republicans.
He also discussed how many people are, indeed, standing up all over America, protesting and demonstrating against the many decisions made by Trump’s government.
You can hear the full speech in the video included below.
