I don’t know how long he’s going to be at it, but US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent democratic socialist, is making a lot of excellent points as he conducts an old-fashioned filibuster against the agreement between President Obama and Republican leaders which would continue for another two years massive Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of the population.
Watch live here.
Obama had advocated continuing the tax cuts for everyone except those making more than $250,000 a year. But Republicans overwhelmingly opposed this, thus supporting tax breaks for the rich at the cost of adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal deficit.
I’m inclined reluctantly to go along with the agreement rather than to see taxes go up for everyone. But still– good for Sanders.
Update: Sanders ended his filibuster after eight-and-a-half hours. Well done. If you choose, you can watch the whole thing here. You should, at least, watch some of it.
In fact a majority of Americans agree with Sanders on ending the tax cuts for the wealthiest– even 41 percent of Republicans.
