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Senator Bernie Sanders Joins Forces with Nurses and Students, Introduces "College For All Act" and the Robin Hood Tax
The Robin Hood Tax swooped into America's national spotlight when presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders joined with National Nurses United and student groups in Washington, D.C. at a press conference today to announce his introduction of two Senate bills - the College for All Act and the Robin Hood tax bill that would levy a small tax on Wall Street financial transactions in order to fund free tuition at every public college and university in the United States, as well as slash interest rates on existing student loans.
The Robin Hood Tax swooped into America's national spotlight when presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders joined with National Nurses United and student groups in Washington, D.C. at a press conference today to announce his introduction of two Senate bills - the College for All Act and the Robin Hood tax bill that would levy a small tax on Wall Street financial transactions in order to fund free tuition at every public college and university in the United States, as well as slash interest rates on existing student loans.
The College for All Act and the Robin Hood tax, would set a 0.5 percent tax on most stock transactions, and a lesser tax on bond and derivative trades. Such a tax has been championed for years by NNU, the country's largest organization of registered nurses, and other healthcare and climate change groups and is already in effect in more than 40 countries around the world, including Britain, Germany, Switzerland, and China. A similar Robin Hood tax bill, H.R. 1464, introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison, is pending in the House of Representatives. The tax is estimated to raise about $300 billion per year to fund programs such as free higher education, healthcare for all, and a reversal of climate change.
RoseAnn DeMoro, NNU's executive director, said that nurses often see the health results that a lifetime of accumulated debt, stress, and poverty cause.
"The nurses are here because we have fought long and hard for a Robin Hood Tax to fund education, healthcare, shoring up our environment, to fund everything that has to do with human suffering," said DeMoro. "Because what the nurses end up seeing at the bedside is all the unnecessary human despair and suffering when we don't have these things."
The country's young adults are currently drowning in about $1.3 trillion of student loan debt that is borrowed at rates often set higher than mortgage and car loan rates. This crushing debt is a huge burden that prevents many young people from advancing in their careers and lives, stopping them from buying a car, getting married, buying a house, or having children.
"The time is long overdue for the American Congress to start listening to the needs of the American people and not just Wall Street," said Sanders, flanked by students and registered nurses. "This is not a radical idea. Only in a Congress dominated by Wall Street and big money is this considered a radical idea."
Link to press conference recording: https://www.robinhoodtax.org/livestream
Nurses show their support for the Robin Hood Tax.
A huge student loan industry, as well as the federal government, has sprung up to service and profit off this need for loans, and student loans are currently bought and sold just like toxic mortgage debt was before the mortgage bubble burst in 2008. Some economists believe another bubble has ballooned around student debt, and is poised to pop soon, as well.
Sanders pointed out that many European nations make public secondary learning free for all qualified and willing students. Last year, Germany eliminated tuition at its public colleges. Denmark not only makes college free, but pays students to attend. In Sweden and Finland, public colleges are not only free to citizens but foreign students. Even in the United States, many public universities just a couple generations ago used to be free or at least very low cost.
Contrast that to today, when Sanders said that he cannot go anywhere in Vermont without parents coming up to him to discuss this crisis. "They come up to me and say, 'This is crazy,'" recounted Sanders. "The other day I talked to a young doctor who told me her crime, the crime of becoming a general practitioner, was $300,000 of student debt."
Some students at the press conference testified to not only the burden of graduating with major student loans, but how difficult it was to not be able to focus on their college studies while they were working two, three, four jobs to make ends meet - even with loans.
"While I was in school, I worked multiple jobs and often did not know whether I would have enough money to return to school the next semester," said Alexandra Flores-Quilty of the United States Student Association, a group that advocates for students. She graduated late from the University of Oregon and now owes about $20,000 in student loans as well as $30,000 to her single mom. "Education is the foundation of any country. A free education means a free society. We need Sen. Sanders legislation to make sure that education is a right, not a privilege."
Octavia Savage, a recent accounting graduate from Bloomfield College, said that she worked day and night to afford college, on top of student loans. "When applying for college, the most important concern about college was, 'How am I going to pay for school?'" said Savage, who worked in the college library, at UPS, at Sprint, and at Wal-Mart to make ends meet and still graduated with $26,000 in debt. "Students shouldn't have to drown in debt to get the education they need to survive."
NNU's DeMoro added, "People say, why are the nurses supporting a Robin Hood Tax? Because they experience despair and human suffering with every shift that is completely unnecessary."
The U.S. Robin Hood Tax would set a 0.5% tax on the trading of stocks, 50 cents on every $100 of trades, and lesser rates on trading in bonds, derivatives and currencies in the U.S. It marks the return of a tax on financial transactions in place in this country during the years 1914 to 1966. Some form of the financial tax is in place today in more than 40 countries. Who's behind it? We are Nobel Prize-winning economists, former US Vice Presidents and founders of Microsoft. We are Ronald Reagan's Budget Director, the UN's Secretary General and the Archbishop of Capetown. We are union members, nurses, small business owners, community organizers, faith leaders, AIDS activists, environmentalists, movie stars and musicians, and we are part of a global movement of more than 220 million people in 25 countries who are fighting for a Robin Hood Tax - a small tax on Wall Street trades. We are a force to be reckoned with, and we are demanding justice.
'Incredible': Leftists Poised to Win Most Seats in France as Voters Reject Fascists
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the leftist La France Insoumise party, called the election results an "immense relief for a majority of people in our country."
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
Preliminary results from France's parliamentary election on Sunday show that strategic collaboration between the left and allies of President Emmanuel Macron has succeeded in preventing Marine Le Pen's fascist National Rally from winning an absolute majority.
According to projections released shortly after polls closed, Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP)—a coalition of left-of-center parties formed ahead of the snap elections to counter the far-right—is on track to secure the largest number of seats in parliament. The Financial Timesreported that NFP is expected to win "anywhere from 170 to 215 seats," while Macron's centrist alliance was "running close behind, with pollsters predicting ranges of 140 to 180 seats, a big drop from the roughly 250 they held in the outgoing National Assembly."
Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) is expected to finish third with between 120 and 150 seats.
Following the first round of voting last weekend, hundreds of candidates from Macron's alliance and parties within the NFP dropped out of three-way runoff races in a strategic bid to defeat RN candidates—an effort that appears to have paid off in a major way.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the leftist La France Insoumise party, called the early election results an "immense relief for a majority of people in our country" and urged Macron to resign and allow the left to govern.
"The united left saved the republic," said Mélenchon. "It can begin the ecological and social work that our people, our time, our world, [and] our Europe so badly need."
The Associated Pressnoted that the leftist leader's speech "is an indication of what's ahead" as coalitions prepare to jockey over who will lead the government.
"He says he will not negotiate with Macron, and Macron has refused to negotiate with him," AP added.
Israeli Newspaper Confirms IDF Employed 'Hannibal Directive' on October 7
IDF soldiers were reportedly ordered to "turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone."
The Israeli newspaper Haaretzreported Sunday that Israel's military repeatedly employed a protocol known as the "Hannibal Directive" during the October 7 Hamas-led attack in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers—even if it meant putting the lives of army captives and civilians at risk.
Haaretz found based on documents and interviews with soldiers and senior Israeli officers that Hannibal—an operational order developed in 1986 that "directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity" by enemy militants—was used "at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, potentially endangering civilians as well."
During the first hours of the Hamas-led attack, according to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers were given an order: "Not a single vehicle can return to Gaza."
"At this point, the IDF was not aware of the extent of kidnapping along the Gaza border, but it did know that many people were involved," the newspaper continued. "Thus, it was entirely clear what that message meant, and what the fate of some of the kidnapped people would be."
The full text of the Hannibal Directive has never been published. But according to a Haaretz story about the directive from more than two decades ago, part of it states that "during an abduction, the major mission is to rescue our soldiers from the abductors even at the price of harming or wounding our soldiers."
"Light-arms fire is to be used in order to bring the abductors to the ground or to stop them," it adds. "If the vehicle or the abductors do not stop, single-shot (sniper) fire should be aimed at them, deliberately, in order to hit the abductors, even if this means hitting our soldiers. In any event, everything will be done to stop the vehicle and not allow it to escape."
Israeli authorities have acknowledged "multiple incidents of our forces firing on our forces" on October 7. In April, Israel's military said that one of the hostages taken by Hamas militants during the October attack was likely killed by Israeli helicopter fire.
But the IDF, which has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza since October 7, has declined to say whether Hannibal was used during the Hamas-led attack.
Haaretz stressed Sunday that it "does not know whether or how many civilians and soldiers were hit due to these procedures, but the cumulative data indicates that many of the kidnapped people were at risk, exposed to Israeli gunfire, even if they were not the target."
The first of the known uses of the Hannibal Directive on October 7 came "when an observation post at the Yiftah outpost reported that someone had been kidnapped at the Erez border crossing, adjacent to the IDF's liaison office," Haaretz reported.
"'Hannibal at Erez' came the command from divisional headquarters, 'dispatch a Zik.' The Zik is an unmanned assault drone, and the meaning of this command was clear," the newspaper found.
The directive was employed at least two additional times during the attack, according to Haaretz, which cited one unnamed source in Israel's Southern Command as saying that the country's forces were instructed to "turn the area around the border fence into a killing zone, closing it off toward the west."
The newspaper continued:
One case in which it is known that civilians were hit, a case that received wide coverage, took place in the house of Pessi Cohen at Kibbutz Be'eri. Fourteen hostages were held in the house as the IDF attacked it, with 13 of them killed. In the coming weeks, the IDF is expected to publish the results of its investigation of the incident, which will answer the question of whether Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram, the commander of Division 99 who was in charge of operations in Be'eri on October 7, was employing the Hannibal procedure. Did he order the tank to move ahead even at the cost of civilian casualties, as he stated in an interview he gave later to The New York Times?
Haaretz's reporting comes weeks after a United Nations investigation concluded that the IDF "had likely applied the Hannibal Directive" on October 7, killing more than a dozen Israeli civilians.
Sanders on Biden: 'He's Gotta Do Better'
"The American people want an agenda for the next four years that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. "And frankly, I don't think the president has brought that agenda forward."
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that President Joe Biden must do a better job articulating a positive agenda to the American public as he faces mounting calls to step aside following his disastrous debate performance against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
Sanders (I-Vt.) has thus far declined to join the growing chorus demanding that Biden drop his reelection bid, but the senator acknowledged in an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation" that the president had a "terrible" debate and that concerns about his performance are "legitimate."
"I think he's done better since, and I think he's gotta do better again," said Sanders, who competed against Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. "But I think most importantly now, this is not a beauty contest, it's not a Grammy award contest. It is a contest of who stands with the vast majority of the people of this country—the elderly, the children, the working class, the poor. And that candidate is obviously Joe Biden."
.@SenSanders says he will not participate in a conversation organized by a fellow Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, to discuss the future of the party’s presidential ticket: "No, I have not been invited. No, I will not attend." He describes Warner as "one of the more… pic.twitter.com/us4WCp2UkE
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 7, 2024
Sanders said he would not take part in a conversation organized by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), who is reportedly trying to bring together a group of senators to urge Biden to drop out of the 2024 race and clear the way for an alternative candidate to take on Trump in November as the president faces a revolt from donors and Democratic lawmakers.
"Mark is a friend of mine. I like Mark," the Vermont senator said when asked about the effort. "He's one of the more conservative members of the Democratic caucus. No, I have not been invited. No, I will not attend."
Sanders implored Biden, who has insisted he intends to stay in the race, to recognize that touting his first-term achievements will not be enough to defeat Trump, whom the senator described as "the most dangerous president in the history of this country."
"The American people are hurting," said Sanders. "Sixty percent of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, 25% of elderly people are trying to get by on $15,000 a year or less. The American people want an agenda for the next four years that speaks to the needs of the working class of this country. And frankly, I don't think the president has brought that agenda forward."
"He has gotta say, 'I am prepared to take on corporate greed, massive income and wealth inequality, and stand with the working class of this country,'" Sanders continued. "He does that, he's gonna win and win big."
"President Biden can clearly defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in the history of this country," @SenSanders says, but he says Biden's campaign needs to address how "the American people are hurting" economically.
"The American people want an agenda for the next… pic.twitter.com/tyilv7OPTn
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 7, 2024
Sanders' "Face the Nation" appearance came less than 48 hours after Biden's televised and closely watched ABC Newsinterview, which did little to assuage the concerns of those calling on the president to step aside.
The New York Timesreported based on recent interviews with more than 50 Democrats that "growing swaths" of the party now believe "that by remaining on the ticket, the president is jeopardizing their ability to maintain the White House and threatening other candidates up and down the ballot."
"Certainly, many leading Democrats have publicly expressed support for the president, or remained quiet about any misgivings," the Times noted Sunday. "One senior White House official, however, who has worked with Mr. Biden during his presidency, vice presidency, and 2020 campaign, said in an interview on Saturday morning that Mr. Biden should not seek reelection."