Republican Hostage Taking

As you know, the right-wing extremists in the U.S. House of Representatives have shut down the government.  This is having a very painful impact on some 800,000 federal employees who have been furloughed and who are not receiving a paycheck, and upon many millions of Americans who rely on government services.

Bernie appeared on the Chris Hayes show last night, and talked about Republican hostage taking and blackmail -- and how the Republicans are attempting to annul the election which they lost last November.  Bernie warned about the terrible precedent that would be established if Democrats and the President caved in to this extremist minority.  Today, it is the Affordable Care Act that they want repealed.  Tomorrow, it could be Social Security, Medicare, or the Environmental Protection Agency.

Our job is to defeat Republican extremism -- and move forward on an agenda supported by the middle class and working families of our country. We must fight for millions of new jobs, raising the minimum wage, college affordability, overturningCitizens United, and many other issues which are of enormous significance to the American people.

 

“I think it’s enormously important that the American people understand that this debate is not just about Obamacare. What this debate is about is the Koch Brothers’ dream of repealing virtually every major piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years. And if we can make the American people understand that it’s not just Obamacare – these guys want to abolish the minimum wage, they want to end Social Security, they want to do away with Medicare as we know it. This is an extreme right-wing agenda. And if they get away with what they are trying to do now, in two weeks they’ll be back with the debt ceiling, threatening the financial stability of the entire world, unless they get more.”