Bernie the Grand Illusion: Why I Would Not Vote for Him

When I look at what kind of candidate I want to vote for, there are three questions that I ask more than anything.  1)  Do they run a negative campaign?  2)  Do they run a campaign where they are doing what is best for the entire country and all of the people. 3) Is the person real or just saying stuff to get elected?  This is what true politicians need to do and understand when running.  I know people say I am dreaming but no one is going to tell me that this person is not our there.

When the campaign started for the 2016 election, the one thing I made sure I did that I had never done before was to become more informed about what was happening.  Not only about the candidates but about the agenda that was being pushed down our throats.

I knew Hillary Clinton was going to get attacked like she has been for 25 years and say the things she needed to for election.  I knew Trump was going to win because people do not listen to what his supporters are saying and some people like craziness.  Then came Bernie Sanders out of nowhere.  I knew from the beginning that he was going to create some havoc because this is what the country always looks for when the younger generation is seeing things for the first time.  We are thirsty for someone that we believe will fight for our country, the same thing happened with President Obama.

When Mr. Sanders started I figured maybe this was a candidate that I could get behind.  He was an underdog, he was fighting for things others were not talking about and he was inspiring people to rise up this electoral season.

However, as he talked he kept saying how much the rich were to blame for the issues of this country and how we don’t do enough for the poor.  He was trying to put more emphasis on the government giving us all of these benefits and basically telling us it was our duty to pay for it.

Then as each speech happened, I just kept hearing the same thing over and over, finally realizing that he is not thinking about the effects on the people he is suppose to be caring about.  I finally realized he was not talking about anything that was helping the type of person that I am.  I have been working for over 30 years, I have a degree that I worked for, I am a veteran of the Gulf War, I own my home, I make a good living, etc.  So by doing most of the things that Mr. Sanders wants to do, my paycheck will decrease by at least $650 per month with really no benefit to myself.  So why would I vote for this type of person?

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/3/25/11293258/tax-plan-calculator-2016

I want to help people as much as the next person but the more I found out about Sanders and listed to him, the more I realized that he is not the holy candidate everyone thinks he is.  He is an illusion of the candidate that we seem to want and even though behind the scenes he is not, we want to believe that he is.  He is using all of the tricks, Politics 101 while making himself look non establishment which to me is the worst kind of politician.

One could see the real Mr. Sanders come out with each primary/caucus that he lost.  Of course, it couldn’t be that people didn’t want to vote for him, it had to be voter fraud therefore the blame game.  Did anyone notice that in the states where he got his ass kicked he didn’t complain, mostly the South.  It didn’t dawn on people to check BEFORE the election to see what the rules were or even worse, that not everyone was a Bernie fan.

Already I was starting to stay away from Bernie but then I said maybe the agenda he is saying will still make me vote for him despite the fact that I see through the persona.  The more I listened to it, the more I realized it was not an agenda that was best for this country and ALL of the people in it.  It was an agenda that was best for Bernie and his supporters.

Let's start with the simple fact of using European countries as a blueprint for our country.  Why should we be a country that follows others?  For years, we have been the innovators of the world and now we need to follow other countries as a way of fixing our issues.  I am not saying that something’s other countries do isn’t good but not as a blueprint.

Besides most of these countries are only 1 tenth the size of the US in both mass and people and no one talked about the extreme and expensive task of making it happen here without talking about taxing the rich.  One thing that was also not brought up is the failure of these systems in other countries such as Venezuela.  If you are going to tell Americans to follow other countries you better be ready to be attacked by the ones that didn’t work.  He failed that one.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/6124/bernie-wont-answer-questions-about-venezuela-here-aaron-bandler

The real hot topic of single payer health system is also part of the fight.  The first issue I have is Bernie is spouting all of this but in 1993 he refused to vote for Hillary’s health care plan because it was not his.  We could have had affordable health care over 20 years ago and yet the one person who supposedly cares did not vote for it.

We are told that this will have to be paid for with a tax on companies and a tax on employees but that it will be minimal because premiums currently being paid for will be reduced.  This creates a problem with someone who is working without insurance they are now going to have to have their paycheck reduced when they did not before.  Of course, they will have health care but have less money.  The company also will have fewer profits.

Let’s look at how it will effect me.  I currently pay 25% of the health care premium offered which comes out to $124 per month.  That means my employer pays $372 per month.  Under the new program, I will pay $165 per month and my employer will pay $465 per month.  So that is $492 less I will get per year even before any other taxes take effect.  Then the company I work for will have $5,586 more in expense per year.  Now this may not sound like a lot but multiply that by only 10 employees, that is $55,000 less per year of profit or 1 person’s salary.

Some people say an advantage of single payer is that will be less expenses at hospitals because of overhead and inflated salaries.  However, those same people then become unemployed and since there will be no jobs available at other hospitals, they have to potentially find a different career.  Also what happens if people coming out of school do not want to become government employees and stop becoming doctors, won’t that create a shortage?

The final nail in this coffin for me is who will run this program.  We have seen already where the Affordable Health Care process has not been run well and now we are adding more government red tape to the process.  Not to mention how much power the government will now hold over the citizens which is something we are going to have to decide if we can live with.  Funny I never hear about this in any speeches or interviews.

http://www.medcohlth.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-single-payer-health-care/

How about the idea of free tuition?  I am all for people having an opportunity to better themselves by getting an education especially in a time when this is necessary for most jobs.  At the same time why should I have to pay for people to party at college?  I see no parameters for people that do not graduate or even worse do not get jobs in the field they got a degree in.  So I am paying taxes for someone to better their life but what happens if it does not?

It is said that this will be paid for by Wall Street but how can anyone think the middle class will not be effected by it?  Wall Street drives the economy whether we like it or not.  If taxes are applied on transactions, there will be less investment and this will cause things such as 401K’s to go down.  401K are used by the middle class.

Part of Bernie's plan also will make schools keep tenured professors at a 75% level so that means non tenured will be let go or even worse have a harder time finding a job.  Also, the federal government only takes 67% of the cost at the beginning with states taking the rest but after 6 years states are responsible for 100%.  This means states will now have to come up with billions of dollars as part of their budget to cover something they didn’t before.  I do not see that part of this plan being highlighted on social media or on signs when people are protesting.

http://www.americalostindelusion.com/past-discussions/archived-articles/2015/78-details-and-analysis-of-senator-bernie-sanders-s-tax-plan.html

The way Bernie really hits people is when he talks about helping the poor, saying the same thing everyone says that the poor need to have a livable wage.  I agree with this completely with people needing to make enough to not have to starve each night.  Where I have an issue is when was the last time a candidate actually went out and saw who the poor really was and why they were in the situation they were in.  Just throwing money at a problem really doesn’t solve it.

Poverty is defined by the government based on income level that will allow people to acquire the basics of life.  So a statistic is suppose to tell us a person’s real situation and how to fix it.

The government’s definition of poverty at its lowest level for a single person, it is $12,331 which equates to 5.92 per hour, this is below the minimum wage of $7.25.  So that means the minimum wage brings them above the poverty level by the government’s definition.  For a family of 3 with one person working, it is $19,078 which comes out to 9.00 an hour.  In this case the minimum wage is below the poverty level.

So the solution has been said to raise the minimum wage to $15 and people are actually out there fighting for this solution.  But in reality it does not help the people it is intended to help.  The livable wage in one county is different than in another county so $15 an hour will be different in those 2 counties.

Take one of the poorest counties in America, Rolette County in North Dakota:

                  1 Person Livable Wage 9.72 per hour                  
                                Poverty Wage  5.00 per hour
                      So it would only take $10.00 an hour for a livable wage.

                  Family of 3 (1 working person)  Livable Wage  18.31 per hour
                                                                     Poverty Wage  9.00 per hour
                      So the $15 an hour wage would not create a livable wage.

                 Single mother of 2  Livable Wage  $24.08 per hour
                                                Poverty Wage $9.00 per hour
                      So the $15 hour wage would not even close to a livable wage.

 This is one of the poorest counties in the country so you can imagine what one of the richest like Los Angeles is going to be.  There is more involved in a livable wage, like the high cost of rent, the high cost of taxes, the high cost of necessities, the high cost of life.  Where is the protesting of all of this?

http://livingwage.mit.edu/pages/about

Why would I vote for a candidate who honeymooned in Communist Russia and shouted ‘Death to the Yankees’ in Nicaragua?  Sounds like someone who doesn’t like this country so why should he be running it.

What about someone who says he fights against the military industrial complex but votes for the War in Afghanistan and NATO occupation in Serbia where tons of people died for ethnic cleansing.  A protest supporter who had war protestors arrested in his office.  One who was okay with the complex when the pentagon brought an F-35 project to his home state of Vermont.  Since Congress approves the budget, how many budgets were approved that raised the budget for the military?

How does an environmentalist supporter justify moving low level nuclear waste from his state of Vermont, then dumping it in Latino based Sierra Blanca Texas.  This has created all kinds of environmental issues.  When activists came to discuss he said he didn’t have time for them.  Guess there was no camera on him to spout his rhetoric.

He visited the border fence in Mexico saying we have to have reform to not divide families.  However, in 2007 and 2015 he voted against immigration reform based on the premise that it would lead to low level wages.

Even though he was a civil rights activist in the 60’s, there is no record of him having done anything in the area over the past 50 years.

He says we should do more for Native Americans, even visiting them during the campaign but there is no record of doing anything in his terms in Congress.

Mr. Sanders says he does not accept money from Super Pac’s yet the National Nurses United has donated over $1 million dollars to his campaign.  Now both Sanders and the United will say they do not think of themselves as a Super Pac but sorry to say that is how they are registered with the FEC.

How does a man who says he cares for the less fortunate ignore a major speaker of the handicapped?

https://shiksappeal.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/berned-by-bernie-sanders/

I am all for helping people in the country, in fact it is our duty as part of living here.  I am not trying to say that Mr. Sanders is a terrible person because people do things for different reasons and they make mistakes.

The issue I have is when someone who has built an illusion of being this great savior is in reality nothing but a person who has built his career doing the things opposite of what he is fighting for.  This makes the person non genuine even if others think he is.

https://www.quora.com/What-dirt-is-there-on-Bernie-Sanders/answer/Mark-Hughes-1?ref=fb

http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2016/5/19/this-ends-now-the-bernie-sanders-opposition-research-the-media-refuses-to-release#.V0D-j9Zd6_0.facebook

I may come off here as sounding selfish and maybe I am, part of all of us are selfish that is why we do many of the things we do.  However, I worked hard to be where I am today and if I am going to support others with that hard work, I want to know that it is going to help all people not just the ones we are told it will help.  Myself and the people like me should be included in that conversation, not just forgotten because we are no longer young and we haven’t reached Social Security yet.

This is obviously a personal opinion when it comes to this candidate and I would never push this agenda onto anyone else.  We all have our reasons for wanting to elect someone into office and we should stand by those reasons, I do.

In my reasoning, I want some reality, even if it is kind of hard to swallow sometimes.  Someone giving me an illusion of what he will be means that eventually that illusion goes away which usually brings more issues.  In the end, I believe the person I want is out there and definitely know it is not Mr. Sanders.

Bottom Line Society: Doing Good Comes with a Price

In today's society I think we fight alot to try to make things better, healthier and move environmentally safe. I think our forefathers would be very proud of us. However, I think what has always happened over the history of this country and what continues to happen today is that when we make changes, whether for the good or the bad, we never think that it effects us financially.

Now I am not saying that things should not be taken away from our society that may cause heath issues or is bad for the society as a whole. I just want us to understand as we go through financial crisis and such that it isn't always about Wall Street and political greed.

For my example, I am going to bring up something that really over the last twenty years has impacted a great part of this country: smoking. Almost every state has some kind of law about smoking in public places and work places. Now I know the main reason for this was for the health of the non smokers more than the smokers but it has effected us all.

So to begin with let's look at some numbers. The cigarette business was worth 614 BILLION dollars in 2009 worldwide, the biggest of which was China. The nine cigarette companies also combined to generate 160 billion dollars in tax revenue. For the purpose of my writing, I am going to concentrate on Philip Morris since they are a US based company. In 2008, Philip Morris had revenues of 64 Billion dollars, which represented about 16% of the market share globally. If you take 16% of the tax revenue that comes out to roughly 25 billion dollars that Philip Morris would generate.

There is not alot of data on how much right now the smoking laws have decreased smoking and cigarette purchases. So let's say for ease that it has caused an overall decrease of 10%, which is not hard to say really since prices as well as the laws I am sure would cause 1 out of every 10 smokers to quit or decrease.

So here are some of the what can happen when you decrease smoking or cigarette purchases by 10%:
A. Phillip Morris loses 6.4 billion dollars in revenue.
1) They do not make their estimates for Wall Street, thus making them less attractive to stock investors which then makes people sell their stock and reduces the stock price.
a) This of course then reduces stock options that some employees may have and also people that might invest in them as part of their 401K investment.
b) It can cause the Dow as a whole to reduce because Phillip Morris doesn't make their estimates which then has an effect on the entire US economy.

2) They decide they can make up the revenue overseas where smoking has not become as conservative as it has in the US.
a) This of course is another case of where a US company now starts to invest more in overseas operations, thus causing less revenue streams to be coming into the US.

3) They decide that they have to reduce their costs at the same rate that their revenue has decreased.
a) This means more people are now unemployed.
1. Now there are more people on unemployment
2. Less consumer purchases are now being made
3. People could lose their house.

B. The company's that supply Phillip Morris with supplies such as the cigarette packages, the tobacco, etc will also have to reduce their revenue to PM or find other places to sell to.

C. What about businesses that have to put the smoking bans into place, bars are the ones that they feel are hit the hardest.
1) Now the bars not only have to ban smoking but to keep their regulars they have to build a place where their customers can go and still follow the ban rules.
a) Of course, each moment that the patrons are out smoking is less time they are purchasing alcohol which reduces their revenue even more.
2) If the bar decides that they do not want to build a smoking area, they will most likely lose at least 50% of their patrons which they will have to make up for.
a) Now maybe the bar will get new customers but bars are built to bring in regular patrons with new ones being a luxury. Bringing back 50% of new customers is a tall order.


D. Let's talk about tax revenue since most of the price of cigarettes now is taxes.
1) This means that programs that depend on this revenue have to find the the revenue somewhere else or the program will be underfunded or worse can close down.
a) Of course, people again can lose their job.
b) Politicians depend on some of these programs to get elected.
c) It could mean that they tax something else that citizen's do not want taxed
d) It could mean that they will tax the citizen's directly to make up the difference.

E. So since we are talking about health improvement, we cannot disregard the health care part of this conversation. So let's say that now people, smokers and others, are now more healthy.
1) Obviously health care costs are reduced but do we think insurance companies are going to reduce our rates?
2) Of course doctors may have time to attend other patients that are needed but at the same time they may lose more revenue which means they may have to close up shop.
3) What about living longer? They may add slightly more to the social security pot but if they live longer they are most likely going to take more out of the pot and leave less for future generations.


So in the end, the 6.4 billion dollar decrease may actually be a bargain compared to what the real amount would be once you take everything into consideration. Now I am not saying that we should stop trying to stop smoking from happening and people should not live longer. All I am doing is showing a different aspect of the financial troubles in this country.

Maybe this is an extreme example but don't underestimate the effect of changing over from McDonald's to a healthier food source. Some of us may never see this underbelly unless our favorite bar closes down or a friend is laid off from work. We should always try to do what is best when we see something is bad for the country and it's citizens, but we need to understand that it always comes with a price. A price that eventually needs to be repaid.

http://www.tobacco-facts.net/2010/11/global-tobacco-industry-cigarette-cost
http://www.ehow.com/list_6791046_benefits-smoking-being-banned_.html