So,this week, Senator Bernie Sanders (Democratic Socialist – America) put a “hold” on the renomination of Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke; as this LA Times story notes, “Sanders’ move … is expected to slow but not derail Bernanke’s confirmation. What it is more likely… is that the Vermont senator could add political wind to efforts to force the Fed to open its books to public scrutiny.” And good.
Of course, criticism and hostility toward the Federal Reserve, especially under recent leadership, is widespread and bipartisan in the House of Representatives (in fact Dr. Ron Paul is in the clip below) – but in the millionaires’ gentelman’s club called the Senate… not so much.
The “hold” – “the prerogative of a single senator seeking to stop any action in its track” – has been used constantly but anonymously this past year by Republican senators who don’t like a bill or nominee for one reason or another – and Harry Reid inexplicably allows these anonymous holds. But it is not the style of America’s Senator Bernie Sanders to operate in the shadows. He explains:
“If the taxpayers of this country have spent $700 billion bailing out Wall Street because they are too big to fail, why is it that three out of the four largest financial institutions today are bigger than they were before the bailout?” Sanders asked Bernanke in a hearing last March. “Why is it OK that four large financial institutions write half the mortgages, two-thirds of the credit cards in this country and control 40% of the deposits. The bottom line to me is that the middle class in this country is collapsing. … We have seen this trend downward for many, many years. We need a new direction.”
Well, I sure can’t do better at explaining these issues than the great Dylan Ratigan in the clip below featuring Socialist Bernie and Libertarian Republican Dr. Paul. Meanwhile you should try to hear Thom Hartmann’s “Brunch With Bernie” every Friday morning from 9-12, on KTLK AM 1150, LA’s Progressive Talk Station. And if you like what Bernie is doing, let him know HERE that you “have his back!”
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