 Bernie Sanders |
Bernie Sanders appeared on a Fox News town hall last night, much to the chagrin of Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez. More Democrats should follow his path to Fox.
The Democratic-Socialist Senator hit the ball out of the park, earning strong support from the Bethlehem, Pa., audience for his Medicare-for-All healthcare plan and shaming Fox for the network's kid glove treatment of president Trump.
After Sanders admitted that Americans would have to "pay more taxes" to support his healthcare plan, Fox co-host Bret Baier decided to poll the audience on Bernie's health plan. It backfired big time.
Baier first asked the crowd if they are insured via their employer and then if they would be willing to switch to the Medicare-for-All plan. The audience enthusiastically embraced Sander's plan with whoops and hollers.
On taxes, Sanders and his wife, Jane, paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on 2018 income of $561,293. They earned more than $1M due to income from the sale of Bernie's book, "Our Revolution."
Baier asked, "When you wrote the book and made the money, isn't that the definition of capitalism and the American Dream?" Replied Sanders, "No. What we want is a country in which everyone has an opportunity. A lot of people don't have college degrees. A lot of people are not US senators."
Sanders said he wrote a pretty good book, which was a bestseller all over the world, and he made money on it. "If anybody thinks I should apologize for writing a bestselling book, I'm sorry, I'm not going to do it."
Noting that he paid taxes on what he and Jane owed, the Senator challenged Fox to ask Trump how much he paid in taxes. "President Trump watches your network a little, right? Hey president Trump, my wife and I just released 10 years, please do the same," said Sanders.
The president was elected in 2016 without releasing his taxes, which were and apparently are still being audited, even though an audit has zippo to do with a person making his taxes public.
It will be a different ballgame in the 2020 campaign when inquiring minds demand that the president release his taxes They will want to know how much Trump benefitted from his tax cut scam that showered breaks on corporations and his pals at Mar-a-Lago.
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