Bernie Hates You

You know you are having too much success with what you are doing if a bunch of billionaire hedge funders create a new SuperPAC just so they can run attack ads on you.

So this new Person (remember, corporations are people too...), named Future 45 (I do not know why that has not made the list of most popular baby names), has created an ad.  It's not a particularly good one:

                   

BUT it does hit a bunch of trigger words that people think make it a good ad:

• STAGNATING incomes
• PRICES RISING
• WEAK ECONOMY

ergo, Bernie wants

• To raise the minimum wage to $15/hr, which HURTS SMALL BUSINESS
• HIGHER TAXES on banks and corporations (read: "The Good Guys aka Job Creators") that would KILL JOBS
• FREE (read: "Takers") college and health care for all, paid for by RAISING TAXES (verified in the ad by playing the first four (detail-less) seconds of a minute long detailed answer to a question)

Translation: Bernie wants to hurt Small Business and kill jobs.  Bernie wants to hurt people.  Bernie hates people.  Bernie hates YOU.  Why would you ever vote for someone that HATES YOU? Don't vote for Bernie.

The sober reality:

• $15/hr may be a bit high, but at least tie the minimum wage to inflation or the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  So $12-13/hr.  It's called a Cost Of Living Adjustment, (COLA).  We are supposed to be keeping up with the COL, but the COL left wages behind a long time ago.

• Higher taxes on banks and corporations Do.Not.Kill.Jobs.  We are primarily a consumer-based economy.  If people buy more (because they have more money to do so, see Minimum Wage above), companies will try to produce more to keep up with demand, and hire more people, as needed, to do so.  Not complicated, really.

• Consumers are the job creators, not corporations, no matter what those CEOs are espousing from the deck of their 200-foot yachts.  Higher taxes do not kill jobs any more than lower taxes increase them.  Lower taxes only increases corporations' bottom lines, which maintains or increases their P/E ratio, which maintains or raises stock values.  They are not going to screw with that by hiring more people just because they got tax breaks.  Hiring statistics going back decades have proven this, no matter which party the president has been in.  Productivity was through the roof back in the days of the 80-90% tax rates.  The economy was booming, and families still made a decent income.  This fallacy of "higher taxes kills jobs" has been way overplayed, for a very long time, despite evidence to the contrary, yet it is always presented as innovative thinking.

• Free College:  I do not agree with this at face value.  If it is going to be done at all, it should be merit-based.  Tax payers should not be paying for substandard students.  If you get good grades, then tax payer funded college that educates students so they can contribute to the country's economy might be worth it.  But it should be renewable annually.  A student's first year is covered.  If they get good grades, they get a second year.  And then a third, and so on.  But if their grades are crap?  They have to pay for the next year - and if they bring their grades up, they can file for reimbursement of costs.  College is an investment.  If students can not prove they are worth the investment with solid effort, they do not deserve it.  I also think students should have to contribute to an area of the economy that the country lacks, that their degree can contribute to.  We pay for your college?  You can still hunt for the job you want, but you help us out in this area part-time for a year or two.  And employers are not allowed to hold that requirement against a prospective employee.

• Health Care:  Bernie wants Medicare for all.  The following information is taken directly from Bernie's campaign site:

         The typical family earning $50,000 per year:

                  •  Now pays an average of $4,955 in premiums

                  •  Another $1,318 in deductibles for care that is not covered

                  •  And the covered costs aren't covered until the deductible is met.

         The same family would only pay $466 annually into the Medicare for all program

         Businesses would save more than $9,400 per year, from an average cost per worker 

         of $12,591 to just $3,100.

         Medicare for all would be paid for with:

                  •  2.2 % health care premium (per rules for federal income taxes)

                  •  6.2 % payroll tax on employers (the $3,100 mentioned above)

                  •  Estate tax on wealthiest 1%

                  •  Reducing outlays for taxpayer-supported health care expenditures

          So everyone would be covered, taxes raised a little bit, but insurance premiums and 

         deductibles eliminated, leaving families with an extra $6,000-ish dollars per year in 

         their pockets on average.  And that would be BAD.  'Cause Bernie hates people.

         Bernie hates YOU.

And remember, these people are not attacking feasibility.  They are attacking intentions.  So whatever you agree or disagree with, Bernie's intentions at least seem to be looking out for everyone's financial well-being.  Whether it can be done is a whole other debate.

What are your intentions, Future - ahem - Mr. 45?  Whatever the hell your name is.