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Why is this politician labeled a 'socialist' for pointing out the obvious?

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The War on Poverty was declared over 40 years ago by a liberal Democrat president. The Great Society was going to eliminate poverty. New Orleans pre-Katrina was a prime example. Afterall, N'Orleans had a Democrat mayor for those 40 years, and Loosianna (sic) had a Democrat governor for those 40 years. Congress had a Democrat majority for 30 of those 40 years. So there is no poverty in America specially N'Orleans cuz we know how well those liberal Democrats understand about winning wars.

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I have admired Bernie Sanders and the work he has done as an independent Congressman for many years. For the record he is a registered independent and not a registered socialist. Bernie poses an important question.

"I wonder how the Bush administration can tell us how great the economy is doing when more than 5 million Americans have slipped into poverty since the President has been in office, including over 1 million children. "

As much as I hate to admit this, Bush and/or his administration is not responsible for making more poor people and getting rid of our middle class. Even though Bush may like to take credit for 'how great the economy is’ the truth is he can neither take the blame or the credit.

The simple fact is the President, as powerful as he is, does not write the laws that determine who shall live and who shall die. Who shall profit and who shall not. Our government gives that power to Congress and Congress alone. Only Congress writes laws. And it is the laws that distribute the wealth in this country. So how the wealth of this nation is distributed is based solely and entirely on the laws Congress writes.

Congress writes the IRS Code, banking and finance codes, credit card law, FCC fines fees and penalties code, Health and Welfare laws, you name it and Congress, not the President signs, seals and deliveries who pays what when where and how. The only thing that can cure poverty is money in the form of discretionary income. It is not enough to have enough money to pay for the bare necessities. There has to be discretionary income, something left over to save, invest, purchase power. Congress mandates poverty by the laws it writes about certain people’s discretionary income by imposing fees, taxes, and penalties on it. This insures that lower income is never able to attain anything more than bare necessities without additional undo hardships.

As Bernie pointed out there are millions of poor people who do not have enough to eat or a home to call their own. By the same token there are a million laws written by Congress giving special status to certain people at the expense of poor who bare the burden. A good example is interest rates on credit cards. How much interest do members of Congress pay on their credit cards? Try 8%. Why don't they pay what everyone else pays? Simple. They write the laws. A person who works for minimum wage gets a cash advance on their paycheck. They pay 400% interest on that advance. Why? Because Congress, not the President, writes the laws that allows certain businesses to do this. Clearly this is unfair. But still it is just one example of how much control and power lawmakers have. As lawmakers the law doesn’t have to be fair, or right or even legal. They write what is legal. Look at the Patriots Act what is that, legal?

I am sure this President is delighted that Congress is doing this and maybe Congress does it to please the President I am not sure which but it does not matter. Congress, not the president is the sole exclusive owner of the purse strings.

Real Estate Law, Interest rates, veteran’s benefits, social security benefits, Congress, Congress, Congress. After Congress is done with you the State lawmakers get a shot. They write more laws on how money from citizens of a state is collected and distributed. Then local governments have a say on what you pay in the form of taxes, fees, and penalties on everything from the air you breathe to the shirt on your back. It’s all about the laws. And Legislatures, at the Federal, state and local level are the only ones that write the laws that govern who pays what, when where and how.

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