Senators Sanders and Warren in 2016?

The GOP has often accused President Obama of appeasing foreign leaders abroad, but the reality is, Obama has been trying too hard (and wasted a lot of time in the process) in trying to appease the GOP leaders here at home.

"There are no red states or blue states, just the United States."

Obama had wanted to appear to be more reasonable and willing to compromise, while attempting to soften the political and ideological divide between the American people. But that wasn't his job. Senator Bernie Sanders says the Democratic members of Congress were most certainly not without fault either.

Obama wasn't elected with a promise to cut Social Security using chained-CPI (which thankfully, was spared in the last budget deal). And Obama wasn't elected to "fast track" a new trade agreement (TPP) to lower wages, offshore more jobs, and give corporations more control over our democracy. If the American people had wanted those things, they could have just as easily have voted for Mitt Romney.

The American people didn't elect Obama to agree with the Republicans "half the time". He wasn't elected to be a "centrist Democrat", let alone a "moderate Republican". He wasn't elected to "compromise" with anyone.

Obama was elected to be a "progressive" Democrat --- a populist --- a man of the people. The American people wanted a Deal for All, a Budget for All, a Back to Work Budget or a People's Budget --- not a "grand deal" with the Republicans.

And the major media hasn't helped either. Paul Krugman writes a good piece that's related to this, about how those in the media have been taking political sides, rather than just reporting the facts. (Follow the links that Krugman included in his post.)

In a recent op-ed piece by Senator Bernie Sanders (who as an Independent, votes with Democrats), says the Walton family now owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans, and 95 percent of all new income has gone to the top 1 percent. So what percent of all annual income goes to the 6 Walmart heirs?

It was reported that Christie Walton earns at least $1.2 million every day, just from Walmart stock dividends. So for the 6 heirs, that could be a total annual income of $2.6 billion a year, while their employees average $8.82 an hour. That's why 50% of all wage earners in the U.S. only makes $27,500 or LESS every year.

But after 5 years in office (and after the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress for the first two years), we're still stuck at $7.25 an hour for a minimum wage --- and we still haven't had any tax reform. (In 2010 Obama compromised once, extending the Bush tax cuts for 2 more years in exchange for extending federal unemployment benefits for one more year.)

Bernie Sanders goes on to say that the top 1 percent owns 38 percent of the financial wealth of the nation, while the bottom 60 percent owns all of 2.3 percent.

According to Pew Research, income inequality has returned to levels not seen since the 1920s. In 1928, the top 1 percent of families received 23.9 percent of all pre-tax income, while the bottom 90 percent received 50.7 percent. Today, we're back to approximately these same patterns of income distribution.

According to a recent Bloomberg National Poll, Americans -- by a margin of about two to one (64 percent to 33 percent) -- believe the U.S. no longer offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead. Obama saved the big banks and corporations, but THE PEOPLE have been stuck in economic Limbo.

Bernie Sanders also says we need to expand our efforts at "worker-ownership", because employees will not be sending their jobs to China or Vietnam when they own the places in which they work.

Bernie also notes that millions of college students are leaving school deeply in debt, while many others have given up on their dream of a higher education because of the cost. CNN reported:

"Twenty-five percent of Americans that start high school do not graduate. Entering the workforce without a high school diploma means an unemployment rate three-and-a-half times the rate of those with a college degree. And for those who do find full-time work, they on average earn less than half of what a college graduate makes each year.

Thirty percent of high school graduates do not go on to college right after graduation. In the workforce, a high school graduate earns on average more than someone without a diploma, but still only 60 percent of what a college graduate makes each year."

Yesterday the Fox News multi-millionaire John Stossel said that he's worried about his retirement. But according to Bernie Sanders, half of Americans have less than $10,000 in savings; and two-thirds of seniors rely on Social Security for more than half of their income.

Read Bernie Sander's article: 2014: Seize the Moment. I would much rather vote for Bernie Sanders as our next President, and NOT Hillary Clinton. And unlike our current President, Bernie Sanders wouldn't appease the GOP leaders --- and the American people can finally get someone they actually voted for.

Now if we can only get more Americans to stop voting against their own best interests, by voting only for "progressive" Democrats --- like Senator Elizabeth Warren.