Bernie Sanders reveals national rent control plan in Las Vegas

[TexasTowelie]

Vermont senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders returned to Las Vegas on Saturday to unveil his plan to tackle affordable housing through a $2.5 trillion national rent control initiative and major investment for building new homes and updating public housing.

“I don’t have to tell anyone here today that we have an affordable housing crisis in Nevada, Vermont and all over this country that must be addressed,” Sanders told about 100 people at Plumbers, Pipefitters and Service Technicians Local 525. “This is a national emergency.”

Sanders’ proposal is perhaps the most ambitious — and costly — plan to address homelessness, rising rent costs and housing shortages yet put forward by any of the 2020 Democratic hopefuls.

He predicted his critics would attack the cost, particularly of the rent control initiative. It requires $2.5 trillion over the next decade, which Sanders said he would raise by taxing the top one-tenth of 1 percent of earners. He stressed that 99.9 percent of taxpayers would not see any increase as a result of this plan.

Read more: https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/bernie-sanders-reveals-national-rent-control-plan-in-las-vegas-1848660/

[Turbineguy]

1. That should be helpful

for Trump.

[Croney]

2. Taxing the top one-tenth of one percent would be nice.

National rent control? What a nightmare of an idea. The bureaucracy alone would eat up the extra tax.

[Hortensis]

4. Pelosi plans to tax them out of existence, or least out

of so much power that the very existence of the new centimillionaire and billionaire classes is incompatible with democracy of, by and for the people.

But the various proposals for sacking that 0.1% to pay for huge new programs are adding up to a lot more than they can cover, or that we could cover with their-now-our wealth in good time.

Let's remember little issues like the coming mass unemployment as jobs continue to disappear. Hillary knew we needed some kind of universal basic income (never knew why Sanders rejected addressing that problem at that time, probably wants something bigger and more...universal). But we're running out of time.

How about retooling to fight the climate crisis? Much of those costs will be borne by business and individuals, but also huge amounts by government. Between the need to change almost everything we depend on for life and wellbeing and to rebuild better after every disaster, that alone threatens to impoverish our nation if not addressed very, very intelligently. A great opportunity to build better than ever for an era of unprecedented prosperity, or fail dreadfully.

The rest of our crumbling infrastructure anyone?

And all this while the Republicans have deliberately emptied our national piggybank and deliberately put us extremely deep in debt. We have to triage our crises, critical needs, and desirable improvements, hopefully using our lemons for to make lemon pies for all as FDR's generations did.

And in the meantime we have to watch out for extremists on the right who think what we need is a wealth-drive hierarchical society with an authoritarian boot on our necks and those on the left want to make us far more permanently "equal" than anyone ever wants to be -- both agreeing we handle freedom poorly and need others to take a great deal of that burden off us.

[Hortensis]

3. That should be helpful

for Biden and the rest.

Sanders grabbing the moment to propose universalist programs to be imposed on all. Pretty sure state governments would be fighting this power grab. Our federal government mostly influences the states by helping state and local governments, when its help is accepted (most often bribed to), and only to a very limited degree allowed by the constitution does it impose one way on all.

Back in the 1960s-70s Sanders advocated a long list of things to be seized for collective ownership, then when he wanted to run for congress he put it away. The Democratic Party's been fighting for universal healthcare for decades, and I think Sanders may be mistaking the nation's desire to meet that crying need for sympathy with his universalist, socialist ideals.

Ironic that he's running as a Democrat, even temporarily. Liberals are the originators and defenders of the principles of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. And we are the creators of pluralism in government, dispersed power exercised by people of varying beliefs who come together to achieve agreements.