In the shadow of an idled General Motors plant, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said that, as president, he would tear up the company’s federal contracts if it continued to outsource jobs.
“If entities like General Motors think that they can throw workers out on the street while they’re making millions in profits and then move to Mexico and pay people there starvation wages and then line up to get federal government contracts, well, they got another thing coming,” the senator said during a forum at Lordstown High School in Warren, Ohio.
Sanders issued the threat just miles from a GM facility that, until last month, employed more than 1,400 people assembling Chevy Cruze sedans. After the Lordstown plant powered down, President Donald Trump lashed out at GM, the United Automobile Workers and the union’s local president — setting off a fierce national debate over labor, trade, outsourcing and automation.
When Sanders came to town, he focused his ire squarely on the company, noting that it had taken tens of billions of dollars in government bailouts during the 2008 recession.
“Our job now is to tell them, whether they like it or not, they will be good corporate citizens,” he said.
Sanders’ visit to northeastern Ohio came near the end of a five-state tour of the Rust Belt, from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania. At each presidential campaign stop, he railed against corporate greed and trade polices that he said hurt American workers.
During a rally the night before on the outskirts of Detroit, Sanders called on Trump to abandon the deal he reached last year with Canada and Mexico to update the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Today I challenge Donald Trump: For once in your life, keep your campaign promises,” he said Saturday at Macomb Community College. “Go back to the drawing board on NAFTA. Do not send this treaty to Congress, unless it includes strong and swift enforcement mechanisms to raise the wages of workers and to prevent corporations from outsourcing American jobs to Mexico.”
At the Lordstown forum, which was organized by the American Federation of Teachers, Sanders cranked up his rhetoric another notch.
“Today I say to Donald Trump, you know, you are a really tough guy. You were prepared to shut down the federal government,” he said. “Well, let’s see how tough you are! Tell General Motors today: no more federal contracts.”
The crowd of teachers and community members gave Sanders a standing ovation and chanted, “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!”
“There you are, Mr. President,” the senator continued. “I know how tough you are, snatching babies from the arms of their mothers. Well, let’s see how tough you are taking on Wall Street and corporate America!”
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Be vewwy vewwy quiet ……. I’m hunting tax wetuwns.
Ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ……. tappa tappa tappa ……… tappa tappa tap …….
Whoa – what’s that?
sounds like a typewriter ….. tappa tappa tax return tapping late into the night o’er on Killarney Drive …….
Bernie’s not home ….. he’s out on campaign walk about in the Rust Belt:
Today I challenge Donald Trump: For once in your life, keep your campaign promises. ….”
Bernie’s campaign promise: – “I will release ten full years of tax returns. Certainly before April 15, 2019”
……. tappa tappa ….. S’gotta be Jane, keepin’ the lamps trimmed and burnin’ back home ….. typin’ and tax filin’ late into the nite…… ’cause according to Bernie in 2016 – the last time he refused to release his tax returns – Jane does all their tax filings these days ….. tappa tappa tap ………….
I swear Jane must be the busiest ex-ex-college president of ’em all in the presidential steno-pool …… a busy ex-queen bee buzzin’ and a typin’ late into the night …………………………….. ten years of Bernie ‘n Jane’s tax returns …………………………. as solemnly promised before April 15th ……………….. not like that lyin’ lounge lizard Donald Trump ……………………………………….
Any minute now ……………………………………….. as promised …………………. a decade of Bernie and Jane’s tax returns ………….. can you feel it? ………………….. I can …………………… though the anticipation is like to damn near be killin’ me ……………………ain’t nuthin’ more sacred than Bernie’s solemn sworn word to the peoples ……………………….. I can feel it in the air tonight ………………… any minute now …………….. hold on ……………………
Yup still waiting with baited breath..never saw his taxes back in 2015, cuz Janey hadn’t finished them yet. He said the same thing on the news, Janey was crossing the T’s and doting the eyes, Right… making up the tax papers saying they don’t have that much money. In other words, FUDGING THE BOOKS…!!!! So now that the socialist is running around the country that means he’s still getting a senators salary for doing nothing… Nothing new here…move on don’t go behind that curtain, there’s nothing to see. don’t ask questions that I don’t like cuz I will pout…Yup bernie you say the say thing every election yrs.. Bernie take your wife and go live in Venezuela, the country that you think is so awesome…
Tax returns tax returns, tax returns. Would it be helpful if I posted my tax returns so that everyone can see that even though I make OK money I still cant afford the cost of living in this area?
Bernie how about you live up to your promise and release those tax returns. If you do not then it is just another example of your hypocrisy
Hey Bernie, “the Donald” has been working on these issues right from the start. Why is he being slowed down? PS: wages in other countries are different than wages in America. Oh, and wages in America differ from state to state. But you knew that right?
Well well, a bit premature in your criticisms, eh? Not to mention wrong and irrelevant, as usual… and it’s “bated” not “baited”, as in shorthand for “abated”… but you knew that too, just like everything else, right DB? Turns out his income spiked for only 1 year due to the book but it was less than 1/2 of that last year. He works darn hard, until the present fool in the White House, and he deserves everything he gets.
“He works darn hard, until the present fool in the White House, and he deserves everything he gets.”
Whether he works hard or not is questionable. If it’s judged by how much time he actually spends in the Senate representing the people of Vermont, then the answer is no.
And I think you meant “unlike,” not “until.”
And as for deserving everything he gets, I’d agree that he deserves every bit of the grief he gets for being a damn hypocrite about “millyunayuhs.”
Thanks.
@ Ralph Firesweep when did you become the spelling police for seven days??? Hope they pay you well.!! Here’s one for you… gormless… might fit…
and as the southern people would say “Bless You.”