Letters
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- Written by: Tricia VanDenBerghe
He is currently leading in both New Hampshire and Iowa and is in a good position to continue his sweep through the rest of the states. The more people get to know Bernie, the better they like him!
In 2016, there was a blackout of Bernie in the news and yet he still went from totally unknown to almost winning. Bernie was and is the people’s candidate. He doesn't cater to big business while pretending to be for the people. He IS for the people. He has sponsored Medicare for All for years. Health care is a right we all deserve.
The people of this country want change. They are tired of the same old promises and have the feeling that all politicians are dishonest and bought off. As long as the wealthy and big business are allowed to pour millions into elections and they are allowed to lobby our elected representatives, the wealthy will be the ones who benefit the most from our government. We need to take our democracy back.
We want our government to be of the people and for the people. Billionaires got trillion dollar tax breaks because they bought our government. We must reverse that.
Bernie is the one candidate who will keep his word and make policies that reflect the needs of average Americans. He is the candidate supported by the unions. He is the candidate who gives faith to young voters. They too deserve a chance for a better life in these turbulent times.
Bernie is the honest, real-deal kind of person I and my boomer generation want to believe in. We need to get out there and vote for him. He has to win the primary, even though corporations and billionaires don't want it to happen.
Bernie Sanders is the man who can and will beat Donald Trump.
And while you are at it, vote for your progressive Democratic representatives, senators and governors. Let's turn the country and world around in 2020!
Tricia VanDenBerghe lives in Lucerne, California.
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- Written by: Chloe Karl
Bernie Sanders took the lead with 2016 legislation for the first federally funded affordable housing program funded in several decades. As a result, $905 million was invested from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac programs toward construction, rehabilitation and preservation of affordable housing.
Sanders’ current proposals address the need for millions of apartments and homes that will remain affordable in perpetuity and serve future generations. This process offers millions of good-paying jobs.
Additionally, Sanders’ plan is to invest $1.48 trillion over 10 years in the National Affordable Trust Fund to build, rehabilitate and preserve 7.4 million quality, accessible housing units. This fund mixes income developments.
Relevant to Lake County, his proposals include $500 million to build new affordable developments in rural areas and protect existing units from being converted to market-rate housing. Presently 7.7 million families in America are forced to pay more than half their limited incomes on rent even while eligible for Section 8 rental assistance.
Homeownership has not recovered from the 2008 housing crisis. Fair housing, public housing repairs and deep energy retrofits are included in the Sanders housing platform.
Careful study of housing proposals by other presidential candidates fails to convince this reader. Well-thought-out, serious financial approaches proposed by Sanders, encourage this voter that the radical change we need is possible.
Chloe Karl lives in Lakeport, California.
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- Written by: Jason Kishineff
In the last couple of years, we have found out that the Pentagon is missing $21 trillion, that we give billions of dollars in aid to countries that have universal health care and tuition-free college education (even though we go without those things ourselves), that the federal government paid salaries to Juan Guaido and his posse for their coup attempt (even kicking in a little extra for "democracy enhancement" training), the Afghanistan Papers showed us that the US was paying for schools that didn't exist, teachers that didn't exist, soldiers that didn't exist, and now we find out that Juan Guaido and his staff embezzled the humanitarian aid funds that we sent.
All of this while American families struggle to make it each month, millions of us going without health care and many of us going without homes.
And are we out in the streets complaining that our government is literally throwing away money instead of providing food to hungry children?
No! We aren't a country of complainers like France, which has been having Yellow Vest protests for 15 months. We suck it up. We self-sacrifice. And then we go back to our iPads or playoff football or whatever Kylie Jenner is wearing this week. Because that's what we do.
Why should we have health care when there are nonexistent children in Afghanistan who desperately need nonexistent schools? I mean somebody's got to pay those nonexistent teacher's salaries, and it's not like the Afghan government can afford it. Not after what we've done to their country.
Jason Kishineff lives in American Canyon, California. He is a Democratic Congressional candidate for California District 5.
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- Written by: John Tyler
I say reluctantly because, as good as this man is at selling the benefits of attending his beautiful, high-tech institution, there is very little chance that any of these students will be attending. The tuition for the 18-month course is $45,000.
If Bernie Sanders is elected president, he’s promised to make this type of trade school education free and fully available to any of my students with the drive and determination to take it. LLHS could easily send seven to ten students to UTI each year if this were the case, and what a difference that would make to our community.
A Sanders presidency would make traditional college tuition-free to all of our students here in Lake County who are overwhelmingly poor and would benefit the most from this type of program.
Bernie would also guarantee that our kids are not saddled with the crushing student debt currently burdening many of their parents and teachers. He will cancel the student debt and high-cost student loan programs burying millions of families across America and limit student loan interest to 1.88 percent. This is huge.
As an example: Together, my wife, who is also a teacher, and I pay $6,600 per year in an interest-only, student loan repayment program to the government so that we can have the credentials to teach children. And only a fraction of that is tax-deductible. We have to pay to teach.
Our students have to pay for college. Our individual citizens have to pay property tax and income tax and payroll tax to pay for schools.
Meanwhile, Amazon pays nothing. Goldman-Sachs pays nothing. Fed-Ex pays nothing … and they all want well-educated employees. This is just one example of the high cost of education.
It can all change with a Bernie Sanders presidency.
John Tyler lives in Kelseyville, California.
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