'We Must Not Accept This New Normal'

Senator Bernie Sanders:

We must not accept this economic 'new normal', by Bernie Sanders, guardian.co.uk: The front pages of American newspapers are filled with stories about how the US economy is recovering. ... But in the midst of this slow recovery, we must not accept a "new normal".

We must not be content with an economic reality in which the middle class of this country continues to disappear, poverty is near an all-time high and the gap between the very rich and everyone else grows wider and wider. ...

The American people get the economic realities. According to a Gallup poll, nearly six out of 10 believe that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people in the US, while only a third of Americans think the current distribution is fair. A record-breaking 52% of the American people believe that the federal "government should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich".

The United States Congress and the president must begin listening to the American people. While there clearly has been some improvement in the economy over the last five years, much more needs to be done. We need a major jobs program which puts millions back to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. We need to tackle the planetary crisis of global warming by creating jobs transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

We need to end the scandal of one of four corporations paying nothing in federal taxes while we balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.

It would be better termed the "New Abnormal" and there's no reason to accept that it's inevitable.