If Bernie became President!

Dear Readers:

Your humble reporter thinks it's about time that everyone consider the possibility of Bernie Sanders becoming the next President of the United States!

With that in mind, this op-ed piece from Quora Digest has some interesting facts!

How would today's Congress respond to a Bernie Sanders presidency?

Contrary to popular opinion, they wouldn't respond to Sanders presidency as strongly as many predict: Sanders already has a reputation of being someone who works with the other party when it does not violate his principles. He has many important bills and amendments he was able to pass through: Bernie Gets It Done: Sanders' Record of Pushing Through Major Reforms Will Surprise You

• Corporate Crime Accountability (February 1995): A Sanders amendment to the Victims Justice Act of 1995 required “offenders who are convicted of fraud and other white-collar crimes to give notice to victims and other persons in cases where there are multiple victims eligible to receive restitution.”
• Saving Money, for Colleges and Taxpayers (April 1998): In an amendment to H.R. 6, the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, Sanders made a change to the law that allowed the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education to make competitive grants available to colleges and universities that cooperated to reduce costs through joint purchases of goods and services.
• Holding IRS Accountable, Protecting Pensions (July 2002): Sanders' amendment to the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 2003 stopped the IRS from being able to use funds that “violate current pension age discrimination laws.” Although he faced stiff GOP opposition, his amendment still succeeded along a 308 to 121 vote.
• Expanding Free Health Care (November 2001): You wouldn't think Republicans would agree to an expansion of funds for community health centers, which provide some free services. But Sanders was able to win a $100 million increase in funding with an amendment.
• Getting Tough On Child Labor (July 2001): A Sanders amendment to the general appropriations bill prohibited the importation of goods made with child labor.
• Increasing Funding for Heating for the Poor (September 2004): Sanders won a $22 million increase for the low-income home energy assistance program and related weatherization assistance program.
• Fighting Corporate Welfare and Protecting Against Nuclear Disasters (June 2005): A Sanders amendment brought together a bipartisan coalition that outnumbered a bipartisan coalition on the other side to successfully prohibit the Export-Import Bank from providing loans for nuclear projects in China.

Once Sanders made it to the Senate in 2006, his ability to use amendments to advance a progressive agenda was empowered. Here are some of the amendments he passed in the Senate:

• Greening the U.S. Government (June 2007): A Sanders amendment made a change to the law so at least 30 percent of the hot water demand in newer federal buildings is provided through solar water heaters.
• Protecting Our Troops (October 2007): Sanders used an amendment to win $10 million for operation and maintenance of the Army National Guard, which had been stretched thin and overextended by the war in Iraq.
• Restricting the Bailout to Protect U.S. Workers (Feburary 2009): A Sanders amendment required the banking bailout to utilize stricter H-1B hiring standards to ensure bailout funds weren't used to displace American workers.
• Helping Veterans' Kids (July 2009): A Sanders amendment required the Comptroller General to put together comprehensive reporting on financial assistance for child care available to parents in the Armed Forces.
• Exposing Corruption in the Military-Industrial Complex (November 2012): A Sanders amendment required “public availability of the database of senior Department officials seeking employment with defense contractors” – an important step toward transparency that revealed the corruption of the revolving door in action.
• Support for Treating Autism in Military Health Care: Sanders worked with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to pass an amendment by a vote of 66-29 ensuring that the military's TRICARE system would be able to treat autism.

There will be a segment in Congress who would react extremely strongly to Sanders. But then again that segment would react strongly to Jesus of Nazareth even if he descended from the skies on a flaming horse. 

Not that Jesus of Nazareth was a fan of such flashy displays though.

Returning to the topic at hand, I'm talking about Tea Party. Who seem to be holding GOP rhetoric in their hand currently. 

This segment would react extremely strongly to whatever anyone not from among themselves did, but in general scheme of things that does not make much impact in that there are a lot of people in Congress who would find Sanders agreeable to work with - especially due to massive support Sanders policies would receive from their own voter base as well. 

Once general election begins, Sanders' message will reach their own constitutes as well - then see how much traction will they get. Especially among independents.

There is this important factor: Sanders had openly declared that he was building a movement to take over American politics from day one. That means not only White House, but also Congress and Senate - as he openly declares. 

He knows that to push major reforms without hassle and without the reforms being watered down (Hello ACA), you gotta have Congress and Senate.

As you can see from the masses who are attending Sanders rallies and even more so from the hundreds of thousands of people volunteering for Sanders campaign on the ground, his movement is a major movement already.

What that means is that come next House elections, that movement will be there to topple anyone who doesn't support the reforms.

So for incumbent House and Senate, its a choice in between supporting the reforms, or losing your House/Senate seat in the next elections. You can rationally conclude that the latter option is not so desirable for anyone who has a seat. 

Which is a reason why you would readily see many cooperative representatives in the House and Senate than you expect, when Sanders becomes president.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to just sweep entire House and Senate, and put pro-people representatives with track records in. 

Which seems what Sanders is going to do with his movement.

And that would make the stance of Congress and Senate irrelevant, since ones who are there in next elections would be people who were elected for making those reforms.

But reality of politics is that, a lot of people will cooperate. Once the people rise up, its wiser to swim with the tide than try to stem it.

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