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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) demanded that a panel of experts justify why America’s shrinking middle class should continue to subsidize the nation’s wealthiest family in a heated exchange Thursday during a congressional panel.

The Senate’s lone independent pointed out during the panel on income inequality that more Americans were currently living in poverty than at any point in the nation’s history as the top 1 percent siphoned off 95 percent of all income generated between 2009 and 2012.

“Does anyone on that panel … think that that makes moral sense or economic sense?” Sanders asked. “Does anybody think it makes moral or economic sense that one family, the Walton family, owns more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of the American people?”

“Do you think the Walton family, worth a hundred billion dollars, is in need of welfare from the middle class of this country, or do you think maybe we should raise the minimum wage so that those workers can earn a living wage and not have to get Medicaid or food stamps?” Sanders asked the panel.

The first panelist, Scott Winship, of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, offered to answer an earlier question, but Sanders insisted that he justify why taxpayers should subsidize Walmart’s wages with welfare.

“I would not use the word welfare, I think it’s stigmatizing,” Winship said, adding that Walmart offered low prices to its customers.

The exchange turned testy, as Sanders continued to insist that Winship answer the question as he’d asked it.

“I think that we should not raise the wage above levels that’s going to cause Walmart to not hire their workers,” Winship said. “The only way that they’re able to have the prices, which benefit low-income people more than people up on the income distribution (scale), is by paying wages that are not as high as you or I might like.”

“That is corporate welfare of the worst kind,” said Reich, a public policy professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

Reich added that Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, paid its workers an average of $8.80 an hour. By comparison, he said, the nation’s largest employer in 1955 was General Motors, which paid workers an average of $37 an hour in today’s money.

grizzaholic wrote:Didn't Walmart start making loans to employees, at a reasonable rate, so they could live?

CID1990 wrote:Bernie Sanders

ALPHAGRIZ1 wrote:I stopped reading at Bernie Sanders

CID1990 wrote:Bernie Sanders

Col Hogan wrote:

CID1990 wrote:Bernie Sanders

Is not an Independent...he is an avowed Socialist...

Why not be honest???

BDKJMU wrote:Those 15-24, the majority of those currently making the current fed minimum wage of 7.25 an hr, don't need an increase in the minimum wage. Teenagers, high school & college age, mostly living at home with mommy & daddy, on their 1st job(s), don't need to be making $10 an hr...

The minimum wage should be left up to the states. They should be allowed to set their own wage at whatever level they choose.

AZGrizFan wrote:

Col Hogan wrote:
Is not an Independent...he is an avowed Socialist...

Why not be honest???

I throw up in my mouth a little every time he's identified as an "independent".

Skjellyfetti wrote:Independent =/= moderate.

Independent = unaffiliated with either of the two major parties.

Bernie Sanders isn't a moderate, but he most definitely is independent.

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
I throw up in my mouth a little every time he's identified as an "independent".

Why? He's a self described socialistic who has won against candidates from both parties during his career.

Boo!

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote:
Why? He's a self described socialistic who has won against candidates from both parties during his career.

Boo!

So, he's not an independent then. He's a far, far, far left democrat.

FCS PATRIOTS wrote:The Walton family is the personification of corporate capitalism run amok. Would love to see every WAL-MART bankrupted and left for dead and these people answer for their corporate greed.

kalm wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
So, he's not an independent then. He's a far, far, far left democrat.

But I'd stay away from the topic too.

kalm wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:Those 15-24, the majority of those currently making the current fed minimum wage of 7.25 an hr, don't need an increase in the minimum wage. Teenagers, high school & college age, mostly living at home with mommy & daddy, on their 1st job(s), don't need to be making $10 an hr...

The minimum wage should be left up to the states. They should be allowed to set their own wage at whatever level they choose.

The median age of big box retail workers is 30. For Mcdonalds workers it's 29.

AZGrizFan wrote:

kalm wrote:


But I'd stay away from the topic too.

What the fuck does that mean?

Baldy wrote:

kalm wrote:
The median age of big box retail workers is 30. For Mcdonalds workers it's 29.

Offset and skewed by the 60+ year old retirees looking to get out of the house and supplement their retirement income.

kalm wrote:

Skjellyfetti wrote:Independent =/= moderate.

Independent = unaffiliated with either of the two major parties.

Bernie Sanders isn't a moderate, but he most definitely is independent.

And he's co-written legislation with Ron Paul.

AZGrizFan wrote:

Baldy wrote: Offset and skewed by the 60+ year old retirees looking to get out of the house and supplement their retirement income.

Wonder what the AVERAGE age is. Median is such a misleading stat.