Sanders: Don't 'Yield' on Debt Deal

The Huffington Post reports:

It wasn't quite a "fili-Bernie," but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a 10,000-word speech on the Senate floor launched a campaign Monday to call for eliminating tax breaks for the wealthy and protecting working people in a deficit-reduction deal.

"Instead of yielding to the incessant, extreme Republican demands as the president, in many respects, did in last year's tax vote and this year's spending negotiations, the president has got to get out of the beltway ... and rally the overwhelming majority of people who believe that deficit reduction must be based on shared sacrifice," Sanders said.

Sanders took to the floor for an hour-and-a-half-long speech to call for people to contact the White House and demand corporations and the rich are hit as hard as social spending for the poor in a debt-reduction deal, which is being negotiated ahead of a vote to raise the debt ceiling.

"Tell the president not to yield one inch to Republican demands to destroy Medicare and end Medicaid while continuing tax breaks to the wealthy and the powerful," he said.