Bernie Sanders & Robert Reich illustrates that Jeb Bush is out of touch
This was no gaffe. Jeb Bush participated in a live-streamed Periscope app, interview with New Hampshire’s The Union Leader. He said the following when answering a question about his plans for tax reform.
“My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see,” Jeb Bush said. “Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and, through their productivity, gain more income for their families. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this rut that we’re in.”
Are you kidding? Senator Bernie Sanders in an interview on the Ed Show responded appropriately. “The truth is Governor Bush is wrong on a number of accounts,” Bernie Sanders said. “First of all the American people already work the longest hours of any people in a major country on earth.” Sanders went on to give statistics that proved his point. He stated that 85% of male workers are working more than forty hours a week. 66% of female workers are working more than forty hours a week. “I am not sure how much more Governor Bush wants our people to be working,” said Sanders. He pointed out that Bush is against the overtime rule that would allow millions of workers to get time and a half. Bush has not supported raising the minimum wage or pay equity for women workers. “It sounds to me like it is the same old same old trickle-down economics which benefits the wealthy and large corporations,” Bernie Sanders said.
Professor Robert Reich made similar statements on All-In with Chris Hayes. Reich pointed out that part time workers are working more than one job. He pointed out that when you add up the total working hours per person in those cases they are working more than 40, 50, or 60 hours a week. Reich said Jeb Bush’s statement proves he has no clue about the American workforce.
Reich said that the latest data shows that Americans work harder than the Japanese, all of Europe and other industrialized nations. These nations provide 4 or more weeks of paid vacations while Americans get two weeks if they are lucky. “Nobody works as hard as Americans,” Robert Reich said. “And for Jeb Bush to say we need to work harder in order to grow the economy so people at the top can do better is not only absurd, and not only out of touch but is really misleading and dangerous.”