Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) delivered to the White House a letter signed by more than 100,000 Americans urging President Barack Obama to rely on revenue from the wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations for at least half of any deficit reduction package.
In all, 102,564 people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia signed Sanders’ letter by mid-day Tuesday. More than 4,000 people from Vermont alone put their names on the letter calling for an approach to deficit reduction that Sanders calls shared sacrifice.
“Everyone understands that over the long-term we have got to reduce the deficit,” the letter said. “Mr. President, please listen to the overwhelming majority of the American people who believe that deficit reduction must be about shared sacrifice. The wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations in this country must pay their fair share.”
The letter also called on the president not to yield to Republican demands to lower deficits by trillions of dollars only by slashing Medicare and Medicaid and cutting programs that help working families. “It is absolutely imperative,” the senator wrote, “that as we go forward with deficit reduction we completely reject the Republican approach that demands savage cuts in desperately-needed programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, our children and the poor, while not asking the wealthiest among us to contribute one penny.”
The letter also asked the White House to make a serious effort to reduce waste in the Pentagon budget.
The letter was first posted on the senator’s website on June 24. Since then the number of people signing the letter has grown at a rate of more than 12,000 a day.