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Sen. Bernie Sanders: Billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are ‘off taking joy rides on their rocket ships’
MSNBC ^ | April 1, 2022 | Megan Sauer

Posted on 04/02/2022 11:17:31 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

On Wednesday (March 30, 2022), at a meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Budget, Sanders raised an issue that’s been a regular part of his political platform for many years: wealth distribution. “Anyone who thinks we do not have an oligarchy right here in America is sorely mistaken,” he said. “Today in America, multibillionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson are off taking joy rides on their rocket ships to outer space.”

Sanders appeared to be citing the three billionaires’ spaceflight companies: SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, respectively. All three U.S.-based businesses have played a large part in redefining — and even reviving — national conversations around modern space exploration.

Musk, Bezos and Branson have each poured large sums of their own money into those companies: Bezos, for example, spends $1 billion of his own Amazon stock per year on Blue Origin. But while his brief trip to space in a Blue Origin rocket last July could be deemed a “joy ride,” it’s doubtful that he’d call his spending frivolous.

Rather, Blue Origin’s mission statement defines the company’s goals as essential to humanity’s future survival, emphasizing that “in order to preserve Earth, our home, for our grandchildren’s grandchildren, we must go to space to tap its unlimited resources and energy.”

Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, similarly told Time magazine in December that his “goal overall has been to make life multi-planetary and enable humanity to become a spacefaring civilization,” thus preserving the planet. In October, SpaceX was valued at $100.3 billion following a secondary share sale.

To Sanders, those plans are more displays of opulence than humanity-enriching endeavors, especially considering “over half of the people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said.


(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: apparatchik; berniesanders; besos; bezos; blueorigin; branson; commies; elonmusk; jeffbezos; marxists; megansauer; musk; richardbranson; spacex; starlink; tesla; vermont; virgingalactic
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To: DennisR

You have to wonder about the USA when they send such pieces of crapola to Congress, especially the Senate.


61 posted on 04/02/2022 3:22:10 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“Sorry, I’m not a biologist.”)
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To: cableguymn

More financial wisdom from a man who has NEVER done a job in the private sector in his entire life...Bernie is a fraud.


62 posted on 04/02/2022 5:54:42 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Starboard

Not that I know of...

He is a publicly paid teat sucker for all of his life.


63 posted on 04/02/2022 5:55:54 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: qaz123

ELON MUSK paid back every single loan he got-—EARLY—with all interest due.


64 posted on 04/02/2022 5:57:32 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

I don’t recall saying he didn’t. I don’t put him on the pedestal that so many others do.


65 posted on 04/02/2022 6:10:52 PM PDT by qaz123
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

A reflection of the folks who elected him. Pitiful.


66 posted on 04/02/2022 6:51:21 PM PDT by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

They did it on their dime, their money. What is the problem. A better question is where did Berni get his money. He is a millionaire.


67 posted on 04/02/2022 8:39:52 PM PDT by cpdiii (CANE CUTTER-DECKHAND-ROUGHNECK-OILFIELD CONSULTANT-GEOLOGIST-PILOT-PHARMACIST )
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Bernie is jealous.


68 posted on 04/04/2022 7:39:35 AM PDT by mfish13 (Elections have Consequences.)
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