Warren Gunnels Profile picture
Majority Staff Director for Budget Committee Chairman @SenSanders Views expressed here are my own. Blatantly Pro-Union AKA: Chief of Receipts
Pensive™ & @PensiveTM@mastodon.social 💔💚 Profile picture Kathleen Green Profile picture LeftwardSwing ♿🕊️ 💉 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Profile picture Warren Gunnels Profile picture Political Scrutiny 101 Profile picture 7 subscribed
May 12, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Hilarious. Not only did Bernie pass more roll call amendments when the Republicans controlled the House than any other Member from 1995-2006, but two of those amendments cut $95 million in corporate welfare to the fossil fuel industry. Guess who led the opposition? Mike Doyle. From '95-'06, Bernie passed the most roll call amendments & was the "amendment king." “He accomplishes this on the one hand by being relentlessly active and on the other by using his status as an independent to form left-right coalitions.” politifact.com/factchecks/201…
Dec 28, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read
The $2,000 direct payment thread of key events:

March 17th: Bernie Sanders proposes "monthly direct payments of $2,000 for every person in the country" until the pandemic ends. 1/9 commondreams.org/news/2020/03/1… March 18th: Letter from Senators Booker, Brown, Bennet & 15 others. "We propose sending payments quarterly and directly to American families. The first payment would be $2,000 per American..." 2/9

booker.senate.gov/news/press/cor…
Aug 16, 2020 8 tweets 3 min read
The postal nominees that Bernie blocked were Republican white men picked by Mitch McConnell and opposed by the NAACP and the AFL-CIO because they wanted to privatize the Postal Service and represented the payday lending industry. I was the staffer who placed the hold. Receipt: Image Here are the pictures of the Republican white men that were picked by Mitch McConnell to serve on the Postal Board of Governors who Bernie blocked because they were strongly opposed by the NAACP and AFL-CIO. Image
Aug 14, 2020 9 tweets 3 min read
This is one of the most absurd takes of all time. The postal nominees Bernie blocked wanted to privatize the Postal Service, end 6-day mail, undermine unions, cut jobs, pension and healthcare benefits and lobbied for the payday lending industry. Facts matter, Jason. (See Thread) Meet the postal nominees Bernie blocked:

James Miller: Ronald Reagan's OMB director who wanted to privatize the Postal Service

Mickey Barnett: A GOP payday lending lobbyist

Stephen Crawford: Who wanted to end Saturday mail and slash jobs, pensions and healthcare benefits
Jan 4, 2020 16 tweets 8 min read
The American people are sick and tired of politicians who support a Medicare for All, single-payer system one day and use GOP talking points against it the day after receiving huge campaign contributions from insurance and drug company executives. Here are the facts. Thread Fact: Bernie’s Medicare for All bill gives everyone the freedom to choose their own doctor, hospital & dentist with no premiums, co-payments or deductibles

Pete's plan doesn't give Americans the freedom to choose doctors who aren't in-network & doesn't eliminate those expenses.
Oct 21, 2019 6 tweets 6 min read
The tweet below is 1 of the most absurd takes of the campaign.

The 1st grassroots campaign I worked on for @BernieSanders was back in 1999: To restore $320 million in pension benefits that IBM had stolen from 130,000 workers.

We had 1 major Senate ally: Paul Wellstone.

Thread @BernieSanders The first thing Bernie taught me was that it was not good enough to write a good bill, amendment or speech.

If we were going to improve the lives of the working class, we had to rally the American people against corporate greed and corruption.

Some major grassroots victories⬇️
Jul 7, 2019 16 tweets 7 min read
The @nytimes doesn’t want you to know it, but I am damn proud of the accomplishments @SenSanders and our staff have achieved in the Senate and the House - both inside and outside the beltway. Here's just 20 of our achievements in the two decades I’ve worked for him. (Thread) 3 weeks after Bernie introduced the Stop BEZOS Act, Amazon raised its wages to at least $15/hour. While our critics were busy attacking this bill, we kept our eye on the prize: building a grassroots campaign that wouldn't relent until Amazon raised wages. news.vice.com/en_us/article/…
Jun 17, 2019 4 tweets 5 min read
For the record, @BernieSanders has 25 policy proposals on his website including:

1. Medicare for All sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press…

2. $15 minimum wage sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press…

3. Expanding Social Security sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press…

4. Slashing Drug Prices sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press…
Thread Bernie's Policy proposals continued:

5. End Yemen War Resolution: defensenews.com/congress/2019/…

6. Estate Tax Bill: sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press…

7. Education Plan: berniesanders.com/a-thurgood-mar…

8. Rural America Plan: berniesanders.com/issues/revital…

9. Clean Water for All: commondreams.org/news/2019/02/2…
Apr 21, 2019 5 tweets 2 min read
The Wall Street crash
NAFTA & PNTR with China
The Bush/Trump tax scams
The “Right to Work”
$1.5 trillion in student debt
Endless wars
Fracking
Austerity
Private prisons
Cash bail
Flint, MI
Vulture funds

Made me a democratic socialist down to my bones. 1/5 nyti.ms/2GpsQoQ “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.” What Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1967 was true then and it’s true today. 2/5 truthout.org/articles/marti…
Apr 7, 2019 12 tweets 3 min read
This week the House is expected to vote on H.R. 2021 giving Trump's Pentagon nearly $1.5 trillion over the next 2 years. The DoD can't justify this budget because it can't pass an audit. Who will stand up to the military industrial complex & vote no to defeat this bill? 1/12 The Pentagon’s budget has already been increased by $165 billion over the past two years – more than the entire military budget of Russia. Meanwhile, Congress keeps appropriating money to buy warplanes and other weapons systems that our own generals tell us we do not need. 2/12
Feb 24, 2019 14 tweets 7 min read
Why is the healthcare lobby against #MedicareForAll? Follow the money. Their top 65 CEOs made $1.7B in 2017 including:

- $83.2M to UnitedHealth's CEO
- $58.7M to Aetna's CEO
- $43.9M to Cigna's CEO.
They'll stop at nothing to keep their gravy train. 1/14 nyti.ms/2NoseTj While the big drug & insurance companies have the money, we have the people. 70% of Americans want to guarantee health care to everyone through #MedicareForAll, while Americans dislike healthcare companies even more than Wall Street. 2/14 nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Feb 15, 2019 11 tweets 4 min read
The "vast majority" overstates it big time, but @DanRiffle is speaking truth to power & the truth hurts. 1 reason why drug companies, Wall Street & corporations have such a stranglehold over Congress is because it's far too easy for top staff & MOC to get jobs on K Street. 1/11 I’ve worked on the Hill since ’97 and I have seen far too many staffers of both parties who have gone on to lobby for:

- Bank of America
- Goldman Sachs
- Pfizer
- PhRMA
- Disney
- Google

This is a big reason Congress rigs the rules for the rich & powerful. 2/11
Jan 23, 2019 9 tweets 4 min read
1) Every time a minimum wage increase is proposed locally or nationally, conservative politicians & their billionaire campaign contributors claim that jobs will be destroyed. Time after time they have been proven dead wrong by the facts. (see thread below) wsj.com/articles/labor… 2) When Seattle increased its minimum wage to $15/hour the right wing called it an “economic death wish” that would kill jobs & shutter restaurants. Instead, the exact opposite happened. Since Seattle raised the min wage, jobs in restaurants & bars soared. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
Jan 17, 2019 5 tweets 2 min read
Memories working for Bernie on the House Financial Services Committee:
- The Greenspan takedowns
- Passing $27B Nat'l Affordable Housing Trust Fund 34-33
- Losing credit card interest rate bait and switch amdt (eventually became law)
- fighting against Glass-Steagall repeal Here are just a few of the receipts from those days:



pelosi.house.gov/sites/pelosi.h…

sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press…

c-span.org/video/?c457093…
Dec 28, 2018 6 tweets 5 min read
Best ideas to beat Trump?
- 70% want #MedicareForAll
- 60% want tuition free public colleges
- 58% want $15 minimum wage
- 72% want to expand Social Security
- 57% want to break up big banks
- 64% want to legalize marijuana
- 65% want a #JobGuarantee
Let's crush it. Receipts:
theweek.com/speedreads/803…

reuters.com/investigates/s…

washingtonpost.com/business/2018/…

socialsecurityworks.org/wp-content/upl…

ourfinancialsecurity.org/2018/05/take-w…

cnn.com/2018/04/20/pol…

polling.reuters.com/#!response/TM1…
Dec 5, 2018 12 tweets 3 min read
1) The draft House rules on “PAYGO” & a super majority on taxes are designed to set up roadblocks against:
- #MedicareForAll
- #GreenNewDeal
- #CollegeForAll
- Universal Childcare
- Paid Family and Medical Leave
- A Job Guarantee
- #HousingForAll
nymag.com/intelligencer/… 2) There’s nothing “progressive” about these rules & they should be scrapped. If PAYGO and super majority tax rules were in place in the House in the 1930s and the 1960s, it would have made it nearly impossible to pass FDR’s New Deal and Medicare. cbpp.org/federal-budget…