Bernie Sanders Bashes the Republican Budget

One of the most prevalent questions in the upcoming presidential election is how to handle the federal budget. Democrats and Republicans are often bitterly divided on the subject, and yet they often elude answering the actual question. Instead, they choose to restate the question to make it sound like they have a plan to fix the failing budget.

While Bernie Sanders, in his speech about the Republican budget, does not say how he plans to fix the economy, he does make it clear that he knows what the Republican budget entails and why it causes problems. Sanders begins his speech by stating "some of you may know, but most of you don't, the nature of the Republican budget that passed the Congress". This catches the audience's attention, as Sanders is expressing he direness of the situation and is showing how most people are simply uneducated on the subject. By telling the audience that most of them don't know what's going on, he appeals to ethos and establishes his own credibility, because he lets the audience know that he is well educated on the topic and is going to explain it to them.

He goes on to explain how most families "where the breadwinner is making 8, 9, 10 bucks an hour, can't afford to feed their families adequately", the Republican budget "cut nutrition programs by many many millions of dollars". This statement appeals to pathos, because Sanders is simultaneously making the audience feel sympathetic towards these families, and making them angry about the fact that the Republican budget is only making it harder for these families to get by.

Sanders ends his speech by stating "brothers and sisters, those are not the priorities of the American people, and we will not accept them". This statement appeals to the audience's patriotism, while also making the audience feel as if Sanders is one of them, because he uses the word "we". The tone in which he says this also gets the audience riled up, as he draws out and emphasizes each word.

Bernie Sanders effectively tears down Republican logic while simultaneously building up his own image and presenting himself as a reliable, trustworthy figure.