June 10, 2011

Prodded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Smithsonian museum gift shop on Wednesday began selling only items made in America. It was a symbolic step forward in a much larger effort to revive American manufacturing and restore middle-class jobs. The senator on Monday led a growing chorus calling for bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan. On Tuesday, he addressed a big rally on health care.  On Thursday, negotiators from the White House to Capitol Hill ramped up efforts to reach a budget agreement. In a Senate floor speech the same day, Sanders said he wants to drive down deficits by pairing more revenue from the wealthiest Americans with targeted spending cuts. He calls it shared sacrifice. The debate may seem dry, but Sanders told radio host Thom Hartmann on Friday, "This is the future of America." Listen to the senator on The Hartmann Program.

Made in America The National Museum of American History opened the gift shop that sells only American-made merchandise. The change came "thanks to a determined senator," Diane Sawyer said on ABC World News. Sanders late last year had gone shopping for gifts for his grandchildren at the museum. He noticed a counter stocked with small busts of U.S. presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama. When he turned them upside down, the American presidents were made in China. Most of the other merchandise in the gift shop, it turned out, came from China and other low-wage countries. He raised the issue with the Smithsonian Institution, which runs the history museum and 18 others.  Sanders returned to the history museum this week to check out the Price of Freedom gift shop after it was restocked with all made-in-America merchandise. "Any museum owned by the American people, discussing American history, should have American products," Sanders told The Washington Post. "I'm proud to see that in a short period of time, there have been changes."

Budget Negotiations Vice President Biden and congressional budget negotiators on Thursday stepped up efforts to reach agreement on how to cut deficits to clear the way for getting Congress to raise the current cap on how much the government may borrow.  Sanders is a member of the Senate Budget Committee. He addressed the issue in a Senate floor speech on Thursday.  "The question is what will the president do? What will the Democrats do? The president has to be strong on this issue. The president has to go out to the American people and win the support that is there for a deficit reduction package of shared sacrifice. To read the speech, click here.

War in Afghanistan President Obama is contemplating steeper troop reductions in Afghanistan than his national security advisers contemplated, it was reported on Monday. One factor is the cost of America's longest war. "We have a $1.5 trillion deficit. We're spending $100 billion a year on Afghanistan. A lot of it goes to rebuild that country," Sanders said. "You know what? I know a great country that needs to rebuild its roads, bridges and schools. That country is called the United States of America." To listen to the senator discuss bringing troops home as soon as possible from America's longest war, click here.

Oil Speculation Higher oil prices have boosted bank profits. One study found that  10 large banks - including Goldman Sachs,  Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and  Bank of America - saw commodities revenues increase by 55 percent in the first quarter of this year alone.  Sanders cited a June 2 article in The Wall Street Journal as further evidence that federal regulators should clamp down on excessive speculation that economists blame for pushing up the pump price of gasoline.

Health Care Sanders spoke to more than 1,000 registered nurses, joined by labor and community supporters, at a rally on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.  "From birth to death, the people who are at our sides when we get sick are our nurses," Sanders told the crowd.  The senator recently introduced a bill that would create a Medicare-for-all single-payer system.  To watch the speech, click here.