Bernie Sanders441,212 likes · 312,163 talking about this
441,212 likes · 312,163 talking about this
- America’s Top 10 Corporate Tax Avoiders: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/top-10-corporate-tax-avoiders
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- VT Office of Veterans AffairsGovernment Organization
- Bill McKibbenBusiness Person
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For years, net neutrality has prohibited big Internet corporations from favoring or blocking certain viewpoints or websites. Tell the FCC to protect the open internet, not undermine net neutrality.- ActivityRecent
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Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Ukraine: Ukrainian authorities vowed Saturday to restore control over the roiling eastern part of their nation, slowly advancing on two key breakaway cities even as the Kremlin and its suppor...ters in Ukraine said the violence demanded a response. The military operations Saturday claimed at least 10 lives, medical officials said, a day after a conflagration in a trade union building killed dozens of pro-Russian activists in the port city of Odessa in the bloodiest day in Ukraine in nearly three months, The Washington Post reported.
Reports Gather Dust: Every year, the U.S. government prepares an official report to Congress on Dog and Cat Fur Protection. It takes at least 15 employees in at least six different federal offices. The data are written into a report, passed up the chain of command and sent to Capitol Hill. Then nothing happens. This Congress is officially expecting 4,291 written reports, from 466 federal agencies and nonprofit groups, including two reports from the association of veterans of the Spanish-American War. The last member of that group died in 1992. Congress is not even sure how many of those 4,291 reports are actually turned in. And it does not try to save copies of all the ones that are. So some agencies cheat and send in nothing. And others waste time and money sending in reports that disappear into the void, The Washington Post reported.
Nuclear Plant Safety: Five U.S. senators, including Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders of Vermont, have sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to protest what they called the “unwise policy” of allowing decommissioning nuclear reactors to be exempt from emergency response regulations, The Associated Press, Rutland Herald and WPTZ-TV reported on Sunday.
Civil War Veteran and Sister Honored: Military veterans and Civil War re-enactors turned out Saturday for a memorial service for a Strafford, Vermont, brother and sister who died about 150 years ago. The service was for Amelia Roberts, who died of typhoid fever in 1859, and Vermont Infantry Pvt. George Roberts, killed in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia on May 5 and 6, 1864. During the ceremony, the family received from Sen. Sanders an American flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol., the Valley News reported.
Continue reading today's news: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/050414 See More- No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation's economic well being.
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VIDEO: Sen. Sanders speaks about the Phoenix veterans system: http://youtu.be/-lBxJpzYVf4- Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Phoenix VA: The Department of Veterans Affairs’ inspector general is investigating claims that a Phoenix VA hospital tried to cover up deaths of patients placed on waiting lists. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Senate veterans’ committee chairman, pledged to hold a hearing after the probe is completed into the “very serious” allegations. He stressed, howev...er, that overall the VA provides better care at less cost than private hospitals. He also told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC that some attacks on the VA are rooted in an “anti-government mentality” by critics in a “highly-politicized” Washington.
Record Road Rebuilding: After a tough winter, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Friday that Vermont will improve 375 miles of state and federal roads and highways as part of the largest paving effort in the state's history. Sen. Sanders secured a provision in a 2012 highway bill that will bring an additional $9 million to the state, The Associated Press, WCAX-TV, WPTZ-TV, WFFF-TV and WVNY-TV reported.
Nuclear Plant Safety: Five U.S. senators on Friday warned that federal regulators need to keep more emergency and security regulations in place at shuttered nuclear power plants that store tons of spent radioactive fuel. In a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane, Sens. Sanders and Patrick Leahy and three other senators said the agency that oversees the nation's commercial nuclear industry has been freeing closed plants from certain emergency and security safeguards even though the spent fuel on site remains dangerous for years to come, AP, National Journal, Times Argus and Brattleboro Reformer reported.
Tax-Evasion Law Unenforced: The Treasury Department will relax enforcement of a new law aimed at discouraging offshore tax dodging, at least for financial institutions that are making good-faith efforts to comply, The Wall Street Journal reported. The announcement on Friday doesn't postpone the July 1 implementation of the law, known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, but the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service won't rigorously enforce many of the law's requirements for 2014 and 2015, as long as firms are trying to cooperate, according to the notice.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/050314 See More Bernie Sanders shared a link.
The Week in Review:
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked consideration of a bill that would boost the federal minimum wage. Sen. Bernie Sanders was disappointed but not surprised. A proposal before the Federal Communications Commission... to let service providers sell fast lanes on the Internet has drawn more than 14,000 comments, mostly critical, since it was first posted Tuesday evening on Sanders’ website. On the court beat, the Supreme Court on Tuesday handed an important victory to the Environmental Protection Agency, former Justice John Paul Stevens testified in favor of a constitutional amendment to undo a decision that struck down campaign funding laws, and a federal judge in Wisconsin breathed life into the Voting Rights Act.
Read more: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/the-week-in-review-050214 See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
VIDEO: Sen. Sanders speaks on msnbc about the need to #RaiseTheWage: http://youtu.be/keZv_fGQkgUBernie Sanders shared a link.
Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Republicans Want to Abolish the Minimum Wage: Senate Republicans this week blocked a bill to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour. Many Republicans not only oppose rais...ing the minimum wage, they want to abolish the concept of the minimum wage altogether, Sen. Bernie Sanders told Ed Schultz in an interview Thursday on MSNBC. At a June 2013 hearing, Sen. Lamar Alexander suggested the concept of the minimum wage should be abolished - a stance which was challenged by Sanders, Chris Hayes reported on MSNBC. “If you work 40 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty,” Sanders said on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.
Budget for Billionaires: Rep. Paul Ryan's budget proposal is tailor-made for the Koch brothers and other billionaires, Sen. Sanders told Chris Jansing on MSNBC Thursday. “It is very clear the Republican Party has become a right-wing extremist party,” Sanders said. “I think the American people have got to become aware of that, and we have to fight back and create an economy that works for the middle class and not for billionaires.”
The Koch Brothers: In a Senate floor speech on Thursday, Sen. Sanders said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and others are simply trying to educate the public on what the Koch brothers are buying with their campaign contributions. “It’s important that we know what the Koch brothers believe,” Sanders said in a Senate floor speech on Thursday. He said the Republican Party priorities have evolved into what used to be “extremist” libertarian, anti-government views advocated by the Kochs, The Hill reported online.
Unemployment at 12.3%: Real unemployment fell to 12.3 percent in April, the Department of Labor announced on Friday. The rate was down from 12.7 percent in March for the measurement that counts workers forced to settle for part-time jobs and those who have given up looking for work was Americans gained jobs at the fastest pace in more than two years last month and the official jobless rate dropped to 6.3 percent from 6.7 percent. Unemployment hit the lowest level since September 2008 in part because the overall labor force shrank sharply last month. The jobless rate is still historically high, above the roughly 4 percent rate in the months before the recession began in 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/050214 See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
Paul vs. The People: http://youtu.be/H-1O0hJVwScBernie Sanders shared a link.
Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Senate Republicans Block Minimum Wage Bill: Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill that would gradually increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $10.10 an hour. “It real...ly does astound me that at a time when our Republican friends in the house are voting to give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and large corporations, they don't have it in their hearts to give us at least a $10.10 minimum wage, which would take so many people out of poverty,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told MSNBC.
Phoenix VA: Department of Veterans Affairs officials told senators Wednesday that the investigation into allegations of a secret waiting list for medical appointments at the Phoenix VA so far has turned up no evidence that such a list exists. Veterans Committee Chairman Sanders vowed to “get to the bottom of what has happened in Phoenix,” while reaching conclusions “based on an objective investigation of the facts — not TV reports.” Sanders said the allegations should not be allowed "to impugn excellent work done throughout this country by hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses and administrators on all levels” at the VA, The Associated Press reported.
Senate to Vote on Campaign Finance Amendment: A string of Supreme Court decisions, starting in with a 2010 ruling in Citizens United vs. the FEC, enabled the nation's wealthiest donors to anonymously contribute unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. Sen. Chuck Schumer on Wednesday promised to hold a Senate vote this year on a constitutional amendment to allow restrictions on campaign spending. It is unclear if any potential presidential candidates will run on the issue in the 2016 election. So far, only Sen. Sanders has indicated that he would campaign heavily against the influence of big donors and corporate interests in politics, The Boston Globe reported.
Economy Sputters: The Commerce Department said Wednesday that American gross domestic product grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.1% in the first quarter as weakness overseas hurt exports and frigid weather curtailed business investment, The Wall Street Journal reported. The rate matched the second-weakest quarterly reading of the nearly five-year-old economic recovery.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/050114 See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
Republicans Block Minimum Wage Increase: http://youtu.be/WNf3qOJimiA- Republicans Block Minimum Wage Increase: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/republicans-block-minimum-wage-increase
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Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Net Neutrality: Federal Communications Commissioner Tom Wheeler, a former industry lobbyist, has proposed new rules that would allow Internet service providers to charge web publishers extra f...or preferential treatment - giving them a fast lane on the Internet highway. Sen. Sanders called the idea "terribly misguided" and said that, if enacted, "the Internet as we have come to know it would cease to exist and the average American would be the big loser,” the Long Island (N.Y.) Populist Examiner said.
Senate to Vote on Minimum Wage: Hike Hemmed in by solid Republican opposition, the Senate seems ready to hand a fresh defeat to President Barack Obama by blocking an election-year bill increasing the federal minimum wage. Democrats, aware that the measure faces all but certain rejection Wednesday in the chamber they control, plan to use the vote to buttress their campaign theme that the GOP is unwilling to protect financially struggling families, The Associated Press reported.
Too Big to Jail?: Federal prosecutors are nearing criminal charges against some of the world’s biggest banks, according to The New York Times. The credit crisis of 2008 dwarfed earlier financial busts. So far, however, only one junior executive at a Wall Street bank has been sent to prison. In the past, the New York Stock Exchange chief landed in prison after the 1929 crash. Some 1,100 people were prosecuted after the savings-and-loan scandals of the 1980s. Top executives from WorldCom, Enron, Qwest and Tyco went to prison after the tech collapse in the ‘90s exposed widespread corporate accounting scandals.
Supreme Court Backs Coal Pollution Rules: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate coal-plant pollution that wafts across state lines from 27 Midwestern and Appalachian states to eastern states, The New York Times reported. The 6-to-2 ruling is a major environmental victory for the Obama administration, which has instituted several new EPA regulations under the Clean Air Act in an effort to crack down on coal pollution.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/043014 See More- Thanks to people like you, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Facebook page has the greatest level of engagement of any member of Congress, according to The Washington Post. Bernie “has one of the largest and most enthusiastic social media followings out... there,” the article said. In what the Post called an “astonishing” fact, nearly 30 times as many people were engaged with Bernie’s Facebook page on Monday compared to the page for Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ 2012 candidate for vice president. That's despite the fact that Ryan has substantially more Facebook "likes" on his page.
Read more: http://sanders.enews.senate.gov/common/mailings/index.cfm?id=932 See More
- Tell the FCC: Protect the Open Internet: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/net-neutrality
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Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Stop Being Defensive: Democrats “have to stop being defensive” about the Affordable Care Act and aggressively call out Republican governors in more than 20 states who have refused to expand Med...icaid, Sen. Bernie Sanders told the Rev. Al Sharpton during an interview Monday on MSNBC. “We have got to tell every governor out there who was denying people the right to have health care that they`re doing a terrible, terrible thing. We`ve got to start turning the tables on them,” Sanders said. The health care law, Sanders stressed, lets states cover more people at no cost to the states.
Thank You: Sen. Sanders’ Facebook page has the greatest level of engagement in Congress, according to The Washington Post. Sanders “has one of the largest and most enthusiastic social media followings out there,” according to the article, which called it “astonishing” that nearly 30 times as many people were talking about Sanders on Facebook on Monday compared to Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ 2012 candidate for vice president. Also on Monday, Sanders won a “Gold Mouse” award from the Congressional Management Foundation for his use of social media to keep constituents informed, The Hill reported.
Older Americans: Negotiations have stalled over a Senate bill to reauthorize programs that provide social and nutrition services for seniors, Congressional Quarterly said. Sen. Sanders opposes a proposed change which would significantly cut funding in some states. "That just does not make any sense to me at all," said Sanders, who has proposed increased funding for Older Americans Act programs like Meals on Wheels.
VA in Phoenix: Speaking at a news conference in the Philippines, President Barack Obama pledged to get to the bottom of allegations that a Veterans Affairs Department hospital in Phoenix tried to cover up delays in service that led to as many as 40 veterans’ deaths. Sen. Sanders, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said his panel will hold a hearing after the completion of an independent investigation, according to The Washington Post online and the Phoenix New Times. The allegations coincide with Saturday’s opening of a new Phoenix-area clinic that is expected to serve thousands of veterans, The Associated Press said.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/042914 See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
For years, net neutrality has prohibited big Internet corporations from favoring or blocking certain viewpoints or websites. Our free and open Internet has made invaluable contributions to democracy both here in the United States and around... the world. Whether you are rich, poor, young or old, the Internet allows all people to seek out information and communicate globally.
Federal Communications Commissioner Tom Wheeler reportedly plans to vote on a rule change that would undermine the principles of net neutrality and let companies like Comcast and Verizon divide the internet into fast and slow lanes. This proposal would end the Internet as we know it. We must not let private corporations turn bigger and bigger profits by putting a price tag on the free flow of ideas.
Click here to tell the FCC to protect the open Internet. See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
On the Road: Sen. Bernie Sanders over the weekend took his fight for progressive politics to stops in South Carolina, North Carolina and Minnesota.
In Charleston, S.C., on Friday, he spoke to a packed meeting at the College of Charleston ...about the high cost of college education and student indebtedness, the need for a national health care system guaranteeing health care for all and how income and wealth inequality are moving our country to an oligarchic form of government. Sanders also talked about the success of the billionaire Koch brothers in moving the Republican Party to the far right. On Friday evening, Sanders spoke to another large crowd in Charleston at the Longshoreman's union hall. He focused on the need for a massive federal jobs program to address the unemployment crisis. He also called for a significant increase in the minimum wage, an issue expected to come up for a vote this week in the Senate.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/on-the-road See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Sanders Takes on Big-Money: “This country faces enormous problems,” Sen. Bernie Sanders told David Weigel of Slate. “We need people standing up for the working class and the middle class of th...is country, people prepared to take on the big-money interests who dominate our economic and political life. I am prepared to do that,”
The Supreme Court: Landmark decisions during the Obama presidency – such as demolishing restrictions on corporate and union campaign donations in the Citizens United case – guarantee flak from politicians who dislike the court’s conclusions. Sen. Sanders, for example, accused the court of “paving the way toward an oligarchic form of society,” according to The Hill, which cited concerns that the court’s authority is being eroded.
Minimum-Wage Plan on Senate Agenda: The Senate is expected this week to take up a long-stalled push to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a measure that is likely to be defeated but one that Democrats see as a winner on the campaign trail. The idea of raising the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage is politically popular, according to polls, but Republicans hope the coming debate will allow them to promote their view that raising the wage will lead to job losses. A March Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 58 percent of people would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
John Paul Stevens to Testify on ‘Dark Money’: The former Supreme Court justice will appear as the star witness at a Senate hearing on “dark money” Wednesday. The hearing is the first congressional probe into campaign finance since the high court’s decision to abolish aggregate donation caps in the McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision earlier this month. Stevens recently told The New Yorker that McCutcheon was “grossly incorrect” and he has been consistently critical of the shifting campaign finance landscape since the landmark Citizens United decision boosted the First Amendment rights of corporations. Sen. Angus King will chair the Senate Rules Committee hearing, Politico reported.
Continue reading here: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/042814 See MoreBernie Sanders shared a link.
Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.):
Sanders at N.C. State: Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to students at North Carolina State University on Saturday in wide-ranging remarks that touched on wealth distribution, the decline of the midd...le class and the role of money in politics, the student newspaper The Technician reported.
VA in Arizona: A congressional inquiry and a watchdog probe await the Department of Veterans Affairs after a Phoenix VA hospital allegedly tried to cover up delays in service for more than 1,400 sick veterans, some of whom died while waiting for care. The VA inspector general’s office has launched an investigation of the claims, and the head of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Sen. Sanders, has promised to hold a hearing on the matter after the review is complete, The Washington Post online, The Associated Press in Arizona and Fox News reported.
A Threat to Health Care in Canada: The doctor who recently grabbed headlines across North America for defending Canada’s health system before an ornery U.S. Senate warned that a legal showdown before the Supreme Court for British Columbia could affect the future of health care in Canada. Dr. Danielle Martin is sounding the alarm over a case challenging the province’s ban on private health care and whether private clinics may extra-bill patients for medical services, the Toronto Star reported.
Obama Calls on Congress to Act on Minimum Wage and Unemployment Insurance: President Barack Obama continues to keep up the drumbeat for an unemployment extension and a minimum wage hike. On Saturday, Obama used his weekly radio address to push a $10.10 an hour minimum wage proposal, ahead of votes in the Senate when Congress returns next week. And on Friday, the president used his advocacy arm, Organizing for Action, to call for Congress to pass an unemployment extension, Congressional Quarterly reported.
Continue reading today's news: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/042714 See More
