Senator Sanders 

Shutdown Ends The federal government reopened Thursday after Congress ended a 16-day partial shutdown and averted a default on U.S. obligations. President Barack Obama signed the measure that made virtually no concessions on the health care law that was the reason Republicans started the fiscal crisis. Sen. Bernie Sanders called the resolution “a major political victory” but cautioned in a late-night interview on MSNBC that continued spending cuts contained in the stopgap bill are “a disaster.”  He said he was glad that for now the "nightmare" was over, The Associated Press, Burlington Free Press, Times Argus, Rutland Herald, Seven Days and The Washington Times reported. LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, VIDEO

Sanders Named to Budget Conference Sen. Sanders was appointed to a conference committee to try to reconcile separate budget documents passed by the House and Senate this year. “I look forward to the negotiations that will take place,” Sanders said on MSNBC. “The time is long overdue that we stood up for the working families of this country, for the children and for the elderly and not move toward deficit reduction on the backs of the most vulnerable people," Sanders said in a floor speech on WCAX-TV. VIDEO, LINK, LINK

The Agenda Ahead The shutdown and the crisis atmosphere it created kept Congress from doing the work it should have been doing all along. “There are enormous issues facing this country. The middle class is disappearing. Poverty is at an all-time high. We're not even beginning to address the international crisis of global warming or our crumbling infrastructure or extremely high unemployment,” Sanders told Thomas Roberts in an interview earlier Wednesday on MSNBC. VIDEO

The Next Fight With the government re-opening and default averted, larger budget battles over entitlements and sequestration lie ahead. “When you have the Koch brothers, who sit on $71 billion, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the political process, trust me this battle has not ended,” Sen. Sanders told MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton. “Our job is to bring the working people, the middle class of this country, together to stand up to the big money interests who want to repeal every major piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years to protect ordinary Americans.” VIDEO

Tea Party Damaged America Sen. Sanders said in a Senate floor speech Wednesday that Tea Party Republicans had severely damaged the country, The Hill reported online. The country has suffered a black eye in the world community, Sanders told the Vermont Press Bureau. “How can you proclaim to be the leading power in the world, the country that others are supposed to look up to, when you can’t even keep your government open and you can’t pay your bills?” Sanders asked.  “The United States’ position in the world has been severely damaged by this,” he added. On The Thom Hartmann Program, Sanders said House Speaker John Boehner could have prevented the crisis. LINK, AUDIO

Republicans Won another Round on Budget Sen. Mitch McConnell said the deal he negotiated kept automatic spending cuts. In The Washington Times, Sen. Sanders said he will fight any further effort to cut social safety-net programs. "At a time when the middle class in America is disappearing and wealth and income inequality is greater than at any time since the Roaring '20s, we must not balance the budget on the backs of the weak and the vulnerable” Sanders told The Calgary Herald and Montreal Gazette, “If anybody thinks this sequestration budget is good for America they are very, very mistaken," he said.

Simpson-Bowles Former Sen. Alan Simpson and Morgan Stanley board member Erskine Bowles this week unveiled a six-figure television ad buy for a commercial expressing their frustrations with America's large national debt, according to The Center for Media and Democracy. The group, which is sponsored by Pete Peterson, proposes cuts to entitlement programs through a so-called "chained consumer-price-index. Under the proposal, the average Social Security recipient would lose $23,000 over the next 25 years, says Sen. Sanders. LINK

Sanders Goes South On the heels of an important Senate vote, Sen. Sanders is heading south to keynote an event for the Alabama Democratic Majority group on Thursday, AL.com reported. A crucial vote to reopen the government and prevent a default caused Sen. Sanders to miss a scheduled appearance Wednesday evening in Jackson, Miss., the Clarion Ledger reported. LINK, LINK 

Single-Payer Advocate Retiring A central architect in Gov. Peter Shumlin’s quest to build a single-payer health care system is leaving the administration. David Reynolds, a former health policy adviser to Sen. Sanders and Shumlin’s deputy director of health care reform policy, told vtdigger.org that he is “semi-retiring because I want to stay engaged and pick and choose what I want to do.” LINK

Freedom and Unity Norwich native Nora Jacobson directed a documentary, “Freedom and Unity: The Vermont Movie,”  that examines the depression-era Vermont senator George Aiken. Current U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Sanders both offer substantial interviews, painting a vivid picture of Aiken’s personality and explaining his political acumen in detail, the Bennington Banner reported. LINK

World

Afghans Fend off Taliban In a pivotal year as the United States militarily pulls out of Afghanistan, Afghan forces stifled Taliban forces during their annual spring offensive, The New York Times reported. Now, Afghan and American officials are cautiously celebrating a deflation of the Taliban’s propaganda bubble. LINK 

Kennedy Confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Japan The Senate confirmed the daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy to be U.S. ambassador to Japan. Caroline Kennedy won the Senate's unanimous endorsement late Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. LINK

National

Republicans Back Down Congressional Republicans conceded defeat on Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law. Obama signed the bill about 12:30 a.m. Thursday. Most House Republicans opposed the bill, but 87 voted to support it. The breakdown showed that Republican leaders were willing to violate their informal rule against advancing bills that do not have majority Republican support in order to end the shutdown. All 198 Democrats voting supported the measure. LINK

Business Voices Frustration The budget stalemate that had the U.S. flirting with default has left business and the Republican Party, longtime political allies, at a crossroads. In interviews with representatives of companies large and small, executives predicted a change in how business would approach politics. They didn't foresee a new alignment with Democrats but forecast backing challengers to tea-party conservatives in GOP primaries, increasing political engagement with centrist Republicans and, for some, disengaging with politics altogether, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Gridlock's Cost As the shutdown of the United States government appears to be coming to a close, the cost of Congress' gridlock has already run well into the billions, according to The New York Times. A complete accounting might take months to put together once the government reopens and the Treasury returns to adding to the country’s debt. But economists said that the intransigence of House Republicans would take a bite out of fourth-quarter growth. LINK

Workers Get Furlough Pay The shutdown deal announced on Wednesday would provide back pay for federal workers who were furloughed during the government shutdown, congressional aides told The Washington Post. LINK 

Booker Wins in N.J. Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Wednesday became the fourth African-American popularly elected to the U.S. Senate, winning a special election in New Jersey. The Democrat won 55 percent of the vote, to 44 percent for his Republican challenger, Steve Lonegan, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

Vermont

Shumlin PR Deal Gov. Peter Shumlin is defending the decision to spend as much as $2.8 million on marketing and outreach for the online health insurance marketplace at which more than 100,000 Vermonters will soon be required to purchase coverage. He said the $2.8 million contract inked by the state with the Washington, D.C., consulting firm GMMB — to supply the advertising, public relations and production of educational materials for Vermont Health Connect — is a key to the success of the $172 million endeavor, Vermont Press Bureau reported. LINK

Rutland Tries to Break Blood Donation Record Organizers of a Vermont effort to set a national one-day record blood drive in the city of Rutland are going to try again on Dec. 17, the Rutland Herald reported. LINK

New Supreme Court Justice Sworn In Vermont's newest Supreme Court justice was sworn in by Gov. Peter Shumlin at a ceremony Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. LINK