Senator Sanders

Don’t Cut Social Security With eyes now turning toward a new budget committee, some liberals are worried about President Obama’s proposal to cut Social Security. "The president is wrong on this issue, and I hope he rethinks it." Sen. Bernie Sanders, member of the new budget committee, told The Wall Street Journal and KPAM-AM in Portland, Ore. "The president is about to run into a major base problem if he tries to do this," said Rep. Keith Ellison, co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, referring to using the new formula, the chained consumer-price index, to determine benefits. "My advice to him is: Don't do it." LINK, AUDIO

Sanders Calls Out Deficit Hypocrites Sen. Sanders on Saturday offered a glimpse of how he might tackle the budget. “The hypocrisy is extraordinary. When it comes to Medicaid, we just can’t afford to provide health insurance to our children [but] when it comes to going to a war that we never should have gotten into [in Iraq], no problem. These same deficit hypocrites … gave huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires,” Sanders said at Penn Center on St. Helena Island, S.C., one of the earliest schools for freed slaves, and a favorite getaway for Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement, Corey Hutchins blogged. LINK

Vermont Concert Sen. Sanders is planning a special town meeting on Saturday featuring performances by 10 high school choruses from around the state. The event at Montpelier High School is designed to highlight the importance of funding for the arts in public schools. Student choruses will perform songs separately at the concert before joining together to sing "These Green Mountains," Vermont's state song, as a finale. The event is free and open to the public, The Associated Press reported. “Do you think he’s going to sing?” a WCAX-TV anchor asked. LINK, VIDEO

World

France Upset by U.S. Spying France summoned the U.S. ambassador Monday to explain new allegations of spying on French citizens, pushing surveillance and privacy to the top of the agenda as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Paris for a scheduled visit. According to a story published in Le Monde, based on documents it said were provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the NSA collected more than 70 million phone records in France, including recordings of conversations and text messages, between early December 2012 and early January 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

National

Obama Calls in Computer Experts The Obama administration said Sunday that it has enlisted additional computer experts from across the government and from private companies to help rewrite computer code and make other improvements to the online health insurance marketplace, which has been plagued by technical defects that have stymied many consumers since it opened nearly three weeks ago. This expanded team has come up with new ways of monitoring which parts of the federal Web site, HealthCare.gov, are having problems and has been taking the site offline for rigorous overnight tests, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman told The Washington Post. “LINK

Vermont

School Tests Student test scores in Vermont could drop when more rigorous standards take effect and students start taking a new education test in 2015. While Vermont typically rates high among the 50 states in student performance, officials don’t know how the state will do two years from now when the state adopts the Common Core standards are designed to better equip young people for careers or college, AP reported. LINK

Energy Conference Renewable energy advocates and industry players are set to gather in South Burlington for a conference devoted to topics ranging from energy project siting to net metering to the future of individual energy technologies. R-E 2013, the annual conference organized by the industry group Renewable Energy Vermont, begins at noon Monday and runs through Tuesday at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington, AP reported. LINK