Senator Sanders

Sanders to Budget Conferees: Hands Off Social Security Sen. Bernie Sanders told Reuters on Wednesday that a special panel of congressional budget negotiators was presented a petition signed by more than 700,000 Americans opposed to cuts in Social Security and other programs. Sanders has vowed to stop efforts to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. Budget negotiators said on Wednesday that they were still far from an agreement and put off scheduling any other public meetings as talks to ease automatic spending cuts moved behind closed doors. “I'm not a great fan of background negotiations,” Sanders said. LINK, LINK

Wartime Tax Cuts for Rich Drove up Deficits Sen. Sanders asked Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf during Wednesday’s hearing if federal deficits were driven up by the Iraq war. Elmendorf began explaining that Congress cut taxes during that period, until Sanders cut in. “You’re not suggesting that in the middle of a war, which cost $3 trillion, Congress actually cut taxes for the rich?” he asked, sarcastically, according to the Burlington Free Press. LINK

Carbon Tax Would Lower Deficit, CBO Says The Congressional Budget Office is out with new data showing that imposing a carbon tax would dramatically reduce the deficit, The Hill reported. The CBO report, issued Wednesday, lists options to cut the U.S. deficit along with their cost savings, according to National Journal. Both publications noted that Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer floated a bill with Sen. Sanders. Their Climate Protection Act would impose a $20 dollar-per-ton tax. It would devote some of the revenue for deficit reduction but would return three-fifths of the revenue to U.S. residents. LINK, LINK

The Fed The Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing today on the nomination of Janet Yellen to head the Federal Reserve. “The Fed is an enormously powerful … secretive agency and the more light we can shed on it would be a good thing for the American people," Sen. Sanders told the Los Angeles Times. A Sanders provision in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law called for an audit of actions taken by the Fed during the 2008 financial crisis. Sanders supports expanded Fed audits but he disagrees with Sen. Rand Paul's plan to delay a confirmation vote on Yellen in order to get a vote on the legislation. “The American people are getting tired of this kind of obstruction,” said Sanders. LINK

USPS Delivers for Amazon The U.S. Postal Service has begun Sunday package deliveries for Amazon. Sen. Sanders told National Journal the partnership “makes sense.” In a letter to The New York Times, Sanders said Postal Service financial problems “are not nearly as dire” as a Times article had suggested. In fact, Sanders said, the mail carrier would have made a $330 million profit so far this year but for an onerous and unprecedented congressional mandate that it prefund 75 years of future retiree health benefits in just 10 years. LINK, LINK

Food Stamp Cuts for Veterans Decried Cuts to food stamp programs have hurt 900,000 veterans. “The average veteran is not a wealthy person,” Sen. Sanders told Ed Schultz Wednesday on MSNBC. “To cut those programs is to simply make people in this country go hungry.” VIDEO

COLA for Veterans The House passed the Veteran’s Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act this week, providing disabled veterans and their survivors a 1.5 percent increase in benefits, The Birmingham (Ala.) News reported. “To some this is mere pennies,” Sen. Sanders said, “but I know these small amounts of money add up over time and make a significant contribution to the financial stability of millions of veterans and their survivors.” President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill in the coming days. LINK

Community Health Centers A remote corner of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom is getting a new health center to help Essex County residents obtain health services closer to home, the Caledonian Record reported. Sen. Sanders recently announced the grant that will support a satellite medical office in Canaan, Vt.  Meanwhile, Gifford Medical Center in Randolph, Vt., was awarded $812,500. Altogether, the number of federally qualified health centers in the state jumped from eight to 11. Sen. Sanders hailed the awards as “a huge step forward for health care in Vermont,” the Valley News reported on Thursday. LINK, LINK

Expanding Preschool Members of Congress on Wednesday unveiled bipartisan legislation based on President Barack Obama’s proposal to expand preschool to every 4-year-old in the country, The Washington Post reported. Top Democrats in the House and Senate, including Sen. Sanders, crafted the legislation. LINK

Pentagon Contractor Fraud Exposed by Sanders Ann Jones’ new book “They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America’s Wars: The Untold Story” details her firsthand relations with Americans during wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  In an interview with Truthout, Jones recognizes Sen. Sanders for his release of a 2011 Defense Department study showing that at least 300 contractors providing goods and services to the department had committed fraud, including major corporations such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the big winner of the war in Iraq, Halliburton. LINK

Obama Nominates Market Regulator President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he will nominate Treasury Department official Timothy Massad to be chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the regulatory agency charged with policing financial markets that played a role in the 2008 financial crisis. Sen. Sanders said he would press Massad about the commission’s efforts to restrict speculation in commodities markets, the French Tribune reported. “Will Mr. Massad make sure that the price of heating oil and gasoline is based on the fundamentals of supply and demand and not Wall Street greed?” LINK

Chemical Safety “We brought the fight for toxic chemical reform to the front doors of our federal decision makers … and held over 75 meetings with U.S. senators and representatives. I want to thank Vermont’s congressional delegation, as one by one the offices of Representative Welch and Senators Leahy and Sanders assured us that they will do all that they can to push for meaningful toxic chemical reform,” Taylor Johnson, an oganizer for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, wrote in a column published by the Rutland Herald. LINK

Veterans Day Speaking at a Civil War memorial in St. Albans on Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders addressed hundreds of students and others at a Veterans Day observance, the St. Albans Messenger reported.

Populist Democrats Populist Democrats are winning key battles against the "Wall Street wing of the party," Katrina vanden Heuvel wrote in a column posted online by The Washington Post. She said that Sens. Sherrod Brown, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren and Sanders have called for breaking up the big banks and holding bankers responsible for illegal actions. LINK

Socialist in Seattle Kshama Sawant, a Seattle socialist who campaigned for the city council on a promise to lead the fight for a $15-an-hour minimum wage, has opened a 402-vote lead in the citywide count. America has a rich history of radical politics at the municipal level. The last big-city Socialist Party mayor was Milwaukee's Frank Zeidler, who finished his final term in 1960. More recently, Bernie Sanders served as the independent socialist mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in the 1980s, John Nichols blogged for The Nation. LINK

Peg Franzen, 74 Vermont social justice advocate Peg Franzen passed away on Wednesday, WPTZ-TV reported. Sen. Sanders said Franzen will be remembered as a “champion for working families and a tireless advocate for health care as a human right.” VIDEO

World

Iran Sanctions Top Obama administration officials appealed to Congress on Wednesday asking for patience before it votes to impose new economic sanctions against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported.  "Let's give them a few weeks, see if it works, and we have all of our options at our disposal," said Secretary of State John Kerry. LINK

China China’s biggest state-owned companies emerged as major winners following a meeting this week of top Communist Party leaders, who reaffirmed their “dominant role” in the economy in comments that suggested they have been able to fend off repeated calls to curb their enormous influence, The Wall Street Journal reported. LINK

National

Some Democrats Back Change in Health Law Anxious congressional Democrats are threatening to abandon President Obama on a central element of his signature health care law, voicing increasing support for proposals that would allow Americans who are losing their health insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act to retain it. The dissent comes as the Obama administration released enrollment figures on Wednesday that fell far short of expectations, The New York Times reported. A vote is scheduled Friday in the Republican-controlled House on a bill that would allow Americans to keep their existing health coverage through 2014 without penalties. LINK

Obama Administration Officials to Meet with Senate Democrats Senate Democrats will hold a closed-door full caucus meeting Thursday with administration officials to discuss growing concerns with problems in the health care law, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday, according to Roll Call. “There are many questions about health care, and that’s why tomorrow we’re having a full caucus … the White House is going to be there,” said Reid. LINK

Carbon Tax Would Trim Deficit The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) proposed 103 ways to help cut the deficit Wednesday, and one option raises more revenue than any other: a carbon tax. The Hill reported that a $25-per-ton tax that rises 2 percent annually would raise slightly over $1 trillion over a decade. LINK

Boehner on Immigration Immigration reform was dealt another blow Wednesday when House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans will not negotiate over the Senate’s immigration reform bill, Politico reported. “Frankly, I’ll make clear, we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill,” Boehner told reporters Wednesday morning.LINK

Gay Marriage Hawaii and Illinois have joined the list of states with same-sex marriage, CNN reported. LINK

Vermont

Vermont Veterans Home The Vermont State Employees Association, the Shumlin administration and officials at the Vermont Veterans Home reported progress Wednesday on efforts to resolve staffing and management issues at the facility.

A nearly three-hour meeting at the home Wednesday was productive, according to participants. But thorny labor issues are not fully resolved, including whether the home’s Board of Trustees will hire part-time workers, if they will receive benefits and if the union will be allowed to elect its own member to the board, Vermont Press Bureau reported. LINK

Bennington Welcome Center More than 400 people came to the welcome center in Bennington on Wednesday for the official opening ceremony and a ribbon-cutting led by Gov. Peter Shumlin. Shumlin said the welcome center would effectively serve as a “billboard” that advertised Vermont, the Rutland Herald reported. LINK

Shumlin in D.C. Today Gov. Peter Shumlin will travel to the nation’s capital Thursday to address members of fundraising partnership Democracy Alliance, Seven Days reported. Shumlin, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, will deliver remarks at the conference and introduce Democratic gubernatorial candidates Mary Burke of Wisconsin, and state Sen. Wendy Davis of Texas. LINK

Concierge Care Some Vermont doctors are exchanging the confines of large, hospital-affiliated medical practice for flexible independent concierge practices, Seven Days reported. In a concierge practice, doctors take fewer patients, charging clients an annual fee for around the clock availability, freeing practitioners to spend more time on personalized patient care. LINK

Slow New England Job Growth Federal spending cuts and reduced consumer demand are slowing economic growth in New England, according to a set of projections released Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire are expected to continue to boast the strongest economies in the region in the next four years, and unemployment in 2017 is expected to be lowest in Vermont (3.7 percent) and New Hampshire (3.3 percent). LINK

Watershed Protection Watersheds United Vermont is a new group being formed to help protect Vermont’s watershed’s, connecting the different groups across the state already committed to that mission in their areas, the Burlington Free Press reported. LINK

New Wind Proposal The municipal body that governs six unincorporated towns and gores in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom will ask property owners if they would support a plan for an industrial-scale wind project in Ferdinand, The AP reported. LINK

Interpreting the Interstates The Vermont History Museum is now hosting “Interpreting the Interstates,” an exhibit aimed at understanding how the construction of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System changed Vermont’s culture and landscape, The Addison Eagle reported. LINK