Senator Sanders

Progressive Budget A select group of House and Senate lawmakers are working on a budget compromise ahead of a December deadline, Vermont Public Radio reported. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a member of the conference committee, last week submitted his own model outline for a progressive budget. Sanders will join VPR today at noon and 7 p.m. ET to discuss budget negotiations with hosts Jane Lindholm and Sage Van Wing. LINK

Low Expectations Rock-bottom expectations and typical Washington gridlock are creating a perception that even if Democrats and Republicans on the budget committee just give up, it's not actually their fault. Most members think expectations are right where they belong. “In a dysfunctional United States Congress, it's not possible to set expectations low enough," Sen. Sanders, who also serves on the negotiating panel, told Politico. “Expectations are low.” LINK

Social Security Sen. Sanders and others want to lift the cap on income that is taxed for Social Security, which currently stands at $113,700. Because of the growing "retirement crisis" in America, Sen. Elizabeth Warren argued in a Senate floor speech on Monday that “we should be talking about expanding Social Security benefits—not cutting them.” She noted that several senators, including Tom Harkin and Sanders have been pushing for just that, The Huffington Post and Mother Jones reported online. LINK

White House ’16 Sen. Sanders told his hometown newspaper Friday that it is essential to have someone in the 2016 presidential campaign willing to take on Wall Street, address the collapse of the middle class, tackle the spread of poverty and fiercely oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare, according to online reports by CBS News, MSNBC, The Washington Post,  Politico, The Huffington Post, The Washington Times, The Hill,  Raw Story, Political Wire, Truthout, Truthdig, The Vermont Standard, Crooks and Liars and The Week.  LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, LINK, VIDEO

White House '16 Sanders says a progressive candidate could help shape the national debate by bringing issues that are normally ignored to the foreground. “It's not like I stay up nights thinking I want to be president of the United States," he told Fox News Radio’s Alan Colmes on Monday. "But I get tired of not hearing the issues facing the middle class and working families being discussed."

White House '16 Matt Purple of The American Spectator told Thom Hartmann on The Big Picture television program on the Russian-government sponsored RT network, that a democratic socialist should lead the Democratic Party ticket. Christy Setzer, identified as a progressive communications consultant, said Sanders “isn’t all that serious about actually getting in” and “if we’re looking for somebody to the left of Hillary Clinton, we already have that person and her name is Elizabeth Warren.” In The Huffington Post, Peter Rosenstein fretted about an “antagonistic primary” hurting Democrats. VIDEO, LINK

World

Single-Payer Popular Around the World Nations with single payer health care are more satisfied with their health systems than citizens in the United States, according to new polling cited by The Washington Post. Citizens in the United Kingdom were among the most satisfied of all the nations polled, while Americans ranked their system the lowest. LINK

Deadly Blasts in Lebanon Two suicide blasts struck Tuesday near the Iranian Embassy in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing at least 23 people. The area is a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group, which is a main ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the civil war next door. It's not clear if the blasts are related to Syria's civil war, CBS News reported. LINK

National

Recovery Worsening Income Gap New data from the Congressional Budget Office shows that despite modest economic recoveries in many states, the middle class has been shrinking. Between 2010 and 2012, the number of middle-income households shrank while the number of low- and upper-income ones grew, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Obama Pick for Court Is Blocked by Republicans Senate Republicans on Monday blocked President Obama’s third consecutive nominee to the most powerful and prestigious appeals court in the country because they fear changing the court’s conservative tilt. By a vote of 53 to 38, the Senate failed to break a filibuster of Robert L. Wilkins, a federal judge who was nominated to fill one of three vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, The New York Times reported. LINK

NSA Spying The Supreme Court on Monday declined to rule on a challenge to a National Security Agency program that collects the telephone records of millions of Americans, The New York Times reported. Meanwhile, lawmakers of both parties are considering legislative action to reign in the NSA's domestic spying efforts. Sen. Ron Wyden is floating an amendment that would create a plethora of new disclosure requirements for intelligence agencies, including public reports on how often they conduct mass digital sweeps. LINK

Drug Compounding Bill Passes The Senate on Monday passed legislation to prevent quality control problems with compounded drugs, Reuters reported. LINK

Education Department Profits on Student Loans The U.S. Department of Education says it has been working to help borrowers who are struggling with crushing student loan debt but the department reaped more than $42.5 billion in profit in the past fiscal year from federal student loans, according to The Huffington Post. That total was roughly a third higher than in 2012 and the agency’s second-highest ever profit haul after a $47.9 billion gain in 2011. LINK

Obama’s Ratings Tumble The flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act has pushed President Obama to the lowest point of his presidency, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Opposition to the new health care law also hit a record high in the survey, with 57 percent saying they oppose it. Just a month ago, as the enrollment period was beginning, the public was almost evenly divided in its assessments of the law. Disapproval of Obama’s handling of the health care law’s rollout stands at 63 percent. Last month, 53 percent disapproved. LINK

Paul Ryan on Poverty Rep. Paul Ryan has been quietly visiting inner-city neighborhoods to talk to ex-convicts and recovering addicts as he lays plans to roll out an anti-poverty plan next year, The Washington Post’s Lori Montgomery gushed in her latest Valentine to the House Budget Committee chairman. LINK

Pentagon Waste A new investigation by Reuters discovered widespread accounting fraud and waste at the Pentagon. Between 2003 and 2011, the Army lost track of roughly $5.8 billion worth of supplies. LINK

JP Morgan Chase, Feds Reach $13 billion Settlement The Justice Department and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have reached agreement on all issues in a $13 billion settlement of a civil inquiry into the company's sales of low-quality mortgage-backed securities that collapsed in value during the 2008 financial crisis, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Wal-Mart Workers A Walmart store in Ohio is holding a food drive this Thanksgiving for the store's workers, The (Cleveland, Ohio) Plain Dealer reported. One employee said the gesture was "proof the company acknowledged many of its employees were struggling" with low wages. The average full-time retail employee makes an annual salary of $25,000. LINK

Vermont

Leahy Introduces Patent Bill Sen. Patrick Leahy on Monday introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting companies that use patents to blackmail other companies into giving them valuable licensing fees for common technologies, the Burlington Free Press reported. LINK

Health Dept. Launches Overdose Antidote The Vermont Health Department will launch a new program to distribute an antidote for opium-based drug overdoses, The Associated Press reported. Health officials believe the program will help curb drug abuse and enhance treatment resources for addicts. LINK