The recession was deeper and the recovery has been slower than the government originally estimated, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.  Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked consideration of a bill to help small businesses get affordable credit to grow and create jobs. Republican obstruction tactics also stymied Senate consideration of a bill to bring corporate campaign spending into the open. In Vermont, a report prepared for Bernie detailed the major investments in Vermont’s health care, infrastructure, energy efficiency, schools and much more from last year's economic stimulus package.  A stunning report indicated that life insurance companies were profiting off of the survivor benefits of fallen service members' families.  Next week, the Senate is expected to consider the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court prior to beginning the August recess when members return to their home states to hear from constituents.  Sen. Bernie Sanders is getting a head start by holding a series of six town meetings on two days this weekend in southern Vermont.

Republicans Block Aid to Small Business Small businesses ready to grow and hire workers are having trouble rounding up affordable credit, but Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a bill to aid small businesses with expanded loan programs and tax breaks. They also refused to even let the Senate consider an amendment that Senate leadership wanted to offer to prevent layoffs of teachers and first responders across the country. Senate Leader Harry Reid scheduled a vote on Monday to assist teachers and first responders. "We have expose the hypocrisy that`s taking place in Washington," Sanders said on MSNBC. "The Republicans refused to vote to extend unemployment benefits last week for 2.5 million American workers. At the same exact time, they wanted to provide a trillion dollars in tax relief for the top 0.3 percent of the population. If that`s not hypocrisy, I don`t know what is."

Road to Recovery The economic stimulus program that Congress enacted last year to help pull the economy out of the deepest recession since the 1930s so far has provided tax relief for almost all Vermonters and created or saved some 7,000 jobs in the state, according to a report compiled for Sanders. Almost $1.3 billion has been invested in Vermont job-creating programs and tax relief for almost every Vermonter. "I don't think anybody believes that the stimulus package has solved all of our problems...but what we can say is the stimulus package has prevented a bad situation from becoming a much worse," he told Vermont Public Radio.

War in Afghanistan At least 63 U.S. service members were killed in July in Afghanistan, making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war. The House of Representatives on Tuesday ended a months-long standoff and agreed to fund President Obama's Afghanistan troop buildup, but not without debating withdrawal of U.S. troops from neighboring Pakistan.

Families of the Fallen Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki was urged on Thursday by a bipartisan group of senators, including Sanders, to stop insurance companies from profiting off benefits owed to the service members survivors. A report by Bloomberg Markets Magazine found life insurers are secretly profiting from death benefits owed to the survivors of service members. "It is outrageous that insurance companies appear to be taking advantage of grieving families simply in order to make a profit, and it is an affront to the memory of their loved ones," the senators wrote to Secretary Shinseki. He announced that the VA will investigate.

Corporate Campaign Cash Sanders voted on Tuesday for legislation to undo some of the damage from a Supreme Court decision that allows huge corporations to spend money on elections in the United States.  He was "extremely disappointed" that another Republican filibuster blocked the Senate from taking up the bill. "Big money corporate interests - from Wall Street to oil giants and from drug companies to the military industrial complex - already dominate the political process in Washington. It is inconceivable to me that not one Republican voted to minimize the horrendous Supreme Court decision which will allow corporations to put unlimited funds into campaign advertising with no disclosure whatsoever," Sanders said. To read more, click here.

Medicare Anniversary President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law on July 30, 1965. At that time, millions of Americans and about half our nation's seniors lacked health care coverage. Today, 45 years later, the new health care law passed this year strengthened Medicare. The law still falls short, however, of providing the Medicare-for-all single-payer system which is the only way we will ever have a cost-effective, comprehensive health care system in this country. To mark Medicare's anniversary, Sanders joined House colleagues in a letter supporting the expansion of the quality, affordable comprehensive coverage for all Americans. To read the letter, click here.