Week in Review
Should millionaires pay the same tax rate as the middle class? A Senate vote is set for Monday on a bill cosponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Letter carriers demonstrated Thursday across the nation to stop the steep Postal Service cuts - and to support Sanders' plan to modernize the mail delivery service and save jobs. With a week-long focus on energy issues, the senator hosted a summit on clean energy in Vermont on Monday; exposed huge taxpayer subsidies for the nuclear industry on Friday; and was slated to speak at a demonstration demanding the shutdown of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on Saturday.
Buffett Rule
Sanders made the case for a bill to make millionaires pay at least the same tax rate as middle-class families. The Buffett Rule - the shorthand title for legislation - is named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who says wealthy taxpayers like him should not pay a lower tax rate than middle-class wage earners. "To continue a policy which allows the wealthiest people to do phenomenally well while their tax rates are very low and while we're trying to deal with deficit reduction makes no sense at all," Sanders told WCAX-TV in his hometown of Burlington, Vt. Discussing the proposal on MSNBC, Sanders told anchor Chris Jansing that a recent study found that 93 percent of all new income in 2010 went to the top 1 percent. "Should the wealthiest people in this country be asked to pay more in taxes? Of course they should." »
Watch the MSNBC interview »
What do you think about taxing millionaires? »
Energy Summit
Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin on Monday hosted a Clean Energy Investment Summit in Burlington on ways to help more middle-class families afford money-saving investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Read Burlington Free Press coverage of the energy summit »
Nuclear Subsidies
On Friday, Sanders exposed shocking subsidies for the nuclear power industry in the United States. In a column for The Guardian, the senator and the president of a taxpayer watchdog group questioned "the extraordinary amount of corporate welfare" for the nuclear industry at a time of record national debt.
Vermont Yankee
Sanders was slated to address hundreds of protesters on Saturday in Brattleboro to demand that the 40-year-old, problem-plagued Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor be shut down so Vermont may chart its own future.
Postal Service
Demonstrations were held on Thursday outside Senate offices across the nation by postal workers, local business owners and citizens concerned about drastic cuts in mail service. In Pocatello, Idaho, the state Association of Letter Carriers president told the Idaho State Journal he backs a bill by Sanders that would maintain first-class mail standards, save Saturday deliveries and avoid massive shutdowns of rural post offices and mail sorting plants. In Montana, meanwhile, U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe encountered strong public opposition to his plan to close 3,600 small post offices around the country.
Citizens United
The Vermont Senate on Thursday called on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment to undo a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that voided a ban on corporate campaign spending. In the U.S. Senate, Sanders has introduced the Saving American Democracy Amendment to restore the power of Congress and state lawmakers to enact campaign spending limits. "The Vermont Senate has now added its strong voice to a grassroots movement that is growing all across the United States," Sanders said. In Washington, an April 18 meeting is scheduled to bring together leaders of local, state, and federal efforts to amend the Constitution in the wake of the court's Citizens United ruling. "Citizens United was one of the worst decisions ever handed down by the Supreme Court. The people of Vermont and across America are totally disgusted with the huge amounts of money that billionaires and corporations are now throwing into the political process as a result of that misguided decision," Sanders said.
