The troubled American economy continued to dominate the headlines during the past week, as an economic stimulus bill approved by Congress was signed into law. Vermont senators fought the Bush administration over a warrantless eavesdropping program and whether to grant legal immunity to telephone companies that provided phone and email records. Senators continued to pick apart the last Bush budget with the focus turning to proposed cuts in assistance for veterans. And the spotlight was on physician shortages at a Capitol Hill hearing chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders.

Stimulus The $168 billion stimulus package signed by President Bush will provide a needed boost to a struggling US economy. In an appearance before Congress, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke testified that the stimulus "could be helpful" as the economy ploughs through what he called a "period of sluggish growth." "Clearly we're going to have to work together to get this economy revitalized," Sanders said Friday on the Thom Hartmann Show. Sanders, who helped strengthen the package in the Senate, earlier said in a Vermont Public Radio interview: "It is important that we move quickly. Obviously you want to put money in the hands of people who need it the most. They're the ones who are going to spend it the quickest." Senate leaders, meanwhile, unveiled a housing market rescue plan in another effort to jolt the slumping economy. Under that proposal, consumer groups would get $200 million to counsel borrowers facing foreclosure. Local governments would get $4 billion in federal grant money to buy, fix and resell foreclosed properties to prevent neighborhood blight. The Internal Revenue Service has information about who benefits and how. To check out the IRS Web site, click here.

Spying "The erosion of democracy at home proceeds as the Bush administration prosecutes a war abroad that is said to be about the advance of democracy. Only this week the Senate passed a bill prohibiting the use of waterboarding and other torture methods, but President Bush has threatened to veto it. Thus, he sends the message that while we promote the rule of law for others, we reserve the right to behave lawlessly ourselves," the Rutland Herald declared in an editorial. In a 51 to 45 vote, the Senate approved an intelligence bill that limits the CIA to using interrogation tactics outlined in a U.S. Army Field Manual. "The lack of esteem that countries all over the world have for the United States today is probably lower than at any time in our modern history and this is a tragedy for a number of reasons, not least of all that it limits our ability to bring together the international coalitions we need to fight terrorism," Sanders said . Meanwhile, the House refused to renew a surveillance program demanded by President Bush. The main sticking point is a provision that provides legal immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated in providing private telephone and Internet records. "I voted against immunity," Sanders told the Thom Hartmann Show on Air America. To read the Rutland Herald editorial, click here.

Veterans Senators warned Wednesday that a Bush administration proposal to cut VA medical center construction funding and boost prescription drug co-payments would be devastating to former service members. Sanders predicted lawmakers would once again refuse to increase the co-payments. "Year after year, Congress throws this in the garbage can where it should belong," Sanders said in a Senate hearing. Meanwhile, Vermont's congressional delegation announced that the VA Medical Center at White River Junction has been awarded $900,000 to begin designs for the expansion of its imaging center. The design funds will be followed by an additional $6,000,000 for construction next year. To read more about it, click here. To watch the senator and leaders of veterans' organizations, click here.

Physician Shortage Fewer American doctors are focusing on primary care, the Government Accountability Office reported to a Senate committee, "It is troubling to me that the number of Americans pursuing a career in primary care has declined," Sanders said at the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing that he chaired. Sanders said funding for the National Health Service Corps, which aims to provide primary health care to adults and children in the communities of greatest need, should be doubled to $250 million annually. To watch the senator's opening statement at the hearing, click here. To read the GAO report, click here.