Speaking Tuesday at Johnson State College in Vermont, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a “revolution” in the way higher education is funded in the United States, proposing that graduates be allowed to refinance their student debt and pay lower interest rates. As ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders on Wednesday issued a new report that provides a fresh glimpse into the far-reaching corporate tax avoidance strategies of large and profitable companies represented by the Business Roundtable, including what he calls the "legalized tax fraud” of sheltering profits in offshore tax havens. In Iowa City on Thursday, at a town meeting with University of Iowa students, the senator called for two free years of tuition for college students through an $18 billion boost in federal aid for higher education that would be matched by state funds. Wal-Mart promised modest wage raises to some employees in a move Sanders said was “nowhere near enough” to correct the company’s practice of paying employees “starvation wages.” The senator published an op-ed this week asking international powers to allow Greece’s new government to implement its voter-mandated agenda without demanding more austerity.

College Costs

Sen. Sanders this week called for a fundamental change in national priorities so that college tuition at public universities and colleges is cut in half.  His proposal calls for an $18 billion boost in federal aid for higher education to be matched by states. Sanders also called for a major overhaul of federal student loans.  The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the Department of Education will reap $127 billion in profits over 10 years from rising interest charges for college students and their families. “We must end the practice of the government making billions in profits from student loans taken out by low and moderate income families.  That is extremely regressive public policy," Sanders said. Read more

Profitable Corporations Duck Taxes

Sen. Sanders on Wednesday called on America’s leading corporations to stop sheltering profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens. The Senate Budget Committee’s ranking member also urged them to stop lobbying Congress for additional tax breaks as the Business Roundtable, an organization representing some of the largest corporations in the country. A new Sanders report shows for the first time how more than half of the companies represented by the Business Roundtable are collectively holding more than $1 trillion in profits in offshore tax haven countries where it is not subject to U.S. taxes. The report also shows that several of the companies have been profitable for years but pay nowhere near the 35 percent income tax rate that nominally applies to corporate profits.

“Instead of sheltering profits in the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens, the largest corporations in this country must pay their fair share of taxes so that our country has the revenue we need to rebuild America and reduce the deficit.  At a time when corporations are making record-breaking profits, while the middle class is disappearing and senior poverty is on the rise, the last thing we should be doing is giving huge tax breaks to profitable corporations that don’t need it,” Sanders said. Read more

Wal-Mart Wages ‘Nowhere Near Enough'

Sen. Sanders on Thursday said Wal-Mart’s plan to raise wages for some of its workers is “nowhere near enough.” The Walton family which owns the store chain is the wealthiest family in America and Sanders said "it is absurd that thousands of their low-wage workers are forced to use programs like food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing.” Sanders credited the wage raise to grassroots activists who have pushed for higher wages across the country, and called on Wal-Mart to go further. "Wal-Mart should raise their minimum wage to at least $10.10 an hour now and move it to $15 over the next several years. Struggling working families should not have to subsidize the wealthiest family in the country. Wal-Mart also should end its vehemently anti-union activities,” he said. Read more

The Fate of Europe

“The people of Greece and the anti-austerity party, Syriza, they elected to lead them are struggling to rebuild their economy so that ordinary people there can live with a shred of dignity and security,” Sen. Sanders wrote in an op-ed first published by The Guardian. With an existing aid agreement due to expire on Friday, Sanders wrote that “powerful international interests are putting the pro-growth, pro-worker experiment in progressive democracy currently underway in grave danger. “The new Greek government needs support in establishing pro-growth policies which create jobs, expand their economy and enable them to pay down their debts. Demanding that creditors are paid before any of that is allowed to happen may come at a very heavy price for more than just the people of Greece,” the senator concluded. Read Sanders’ op-ed in The Guardian