The real unemployment rate in February was 12.6 percent. Friday’s announcement by the Labor Department of the latest jobless numbers followed a Thursday report by the Federal Reserve that middle-class Americans continued to fall behind as the economy recovers from the recession. The stark contrast between the rich and the rest of us was documented in shocking detail on Monday when Forbes magazine released its annual report on the world’s richest people. “The obscene and increasing level of wealth and income inequality in this country is immoral, un-American and unsustainable,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Friday.

The Very, Very, Very Rich The world’s 1,645 billionaires had an aggregate net worth of $6.4 trillion, up $1 trillion from a year ago, according to Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s richest people. “In other words,” Sanders said, “the very, very, very rich are getting much richer while ordinary Americans are struggling to survive. When so few have so much, and so many have so little, our democracy and economy are under fierce assault.  This is not what America is supposed to be about.” Read about Forbes’ Richest Billionaires

The Koch Brothers Charles and David Koch, with fortunes pegged at $40 billion each, were the sixth richest people in the world last year, according to Forbes. Las Vegas gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson came in eighth. “Unbelievably, these three individuals, who are major donors to right-wing Republicans, saw their wealth piles grow last year by more than the total median earnings of 425,000 public school teachers,” Sanders said. The Kochs and Adelson and other American billionaires have thrown more and more money into political campaigns since the Supreme Court in 2010 struck down limits on campaign spending. “Because of this disastrous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, a bad situation—and it’s been bad for a while—has become much worse,” Sanders said in a Truthdig interview posted on Monday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to accuse the Koch brothers of unfairly meddling in the political system. Read the Truthdig interview, Read Sen. Harry Reid’s fact sheet on the Koch brothers

Unemployment The official unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent in February when more Americans started looking for work but didn't find jobs. The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the real unemployment rate for February was 12.6 percent when those forced to settle for part-time jobs and those who gave up looking for work are counted. For those lucky to have jobs, a Federal Reserve report released Thursday said the rebound from the recession increasingly is leaving behind many middle- and lower-income Americans.

Veterans Job- Training The White House announced Wednesday that the Department of Veterans Affairs would ensure that veterans' tuition payments would be paid through the end of the semester. Payments were set to expire later this month. The program helps veterans who are 35 to 60 years old who have no other VA education benefits. Sanders has introduced legislation that would reauthorize the program for two more years. Read more

Hypocrites Alert The House on Thursday approved legislation that would allow the Obama administration to provide up to $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine. In the Senate, some Republicans want to add a provision slapping sanctions on Iran. Republicans earlier this month tried to insert Iran sanctions language into a bill by Sanders to help veterans. Now, however, some of the same senators who demanded Iran sanctions in the veterans bill don’t want Iran to muddy up the Ukraine aid package. “I don’t want to confuse the two national security crises,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham. Sen. Johnny Isakson told Congressional Quarterly that the two issues should be kept on different tracks.

Military Sexual Assaults A bill to fundamentally revamp the military justice system for sexual assault victims was derailed in the Senate on Thursday. Sanders was a disappointed backer of the measure by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The 55-45 vote to break a filibuster on Gillibrand’s effort to overhaul the military justice system fell short of the 60 votes needed. Seventeen of the 20 women senators supported the bill that would have given servicemen and women an independent route outside the chain of command to report serious crimes. He also backed a separate measure by Sen. Claire McCaskill but he remained concerned that it does not go far enough.

Obama’s Budget President Obama on Tuesday detailed a $3.9 trillion budget proposal for 2015.  Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the president’s proposals would provide major investments in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, expanding community health centers and improving the lives and educational opportunities of our children.  “At a time when the wealthiest Americans are doing phenomenally well, it asks some of the richest people in the country to start paying their fair share of taxes,” Sanders said. “And at a time when the country is still struggling to recover from a terrible recession, the president’s initiatives would benefit Vermonters and all Americans by improving the economy and creating of millions of decent-paying jobs.” As the founder of the Defending Social Security Caucus, Sanders also welcomed the president’s decision not to renew a proposal to cut Social Security benefits. “We cannot afford to make life even more difficult for seniors and some of the most vulnerable people in America,” the senator said.

Save the Postal Service Sanders defended the Postal Service in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Wednesday. “There are very powerful and wealthy special interests who want to privatize or dismember virtually every function that government now performs, whether it is Social Security, Medicare, public education or the Postal Service. They see an opportunity for Wall Street and corporate America to make billions in profits out of these services, and couldn't care less how privatization or a degradation of services affects ordinary Americans,” Sanders wrote. Read the column