Job growth slowed last month, according to a report issued Friday by the Labor Department.  "We are making some progress, but nowhere near enough," Sen. Bernie Sanders said on Friday during his weekly nationwide radio and Internet program. One factor that economists cited to explain the sluggish job growth was the rising price of gasoline, which shot up to more than $4 a gallon on Wednesday at some stations in Vermont.

Jobs 

The U.S. economy generated only 120,000 jobs in March, when the unemployment rate slipped to 8.2 percent from 8.3 percent. About half as many jobs were added in March as during in each of the preceding three months.  Real unemployment was 14.5 percent in March, down from 14.9 percent the month before. That category counts those forced to settle for part-time work and others who are so frustrated that they quit hunting for a job. It is important to remember, Sanders stressed, that 700,000 jobs were lost during the last month George W. Bush was president. The senator made his comments on The Thom Hartmann Program. He also blamed House Republicans for blocking a Senate-passed transportation construction bill that would create 1 million new construction jobs.

Gas Prices 

For the first time in years, the price of regular gas at some Vermont service stations topped $4 a gallon. As of Friday, the average price in Vermont was $3.97.  The national average price was $3.94. Sanders has introduced legislation that would require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to use its emergency powers to eliminate excessive oil speculation. There is widespread consensus that speculators are to blame for the rampant run up in gasoline prices. 
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Buffett Rule 

With the April 16 tax filing deadline approaching, a vote was scheduled for that day in the Senate on a bill to increase taxes on millionaires. Sanders is a cosponsor. The plan is called the Buffett Rule after Warren Buffett, the billionaire who thinks it's not fair that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers like his secretary. Investment income is taxed at only 15 percent. Under the proposal, people who earn at least $1 million annually - whether in salary or investments - would pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes. 
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House Budget 

A member of the Senate Budget Committee, Sanders on Wednesday said a House-passed budget would make deep cuts in programs for working families while offering even more tax breaks for the wealthy. The real goal of the House Republicans, Sanders said, "is a radical reversal of what this country has been about for 80 years."  They want to undermine support forworking families, education, the environment, the elderly, the sick and the poor. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has cloaked his plan in rhetoric is about deficit reduction, but Sanders said it wouldn't achieve that goal. "These guys really are not staying up nights worrying about deficits," he said in a radio interview. 
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Citizens United 

The Vermont Senate in the coming week will consider a resolution seeking to counteract the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.  It calls for a constitutional amendment to establish that corporations do not have the same rights as people when it comes to campaign spending. Sanders is the sponsor of the Saving American Democracy Amendment.  Supporters of it and similar proposals plan an April 18 summit on Capitol Hill. 
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Deregulation

President Obama signed a bill on Thursday that will roll back restrictions on the way start-up companies can raise money from individual investors. "Have we learned nothing?" Sanders asked last month after voting against the bill in the Senate. "Deregulating Wall Street led to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.  Now the same people who caused this horrible recession are telling us that more Wall Street deregulation will create jobs."