This week more than two dozen senators joined Sen. Sanders in calling for increased funding for programs like Meals on Wheels in order to keep up with the increasing needs of our country’s growing elderly population.  The Senate passed legislation that would restore assistance for more than 2.7 million jobless workers, including about 1,832 Vermonters, who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks and had their benefits cut off late last year. Senate Republicans blocked a bill on Wednesday that would ensure women receive equal pay for equal work. Nationwide, women earn approximately 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. On Thursday House Republicans passed a budget proposal that Sen. Sanders called “vulgar and obscene” in an interview with MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton.

A Vulgar and Obscene Budget

House Republicans on Thursday muscled through a slash-and-burn budget that would hurt seniors on Medicare and Social Security, families and on Medicaid, children and seniors who rely on food stamps and college students struggling to afford tuition. Millionaires, meanwhile, would get an average $200,000 a year cut in their taxes as part pf the plan that caters to the need of the wealthy and the powerful.  “Vulgar and obscene,” was how Sen. Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, summed up the House plan in an interview on MSNBC with the Rev. Al Sharpton. Watch the interview here.

Senators Support Seniors

More than two dozen senators have called for a significant funding increase for Older Americans Act programs like Meals on Wheels in order to keep up with the increasing needs of a growing population of elderly Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees seniors’ programs, was joined by 26 colleagues in urging the chairman and ranking member of a Senate appropriations panel to provide at least a 12 percent increase in funding for the coming year. Read more here.

Help for the Long-Term Jobless

The Senate voted 59-38 today to renew benefits for the long-term unemployed. The bill would restore assistance for more than 2.7 million jobless workers, including about 1,832 Vermonters, who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks and had their benefits cut off late last year. “From both a moral and economic perspective, we have got to do everything that we can to help long-term unemployed Americans find decent-paying jobs. Americans desperately need these benefits to feed their families, pay the rent and fill their gas tanks as they continue to look for work,” said Sen. Sanders. Read more here.

‘Their Nightmare’

With more than 7 million Americans signing up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, critics who predicted its collapse are instead dealing with “their worst nightmare,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said in an interview with MSNBC’s Ed Schultz on Monday. ““First, the United States remains the only country in the industrialized world that doesn’t guarantee health care to all of its people as a right. Second of all, the Republicans have opposed the Affordable Care Act from day one – it is their nightmare that it succeeds. Thirdly these are the same guys that want to end Medicare as we know it, convert it into a voucher program, who want to make massive cuts in Medicaid, who had eight years under Bush to do something – even a little thing – about health care, they did nothing.” Watch the interview here.

Paycheck Fairness

The Senate on Tuesday debated a bill that would ensure women receive equal pay for equal work. Nationwide, women earn approximately 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. In Vermont, women make 85 percent of what Vermont men make. No state does better, according to the American Association of University Women. “We are proud that Vermont is No. 1 among the states, but we can do better in Vermont and we certainly can do better as a nation,” Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a joint statement. “Pay equity should not be a partisan issue but instead an American issue of basic fairness. We are very proud that Vermont is a leader in this fight but more must be done to balance the pay between men and women.” Read more here.

Primary Care Crisis

A Senate panel on Wednesday heard from the founder of an organization that stages medical clinics for patients who wait day and night in long lines for basic health care in parts of the world with severe doctor shortages – not in a Third World country in Africa or Latin America but right here in the United States. “Health care in America is a privilege of the well-to-do and the well-insured that leaves about 50 million people flat out of luck,” said Stan Brock, president of Remote Area Medical. People travel hundreds of miles and wait for days to see a doctor or dentist or to get their eyes checked at clinics Brock’s organization has held in communities like Los Angeles and Knoxville, Tenn. Read more here.