Auto dealers felt the sting of the recession this week. General Motors on Friday began notifying 1,100 U.S. dealers that their franchise agreements will not be renewed. Chrysler on Thursday cut quarter of its dealerships, including two in Vermont. On Capitol Hill, the politically potent banking industry lobby flexed its muscle as Congress considered consumer protections for credit card holders, beating back an attempt by Senator Bernie Sanders to limit how much lenders can charge in interest. The drive to reform health care also began to take shape, with Sanders leading the call for a single-payer system that would improve care and save money.

Credit Cards The Senate turned back the effort to cap interest rates at 15 percent. The proposal was voted down "despite complaints that banks and credit card companies are gouging customers by charging outrageous interest rates," as The New York Times put it. Dow Jones called the fact that the Sanders amendment was even considered "a testament to a shift against the industry as the financial crisis stoked public anger over bank bailouts." After the vote, Sanders said the amendment "was defeated because the financial institutions on Wall Street are very powerful." Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd, who had sided with Sanders, said he would propose a study of "what national rate there ought to be." Senators planned on Tuesday to wrap up work on credit card reforms, many of which track other proposals Sanders has championed for years. "The bill in general is a step forward in protecting consumers," he told Northeast Pubic Radio's Pat Bradley. To listen to her report, click here. To read more about how Sanders for years has fought credit companies, click here. To watch one of the messages Bernie received from real people supporting his proposal, click here.

Health Care "With 15,000 physicians supporting the concept of single payer, with single payer being the only system that can provide comprehensive health care to every man, woman and child, single payer should obviously be on the table," Sanders told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. The lone Senate sponsor of single-payer legislation, Sanders addressed a rally of hundreds of nurses who marched to Capitol Hill on Wednesday in support of a single-payer system. "All over this place there are thousands of lobbyists representing greed and short-term profits. And it's nice to see ordinary people coming here to Washington, fighting for the rights of their patients and all of our people," Sanders said. To watch Thursday night's interview on "The Ed Show," click here. To watch the senator's speech at the nurses' rally, watch below.

Market Regulation A day after the Obama administration sought new powers to regulate speculators, Sanders on Thursday cleared the way for a Senate vote on President Obama's nominee to oversee commodity markets. Sanders lifted his hold on the nomination after meeting with Gary Gensler, the president's pick to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. They discussed the regulatory reform package that asks Congress for new legal authority to monitor the complex financial instruments known as derivatives. Virtually unchecked trading in the unregulated financial instruments was a major cause of the financial crisis. Gensler also provided written responses to questions posed by the senator on several other important regulatory issues. To read the responses to the senator's questions, click here.

‘Ahead of the Curve' "The future of American capitalism is being shaped in part by Congress's only avowed socialist. Bernie Sanders is taking advantage of rising populist anger at the government's bailouts of financial companies to push legislation that would reveal the identity of all Federal Reserve borrowers and restrict recipients of emergency Fed loans from hiring foreign workers," according to Bloomberg news. Some of Sanders' concerns "have been well-vindicated," said Jim Leach, a former Iowa Republican congressman who was chairman of the House Financial Services Committee chairman. "One might say he was ahead of the curve." To read the article, click here.