Headlines all week blared the latest developments in an IRS scandal, the seizure of Associated Press phone logs and hearings staged by House Republicans on last year’s deadly U.S. consulate attack in Libya. Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized the IRS as “dead wrong.” He faulted the Justice Department for sweeping up reporters’ phone records.  He dismissed the Benghazi hearings as Republicans trying to turn a tragedy to their political advantage. But where, he asked, were the news stories about the collapsing middle class, chronic unemployment and poverty in America?  Sanders welcomed a Tuesday report that the deficit is shrinking. He called again on Thursday for filibuster reform to stop Republicans from using parliamentary tactics to stiff arm President Obama’s nominees. And he joked on Friday about one small problem he has with an otherwise “excellent” student loan bill by Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Middle Class Collapse “The media may not be all that concerned about little things like the collapse of the American middle class,” Sanders said on Thursday in a radio interview with John Nichols. The senator wished the press would pay more attention to what he called “a new normal” in America where real unemployment is almost 14 percent, median income has fallen since the financial collapse in 2008 and poverty is near an all-time high. Listen to John Nichols interview Sanders

IRS Two top IRS officials lost their jobs in the fallout from the scandal involving illegal targeting of conservative groups. “It was inappropriate for the I.R.S. to go after one group of people, in this case conservatives,” Sanders said. In the broader context, he said “campaign financing in America today is a total disaster as a result of the outrageous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United.” That 2010 ruling, he added, has resulted in “huge amounts of money … coming into the political process” through organizations seeking tax-exempt status. “We have got to get to the root of the absurd campaign finance system,” Sanders said Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program.

Less Red Ink The federal deficit is expected to shrink to $642 billion this year, half of what it was four years ago, the Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday. Sanders welcomed the news, but cautioned that the budget should not be balanced on the backs of seniors and children. He also called for rebuilding the country’s crumbling infrastructure to create millions of jobs, stimulate the economy and help working families. A member of the Senate Budget Committee, he spoke about the latest CBO estimate in a Senate floor speech.  Watch

Republican Obstructionists Senate committees overcame Republican stalling tactics and sent to the full Senate the nominations Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, and Thomas Perez, the nominee to be secretary of labor. They now face likely Republican filibusters. Obama’s nominees for the National Labor Relations Board are likely to face the same fate after the Senate labor committee vote on them next Wednesday. Sanders has called for reform of Senate filibuster rules that the Republican minority has exploited. “The majority should rule,” Sanders said. “The minority is doing everything they can in this case to make it impossible for working people who are on the job to have their rights protected,” he added.

Primary Care As the University of Vermont College of Medicine prepared for Sunday’s commencement ceremony, Sanders put a spotlight on a nationwide shortage of primary care doctors. He wants to improve access to primary care by expanding student loan forgiveness programs for physicians who serve in under-served areas, adding more community health centers and creating financial incentives for medical students to consider careers in primary care, WPTZ-TV reported on Thursday. Watch

Student Loans With student loan rates set to double on July 1 to 6.8 percent, Sanders on Friday endorsed legislation by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to set student loan interest rates at the same 0.75 percent level that the Federal Reserve offers to big banks. “A great idea,” Sanders said of Warren’s bill. “The only thing wrong with this bill is that Elizabeth thought of it and I didn’t,” Sanders said on The Thom Hartmann Program. A Congressional Budget Office report on Tuesday projected that the student loan program administered by the U.S. Department of Education would yield a record $51 billion profit off student borrowers.

What Can We Learn from Denmark? The Danish people rank among the happiest in the world and “enjoy a quality of life that many Americans would envy” with universal health care, inexpensive prescription drugs, strong family-leave laws and free higher education, Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote in a column published in Friday’s Barre, Vt., Times Argus. The senator is hosting town meetings this weekend with Danish Ambassador Peter Taksøe-Jensen in Burlington, Brattleboro and Montpelier to explore what Americans could learn from Denmark’s social model.