Letters from Vermont and America, a collection of emotional letters to Senator Bernie Sanders, has put a national spotlight on the anxiety of ordinary people over sky-high gasoline prices and the troubled economy. The government reported Friday that record-high fuel costs drove up the Consumer Price Index for May, tightening the squeeze on the middle class. In the Senate, Republicans blocked Senate consideration of bills to lower gasoline prices, promote alternative energy and protect Medicare. As the Supreme Court term winds down with announcements of major decisions, justices on Thursday ruled against the Bush administration's handling of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay.

Middle Class Collapse The consumer price index increased 0.6 percent in May, the Labor Department announced on Friday. "But, as Sen. Bernie Sanders points out, statistics are one thing. Real life is another," The Valley News said in an editorial on Friday. "As the nation's economy faltered, Sanders made a request of his constituents and others on his e-mail list. He wanted to hear how they were coping. He said he expected to receive a few dozen replies. Instead, his office was swamped with more than 700 responses," Friday's editorial said. "The comments and stories, which the senator's office has compiled in a booklet titled The Collapse of the Middle Class: Letters from Vermont and America, are moving testimony that the American boom is well and truly over." Bill Moyers read excerpts on The Journal on PBS.New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote in a column published on Saturday that the emotional letters show the extreme anxiety that sky-high gasoline prices and a troubled economy are causing. "It's not just Vermont," he told The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel and Greg Kaufmann. "There are other areas of this country that are worse off. It's important for us to respond to that with appropriate public policies to address this crisis." To read The Valley News editorial, click here. To watch an excerpt from Bill Moyers Journal, click here. To read The New York Times column, click here. To read The Nation, click here. To read Letters from Vermont and America, click here.

Gas Prices The nationwide average for gasoline topped $4 a gallon last week as the price of crude oil also reached record levels. Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a proposal to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies. The vote was 51 to 43, nine short of the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster and bring the energy package up for consideration. "I think the American people must be wondering what in God's name is going on in the nation's capital. While people are getting ripped off at the gas pump, while people in the northeast part of this country are wondering whether they are going to stay warm next winter with home heating prices escalating, the Republicans today refused to even allow a debate on some of the most important ways that we can lower gas and oil profits." To watch the press conference, click here. To take our survey on gasoline prices, click here.

Filibusters There have been more filibusters this session of Congress than ever before. One recent victim of the obstruction tactic was the bill on gasoline prices and oil speculation, which some economists blame for as much as half the price of crude oil. Just minutes later on Tuesday, the GOP minority used another filibuster to thwart the majority on a bill to promote alternative energy. Then on Thursday, the 76th filibuster of this session of Congress sidelined a bill to prevent a 10 percent cut in payments to doctors under Medicare. To read more, click here.

Justices Rule Against Bush In another rebuff to the Bush administration, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At the behest of the White House, the law stripped federal courts of jurisdiction over detainees who want to challenge their designation as enemy combatants. Sanders was a member of the House of Representatives in 2006 when he voted against the legislation that the court held unconstitutional. Last year, Sanders and 55 other senators voted to give terrorism suspects the right to challenge their detentions in federal court. The bill went nowhere, however, because of, you guessed it, another filibuster. To read the opinion of the court in Boumediene v. Bush, click here.