Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to let borrowers refinance student loans when interest rates drop. Throughout the week, college students deep in debt voiced their concerns to Sen. Bernie Sanders. Also on Wednesday, senators voted 93-3 for a bill by Sens. Sanders and John McCain to expand VA clinics and hire more doctors and nurses to provide timely, top-quality care for veterans. Long wait times for VA health care have grabbed the headlines, but how long does it take to see a private physician in the United States? Sanders cited a study that put the situation at the VA in perspective.

College Costs

"We have to lower the cost of college so that working families can afford to send their kids to school,” said Sanders, a cosponsor of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s student loan bill.  Sanders has proposed another way to make college more affordable. He would let high school students enroll in college classes so they may graduate from college in less than four years and thereby save on tuition. “Colleges must control costs and the federal government must provide the necessary assistance so every person in this country, regardless of income, can get a college education,” he said.

Student Loans

College graduates from Vermont and around the country replied after Sanders on Tuesday asked people about their personal experiences. By Thursday, he read from some of the hundreds of poignant letters about how student debt had affected their lives. “It is a ball and chain that follows me everywhere I go preventing me from starting the rest of my life,” Saul Barraza, 23, of Littleton, Colorado, wrote about is $35,550 debt. “It makes me depressed. I have no hope. I can't move out of [my parents’] house. I can't propose to the girl I love ... I'm afraid to have kids because I'm scared they wouldn't have a chance,” Andrew Englebrecht, 23, of New Lenox, Illinois, wrote of his $80,000 in outstanding loans. Read more, Watch Sanders speech

Doctor Crisis 

Long wait times for VA health care have made headlines, but how long does it take to see a private physician? In Boston, it took 66 days on average to see a family doctor. In Washington, D.C., it takes 32 days to get a first appointment with a cardiologist.  Got a knee problem? In San Diego, you’ll have to just live with for 18 days before you can see an orthopedic surgeon.  The wait times were documented in a health care consultant’s report that Sanders has often cited. The Associated Press pointed to the study as part of a report on how private health care in America compares to the VA. Read the AP story,  Read the Merritt Hawkins report

Sanders-McCain

The Senate on Wednesday voted 93-3 for a bill to expand hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs and to hire more doctors and nurses to provide timely, top-quality care for veterans. The Sanders-McCain bill would let veterans facing long delays for doctor appointments at VA facilities go elsewhere. Their measure also would hold VA officials accountable for trying to conceal patient wait times. “Our job is to make certain that every veteran in the country gets quality health care in a timely manner,” Sanders said. “At a time when 2 million more veterans have come into the VA in the last four years, we must ensure that there are enough doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to meet the needs of veterans in every facility in the country.”

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Minimum Wage

The Labor Department on Thursday issued a rule requiring federal contractors to pay workers at least $10.10 an hour. After months of prodding by Sen. Sanders, Rep. Keith Ellison and others, President Obama last February signed an executive order calling for a minimum wage for contract employees. Labor Secretary Tom Perez said the wage increase will benefit about 200,000 workers. A group of employees who work for federal contractors cleaning buildings and serving food at the Pentagon and Union Station on Thursday called $10.10 a "poverty" wage. They demonstrated on Obama to give them collective bargaining rights.

Executive Pay Soars

CEO compensation at the largest corporations rose by 937 percent since 1978, when adjusted for inflation. A typical worker’s compensation grew a scant 10.2 percent over the same period, according to a report issued on Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute. The average CEO compensation at the 350 publicly owned companies with the largest annual revenue in the U.S. last year was $15.2 million. That’s a 21.7 percent rise since just 2010. Read the report

The Fed

Three nominees for the Federal Reserve governing board were confirmed on Thursday by the Senate. Two of the nominees have Wall Street banking ties. The third was a corporate consultant. Sen. Bernie Sanders voted no. Congress requires the Fed to maximize employment and minimize inflation. “At a time when real unemployment in the United States is more than 12 percent, it is clear that the Fed is not doing enough to help create the millions of decent-paying jobs that Americans desperately need,” Sanders sa9id. The three also failed to convince Sanders that they will stand up to Wall Street as “tough financial regulators.” Read more