On Capitol Hill, Sen. Bernie Sanders voiced concern about sending U.S. troops back to Baghdad while at the White House on Thursday President Obama reacted to growing hostilities in Iraq. What do you think? Sanders also accused oil companies and Wall Street speculators of using unrest in Iraq as a bogus excuse to artificially drive up crude oil and gasoline prices. Meanwhile, EPA directors for four Republican presidents warned a Senate panel on Wednesday about climate change. A new report on Tuesday confirmed that Americans pay more but get less for their health care dollar. And in Vermont on Friday, religious leaders met with Sanders to focus on the moral implications of growing income and wealth inequality in America.

Income Inequality

Vermont religious leaders joined Sanders on Friday to address the moral implications of extreme wealth and income inequality. Bishop Thomas Ely, the Rev. Dr. Lynn Bujnak, Monsignor Roland Rivard and Rabbi Joshua Chasan joined Sanders to emphasize that increasing wealth and income inequality in the United States is one of the great moral issues of our time and is undermining the fabric of our nation. “At a time when more Americans are living in poverty than at any time in our nation’s history, the middle class is disappearing and we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country in the world, we have a moral responsibility to reduce the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else,” Sanders said. Read more

War in Iraq

As someone who voted against the war in 2003, Sanders expressed strong concerns about sending U.S. troops back into Iraq or initiating air strikes against the militant forces. "The situation in Iraq is complex, volatile and fraught with danger.  The one certainty, however, is that we should not be paying a whole lot of attention to the opinions of those people who got us into this disastrous situation in the first place. Those who pushed us into war in 2003 and told us that there was no history of ethnic conflict in Iraq, that the occupation would be easy and that it would be paid for with proceeds from Iraqi oil were wrong then and they are wrong today,” Sanders said. Read more

U.S. Health Care Costs More, Delivers Less

The United States spends more on health care than other major countries but Americans get less for their money, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund. Among the 11 nations studied — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States — the U.S. ranks last. Overall, the U.K. and Switzerland were rated highest for quality, access, efficiency and equity of their health care systems. Even with health care expenditures that were highest per capita, the U.S. was worst in cost of care, efficiency, equity and overall health of its citizens, the study concluded. Read more here.

Hottest Month of May Ever

According to new data released on Tuesday, May 2014 is officially the warmest May in recorded history. Both NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency have tentatively ranked May at the top of historical measurements, though NASA’s numbers are preliminary because crucial information is still missing from China.

Republicans for Climate Action

Four former Environmental Protection Agency administrators testified on Wednesday at a Senate hearing on the need to curb carbon pollution that is causing global warming. The four former administrators – William D. Ruckelshaus, Christine Todd Whitman, William K. Reilly and Lee M. Thomas – all served under Republican presidents. At a time when leading Republicans in Congress have labeled global warming a hoax, Sanders welcomed the testimony of “intelligent Republicans” who respect the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community. The hearing came two weeks after the EPA unveiled a proposal to limit carbon emissions from existing power plants. The initiative, which would reduce emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels. President Obama’s proposal to combat global warming was supported by  67 percent of Americans in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published on Wednesday. Read more.

Tar Sands Pipeline

Over staunch opposition by Sanders, a Senate committee on Wednesday narrowly voted for construction of a controversial oil pipeline from the tar sands region in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 12-10 for the pipeline. Sanders cited overwhelming scientific evidence that global warming is occurring and  that it is caused by human activity. He said extracting and refining “the dirtiest oil imaginable” would spew more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and worsen global warming. He said there is a narrow opportunity in the near future to transform our energy systems from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy like solar and wind power.  “If we do not do that then the future of our planet is in doubt,” he said. Read more

Obama to Protect Gay Workers

President Barack Obama plans to sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against workers because of their sexual orientation, White House officials told reporters on Monday. Sanders is a cosponsor of legislation to protect all gay and transgender Americans from workplace discrimination. The Senate last Nov. 7 passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but the House has refused to take up the bill. Stymied by Republican opposition, Sanders and some 200 other members of Congress last March urged Obama act alone and issue an executive order to at least prohibit taxpayer-funded discrimination in federal contractor workplaces. Read more