The Week in Review
The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act on Thursday. That was good news, Sen. Bernie Sanders said. On Monday, however, the court summarily refused to even consider a case that stemmed from its disastrous 2010 ruling on campaign funding. With two days to spare, Congress on Friday acted to keep student loan interest rates from doubling. The same bill also will fund highway, bridge and transit projects - and save and create millions of construction jobs. Something important happened on Wednesday. Sanders took to the Senate floor to spell out in detail why, as he put it, "Americans are angry." All but ignored by the mainstream media, the speech went viral on YouTube.
Americans Are Angry
"They are angry that the middle class is collapsing because of the Wall Street-caused recession; they are angry that unemployment is sky high; that 50 million people lack health insurance; and that working families can't afford college for their kids," Sanders said in the speech. "Meanwhile, at a time when the wealthy and the largest corporations are doing phenomenally well, the billionaires and their congressional friends want to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor."
Health Care Law Stands
"Today is a good day for millions of Americans who have pre-existing conditions who can no longer be rejected by insurance companies," Sanders said on Thursday after the court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act. "It is a good day for families with children under 26 who can keep their children on their health insurance policies. It is a good day for women who can no longer be charged far higher premiums than men. It is a good day for 30 million uninsured Americans who will have access to healthcare. It is a good day for seniors who will continue to see their prescription drug costs go down as the so-called doughnut hole goes away. It is a good day for small businesses who simply cannot continue to afford the escalating costs of providing insurance for their employees. It is a good day for 20 million Americans who will soon be able to find access to community health centers."
America for Sale
The Supreme Court on Monday made clear that the two-year-old decision in Citizens United applies to state and local elections. Sanders said the ruling underscored the need for a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens United. "With the Citizens United decision, the Supreme Court said to all these billionaires, 'Go for it!'" Sanders told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. "You're tired of buying coal companies and gambling casinos; you know what you can buy now? You can buy the United States government."
Highway Bill
The Senate on Friday sent to the White House a bill to fund highway and public transit projects. Sanders, a transportation committee member, helped write the bill that he said would create jobs making badly-needed repairs to crumbling roads and bridges. "At a time when about one-third of the bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and 36 percent of the federal-aid roads need major repairs, this bill will go a long way to putting Vermonters to work to address this infrastructure crisis," said Sanders.
Student Loans
The same bill extends current rates for student loans that would have doubled unless Congress acted. The bill is good news for 9 million college students, including 19,000 in Vermont. "Young people in Vermont and across the country are facing extraordinary challenges. They are paying three to four times as much as their parents did for a college education. With families already overburdened, it would have been awful to have let interest rates double," Sanders said.
