Interest rates on key federal student loans doubled this week due to congressional inaction. Sen. Bernie Sanders cosponsored legislation to retroactively restore the interest rate back to 3.4 percent. The Senate will take up the issue upon returning from the holiday break. A new study by the Government Accountability Office reported that profitable American companies paid only 12.6 percent of their profits in federal income taxes in 2010. That low number is less than half of the enacted rate of 35 percent. In Burlington, demonstrators gathered at City Hall to protest proposed cuts to Social Security and veterans' benefits. Friday, Department of Labor jobs numbers showed that the United States added 195,000 jobs. Unemployment remained unchanged, while the number of underemployed persons rose.

Student Loans Monday's automatic doubling of federal student loan interest rates will affect 7 million students nationally and more than 19,000 Vermonters. Sen. Sanders is fighting to restore the lower rates. “If the United States is going to be competitive in the global economy, we must have the best educated workforce possible,” said Sanders, who serves on the Senate education committee.  “We must encourage young people of all income levels to expand their educational opportunities, not make it harder.” Take the poll.

Jobs Crisis National unemployment remained unchanged at 7.6 percent for June, while the underemployment or "real unemployment" rate ticked up from 13.8 to 14.3 percent. Sen. Sanders welcomed the strong jobs numbers. Still, he remains concerned about high unemployment and increasing economic inequality, especially among young people and minorities. “It is absolutely imperative that we create millions of decent-paying jobs in our country,” Sanders said. “In the midst of this slow recovery, we must not accept a ‘new normal.’”

Corporate Tax Rates Despite all their griping about the United States' highest-in-the-developed-world 35% federal corporate income tax rate, big profitable U.S. Companies paid only 12.6 percent of their profits in federal income taxes, according to a new GAO study. Taking advantage of gaping loopholes in the nation's tax code, corporations avoid paying their fair share of the nation's financial burdens. “At a time when we have a $16.7 trillion national debt and an unsustainable federal deficit; at a time when roughly one-quarter of the largest corporations in America are paying no federal income taxes; and at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high, it is past time for corporate America to contribute significantly to deficit reduction,” said Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee. His Corporate Tax Fairness Act would produce over $590 billion in revenue over the next decade, and stop the federal government from giving tax breaks to corporations that ship American jobs overseas. Read a report on the top corporate tax dodgers. 

No Cuts to Social Security Passionate Vermonters rallied at Burlington City Hall to oppose a so-called "chained CPI" which would cut Social Security benefits. President Barack Obama included the proposal in his annual budget to reduce the deficit. Sen. Sanders called the idea "a huge mistake" at Wednesday's rally.Instead, Sanders wants to implement what President Obama proposed when he was a presidential candidate in 2008: Lifting the cap on Social Security payroll taxes to make the wealthy contribute the same percentage of their income as other workers. “Today, someone making $10 million a year contributes the same amount of money as someone making $113,700. That is absurd,” Sanders said. Read the Burlington Free Press article.