Senate and House budget negotiators met for the first time on Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a member of the special panel, said jobs and the economy should be a top priority. He also insisted that there must be no cuts in benefits for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Social Security recipients are getting for a 1.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment next year, the government announced on Wednesday. Meanwhile, food stamp benefits were cut on Friday for millions of Americans. Sanders discussed those and other issues during his weekly radio and Internet appearance on The Thom Hartmann Program. 

Budget Negotiations Begin Sanders noted that big majorities of Americans oppose cuts in Social, Security, Medicare and Medicaid and also favor closing loopholes that profitable corporations have used to evade paying U.S. taxes. “At a time when less than 10 percent of the American people approve of the job that Congress is doing, it’s time that we started to listen to what the American people want us to do,” Sanders said at the session. He also argued, in a column published by the Los Angeles Times, for making the wealthy and profitable corporations pay their fair share. And he advocated judicious cuts in a Pentagon budget that nearly matches what the rest of the world combined spends on defense. Watch Sanders at the hearing, Read the LA Times column

A 1.5% COLA Social Security benefits will rise 1.5 percent in January. One of the smallest annual adjustments ever will give millions of retired and disabled workers an average raise of $19 a month to keep up with the cost of living. The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a government measure of inflation that was released Wednesday. Sanders spoke that same day at a news conference organized by seniors groups fighting proposals by President Obama, House Republicans and even some Democrats in Congress who think the COLAs have been too generous and should be cut. Watch the news conference

War on the Poor More than 47 million Americans will see their food stamp benefits cut. A family of four receiving food stamps will get $36 less a month as of Friday when a law expired that had boosted funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Sanders said the cuts will have a “horrendous impact” and send more people to already-overwhelmed volunteer food banks. House and Senate negotiators are working on legislation calling for even deeper cuts. Watch MSNBC

NSA ‘Out of Control’ Sanders on Monday spoke about the latest revelations that electronic spying tactics were used to track telephone conversations of some 35 foreign heads of state. Interviewed by Public Radio International’s John Hockenberry for The Takeaway, Sanders worried about the fallout. “In an increasingly tight global community — where we have got to work together to combat terrorism, to do something about the serious problems facing the global economy, where we must address the planetary crisis of global warming — how are we going to have the kind of cooperation that we need when there is massive mistrust against the United States for this type of spying?” “The conclusion that most Americans have reached about the NSA,” Sanders added, is that “these guys are out of control.” Listen to the interview

Older Americans Act A Senate committee on Wednesday advanced Sanders’ legislation to reauthorize the Older Americans Act, which supports Meals on Wheels and other services for the country’s rapidly-growing population of seniors. First passed by Congress in 1965, the act provides essential services for seniors like nutrition programs, job training, caregiver support, transportation, preventive health services and protection from abuse and financial exploitation. Sanders, the Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging chairman, made the case that the programs are a good investment. “We can feed a senior for an entire year for the cost of one day in a hospital,” he said. One study found that for every $1 in federal spending on Meals on Wheels, there is as much as a $50 return in Medicaid savings alone. Read more

Veterans’ Health Care The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Wednesday held a hearing on legislation by Chairman Sanders to significantly expand access to health care for more veterans, five combat veterans 10 years to enroll in VA after they are discharged, twice as long as today, and simplify the enrollment process for lower-income veterans. Another bill by Sanders would expand access to dental care.  Read more