Bernie Sanders

02/04/2008 -- President Bush sent a budget proposal to Congress on Monday that Senator Bernie Sanders called “unconscionable.” Among the grossly distorted priorities, Bush would cut $196 billion over five years in Medicare and Medicaid. He also would slash home heating assistance at a time of record-high fuel prices, impose new fees on veterans, and cut weatherization, nutrition and housing programs. For the super rich, however, special tax breaks would be preserved.    » read more »

02/04/2008 -- President Bush’s final budget continues down the same fiscally irresponsible path he started on seven years ago – weakening America's economy by running up massive deficits and making large cuts in America’s priorities. As more Americans feel the effects of the current economic downturn, President Bush’s proposed cuts to home heating assistance, job training and education programs show just how out of touch he is. Democrats will continue to strengthen our economy, by investing in middle class families and responsibly funding America's priorities.    » read more »

02/01/2008 -- WASHINGTON, February 1– Boosted by gushing oil prices, Exxon Mobil's $40.6 billion in 2007 profits exceeded the company’s own record for a U.S. corporation. Chevron also reported huge profits. At a meeting in Vienna of the international oil cartel, meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies kept production quotas steady.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, January 31 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today pressed for passage of a stronger economic stimulus package than the House approved on Tuesday. He urged senators to increase help for senior citizens and veterans, and he said he would fight for substantial relief for people struggling to pay skyrocketing home heating bills.

“We have serious economic problems,” Sanders said. “Let’s pass an economic stimulus package quickly, but let’s make sure we get it right.”    » read more »

01/30/2008 -- Senator Bernie Sanders and others are pushing to include home-energy assistance funding in an economic stimulus package the Senate is debating. Growing energy costs and cold weather have made additional funding a necessity for low-income families, seniors on fixed incomes and the disabled. Funding in the stimulus plan would be used immediately to help pay utility bills, jumpstart the economy and support small businesses that deliver heating fuels.    » read more »

01/29/2008 -- The House passed an economic stimulus package on Tuesday as Senator Bernie Sanders and other senators stepped up their efforts to make it more effective. “The Senate has got to do a lot of work on that legislation and improve it," he said of a deal cobbled together by the Bush administration and House leaders. Sanders and other senators want to expand unemployment benefits, increase funding for home heating programs and food stamps, bolster job-training programs, and provide tax rebates for a larger percentage of the elderly.    » read more »

01/28/2008 -- "After listening to President Bush's final State of the Union Address, Senator Bernie Sanders said: “Under George W. Bush, the state of the union for America’s struggling middle class leaves much to be desired. Since Bush has been President, seven more million Americans have lost their health insurance, three million have lost their pensions, and tens of millions have seen their inflation-adjusted wages decline.    » read more »

01/24/2008 -- A Senate bill would override an Environmental Protection Agency ruling and let Vermont and other states enforce tougher vehicle emission rules to curb global warming. Cosponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, the bill by Senator Barbara Boxer was offered on the same day EPA Administrator Steven Johnson was summoned before a Senate panel she chairs to explain why he shunned the advice of EPA experts and blocked California, Vermont and other states from enforcing their own emission standards.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, January 24 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made the following statement regarding the recent border policy decision by the Department of Homeland Security:

“The recent announcement by the Department of Homeland Security that they will be ending so-called oral declarations at the border is exactly the wrong decision at the wrong time.

“As everyone here knows very well, all of us in Vermont support having a secure and safe border. There is no question about that.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, January 24 – A bill to be introduced in the Senate today would override an Environmental Protection Agency ruling and let Vermont and other states enforce tougher vehicle emission rules to curb global warming.    » read more »

01/22/2008 -- The Senate returned to Washington amid mounting worries over the U.S. economy that triggered a global market meltdown. Lawmakers already have begun to work on a package of targeted tax cuts and investments. Tax rebates for working families, a Sanders’ brainchild approved by Congress the last time the economy faltered, now are widely seen as a remedy for recession.    » read more »

01/10/2008 -- George Bush is the least popular president in almost 60 years. Unfortunately, Congress is not doing much better. There are a number of reasons, but at the top of the list is the widespread belief that the Democratic leadership has not been aggressive enough in opposing Bush.    » read more »

01/09/2008 -- One year ago, President Bush announced a surge in U.S. forces in Iraq. Senator Bernie Sanders said Bush was making a bad situation worse. “Our soldiers and their families should not continue to pay the price for the president’s failed policies,” Sanders said on January 10, 2007, the day the surge was announced. “Our troops should come home as soon as possible. It is time for Congress to use its constitutional and budgetary authority to make that happen.”    » read more »

01/08/2008 -- From plantations in Africa to sweatshops in China to farms and factories in developing nations around the world, workers are being exploited by American corporations. A congressional delegation – including Senator Bernie Sanders – this week is in Ivory Coast and Ghana, where children are forced to work on cocoa plantations.    » read more »

01/07/2008 -- A delegation of American lawmakers is visiting cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast and Ghana this week to monitor child labor abuses. Senator Bernie Sanders said before departing for Africa that he hoped "to see to what degree indentured children are being used to manufacture products which come into this country as chocolate."    » read more »