 | | Issue September 23, 2009 - http://sanders.senate.gov |  |  IS THE RECESSION OVER? "Very likely," Fed Chairman Bernanke ventured. "Don't believe it," Bernie shot back, citing the 26 million Americans who are out of work, stopped hunting for a job or settled for part-time employment. To watch Senator Sanders Unfiltered, click here | |  |  Afghanistan "My fear is that we can get sucked into a quagmire like we did in Vietnam and Iraq," the senator said in response to calls for more troops. "We have not been clear about what our goal is in Afghanistan and what our exit strategy is. The alternatives are not simply to pull out tomorrow or put in tens of thousands of more troops." To watch Bernie on Hardball with Chris Matthews, click here.  Dairy Crisis The Justice Department antitrust chief testified at a hearing in Vermont about reports that Dean Foods dominates 70 percent of the New England milk market. Meanwhile, National Farmers Union members came to Capitol Hill to back Bernie's Senate-passed bill to provide an extra $350 million for struggling dairy farmers. To read a Wall Street Journal report on the hearing, click here.  Campaign Finance Conservative Supreme Court justices may overturn curbs on corporations that pour millions of dollars into attempts to influence elections. If that happens, Bernie told CNN's Rick Sanchez, "You're just giving over our democracy to the wealthiest and most powerful institutions in the world. It's going to open the flood gates for corporate money." To watch the interview, click here.  Surveillance Bernie cosponsored Russ Feingold's bill to rescind the immunity given to telecommunications firms that took part in a Bush-era spying program. "We have got to do everything we can to protect the American people from terrorist attacks, but we can do that and uphold the rule of law," Bernie said. To read more, click here. | |  Social Security Retirees would get a $250 one-time payment next year under a Sanders bill to make up for the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment. "We are in the midst of a major recession and we cannot forget about the serious economic stress that older Americans are living under," he said. The senator's solution was outlined in a floor speech. To watch it, click here.  Health Care "The American people should have a choice about whether they want to stay with their private insurance or go to a public plan, a Medicare-type plan," Bernie said on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. "If you don't have a public option in competition with the private insurance companies, what is going to stop them from raising their rates higher and higher and higher?"  Pentagon Waste Overhauling the way civilian contractors hurt in war zones are cared for could save $250 million a year, a study found. "The current system for providing health insurance and workers compensation for our military contact workers in Iraq and Afghanistan is broken and wasting millions of dollars in payments to companies like AIG," Bernie said. To read more about the investigation, click here. What do you think? Click here to take our survey on Afghanistan, the economy, health care and energy. | | | Please do not respond to this email, it is not a monitored email address. If you would like to send Senator Sanders a comment click here. | |
