Bernie Buzz - August Edition

 

Issue August 06, 2008 - http://sanders.senate.gov Health Care for All Legislation to provide primary health care for everyone who needs it by expanding a community health center program was introduced by Senator Sanders. It has support from the Senate's leading health care champions – Senators Obama, Clinton, Kennedy and Harkin.  The Access for All America Act would expand health centers and save money. Obama called the Sanders bill "common-sense and cost-effective."  Clinton, another cosponsor, said "access to primary care is an essential part of ensuring that all Americans receive the care they need." To learn more, click here. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Energy Prices A plan to help pay rising home energy bills stalled when Republican senators objected to taking up a Sanders bill to double funds for home energy assistance. Filibusters also blocked consideration of a host of other proposals to bring down gas and oil prices. "We will continue to fight for this," Sanders said. With fuel prices soaring, home heating assistance is critically important for Vermont and other northern states.  As The Arizona Republic reported, temperature extremes also are a life-or-death matter in the South.  To read more, click here. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Housing A U.N. World Habitat Award given to the Champlain Housing Trust is "a timely recognition of a worthy effort when affordable housing is such a critical issue in Vermont," according to The Burlington Free Press. The editorial noted Sanders' role in the Champlain Housing Trust when he was the mayor of Burlington, and a new national program first proposed in 2001 when Bernie was in the House. To read the editorial, click here. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Middle Class Collapse The official unemployment rate rose again in July to 5.7 percent, its highest level in more than four years. Employers cut  payrolls for the seventh straight month. For those still working, hours were cut and the average raise was not enough to keep up with inflation. The latest dose of bad news came in the wake of a congressional hearing on the impact of rising costs and stagnant wages in a slumping economy. "The title of this hearing is 'The Squeeze of the Middle Class.' I don't think it's a squeeze, I think it's a collapse," said Sanders at the Joint Economic Committee. To watch NBC Nightly News coverage of the hearing, click here. Television Town Meeting Cable customers may air concerns over prices and programming and new television technology at a town meeting in Rutland at 7 p.m. on Aug. 14. Bernie set up the City Hall meeting after receiving many complaints about Comcast channel changes. Meanwhile, Comcast just posted huge quarterly profits. "It is wrong for an enormously profitable corporation to be cutting channels but not cutting rates," Sanders said. The changes come during a confusing transition to digital broadcasting. To read about the town meeting, click here.  For a report on Comcast profits, click here. To learn more about the switch to digital television, click here. Can't make it to the town meeting? Click here to send Bernie an e-mail on this issue. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Record Deficit As part of the mess George Bush has made of things, the president who inherited a big budget surplus will leave behind a record deficit. "President Bush's announcement that we'll have a $482 billion deficit this year is extremely disconcerting," said Sanders.  "This deficit spending adds to our massive national debt, a burden the president will pass along to the next president and to future generations of Americans.  We need a new direction."  Sanders said, "It is high time to rethink a policy by which we're spending $10 billion every single month in Iraq at the same time as we're giving huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires." To watch, click here. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Vermont Veterans Lt. Col. John C. Boyd, deputy chief of staff for personnel for the Vermont Army National Guard, testified before a Senate panel on a Vermont veterans outreach program. Senator Bernie Sanders, a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, invited Boyd to testify. "In Vermont," Sanders said, "we take the approach that one of the most important ways we can take care of these veterans and their families is by going out and actually trying to contact each of them in their own homes."  To watch excerpts from the hearing, click here.   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pentagon Waste The Pentagon's contracting chief directed top acquisition officials to submit detailed reports on awards and incentives given to contractors. Senators Sanders and Tom Carper requested the information after the Government Accountability Office found nearly $8 billion in bonuses went to contractors regardless of outcomes, Inside the Pentagon reported. "Clearly much more accountability is required in this unacceptable process," the senators wrote. "We are extremely concerned that contractors are beginning to regard these fees as entitlement and not an award." UPCOMING EVENTS 8/14/08 - Town Meeting on Comcast Rate Increases (more info) You are subscribed to Senator Sanders' regular newsletter. Click here to unsubscribe.