#sen. bernie sanders

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On Wednesday, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) reintroduced a proposal to make higher education free at public schools for most Americans — and pay for it by taxing Wall Street.

The College for All Act of 2023 would massively change the higher education landscape in the U.S., taking a step toward Sanders’s long-standing goal of making public college free for all. It would make community college and public vocational schools tuition-free for all students, while making any public college and university free for students from single-parent households making less than $125,000 or couples making less than $250,000 — or, the vast majority of families in the U.S.

The bill would increase federal funding to make tuition free for most students at universities that serve non-white groups, such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). It would also double the maximum award to Pell Grant recipients at public or nonprofit private colleges from $7,395 to $14,790.

If passed, the lawmakers say their bill would be the biggest expansion of access to higher education since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Higher Education Act, a bill that would massively increase access to college in the ensuing decades. The proposal would not only increase college access, but also help to tackle the student debt crisis.

“Today, this country tells young people to get the best education they can, and then saddles them for decades with crushing student loan debt. To my mind, that does not make any sense whatsoever,” Sanders said. “In the 21st century, a free public education system that goes from kindergarten through high school is no longer good enough. The time is long overdue to make public colleges and universities tuition-free and debt-free for working families.”

Debt activists expressed support for the bill. “This is the only real solution to the student debt crisis: eliminate tuition and debt by fully funding public colleges and universities,” the Debt Collective wrote on Wednesday. “It’s time for your member of Congress to put up or shut up. Solve the root cause and eliminate tuition and debt.”

These initiatives would be paid for by several new taxes on Wall Street, found in a separate bill reintroduced by Sanders and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-California) on Wednesday. The Tax on Wall Street Speculation would enact a 0.5% tax on stock trades, a 0.1% tax on bonds and a 0.005% tax on trades on derivatives and other types of assets.

The tax would primarily affect the most frequent, and often the wealthiest, traders and would be less than a typical fee for pension management for working class investors, the lawmakers say. It would raise up to $220 billion in the first year of enactment, and over $2.4 trillion over a decade. The proposal has the support of dozens of progressive organizations as well as a large swath of economists.

“Let us never forget: Back in 2008, middle class taxpayers bailed out Wall Street speculators whose greed, recklessness and illegal behavior caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs, homes, life savings, and ability to send their kids to college,” said Sanders. “Now that giant financial institutions are back to making record-breaking profits while millions of Americans struggle to pay rent and feed their families, it is Wall Street’s turn to rebuild the middle class by paying a modest financial transactions tax.”

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Disclaimer: I am not the original owner or creator of this content. The source account is listed below.

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New Amsterdam, Season 2, Episode 1: Your Turn

I’ve really been getting into New Amsterdam lately – such as the power of Netflix – though the nature of such shows isn’t typically appealing to me, namely they tend to be soapy. And that’s not to say that New Amsterdam doesn’t have its moments but overall it’s dramatic without being overly so. To those unaware, the series revolves around a public hospital in New York and an ensemble cast of…

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Less than three months after U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and her colleagues launched an investigation into the four major American manufacturers of inhalers, three of the companies have relented, making commitments to cap costs for their inhalers at $35 for patients who now pay much more.

25 million Americans have asthma and 16 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), meaning over 40 million Americans rely on inhalers to breathe.

Inhalers have been available since the 1950s, and most of the drugs they use have been on the market for more than 25 years.

According to a statement from the Wisconsin Senator’s office, inhaler manufacturers sell the exact same products at a much lower costs in other countries. One of AstraZeneca’s inhalers, Breztri Aerosphere, costs $645 in the U.S.—but just $49 in the UK. Inhalers made by Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, and Teva have similar disparities.

Baldwin and her Democratic colleagues—New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders—pressured the companies to lower their prices by writing letters to GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva, and AstraZeneca requesting a variety of documents that show why such higher prices are charged in America compared to Europe.

As a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Baldwin recently announced that as a result of the letters they had secured commitments from three of the four to lower the out-of-pocket costs of inhalers to a fixed $35.00 rate.

“For the millions of Americans who rely on inhalers to breathe, this news is a major step in the right direction as we work to lower costs and hold big drug companies accountable,” said Senator Baldwin.

A full list of the inhalers and associated drugs can be viewed here.

It’s the second time in the last year that pharmaceutical companies were forced to provide reasonable prices—after the cost of insulin was similarly capped successfully at $35 per month thanks to Congressional actions led by the White House.

-via Good News Network, March 25, 2024

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing harder for a cease-fire in Gaza and demands that the United States send “not another nickel” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“My view, not another nickel for Netanyahu’s government if he’s going to continue this wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Friday.

Sanders’ declaration comes just days after the death toll in Gaza surpassed 30,000 people since the start of the war on Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza City were killed and more than 700 injured Thursday, when Israeli soldiers opened fire on the people scrambling to access humanitarian aid, some media outlets reported.

Sanders, who recently voted against sending more aid to Israel for its war against Hamas, stressed the importance of stopping the “unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”

The Vermont senator argued that President Biden, who has put pressure on Netanyahu and Israel to scale back its attacks, is taking “an important step forward,” but argues that “we need to do more.” Biden said Friday that the U.S. will begin airdrops of aid to Gaza amid negotiations for a cease-fire.

Sanders said Biden should be telling the Israeli government to open borders so trucks of food, water and medical supplies that are critical to the more than 1 million refugees in the region can be delivered.

During the interview, Sanders said that “it’s totally absurd” that the United States is sending humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, but also supplying Israel with the funds and military capabilities to hurt those civilians.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday introduced legislation that would establish a 32-hour workweek in the U.S. with no loss of pay, a change the Vermont senator said is necessary to ensure the working class benefits from massive productivity gains and technological advances.

A 32-hour workweek “is not a radical idea,” Sanders, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said in a statement, noting that productivity gains have far outpaced wage growth in recent decades.

“Today, American workers are over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago. That has got to change,” said Sanders. “The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street.”

“It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life,” Sanders added. “It is time for a 32-hour workweek with no loss in pay.”

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Sanders stood up on the floor to block the speedy approval of the resolution — introduced by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee ranking member Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) — that would require railroad workers to adopt the outlines of a labor deal.  

He argued that railroad companies are making huge profits and should start treating their workers more fairly.  

“The rail industry has seen huge profits in recent years and last year alone made a record-breaking $20 billion in profit,” Sanders said. “Last year, the CEO of CSX made over $20 million in total compensation, while the CEOs of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern made over $14 million each in total compensation.”

By contrast, Sanders said that workers in the freight rail industry are “entitled to a grand total of zero sick days.”  

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In his op-ed for The Guardian, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders propels the American labor conversation forward by arguing for a 20% cut in the standard 40-hour workweek, without any loss in pay.

He points to the 480% increase in worker productivity since 1940, asserting that such gains have mainly enriched corporations while leaving the working class in a perpetual state of struggle.

Sanders' rallying cry resonates with the ongoing initiatives by labor unions, especially the United Auto Workers (UAW), which recently initiated strikes against major automotive companies such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis. The UAW is also pushing for a four-day workweek while preserving the pay for a five-day week, a demand that Sanders supports. This is part of a long-running struggle by unions to balance productivity gains against working hours that has seen little progress over the years as real wages in the auto industry have declined by 17%.

Research backs the concept of a reduced workweek, with a study led by Boston College Professor Juliet Schor indicating that efficiency can increase without requiring workers to cram more tasks into fewer hours.

International examples provide practical confirmation. In France and Norway, shorter workweeks are either in place or under consideration. A U.K. pilot study involving 3,000 workers in over 60 companies demonstrated increased happiness and productivity with a four-day workweek, prompting 92% of the participating companies to adopt the new schedule permanently.

Public opinion in the United States is also aligning with this idea. A Morning Consult survey showed that 87% of employed adults in the U.S. are interested in a four-day workweek, and 82% believe it could work on a broader scale. Likewise, a study by 4 Day Week Global revealed that none of the companies participating in four-day workweek experiments in North America have plans to revert to a traditional five-day week.

Despite these positive indicators, Sanders acknowledges the uphill battle to win these changes. Any benefits for the working class won't be "easily handed over by the corporate elite," he said.

Yet, as automation and technological progress, like the anticipated efficiencies in electric vehicle manufacturing, continue to threaten traditional work structures, they also underscore the feasibility of a reduced workweek.

The synergy between the voice of labor unions, the American working class, international examples and influential policymakers like Sanders makes the vision of a four-day workweek not merely a pipe dream but a realistic, achievable objective that could reshape labor norms for future generations.

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I’ll take MAGA Republican terrorists for a $1,000.

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All but two Senate Democrats are supporting a measure endorsing the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a national security package that includes military aid to Israel.

Why it matters: It's a clear rebuke of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent comments rejecting the notion of Palestinian statehood, which have inflamed tensions with congressional Democrats.

Driving the news: 49 of the 51 Democrats in the Senate signed onto the two-page amendment, led by Jewish Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), which will be introduced as an amendment to the national security supplemental.

The measure reiterates that it is U.S. policy to "support a negotiated comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in two states with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace."

It comes after Netanyahu, despite pressure from President Biden to support a Palestinian state after the Israel-Hamas war, said Israel "needs security control" in Gaza and the West Bank as part of any peace deal.

The intrigue: The measure's co-sponsors span the ideological spectrum of the Senate Democratic Caucus – from vocal Israel critic Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to arch-centrists like Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.).

Just two Democrats did not sign on: centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a one-time progressive who has rebranded himself as a firmly pro-Israel moderate since the Oct. 7 attack.

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BTW: the Hot Labor Summer is 100% real

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Bernie Sanders intervenes and stops GOP senator from fighting a witness

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) challenged Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien to a fight during a Senate hearing.