Today's news from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Senator Sanders

Senate Passes $1.1 Trillion Bill The Senate voted 56-40 on Saturday night to approve a $1.1 trillion deal and send the legislation to President Barack Obama. Sen. Bernie Sanders and nearly every other senator mentioned as a future presidential candidate voted no, Politico reported. In stark contrast to House Democrats who nearly derailed the budget, just five Senate Democrats and Sanders voted against the procedural motion that ended debate on the bill, The Guardian and CQ/Roll Call reported. http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/conservatives-move-backfires-113556.html

Wall Street Wins, Taxpayers Lose The $1.1 trillion bill rolled back regulations on Wall Street. Federally insured funds can now be used again by banks in high-risk investments. “When they make a whole lot of money they get richer, but when they lose money because of the repeal of this provision, the taxpayers of this country have to bail them out,” Sen. Sanders said. “Does anybody – anybody – think that that makes any sense at all?” Sanders asked in an NBC News report on KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, and other network affiliates nationwide. LINK, VIDEO

Sanders: Break Up Big Banks Sen. Sanders plans to introduce legislation to break up Wall Street banks and prevent them from using a provision in the spending bill to engage in the kind of investments that led to the 2008 financial crisis. He used Saturday’s Senate session to outline a proposal that he believes would counter a provisions meant to gut a 2010 law. “If Congress cannot regulate Wall Street, there is just one alternative. It is time to break these too-big-to-fail banks up so that they can never again destroy the jobs, homes and life savings of the American people,” Sanders said in The Washington Times. LINK

The Billionaire Class From 2009 to 2012 (that's the most recent data), some 95 percent of new income has gone to the top 1 percent … while the poor actually get poorer. “Increasingly, it seems, there's an appetite and even unity to take on the billionaire class [but] … that pressure must be maintained no matter who is in office. Even if Bernie Sanders were to become president, the need for pressure would continue,” Mark Bittman wrote in a New York Times column. LINK

World

Climate Deal Would Commit Every Nation to Limiting Emissions Negotiators from around the globe reached a climate change agreement early Sunday that would, for the first time in history, commit every nation to reducing its rate of greenhouse gas emissions — yet would still fall far short of what is needed to stave off the dangerous and costly early impact of global warming. The agreement was reached by delegates from 196 countries gathered in Lima, Peru. It is a framework for a climate change accord to be signed by world leaders in Paris next year,The New York Times reported. LINK

National

The American Middle Class is Lost The stock market is soaring, the unemployment rate finally is retreating after the Great Recession and the economy added 321,000 jobs last month. But all that growth has done nothing to boost pay for the typical American worker. Average wages haven’t risen over the last year, after adjusting for inflation. Real household median income is still lower than it was when the recession ended. Make no mistake: The American middle class is in trouble. That trouble started decades ago, well before the 2008 financial crisis. Median household income peaked at least 15 years ago in 81 percent of U.S. counties. That means that when incomes are adjusted for inflation, most middle class households are actually earning less money than they did years ago. LINK

Justice for All March In a strong display of unity since the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, relatives of African Americans killed by officers in incidents dating back more than a decade shared a stage Saturday to call on Congress to make changes in the criminal justice system. Speaking in the cold afternoon air, mothers and fathers of those who were killed said their children were let down by prosecutors and grand juries that did not indict police officers. The Washington march was one of many that took place across the nation Saturday, The Washington Post reported. LINK

Vermont

Middle Class Collapse The inflation-adjusted median household income in Chittenden County peaked in 1989 at $69,280, according to The Washington Post and U.S. Census data. The inflation-adjusted median household income in Essex County peaked in 1969 at $43,151. In Caledonia County, the peak was in 1999 at $48,307. Rutland County peaked in 1989 at $53,033. LINK

Power Outage The state's largest utility says it could be Monday before all Vermont customers have power restored. About 6,000 customers were still without power in Vermont on Saturday evening, three days after a brutal storm pounded the state with heavy, wet snow. Gov. Peter Shumlin surveyed power line and tree damage by air as line crews continued to restore service to those still in the dark from outages that, at their peak, affected some 100,000 customers, AP reported.

Efficiency Vermont The statewide energy-saving program Efficiency Vermont is getting a new director. Liz Gamache was a manager for the Vermont Electric Cooperative. She also is the mayor of St. Albans. Gamache replaces Jim Merriam, who is staying with the program's parent organization, the Vermont Energy Investment Corp., as operations director overseeing work in Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Ohio.

Vermont Yankee Gov. Peter Shumlin on Friday largely rejected recommendations from his economic advisory panel on how to award the first $2 million round of Entergy Nuclear economic development funds. Shumlin in Brattleboro announced grants and loans to only five applicants totaling $814,000. He said the state had to “reboot” the application process to more accurately reflect his goals for “transformational” new jobs in the Windham County economy, the Rutland Herald reported.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/121414 … #Vt #Vermont #CRomnibus