Politics

WASHINGTON, June 23 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) expressed deep disappointment today after the Senate voted 60-37 to cut off debate and advance legislation that would grant President Barack Obama powers to complete a major Pacific trade accord.

“The vote today – pushed by multi-national corporations, pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street – will mean a continuation of disastrous trade policies which have cost our country millions of decent-paying jobs,” said Sanders, who voted no.

“American workers deserve a trade policy that works for them and not only for the CEOs of major multi-national corporations. We cannot continue trade policies which outsource jobs to low-wage countries overseas and lead us into a race to the bottom,” Sanders added.

WASHINGTON, June 18 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today on the killing of nine people by a white man at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina:

“The Charleston church killings are a tragic reminder of the ugly stain of racism that still taints our nation. This senseless violence fills me with outrage, disgust and a deep, deep sadness. The hateful killing of nine people praying inside a church is a horrific reminder that, while we have made significant progress in advancing civil rights in this country, we are far from eradicating racism. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and their congregation.”

Contact: Michael Briggs: (202) 224-5141

Donald Trump has told the world that 2016 is the year he should become U.S. president.

“I am officially running for president of the United States. We are going to make our country great again.”

John Ellis “Jeb” Bush has decided that today is a good day to begin campaigning to become the next president of the United States.

“I’m a candidate for president of the United States of America.”

WASHINGTON—Congressman Peter Welch (VT-AL) released the following statement in response to Governor Peter Shumlin’s announcement that he will not seek a fourth term as governor:

“Governor Shumlin has been compiling an extraordinary record of service as Vermont’s 81st governor.

“He led us through the devastation of Tropical Storm Irene, mobilizing Vermonters across the state to help one another and to rebuild Vermont to be stronger than before the storm. He was a resolute advocate for marriage equality. And, thanks to his bold leadership, the Vermont General Assembly became the first state legislature in the country to make marriage equality the law of the state.

Rick Perry has decided that the time is right to run for president.

“Today I am running for the presidency of the United States of America.”

Lincoln Chafee has heard the call and realizes it is his time, too, to run for president.

“I enjoy challenges, and today we have many facing America. Today I am formally entering the race for the Democratic nomination for president.”

SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS will march in the annual Strolling of the Heifers Parade in Brattleboro VT on Saturday, June 6.

The Parade starts at 10 AM sharp, up Main Street. After the parade, Sanders will speak from the Gazebo at the Brattleboro Common at approximately 11:15 AM.

Here’s Bernie in winning form at the milking contest a few years ago.

Sanders Cites GAO Study in Push to Expand Social Security

WASHINGTON, June 2 – A new study prepared for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) found that more than half of all American households with someone 55 or older have no retirement savings.

The study was requested by Sanders, the lead sponsor of legislation to increase Social Security benefits.

“This report makes it clear that there is a retirement crisis in America today. At a time when half of all older workers have no retirement savings, we need to expand, not cut, Social Security benefits so that every American can retire with dignity,” Sanders said.

Lindsey Graham has decided the time is right to become president.

“Some of you have known me since I grew up in the back of that bar in that building, but no one here, including me, expected to hear me say, I’m Lindsey Graham, and I’m running for president of the United States.”

Martin O’Malley has declared his desire to become the next president of the United States.

“I declare that I am a candidate for president of the United States and I am running for you.”

George Pataki has indicated his desire to become the next president.

“It’s time to protect our freedoms and take back this government.”

WASHINGTON, May 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after the Senate voted to advance a bill that would grant President Barack Obama accelerated power to complete a massive trade accord with 11 other Pacific Rim nations:

“The Senate just put the interests of powerful multi-national corporations, drug companies and Wall Street ahead of the needs of American workers. If this disastrous trade agreement is approved, it will throw Americans out of work while companies continue moving operations and good-paying jobs to low-wage countries overseas.

I really wish and save everyone time and money:

“Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received nearly a quarter of a million dollars last year for a speaking engagement on behalf of Academic Partnerships, a for-profit education company in which Jeb Bush held an ownership stake and on whose board he served.”

Bill tracks 9/11 Commission recommendation to make public the top line budgets of 16 federal intelligence agencies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT), Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) have introduced legislation that would require the president to disclose in the annual budget request to Congress the top line spending levels at the 16 federal agencies known to conduct intelligence activities. Top-line spending levels for federal intelligence activities are currently treated as classified information.

WASHINGTON, May 12 – In a Senate floor speech today opposing a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recited a litany of bogus claims by previous trade deal backers which turned out to be wildly inaccurate.

Backers of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China and other business-backed trade deals claimed that they would generate jobs in the United States. In fact, economists now say, those pacts were a major reason why some 60,000 American factories closed since the turn of the century as manufacturers shifted jobs to low-wage nations overseas.

“These folks have been proven wrong time after time after time,” Sanders said.

WASHINGTON, May 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today welcomed a federal appeals court ruling that the National Security Agency does not have the legal authority to collect and store data on all U.S. telephone calls.

“Clearly we must do everything we can to protect our country from the serious potential of another terrorist attack, but we can and must do so in a way that also protects the constitutional rights of the American people and maintains our free society,” Sanders said. “We can do that without living in an Orwellian world where the government and private corporations know every telephone call that we make, every website we visit, everyplace we go.”

WASHINGTON, May 7 – Citing Nike’s low wages for foreign workers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) yesterday asked President Obama to cancel a planned meeting on Friday with executives of the athletic shoe maker at its headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.

Nike has taken advantage of free-trade agreements – similar to proposed new pact which Obama is touting – to offshore tens of thousands of American jobs to Vietnam and other low-wage countries.

“Nike epitomizes why disastrous unfettered free-trade policies during the past four decades have failed American workers, eroded our manufacturing base and increased income and wealth inequality in this country,” Sanders wrote in a letter he sent to the president yesterday.

WASHINGTON, May 6 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation to break up the nation’s biggest banks in order to safeguard the economy and prevent another costly taxpayer bailout. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) proposed a companion bill in the House.

“No single financial institution should have holdings so extensive that its failure could send the world economy into crisis,” Sanders said. “If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.”

The biggest banks in the United States are now 80 percent bigger than they were one year before the financial crisis in 2008 when the Federal Reserve provided $16 trillion in near zero-interest loans and Congress approved a $700 billion taxpayer bailout.

Mike Huckabee has announced his intention to become president.

“I am a candidate for president of the USA,” and, “I never thought of using a firearm to murder someone.”