News March 26

Senator Sanders

House Passes Budget House Republicans Wednesday night passed a budget that would rely on nearly $5 trillion in cuts to eliminate deficits over the next decade. Sen. Bernie Sanders accused Republicans of siding with the wealthy over the middle class, The Associated Press reported. “They will not ask the billionaires ... to pay one nickel more in taxes,” he said in The Hill. Sanders said the budget would seriously impact the poor, elderly and students by making cuts to Medicaid, eliminating the Affordable Care Act and freezing Pell Grants, WVNY-TV and WFFF-TV reported. "When we tell the American people what is actually in the budget they say, 'No, you're being partisan, you're not being real, this can't be true,'” Sanders said on WCAX-TV. LINK, LINK, VIDEO, VIDEO, VIDEO

Millions Would Lose Health Care The Republicans’ budget would leave 16 million Americans without health insurance and an additional 11 million would lose coverage as a result of $400 billion in cuts. “Sixteen plus eleven equals 27 million suddenly thrown off of health insurance,” Sanders said at a news conference in the Capitol, according to Talk Radio News Service. “Is there anybody in the United States of America who thinks that this makes any sense at all to throw 27 million Americans off of health insurance? Well that is exactly what the Republican budget does.” LINK

Medicaid An amendment from Sen. Sanders aimed at protecting Medicaid from cuts drew only three dissenting votes, illustrating, according to Politico, that “there's little downside for lawmakers to appear on the right side of preserving entitlement programs.” LINK

Roads and Bridges Senate Republicans blocked a budget amendment from Sen. Sanders that would have designated $478 billion for repairing the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges, The Fiscal Times reported. Under the proposal, the repairs would have been paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes. LINK

Climate Change Senate Democrats are pursuing amendments to put Republicans on record regarding climate change. "I would hope that our Republican friends would acknowledge the climate change is real and is caused by human activity," Sen. Sanders said, according to The Washington Examiner. LINK

Veterans Senators this week passed an amendment to the budget by Sen. Sanders calling for reforms to the Department of Veterans Affairs to ensure veterans get timely access to health care, The Hill reported. LINK

Obama Budget Sen. John Cornyn proposed an amendment vote this week on what he claimed was the president’s budget proposal. “I don’t know whose budget Sen. Cornyn is presenting, but it is certainly not the president’s budget,” Sanders said, according to The (Wilmington, Delaware) News Journal. LINK

Progressive Budget The Congressional Progressive Caucus this week release an alternative 2016 budget proposal. Sen. Sanders is the caucus’ lone Senate member, according to Vox. LINK

Money in Politics “I don’t do these fundraisers for $100,000 apiece or $10,000,” Sen. Sanders said during a recent speech to the National Press Club. “I don’t know anybody who has that kind of money!” His average contribution, he humble-bragged, is $45. Now he’s thinking about running for president, in what is shaping up to be the most expensive election in history, Bloomberg reported. LINK

West Coast Tour During next week's Congressional recess, Sen. Sanders will hold town meetings in Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin and Chicago, Seven Days reported. LINK

Corren Sued by Vermont AG Attorney General William Sorrell filed a lawsuit alleging that Dean Corren, who took public funding to run for lieutenant governor last year, violated campaign laws when he sought help from the Democratic Party. Corren’s lawyer said an e-mail invited supporters to attend a rally attended by Gov. Peter Shumlin, Sen. Sanders and others. John Franco said state campaign finance law allows the party to pay for campaign events at which three or more candidates attend, Vermont Public Radio reported. LINK

World

Opening New Iraq Front, U.S. Strikes ISIS in Tikrit American warplanes began airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Tikrit late Wednesday, finally joining a stalled offensive to retake the Iraqi city as American officials sought to seize the initiative from Iran, which had taken a major role in directing the operation. The decision to directly aid the offensive was made by President Obama on Wednesday, American officials said, and represented a significant shift in the Iraqi campaign, The New York Times reported. LINK

Mexican Farmers Strike As many as 50,000 workers at large, export-oriented farms in Baja California have led a week of strikes and violent protests over low pay and poor conditions, The Associated Press reported. LINK

National

House Ready to Pass Medicare Doc Bill; Senate's View Unclear Fueled by a rare alliance between party leaders, a $214 billion measure permanently blocking deep cuts in doctors' Medicare fees is ready to sail through the House. The bill's Senate prospects are brightening but remain murky. Physicians treating Medicare patients face a 21 percent fee cut on April 1 unless lawmakers act, AP reported. LINK

Trans-Pacific Partnership Seen as Door for Foreign Suits Against U.S. An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurts their business, according to a classified document obtained by The New York Times. LINK

Bergdahl Charged Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared from his Army outpost in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured by the Taliban, will be charged with desertion, The New York Times reported. LINK

Kraft, Heinz Merger H. J. Heinz and Kraft Foods Group announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to merge in a deal that will create the third largest food and beverage company in North America, USA Today reported. LINK

Clinton Poll Twenty-six percent of Americans now have a favorable view of Hillary Clinton, while 37 percent view her unfavorably; another third are undecided or don't have an opinion of her, according to a CBS News poll. LINK

Vermont

Gun Bill The Vermont Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would ban violent felons from possessing firearms, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Water Leak The city of Rutland said Tuesday that a massive water leak somewhere in Rutland’s 100 miles of pipe is causing the loss of nearly 600,000 gallons of water a day, The Rutland Herald reported. LINK