Sanders: Congress faces big enduring issues

Let me take this opportunity to wish all Vermonters a healthy and happy 2015, and give you a brief update on some of the issues that I'll be focusing on as Congress begins a new session.

There is, in Vermont and across this country, widespread frustration about the inability of Congress to address the most important issues facing the American people. Millions of working families have seen a reduction in their incomes, young people are finding it harder to afford higher education and seniors are struggling to pay for their food, heat and medicine. At the same time, the wealthiest people in this country are doing phenomenally well, corporate profits are soaring and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider.

Where do we go from here? What kind of policies do we need to rebuild the middle class, lower the poverty rate and reduce the obscene level of income and wealth inequality?

First, we need to understand that while the economy has significantly improved over the last six years, we still face a major crisis in terms of high rates of unemployment and underemployment. Today, while the official unemployment rate is 5.6 percent, real unemployment (counting those who have given up looking for jobs and those who are working part time when they want to work full time) is 11.2 percent and youth unemployment is 17.7 percent. We need to create millions of decent paying jobs now.

The fastest way to create jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. Every day, in Vermont and across this country, we see bridges in disrepair, congested roads with potholes and inadequate transit services. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, nearly a quarter of the nation's bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and more than 30 percent have exceeded their design life. Almost one-third of America's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and 42 percent of major urban highways are congested. Our water and wastewater systems, energy grid, dams and levees, schools and parks all need improvements.

Second, at a time when most of the new jobs being created are low-wage and part-time, it is imperative that we raise the national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to a living wage. Vermont and a number of other states have made progress in raising the minimum wage but we must go further. Nobody in America who works 40 hours a week should be living in poverty. We must also pass legislation that supports pay equity for women. It is not acceptable that nationally, women earn 78 cents on the dollar compared to men who do the same work.

Third, I will fight for new trade policies that end the outsourcing of American jobs. American workers should not have to compete against desperate people in developing countries who make pennies an hour. Trade agreements like NAFTA, CAFTA, and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and have led us to a race to the bottom. Since 1991, we have lost some 60,000 factories in our country and millions of good paying manufacturing jobs. I will vigorously oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which continues the failed trade policies of the last three decades supported by both Democratic and Republican presidents.

Fourth, in a highly-globalized and competitive economy, we need to have the best educated workforce in the world if our economy is to prosper. Tragically, that is no longer the case. For many working parents, higher education for their kids is now unaffordable and many of young people are graduating deeply in debt. In my view, all Americans who have the ability and the desire should be able to receive a higher education. As a member of the Education Committee, I will do my best to make that happen.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is an Independent who resides in Burlington.