News April 6

Senator Sanders



Obama Wants to Cut Social Security President Obama will ask Congress to slow the growth of Social Security benefits by changing the way the government measures inflation. The plan would save the government $130 billion over 10 years, but over that same decade a 65-year-old retiree could expect to see his or her annual benefits at age 75 be $650 lower than the current formula. Sen. Bernie Sanders is among those who have been outspoken against using Social Security to cut the deficit. “What the Republicans want to do is decimate the social safety net in America. They want to decimate Social Security and President Obama has succumbed to what they have wanted for years and that’s very disappointing,” Sanders said on the CBS Evening News. VIDEO

Sanders: A Terrible Disappointment President Obama will propose a budget next week that courts Republicans for a grand bargain on the debt while angering Democratic allies with cuts to Social Security and other programs. "I remember when Obama said he was concerned about retirees struggling to get by and was unequivocal in his opposition to cutting cost-of-living adjustments," Sen. Sanders said in The Washington Post. “I am terribly disappointed,” Sanders said in The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and WPTZ-TV reported. LINK, LINK, LINK, VIDEO

Obama Budget Hits Disabled Veterans Citing the effect on veterans, Sen. Sanders, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, said he would "do everything in my power to block" Obama’s plan, The Associated Press reported. LINK, LINK

Senate Voted Against Chained CPI "I hope the president listens to the seniors' groups, to labor groups, to the AFL-CIO. I hope he listens to his constituents," said Sen. Sanders, a vocal critic of the chained CPI proposal who won inclusion of an amendment to the Senate budget resolution that opposes the idea, Politico reported. LINK

Budget Backlash House Speaker John Boehner immediately dismissed President Barack Obama's package of entitlement cuts tied to new tax revenues and Obama is already facing a backlash from liberal Democrats as he has floated the chained CPI idea. Sen. Tom Harkin said Friday that any Social Security cuts are a no-go for him. At a lunch with Senate Democrats last month, Harkin and Sanders pressed Obama to take chained CPI off the table, arguing that Social Security doesn't actually contribute to the deficit, Politico reported. LINK

Obama Breaks Promise “Millions of working people … will be extremely disappointed that President Obama caved into the long standing Republican effort to cut Social Security,” Sanders said on Fox News. Even the president opposed cutting COLA’s during his 2008 campaign, the report added and showed Obama saying: “John McCain's campaign has gone even further suggesting that the best answer to Social Security might be to cut cost of living adjustments or raise the retirement age. Let me be clear. I will not do either." VIDEO

Democratic House Leader Concerned Rep. Chris van Hollen was asked on MSNBC for his reaction to Sanders’ criticism of the Obama’s proposal to lower cost-of-living adjustments. “I do have serious concerns about its impact on seniors,” he said.

Obama’s Huge Betrayal President Obama’s call for cuts in Social Security is “a huge betrayal,” Matthew Rothschild wrote for The Progressive. “When he was running for the Presidency in 2008 and for reelection in 2012, he vowed to protect Social Security. Now he’s reneging on that vow.” Sanders said that “more than 55 million retirees, widows, orphans, and disabled Americans” would be adversely affected by Obama’s decision. It’s a betrayal to veterans and “would result in significantly lower annual cost-of-living adjustments for more than 3.2 million disabled veterans,” Sanders noted. LINK

Global Warming Sen. Sanders debated Wall Street Journal columnist Steve Moore over scientific consensus on global warming. “The truth of the matter is that the oil companies and the coal companies have spent tens of millions of dollars in a disinformation campaign,” Sanders said on HBO’s Real Time. VIDEO, VIDEO

Majors Honored Randolph and Beverly Major received a certificate from the state to thank them for their years of work with both town and state citizens. Randy ran as a Democrat for the United State Senate in the early 1970s, but lost to Republican Robert Stafford. He remembers another opponent in that race more than 40 years ago — a Liberty Union Party candidate by the name of Bernie Sanders, the Brattleboro Reformer reported. LINK

National



VA Boost in Spending Plan Facing growing criticism, the Obama administration announced on Friday that it would include significant increases for veterans’ programs, including money for mental health services, in the budget it unveils next week. The president’s budget for the 2014 fiscal year will include $63.5 billion in discretionary funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs, a 4 percent increase over the current budget, Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff, told The New York Times. LINK

Vermont



Sequester State budget analysts project federal spending cuts will cost Vermont $9.3 million between now and June of 2014, with $1.25 million in the next three months. About $15 million in cuts are projected for fiscal 2015, the Burlington Free Press reported. LINK