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A corporation is not a person. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont, seeks a constitutional amendment to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case asserting that corporations have the rights of humans.

The Constitution of this country has served us well, but when the Supreme Court says that attempts by the federal government and states to impose reasonable restrictions on campaign ads are unconstitutional, our democracy is in grave danger. That is why I have introduced a resolution in the Senate calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

I did not do this lightly. In fact, I had never done it before. The U.S. constitution is an extraordinary document. In my view, it should not be amended often. In light of the Supreme Court’s infamous 5-to-4 decision in the Citizens United case, however, I saw no alternative.

I strongly disagree with the ruling. In my view, a corporation is not a person. A corporation does not have First Amendment rights to spend as much money as it wants, without disclosure, on a political campaign.
Corporations should not be able to go into their treasuries and spend millions and millions of dollars on a campaign in order to buy elections.

The ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. It has further tilted the balance of the power toward the rich and the powerful at a time when the wealthiest people in this country already never had it so good. History will record that the Citizens United decision is one of the worst in the history of our country.

At a time when corporations have more than $2 trillion in cash in their bank accounts and are making record-breaking profits, the American people should be concerned when the Supreme Court says that these corporations have a constitutionally-protected right to spend shareholders’ money to dominate an election as if they were real, live persons. If we do not reverse this decision, there will be no end to the impact that corporate interests can have on our campaigns and our democracy.

According to an Oct. 10, 2011, article in Politico, “the billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch plan to steer more than $200 million — potentially much more — to conservative groups ahead of Election Day 2012.” Others are doing the same thing.

Does anybody really believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about? (more…)

Senator Bernie Sanders reacts to the failure of the Senate Super Committee to reach a compromise on the federal budget.

Sometimes we all tend to take things for granted and we forget that Social Security is the most successful government program in our nation’s history. Let’s be clear. For more than 75 years, Social Security has, in good times and bad, paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American. Social Security has succeeded in keeping millions of senior citizens, widows and orphans and the disabled out of extreme poverty.

Before Social Security was developed, about half of our seniors lived in poverty. Today, fewer than 10 percent live in poverty and all of that is done with minimum administrative costs. In America right now more than 53 million Americans, including over 120,000 Vermonters, receive Social Security benefits. In our state Social Security benefits total over $1.5 billion per year, an amount equivalent to 6 percent of the state’s annual GDP.

Today, Social Security is facing an unprecedented attack from those who either want to privatize it completely or who want to make substantial cuts. In the coming months, a so-called super-committee in Congress made up of 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats will be making decisions to cut the national debt by some $1.5 trillion over the next decade. Social Security is on the table and could be cut by that committee.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks about cuts to government programs that work and help our friends and neighbors.

Statement Delivered on the Floor of the United States Senate — June 27, 2011:

Mr. President, this is a pivotal moment in the history of our country. In the coming days and weeks, decisions will be made about our national budget that will impact the lives of virtually every American in this country for decades to come.

At a time when the richest people and the largest corporations in our country are doing phenomenally well, and, in many cases, have never had it so good, while the middle class is disappearing and poverty is increasing, it is absolutely imperative that a deficit reduction package not include the disastrous cuts in programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor that the Republicans in Congress, dominated by the extreme right wing, are demanding.

In my view, the President of the United States of America needs to stand with the American people and say to the Republican leadership that enough is enough. No, we will not balance the budget on the backs of working families, the elderly, the sick, the children, and the poor, who have already sacrificed enough in terms of lost jobs, lost wages, lost homes, and lost pensions. Yes, we will demand that millionaires and billionaires and the largest corporations in America contribute to deficit reduction as a matter of shared sacrifice. Yes, we will reduce unnecessary and wasteful spending at the Pentagon. And, no we will not be blackmailed once again by the Republican leadership in Washington, who are threatening to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States government for the first time in our nation’s history unless they get everything they want. (more…)

Efforts by those who never want to hear someone say, “Bye-bye American manufacturing,” converged coincidentally to make June Buy American month.

First, at the forceful urging of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the Smithsonian on June 8 opened an all-American-made gift shop in the National Museum of American History. Three days later, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio introduced legislation requiring federal agencies to buy only 100 percent American-made flags.

Then, at the Netroots Nation 2011 conference in Minneapolis, Minn. this week, the AFL-CIO will serve American union-made beer, including Schell’s, brewed in Minnesota by members of my union, the United Steelworkers (USW). The Alliance for American Manufacturing will host at Netroots an American-made fashion show at which it will serve USW-member made Kellogg’s Nutri-Grain bars.  And the BlueGreen Alliance is distributing to Netroots attendees mercury-free, USW-made, energy-efficient, non-curly cue Oshram Sylvania halogen light bulbs. (more…)

By Mike Hall
AFL-CIO Senior Writer

Last year, when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, it was a “historic milestone on our path toward a more just society,” says AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, “But we also know that much work is left to be done.”

That work includes moving to a single-payer, universal health care model as called for by the AFL-CIO Convention in 2009 and this week  in the America Health Security Act, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.).

Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference, Holt Baker said:

We in the labor movement have long insisted that health care is a fundamental human right and an important measure of social justice. And for more than 100 years, we have fought for universal health care coverage based on a social insurance model, an approach that has proven to be cost-effective and efficient in countries across the globe and in this country to provide health security for seniors.

Jean Ross, R.N., and co-president of National Nurses United (NNU), says the bill will “create a more just health care system.”

Providing a single standard of high-quality care for all is a priority for registered nurses who have seen their abilities to act as patient advocates made more difficult as for-profit interests control more patient care decisions.

Sanders says the fight for universal health care “is the civil rights battle of our time.”

The legislation establishes a national health care program that requires each participating state to set up and administer comprehensive health care services as an entitlement for all through a progressively financed, single-payer system, as administered by the states. Benefits emphasize primary and preventive care, and free choice of providers. Private health insurance sold by for-profit companies continues in the form of supplemental coverage only. Says McDermott:

If an insurance company’s objective is to make a profit rather than deliver health care, a patient’s best interests may not always be in the forefront of their thinking. Decisions are made by accountants and actuaries, not necessarily on the basis of what’s best for the patient.

The program will be progressively financed, including a surcharge on high-income individuals and a tax on securities and other financial transactions.

“Let’s face it,” says Sanders in a guest column in the Guardian:

until we put patients over profits, our system will not work for ordinary Americans.

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Re-Posted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog

I wonder when our elected officials will get it.  Get what, you may ask.   Get the idea that our trade policies are killing us and have for many years.  Get the idea that American corporations are NOT going to create jobs here in the United States when they get huge tax breaks for giving our jobs away.  Get the idea that the American Dream is to provide a standard of living better than our forefathers gave to us. Get the message that we need good manufacturing jobs in order to turn this country around.

But NO, most of our elected officials see one thing, and that is their next election. They are so busy running for office, that they lose track of who sent them there. There is enough blame for all political parties in Washington D.C. They should be ashamed of themselves for putting us in this situation where ads run on TV about American workers working for China.  There is at least one U.S. senator who sees our views, and that is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

A message for all who serve in DC.  please do the right thing: WE NEED JOBS.

Ron Pickering
Brattleboro, Vermont
Retired Sub District Director, USW District 4

By Sam Pizzigati
Editor, on line weekly Too Much

America‘s top bankers and CEOs don’t have any more talent than millions of other Americans. They do have, two timely new data dumps remind us, plenty of generous friends in pivotal places.

We Americans, former Reagan White House budget director David Stockman told a reporter last week, “no longer have a democracy.” Instead, Stockman charged, we have “crony capitalism,” a system that’s rigging the economy to benefit the powerful few — at everyone else’s expense.

Last week brought still more evidence on how revoltingly raw this rigging has become. Wall Street and Corporate America, new data detail, have some incredibly thoughtful cronies who sit in some incredibly important places.

Some of these cronies run the Federal Reserve. Others serve on corporate boards of directors. Together, they’ve made the Great Recession a Great Sensation — for America’s corporate and banking elite. (more…)