bernie sanders

If you missed it, the roll call vote on Cass Sunstein’s nomination to run the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is up here. All but six Republicans voted no, and all but five members of the Democratic caucus voted aye. The big surprise on that front: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), a self-professed socialist who [...]

It should come as little surprise that the energy industry appreciates its right to pollute for free, and that it’s lobbying furiously to retain that privilege as the Senate begins debate on its climate change bill. But it’s still a fascinating exercise to see where exactly the money’s going.
Enter Common Cause, which, using figures gathered [...]

This one comes from New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, who today offers this advice to the congressional Democrats currently drafting health reform legislation:
1) Don’t trust the insurance industry.
2) Don’t trust the insurance industry.
And his reasoning is simple. Insurance companies — largely responsible for sinking the Clinton administration’s proposed health care [...]

This morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sponsor of the only Senate bill proposing a single-payer health coverage system, met with Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Finance Committee, and advocates for single-payer health care.
The conclusion? Regret, on the part of Baucus, that he’d failed to invite single-payer proponents to any of the many Finance [...]

To no one’s surprise, the Senate on Wednesday killed a proposal to cap credit card rates at 15 percent. The count was 33 to 60 on a procedural vote to allow the bill to proceed.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who sponsored the amendment, said the proposal would “end usury in the United States of America.”
“This amendment [...]

As a member of the two Senate committees on energy and the environment issues, and the chairman of the new Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is in a strong position to weigh in on the country’s green future. At a breakfast this morning with environmental reporters, he waxed optimistic [...]

From Politico: It seems that Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) had some choice words for fellow Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) during yesterday’s closed-door discussion over how Democrats would punish Lieberman for his alacritous promotion of John McCain through the presidential campaign.
Lieberman had threatened to defect to the Republican Party if Democrats pulled him from his [...]