Bernie Buzz

The following is from the latest edition of Bernie Buzz, Senator Sanders newsletter. This is a true progressive fighting for a better America for us all.

	Long-Term Unemployment
	While the official 7 percent unemployment rate in November was the lowest in five years, long-term unemployment remained near record highs. More than 1.3 million Americans without jobs for six months or more face an unemployment insurance cutoff at the end of December. Another 1.9 million workers would have their benefits cut later in the coming year. Bernie joined 31 other senators who signed a letter urging Congress to preserve federal unemployment insurance for another year. New research from the National Employment Law Project shows that unemployment insurance keeps workers in the job hunt and families out of poverty.
	What do you think are the most important things that the federal government can do to help the U.S. economy?
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	Poverty and the Pope
	In a nation where more people are living in poverty than ever before and the gap between the rich and the rest of us is growing wider, Bernie has found wisdom in the words of Pope Francis, who called on the world’s political and financial leaders to “ensure that all citizens have dignified work, education and healthcare.”
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	60 Minutes
	Bernie couldn’t believe it when the CBS News magazine gushed about Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson's so-called philanthropy. "You said his cause is cutting the national debt. What Pete Peterson has done is throw hundreds of millions of dollars into lobbying campaigns to cut Social Security, Medicare and disabled veterans’ benefits. That, to my mind, is not philanthropy,” Bernie wrote in a letter broadcast on 60 Minutes.
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	Big Oil
	In a significant shift, at least 29 major U.S. corporations, including the five biggest oil companies, expect that the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution to control global warming and are incorporating a price on carbon into their long-term financial plans, according to published reports on Thursday. Sadly, some in Congress still call global warming a hoax. But Bernie and Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate environment committee, are cosponsors of a pioneering bill to tax the carbon emissions that scientists say are causing dramatic global climate changes. Bernie also introduced a bill with Rep. Keith Ellison to take away subsidies for the hugely profitable oil, coal and gas industry.
	Read a summary of the Sanders, Boxer carbon tax bill   Read more about the End Polluter Welfare Act

	Big Banks
	There are 6,891 banks in the United States today, according to a new federal report, fewer than half as many as the 18,000 peak. The decline was predicted in 1999 by then Rep. Bernie Sanders as the House debated a bill to deregulate the financial industry. The bill passed and led to the 2008 financial collapse which in turn caused huge taxpayer bailouts of “too-big-to-fail” banks. Lesson learned? Not yet. Today there are even fewer big banks. Bernie wants to break them up. “No single financial institution should be so large that its failure would cause catastrophic risk to millions of American jobs or to our nation's economic wellbeing,” he wrote earlier this year in a column for The Huffington Post.
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