The Week in Review

Press Release

President Obama will not call for cuts in Social Security benefits as part of the budget that he will submit next month to Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders called that "a victory for the American people." More than 8,000 of you wrote to Sanders in the week since he first asked for reaction to Comcast buying Time Warner Cable. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Sanders on Friday rallied support for the most comprehensive legislation for veterans to come before Congress in decades.

A Victory on Social Security Obama last year proposed changing how cost-of-living adjustments are calculated in a way designed to cut benefits. He had lots of company. Republicans in Congress and even some prominent Democrats backed the idea. So did Wall Street CEOs. So did TV pundits and major newspapers. But in poll after poll, big majorities of Americans consistently opposed cuts in Social Security. More than 700,000 people signed a petition urging Congress to keep cuts in Social Security out of a budget deal. Congressional budget makers didn't include the cuts in a package approved late last year. And now the cuts are gone from Obama's next budget. "When people stand together on an issue," Sanders said, "we can win." Sanders discussed the developments during his weekly radio and Internet appearance Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program,

Global Warming The three major Sunday morning network television shows last weekend featured conversations about global warming. Sanders welcomed the attention to a critically important issue that had been largely ignored by network news programs. Throughout all of last year, the Sunday shows devoted only 27 minutes -- combined -- to global warming, according to Media Matters for America. That was up from just 8 minutes the year before. In a letter last Jan. 16, Sanders asked network television executives why there had been "shockingly little discussion" about global warming on the Sunday shows. To see what happened, watch Meet the Press, read the This Week transcript and watch Face the Nation.

Bad Trade Deal Sanders on Tuesday made the case against a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The international agreement would be a "disaster" for American workers, Sanders said in an interview on MSNBC, but good news for multi-national corporations that hire low-wage workers, like laborers in Vietnam who make that Asian nation's minimum wage of 28-cents an hour. If you haven't heard of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, you might get your news from network TV. A new study by Media Matters for America found that there wasn't a single mention of the Trans-Pacific Partnership during the past six months on the CBS Evening News, ABC's World News and NBC Nightly News. The Ed Schultz show on MSNBC was responsible for 32 of the 33 mentions of the trade deal during the same six-month period on cable new programs on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

Media Mega-Merger At a time when fewer and fewer corporations control the flow of information and news, Comcast's bid to gobble up Time Warner Cable and dominate American's access to cable and Internet services has run into a buzz-saw of public opposition. In the week since Sanders asked people to for their opinion, more than 8,000 sent him emails. The results so far of our online poll also show lopsided in opposition to the deal. "Both Comcast and Time Warner are already too big," wrote J.M. Strothman of Berkeley, Calif. "Any company that does not have meaningful competition should be subject to careful meaningful regulation." Peter Schultz of Downers Grove, Ill., wrote that if federal regulators okay the deal "Comcast would have too much power to control what millions of subscribers could watch and Comcast could be able to raise its rates at will. Competition is crucial." And New Jersey resident Carol Wooten told the senator that "there are only a few cable services available here in Southern NJ. Comcast is already dominant in our area and they increase their rates more than once a year. They only offer 'specials' to new customers while ignoring their existing loyal customers. To have them merge with another cable company would give them more opportunity to monopolize and increase rates." Do you think this merger should be approved? Send Sanders a message and take the poll.

Propane Prices With cold winter weather gripping much of the nation, the Vermont congressional delegation asked the Obama administration to freeze exports of propane to bring down skyrocketing prices for the home heating fuel. Sens, Sanders and Patrick Leahy and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch asked Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to use her emergency powers to temporarily halt exports of propane. Some 15 percent of all Vermont homes are heated with propane, the highest rate in New England and the second highest in the nation. Moreover, 25 percent of Vermont families and seniors eligible for home heating assistance rely on propane to heat their homes. "It is not an exaggeration to say that some of these families are faced with choosing between heating their homes and putting food on the table," the delegation letter said. Read more

Education Sanders provided an overview on federal education policy in an appearance on Wednesday before the Vermont House and Senate education committees. A member of the U.S. Senate education committee, Sanders focused on ways to expand pre-kindergarten programs and make college more affordable. Read The Associated Press report on the hearing

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