Sen. Sanders' Thoughts
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- Created on Tuesday, 11 November 2014 17:58
- Written by Yolanda Liang
Vermont — Republicans have taken control of most of the United States after election last week and Vermont is also included. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said that it was a tough run for Democrats because Republicans were able to disguise their agenda.
“People want to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Have the Democrats taken on the Republicans strongly enough on the issue?” Bernie questioned in a open-talk of C-SPAN television. “Not enough.”
Senator Sanders is a co-sponsor of legislation to raise federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour; however, many Republicans who now control the Senate, prefer to abolish the minimum wage.
In Vermont, the unemployment rate rises to 4.4 percent in September, comparing to 4.1 percent in August. This is the fourth monthly increase to the state wide unemployment rate in Vermont is the past year. The equivalent national average was 5.9 percent.
Senator Sanders has put a great effort in rebuilding roads, bridges and water systems, saying that these repairs infrastructures would create a lot of job opportunities.
“People want a job program. Yes, investing in infrastructure will cost money. But, I believe people will support it because they understand a trillion dollar investment in rebuilding our roads, bridges and water systems can create 13 million decent paying jobs,” Sanders said.
What’s more, Senator Sanders believes that republicans will do the exact opposite that the American people want in order to make the wealthiest more wealthy.
According to what Sanders told radio host Bill Press, Sanders said, “they did not vote for cuts in Social Security and Medicare, but that’s what the Republicans will fight for. They did not vote for tax breaks for billionaires, but that’s what the Republicans will give them. They did not vote to ignore raising the minimum wage, but that’s what Republicans will do.”
Despite for the increasing the minimum wage and creating a lot of job opportunities, Sen. Sanders urged the Federal Communications Commission to protect free and open access to the Internet.
In a letter Sanders wrote to the FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, he said, “it is time now, for you to stand with the American people and for net to the army of Comcast and Verizon lobbyists and institute strong rules to ensure net neutrality.”
The FCC is considering a proposal to let some companies pay for faster Internet access. So far, most Internet providers have treated all traffic the same, know as net neutrality.
Senator Sanders has submitted more than 4,000 comments that were sent to him opposing to the FCC. Sanders also wrote in the letter saying, “most of those comments were extremely thoughtful and made clear that ending net neutrality would be a disaster for our country, for small businesses and for the free flow of ideas.”
Senator Sanders said the comments are stated clearly that it must retain net neutrality and that is exactly what they must do.
“The American people understand that allowing for ‘fast lanes’ would change the fundamental nature of the Internet,” said Sanders. “It would remove the neutrality that’s been in place for decades and allow big corporations to control content online.”