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Stories tagged with “Bernie Sanders”

Economy

Senator Introduces Bill To End Huge Corporate Tax Giveaway

By Pat Garofalo on Feb 7, 2013 at 9:30 am

Corporations offshoring profits costs both the federal government and states billions of dollars per year. One of the more egregious giveaways is known as “deferral,” which allows U.S. corporations to avoid paying taxes on overseas profits until they bring that money back to the U.S., giving them every incentive to leave it overseas permanently.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, “The current tax system provides incentives for U.S. firms to locate their production facilities in countries with low taxes as a way to reduce their tax liability at home,” ultimately resulting in compensation for U.S. workers being lower. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is introducing a bill today that would end this practice and close several other corporate tax loopholes:

Under this legislation, corporations would pay U.S. taxes on their offshore profits as they are earned. This legislation takes away the tax incentives for corporations to move jobs offshore or to shift profits offshore because the U.S. would tax their profits no matter where they are generated.

Under the Corporate Tax Fairness Act, U.S. corporations would continue to get a credit against their U.S. taxes for foreign taxes they pay. That means that when an American corporation has profits in a country with lower corporate taxes than the U.S., they would pay the federal government the difference between the foreign rate and the U.S. rate. When an American corporation has profits in a country with higher corporate taxes than the U.S., they would pay nothing to the U.S.

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, “the provisions in this bill will raise more than $590 billion in revenue over the next decade.”

Due to the proliferation of loopholes, credits, and the use of tax havens, major corporations haven’t paid the full statutory tax rate in 45 years. In 2011, the 12.1 percent effective rate that corporations paid was the lowest in 40 years.

Climate Progress

Senator Bernie Sanders: To Battle Global Warming, We Must Pick Clean Energy As A ‘Winner’

By Climate Guest Blogger on Oct 15, 2012 at 1:30 pm

by Senator Bernie Sanders

The Big Energy industries (oil, coal and gas) along with their political allies like Mitt Romney are waging war against sustainable energy and the need to transform our energy system and reverse global warming. In many instances they are aided and abetted by the very powerful nuclear power industry.

One of their main lines of attack (used repeatedly by Romney in his first debate with President Obama) is that the federal government is picking energy “winners and losers.” In fact, Romney has said he will not invest in “chasing fads and picking winners and losers” among energy technologies and he will allow the free market to determine energy development.

Romney is right about one thing. The government does pick winners and losers in the energy sector. What Romney has not told the American people, however, is that the big winners of federal support are the already immensely profitable fossil fuel and nuclear industries, not sustainable energy.

As a member of both the Senate Energy and Environment committees, I am working to stop the handouts to the fossil fuel industry. I have introduced legislation called the End Polluter Welfare Act. Rep. Keith Ellison filed the companion bill in the House of Representatives. Our measure calls for the elimination for all subsidies to the oil, gas and coal industries. Using the best available estimates from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation and other budget experts, we found over $113 billion in federal subsidies will go to fossil fuel corporations over the next 10 years alone. These subsidies benefit some of the wealthiest corporations on the planet, including the five largest oil corporations, which made a combined profit of $1 trillion over the last decade. Unlike sustainable energy incentives, many of these fossil fuel subsidies are written permanently into the tax code by industry lobbyists, which means they never expire.

Let me give you just a few examples of outrageously strong federal support for Big Energy companies:

  • BP, after committing one of the worst environmental disasters in the modern history of America, was able to take a large tax deduction on the money it spent cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Coal companies are able to sign single-bid sweetheart leases to mine on federal lands without paying fair value in royalties to the taxpayers of this country.
  • In 2009, Exxon-Mobil, one of the most profitable corporations in this country, paid no federal income taxes, and in fact received a rebate from the IRS. Many other large and very profitable oil companies also have managed to avoid paying federal income taxes in certain years.

But it is not just fossil fuel companies. The nuclear industry also benefits from massive corporate welfare. The non-partisan Congressional Research Service reports that the nuclear industry has received over $95 billion (in 2011 dollars) in federal research and development support in the last 65 years. Nuclear corporations currently have access to billions in federal loan guarantees to build new plants and enrich uranium. They also have federal tax incentives for mining uranium, producing nuclear electricity and even decommissioning a plant.

Perhaps most significantly, the nuclear industry would collapse tomorrow without a huge nuclear insurance program from the federal government. The Price-Anderson Act could, in the event of an American nuclear disaster, force taxpayers to pay out tens or even hundreds of billions in damage claims. Nuclear power is so risky that none of Mitt Romney’s Wall Street or free market friends will provide that type of insurance.

Let’s be clear. The war against sustainable energy by the Big Energy companies has been extremely successful. During the last year, with almost unanimous Republican opposition, Congress has not been able to extend a very successful program, the 1603 grant, which had supported over 20,000 sustainable energy projects and tens of thousands of jobs. Congress also has been unable to extend the Production Tax Credit which primarily supports wind energy. The result has been significant layoffs and cancelled projects in the wind industry.

What has not been often enough pointed out is that despite all the opposition, all of the lies coming from fossil fuel sponsored think tanks and the right-wing media, this country has made significant and important progress in moving toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

That progress is critical in the fight to reverse global warming, which the vast majority of scientists who study the issue consider to be one of the greatest threats to our planet. With strong federal intervention, we have made some good progress in recent years, but clearly much more needs to be done. Let me just mention a few energy success stories.

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LGBT

The 11 Most Pro-Gay U.S. Senators

By Josh Israel and Adam Peck on Jul 3, 2012 at 4:10 pm

Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Patty Murray (D-WA)

Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Patty Murray (D-WA)

In recent days, ThinkProgress has identified the most pro- and anti-LGBT members of the U.S. House of Representatives. While in this Congress anti-gay forces have been relatively quiet in the Senate — only Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) has proposed an overtly anti-LGBT bill or resolution — Senators in support of equality have proposed sixteen bills pro-LGBT bills since the start of 2011. Eleven Senators have sponsored or co-sponsored at least ten of those measures.

Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI), John Kerry (D-MA), and Patty Murray (D-WA), tied for the honor of most pro-LGBT Senator: they put their names on 13 of the 16 bills each. Akaka, a fourth-term Senator who will retire at the end of 2012, authored the Health Equity and Accountability Act of 2012 (a bill to improve tracking of health data for LGBT people and other minority groups). Murray, a fourth-term Senator, spells out on her LGBT issue webpage that “Equal protection under the law is a fundamental right in our country. No one should suffer discrimination because of their race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” And Kerry, now in his fifth term in the Senate, is chief sponsor of the Reconnecting Youth to Prevent Homelessness Act of 2011 (which seeks to help at-risk LGBT youth) and the HOME Act of 2011 (which protects LGBT citizens from housing discrimination).

Eight other Senators — seven Democrats and one independent — signed on to at least 10 pro-LGBT proposals, putting them just behind Akaka, Kerry, and Murray. They are:


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Health

Sen. Bernie Sanders Offers Plan To Lower Cost Of HIV Drugs

By Amanda Peterson Beadle on May 15, 2012 at 9:01 am

Because drug manufacturers waive their patent rights in developing nations in compliance with the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, Americans have paid tens of thousands for the same HIV drugs that cost hundreds of dollars in Africa. The enormous cost burden — as much as $30,000 a year — makes it difficult for many HIV patients to keep up with drug regimens. But as Politico reports, a Senate subcommittee will hear a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to help lower the costs. Sanders’ plan would offer prize money instead of patent rights to companies that make new HIV drugs, so the medication would go straight to the generic market.

Drugmakers argue that they can’t make a profit without drug patents, which lets them charge less in developing nations, but “these costs can be a huge barrier to treatment,” said Mark Harrington, executive director of the Treatment Action Group.

The hearing will also look at the challenges faced by HIV patients without access to health care:

The challenge for uninsured HIV patients has worsened during the recession, as many states have taken steps to contain costs in the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs [ADAP] funded jointly by state and federal dollars. Many patient advocates are hopeful that the health reform law will get coverage to many low-income HIV patients if it goes into effect in 2014, but they worry that patients could still face high co-pays for specialty drugs and other gaps in coverage.

Even with the discount offered through ADAP programs, Ann Lefert, policy director at the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors, told Politico that it still costs an average of $10,000 per year for one patient. And some states have waiting lists for their ADAP programs or are taking steps to contain costs.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly three out of four Americans with HIV are not receiving enough medicine or regular health care “to stay healthy or prevent themselves from transmitting the virus to others.”

NEWS FLASH

Progressive Senators Introduce Bill That Would Force Regulator To Start Limiting Oil Speculation Within Two Weeks | Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), along with Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Al Franken (D-MN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), unveiled legislation today that would force the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to begin limiting speculation in oil markets within the next two weeks. The CFTC was given the power to curb speculation in energy markets by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, but has yet to begin doing so. Gas prices at the moment are rising despite the lowest demand for oil since 1997, and many experts point to excessive speculation as the cause.

NEWS FLASH

Climate Hawk Senators Remind Washington Of Climate Crisis | In an hour-long discussion, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) rebuked the Senate for ignoring the climate crisis. The “planetary crisis of global warming” is “not getting the serious debate and discussion it needs here in the Senate,” Sanders began. Watch:

Update

Read an annotated transcript of Sen. Sanders’ closing remarks, courtesy of 350.org:
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By Brad Johnson on Feb 16, 2012 at 12:15 pm

NEWS FLASH

Bernie Sanders And Climate Activists Blow The Whistle On Congressional Oil Corruption | At a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joined 350.org founder Bill McKibben and hundreds of climate activists to “blow the whistle” on big oil’s corruption of our political process, including the continued efforts to construct the dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Sanders announced he plans to introduce legislation to end all federal subsidies for fossil fuel production in this country, saying, “we’ve got to save this planet, reverse global warming, transform our energy system, and move to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”

By Brad Johnson on Jan 24, 2012 at 5:53 pm

Climate Progress

Senators Question Weak Oil Speculation Rule

By Brad Johnson on Oct 18, 2011 at 11:33 am

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is poised to vote on position limits for oil trading, but some senators are concerned that the rule will be too weak to diminish oil speculation. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) both wrote letters to CFTC Commissioner Gary Gensler, asking him to take stronger steps to curb financial speculators like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Sanders called the expected rule “simply unacceptable“:

Unfortunately, if recent reports in the media are correct, the final rule on position limits, as currently drafted, will do little or nothing to lower prices and it will not eliminate, prevent or diminish excessive speculation as required by the Dodd-Frank Act. At a time when the American people are experiencing extremely high oil and gas prices, this would be simply unacceptable.

Financial institutions have grossly distorted oil and other commodity markets that used to be dominated by actual buyers and sellers of the underlying products. The Dodd-Frank Act mandated that the CFTC establish stronger limits on financial speculation in commodity markets by Jan. 17, 2011. Nine months behind schedule, the CFTC is planning to establish position limits that would allow a single speculator to control 25 percent of the physically deliverable supply of oil, and to control 125 percent of the cash-settled supply.

Sanders also called on the CFTC to ban “speculative commodity index fund trading,” citing the new report by Better Markets that identifies commodity index funds as the “primary drivers of excessive speculation.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-WA) letter to the CFTC goes into more detail about the ineffectiveness of the proposed rule. “I urge the Commission to drop the ‘conditional spot month position limit’ policy from the final ‘Position Limits for Derivatives’ rule and treat the physically-settled and economically equivalent cast-settled ‘look alike’ contracts equally,” she wrote.

Health

Bernie Sanders: Raising The Medicare Age ‘Ain’t Gonna Happen’

By Igor Volsky on Oct 5, 2011 at 9:00 am

Sen. Bernie Sander (I-VT) pledged to oppose any effort to raise the Medicare eligibility age last night as he addressed Campaign for America Future’s Take Back The American Dream conference, arguing that too many Americans are already dying from poor access to health insurance:

“Forty-five thousand people are dying in America this year because they don’t have access to healthcare, and we’ll be damned if we’re going to allow more people to die by raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67,” Sanders told a liberal crowd gathered in Washington for the Take Back the American Dream conference. “Ain’t gonna happen.”

The Vermont liberal sounded a similar warning regarding proposals to scale back Social Security benefits.

“In the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, you know what you don’t do?” Sanders asked. “You don’t cut Social Security – that’s what you don’t do. And anybody who tells you that Social Security is part of the deficit problem is lying to you.”

Gradually raising the Medicare eligibility age had been initially considered by President Obama as part of larger deficit proposal, but was left out of his most recent deficit reduction plan. Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) re-introduced the idea in their recent Medicare reduction proposal and have urged the super committee to adopt it. Hospitals have also been big boosters of the proposal.

But as Sanders put it, raising the age would increase costs for beneficiaries by moving seniors into more expensive private care and could potentially price some out of coverage altogether. The reform would save very little money and would only do so “by shifting costs to most of the 65- and 66-year-olds who would lose Medicare coverage, to employers that provide health coverage for their retirees, to Medicare beneficiaries, to younger people who buy insurance through the new health insurance exchanges, and to states.”

Economy

Bernie Sanders Introduces Bill To Lift The Payroll Tax Cap, Ensuring Full Social Security Funding For Nearly 75 Years

By Zaid Jilani on Aug 25, 2011 at 2:40 pm

Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was a featured speaker at the United Steel Workers 2011 conference in Las Vegas.

Sanders focused much of his speech on the Social Security system, blasting suggestions by Democrats and Republicans alike that, for example, we should adjust the cost of living adjustment to cut Social Security payments to working class Americans or raise the retirement age. “When [Social Security] was developed, 50 percent of seniors lived in poverty. Today, poverty among seniors is too high, but that number is ten percent. Social Security has done exactly what it was designed to do!” he thundered, defending the program. Watch it:

Today, Sanders announced that he will introduce legislation that would strengthen Social Security without cutting benefits to any of its beneficiaries. Sanders’ legislation would eliminate the income cap that currently exists in the payroll tax that does not tax income above $106,800:

To keep Social Security strong for another 75 years, Sanders’ legislation would apply the same payroll tax already paid by more than nine out of 10 Americans to those with incomes over $250,000 a year. [...] Under Sanders’ legislation, Social Security benefits would be untouched. The system would be fully funded by making the wealthiest Americans pay the same payroll tax already assessed on those with incomes up to $106,800 a year.

Sanders points out that President Obama himself endorsed this idea on the campaign trail in 2008. “What we need to do is to raise the cap on the payroll tax so that wealthy individuals are paying a little bit more into the system. Right now, somebody like Warren Buffet pays a fraction of 1 percent of his income in payroll tax, whereas the majority…pays payroll tax on 100 percent of their income. I’ve said that was not fair,” said Obama during the campaign.

The Social Security system is currently fully funded until 2037. Lifting the payroll tax cap would virtually eliminate funding shortfalls the program would experience over the next 75 years.

Update

Recall that polling shows that even a majority of self-identified tea partiers would rather raise the payroll tax cap than raise the retirement age.

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