Fighting for American jobs ~ @senatorsanders

October 06, 2011
Fighting for American Jobs One of the major reasons the middle class is collapsing and unemployment is unacceptably high is that disastrous trade agreements have cost us millions of good-paying jobs. During the last 10 years, 50,000 U.S. factories shut down, millions of jobs were lost and it is harder and harder to buy products made in the United States. We need a trade policy which demands that corporate America invest in this country, not China. That's why Bernie opposes new trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama which President Obama sent to Congress on Monday. The trade deals in the works since the Bush administration failed in the past and won't work now. Read a new Economic Policy Institute report » Rebuild America As the Senate takes up the president's jobs bill, Bernie made the case for putting millions of Americans back to work rebuilding roads, bridges and our crumbling infrastructure. Watch Thursday's Senate speech » Occupy Wall Street "I think they're really touching a nerve," Bernie said of the protest movement. "The American people know that something is fundamentally wrong when the middle class is collapsing, poverty is increasing and the richest people in the country are doing phenomenally well." Watch Bernie talk about the protests with Ed Schultz » Watch Keith Olbermann ask Bernie about class warfare » Watch Bernie ask Ben Bernanke about the demonstrations » Bernie and Bernanke Was Wall Street responsible for the recession? Should the Fed slap limits on credit card interest rates? Why not treat the jobs crisis like the financial crisis? Watch Bernie and Fed Chairman Bernanke at a Joint Economic Committee hearing » Join the conversation:      What do you think? TAKE THE POLL Do you support creating jobs by rebuilding roads, bridges and our crumbling infrastructure » In Other News TRADE DEFICIT WITH CHINA Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the U.S.-China trade deficit has eliminated or displaced nearly 2.8 million U.S. jobs, a new study says » WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT Read stories about people being kicked out of their homes, choosing between groceries and rent, lacking quality medical care, working long hours for little pay while the other 1 percent gets everything » THE NEW POOR With the highest rate of poverty since 1993, USA Today says those who are poor in America now include the college-educated, the former middle-class worker, the suburbanite and the homeowner » GAS AND OIL PRICES Excessive speculation in the oils futures market is to blame for higher gas prices, not supply and demand, Bernie told CNBC's Jim Cramer » HOME HEATING With oil prices skyrocketing as winter approaches, Bernie wrote a column for The Hill making the case for more funds to help seniors and low-income families with children heat their homes » MEDICARE Bernie blasted the American Hospital Association for lobbying Congress to cut Medicare benefits by increasing the eligibility age from 65 to 67 » Upcoming Events THOM HARTMANN PROGRAM Listen Fridays at noon ET for "Brunch with Bernie" »