The average price for a gallon of gas has gone up by more than 41 cents in the past five months. Supply and demand? Hardly. The price hikes come at a time when U.S. oil inventories reached a three-decade high while demand for gasoline is lower than four years ago when prices averaged only $2.30 a gallon. So Bernie is pushing for an investigation into oil price manipulation like one already underway in Europe. He also would set a 30-day deadline for federal regulators to use emergency powers to curb excessive speculation in crude oil markets. Both ideas were offered as amendments to a bill now before the full Senate.
Bernie on Wednesday proposed an amendment to the farm bill that would let states require labels on any food or beverage containing ingredients that have been genetically modified. Dozens of countries already do the same thing. “All over this country people are becoming more conscious about the foods they are eating and the foods they serve to their kids,” Bernie said. “I believe that when a mother goes to the store and purchases food for her child, she has the right to know what she is feeding her child.”
What Can We Learn from Denmark?
Danes rank among the happiest people in the world and enjoy a quality of life that many Americans would envy with universal health care, inexpensive prescription drugs, strong family-leave laws, free higher education and a national commitment to be carbon-free by 2050. That’s why Bernie invited Ambassador Peter Taksøe-Jensen to Vermont where big crowds packed three town meetings last weekend.
Apple avoided paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes by parking profits overseas, according to the report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. “It is a total scam,” Bernie told Ed Schultz on Tuesday. “It’s not just Apple. Virtually every major multi-national corporation has used these offshore tax havens,” Bernie added. He has introduced legislation that would take away the tax breaks and yield $600 billion in revenue over a decade.
