{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/092817", "September 28", "2017-09-28", "2017", "2017-09", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "September 28\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tThursday, September 28, 2017\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSanders: Trump Tax Plan \u2018Morally Repugnant\u2019 Promising big tax cuts and a booming economy, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans unveiled the their plan to revamp the tax code Wednesday. Sen. Bernie Sanders argued that the plan would exacerbate income inequality, singling out its proposal to repeal the estate tax, noting that the top 10 percent of earners pay 90 percent of estate taxes. \"At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, Trump's tax plan is morally repugnant and bad economic policy,\" Sanders said in a statement, The Associated Press, The Hill, WCAX-TV and Business Insider reported.\r\nEllison Defends Sanders \u00a0Rep. Keith Ellison extolled Sanders as an \u201cawesome\u201d health care advocate in an interview on Wednesday, dismissing those who questioned the timing of Sanders\u2019 rollout of single-payer legislation. \u201cWe create the time, by pushing the issue. The issue becomes ripe because we push it,\u201d Ellison said, The Huffington Post reported.\r\nRepublicans Concede Defeat on Health Care\u00a0Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the partisan debate over the country\u2019s health care system will \u201ccertainly continue.\u201d McConnell called that proposal a \u201cstark contrast\u201d to a plan by Sanders. McConnell says Sanders\u2019 plan would \u201crip\u201d health insurance from people. He called the issue an important debate and said, \u201cIt\u2019s one that we\u2019ll certainly continue.\u201d The Associated Press reported.\r\nWhat\u2019s Next for Single Payer While Democrats are celebrating the defeat of the GOP legislation, they have also provided Republicans fodder for a new line of attack. A bill that Sanders introduced this month would create a single-payer health system and was hailed by some Democrats. Republicans say they expect to use it to divert attention from their own legislative struggles, The Wall Street Journal and Politico reported.\r\nForeign Policy Speech Sanders\u2019s recent foreign policy speech, notably in its strong defense of the Iran nuclear deal, was a careful attempt to claim Obama\u2019s legacy by arguing for a liberal internationalist approach of alliance-building to solving the world\u2019s problems. The central theme of the speech was the need to re-conceptualize foreign policy not just as a matter of military policy, New Republic and Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported\r\nAlabama Senate Election\u00a0The progressive energy around Doug Jones, Democratic nominee for Senate in Alabama, is left over from the spring, when activists attacked Democratic campaign groups for helping special election candidates in Kansas and Montana only after Republican PACs had poured in money to attack them. \u201cI believe the Democrats should compete in every state in this country,\u201d said Sanders, the only national figure who\u2019d stumped for the party\u2019s nominee in those states, The Washington Post reported.\r\nArcade Fire Singer Supports Universal Health Care In light of Sanders\u2019 recently introduced \u201cMedicare for All\u201d bill, Arcade Fire\u2019s Win Butler sat down with Sen. Sanders\u2019 Media Producer Armand Aviram to discuss the differences between the Canadian and American health care system. As an American citizen who relocated to Montr\u00e9al about 15 years ago, Butler discussed his own personal medical experiences with both systems, Pitchfork and SPIN reported.\r\nSpider Named for Sanders\u00a0 Scientists bestowed an honor to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former first lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama. Researchers and students at the University of Vermont named 15 new species of smiley-faced spiders and drew inspiration from the Obamas, Sanders, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, British naturalist David Attenborough and late singer David Bowie, Fox News, International Business Times, WCAX-TV and CNET reported.\r\nUK Labour Party Conference\u00a0Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain\u2019s opposition Labour Party, told supporters on Wednesday that their brand of left-wing politics had brought them to \u201cthe threshold of power.\u201d In some respects a British version of Sanders, Corbyn has championed an agenda that includes nationalizing utilities, abolishing university tuition fees and increasing taxes for the wealthy and for corporations, The New York Times reported.\r\nRussian Facebook Ads\u00a0 At least one of the Facebook ads that were purchased by a Kremlin-linked troll factory during the 2016 campaign promoted the Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Politico reported Tuesday, while others boosted Sanders\u2019 campaign even after he dropped out of the race, Talking Points Memo, MSNBC, Politico and The Washington Post reported.\r\nColumn: Medicare for All Could Spur Change in Canada \u201cSanders made a splash last week when he introduced the Medicare for All bill in the United States Senate, flanked by 16 other Democratic senators who all pledged their support for the implementation of single-payer healthcare in the United States\u2026. Despite Sanders\u2019s financing proposals, without those details, they say, Medicare for All remains a pipe dream. But the proposal itself would deliver a national health insurance program for the 21st century,\u201d Danielle Martin and Andrew Boozary wrote for Maclean\u2019s.\r\nColumn: Our Families Deserve Medicare for All \u201cFortunately, there is light emerging from darkness\u2026. Sanders has introduced legislation that would enact a Medicare For All or \u2018single payer\u2019 system in the U.S. All current health care financing -- taxes, premiums, copayments and deductibles -- would be placed into a single fund and pay for all medically necessary services. The vast majority of Americans would receive comprehensive medical coverage and pay less than they currently do,\u201d Peter Mahr wrote for OregonLive.\r\nColumn: Democrats Need Plan for Trump\u00a0\u201dFor Democrats in particular, it\u2019s critical that they set forth mainstream policies that do not leave them open to the counterattack that they are still tax and spend liberals, proponents of \u201copen borders\u201d or advocates of socialized medicine\u2026\u00a0 Sanders might be pushing single-payer health care but that\u2019s not a position the majority of Democrats will embrace in 2018),\u201d Jennifer Rubin wrote for The Washington Post.\r\nColumn: Sanders Thinks War is Overrated\u00a0\u201dThough not, alas, a pacifist, Sanders has at last revealed himself to be an American leader articulating a new and largely peaceable foreign policy. And, given our current president\u2019s bombastic bellicosity, Sanders\u2019 speaking his peace comes not a moment too soon,\u201d John Kaufman wrote for Common Dreams.\r\nColumn: Sanders\u2019 Foreign Policy Isn\u2019t Enough \u201cSanders, however, outlined a foreign policy lacking any mention of the resurgent geopolitical rivalries set to define the coming decades, raising serious questions as to whether his foreign policy vision can sustain the rules-based international order that the United States has built and defended, and which Sanders himself praises,\u201d Will Moreland wrote for Brookings.\r\nColumn: Sanders Not A Democrat\u00a0\u201dSupporters of Sanders have a decision to make. Do they want four more years of Republican majorities, or do they want to be part of implementing policies aimed at helping the poor and working poor? In this political climate, it\u2019s a binary choice. Either supporters of Sanders help to elect Democrats who can beat Donald Trump or they contribute to his re-election,\u201d Michael Hopkins wrote for The Hill.\u00a0\r\nColumn: The Trouble with Bernie \u201cWhile he may have some good ideas, he hasn\u2019t a clue on how to go about making them reality \u2014 either politically or economically. At what point will the media start looking at Bernie Sanders with a critical (and by that I mean analytical) eye?\u201d Jennifer Rand wrote for The Huffington Post.\r\nLetter: Bernie\u2019s Socialism? Expand Medicare Instead\u00a0\u201dBernie\u2019s \u2018socialism\u2019 is nothing new nor original. Why not just build off current Medicare? Modify it so that what are now copayments and costs to third parties, etc., become legs of a new Medicare, with all payments to the government with a multiyear phase-in as proposed,\u201d Jerry Nachison wrote to the The Wall Street Journal.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/092817"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8080117404460907, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}