{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/newswatch/123114", "News December 31", "2014-12-31", "2014", "2014-12", "Independent", "House", "VT", "Bernard Sanders", "S000033", "www.sanders.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "News December 31\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\tWednesday, December 31, 2014\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSenator Sanders\r\nEconomic Security\u00a0Despite some improvement in the economy, median incomes for American workers are falling. \u201cIf you look at the trend over the last 40 years, millions of people have seen a decline in their real income,\u201d Sanders said Tuesday in a radio interview with Ed Schultz. \u201cEconomic security is of enormous importance,\u201d the senator said on\u00a0The Thom Hartmann Program as he outlined an agenda for the coming year. AUDIO,\u00a0AUDIO\u00a0\u00a0\r\nA Progressive Vision\u00a0\u201cThe great moral, economic and political issue of our time is the growing level of income and wealth inequality in our nation,\u201d Sen. Sanders wrote in a column for\u00a0Daily Kos,\u00a0OpEdNews\u00a0and\u00a0Green Mountain Daily. \"In the year 2015, our job is to gain control over the national debate, stay focused on the issues of real importance to the American people, stand up for our principles, educate and organize.\"\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nVoodoo Economics\u00a0Republicans in Congress plan to fire Doug Elmendorf, the Congressional Budget Office chief, because he won't base economic projections on something they call \"dynamic scoring.\" That is the new buzzword among right-wing economists for a notion that tax cuts result in economic growth that in turn yields more government revenue. \u201cIt is a fraud,\u201d Sen. Sanders said on Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program. It\u2019s what the first President Bush called \u201cvoodoo economics,\u201d Sanders added. \u00a0\u00a0\r\nBudget Committee\u00a0Americans can expect a smaller but more progressive Democratic caucus in the Senate next year, according to\u00a0a blog for Moyers & Company, which noted that Sen. Sanders would lead the chamber's Budget Committee. Sanders hired University of Missouri-Kansas City economics professor Stephanie Kelton to serve as the chief economist for Democrats on the committee,\u00a0The Kansas City Star\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK,\u00a0LINK\u00a0\u00a0\r\nWorld\r\nU.S. Denies Iran Swap Deal\u00a0The United States called on Tuesday for the release of U.S. citizens held in\u00a0Iran, denying a report that Washington had proposed a prisoner exchange for a former U.S. Marine,\u00a0Reuters\u00a0said.\u00a0LINK\r\nKremlin Crackdown\u00a0Police in Moscow briefly detained anticorruption crusader and political opposition Aleksei A. Navalny on Tuesday as he tried to join an unauthorized, antigovernment rally,\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0reported. Navalny is seen as a key leader in the opposition to President Vladimir Putin.\u00a0LINK\r\nNational\r\n6.5 Million Health Care Enrollments\u00a0Nearly 6.5 million people either selected or were enrolled in a new individual insurance plan for 2015 on the HealthCare.gov website through Dec. 26, the U.S. government health agency told\u00a0Reuters.\u00a0The government has said it is aiming for more than 9 million enrollees for 2015.\u00a0LINK\r\nTrade Deal Pushed Republican control of the Senate has elevated pro-trade lawmakers to key positions in leadership and committee control but Republicans inclined to give the president trade-negotiating authority are still seething at his executive action deferring deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants. Democrats may be the bigger problem. Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction on trade, wants to work with the administration but he said he was not about to allow. Obama to negotiate the partnership on his own, The New York Times reported. LINK\r\nHospices Rarely Punished for Mistreatment\u00a0Federal regulators have punished few hospices for violating health and safety standards despite large numbers of problem citations,\u00a0The Huffington Post\u00a0said.\u00a0Medicare\u2019s federal regulator has punished a hospice just 16 times in the last decade, despite carrying out 15,000 inspections and identifying more than 31,000 violations.\u00a0LINK\r\nVermont\r\nFairPoint Strike\u00a0Two unions that accused FairPoint Communications of bargaining in bad faith have lost their appeal to the National Labor Relations Board, delivering a blow to striking workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK\r\nShumlin Releases Single Payer Details\u00a0Gov. Peter Shumlin's administration on Tuesday released documents that led to the decision to abandon plans to make Vermont the first state in the country with a universal, publicly-funded health care system,\u00a0The Associated Press\u00a0reported.\u00a0LINK", 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/123114"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9383261203765869, "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"}