In other news from Washington, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont took to the Senate floor Wednesday to denounce Republicans for blocking a measure to expand unemployment benefits. Sanders has co-sponsored a proposal that would provide an additional fourteen weeks of unemployment benefits in all fifty states. Sanders said a failure to approve the measure would abandon jobless Americans.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: “If we do not pass this legislation by the end of this year, nearly two million Americans will see their unemployment benefits expire, including some 2,000 people in the small state of Vermont. Mr. President, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and at a time when long-term unemployment is extremely high, we cannot turn our backs on jobless Americans by letting their unemployment insurance expire. That would just be — just be driving people into the abyss.”