The longest serving Independent in the history of the House of Representatives, Sanders marches to a different drummer. Born the son of a paint salesman who immigrated to this country as a young man, Sanders ignores the dominance of corporate special interests that control so much of Congress.

In 1999, Sanders led a nationally publicized bus trip across the Canadian border to buy prescription drugs. As a result, the nation learned that the pharmaceutical industry sells the exact same medicine in Canada and other countries at far lower prices than in the United States. After Sanders' trip, a number of other Members of Congress led bus trips of their own. Sanders' bill H.R. 1512, The Medicare Extension of Drugs to Seniors (MEDS) Act, best meets TSCL criteria to create a Medicare prescription drug benefit that's affordable for seniors.

Congressman Sanders disputes the many in Congress who say that seniors' Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) grow too quickly. Instead, Sanders says the CPI understates the inflation that seniors face and leads to COLAs that are too low. Sanders sponsored the leading bill to have seniors COLAs determined by the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E), H.R. 2035, "The Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act."

Currently, Congressman Sanders is vigorously fighting efforts to raid the Social Security Trust Fund. Sanders says that "the hundreds of billions of dollars given to the very wealthy in tax breaks over the next ten years will not only create future problems for Social Security, but will also lead to cuts in Medicare, the Low Income Energy and Heating Assistance Program, veterans needs, affordable housing and many other important programs. We need to get our priorities straight," he says, "the needs of the many outweigh the greed of a few."

If you would like to sign our online petition in support of "The Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act", click here: http://action.tscl.org/FairAnnualSSCola.asp.

For more information on H.R. 2035, click here: http://www.tscl.org/NewContent/101094.asp.

April 2002