r/BernieSanders

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced Monday he will introduce legislation seeking to prevent the federal government from garnishing Social Security benefits for seniors with unpaid student loan payments. 

The bill, titled the Stop Social Security Garnishment Act of 2026, proposes barring the Education Department from cutting an individual’s Social Security retirement or disability benefits to offset their outstanding student loan debt. 

It also would protect older adults against “unnecessary forced collections” and ensure they have access to their Social Security payments to pay for expenses such as healthcare, medicine and groceries, according to a summary of the legislation. 

Sanders will introduce the bill when the upper chamber returns from recess on Sept. 14, a spokesperson for the senator told The Hill.

Roughly 1 in 5 student loan borrowers are at least 50 years old, with borrowers aged 50-61 having the highest average balance of $48,875, according to the Education Data Initiative. 

In the second quarter of this year, about 7.8 percent of borrowers were delinquent — meaning they missed at least three monthly payments — according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Nine million Americans are in default on their loans, with 1 in 4 borrowers at risk of the federal government seizing their wages to pay them back, according to Sanders’s office. 

The Education Department in Januarydelayed involuntary collections on federal student loans to allow for the implementation of changes to repayment programs codified by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

Pursuant to that legislation, which President Trump signed into law in July 2025, the department reduced the number of federal student loan repayment plans and introduced two new plans at the start of last month: a tiered standard repayment plan and an income-driven repayment plan.

The department said in January the delay in collections will give defaulted borrowers time to “evaluate” the new repayment options and begin the “rehabilitation process” for their loans.

But Sanders sounded the alarm Monday, saying “an increasing number of seniors are in danger of having their Social Security checks garnished to pay back student loans they took out decades ago,” a situation he called “beyond unacceptable.”

The progressive senator added in a release, “In the richest country in the history of the world, no senior should have their Social Security payments taken away from them to pay back student debt. 
“This is especially true when seniors throughout the country already cannot afford the skyrocketing price of healthcare, prescription drugs, groceries and housing. Congress must pass this legislation.”

The Hill has reached out to the Education Department for an update regarding its collections policy.

Massachusetts Democratic Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren are joining Sanders as co-sponsors of the legislation, according to the Vermont senator’s office. Markey is facing a primary challenge from Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), with that election two weeks away.

This would bar the Treasury Department from seizing Social Security payments, including Social Security Disability Insurance, to collect on defaulted federal student debt.

Hello,

I just logged into Instagram and had Mamdani and Sanders show up as suggested accounts to follow but I know for a fact I was previously following both of them. I know I never unfollowed either account so this immediately struck me as fishy.

I remember around the most recent presidential election friends of mine noticed they were following Trump/MAGA accounts when they had never followed them. It makes me wonder if something similar is happening in reverse with progressive accounts being unfollowed?

Has anyone else noticed this happening with Mamdani, Sanders, or other political accounts?

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan in taking a shot at Sen.John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a lawmaker they both once supported who recently criticized the long-serving Vermont senator.

"It's kind of a sad state of affairs, but I will tell you that I know in Pennsylvania, I don't think there's anybody in the Democratic caucus who has a lower rating among Democrats than John does," Sanders said on Hasan's show Wednesday.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll, Fetterman holds an overall 48% approval rating with Pennsylvania voters. His support from Democratic voters shows 69% disapproval, while 77% of Republican voters approve of his performance in the Senate.*

Sanders' remarks against Fetterman come as people within his own party question whether or not the senator will officially switch parties. Fifty-two percent of respondents in the Quinnipiac University poll say they would rather see Fetterman leave the Democratic Party. 

The lawmaker has occasionally made appearances on President Donald Trump-friendly media shows like Katie Miller's podcast or Sean Hannity's show to buddy up with the MAGA base, criticize his own party, or trash-talk further left-leaning Democrats following a progressive sweep of victories in elections. 

The senator shut down the speculation about switching parties in an op-ed, stating that he has no plans of leaving and "working across the aisle is the only way forward." He later noted he'd only leave the Democratic Party if they "make it official" in the party platform "and say we will never support aid for Israel."

"John Fetterman is someone who was seen as a progressive at one point," Hasan pointed out on Wednesday's episode of his show. "You endorsed him back in the day when he was running for lieutenant governor. I supported him when he was running in the Senate primary."

Sanders quipped, "So, I wasn't the only one, right?!"

"A lot of us got him wrong, I think it's fair to say," Hasan continued. "He's now not just awful on multiple issues, especially Israel, but he's openly attacking you all the time and suggesting that you're out of touch with the party, that you're getting things wrong, that you endorse the wrong people." 

Fetterman's feud with Sanders intensified in the wake of Graham Platner's campaign for Senate in Maine, which ran into a series of controversies before he suspended it. Sanders, who had initially endorsed Platner but encouraged him to drop out following accusations of ****** assault, was called a "carnival barker for an accused rapist" by Fetterman.

"I just like to remind everybody watching right now, Bernie Sanders will never represent any more than 640,000 people in Vermont," Fetterman said on Fox News last week. "That's all he's ever done, and he ever will do. He's lost his — He's never won an actual competitive election."

"Stop giving me lectures on how to win," he added. "Bernie's not flipping seats. He is helping install volatile and dangerous kinds of candidates and put Democratic seats at risk." 

When Sanders was asked by Hasan if he's worried that Fetterman will officially defect from the Democratic Party, he said, "That is, I guess, a possibility."

"Look, you wanna get on television, you go on Fox TV and you say something bad about Bernie Sanders, get you some coverage. That's the way it is," Sanders said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today issued the following statement after Yale University researchers released a new study finding that Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation would save 114,000 lives and reduce overall healthcare spending in America by more than $1 trillion a year.

“This study confirms what we have known for years: Medicare for All saves lives and saves money. In fact, guaranteeing healthcare as a human right through a Medicare for All, single-payer system would cost $1 trillion less than our current dysfunctional system. It would save working families thousands of dollars a year. And it would prevent over 100,000 Americans from dying unnecessarily each and every year because they cannot make it to a doctor in time,” Sanders said. “At a time when 15 million Americans are being thrown off the healthcare they have and 20 million Americans have already seen their premiums double, on average, as a result of Trump’s so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ we need Medicare for All now more than ever. The time is now to end the greed of the big insurance and drug companies and pass Medicare for All.”

Yale University researchers found that Medicare for All would reduce total annual healthcare spending by nearly 20%, or more than $1 trillion while eliminating premiums, deductibles and copayments, provider networks, and prior authorization. As a result, Americans would save:
$377.5 billion by paying no more than other major countries for prescription drugs;
$286.3 billion by eliminating bureaucracy and waste;
$285.7 billion by curbing fraudulent billing;
$100 billion by preventing costly emergency room and hospital visits; and
$295.6 billion by reimbursing providers fairly for the care they provide.

Researchers also estimate that Medicare for All would save 114,000 lives every year, including:
33,232 Americans who are currently uninsured and can’t access lifesaving care;
29,631 Americans who are currently underinsured and cannot afford care;
20,111 Americans who would no longer lose their health insurance as a result of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”;
18,200 seniors who are currently unable to afford their prescription drugs; and
13,000 seniors who would receive quality care in nursing homes.

Read the full analysis here.

1963: University of Chicago student Bernie Sanders, then 21, was charged with resisting arrest during an Aug. 12, 1963, demonstration in Englewood — along with comedian Dick Gregory and 54 others — against the use of mobile classrooms in the city’s public schools.

Bernie Sanders and the Willis wagon protests of 1963

Chicago police officers carry protester Bernie Sanders, 21, in August 1963 to a police wagon from a civil rights demonstration at West 73rd Street and South Lowe Avenue. He was arrested, charged with resisting arrest, found guilty and fined $25. He was a University of Chicago student at the time. In 1963, controversial Chicago Public … Continue reading

Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Benjamin Willis refused to allow Black children to be bused from their crowded neighborhood schools to those in white areas with more resources. That’s why the portable classroom trailers were nicknamed “Willis wagons” and became symbolic of the city’s long struggle over segregated education.

Vintage Chicago Tribune: Bernie Sanders, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. protest against ‘Willis wagons’ in schools

Then a 21-year-old University of Chicago student, Bernie Sanders was charged with resisting arrest during an Aug. 12, 1963 demonstration in Englewood.

Demonstrations against Willis wagons were a precursor to a more sweeping Civil Rights Movement in Chicago that drew the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the city in 1966 — the same year Willis resigned.
Mobile classrooms began to be phased out of Chicago schools in the 1970s, but photographic proof of Sanders’ participation in the 1963 Englewood protest wouldn’t be discovered in the Tribune archives until decades later — when he was a Democratic presidential hopeful.

>>> I remember in 2016 when they said that wasn’t him.

U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reintroduced the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act— legislation that would guarantee at least two weeks of paid vacation to every full-time worker in America. Representative Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.-02) introduced companion legislation alongside 86 members of the House of Representatives.

“Paid vacation and time-off shouldn’t only be for high-income earners. It’s past time we ensure that all workers have time to recharge,” said Senator Padilla. “Everyone deserves time to decompress and spend time with their loved ones in addition to paid sick leave and paid family leave.”

“It is beyond unacceptable that in the year 2026, the United States remains the only major country on Earth not to guarantee paid vacation time to workers. This legislation would put an end to that international embarrassment,” said Senator Sanders. “We hear a lot of talk about family values in America, but let’s be clear: When a husband, wife, and kids, during the course of an entire year, are unable to spend any time together on vacation, that is not a family value. That is an attack on everything that a family is supposed to stand for. It’s not a radical idea to require companies in America to provide at least two weeks of paid vacation to their workers. What’s radical is that millions of Americans are not only working longer hours for lower wages, but that they do not receive a single paid vacation day. That should not be happening in the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world.”

“Every worker in America deserves the chance to rest, recharge, and spend time with the people they love without worrying about missing a paycheck,” said Representative Magaziner. “I’m grateful to Senator Sanders for leading this fight in the Senate. It is time that we deliver this basic fairness to hardworking Americans.”

While millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages, the U.S. remains the only major economy in the world to not guarantee some type of paid vacation time to its people. Today in Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Australia and many countries in Europe, workers are guaranteed at least 10 days of paid vacation. In other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, and France, paid vacation benefits are even stronger.

Nearly ONE IN FOUR WORKERS in America — or more than 33 million workers nationwide — receive no paid vacation time at all. At the same time, almost 40% OF WORKERS report being on the job at least 45 hours a week and the average full-time worker in the U.S. now reports working 43 HOURS a week.
Moreover, more than 9 MILLION Americans work multiple jobs, with more than 5 MILLIONworking a second part-time job on top of a full-time job.

Specifically, the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act would ensure:

Every worker in America has the right to accrue at least one hour of paid annual leave for every 25 hours worked.

Full-time workers will earn at least two weeks of paid annual leave per year, to be used for any reason, at their standard rate of pay.

Workers are protected against discrimination for exercising their right to take annual paid leave.

A recent poll found 79% OF AMERICANS support the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act. The American people’s support for the legal right to paid time off is nearly universal. According to a recent poll conducted by the RAND Corporation, 90% OF AMERICANS support legislation that would require employers to offer earned time off.

In addition to Padilla and Sanders, the bill was cosponsored by Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). 
The Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act is endorsed by United Auto Workers (UAW), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM Union), National Education Association (NEA), National Nurses United (NNU), Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR)-SEIU, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation (SMART) Union, United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE), United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), United Steelworkers (USW), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), A Better Balance, National Partnership for Women & Families, United for Respect, Equal Rights Advocates, Family Values @ Work, MomsRising, National Employment Law Project (NELP), Paid Leave for All, Workplace Fairness, The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), and Indivisible.
Full text OF THE BILL HERE.