Virginia Senators Send Letter to Secretary of Defense Gates to Delay Decision Until New Administration Can Evaluate

This is getting depressing. Rising unemployment and growing worries about recession pushed retail sales down by a record amount in October, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. Sales were off 2.8 percent from September and down 4.1 percent from one year ago. The number of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits jumped last week to a seven-year high, according to a Labor Department report on Thursday. The number of homeowners caught in the wave of foreclosures in October grew 25 percent nationally over the same month in 2007. The Treasury Department on Wednesday officially abandoned the original strategy behind a $700 billion effort to bail out the financial system. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he hoped to put in place a major new lending program that would be run by the Federal Reserve aimed at unlocking the frozen consumer credit market. What will Congress do about it all when senators and representatives return to Capitol Hill in the coming days?

Auto Bailout Doubtful Prospects of a government rescue for the foundering American automakers dwindled Thursday as Democratic Congressional leaders conceded that they would face potentially insurmountable Republican opposition during a lame-duck session next week. Senator Bernie Sanders told Politico, "The government shouldn't help the auto industry without making sure it changes its ways." He cited "disastrous" policies that shuttered American plants and lowered wages for American workers. Detroit built too many gas guzzlers and too few cars to lower greenhouse gas emissions, he added.

Rebuild America Vermont's congressional delegation is supporting a plan to quickly rebuild the country's transportation infrastructure. "If we're serious about rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure if we're serious about putting people to work in doing that it makes no sense to delay these projects because states are running deficits now and don't have the money to put up their matching portions," Sanders told Vermont Public Radio.