Bernie Sanders, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, held a press conference today to lay out in stark terms how some of the proposed budget cuts would impact Vermonters. He also used the opportunity to promote his bill that would close tax loopholes and create a 5.4 percent surtax on income over $1 million to provide for an “Emergency Deficit Reduction Fund.” It’s hard to imagine such legislation getting through, but it’s critical that such an approach continues to be part of any conversation on taxes and spending.

Here’s some information from the press release out of Bernie’s office:

The House-passed budget bill would throw 336 Vermont children off of Head Start and cut or eliminate Pell grants for 13,000 Vermont college students. The average Vermont college student would see their tuition assistance fall by $700.

In addition, some 37,000 Vermonters would lose access to primary health care because of a $1.3 billion cut to community health centers.

In cold weather states like Vermont, where temperatures sometimes fall to 20 below zero, home heating assistance is critically important.  Republicans would cut $400 million from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. They also would chop nutrition funding through the Women, Infants and Children program.

Joing Sanders at the presser were Hal Cohen, executive director of Central Vermont Community Action; Paul Behrman, Head Start director for the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity; Karen Madden, director, of academic support services at Johnson State College; Rebecca Ryan, director of health promotion at the Vermont Lung Association; and Dr. Stephen Reville, chief medical officer of Springfield Medical Systems.