Bernie Buzz

No matter the season or weather, Vermonters love the great outdoors. This is true even in the middle of our long and cold winters, when people get out on the ice to fish. Whether you’ve never been ice fishing or it’s been a tradition in your family passed down from generation to generation, you may be interested to know about Vermont’s upcoming Free Ice Fishing Day this Saturday, January 25.

Here is some good news regarding the filing of your tax returns. You can now schedule an appointment with the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. VITA is designed to help individuals and families file their state and federal income tax returns and can also help with Vermont Renter Credits, Homestead Declarations and Property Tax Credits. And the best part: VITA is free for low and moderate-income Vermonters and is staffed by local volunteers who understand this far-too-complicated process.

In my view, the health care system here in Vermont and across the country is broken, dysfunctional, and outrageously expensive. I believe that health care is a human right, should be guaranteed to all, and that we need to move to a Medicare for All single-payer system. We should not continue being the only major country on earth not to provide universal health care.

As we head into the new year, I wanted to take a moment to remind you of a very important fact. If you are having a hard time, if you are struggling to make ends meet, to put food on the table, to pay rent: You are not alone. And there are agencies that can help.

It’s going to take a lot of work to reform our broken and dysfunctional healthcare system. I want to share an article with you that I recently wrote for The Guardian newspaper that outlines some of what I believe has to be done if we are to create the kind of healthy society that Americans deserve. I hope you will take the time to read my op-ed here or below.

As 2024 comes to a close, I think we can all agree: It has been quite a year. We have faced challenges, but we have also experienced remarkable moments of joy, kindness, resilience, and hope.