Bernie Sanders sparks new memes for posing on Senate steps: ‘Honestly could be an album cover’

A moment from Senator Bernie Sanders has been compared to music album covers and more after he was photographed sitting on the steps of the US Capitol.

The Vermont senator was taking a break from a marathon 27-hour voting session on Saturday when he was caught by Los Angeles Times photojournalist Kent Nishimura.

Mr Sanders, who has previously been at the centre of viral internet memes, appeared exhausted in the photo, which was taken in the 13th hour of the Senate’s “vote-a-rama”, which ended with the passing of the $430bn Inflation Reduction Act.

“Big Vote-a-rama energy with Senator Sanders on the steps of the Senate, as the Senate enters hour 13,” Mr Nishimura tweeted on Sunday.

The image sparked immediate comparisons with album music covers and an episode of Schoolhouse Rock!, an educational children’s cartoon aired on ABC from 1973 to 2009.

Some tweeted lyrics from the cartoon and compared Mr Sanders to a bill who sings on the steps of the US Capitol about one day becoming a law in an episode called “I’m Just a Bill”, which aired on 18 September 1975.

“I’m just a bill, Yyes, I’m only a bill, and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill,” the song written by Dave Frishberg and sung by Jack Sheldon goes.

It continues: “Well, it’s a long long journey to the capital city, it’s a long long wait while I’m sitting in committee, but I know I’ll be a law some day, at least I hope and pray that I will, but today I’m still just a bill”.

Los Angles Times journalist Stacy Perman tweeted the lyrics along with an image of Mr Sanders and a link to the episode of Schoolhouse Rock, which ends with the bill being signed into law by a US president.

Other social media users suggested Mr Sanders looked like a music album cover star with NBC News producer Gary Grumbach tweeting: “Honestly could be an album cover.”

Former Ohio state senator Nina Turner agreed and added a “parental advisory, explicit content” sticker to the image of Mr Sanders and asked her Twitter followers to “name this album”.

She followed up by sharing a track list of songs from an imaginary album by Mr Sanders, whose hits she said would pay homage to his popular policy positions, slogans and his time as mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

According to Ms Turner, those songs included titles such as “Medicare for All”, “No Billionaires”, and “8am in Burlington”. Other songs on the album were titled “No Love for CEOs” and “Bills Bills Bills”.

US President Joe Biden is expected to sign a sweeping $430bn package known as the Inflation Reduction Act into law after it was passed by the Senate on Sunday night by a wafer-thin majority of one.

The House must first vote on the bill, which was passed in the Senate by US Vice President Kamala Harris’s deciding vote in the chamber following a marathon 27-hour session.

The funds are designed for managing the climate crisis and also included provisions on drug pricing and corporate taxes, which Democrats will hope changes voter’s minds ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Mr Sanders, who supported the bill, had criticised aspects of the package for failing to reduce inflation and for not going far enough to control drug pricing, but acknowledged that the bill had “very important amendments” to help the poorest, not all of which made it to the final version of the bill.