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Running On, Not From, Obamacare

09/02/2014 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

Candidates Who Support The Affordable Care Act Are Going On Offense

It has been widely reported this week that Senator Mark Pryor released an ad touting his support for Obamacare in his re-election campaign in Arkansas. While Pryor’s ad shows that those running in tough races see access to affordable health care as a strong issue to highlight, this is not the first time a candidate has run on all or part of the Affordable Care Act, even if conventional wisdom has suggested otherwise.

As The New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn noted yesterday, Republicans tried the repeal argument two years ago, which led to the President touting the benefits of the law during his campaign. He was obviously re-elected. In the past, the most notable piece has been the Medicaid expansion, which has insured millions of Americans in states that have chosen to implement it, while stubborn conservative governors let their states fall behind.

Below is a selection of headlines from around the country on the issue.

ACA supporters on the offense:

Politico: Democrats embrace Medicaid expansion on trail
Huffington Post: Pro-Mark Begich Ad Touts Success Story
The Hill: Pryor pushes foe on ObamaCare program
TPM DC: Vulnerable Democrat Gives Stunningly Strong Obamacare At Hearing
The Daily News: Mary Landrieu takes aim at “Jindal Gap”
Washington Post: Medicaid expansion becomes weapon against GOP governors
Tallahassee Democrat: Medicaid expansion talk key in Fla. governors race
Wisconsin State Journal: Mary Burke rips Scott Walker for regusing Medicaid expansion money
Atlanta Journal Constitution: Jason Carter sharpens call for a Medicaid expansion
Rapid City Journal: Medicaid expansion big issue for South Dakota governor candidate

BOTTOM LINE: For months, we’ve seen those who voted for the ACA embrace it on the campaign trail and use it to go on offense, particularly in competitive races. Pryor is just the latest example. The conventional wisdom is that candidates want to avoid talking about the many benefits of the Affordable Care Act. But as we are increasingly seeing, the conventional wisdom is wrong.

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Ferguson Cop Donations Sites Shut Down

09/01/2014 Nativegrl77

The Fifth Column

Adrees Latif/REUTERS

Those donation sites for the Furgeson, MO cop that shot and killed Michael Brown were always questionable in my mind.

Officer Darren Brown has not made a statement or “turned himself in” for questioning at all, yet an army of supporters (not unlike the George Zimmerman supporters) have deluged the donation sites on the officer’s behalf with a lot of cash. Yet they say this is not about racism. Tell that to the next family of a Black youth who was gunned down by a white man for “being/looking suspicious”.

The Daily Beast

Two online donations pages that together raised over $400,000 for the cop who fatally shot unarmed black teenager Michael Brown were shut down over the weekend. The two pages for Darren Wilson operated through crowdsource fundraising website GoFundMe. When one tries to donate to “Support Officer Wilson” (which has raised $197,620) and “Support Officer Darren Wilson”

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Urge Congress to sign on to the Schedules That Work Act

09/01/2014 Nativegrl77

It’s been 120 years since Congress declared Labor Day a nationwide holiday.

Back then, in 1894, many workers faced extremely long hours and low pay, leaving them with empty pockets and precious little time to spend with their families. Workers took to the streets, holding strikes and rallies for higher wages and a shorter work day.

While workers have won many historic fights for better wages and working conditions since then, unfair scheduling practices are threatening workers’ ability to make a living once again. Today, instead of very long hours, all too often workers in low-wage jobs cannot get enough hours to make ends meet. And many have very little say in when they work, getting their schedules as little as one or two days in advance of the workweek. Difficult scheduling practices hit women especially hard, because women make up two-thirds of workers in low-wage jobs, where these schedules are most common, and still shoulder the lion’s share of caregiving responsibilities. It’s up to all of us to fight for fairness.

Urge your lawmakers to pass the Schedules That Work Act.

The Schedules That Work Act would give workers a say in their schedules, and would provide those working in industries with the most abusive scheduling practices two weeks’ advance notice of their schedules, and some minimum level of pay if they are sent home early after showing up for their shift. These modest measures would vastly improve the quality of life for millions of women and their families.

It’s been almost two months since the bill was introduced in Congress, and while support for it is growing, we still have a long way to go to ensure the Schedules That Work Act becomes law. That’s why we need your help.

Celebrate America’s Workers This Labor Day

Urge your Members of Congress to sign on to the Schedules That Work Act.

Act Now

Send a note to your Members of Congress to say you believe in schedules that work. Our country’s working families are depending on it.

Thank you for everything you do for women and their families.

Sincerely,
Liz Watson
Senior Counsel and Director of Workplace Justice for Women
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. If you believe in schedules that work, share our graphic on Facebook or tweet about it using the hashtag #SchedulesThatWork!