Category Archives: ~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Petitioning U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump

Remove health-care subsidies for Members of Congress and their families

Petition by Daniel Jimenez

Portland, Oregon

721,019

Supporters

Sign Daniel’s petition

Several years ago, my dad got the news that he had cancer. Sadly, he passed away. My dad had a job at the time, but his employer did not cover him, and without coverage, he avoided going to the doctor until it was too late. As Congress and President Trump try to pass a new healthcare law, I’m reminded of my father and whether he would have made it if he had early access to cost-effective health care.

Affordable health care is in decline as premiums and health costs increase at exponential rates. Some politicians cannot relate to the cost burden experienced by families across the nation because they’ve historically received health benefits that most Americans have not.

Like millions of people who are panicking about possible changes to their health insurance, I’m concerned the people elected to represent us won’t have to live with the consequences or expenses that the rest of us may have to face soon. I want lawmakers to commit to treating themselves just like those who will be impacted by ACA repeal or replacement.

A lot of Members of Congress promote choice as an American value, which is all the more reason for them to have to continue to choose their own health coverage from the free marketplace. If private health care is good for the American citizen, it should also be good for the people that defend it.

If Congress is willing to drastically cut healthcare subsidies for most people, are they willing to have the same rules apply to them and their families?

Sign Daniel’s petition

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

carlos curbelo: Floridians in your district will lose coverage #trumpcare

03/23/2017 Nativegrl77

In just over 40 hours, the House of Representatives will vote to take health care away from millions of Americans. This Thursday—seven years (to the day!) after the Affordable Care Act was signed into law—the House will vote on Trumpcare, their “plan” to repeal and replace the ACA.

The Republican plan will cause 24 million people to lose their health insurance by 2026 and increase average health costs in every state. Find out how Trumpcare would impact your community in this interactive map. This vote is far from a sure thing! More than two dozen House Republicans have said they are considering voting against the bill, which is all we need to defeat Trumpcare.

Help us defeat the bill:

Use this toolkit with numbers and shareables, sample tweets, and sample call scripts to contact the representatives we need to vote no. Know anyone who lives in the first seven districts listed? Share this toolkit with them now!

Share these stories from people who depend on the ACA.

Rally to protect the ACA and the millions whose lives depend on it on March 23 by joining this DC rally or find an event near you at ResistanceNearMe.org.

Help us protect health care and other progressive policies with a contribution. By donating $20, we’ll send you a resistance car magnet.

Thank you!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Protect the EPA!

03/23/2017 Nativegrl77

Stop Trump from slashing the EPA’s budget!

Tell your representatives to protect clean air and water by rejecting budget cuts to the EPA.

Take Action

Donald Trump’s proposed budget is a disaster for the Environmental Protection Agency and the environment.

Under Trump’s plan, the EPA’s budget would be cut by almost a third, which would leave the agency hobbled and unable to protect the public from dangerous pollution.

Scott Pruitt, the head of the EPA, has called for an aggressive rollback of environmental protections and has falsely stated that carbon dioxide is not a primary cause of global warming. He’s not likely to defend the agency’s budget, so that means it’s on us.

Trump’s budget has to be approved by Congress. Contact your representatives today and tell them to protect the EPA’s funding and keep our communities safe!

Without proper resources, the EPA will have difficulty enforcing basic rules to protect our communities, which could include…

Clean air standards that prevent choking smog and limit the amount of toxic chemicals released into the air.
Clean water protections to keep toxic chemicals out of drinking water.
The Clean Power Plan, which limits climate-change-causing emissions and carbon pollution.
And many more programs that protect our planet and communities from harm.

Tell Congress to stand up for the EPA and protect clean air and water!

Scaling back the EPA benefits big polluters in fossil fuel and other industries, at the expense of our health. Without the EPA’s protection from pollution, we could see more asthma attacks, heart attacks, and even premature deaths.

We CANNOT allow Trump and Pruitt to sacrifice our communities. We must make sure this budget isn’t passed!

For our future,
Mary Nicol
Climate campaigner, Greenpeace US

P.S. Trump’s vision for our future is grim, but he can’t pass it by himself. Tell your representatives to reject any plans that will put polluters over people!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

BossFeed Briefing from Working Washington

03/21/2017 Nativegrl77

We are Working Washington

BossFeed Briefing for March 20, 2017.

Last week the Trump Administration proposed a Federal budget which would slash the Department of Labor by 21%, including cuts to job training and health & safety efforts. Wednesday is this year’s annual Starbucks shareholder meeting; last year’s meeting brought attention to the issue of unpredictable and unstable work schedules.

If they could turn back time

Three things to know this week:

Politics is weird. A recent poll from Fox News of all places finds that the most popular politician in the country is Bernie Sanders, who couldn’t get a major-party Presidential nomination last year. And the most popular organization polled is Planned Parenthood, which could be barred by Congress from receiving Federal reimbursements for providing healthcare to women.

Life comes at you fast (food). Early this year the IHOP twitter account briefly offered some harsh commentary on the Clinton campaign, and this past week the official McDonald’s account tweeted and then pinned an anti-Trump post. Meanwhile, workers at a Canadian Wendy’s voted to form a union.

Two months is still not enough. But it’s better than three days, which is how much time off one new father got with his first child before having to return to work. After changing jobs, he got almost two months with his second child, and it had an enormous impact on his entire family.

Two things to ask:

What if what you don’t know can hurt you? The US Department of Labor has stopped publicizing fines against companies which violate safety laws. They also stopped enforcing a policy which mandated timely electronic filing of accident data.

Are baristas’ babies worth less? That’s what Ohio barista Kristen Picciolo asks in a guest editorial in the Stranger about Starbucks’ new parental leave policy. The policy provides dramatically less parental leave to baristas than it does to corporate executives.

And one thing that’s worth a closer look:

“We tell them the turban is a crown.” Sikh immigrant workers first arrived in the US more than a hundred years ago, fleeing British colonial Punjab for jobs in the fields of California and in the lumber mills of the Pacific Northwest. Spend some time with this piece in The Establishment digging in to Sikh workers’ experience of xenophobic violence in the US, including a riot in Bellingham in 1905 and a shooting in Kent in 2017. Then go deeper with a visit to the Sikh Foundation and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.