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to Senate: Vacation can wait
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Tell your senators: Our troops are more important than a holiday vacation. It takes two minutes. It’s their job to take your call – and you could help make history. |
Unless we speak out right now, the Senate could put their holiday vacations before fairness and national security.
A group of pro-equality senators is calling on the Senate to stay in session until “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed. But too many others want to go home before the holidays instead of staying to finish the job.
So now, it’s up to us. We’ve got to pressure wavering senators and give those supporting repeal the public backing they need to keep the Senate in business.
We can’t let the Senate close up shop without repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” But we’re running out of time – please call your senators now.
It only takes two minutes to call your senator‘s office and every senator has staff on hand to answer the phones and speak to constituents. Call your senators now:
Sen. Patty Murray at (202) 224-2621 and Sen. Maria Cantwell at (202) 224-3441.
If you don’t get through right away, try again – the phones may be overwhelmed by hateful calls from right-wing activists, but it’s crucial that your voice is heard.
- Call one senator’s office, and tell the staff person who answers where you live so they know you’re a real constituent.
- Tell them you want the senator to support staying in session for as long as it takes to pass the defense bill, which includes repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this year – and that you’ll remember how they vote when they’re next up for election.
- If your senator is opposed to repeal, remind them that the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that if the Senate fails to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” it would leave the military at the mercy of the courts – and potentially in a state of great confusion from the law being suddenly struck down.
You’re not done: Save the Congressional Switchboard number – (202) 224-3121 – in your cell phone right now. Then hand it to a friend, then a co-worker, and ask them to make two calls. While you’re at it, tell your family and your Facebook friends to call as well.
We need as many calls as possible in order to make repeal happen in 2010.
The time for debate is over. Let’s end the discrimination and prejudice once and for all.
I’ll be making calls too,
Joe Solmonese
President
P.S. Years of work, thousands of volunteer hours, hundreds of thousands of phone calls, emails, lobby visits and town halls come down to this. Please call now, and tell everyone you know to call!
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The Obameter: Tracking Obama’s Campaign Promises …from PolitiFact
PolitiFact has compiled about 500 promises that Barack Obama made during the campaign and is tracking their progress on our Obameter. We rate their status as No Action, In the Works or Stalled. Once we find action is completed, we rate them Promise Kept, Compromise or Promise Broken.
No. 2: Eliminate all oil and gas tax loopholes
“Eliminating special tax breaks for oil and gas companies: including repealing special expensing rules, foreign tax credit benefits, and manufacturing deductions for oil and gas firms.”
No. 3: Eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups
“Barack Obama understands that small businesses are the engines of our economy, and he will eliminate all capital gains taxes on investments in small and start-up firms.”
No. 4: Extend child tax credits and marriage-penalty fixes
Will extend aspects of the Bush tax cuts such as child credit expansions and changes to marriage bonuses and penalties.
No. 5: Expand the earned income tax credit
Expand the earned income tax credit for workers without children and taxpayers with more than three children. Equalize threshholds for married filers and head of household filers.
No. 6: Create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-reviewed manufacturing processes
“Will create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to identify and invest in the most compelling advanced manufacturing strategies. The Fund will have a peer-review selection and award process based on the Michigan 21st Century Jobs Fund, a state-level initiative that has awarded over $125 million to Michigan businesses with the most innovative proposals to create new products and new jobs in the state.”
No. 7: Double funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a program that encourages manufacturing efficiency
“The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) works with manufacturers across the country to improve efficiency, implement new technology and strengthen company growth. This highly-successful program has engaged in more than 350,000 projects across the country and in 2006 alone, helped create and protect over 50,000 jobs. But despite this success, funding for MEP has been slashed by the Bush administration. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will double funding for the MEP so its training centers can continue to bolster the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers.”
No. 8: Include environmental and labor standards in trade agreements
“He will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world”
No. 10: Expand the child and dependent care credit
Expand and make refundable the child and dependent care credit.
No. 11: Require publicly traded financial partnerships to pay the corporate income tax
Require publicly traded financial partnerships to pay the corporate income tax.
No. 12: Create an international tax haven watch list
Create an international tax haven watch list of countries that do not share information returns with the United States.
No. 14: Close loopholes in the corporate tax deductibility of CEO pay
Congress has set rules regarding the tax deductibility of the salaries of CEOs, but forms of non-salary compensation have become popular. Obama would look at revamping definitions of compensation.
No. 15: Create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners
Create a $10 billion fund to help homeowners refinance or sell their homes. “The Fund will not help speculators, people who bought vacation homes or people who falsely represented their incomes.”
No. 16: Increase minority access to capital
“Strengthen Small Business Administration programs that provide capital to minority-owned businesses, support outreach programs that help minority business owners apply for loans, and work to encourage the growth and capacity of minority firms.”
No. 17: Require economic justification for tax changes
Adopt the economic substance doctrine, a policy that states that tax changes must have significant economic justification, as a federal law.
No. 18: Provide option for a pre-filled-out tax form
Will direct the Internal Revenue Service to “give taxpayers the option of a pre-filled tax form to verify, sign and return to the IRS or online. This will eliminate the need for Americans to hire expensive tax preparers and to gather information that the federal government already has on file.”
No. 19: Create a mortgage interest tax credit for non-itemizers
Create a refundable tax credit equal to 10 percent of mortgage interest for nonitemizers, up to a maximum credit of $800.
No. 20: Make permanent the Research & Development tax credit
The Research & Development tax credit and the renewable energy production tax credit are intended to spur innovation in the private sector, but the tax credits have expiration dates under current law. Obama would make them permanent.
No. 21: Require automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans
Automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans for workers whose employers offer retirement plans.
No. 22: Require automatic enrollment in IRA plans
Require employers who do not offer retirement plans to offer their workers access to automatic IRAs and contribute via payroll deduction.
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