The last thing you need this holiday season is the dangerous game of chicken some in Congress are playing with your financial future. 

Only weeks remain before $500 billion in automatic tax hikes and spending cuts kick in. These drastic, across-the-board cuts are in the things that keep your family safe and secure each day, but they do little to dramatically reduce the deficit.

We just sent 200,000 of your messages to the President, your Senators and Representatives so they know your priorities in this tax-and-spend battle. Our only job is to fight for you, and your tax-deductible gift today makes sure we keep fighting.

Give $7 now. And if you can give a bit more for those who can’t, we’ll get everyone heard!

Consumers like you make our economy work. So why should you shoulder an unfair burden in an economic plan designed to fix our nation’s long-term finances?

Unless a fair plan is reached, you may wind up being told your retirement health care benefits could shrink or that you have to pay more for college. And that you can count on fewer food inspectors, toy safety testers, or air traffic controllers. Or that Wall Street and credit card companies don’t need as much oversight.

The reality is, these are your tax dollars. How your money is spent should be your priorities, not corporate lobbyists and faceless conglomerates. Your tax-deductible donation keeps us on top of the latest proposal, supports our email actions to your lawmakers, funds our toll-free hotlines so you can speak directly to your elected official.

Your year-end, tax-deductible donation keeps us working for you, no one else.

Times are tough so if you can’t give, please continue to support our work by forwarding this to friends and family. We are the most trusted voice of consumers because of support from people like you.

Thank you, Chris Meyer Consumers Union, Policy and Action from Consumer Reports

 Last month’s election was a landmark for Democrats and our country. And as the new DSCC chairman, I can’t wait to start working to strengthen and secure the Democratic majority!

Are you as excited as I am to see new Senators like Elizabeth Warren, Heidi Heitkamp and Tammy Baldwin fight for us in the Senate? Then sign their welcome card right away! Let the new Democratic Senators know how excited you are to see them fighting for you.

Thanks to you, the Senate now includes a record number of women, our first openly gay Senator, and our first Asian American female Senator.

Today, please join me in welcoming Heidi Heitkamp, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Baldwin, and the new Senators you helped elect!

Add your name to the welcome card immediately >> https://dscc.org/welcome-new-senators

Thanks for your support,
Michael Bennet

Have you heard Gandhi’s four-step recipe for victory? “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win,” he said. We’re seeing examples of this every day at Avaaz’s new petition site where members are launching their own campaigns to change the world in ways big and small.

Here’s how the recipe works:

1. Tell friends about an issue you care about in your community or the world and ask them to show their support with our community petitions site.
2. If the petition goes viral, the media pays attention and the bad guys say: “You’ll never win!”
3. The Avaaz community charges in with global backing and resources to fight the opposition. Public support balloons and decision makers are forced to reckon with it. Together, we start turning the tide.
4. And then we win.

Now it’s your turn. Launch the next game changing campaign at Avaaz’s new community petitions site: :

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?cl=2276207643&v=20060

The recipe worked for Shanker, an Avaaz member from India whose brother tragically took his own life when he couldn’t escape the clutches of a imperious employer. Shanker’s brother’s employer had lured him to Bahrain with a misleading job offer and then blocked him from ever leaving the country. When Shanker found out that 100 of his brother’s co-workers were trapped as well, he launched a petition on the Avaaz site and 20,000 people around the world joined it, leading the corporation to set all of it’s trapped workers free!

All of us have the power to spur changes like this. We just need to share our passion with each other and pool our voices. If there’s something happening in your community or the world that you’d like to change, start a petition today:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start_a_petition/?cl=2276207643&v=20060

With hope,

Joseph, Ian, Ari, Ricken, Marie, Oli, Adam and the whole Avaaz team

ThinkProgress War Room

Another Way the GOP Favors the Wealthy Over Everyone Else

While much of the discussion around the fiscal showdown has rightly focused on the top tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, there are a lot of other very important tax issues to sort. Notably, many expanded tax credits for low-wage workers and other important tax credits, such as the American Opportunity tax credit, will disappear at the end of the year if they are not extended.

The Senate has already passed a bill extending these important tax credits as well as the current tax rates for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses, but Republicans are holding those tax cuts hostage in order to get more tax breaks for the wealthy.

Our colleagues put together a handy infographic showing how Republican plans would impact different families.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

“New” Republican fiscal cliff offer: permanently extend tax cuts for the rich.

The public doesn’t care for Speaker Boehner’s handling of the fiscal showdown.

Rape gaffe candidate blames loss on “liberal media.”

POLL: Obama has overwhelming “mandate” to raise taxes on the rich, protect Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Liberals promise to fight any effort to raise the Medicare eligibility age.

How workers can repeal the Michigan GOP’s anti-union power grab.

Sen. Lindsey Graham’s ridiculous comments on marriage equality.

The Federal Reserve made a big move to help improve the economy.

Things in Syria are getting even worse.