Tag Archives: black

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. 1: Increase the capital gains and dividends taxes for higher-income taxpayers

Increase capital gains and dividends taxes from 15 to 20 percent for those making more than $250,000 (couples) or $200,000 (single)

>>More

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.”

>>More

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.”

>>More

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.

>>More

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.

>>More

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.”

>>More

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.”

>>More

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”

>>More

No. 10: Expand the child and dependent care credit

Expand and make refundable the child and dependent care credit.

>>More

No. 11: Require publicly traded financial partnerships to pay the corporate income tax

Require publicly traded financial partnerships to pay the corporate income tax.

>>More

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.

>>More

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.

>>More

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.”

>>More

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.”

>>More

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.

>>More

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.”

>>More

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.

>>More

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.

>>More

No. 21: Require automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans

Automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans for workers whose employers offer retirement plans.

>>More

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.

>>More

Page 1 of 26 next

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Don’t Let GOP Censor the Smithsonian

12/06/2010 Nativegrl77

I urge you to end the hostile rhetoric and respect America’s standards of honoring free speech and creative expression. As the leaders of incoming majority of the House of Representatives in the coming year, your job should be to work with the Senate and the White House to advance policies which will help Americans, not to chase political straw men at the behest of the Far Right.

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor have thrown the weight of government into efforts by the Religious Right to shut down an acclaimed art exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. The Hide/Seek exhibit explores evolving expressions of sexuality in art. The Religious Right — in this instance led by the always-hysterical Bill Donohue and his fringe Catholic League — and its allies in Congress have been quick to try to whip their base into a fervor over themes they didn’t even try to understand before condemning as “anti-Christian.”

Cantor ludicrously said the exhibit is an intentional attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season. And Boehner, Cantor and other right-wing leaders have attacked the exhibit as a questionable use of taxpayer money, even though Smithsonian exhibits — including this one — are privately funded. They are now threatening to go after Smithsonian public funding and even to launch investigations into Smithsonian exhibits.

Tell the House Republican Leadership to stay out of the censorship game and to keep their hands off Smithsonian funding.

After you sign the petition to Reps. Boehner and Cantor, you’ll be asked to call the National Portrait Gallery and urge administrators there to stand strong against the Right in defense of free expression.

The Gallery was quick to cave on one piece of the Hide/Seek exhibit which was singled out by the Right: a video which included an 11-second segment depicting a Crucifix with ants crawling on it, a statement about the suffering of AIDS victims at the time the video was produced. The video, by the artist David Wojnarowicz, who himself died of AIDS in 1992, had been on display for a month without a single complaint from any museum attendees. The only complaints the Portrait Gallery received about the video or any parts of the exhibit were from Religious Right activists from around the country who had not actually seen the art. In a twist of sad irony, these activists were successful in getting the video taken down exactly one day before World AIDS Day. Hide/Seek is a courageous exhibit, but it’s an outrage that the Portrait Gallery would not show equal courage in defending the exhibit in its entirety against right-wing censorship.

We need to speak up to make sure that there are no more capitulations by the Smithsonian, and to make sure that Republican congressional leaders don’t get away with their ridiculous political pandering to the radical Religious Right.

Please add your voice to the growing chorus of Americans who are speaking out against this latest right-wing attack.

Reps. Boehner and Cantor, along with virtually ever other congressional Republican leader, are working hard to block all business on Capitol Hill… holding the country hostage by insisting that no much-needed measures be passed until the Bush tax cuts are extended for the richest 2% of Americans… and all the while attacking the president for not doing enough to create jobs. Yet THIS is how they want to spend their time and taxpayer dollars — kowtowing to right-wing zealots like Bill Donohue by attacking the arts and investigating museums.

Shame on them.

Sincerely,

Michael Keegan, President

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Saturday …The Senate will be in Session

12/03/2010 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

The Senate Convenes: 8:15aET

By unanimous consent, at 10:30am Saturday, December 4, the Senate will proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Reid motion to concur with the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.4853, with the Baucus amendment #4727 (tax cut extension for those making up to $250,000, plus several additional items such as UI extension, AMT relief, estate tax, 1099 repeal, making work pay credit, and others).

If cloture is not invoked, the Senate would immediately proceed to vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Schumer amendment #4728 (tax cut extension for those making up to $1 million, plus several additional items such as UI extension, AMT relief, estate tax, 1099 repeal, making work pay credit, and others).

The time from 8:30am until 10:30am will be equally divided and controlled between the Leaders or their designees.).

Votes:
258: Motion to invoke cloture on the Reid motion to concur with the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R.4853, with the Baucus amendment #4727: (tax cut extension for those making up to $250,000, plus several additional items such as UI extension, AMT relief, estate tax, 1099 repeal, making work pay credit, and others); Not Invoked: 53-36

259: Motion to invoke cloture on the Schumer amendment #4728: (tax cut extension for those making up to $1 million, plus several additional items such as UI extension, AMT relief, estate tax, 1099 repeal, making work pay credit, and others); Not invoked: 53-37 Unanimous Consent:
Passed S.3860, a bill to require reports on the management of Arlington National Cemetary (with McConnell-Brown-McCaskill (MA) amendment).

Passed HR6399, an Act to improve certain adminsitrative operations of the Office of the Architect of the Capitol.

Below is the Roll Call from today’s Congressional Session -Yeas and Nays in your face

U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote shar.es/Xg1Ky Amdt. No. 4727 to H.R. 4853 )

Roll Call shar.es/Xg1DX (Motion to Invoke Cloture on Motion to Concur in the House Amdt.Senate Amdt.w/Amdt. No.4727 to H.R. 4853 )

((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

PASS The DREAM ACT

12/02/2010 Nativegrl77

Share This Message:

A vote is days away!
Now is the time for DREAM.

This week a vote will be scheduled on the DREAM Act.

This is our only chance to pass immigration reform this year before the new Congress is seated. Our enemies have been flooding Congress with phone calls, and we need to show them that we’re still in this fight.

Click here to call your Senator and support the DREAM Act

All you need to make a difference in this fight is a phone. We’ll connect you directly to your senator, so that you can tell them in your own words why the DREAM Act matters.

Time is running out, and every voice counts.

Thank you,
Marissa Graciosa
Reform Immigration FOR America

We’re fighting to fix our broken immigration system, but we can’t win without you!
contribute $30 today to sponsor 80 faxes and 100 calls to Congress.

~ Recent Post

Women’s Progress in Peril – Help Us Now

12/02/2010 Nativegrl77

If the final days of the 111th Congress are any clue, you and I have our work cut out for us in 2011.

Earlier this month, 58 Senators voted to bring an important bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, to the floor of the Senate for a full debate and vote. This measure would help close the continuing and shameful disparity between men’s and women’s wages.

But in highly polarized Washington, 58 votes are not enough. Needing 60, this critical reform died without ever receiving a vote on the merits.

We have fought too long and too hard for women and families to let injustices like this stand.

Please make an urgent contribution to the Center’s year-end campaign — every dollar you donate will be matched dollar for dollar by our Board of Directors, up to a total of $60,000.

It’s a sign of the times that our Board has issued this challenge.

For more than 38 years, the National Women’s Law Center has led the way for women and families — in the classroom, in the workplace and in society as a whole. Our team of experts, lawyers and advocates is a formidable force for women in America today. The coming year will be a tough one, but frankly we’ve been here before — and prevailed. And with your help, we can prevail again.

Here is a glimpse of some of the major challenges that we will take on in 2011, marshalling all of our experience, savvy and skill:

Advocate for an economic recovery plan that puts job creation and economy-boosting investments before deficit reduction in the short term. The recession has hit women hard and millions of women, many of them single mothers, are among the long-term unemployed. We will press for jobs and job supports, such as child care, that will help both these women and the economy.
At the same time, we will advocate for a long-term fiscal plan that protects programs vital to women and their families. We will press for additional revenues from a fair and responsible tax system and fight efforts to balance the budget on the backs of Social Security and Medicare, which have helped millions of women escape poverty and achieve some measure of economic and health security.
Protect health reforms that help women and families. The Center played a lead role in efforts to stop insurers from charging women higher premiums than men. And we shined a bright spotlight on the trauma of women being denied coverage by insurance companies that consider Cesareans and domestic violence to be “preexisting conditions.” Those were critical advances, and we won’t allow the country to go backwards.
Win confirmation of dozens of judges, who are superbly qualified and who await Senate confirmation to serve on the federal bench.
Catch up with the community of nations by ratifying the landmark international human rights treaty for women, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women — CEDAW — ratified by all but the United States, Sudan, Somalia, Iran and three Island countries in the Pacific. Our nation’s presence on this list is simply shameful.

We’re up against what will certainly be one of the most challenging sessions of Congress in recent years, with many more Members hostile to core rights and programs critical to women’s lives. But if we’ve learned one thing in our 38 years, it’s this — that victories are possible even in the toughest of times.

Your support will never make a bigger difference. And between now and December 31st, the Board will match your gift dollar for dollar, up to a total of $60,000.

Please give generously. For women and families everywhere, you have our deepest thanks.

Sincerely,