ECONOMY — ONE YEAR EXTENSION OF THE BUSH TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH COSTS $36 BILLION, BENEFITS 2 PERCENT OF AMERICANS: This week, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released an analysis of what would happen to the tax code if the conservative proposal to extend all of the Bush tax cuts were to be adopted. The tax cuts are currently scheduled to expire at the end of the year, and the Obama administration has proposed renewing only those for the lower- and middle-class. “You will find Republicans resisting very strongly any bill that allows taxes to be raised on any segment of Americans today,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), while Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has said the House GOP will throw “everything we’ve got” into preserving the tax cuts for the wealthy. And too many Democrats — like Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Kent Conrad (D-ND) — have been cowed into expressing a willingness to extend the tax cuts temporarily for a year or two. According to the JCT analysis, extending the cuts for the wealthy — which affects only two percent of the population — for just one year will cost $36 billion. Obama’s plan, meanwhile, focuses the tax increase on the very top of the income scale. The 608,000 taxpayers who make between $500,000 and $1 million “would pay $6.5 billion more, or an average of almost $10,000″ and the 315,000 taxpayers who earn more than $1 million would “owe $31 billion more, or almost $100,000 on average.” Even under Obama’s plan, the very rich will be paying less in taxes than they did in 2001, since they would be paying a lower marginal rate on their first $250,000 in income. As the Wonk Room’s Pat Garofalo writes, “It’s worth remembering that income inequality is currently the worst it has been since the 1920s. The richest one percent of households now receive nearly 25 percent of the country’s income, after earning less than 10 percent in the 1970s.”
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How we’ll win in November
It takes three things to win elections — good candidates, good campaigns, and you.
To win in 2010 we’re going to need Democrats who will stand up and fight for what’s right. That’s why we’ve spent all year helping progressives like Elaine Marshall and Ann McLane Kuster over the typical DC insider politicians.
But we’ll also need to run top notch effective campaigns that get out every progressive vote possible. We’ve already trained over 1,100 activists and candidates in 13 states this year and now we’re excited to announce the return of DFA Night School as a free online resource for progressive campaigns across the country.
Register for DFA Night School today!
Since it was created in 2006, DFA Night School has helped 31,382 activists write field plans, organize precincts, raise money and get out the vote. This August and September we’ll be organizing weekly trainings on our brand new interactive video-based platform that will focus on how we can get our supporters back to the polls in 2010.
If you plan on being involved in a progressive campaign at all these next few months, click here to sign up for this free online training series.
With better candidates and better campaigns we’ll do just fine in November. Now let’s get to work.
Thank you for everything you do.
-Matt
Matt Blizek, Field Director
Democracy for America
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Stop the U.S. from fueling the illegal tiger trade
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Congress has oil on its hands
Money from the oil and coal industries has been spilling into Washington faster than oil into the Gulf, and the result has been an environmental disaster of unprecedented scale. If we want to avoid the next disaster we have to get the dirty fossil fuel money out of Washington. That starts right now. |
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The Gulf spill is the largest environmental disaster in American history, but Congress has done NOTHING to pass a clean energy climate bill.
Heck, the Senate can’t even pass an oil spill response bill. So how exactly does this happen? While there’s no one single answer to that question, one that needs to receive a lot more attention is the huge amount of money the fossil fuel industry throws around in Washington.
During this session of Congress alone, oil and coal companies have spent almost $15,000,000 on direct political contributions to our elected officials. And you can’t say that they don’t get their money’s worth. Their investment buys weak environmental regulations, giant subsidies for their companies and a national energy policy that keeps us dependent on dirty energy even in the face of disasters like the BP tragedy in the Gulf.
Enough. If we ever want to stop the flow of oil we’ve got to stop the flow of dirty money into Congress. That starts right now with YOU in your community and with your member of Congress. Download our “Dirty Energy Money” toolkit today and find out exactly how.
Here’s what we’re going to do: Members of Congress are currently home on break until September 9th. It’s the perfect time to pay a visit and ask them about the dirty energy money they’ve taken. Our friends over at Oil Change International have collected data on each and every member of Congress, including yours, and how much dirty money they’ve received. We’re asking activists like you to take that information and use it in a personal delivery to your Representative asking them to donate all that dirty money to Gulf Coast recovery efforts.
It’s as simple as that. With the BP Deepwater disaster fresh in the public’s mind and the elections right around the corner, there’s never been a better time. In the toolkit you’ll find everything you need for your delivery and we’ll be here to help. Don’t wait, download the to toolkit today.
Cleaning up Congress starts with your Representative. It doesn’t matter how little or how much they have taken, it’s all part of the $15,000,000 and it’s all part of the problem.
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Sincerely,
Ben Kroetz |
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National Security… from ThinkProgress.org
NATIONAL SECURITY — JUDGE ADMITS CONFESSION EXTRACTED BY THREATENING A DETAINEE WITH GANG RAPE: In the first full war crimes tribunal of the Obama administration, a military judge held that a detainee, who confessed to killing an American soldier after he was threatened with being gang-raped to death if he did not cooperate, may nonetheless have that confession used against him at trial. Omar Khadr faced interrogation by U.S. Army Sgt. Joshua Claus, who testified in May hearings that he threatened Khadr with being gang-raped. Sgt. Claus has since been convicted of abusing a different detainee and has left the military, but nevertheless, military judge Col. Patrick Parrish allowed the confession to be used during Khadr’s tribunal. Khadr’s trial is controversial to begin with — he was only 15 years old at the time of his capture and confession, earning his tribunal a strong condemnation from the United Nations. In the words of the U.N., “Juvenile justice standards are clear. Children should not be tried before military tribunals.” Other proceedings are also underway at Guantanamo — yesterday, a military jury handed an al-Qaeda cook a 14-year sentence. There is reportedly a plea deal that will send the man home much earlier, but the details have not been officially disclosed. Human Rights Watch observer Andrew Prasow slammed those proceedings, saying, “The fact that the actual plea agreement is secret calls into question how open and transparent these proceedings really are.” The Pentagon has been offering journalists tours of the base several times per month to clear up “common misrepresentations” and promote transparency, but in a story today titled, “Tours of Guantanamo Offers a Look, but Little Else,” the paper reported the information journalists receive is mostly useless.
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