Tag Archives: United States Congress

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Goodbye Medicare, Hello More Corporate Welfare? a word from pfaw.org


Government shutdown looms … and instead of offering real solutions so that Congress and the White House can pass a budget that works for real Americans, the GOP is going off the deep end, proposing plans to shift even more of our nation’s money into the pockets of their corporate donors.

The latest: a proposal by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) that guts Medicare. The Republican’s new blueprint shifts costs for health care for seniors and the poor to beneficiaries and the states, but does NOTHING to close tax loopholes and subsidies which allow mega corporations like G.E. to pay zero in U.S. taxes.

Republicans actually have the gall to pretend that this proposal is somehow courageous, because of its massive scope and the supposedly “tough” decisions it includes. But taking medicine from seniors is not courageous, it’s cowardly. Courage is standing up to big corporations and making them pay their fair share.

Speak Up! Tell Congress to LEAVE MEDICARE ALONE. If they’re serious about deficits, they will end corporate welfare before gutting the vital programs on which Americans depend for survival.

Medicare will go away, but subsidies to Exxon will be untouched? There is something seriously wrong with that picture.

Americans have already paid for their Medicare benefits. Taking that money to pay for tax cuts for corporate special interests, and billionaires like the Koch brothers and Donald Trump — who incredibly pays the same tax rate as one of his mid-level managers — amounts to theft, plain and simple, even if members of Congress are using the law to do it.

We can address the deficit and still protect necessities like Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and education assistance. Those on the Right who say otherwise are lying to you and every other American — right to your faces — and they’re offering a false choice. Billions in subsidies for oil companies (which Republicans voted to extend last month) … tax loopholes that allow corporations like G.E. and several of Wall Street’s largest banks to get a free ride … that’s are where Congress needs to put its focus.

Tell Congress: Hands off Medicare; Stop Corporate Welfare.

Thank you as always for your activism and your commitment to the American Way.

Sincerely,

Ben Betz, Online Strategy Manager

P.S. Under Rep. Ryan’s plan, 90% of Americans would have their taxes increased but the richest would get another tax cut. Perversely, as a share of income, the poorest 20% would have by far the biggest increase and richest 1% would get the bulk of the cuts — a massive 15%.

This assault on the poor and middle class is NOT the American Way. Speak out now.

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Tell Congress to Help Create Jobs Not Cut Them


 

Tell Congress to Help Create Jobs Not Cut Them

Tell Congress to vote NO on H.R. 1. Now is not the time to cut investment in business and jobs.

Call (888) 494-8956 and enter your zip code to be connected directly to your Congress member

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a message from Barney Frank


 

Here we go again – at least here I go again, and I hope you can join me.

In January I announced that I would run for reelection in 2012 because I want to fight for the values I have been committed to throughout my career. The events in Washington since that time have reinforced my view that those values are under greater attack than at any time in my life.

Over the past few weeks, Congress has gone through a bizarre, grueling, and ultimately very sad budget process. This has been a disaster for those who believe that we have the capacity as a people to come together and cooperate on measures that are essential to improving the quality of all of our lives.

Republicans are attempting to weaken the financial reform bill we passed last year, and the far right has succeeded in passing through the House budgets that will re-deregulate derivatives and to weaken the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

At the same time, they resisted any effort to make significant cuts to our swollen military budget. Instead, they chose to inflict enormous harm on virtually all domestic programs, proudly stating that they had debated the entire US government in less than three days. I stood up in the House late at night after a marathon debate and I denounced their orgy of self-congratulation over their senseless budget cutting.   http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UBSinc%2fCPYaKdaJwsMh0V5KnXpbYo0o6usIzZHtMm7avT6xh2PId64V3H1TXg9cveHz4X4iWQX%2f8nWBmlzPYqFO9PL61K1FacAU6VN1fqldK8%2fB3jnGOwZrHdqMotfOShGgWdUy45CNXMIOiDGBo%2fQ1q6IH2PgZSlM%3d

But the battle is not over — we will spend the next two years and more fighting this gross distortion of our budget priorities and of our values. I will give everything I can to this effort, and with your help I will do so through 2012 and beyond.

http://images.myngp.com/LinkTracker.aspx?crypt=IVi0ax2%2b6UDLpC3olJXC48%2fv%2ftqtQFGd1pYD7HCwFY6cLDeH7plfweSCOUD3b7%2bTOi%2fuQC6cVGOAYPHw4BpKsfjf%2bjAR8Nv%2bsR9N%2fCerQ9cX%2bkyg6Q8rGv72%2bTm3xKI7Gz2fKi9myl%2fpb9GfTSw4%2b0INbmIjEf4YF28eX0DMwEEjCNjlRR8ItugWUePxfSgjyYegnqay8HMtAcAUj7q6N%2bc%2bW%2fmQrZgc

Last year, you helped me defend against coordinated attacks by national right-wing organizations which had been empowered to spend freely on elections by the recent Supreme Court decision. Because it was such an especially expensive campaign year, I am writing earlier than usual to ask if you can help me begin to payoff campaign debts – including one to myself – and to start to accumulate the funds that I will need to withstand another coordinated nation-wide right-wing assault in 2012.

It’s flattering to be the focus of the Right’s unhappiness, but it’s also expensive. I would be grateful if you would help provide me with what I need to fight back.

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Don’t let your tax dollars pay for discrimina​tion …


This is how Congress is spending its time.

Right now, behind closed doors, Republican House leaders are deciding exactly how they’ll use our tax dollars to protect the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

And more than 90 right-wing lawmakers are wasting Congress’s time on a resolution condemning President Obama and declaring that same-sex couples should be denied equal rights. Some are even talking about impeaching the president for his principled stance against DOMA.

Meanwhile, as right-wing groups vilify gay members of Congress, we’re showing every lawmaker that a majority of Americans – both straight and LGBT – want DOMA repealed.

We need 535 more straight allies to join HRC in the next 24 hours so that we have the resources to get our message to all 535 members of Congress. Can you help fund this fight?

www.hrc.org

Join HRC in the next 24 hours with an urgent gift to fight DOMA and stand up for equality.

DOMA’s sole purpose is to deny married, same-sex couples the protections straight married couples enjoy: Social Security survivor benefits, joint tax filing, taking leave to care for a spouse, and more.

In the past few weeks, we’ve sent more than 170,000 letters to Congress calling out this discrimination. We’ve also released a new poll showing that a majority of Americans have no patience for these antics.1 They want Congress to focus on creating jobs – not defending DOMA.

Straight allies’ voices are critical in our fight to show Republican House leaders that they’re out of step with the American majority.

We refuse to be quiet. We’re standing up to right-wing ideologues, rallying support and fighting for DOMA repeal bills in the House and Senate. We’re continuously highlighting the scary truth about DOMA in the press. And we’re making sure your voice is heard in Congress on this issue.

This is not a test – equality for loving couples and families is on the line.

Declare your support as a straight ally. Stand up to hate – chip in now.    www.hrc.org

I know you’re disgusted by our opponents’ hypocrisy and that you’re eager for progress. From the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. hate crimes law to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, we’ve shown we can get things done together. I’m hoping you’ll stand with us today.

Keep up the fight,

Joe Solmonese

President

1 A new poll from HRC and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research shows 51 percent of Americans oppose DOMA while 34 percent favor it. 54 percent of Americans want Congress to focus on jobs and only 32 percent would prefer Congress spend time defending DOMA.

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Deregulation = Financial Disaster + Middle-Class Robbery … AFL-CIO.org


This is not a drill. This is an emergency.

Our financial system is being attacked in Congress, and if it collapses again because of reckless greed, working people will bear the brunt. CEO-backed politicians will raid our Social Security, our Medicare and our public services to bail out the fat cats. Take action now.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

Tell your members of Congress: Deregulation leads to financial crises. Don’t deregulate Wall Street and then rob working people to pay for the bailouts that will follow.

In 2008, Big Banks and Wall Street CEOs created the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As a result, 14 million Americans still are unemployed today.

But even though unemployment is high and our economic recovery is pathetically slow and fragile, corporations are lobbying furiously to undo the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Many parts of this new Wall Street Reform Act—including a requirement that outrageous CEO pay be publicly compared with worker pay—haven’t even gone into effect yet. But already, House Republicans are siding with corporate CEOs, trying to repeal the bill piece by piece.

What’s the Big Bank/CEO/House Republican plan? Deregulate. And if the economy collapses again because of reckless greed, rob working Americans to pay for bailouts while the rich get richer.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

Tell Congress to leave the Wall Street Reform Act alone—and that if deregulation leads to another financial panic, we won’t pay a dime for bailouts.

This is serious. This is the time to take action. As House Republicans pick at pieces and “provisions” of financial reform, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that deregulation brought our economy to the brink of collapse. That didn’t happen all at once, either. It happened in pieces since the 1970s. Little by little, corporations pushed their agenda, and they got away with it.

That’s why working people must push back hard when corporations and greedy CEOs lobby for even a small piece of deregulation.

Tell Congress to leave the Wall Street Reform Act alone—if deregulation leads to another financial crisis, we’ll know exactly whom to blame.

So far, this week Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed repealing several important provisions of Wall Street reform, including CEO-to-worker compensation disclosure—before they even go into effect. They also want to create new loopholes in the law for private equity fund managers, companies that use derivatives, credit rating firms and companies that issue up to $50 million in securities.

The fact is, America deserves to know what CEOs make compared with their workers, and we simply cannot afford to deregulate Wall Street.

But more broadly, we can’t give an inch and allow the deregulators to bankrupt America again.

Efforts at repealing pieces of Wall Street reform are just the beginning of Wall Street thinking it can return to its old ways. We’ve got to put that notion to rest, right now.

Tell your members of Congress you oppose repealing any part of Wall Street reform, that you demand CEO-to-worker pay ratios be made public and that working people can’t afford more financial disasters.

http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=8sLeYVGi1PcO0hsdij8rr2gmjdx9rGEF

In solidarity,

Manny Herrmann

Online Mobilization Coordinator, AFL-CIO

P.S. BREAKING NEWS: A Wisconsin judge just issued a restraining order against the recently passed bill killing public employee bargaining rights. You can read more at the AFL-CIO Now Blog. http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=IWj7usJ61FDarYEuMmAMp2gmjdx9rGEF