Tag Archives: United States Congress

Let’s just call this so-called “Deficit Commission” what it really is — an attack on the middle class.

From the very start, right-wing Republicans have been using the commission as a platform to destroy Social Security. They want to cut benefits and raise the retirement age, knowing full well that it will throw millions of seniors into poverty.

It’s wrong. That’s why we supported candidates who stood strong for Social Security and that’s why we’re working today to hold them accountable to the promises they made.

Call your Senators right now and tell them Hands Off Social Security.

Call now at 1-866-529-7630 and tell Congress “No cuts, no raising the retirement age”

When we asked DFA members where they stood on Social Security, the answer was clear — you said to stand strong for Social Security — No cuts, no raising the retirement age — and that is exactly what we’re doing.

We’ll deliver our Hands Off Social Security petition, with almost 100,000 signatures from across the country, directly to members of the House of Representatives this week. But today’s target is the U.S. Senate. Whether your Senator is a supportive Democrat or a right-wing Republican bent on destroying Social Security, your call still has an impact. Strong supporters use these calls to back them up on the Senator floor and some Republicans will think twice about sticking their neck out against seniors if their offices are flooded with calls too.

So don’t throw your hands up and think this call isn’t worth it, especially because DFA members aren’t alone when it comes to protecting Social Security. On Election Day, we polled voters nationwide to ask them where they stood and 85 percent said they don’t want to see ANY cuts to Social Security.

That’s right, even people who voted for Republicans to take back Congress said they don’t want any cuts to Social Security.

Make sure Congress gets the message — Call your Senators right now at 1-866-529-7630 and tell them Hands Off Social Security.

Thank you for everything you do.

-Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell Congress: Women Can’t Afford Social Security Benefit Cuts

11/30/2010 Nativegrl77


	Tell Congress: Don’t Cut Our Social Security!



	Your Senators need to hear from you that jeopardizing the well-being of women and families is no way to improve the nation’s bottom line.

	Call 1-866-529-7630 today!

Can women and their families afford deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

We don’t think so. But as the President’s Fiscal Commission meets this week, deep cuts to these and other vital programs for women and their families are on the table.

We need your help to make sure these proposals don’t stay on the table — starting with joining the National Call-In Day on Social Security.

Tell Congress: Don’t Cut Our Social Security! Call your Senators NOW at 1-866-529-7630.

After providing your zip code, you’ll be given a choice of which of your state’s Senators to be connected with first. Call both if you possibly can!
Tell the person who answers the phone: I am a constituent living in [your state]. I am calling to tell the Senator to say “NO!” to cuts in Social Security benefits. Social Security benefits are especially important to women — and women’s average benefits are just $12,000 per year. Women can’t afford Social Security benefit cuts.

Why are we so concerned? Commission Co-Chairs Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles have proposed:

Cutting Social Security benefits for the vast majority of beneficiaries by raising the retirement age, lowering the cost of living adjustment, and changing the basic benefit formula.
Shifting more Medicare costs to beneficiaries and requiring low-income Medicaid beneficiaries to pay higher co-pays.
Cutting overall federal funding for domestic discretionary programs by about 20 percent, jeopardizing funding for child care, education, training, and other crucial investments.
Relying on spending cuts, far more than revenue increases, to reduce the deficit. While some tax expenditures would be curtailed, much of that revenue would be used to cut tax rates for the wealthiest Americans and corporations rather than to protect vital services or reduce the deficit.

Bottom line — these proposals would hurt women and their families. The reductions to Social Security would disproportionately hurt women, who depend more on income from Social Security than men do. And the changes to Medicare and Medicaid would place an extra burden on women, who are the majority of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and who already spend a higher percentage of their (already-lower) incomes on health care than men.

Your Senators need to hear from you that jeopardizing the well-being of women and families is no way to improve the nation’s bottom line. Call your Senators NOW at 1-866-529-7630.

This will be a long, hard fight and we are counting on you to stand up for women and their families.

Sincerely,

Joan Entmacher
Vice President, Family Economic Security
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. To find out more about the co-chairs’ Social Security benefit cuts, check out our blog.

~ my 2cents ...

mashup Monday &some News …

11/29/2010 Nativegrl77

As the lame duck session begins today the things that stand out most for me is the hypocrisy the overt nonsense and the lies offered up by the Republican Tea Party for the last twenty months. Unfortunately, the lies continue even after the Midterm elections with the sole goal to ruin President Obama by using Americans as their pawns and throwing us all under the bus.

The Party of No will keep stalling, blocking and saying No to the START treaty, the Disclose Act, unemployment, the Dream Act, Food Safety and other legislation but want and have been threatening progress unless and until the Republican Tea Party is given the Bush giveaways for the rich. The lies that the Republicans were able to sell and get some left of center to buy is about to unravel and the truth finally know by hopefully all Americans.

The notion that the top 2% is the group that creates and or hires the middle class let alone the idea that should be the reason to make sure the Bush giveaways are permanent is just a joke. If this is true, we should all ask where are the jobs that should have saved us all before the first 750 thousand suddenly lost their jobs even before President Obama was really in office. I do not understand how anyone believes that lie.

Other News …

**Feds open criminal investigation into WikiLeaks disclosures

**Former neighbor shocked over arrest of teen bomber

**Seoul warns that N.Korea will face severe consequences if another military attack on southern border

**Rep.Maxine Waters demands conclusion to ethics case

**Steele gets another challenger for RNC chair

**High court to review AZ election finance law

**JohnBolton is considering a run for office in 2012 against President Obama

CSPAN …

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) , American Action Network, CEO
Sunday

Interviews on Increasing Government Transparency
Saturday

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Moment of truth

11/23/2010 Nativegrl77

Tell Congress & President Obama: The wealthiest 2% don’t need a tax cut. Demand Democrats fight the proposed giveaway:

Republicans in Congress are pushing to continue Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, at the same time that they’re opposing extending unemployment insurance for people struggling to find work. Democrats have started to talk tough, but have also given signals they might cave without a real fight. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Please take a moment to demand that your representative, senators, and the President stand strong and oppose these tax breaks for the rich:

http://www.colorofchange.org/taxcuts/?id=2275-1238940

Many in Congress are working to extend tax cuts for the middle class, but Republicans have said that they’ll try to block tax cuts for the middle class unless Democrats agree to pass tax cuts for the very rich as well.¹ Of course, Republicans don’t want to look like they’re looking out for the richest Americans, so they want to vote on both tax cuts at the same time.

Democrats shouldn’t fall for it. Hundreds of thousands of people have stood up and called on Democrats in Congress to stand strong. Democratic leadership in the House appears ready to fight,² but the White House and leaders in the Senate are wavering. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has floated the idea of multiple votes (with one of them still attaching middle and upper-income tax cuts together),³ and the White House has said it might be open to “compromise”⁴ — in other words, giving in to the Republicans’ demands without forcing them to defend their position to the American public.

This discussion about extending tax cuts to the rich is happening amidst talk of making cuts to all kinds of programs that help the economy and protect the most vulnerable people in our society — because “we can’t afford” those programs. The fact that the same politicians making that argument would support massive tax breaks for the wealthy shows that they’re not really concerned about cutting spending or reducing the deficit — rather, they appear to be interested in protecting the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.

The battle around these tax cuts is a perfect opportunity to point this out. If we learned anything from this year’s midterm elections, it’s that Democrats need be bolder in fighting for everyday people and exposing the hypocrisy and greed represented by Republicans, conservative Democrats, and the wealthy corporate interests that dominate our government.

If Democrats cave to Republicans on this issue — even though a large majority of people are against extending tax cuts for the rich — it will show that Democrats have taken exactly the wrong lesson from the election. And it will demonstrate again that neither party can be counted on to stand up for the needs of working people when it really counts.

Democrats who oppose these tax cuts for the rich need to know that we’ll have their back if they fight. And the conservative Democrats and Republicans who want to keep handing more and more of our country over to the rich — while the rest of us are struggling — need to know that they’ll be called out and face actual consequences come election time. Please join us in calling on Congress and the White House to reject tax cuts for the rich:

http://www.colorofchange.org/taxcuts/?id=2275-1238940

Thanks and Peace,

— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Natasha, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
November 23rd, 2010

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU — your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5?akid=1727.1174326.dvaFbm&t=5

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Is YOUR life in the hands of Congress?

11/21/2010 Nativegrl77

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser

Just this month, a man drove barreling through the gates of a chemical plant in Texas, shouting, “We’re all gonna die!” before slamming his SUV into an 18-wheeler. On the very same day, one worker was killed and another injured by an explosion at a chemical plant in New York.

Chemical plants across the country present a real danger to nearby communities. In fact, millions of Americans are at risk. If an accident or a terrorist attack happens at any one of 484 chemical plants, 100,000 or more people would be at risk of injury or death.

Despite these clear and present dangers, Congress has so far failed to protect us. But right now, there’s a window of opportunity to pass legislation before the end of the year to make water treatment plants safer. The Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, and more than 100 non-profits, including major unions, fire fighters, environmental and public health groups are all in favor of this legislation. But Congress needs to hear from YOU.

Safer alternatives are already being used in hundreds of plants. It’s up to all of us to convince Congress to protect us. Please, take just a second to tell your friends. The time you take could help save lives.

Thank you,