Tag Archives: Wall Street

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Just Dumb

03/02/2013 Nativegrl77

Sequester: “A Fancy Word for a Dumb Idea”

That’s what the President of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, called the sequester — and he’s absolutely right.

Republicans have once again shown that they’ll do almost anything to protect the wealthy and special interests like Big Oil — no matter the cost to the rest of us and to the economy. This time, they have allowed devastating across-the-board spending cuts to kick in.

Just yesterday, the Senate voted on a balanced plan to replace this year’s indiscriminate cuts with a mix of targeted cuts and new revenues from ending loopholes for the very wealthiest Americans and corporate special interests. This plan got 52 votes and should have passed but Republicans blocked it by insisting on a 60-vote margin.

It’s clear that Republicans would rather impose painful spending cuts that will hurt the economy and millions of Americans than end a single tax loophole for the wealthy and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street.

As a reminder, here’s a list of things Republicans apparently prefer to happen instead of eliminating wasteful giveaways in the tax code:

70,000 kids will get kicked off of Head Start
10,000 teacher jobs will be at risk
7,200 special education teachers, aides, and staff could be cut
Nearly 140,000 fewer children will receive life-saving vaccinations
Up to 373,000 seriously mentally ill adults and seriously emotionally disturbed children could go untreated
2,100 fewer food inspections will take place
Tax returns and refunds will be delayed
The long-term unemployed will see their benefits cut by about 10 percent
Nearly a billion dollars in loans to small businesses cut
It could take several hours to get through security at the airport
More than 100 airports might have to simply close down
Our military leaders have said it would weaken our national security
The Secretary of Homeland Security said the cuts will make it harder to protect the country from a terror attack and that the border will be less secure

Not all these things will happen overnight, but they will happen. And the longer the sequester goes on, the worse things will get. Worse yet, unless a permanent replacement is agreed to, these painful and damaging cuts will continue for nine years.

BOTTOM LINE: Instead of standing by and watching as our economy and millions of Americans are hurt by these irresponsible and devastating cuts, Republicans need to agree to reduce our deficit with the kind of responsible, balanced approach that three-quarters of Americans prefer. Their reckless behavior got us into this mess in 2011 and now it’s time for them to come back to the table and help get us out of it before the worst impacts of these indiscriminate cuts happen.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Draft State Department report says the Keystone XL pipeline is environmentally sound.

How sequester cuts to the IRS might raise the deficit.

President Obama: marriage equality should be the law of the land.

Happy 100th Birthday, Big Oil tax breaks!

VIDEO: The GOP constantly pretends we haven’t already cut trillions in spending.

Sean Hannity launches Islamophobic attack on Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).

Austerity fail: European unemployment hits record high, again.

Another day, another extreme anti-abortion bill enacted by the GOP.

Don’t worry, the next manufactured crisis is just over three weeks away!

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

This is it

02/28/2013 Nativegrl77


	Congress Needs to Stop Drastic Budget Cuts and Protect Critical Investments in Our Nation’s Future



	Please take 2 minutes to flood the inboxes of your Members of Congress.

This is it!
Starting this Friday, draconian federal budget cuts (a.k.a. “sequestration”) are set to go into effect. These cuts mean that fewer low-income women and children will receive the supports they need from programs like Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant as well as education, family planning, job training programs, and more. And thousands of teachers, nurses, counselors and others who provide these services will lose their jobs.
These cuts would be devastating. But Congress can stop them. That’s why we need your help to push back and push back hard.
Take Action: Tell your Members of Congress to STOP “SEQUESTRATION.” Tell them to protect critical investments in our families and our future — and make the richest two percent and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes.
Need a reality check? Here’s what we are looking at if the budget cuts go into effect:

70,000 children losing places in Head Start and Early Head Start
30,000 children losing child care assistance
600,000 children and mothers losing nutritious food and other services to keep them healthy
5,000,000 fewer low-income families receiving prenatal health care and other services that help decrease infant mortality and improve maternal health
112,190 fewer victims of domestic violence receiving services
750,000 Americans losing their jobs

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Many more programs that women and families depend on would be cut, including food safety inspections and research into life-saving medical treatments. These are not just statistics — they represent real people whose lives that will suffer because of these cuts.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Congress can stop these senseless cuts — and replace them with a balanced approach to deficit reduction that includes raising revenues by closing tax loopholes and helping our economy grow by making smart investments in our future.
Can you help us flood the inboxes of your Members of Congress? They need to know that you expect them to stop the cuts to vital services!
Thanks for all your help!
Sincerely,

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

Helen Blank Director of Child Care and Early Learning National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Are you looking for state-by-state information on the impact of the sequester? You’re in luck! Check out the newly released data from the Obama Administration.
P.P.S. Do you like buttons? Show your support for a fair and balanced budget for women and families by sharing our latest virtual button on Facebook.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

H.J. Res. 118 & S.388

02/28/2013 Nativegrl77

from: the Congressional Budget Office

H.J. Res. 118, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Office of Family Assistance of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health

On September 17, 2012, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for House Joint Resolution 118. In response to Congressional questions we are providing the following additional explanation of the basis of that cost estimate.

S. 388, the American Family Economic Protection Act of 2013

As introduced in the Senate on February 26, 2013

S. 388 would eliminate the automatic spending reductions scheduled to occur under current law for 2013 and would partially eliminate the reductions scheduled for 2014. The bill also would eliminate direct payments to certain agricultural producers, provide funding for agricultural disaster assistance, and exempt from sequestration all mandatory funding provided for the Department of Agriculture.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Are you on the Sequester cut list ?

02/23/2013 Nativegrl77

ThinkProgress War Room

Budgets are statements of values and priorities. What the GOP is preparing to do in less than a week says a lot about their priorities. Instead of closing tax loopholes and making smart spending cuts, the GOP is going to let damaging across the board spending cuts kick in next Friday. These cuts will not only damage the economy, they’ll hurt individual families and communities across the country.

Check out what eliminating just two giveaways to the wealthy and corporation could pay for. For example, we could avoid painful cuts to investments in jobs and education just by ending a giveaway to corporate jet owners”

And we could stop harmful cuts to children and families with disabilities if we just stopped letting the wealthiest Americans get tax breaks for the vacation homes and yachts:

Instead of asking the wealthiest Americans and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street to pay their fair share, Republicans are insisting that families, including the most vulnerable among us, shoulder the burden of reducing our deficit and debt.

BOTTOM LINE: There’s still a week left to avert the damaging and painful sequester cuts. All Republicans have to do is agree to a balanced approach that replaces the indiscriminate cuts with both new revenues and smarter, targeted spending cuts.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Flying will be even more unpleasant thanks to the sequester (if you’re local airport isn’t simply closed).

House Republicans quietly introduce watered-down Violence Against Women Act.

Ted Cruz goes full Joe McCarthy.

5 important stories in Africa that don’t involve Oscar Pistorious.

Maryland is on the verge of repealing the death penalty.

Here’s 5 ways the sequester might make you sick.

New abortion bill in Indiana mandates two transvaginal probes.

Why taxes must go up.

How Republican activists are trying to use the courts to dismantle decades of progressive victories.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Jobs V Loopholes

02/21/2013 Nativegrl77

By ThinkProgress War Room

7 Tax Loopholes the GOP Loves to Love

In less than two weeks the very damaging across the board “sequester” cuts will kick in unless Republicans agree to a replacement that is a balanced compromise including both new revenues from closing tax loopholes and smarter, more targeted spending cuts.

When it was convenient for them to do so, Republicans including Speaker Boehner and Mitt Romney argued vociferously for closing loopholes and ending wasteful giveaways in the tax code. But now that push is coming to shove, these Republicans are refusing to help protect the economy and jobs by replacing the sequester cuts with new revenues from closing loopholes.

This intransigence has real consequences. As the president laid out yesterday, these cuts will cause pain:

So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction — people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.

Here’s a look at the top seven loopholes and giveaways that Republicans think are more important than protecting our economy, jobs, the middle class, and the most vulnerable among us:

Extra tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthiest Americans — $520 BILLION
Tax break for companies that ship jobs overseas — $168 BILLION
Special tax breaks for the largest oil companies — $25 BILLION
The loophole that allow people like Mitt Romney to pay a lower tax rate than middle-class workers — $21 BILLION
Tax deductions for vacation homes and yachts — $10 BILLION
The corporate jet loophole — $3 BILLION
Special write-offs for horse breeders (aka the Bluegrass Boondoggle) — $126 MILLION

BOTTOM LINE: The Republicans are choosing to protect millionaires and special interests like Big Oil and Wall Street instead of funding our military and programs vital for the middle class and the health of our economy.