Tag Archives: Wall Street

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Jobs V Loopholes

02/21/2013 Nativegrl77

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.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You Might’ve Missed

Annals right-wing media failure: how a joke became an attack against Chuck Hagel.

Florida’s GOP governor will expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

Marco Rubio is no savior for women.

800.000 defense workers to be furloughed because of the sequester.

Fox News: Al Jazeera America is a plot to activate Muslim sleeper cells in Detroit.

Supporters of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline outspend opponents 35 to 1.

The latest sneak attack on unions.

The science of addictive junk food.

How the sequester cuts hurt the long-term unemployed.

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One Last Stand for Our Military Women

12/10/2012 Nativegrl77


	End the Abortion Coverage Ban Now



	Tell your Members of Congress to urge congressional leadership to include an amendment to end the abortion coverage ban in a final bill the President signs into law.

In the past three weeks, you’ve sent over 54,000 emails to Members of Congress asking them to end the abortion coverage ban on servicewomen who become pregnant due to rape. Just this week, the Senate affirmed our efforts by voting unanimously to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and it includes Senator Jeanne Shaheen‘s amendment that would end this extreme policy.

But we’re not there yet. Negotiations are taking place right now on the final bill for the President to sign.

Tell your Members of Congress to urge congressional leadership to include this critical amendment in the final bill.

We are closer than ever to removing the abhorrent ban on abortion coverage for servicewomen and military dependents that have experienced rape or incest. This unfair policy forces them to pay for the abortion care they need, unlike their civilian counterparts who also depend on the federal government for health insurance. The only thing in the way of ending this unjust ban is some anti-choice Members of Congress who are willing to play politics with the women that serve this nation.

Don’t let anti-choice Members of Congress negotiate away abortion coverage for servicewomen who become pregnant due to rape.

Tell your Members of Congress to urge their leaders to include the critical Shaheen amendment in a final bill for the President to sign into law.

Congressional leaders will finish their negotiations at any moment.

Make sure they hear voice today.

Thanks for all you do to protect women’s reproductive health.

Sincerely,

Judy Waxman
Vice President for Health and Reproductive Rights
National Women’s Law Center

P.S. Your support allows us to continue to fight for women’s health, as well as work on many other critical issues. Please consider making a generous donation today.

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Congress Must Extend the Middle Class Tax Cuts

12/10/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

President Obama urges Congress to extend the middle class income tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans and 97 percent of small businesses without delay, making it clear that a balanced approach to deficit reduction means that Republicans in Congress must agree to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay higher tax rates.

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Clean Power …

12/08/2012 Nativegrl77

Unleash Clean Power

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a practical plan to cut U.S. oil use in half over the next 20 years, which will save billions of dollars each year, dramatically cut global warming emissions, and ease many other serious problems, including oil spills, the high cost of oil and gas price spikes, and health threats from air pollution that have become the all-too-familiar face of oil.

A key piece of that plan is cleaner fuels. Imagine a future where the fuel in our cars and the electricity that powers our homes and businesses come from fast-growing grasses and agricultural and other wastes, which can serve as non-food sources of biofuel or bioenergy. This future may not be far off if we put smart policies in place to spur growth in this emerging industry.

In the coming weeks, an innovative company—INEOS Bio—will begin producing clean fuel and electricity from vegetative waste at a first-of-its-kind biorefinery. And this plant is just the beginning. Our new report, The Promise of Biomass, finds that, by 2030, we could sustainably produce enough non-food bioenergy to make four times the corn ethanol produced in the United States in 2010, or nearly 20 percent of total U.S. power consumption that year.

But the policies that have set the stage for clean bioenergy to become a large-scale power source are under attack from the fossil fuel industry and its allies, who profit handsomely from the status quo. If Congress fails to act, a key policy supporting production of clean bioenergy from sustainable, non-food sources will expire at the end of 2012, slowing the development of this burgeoning industry at a critical time.

Choose a clean power future.

Urge your member of Congress to promote innovation by extending production tax credits for clean, non-food-based fuels and renewable electricity.

Take Action Today!

Sincerely,

Rachel Cohen
National Field Organizer
Clean Vehicles Program
Union of Concerned Scientists

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Meet Tiffany and Family

12/07/2012 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

The White House

Over the last week we’ve asked you what $2,000 more in taxes would mean to you and your family, and we’ve already received more than 370,000 responses — including one from Tiffany.

Today, President Obama will meet Tiffany and her family in their Northern Virginia home, where he’ll talk more about why it is so important for Congress to pass the middle-class tax cuts before the end of the year, both for families like hers and our economy.

Meet Tiffany, and find out why $2,000 means so much to her family.