Tag Archives: Warren Buffett

Will you Join US?


Will you join me and President Obama in insisting that Congress get busy fixing our jobs crisis—and pay for it by asking millionaires and billionaires like Warren Buffett to pay their fair share?

Tell your lawmakers to start fixing America’s jobs crisis—and let them know you’ll hold them accountable if they won’t.

WWW.AFLCIO.ORG

Jobs are the crisis in America. Our economy will not recover until people get work.

America wants to work. But how hard are you willing to work to create jobs? If you’re willing to go all-out, let your lawmakers know right now.

President Obama understands the severity of America’s jobs crisis. This morning, he called on Congress to get moving on solutions—and to pay for his American Jobs Act by restoring tax fairness. He hit the nail on the head when he said, “Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett.”

Thanks to President Obama, our national conversation is moving in the right direction. With the release of the American Jobs Act—and today’s speech—he has come forward with important steps to start addressing our jobs crisis. Now, it’s our job to demand action.

Let Congress know you’re ready to go to the mat in pushing our leaders to create jobs.

Over the coming days and weeks, as part of our America Wants to Work campaign, we’ll be asking for your help to advance a job creation agenda that will:

Rebuild America for the 21st century by investing in the schools, roads, bridges, transit, ports, rail, communications and energy jobs and systems we need to succeed.
Revive U.S. manufacturing and reform our trade policies, so we can export American-made goods and services—and stop exporting good jobs.
Help our cities and states—and the federal government—avoid layoffs that drag down our economy and threaten essential services to communities.
Directly create millions of jobs in local communities, especially hard-hit communities of color. These jobs must pay competitive wages and target distressed communities and must not replace existing jobs.
Solve the massive shortfall of consumer demand by extending unemployment benefits and keeping homeowners in their homes.
Reform Wall Street so it helps Main Street create jobs.

Tell your lawmakers: America wants to work. It’s time to end the distractions and political brinksmanship that have left working families out in the cold and take bold action to create jobs.   WWW.AFLCIO.ORG

We will not reduce our demands or accept failure. And we will not accept any schemes to cut Medicaid or Social Security or Medicare benefits in exchange for getting Americans back to work.

To make our case for jobs, we will flood Congress with calls and e-mails. We will take our demands to the streets—and to the front doors of congressional offices. And we will make it clear to corporations, to elected officials and to the press just how many this crisis hurts in our communities, just how much pain is caused by inaction and just how tireless our pursuit of good jobs will be.

Get started today: Let Congress know you’ll be fighting for jobs, and it’s time for members of Congress to join you.   WWW.AFLCIO.ORG

Our campaign to get America back to work will not stop—it will only grow stronger. We will start by ratcheting up the pressure now. And we will make sure leaders who fail to put jobs first are held accountable in 2012. Because what happens in the coming days and months—and during the next year—will determine the future of America’s working middle class.

Will we work hard enough, starting now and through the next election, to preserve America’s middle class? Or will we fail? It’s up to us.

If you’re ready to work for working people, start by letting Congress know.   WWW.AFLCIO.ORG

This morning, President Obama outlined the choices our country faces:

“Either we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share in taxes or we ask seniors to pay more for Medicare. We can’t afford to do both. Either we gut education and medical research or we’ve got to reform the tax code so that most profitable corporations have to give up tax loopholes that other companies don’t get. We can’t afford to do both. This is not class warfare; it’s math.”

With your help, we can create jobs in a fair way. And we can pay for it—as President Obama proposed—by requiring millionaires, billionaires and profitable corporations to pay their fair share to get America back on track.

Thank you for standing with us.

In Solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

P.S. Your action today is only the beginning. Because you know as well as I do that getting Congress to take real action to tackle America’s jobs crisis won’t be easy—it will be supremely difficult to overcome the partisanship and political games.

That’s why I need you to stay with us. We’ll ask you to follow up with more actions—and harder actions—and to rise to the challenge for America’s working middle class.

Washington Post cover-up


 Tell the Washington Post Company to stop defrauding low-income students.

Here’s how the Washington Post Company makes billions of dollars:

Veterans, single moms, and working parents are lured in by admissions counselors at Kaplan University Online (a for-profit college owned by the Post). Students use federal loans to sign up for classes that can be 14 times more expensive than a comparable community college class.

It’s basically a scam. Sixty-nine percent of students drop out. A third of students default on their loans, meaning taxpayers are stuck with the bill and the students have their credit destroyed — while Kaplan keeps all the money.

Shannon Croteau, for example, was 11 classes away from a degree from Kaplan when she learned she was out of financial aid, $30,000 in debt, and that the degree she was working toward would be worthless in her state of New Hampshire.

She was billed for loans she never signed up for, enrolled in classes she didn’t choose and, when she complained, was given the runaround by a succession of fake “loan officers.” “They lied and cheated,” Shannon told Change.org. “It has ruined me.”

Shannon has started a petition on Change.org, demanding that the Washington Post Company change its practices or shut down Kaplan Online. More than 10,000 of us have already joined her. Click here to add your name.   www.change.org

A Kaplan University training manual uncovered by Senator Tom Harkin told employees: “If you can help them uncover their true pain and fear…You dramatically increase your chances of enrolling this prospective student.” A separate presentation to employees declared that single African-American mothers raising two children were the most profitable, because they were the most likely to drop out.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office even found last year that Kaplan and other for-profit schools “encouraged fraud and engaged in deceptive and questionable marketing practices.”

Instead of investigating these practices, the Post has instead tried to cover it up, personally attacking Shannon — even publicly disclosing her personal financial information in an effort to discredit her.

Shannon isn’t backing down — she’s widened her campaign to target the entire Washington Post board, which includes billionaire Warren Buffett; Columbia University President Lee Bollinger; and former General Motors CEO G. Richard Wagoner.

With a surge of attention, we can pressure the Washington Post Company to get out of the business of preying on people’s dreams of better educations and better careers.

Please take action today to tell the Washington Post Company to stop the predatory practices or shut down Kaplan University: www.change.org

Thanks for taking action,

Judith and the Change.org team