Rally around Americans on this one! Senators and Representatives, Listen. This budgeting and taxing (funding) in American has to be finally done right!
Our futures need to be planned right.
BY THE WAY, I think that this could be the campaign issue or slogan through 2012 : “What kind of country cuts food aid to hungry pregnant women and children in the middle of an economic crisis—while giving a giant tax break to billionaires?”–KAS
Subject: Stop cuts to aid for hungry pregnant women and children
Hi,
The Republicans just released their budget and it is filled with
brutal cuts to vital services–like aid for hungry pregnant women and
children. Since they control the House, it could become law. So we need to
create an outcry so loud that the Democrats can stop it.
I signed a petition urging Democrats to fight these horrible cuts. Can you
join me at the link below?
http://pol.moveon.org/brutalcuts/?r_by=26549-4797084-PUWNTXx&rc=mailto
Thanks!
Dear Kevin,
What kind of country cuts food aid to hungry pregnant women and children in the middle of an economic crisis—while giving a giant tax break to billionaires?
Seriously. WTF?!
The Republicans are winning the battle over the budget, hands down, even though what they’re fighting for is, put simply, immoral. A cut of at least $400 million from a crucial program that puts food on the table for pregnant women and small children. Crippling the EPA. Completely eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AmeriCorps, and high-speed rail.1
Instead of creating jobs, the Republican budget would destroy 700,000 of them. Our only hope is a public outcry strong enough to stiffen Democrats’ spines and cause Republicans to back down.
Sign our petition to Congress and the president, asking them to say “no” to these brutal cuts.
The petition says: “Cutting food aid to hungry women and children in the middle of an economic crisis is wrong. Please oppose the devastating cuts in the Republican budget.”
Thanks for all you do.
–Daniel, Joan, Adam Q., Milan, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “House GOP Proposes Cuts to Scores of Sacred Cows,” National Journal, February 9, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206023&id=26549-4797084-PUWNTXx&t=4
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FROM TODAY’S PROGRES REPORT:
Polluter Profits Vs. Public Health
The rise of the Tea Party in Congress has inspired an all-out assault on public health and a clean environment. Several freshman Republicans have joined Newt Gingrich’s call to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. Republicans in the House Energy Committee unanimously voted not once, not twice, but three times, to deny that climate change is real, despite the broad scientific consensus that “climate change is happening and human beings are a major reason for it.” Every House Republican voted against stripping big oil companies of taxpayer funded subsidies — which would have saved American citizens tens of billions of dollars. The Republican-controlled House Administration Committee even slashed Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) “Green the Capitol” initiative, ordering the switch of recyclable materials to non-biodegradable Styrofoam to be used in the House cafeterias. “It apparently no longer matters in Congress what health experts and scientists think,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) observed. “All that seems to matter is what Koch Industries thinks.”
GOP PROTECTING POLLUTER PROFITS: After hours of debate over the last few days, the Senate may vote as early as today on Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-OK) legislation to gut the EPA’s ability to set greenhouse pollution rules for coal plants and oil refineries. The language, which passed Upton’s energy committee this week, has been introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Amendment 183 to an unrelated small-business bill. Inhofe isn’t likely to get the 60 votes needed to pass, but enough Democrats are susceptible to the arguments of the coal and oil industries to join the science deniers in the Republican Party to cross the 50 vote threshold. The Hill reports that the “lead sponsors of House GOP legislation to kill EPA climate change rules” — the Committee From Koch’s Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) — “crossed Capitol Hill for Senate meetings Wednesday amid a pending effort by their Senate Republican counterparts to advance the same plan.” If this effort to prevent the EPA’s modest action on climate change fails, the enemies of a healthy planet have more plans up their sleeve: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is pushing a moratorium on climate action, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has introduced the constitutionally questionable REINS Act to require explicit Congressional approval for every agency rule, and House Republicans have defunded climate action and environmental protection in the spending bill for the remainder of 2011.
EPA PROTECTING LIVES: The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday unveiled its proposed rule to reduce mercury and air toxics for coal-fired power plants, after a ten-year delay. We are currently being exposed annually to 386,000 tons of 84 dangerous pollutants from uncontrolled coal plants, despite being classified as “air toxics.” These include arsenic, lead, mercury, dioxins, formaldehyde, benzene, acid gases such as hydrogen chloride, and radioactive materials like radium and uranium. Even in small amounts, “these extremely harmful air pollutants are linked to health problems such as cancer, heart disease, neurological damage, birth defects, asthma attacks and even premature death.” Coal-fired power plants produce more hazardous air pollution in the United States than any other industrial pollution sources. They were exempt from regulation until 2000, and then the Bush administration wasted its time with a system that was thrown out by the courts because it did not provide the protection required by the Clean Air Act. “Reducing mercury and other toxic air pollutants is a prescription for healthier babies , children, and seniors,” said CAPAF president John Podesta. “A mandate to slash these toxic airborne pollutants will drive utilities to develop and deploy innovative clean energy technologies.”
DIRTY COAL COMPLAINS: The dirty coal industry has attacked the proposed rules. The standards would result in “higher utility bills for households and businesses, substantial job losses and a significant weakening of the nation’s electricity reliability,” National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said in a statement. However, industry analysts have found that electric system reliability can be maintained and that “the capital investments related to these regulations will create needed jobs and will yield many hundreds of billions of dollars in annual health benefits.” The EPA estimates that for every dollar spent to reduce this pollution from power plants, there will be $5 to $13 in health benefits, up to $140 billion in total health benefits a year. Furthermore, a group of leading energy companies — Calpine Corporation, Constellation Energy, Exelon Corporation, PG&E Corporation, Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc., and Seattle City Light — congratulated the EPA for its proposed rule, saying there “ought to be no further delay” in its “effective implementation.” “We know from experience that constructing this technology can be done in a reasonable time frame, especially with good advance planning,” said Paul Allen, senior vice president and chief environmental officer of Constellation Energy, “and there is meaningful job creation associated with the projects.”
Despite a sagging economy, corporate profits are expected to hit an 18-year high. The “third consecutive year of the bull market will see profits increase 8.9% in 2011, which would be the highest level since 1993.”
A powerful House Republican wants to cut the top U.S. tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent, and eliminate many popular deductions. Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is not likely to immediately succeed at the dramatic cut, but “provides Republicans with a position to pitch in the 2012 election.”
Banks have repaid approximately 99 percent of their original bailout from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). According to the Treasury Department, taxpayers have recovered about $244 billion of the $245 billion in TARP funds that were doled out to banks. The TARP program is ultimately expected to “provide a lifetime profit of nearly $20 billion to taxpayers.”
Kevin –
President Obama said this week that any budget that sacrifices a commitment to education is a budget that sacrifices our future:
“And I will not let it happen.”
Here’s why he’s taking a stand:
The cuts in the House Republican budget to education would be devastating for teachers, students, and families — costing 55,000 jobs, slashing financial aid for 8 million college kids, and dropping hundreds of thousands from Head Start, an early-education program proven to help low-income children graduate high school.
This week, the House passed another short-term extension of the federal budget that will fund the government through early April — between now and then, we need to find common ground.
President Obama is committed to commonsense spending cuts that allow us to live within our means without sacrificing key investments that will help us win the future.
With your support today, we can redouble our campaign for a responsible budget as the deadline nears, with OFA volunteers calling lawmakers and hand-delivering petitions to congressional offices.
Together, we’ll work to make sure that every family, principal, teacher, and student across the country understands that critical funding for education is at stake — and what they can do about it.
Please donate $3 or more today to support Organizing for America and fight to protect our investments in education.
House Republicans are proposing reckless cuts that would undo our progress on health reform, prevent the EPA from protecting our air and water, and hurt our economy and job creation.
The cuts are particularly bad for education, and when we’re talking about investing in children and schools, we’re talking about investing in our future.
If the House Republican budget cuts are adopted:
— More than 16,000 classrooms would close;
— 55,000 teachers would lose their jobs;
— Nearly 200,000 pre-kindergarten children would lose access to Head Start; and
— More than 8 million college students currently receiving tuition assistance would see their Pell Grants cut.
The budget the President signs must have bipartisan support, but he’s made it clear it also must invest in — not sacrifice — education.
Anything less is irresponsible and not worthy of our children.
Your support today will ensure all Americans understand what’s at stake. We’ll stand together and support the President as he tries once again to reach common ground with Republicans.
But we need your help.
Please donate $3 or more to support Organizing for America today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/Stand-Up-For-Education
Thanks for standing up for teachers, kids, and jobs.
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America