People Demanding Action & Congressional Progressive Caucus – 2015-12-14 23:10:40
http://www.peopledemandingaction.org/
ACTION ALERT:
Tell Congress to Pass “Clean” Budget Bills
Without Destructive Pro-oil, Anti-environmental Riders
Budget Vote scheduled for December 16th
People Demanding Action
(December 13, 2015) — The House and Senate extended the budget deadline to next week; now Congress must pass a budget bill before the deadline on December 16th. Knowing that time is short, right-wingers are inserting ideological provisions into the negotiations.
Rather than accept a “clean” budget deal, Republicans insist on “riders” to force through provisions they could not pass on their own as part of a must-pass spending bill.
Contact your Representative and Senators now using our advocacy tools. Tell them to reject extremism and demand a “clean” budget deal that would reject extreme right wing provisions including:
* Strike down environmental protections; give big oil $135 billion in subsidies
* Overturn bank regulations
* Kicking veterans, families, and children out on the streets by slashing housing assistance
* Slamming the door on Syrian refugees, and ignoring our moral and legal obligations to help
* Limiting freedom on the Internet by blocking the FCC from enforcing Net Neutrality
These “gifts” to powerful interests will mean low-income borrowers will go back to paying upwards of 400 percent interest on small loans; housing will cost more; pollution will hurt more; and workers will be less protected from wage theft and less able to form a union.
Contact your Representative and Senators now! Use our advocacy tools to tell them to hold strong. Insist they vote against any budget deal that would put ideology over the health and lives of veterans, and children, endanger our environment and turn our backs on Syrian refugees. Tell them to reject special interests and protect our rights to a free and open Internet.
Last week we sent more than 14,000 messages to Congress; remind them they work for us.
Andrea Miller,
Executive Director, PDA
No ‘Poison Pills’ in the Federal Budget
People Demanding Action
UPDATE: Where We Are Now
Last month a temporary budget deal narrowly averted a government shutdown. Negotiations are continuing to pass appropriations bills that actually provide the money for many needed programs.
Republicans are insisting on adding destructive “riders” that would strike down environmental protections, undermine labor rights, gut consumer protections and the few shreds that still remain of campaign finance reform.
One such rider would block desperate Syrian and Iraqi refugees from being admitted to the United States. Still others would end important bank regulations and President Obama’s immigrant reforms.
These “gifts” to powerful interests will mean low-income borrowers will go back to paying upwards of 400 percent interest on small loans; housing will cost more; pollution will hurt more; and workers will be less protected from wage theft and less able to form a union. And much more — changes that couldn’t pass on their own, and that shouldn’t be stuck on a funding bill that keeps services running.
Thousands of you took action last week and sent a message to your Congressional Representative and Senators demanding a clean appropriations bill without destructive riders. If you have already sent a message, please send another, and if you have not yet sent yours, please take action now while Congress is in the heat of this debate.
Over the coming year let’s work for a federal Budget that truly reflects our priorities and build support for the Congressional Progressive Caucus Peoples Budget that will be released again in March.
Where We Need to Be
In response, a coalition of national organizations has formed a People’s Budget Campaign to say “No” to austerity and “Yes” to a People’s Budget, as proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Our immediate goal is to pass “clean” appropriations bills without damaging policy riders this fall in order to avoid the risk of another devastating government shutdown. But in the long term we want to build support for a budget that truly invests in the well-being of our people.
That budget is the “People’s Budget” which will be filed again this March by the Congressional Progressive Caucus. (See the People’s Budget: http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/the-peoples-budget-a-raise-for-america/)
Tell Congress to stop playing politics with the welfare of the American people!
Endorsements
People’s Budget Campaign Partners
American Friends Service Committee
Coalition on Human Needs
Environmentalists Against War
National Alliance of HUD Tenants
National Priorities Project
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Peace Action
People Demanding Action
Progressive Congress
Progressive Democrats of America
US Action
US Labor Against the War
Endorse the Clean Budget/People’s Budget Campaign
Additional organizational endorsements are invited. Please send your organization’s endorsement to peoples.budget.campaign@gmail.com
The People’s Budget: A Raise For America
Congressional Progressive Caucus
8.4 million good paying jobs by 2018
$1.9 trillion investment in America’s future
$820 billion infrastructure and transportation improvements
The People’s Budget fixes an economy that, for too long, has failed to provide the opportunities American families need to get ahead. Despite their skills and work ethic, most American workers and families are so financially strapped from increasing income inequality that their paychecks barely cover basic necessities. They earn less and less as corporations and the wealthy continue amassing record profits. It has become clear to American workers that the system is rigged.
The People’s Budget levels the playing field and creates economic opportunity by increasing the pay of middle- and low-income Americans. More customers and higher consumer spending advance American businesses, not tax cuts and relaxed regulations. The People’s Budget drives a full economic recovery by creating high-quality jobs and reducing family expenses, restoring the buying power of working Americans.
The People’s Budget closes tax loopholes that companies use to ship jobs overseas. It creates fair tax rates for millionaires and provides needed relief to low- and middle-income families. It invests in debt-free college, workforce training and small businesses within our communities, helping return our economy to full employment and giving a raise to Americans who need it most.
Investments in The People’s Budget boost employment and wages by addressing some of the biggest challenges of our time: repairing America’s rapidly aging roads and bridges, upgrading our energy systems to address climate change, keeping our communities safe, and preparing our young people to thrive as citizens and workers.
A fair wage is more than the size of a paycheck. It’s having enough hours, paid overtime, sick and parental leave, and affordable health and childcare. It’s being able to afford a good education for your kids and never living in fear that your job will be sent overseas. It’s knowing you can make ends meet at the end of the month. The People’s Budget helps achieve that with a raise for American workers, a raise for struggling families and a boost to America’s long-term global competitiveness.
A RAISE FOR AMERICA
· Creates more than 8 million good jobs by 2018.
· Increases functionality of Worker Protection Agencies.
· Includes a four percent raise for federal workers.
· Provides Paid Leave Initiative and Child Care.
· Supports a minimum wage increase and Collective Bargaining.
AUSTERITY TO PROSPERITY
· Repeals sequester and all Budget Control Act spending caps.
· Increases discretionary funding to invest in working families.
· Reverses harmful cuts and enhances social safety net.
· Invests in veterans, women, communities of color and their families.
FAIR INDIVIDUAL TAXES
· Equalizes tax rates for investment income and income from work.
· Returns to Clinton-era tax rates for households making over $250,000 and implements new brackets for those making over $1 million.
· Expands the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Care Credit.
FAIR CORPORATE TAXES
· Eliminates the ability of US corporations to defer taxes on offshore profits.
· Ends corporate inversions that allow U.S. companies to merge offshore to avoid taxes.
· Enacts a Financial Transaction Tax on various financial market transactions.
· Ends unlimited executive pay tax write-offs.
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR EVERY STUDENT
· Provides debt-free college to every student.
· Allows refinancing of student loans.
· Invests in K-12 and provides free pre-school.
AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE
· Repeals excise tax on high-priced workers plans and replaces with public option.
· Implements drug price negotiation for Medicare.
· Reauthorizes Children’s Health Insurance Program.
· Allows states to transition to single-payer health care systems.
PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT
· Closes tax loopholes and ends subsidies provided to oil, gas and coal companies.
· Enacts a price on carbon pollution without hurting low-income families.
· Invests in clean and renewable energy and green manufacturing.
SUSTAINABLE DEFENSE
· Modernizes our defense posture to create sustainable baseline defense spending.
· Ends emergency funding for Overseas Contingency Operations.
· Increases funding for diplomacy and invests in job transition programs.
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM
· Implements comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship.
ACCESS TO HOUSING
· Fully funds programs to make housing affordable and accessible for all Americans.
PUBLIC FINANCING OF CAMPAIGNS
· Funds public financing of campaigns to curb special interest influence in politics.
