Why doesn't President Obama ask America to call their Rep's and DEMAND taxes be raised on the RICH?

[Octafish]

The budget problems are a lack of revenue, NOT a lack of austerity.



Besides, the Have-Mores already have a Party.

[LWolf]

1. Why isn't America doing so,

regardless of what Obama says or doesn't say about it?

[Octafish]

4. Well. For one thing, the tee vee never seems to bring it up.

Apart from Bill Moyers and his chums who are relegated to the occasional PBS special, that is.

The Concentration of Wealth and the Spread of Poverty

By Don Hazen, Executive Editor of Alternet
December 19, 2012

The great underreported story of 2012 is the accelerated spread of poverty and concentration of wealth in the United States. As Joe Stiglitz told AlterNet in an interview this year, the amount the richest 1 percent of Americans are earning has “almost tripled since 1980,” and “we’ve wiped out 20 years of increases and wealth for the middle American” according to the Federal Reserve.

But not so for our political class. The Center for Responsive Politics reports Congressional wealth has increased 11 percent between 2009 and 2011. Forty-seven percent of Congress members are millionaires; in the Senate the number is 67 percent.

CONTINUED w links n stuff...

http://billmoyers.com/groupthink/underreported-stories-of-2012/the-concentration-of-wealth-and-the-spread-of-poverty/

No matter. What is important: Yours is an excellent suggestion, LWolf.



We the People should go Howard Beale on them.

[LWolf]

9. I'll get that done before Monday.

If enough of us did, it would make a difference.

[bluestate10]

13. MSNBC hosts talk about wealth disparity often.

But the people that get affected by bad tax policy and can change it don't vote and don't watch MSNBC, they are instead watching reality TV.

[Dragonfli]

27. Those are very unfair unsupported broad-brush accusations against 98% of the population

"the people that get affected by bad tax policy and can change it don't vote"

actually many did, a majority of voters across the nation voted for a fair deal, but for some reason even when poles show a large majority of voters want to tax the rich and protect the vulnerable, they got a bait and switch and are being given a grand bargain rather than a fair deal.

A majority voted for Democrats because they wanted the rich taxed, and entitlements protected.
Unfortunately what the people want is not as important to this administration and a great many millionaire Democrats as what Pete Peterson wants.

As far as all of those people watching only reality shows, that is a rather condescending thing to say about the 98% that are screwed by third way and Republican policy, I assume you use they because you are not one of us, meaning those that are screwn by the bi-partisan fuck the poor policies. Congrats on your superiority! It must be hard to put up with all of us stupid, ignorant folk.

A little hint about that, people that are falling behind more and more, year after year while noticing how well the rich are doing in this economy (record profits, huge bonuses, thriving stock market)
know all about wealth disparity because it is destroying our lives, only to rich folks in a bubble is this a philosophical debate that you feel we lack the capacity to understand.

We understand alright and many of us are quite angry at the bait and switch and the betrayals.

Neither our votes nor all the campaign promises are worth a spit in the desert.
We know all this, so keep your broad brush smears and blame the victim condescending judgments up your arse were they originate, when you release that gas it kinda stinks up the place

[oldhippie]

2. Yeah, why not ......

What's his REAL agenda? Hmmmmmmm?

[Octafish]

7. Really don't know. I do wish he really were a groovy socialist like Hugo C.

Chavez's Fight Was Our Fight Too

Chavez Succeeded Where Obama Failed

by SHAMUS COOKE
CounterPunch MARCH 14, 2013

EXCERPT...

Chavez won elections because he was loved by the working and poor people of Venezuela. Chavez was loved by his people because he was a politician like none they had ever experienced. He was “their” politician, and he loved them.

And one doesn’t become the official politician of working people, the poor and downtrodden in an extremely poor country by using fancy words. Chavez backed up his big talk time after time, consistently overcoming barriers erected by the wealthy by taking bold action that benefited the majority of Venezuelans. Their hope in him was repeatedly renewed by action.

Inequality shrank under Chavez, poverty was dramatically reduced, education and health care improved, and illiteracy was eliminated. When the economy reeled from the 2008 global crisis, Chavez didn’t bail out the banks and pander to the wealthy, but increased social spending for the most vulnerable. When cataclysmic landslides threw hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans into homelessness, Chavez housed them all.

President Obama has nearly the exact opposite track record. The big banks remain the big winners in the Obama Administration, having been bailed out and then given an endless supply of cheap money via the Federal Reserve that has boosted their profits. All of this takes place while the job crisis grinds on for working people, creating an endless supply of austerity budgets on the city, state, and national level. When new jobs become available they are below a living wage.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/14/chavez-succeeded-where-obama-failed/

Hope and Change can't wait for four more years. They gotta start yesterday.

[DJ13]

3. Maybe because Obama believes in austerity

I think he sees his biggest problem is in trying to convince the 99% that we need to accept less than we deserve.

[Octafish]

11. That is the logical conclusion. And to think we live in such a wealthy country.

Unfortunately, the wealth is concentrated in a very few pockets these days.

Wealth, Income, and Power

by G. William Domhoff
Sociology Department, University of California at Santa Cruz

This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.

SNIP...

This document focuses on the "Top 1%" as a whole because that's been the traditional cut-off point for "the top" in academic studies, and because it's easy for us to keep in mind that we are talking about one in a hundred. But it is also important to realize that the lower half of that top 1% has far less than those in the top half; in fact, both wealth and income are super-concentrated in the top 0.1%, which is just one in a thousand. (To get an idea of the differences, take a look at an insider account by a long-time investment manager who works for the well-to-do and very rich. It nicely explains what the different levels have -- and how they got it. Also, David Cay Johnston (2011) has written a column about the differences among the top 1%, based on 2009 IRS information.)

As you read through the facts and figures that follow, please keep in mind that they are usually two or three years out of date because it takes time for one set of experts to collect the basic information and make sure it is accurate, and then still more time for another set of experts to analyze it and write their reports. It's also the case that the infamous housing bubble of the first eight years of the 21st century inflated some of the wealth numbers.

There's also some general information available on median income and percentage of people below the poverty line in 2010. As might be expected, most of the new information shows declines; in fact, a report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (2011) concludes that the decade from 2000 to 2010 was a "lost decade" for most Americans.

CONTINUED...

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Lots at the link, excellent resource that's good to bookmark for future holidays and furloughs and communicating to those hard-to-reach areas in Washington.

[DJ13]

12. Excellent link!

Lots of info, this will be fun, thanks!

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. ...

[AnotherMcIntosh]

29. His belief? How's his old neighborhood doing? The one in which he was a community organizer.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. If Obama really wanted to do progressive stuff, he'd do what Reagan always did when he wanted

REgressive stuff: exactly what you're suggesting, urging Americans to flood their Reps' offices with phone calls and (in those days) telegrams and letters.

I seriously think that Obama has been bought and paid for by the Big Money boys and the Warmongers.

[Octafish]

15. That Pruneface "Red Ink Ronnie" got us into this fine mess.

And because of all the resulting red ink of REgression, they've got a built-in fiscal excuse to not do anything to help make life better for all Americans for ever.

GOP and Obama Ready to Make Needy Seniors Pay for Bush Wars

MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
March 14, 2013

EXCERPT...

The 2011 study said the combined cost of the (Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan) wars was at least $3.7 trillion, based on actual expenditures from the U.S. Treasury and future commitments, such as the medical and disability claims of U.S. war veterans.

Now, even President Obama has accepted the GOP "frame" of a nation mired in debt, when it was the Republican Party under Bush – many of them still in Congress – who wrapped themselves in the flag and cheered on the shock and awe of multi-trillion dollar debt and death. And any subsequent growth in the debt is in large part due to the unemployment and loss of productivity resulting from the financial crash.

Obama -- always great at campaigning and, except on rare occasions, generally poor at debunking the Republican control over debate on public policy -- either is again adopting the GOP memes or actually agrees with the scaling back of earned benefits for Americans who worked hard for them. As Talking Point Memo headlines a March 14 article: "Obama to GOP: I'm Serious About Cutting the Social Safety Net." In return, Obama reportedly wants an unspecified amount of additional revenue into the treasury.

What's most disturbing about Obama's willingness to apparently concede means testing in Medicare and Chained CPI inflation adjustments for Social Security (both of which will decrease benefits to many seniors) is that he was elected on policies of preserving both programs without cuts. One can only speculate that Obama, who is careful to stay in the campaign funding good graces of Wall Street, actually has drunk the Republican water treated not with fluoride, but with rank deception.

Basically, the deficit of the United States would likely not exist (or be relatively mininmal) if it were not for the unfunded Bush wars and the tax cuts for the rich – almost universally supported by Republicans when they happened. The wars were also supported by far too many Democrats.

CONTINUED...

http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17861-gop-and-obama-ready-to-make-needy-seniors-pay-for-bush-wars

Agree about the ownership of the player, Lydia Leftcoast. It's like a Major League contract with an option on service for wars in future years. And the team manager doesn't give a bleacher bum's spilled beer about what the fans think.

[woo me with science]

6. Why do we cling to the fantasy

that his goals = our interests?

[Octafish]

19. I keep hoping things will change.

I'm so Poly-Anna of Poydor that way.

Hoping also for the Sea of Joy.

[malaise]

8. Didn't you hear them begging him to stop attacking them?

[DJ13]

14. I remember that movie

[Octafish]

24. He chewed the fat with the GOP ''leadership'' over lobster.

It's like they connected, as the rich are still the richest in history.



And We here in Detroit are getting poorer every day. Which doesn't mean there isn't some friend of Gov. Snyder who can't turn a buck off it. When they're through, they'll have privatized the City's nicest assets, the water works and Belle Isle, which they want to transform into an quasi-independent Commonwealth located between the USA and Canada to the south -- a tax shelter identical in spirit with Georgetown in Grand Cayman I kid you not.

Detroit's Game Changer

In 1950, Detroit was a vibrant city; the wealthiest in the nation. Now, despite all the efforts of many good people, the city has lost most of its population and is now the poorest, most dangerous, most run down city in America.

Detroit needs a game changer. The 982 acre island of Belle Isle can be that game changer for Detroit. The book Belle Isle is about that vision.

The setting is Belle Isle, 30 years in the future. Twenty nine years prior (2014), Belle Isle was sold by the city of Detroit for $1 billion dollars to a group of investors who believed in individual freedom, liberty and free markets.
They formed their own city-state, with innovative systems of government, taxation, labor and money. People soon came from all over the world to be part of this culture of unlimited opportunity. Belle Isle became the “Midwest Tiger,” rivaling Singapore as an economic miracle. Although numbering only 35,000 citizens, it generated billions of dollars in desperately needed economic growth and became a social laboratory for the western world.

Detroit shared in the genuine Renaissance. The large sum paid for Belle Isle was used to train Detroiters to fill the huge need for construction workers on Belle Isle. Beyond this, the construction of this remarkable new nation by private money provided years of economic boost for Detroit and Southeast Michigan, and the sparks generated by the fires of “can do” optimism and a new social pact jumped the river, causing factories and farms to be built in Detroit, restoring it to its former glory.

Big changes take big ideas, power arising from noble intent, and leaders of great vision and courage. It happened before with the birth of America. It can happen again.

All this is possible on Belle Isle.

SOURCE: http://www.commonwealthofbelleisle.com/

You know, there used to be a heckuva lot more articles about this scam, er, scheme on the web, including the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press web sites, but for some reason my GOOGLE goes to more and more "Woops!" pages.

[bluestate10]

10. Because gerrymandering would make that a useless exercise.

A better question is why don't more people that are going to get screwed by taxes not being raised vote? As long as republicans in deep red districts don't have to worry about being defeated by a democrat and democrats in conservative districts have to worry about being defeated if they vote for a tax increase or gun control, we are going to have the same old gridlock.

[4 t 4]

23. It's going exactly as planned...

they don't give a shit about you or the masses or the poor. The Unions have pretty much all been busted and depleted. A Universal health care plan will not go away ( health care companies will make a fortune) though they have to pretend they are against it. ( The president couldn't get it done without the cooperation of those health care companies) he became more important dollar wise than any lobbyist , that's how he did it with more dollars coming in than Any lobbyist could offer. They have All let us down. imho

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. Not sure about Pres. Obama, but I think in the minds of sane Americans, he should....

do the exact opposite of anything Chavez did, and be damned proud of it. Everyone knows there's huge disparity among the rich and poor, and if they agree with your premise, they should stop whining, get off their asses (or computers) and flood the streets of DC.

I've never met a more impotent group than this new age "liberal activist" movement. All they do is sit in their barcaloungers bitching to each other about the sorry state of things, and Obama's always the villain in their saga.

Pres. Obama did not run as a socialist, and only the Jill (0.03%) Stein Party would be comfortable with such a move at this point. Run a real socialist, and let us know how that works out.

[Octafish]

31. Rather than ignore the problem, Bernie Sanders took them on...

...grabbing 'em by the nose, and kicking them in the pants.

The Fed Audit

The first top-to-bottom audit of the Federal Reserve uncovered eye-popping new details about how the U.S. provided a whopping $16 trillion in secret loans to bail out American and foreign banks and businesses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. An amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Wall Street reform law passed one year ago this week directed the Government Accountability Office to conduct the study. "As a result of this audit, we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world," said Sanders. "This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else."

Among the investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said.

The non-partisan, investigative arm of Congress also determined that the Fed lacks a comprehensive system to deal with conflicts of interest, despite the serious potential for abuse.  In fact, according to the report, the Fed provided conflict of interest waivers to employees and private contractors so they could keep investments in the same financial institutions and corporations that were given emergency loans.

For example, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed.  Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed's emergency lending programs.

In another disturbing finding, the GAO said that on Sept. 19, 2008, William Dudley, who is now the New York Fed president, was granted a waiver to let him keep investments in AIG and General Electric at the same time AIG and GE were given bailout funds.  One reason the Fed did not make Dudley sell his holdings, according to the audit, was that it might have created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
To Sanders, the conclusion is simple. "No one who works for a firm receiving direct financial assistance from the Fed should be allowed to sit on the Fed's board of directors or be employed by the Fed," he said.

The investigation also revealed that the Fed outsourced most of its emergency lending programs to private contractors, many of which also were recipients of extremely low-interest and then-secret loans.

The Fed outsourced virtually all of the operations of their emergency lending programs to private contractors like JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.  The same firms also received trillions of dollars in Fed loans at near-zero interest rates. Altogether some two-thirds of the contracts that the Fed awarded to manage its emergency lending programs were no-bid contracts. Morgan Stanley was given the largest no-bid contract worth $108.4 million to help manage the Fed bailout of AIG.

A more detailed GAO investigation into potential conflicts of interest at the Fed is due on Oct. 18, but Sanders said one thing already is abundantly clear. "The Federal Reserve must be reformed to serve the needs of working families, not just CEOs on Wall Street."

CONTINUED...

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3

Bernie found out the government's been lying to us. There's plenty of money around.

Did you see that in your newspaper?

BTW: How did you know know I never get off the Barcalounger? We're so poor, if'n I were to get off'n it, the repo man'd take it.

[Tarheel_Dem]

33. Good for Bernie. He was elected as a Socialist Independent in VT. MLK wasn't a rich man....

so your all too familiar excuses aren't persuasive. Let somebody else do the heavylifting, you'll just bitch about it from afar. I get it, and I get you.

[Octafish]

35. Does property mean that much to you?

The people who've benefited most from Reaganomics are untouchable tax wise and jail wise. Sorry you don't see anything wrong with that.

[limpyhobbler]

17. That would just clutter up the message:

"Democrats have to accept the need for entitlement reform"

Gotta keep it simple.

[Octafish]

36. That really is some message.

"...I think it was Winston Churchill who once said that Americans always do the right thing after they’ve exhausted every other possibility.  And we’re getting to the point where we’ve now exhausted every other possibility.  And I have confidence that what’s been true for our country in the past will be true for this country in the future."

SOURCE: http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/02/27/remarks-president-business-council-dinner

Gosh. O. Gosh.

[green for victory]

18. another pic of bush

[forestpath]

21. Three peas in a pod.

[Octafish]

25. The Fifth Pea stood apart.

‘October Surprise’ and ‘Argo’

Exclusive: Iran’s ex-President Bani-Sadr, in criticizing inaccurate history in “Argo,” says most Iranian officials wanted a quick end to the 1980 U.S.-Iranian hostage crisis, but Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign struck a deal with Ayatollah Khomeini to delay the hostages’ release, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry
ConsortiumNews March 7, 2013

In a commentary on “Argo” winning the Best Picture Oscar, former Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr has provided new details about how Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign obstructed resolving the Iranian hostage crisis to prevent President Jimmy Carter’s reelection.

Bani-Sadr’s commentary focused mostly on historical inaccuracies in “Argo,” which depicted how six U.S. Embassy staffers made their escape when the embassy in Tehran was overrun by Iranian militants on Nov. 4, 1979, in protest of the U.S. government admitting the deposed – and widely despised – Shah of Iran for medical treatment.

In the commentary published by the Christian Science Monitor on March 5, Bani-Sadr, now 79 and living outside Paris, said the movie ignored the fact that most government officials favored freeing all the American personnel quickly. He criticized “Argo” for portraying Iranian officials of that time as radical and irrational.

The ex-president noted that “Argo” did quote him accurately as saying he expected the Americans to be freed within a few days – revealing that he based that comment on a conversation he had had with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – but Bani-Sadr criticized the movie for leaving “the impression that the Iranian government supported the occupation of the embassy and that I was a lone voice in opposing it. This could not be further from the truth.”

Bani-Sadr said he and all other major candidates for the Iranian presidency supported releasing the hostages. He noted that after taking that position, he won the election with 76 percent of the vote. He added:

“Overall, 96 percent of votes in that election were given to candidates who were against [the hostage-taking]. Hence, the movie misrepresents the Iranian government’s stand in regard to hostage-taking. It also completely misrepresents Iranians by portraying us as irrational people consumed by aggressive emotion.”

The October Surprise

However, after becoming president on Feb. 4, 1980, he found his efforts to resolve the hostage crisis thwarted. Bani-Sadr said he discovered that “Ayatollah Khomeini and Ronald Reagan had organized a clandestine negotiation, later known as the ‘October Surprise,’ which prevented the attempts by myself and then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter to free the hostages before the 1980 U.S. presidential election took place. The fact that they were not released tipped the results of the election in favor of Reagan.”

CONTINUED...

http://consortiumnews.com/2013/03/07/october-surprise-and-argo/

Dear Hosts: Mr. Robert Parry allows DUers and DU to excerpt his articles at length or in total, provided we attribute ConsortiumNews.

Dear Rest of DU: We got some serious work to do, on the phone...you know, person-to-person.

[forestpath]

20. I don't think he wants taxes raised on the rich. He just uses that as a sop

to make SS cuts looks "balanced" - without ever addressing how ludicrous it is to characterize hurting needy people while the well off don't notice a thing as "balance." But when push comes to shove, he'll find a way to protect the 1 percent.

[Octafish]

34. Perfectly balanced.

Social Security has nothing to do with the Red Ink, making the situation even more curious, ludicrous, and insidious.

The Ownership Class has accrued so much money that they control the global economy, the global political system, the military and all the serfs.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

22. My rep is a Rep

(Call begins)
(Phone rings)
"Congressman Blango's office, who is calling?"
"Hello, I am one of Mr. Blango's constituents."
"What is your call regarding?"
"Taxation."
"Are you a registered Republican?"
"Umm... no...?"
"Have a nice day."
(Call ends)

[Octafish]

38. That IS sad -- on every count.

If you can: Next time the puke's office hangs up when you say "No" write a letter to the editor that details the exchange. In addition to mailing the account to the local newspapers, stick it everywhere you can find that the Congressman's constituents can see -- online and in-print, including DU. Pretty soon, Mr. Blango will be hearing from others outside his own Teabagging world and sooner, rather than later, he'll be smelling the coffee in the unemployment line.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

47. Thank you!

I think your response to this says some very important things, and I hope my replying to it doesn't somehow undermine its impact. Not all of us will necessarily be able to do these things. Not all of us know that one should do these things. Those of us who don't know need to be educated, and could perhaps use some prompting to get us moving. I will see what I can do, to help.

[freshwest]

28. So is this a rhetorical question? Here's a sample of my OFA emails encouraging me to call:

Megan Allen is a fifth-grade teacher in Tampa, Florida. At her elementary school, 90 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.

Many live in poverty, with unstable home lives -- some have parents in prison, others go hungry over the weekends. But at school, they're winning science fairs, challenging themselves, and eating two hot meals a day.

For Megan's 36 fifth graders, school is a safe place. The budget cuts known as the sequester could change that.

In the county where Megan teaches, 142 schools stand to lose $3 million in funding. The sequester could also slash as much as $2 million in federal funding for special education.

When those cuts kick in, Megan's students could lose teachers that help them every day -- for example, the folks who coach them through tricky arithmetic, or give those who are having reading trouble the special attention they need. The Head Start programs that got these students ready for kindergarten will be dramatically cut down. Their class sizes could go up, leaving less time for individual attention.

The sequester isn't a list of numbers made up to scare you. It's a very real thing that will negatively impact real people -- like Megan's 36 students and their families.

Congress needs to hear those stories. They need to know that their inaction has consequences -- that's the only way we'll put an end to these cuts.

Share your story right now on how the sequester is affecting your community:

http://my.barackobama.com/Share-Your-Sequester-Story

Thanks for speaking up.

Lindsay

Lindsay Siler
National Director of Issue Campaigns
Organizing for Action

Another one asking me to forward and repost:

Sami Rahamim was 17 when his dad was killed in a mass shooting in Minneapolis.

His story will break your heart -- and inspire you.

Watch it, pass it along, and help put pressure on Congress to act now:

http://my.barackobama.com/Why-Sami-is-Fighting

These will be passed on to people in D.C. I get OFA emails frequently on calling my reps, and then they write me back. Here is one sample:

This month, Congressional Republicans pushed America over the cliff -- yet again -- by refusing to help Democrats avert the so-called "sequester."

Their choice was clear for all Americans to see: Rather than ask millionaires and billionaires to pay the same tax rates as their secretaries, Republicans decided they would punish the middle class with deep and devastating budget cuts -- threatening 750,000 jobs, cutting pay, and damaging our fragile economy.

It doesn't have to be this way. It's not too late for Republicans to do the right thing by joining Democrats in a balanced solution, before the worst of the sequester takes effect.

But you -- and tens of thousands of Americans -- need to stand up and make your voice heard before the Republicans will listen. Will you speak out, right now?

Sign our petition to Speaker John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and the national Republican Party right now: Urge them to reverse course and join Democrats in a balanced solution to the "sequester."

As members of the Senate leadership, we helped Democrats develop a balanced plan -- a plan that continues to grow the economy by replacing the indiscriminate cuts in the sequester with equal parts new revenue from the Buffett rule and new, targeted cuts to reduce government waste.

Unfortunately, the Republicans refuse to listen to reason. They're putting the interests of millionaires and billionaires ahead of the jobs and incomes of middle-class families.

And make no mistake about it, these sequester cuts hit close to home for all of us:

Washington State will lose millions in nutrition funding for seniors and in environmental funding to ensure clean water and air quality.

Thousands of New Yorkers will be furloughed or lose their jobs outright. Tens of thousands will see their services cut, such as job search assistance and meal programs for seniors.

It's the same story in state after state after state throughout the country -- to say nothing of longer wait times at airports and reduced resources for food safety, national parks, and economic development.

We can stop the sequester -- but only if the Republicans join us.

Sign our petition to Speaker John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and the national Republican Party right now: Urge them to reverse course and join Democrats in a balanced solution to the "sequester."

By not asking the wealthy to pay a little more, Republicans are forcing our children, seniors, and the entire middle class to bear the burden of deficit reduction.

There are too many jobs -- too many lives -- at stake. The choice should be simple.

Thank you for your support,

Patty Murray
U.S. Senator

Chuck Schumer
U.S. Senator

Another one, unfortunately I've discarded most after contacting my reps, which Obama's organization begged me to do the day after the election and since then there have been more.:

I just walked out of the hearing room after chairing a meeting of the Senate Budget Committee -- and I'm pleased to report that our committee passed a good, fair, pro-growth, pro-middle class budget plan!

It's a great start, and I thank everyone who shared their ideas and priorities with me as we painstakingly crafted our budget proposal over the past few weeks.

But we still have a lot of work to do -- first, to get our budget passed by the full Senate, and then to continue to make the case to House Republicans that smart deficit reduction protects seniors, middle-class families, and our most vulnerable.

And I could really use your help, right now.

Click here to sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of our Democratic Senate budget proposal now -- so I can show my colleagues the strong grassroots support behind our bill!

Budgets are much more than pieces of paper; they're statements of our values and priorities.

And the differences between the Democratic Senate budget proposal and Paul Ryan's GOP House proposal -- and our values and priorities -- couldn't be clearer.

The top priority in our Democratic Senate budget is to keep our economy growing, now and for the long-term. So we'd replace the sequester's harsh and indiscriminate cuts -- that jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs -- with a balanced mix of targeted cuts and increased revenues raised from the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations. And we invest in job training, education, and infrastructure to set our country up for success for many years to come.

Second, our budget reduces our deficit by almost $2 trillion more over the next 10 years, for a total of over $4 trillion in deficit reduction since 2010. And we do that in the balanced, commonsense way that the American people loudly endorsed in last November's election -- by closing tax loopholes and eliminating wasteful tax breaks that currently help the wealthy, as well as making responsible spending cuts.

Third, we do all of this while still upholding our nation's promises to our communities, our seniors, our veterans, and our families. That means saying NO to privatizing Medicare, NO to slashing Social Security, and NO to cutting veterans benefits.

I'm proud of the work we've done on our budget, and I hope you'll stand behind it too.

Click here to sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of our Democratic Senate budget proposal now -- so I can show my colleagues the strong grassroots support behind our bill!

Unfortunately, Paul Ryan and the House GOP are proposing a different approach in their budget -- by refusing to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a penny more toward their fair share, and instead slashing Medicare, Social Security, and other crucial investments that we need to keep America's economy growing for the long-term.

The choice is clear: We don't want to go back to the same old failed, trickle-down economics of the past. Instead, we want to reduce our deficit responsibly, invest in the future, and keep our promises to the American people.

I hope you agree, and that you'll stand with me in this important fight.

Click here to sign on as a citizen co-sponsor of our Democratic Senate budget proposal now -- so I can show my colleagues the strong grassroots support behind our bill!

Thank you for your support,

Patty Murray
U.S. Senator

Everywhere it says 'click here' leads to this link to contact. Over 10K signers:

http://www.democratsenators.org/o/45/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=782&track=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&tag=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&utm_source=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&source=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&sc=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&ms=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&refcode=ema_2013-03-14_budget_bk36365&utm_campaign=budget&utm_medium=ema

I hope you will sign on and call your reps. If you want to get these notices from the OFA and White House urging to call your reps, just sign up. Many of us have been getting these pleas from Obama for months. The media won't give him air time, instead the GOP gets all of that - and they're poised to get a lot more air time with more progressive radio being shut down. So it's up to us. But then, it always was.

[Octafish]

39. Thank you for the heads-up, Freshwest. The issues you mention are most important causes.

From funding public school programs, to well-regulated firearms, to just and equitable fiscal policy -- the issues you brought to my attention are human-centered, meaning that they through government action they serve to make life better for ALL Americans. There is nothing more Democratic than that.

[freshwest]

46. Thanks. And Obama is asking for support. My Inbox has been full since the election. The budget:

Senator Sanders: Democratic budget ends offshore tax havens and raises the minimum wage

The Senate Budget Committee on Thursday approved a plan that would reduce the deficit by $1.85 trillion over 10 years through a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. The panel added amendments by Sen. Bernie Sanders to end offshore tax havens and raise the minimum wage. In the House, meanwhile, a budget was proposed that would make drastic spending cuts without asking the wealthy and profitable corporations to contribute to deficit reduction. “Disastrous” and “insane” were two words Sanders used to describe what House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan proposed. Earlier in the week, Sanders chaired a Wednesday hearing on a claims backlog at the VA. And on Tuesday he introduced a constitutional amendment that would undo Citizens United, the notorious Supreme Court ruling that voided campaign finance regulations.

Budget Committee One Sanders amendment approved by the committee would go after tax-dodging corporations. A second one supports increasing the minimum wage. Both Sanders amendments were approved by votes of 12 to 10. House Republicans, meanwhile, offered what Sanders called a “disastrous” budget that would cut programs for working families. “It is insane to simply talk about ‘cut, cut, cut’ when you’ve got the wealthiest people and large corporations doing phenomenally well and paying lower effective tax rates than they should,” Sanders said Thursday on The Cycle on MSNBC. Watch the MSNBC interview

Tax Havens The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that its own analysis of 60 big U.S. companies found that they parked $166 billion offshore last year. Sanders has called for closing those tax loopholes to help bring down deficits. “At a time when we have a $16.6 trillion national debt; at a time when roughly one-quarter of the largest corporations in America are paying no federal income taxes; and at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high, it is past time for corporate America to contribute significantly to deficit reduction,” he said.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=D2F2CFFA-DE92-40D4-9FAB-9ED72040CF47

Democratic members of the Senate Budget Committee:

Patty Murray
Ron Wyden
Bill Nelson
Debbie Stabenow
Bernie Sanders
Sheldon Whitehouse
Mark Warner
Jeff Merkley
Chris Coons
Tammy Baldwin
Tim Kaine
Angus King

http://www.budget.senate.gov/democratic/index.cfm/democraticmembers

From ProSense's thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022522913

Obama and the Democrats are leading, but not on media. No, they make it appear they are doing nothing, but that is misinformation widely quoted. Only fthose who interested in doing anything will be able to keep our Democratic values in operation. Get the inside scoop that media won't tell anyone, call all of the representatives of every party, let them know you vote. Sign all these petitions and keep going at it because the media isn't going to do this for us. We can't form our opinions from them, they are in the pockets of conservative billionaires who want the worse for us.

[treestar]

30. Why haven't Americans done this on their own

long ago?

I don't need to wait until the President tells me what to do.

[Octafish]

40. You are correct, treestar. My point is that as leader of the nation, he has a 'Bully Pulpit'...

...from which he can bypass Corporate McPravda and deliver his message straight to the People.

Once enough people hear and see who's getting the lion's share of government spending -- corporations and fat cats, not freeloading welfare minorities -- Congress will feel the heat for moving on a rational budget, one that serves the needs of ALL the American people.

[theaocp]

41. How naive.

You expect leaders to lead? What's next?

[Octafish]

45. How profound.

Of course. It's their duty, starting with the office of president.

Why I have to ask reflects an even bigger issue: the growing disconnect between democracy and secret government, where the will of the people seems to matter less and less with each passing election.



Secret government is un-American and un-Democratic:

No Scrutability.
No Accountability.
No Telling Who Benefits.

For example: Have you heard of a "Fusion Center"?

If so, knowing what you know about J Edgar Hoover and the Dulles brothers, got any ideas about what the secret government does with all that data?

Do you think, as I do, that government by secrecy most benefits the richest of the rich, the warmongers of Wall Street and Washington?

Either way, I'll try my best to keep the lights on for democracy -- government of the people, by the people and for the people.

[WillyT]

32. K & R !!!

[Octafish]

37. It's a regular Who's Who...

From the Bartcop Collection



...and 99.9% of us aren't part of the Club, yet they get most of the oxygen.

[gulliver]

42. Maybe he wants all of the Republican hostage-taking in a single pile.

The fight over the sequester isn't over. Obama may just be waiting until all of the Republican hostage-taking events are happening at once. That way he gets all of their crap in a single pile rather than waiting for it to trickle in.

Right now the sequester is draining votes from the Republicans. Any Republican in the military, the defense industry, the border patrol, etc., who gets laid off or furloughed is going to be hurting. They won't take kindly to the "no new revenue and cut, cut, cut" mantra they hear from House and Senate Republicans. This is a learning opportunity for middle class Republicans. They get to see their pay go down while their Republican representatives fight to keep special tax breaks for Mitt Romney and the Koch Brothers.

A good example of how lopsided the advantage to Dems is is this Fox News appearance by Jay Carney.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/16/jay-carney-fox-news-reporting-jenna-lee_n_2890994.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

43. Why isn't DU asking people to call their reps and demand the CPC Back To Work budget is adopted?

It caused barely a ripple on DU this week when it was released:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022497503
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022506420
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251293983

I've seen far more DU threads about holding doors open

For a progressive website, we seem keener on progressing in ever-decreasing circles around our own navel.

[99Forever]

44. Why?

Isn't the answer to that question obvious to everyone by now?