USAction has launched a major campaign to get Senator Menendez’s plan to end $20 billion in subsidies for oil companies attached to the Energy and Efficiency bill the Senate is expected to vote on NEXT MONTH.

Earlier this year the Senate failed to pass a bill, introduced by Senator Sanders (I-VT), which would have cut tax-breaks for Big Oil. The good news is that this fall we another chance to demand that our Congress stands with us, the taxpayers, and not Big Oil.

Why?

Because Big Oil is taking us for a ride…

After devastating the Gulf region, BP is aiming to get a $10 billion bailout to recoup their loses despite ruining the economy of an entire region. Exxon Mobil made record breaking profits last year, managed to pay NO income tax, and was able to pocket $46 million from the IRS.

How is this possible?

Big Oil has a strangle hold on Congress.

The oil and gas industry have given over $3,097,000 to U.S. Senators during the current session. As stated by Steve Kretzmann from Oil Change International, Senators that voted against Senator Sanders bill took at least three times the money from the oil and gas industry than those that voted for the bill.

Find out how much your senator has taken.

BIG OIL IS SHAKING US DOWN

Over 65,000 people have already signed on to USAction’s “Stop the Big Oil Bailout” petition, demanding that Congress close the billion dollar tax breaks and subsidies to oil companies like BP and ExxonMobil. After launching this petition drive with the support of other groups like CREDO and Democracy for America, USAction and its online arm TrueMajority will be stepping up the pressure by taking this fight to targeted election districts as we head into the final two months of election season.

It’s time to demand that our senators stop taking dirty money from the oil and gas industry, and start doing what is best for the tax payers. Sign the petition and stay tuned for events near you.

From today’s Paul Krugman column on the extension of the most pernicious of Bush economic policies, deficit-funded, tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans:

Republicans and conservative Democrats… rejected every suggestion that we do more to avoid deep cuts in public services and help the ailing economy.

But these same politicians are eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people in the country.

Krugman goes on to note the total cost of these giveaways:

What’s at stake here? According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, making all of the Bush tax cuts permanent, as opposed to following the Obama proposal, would cost the federal government $680 billion in revenue over the next 10 years.

That’s right, $680 billion.

We must not forget that these are the same deficit frauds who fought tooth and nail over extensions of unemployment and COBRA insurance, aid to states, funding for education jobs and myriad jobs bills which could have helped to put America back to work.

In this economy, amidst devastating unemployment for workers and families struggling to get by, Republicans and some of the most conservative Democrats are preaching the same trite, “rising tide will lift all boats” supply-side economics that got us into this economic mess.

Queue Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of my home state of Kentucky, who seemed clueless as to why David Gregory would be asking how tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be paid for:

MCCONNELL: What are you talking about, paid for? This is existing tax policy. It’s been in place for ten years. [...]

GREGORY: For a final time, I’ll go back to my question which is, the extension of the tax cuts would cost $3.2 trillion. That’s borrowed money, that adds to the deficit. Do you have a plan to pay for that extension?

MCCONNELL: You’re talking about current tax policy. Why did it all of a sudden become something that we, quote, ‘pay for’? (Via Think Progress)

This is the governing philosophy of modern conservatism.  We need not pay for wars or tax cuts for the rich.  But strengthening the safety net, funding teacher’s jobs or assisting struggling states during this Great Recession must be paid for, no matter how dire the economy.

I guess we can’t expect much more from folks who want to take our government and drown it in a bathtub.

Senator Olympia Snowe (R, ME) was in Saco, Maine today talking to voters on Maine Street.  Small business owners and other Mainers who work with USAction affiliate Maine People’s Alliance (MPA) asked Sen. Snowe to support fair and responsible taxes and to fight to protect Main Street, not Wall Street, by repealing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

A report from MPA staff:

Senator Snowe was talking to folks in shops and restaurants on Maine street when she went into Sam’s Place, an art supply store, where she met with three small business owners and another local MPA member as well as four canvassers who had stories from folks in Saco that focused on the need to let the Bush tax cuts expire.

Senator Snowe agreed with their points about the unfairness of cuts for the rich, but steered the conversation towards general small business needs whenever possible.

We are happy that Senator Snowe sees the inequity in our federal tax system.  It could not be much more clear that the policies of Bush, which today’s Republican Party continues to support, overwhelmingly favor the wealthy over the middle class and saving our struggling economy. 

Much like the legislative battles in recent months over regulation of Wall Street, extension of unemployment insurance to jobless workers and of state aid and jobs funding for teachers, Senator Snowe, along with Senator Susan Collins, also of Maine, will be essential votes to end the Bush tax cuts and ensure that Wall Street and millionaires pay their fair share.

When I was a kid, the check came once a month.

My parents paid into Social Security – in fact, in a bit of irony, one of my father’s jobs was with the Social Security Administration, maintaining computers that must have been the size of cement trucks (and about as speedy!)

Both parents died when we were young – and years before they would have began collecting out of Social Security what they paid in. But after my brother, sister and I were adopted, the check that came once a month helped feed us, clothe us, keep a roof over our heads.

The check kept coming when I was in college. But it grew smaller and smaller. That’s because in the early 1980s, President Reagan and Congress decided to rein in expenses by ending the survivors’ benefits program for those of us attending college whose parents had died when we were young.

That was okay; I earned money washing dishes and busing tables at a restaurant and my college tuition was dirt cheap. By then I could earn my way.

But for millions of Americans – some retired, some disabled and some survivors of those who paid into the system – Social Security is the line of demarcation between sustainability and abject poverty.

That’s why, as we look forward to celebrating Social Security’s 75th birthday this Saturday, and as we prepare for yet another attempt to reduce benefits, it’s important to remember the principles upon which this promise to America was founded. Social Security belongs to the workers and their families who have worked hard, paid taxes in and earned its benefits. Social Security did not cause the federal deficit and its benefits should not be cut to reduce the deficit.

Yes: I have my own Social Security story to share. But so do millions of Americans, and some stories are much more moving and profound – and span several generations.

I was reminded of this recently while reading a speech that USAction President William McNary gave some years ago when USAction helped lead the successful effort to defeat President Bush’s attempts to privatize Social Security. (Given what happened to the stock market in 2008, can you imagine the damage that would have accrued had Bush succeeded?)

I’m going to close with McNary’s story – every bit as relevant today as it was when he first delivered it some years ago:

I know an African American man whose parents only lived three years after they started collecting benefits from Social Security. In those three years, it was over 90 percent of their income. Without it, they would have been in poverty.

This same man – his first wife died of breast cancer when she was 35 years old, leaving him with three young children. He worked for a not-for-profit and wondered how he would make ends meet.

At the urging of a social worker, he filled out some papers and an amazing thing began to happen: on the third of every month – like clockwork – he received a check from the Social Security Administration to help care for his young children. (If the third of the month fell on a Sunday or a holiday, the check came on Saturday!)

When William, his oldest son, turned 18, the amount was reduced a little bit.

When Aisha, his oldest daughter, turned 18, the amount was reduced a little bit.

And when his youngest daughter, Aaliyah, turned 18 a couple of years ago, it stopped entirely.

You’ve probably guessed by now, but that African American man was me.

Because my wife Lula had paid into the Social Security fund while she was alive, it allowed her to keep a promise that we had made to our children: that they would be the second generation in our family to go to college. And they did.

A Social Security card is more than just a document. It’s more than just a card with your name on it that you carry around in your wallet.

Social Security is a promise from one generation to the next. A promise that we cannot allow this generation to break.

It is a system that unites us all.

Originally blogged by USAction affiliate Tennessee Citizen Action.

Krugman: In America We’re Going Backward

What does three decades of antigovernment rhetoric get us? Paul Krugman has the answer:

The lights are going out all over America - literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.

Meanwhile, a country that once amazed the world with its visionary investments in transportation, from the Erie Canal to the Interstate Highway System, is now in the process of unpaving itself: in a number of states, local governments are breaking up roads they can no longer afford to maintain, and returning them to gravel.
And a nation that once prized education - that was among the first to provide basic schooling to all its children - is now cutting back. Teachers are being laid off; programs are being canceled; in Hawaii, the school year itself is being drastically shortened. And all signs point to even more cuts ahead.
…
How did we get to this point? It’s the logical consequence of three decades of antigovernment rhetoric, rhetoric that has convinced many voters that a dollar collected in taxes is always a dollar wasted, that the public sector can’t do anything right.

A government starved of resources is not “small” (thank you very much, Grover Norquist). It’s ineffective. And we’re all losing because of it.

In 1973, George Steinbrenner was a millionaire.  He bought the New York Yankees for under $1 million dollars and when he died last Tuesday, the Yankees were worth over $1.5 billion and Steinbrenner also sat on another $1 billion of Yankee-related media assets.  During this economic recession, with millions of Americans without a job and government services threatened by declining revenues, Steinbrenner was the fourth billionaire so far in 2010 to die without an estate tax in place.  While working Americans are suffering, Steinbrenner’s relatives can now inherit that $1.5 billion franchise - and not pay one penny in taxes on it.

Bush and his political cronies - nearly all Republicans and too many Democrats - as part of their tax cuts, weakened the estate tax every year since 2001, until its expiration at the end of 2009.  Without this tax, lower and middle-income taxpayers are left with the burden of paying for public services that benefit everyone - job creation initiatives, cops on the street, cleaner water.  Congress must act quickly to reinstate and strengthen the estate tax in order to bolster our ailing economy.

The estate tax is the most progressive tax in American history.  Someone with an estate worth $1 million doesn’t pay a penny for the estate tax.  Someone with an estate worth $2 million doesn’t pay the estate tax.  Indeed, only an estate worth more than $3.5 million (or $7 million for couples) contributes a penny when this legislation is in place, and let’s face it, those with an estate worth more than $3.5 million won’t suffer greatly by paying a  little extra in taxes.

George Steinbrenner was once disciplined by major league baseball for making illegal contributions to Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign.  If the guy is able to afford a personal fine of $15,000 for helping to get Nixon reelected, his family can also afford a bit extra in taxes to keep our national strong and functioning.

These public services are what made it possible for Steinbrenner to amass his fortune.  He would not have died a billionaire without the taxpayer-funded Tri-borough Bridge, or the subway stop at 161st Street, which was built specifically for this purpose, allowing Yankee fans to come from all over to buy a ticket for Yankees Stadium.  The new Yankees Stadium itself was built not with funds from Steinbrenner, but with $550-$850 million from New York taxpayers.  The taxpayer-funded initiative to make New York City’s drinking water some of the cleanest water in the Country contributed to his success, and Steinbrenner owes it to those taxpayers that helped to make his fortune possible to contribute his fair share.

The estate tax would bring in at least $264 billion in the next ten years if restored today at the all-too-moderate levels that Congress is considering.  But that’s real money that could go to create more jobs, education more kids…and even help make another couple lucky Americans billionaires in the future.  Congress: get this done, or forever face the wrath of fans from Boston and Philadelphia to Kansas City and Oakland.

It’s been a busy past few days here in Washington, D.C.

• On Wednesday President Obama signed into law the most sweeping financial regulatory reform since the Great Depression after a long fight with big banks, Wall Street and their allies on K Street and Capitol Hill.  Heather Booth, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform and Vice President of USAction, is pictured right celebrating the victory over Wall Street.
• Senate Democrats, plus Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, needed the 60th vote of Carte Goodwin (D - WV), the late Robert Byrd’s replacement, to overcome a Republican-led, seemingly permanent filibuster of an extension of unemployment benefits for 2.5 million jobless workers.
• And a media and political firestorm erupted when Shirley Sherrod, a Georgia-based, USDA appointee, was forced into the national media spotlight by right wing propagandists Andrew Breitbart and Fox News and unnecessarily fired by Tom Vilsack, the Obama administration’s Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack has since apologized and offered Sherrod a new job with the USDA.

Financial reform is truly historic, unemployment benefits will soon return for many struggling jobless workers and apologies along with a job offer correct some of the injustice in the story of Shirley Sherrod.

But the fight goes on. Each of the above represent long struggles over our values and priorities as a nation.  We must be clear of our mission and organize with passion to bend the moral arc of the universe towards justice.

• Wall Street Reform: The path of the fight against Wall Street now mimics the path of the health reform law and moves to battles over implementation of the law and regulation.  The White House should protect Main Street by appointing Elizabeth Warren to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Warren thought up, to protect American consumers.
• Protecting Main Street’s Safety Net: The unemployment benefits extension was promptly passed by the House and signed by the President last night.  Relief is coming to the 2.5 million struggling to navigate the Great Recession.  The unemployment benefits extension barely begins to address the jobs deficit in our country. We need more jobs stimulus to avoid a potential depression.  The Local Jobs for America Act can help and you can sign here to create 1 million jobs for America.
• Tell Obama to fire Fox News: For the White House there is no free pass in the Sherrod story. It is bad enough that the Obama administration would react so mindlessly and quickly without considering the source of this smear. Fox News and Breitbart have a despicable ‘journalistic’ legacy and a track record of dishonesty and race-baiting which recently wrecked ACORN and cut Van Jones’ career short. Enough is enough. Tell the White House to stop listening to Fox News.

USAction / TrueMajority members will continue to fight the monied corporate interests who will defend the status quo and their profit margins at all costs.

Thirty-nine Republican senators voted against extending unemployment insurance yesterday.  They claim it is because of the $33 billion that would be added to the deficit, but in the hypocritical fashion of deficit hawks, thirty-eight of those Senators voted to permanently repeal the estate tax which would add than one trillion dollars to the deficit.

Enough is enough!  The people of New Hampshire made their voices heard yesterday at a rally organized by USAction affiliate, NH Citizens Alliance, who teamed with NH for Health Care/SEIU and Working Families Win, at Senator Judd Gregg’s Concord office.  The rally was calling out the Senator for his misplaced priorities and lack of support for his constituents who do not earn over $250,000 dollars a year.

Senator Gregg has consistently voted against the extension of UI benefits and additional stimulus to create new jobs.  In addition, he voted in favor of the Bush-era tax cuts, which cut taxes for the wealthiest one percent. NHCA made it clear to the Senator that the public does not support helping the rich get richer on the backs of a working class struggling to get by.  Olivia Zink, the Community Organizer of NHCA, vehemently expressed the need for this rally:

Through no fault of their own, people all across our country have been laid off and downsized because of the recession, as they sit at their kitchen tables figuring out how to make ends meet, Senator Gregg is actively working to make the wealthy even wealthier.

Zink is right: last week Senator Gregg announced support for extending tax cuts to people who are making more than $250,000 a year.  This will only make our deficit larger and our recovery harder; the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts cost the country $1.7 trillion dollars. What will these proposed tax cuts cost us?

Representative Mark Kirk got a similar message in Illinois last week.  USAction affiliate Citizen Action/Illinois gathered outside Kirk’s office in Northbrook alongside the Chicago Federation of Labor the Northeastern Federation of Labor, Jobs with Justice and Working Families Win.  The working (or unemployed)  people of Illinois called out Kirk for his continued votes against jobless workers and creation of good jobs.

Kirk has also been preaching the same old policies of helping the rich get richer and at the same time denying help to workers.  John Gaudette, organizer for Citizen Action, briefly explained Kirk’s voting record.

When the bill was about tax cuts for the richest Americans or bailouts for Wall Street, Rep. Kirk was a strong YES.  When the thousands of unemployed in his district asked for help, when thousands of COBRA and Medicaid clients needed help, Rep Kirk was a strong NO.

50 unsatisfied constituents told Representative Kirk that they were sick of his continued lack of support for the thousands and thousands of Illinois families out of work and unable to find jobs.

Hopefully they got the message.  We need a forward looking agenda and not the same old policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Our goals are to allow the Bush tax cuts for the rich to run out this year as scheduled eliminate tax loopholes for big corporations and the wealthy and hold Wall Street accountable.

We are also working to pass the Local Jobs for America Act in order to create/save a million jobs.

These are our top priorities and with continued organizing and work from our affiliates and partners across the nation we can put America back to work and make sure corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.

The Jobs for America Now campaign hosted a conference call yesterday with several leaders in the fight for job creation.  Senator Al Franken and Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota headlined the call with John Schmidt of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, author of a new report entitled The Urgent Need for Job Creation.  The call was moderated by Alan Charney, campaign manager for Jobs for America Now and policy director for USAction.

Schmidt briefly explained the state of the economy and job market, highlighting the issues facing America today and in the future.  ”Without any additional stimulus, we would not be back to pre-recession employment until 2021.”

To Schmidt, USAaction and our coalition partners, this is unacceptable.  Schmidt made it clear that the Local Jobs for America Act is essential to avoid a double-dip recession.  At the rate the labor force is growing (90,000 new workers monthly), this bill is absolutely crucial.

Senator Franken and Representative Ellison explained the state of their constituents and the nation.  The people are suffering and the government needs to act now. The Local Jobs for America Act will bring jobs back to the public sector.  It funds critical police, firefighter, teacher, and government service jobs. Studies have shown that the most effective way to stimulate the workforce for the unemployed is to directly create more jobs.  This bill is committed to helping the millions of people who have been out of work long term by initially focusing on local government jobs.

The effect of this bill will be felt nationwide.  It is designed to get people back to work immediately.  America needs this bill to get out of our job slump and help new members of the workforce get jobs.

All the fear mongering and deficit hysteria have not convinced the American public.  Several new national polls show voters think it is more important to support unemployed workers than reduce the deficit

A poll by CBS revealed that 52 percent of voters want to extend unemployment insurance “even if it means increasing the budget deficit.”  Another 62 percent told ABC that Congress should extend benefits even though the Republicans claim the bill would be “adding too much to the federal budget deficit.”  The recent Bloomberg survey showed that 70 percent of voters agree that reducing unemployment is more important than reducing the deficit.

Voters are telling politicians and pundits that the unemployed do matter in this recession; and the best part of it all is that it is not just registered Democrats.

In the above polls 35 percent of Republicans voters agree that the unemployment issue is more pressing than the deficit.  People across America are finally realizing the importance and necessity of extending unemployment insurance.

Even more disagreement in the Republican Party was caused when Senator McCain’s former economic advisor, Mark Zandi, came out and said that the unemployment issue needed to be handled before anything else because it alone would result in worsening the economy:

Former adviser to Sen. John McCain Mark Zandi has argued that helping the unemployed is more important than deficit reduction in the short-term, and that nickel-and-diming the unemployed now could jeopardize the economic recovery.

The recent polls are showing that the possibility for reform very is tangible.  The most important thing for voters to do is to continue to support their representatives in the fight for unemployment benefits and new jobs; with your persistent efforts the fight will be won.

The 60 votes to pass this bill was accomplished today with the appointing of a replacement to Senator Byrd of West Virginia.  America, we are on our way.