Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC)

How The National Security State Is Really Welfare For The Rich

Zaid Jilani — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:52:09 +0000

Since Glenn Greenwald’s blockbuster story on indiscriminate NSA spying on phone and Internet records, there has been appropriate outrage about American privacy and basic fourth amendment freedoms.

But there has been less attention on the fact that the national security state, largely through its outsourcing to private intelligence and defense contractors like Edward Snowden’s former employer Booz Allen Hamilton, has basically become a welfare program for the very rich. Here are a few numbers showing how:

$763,000: That’s the reimbursement cap for defense contractors — almost twice what President Barack Obama makes and over three times what vice president Joe Biden makes. Repeated attempts to lower this cap have failed.
3.2 Percent: That’s the unemployment rate in Arlington County, Virginia, the hub of the intelligence contractor state and location of the headquarters of Booz Allen Hamilton. In In January 2010, during the height of the recession, the wider United States had an unemployment rate of 9.8%, while Arlington maintained an unemployment rate of only 5.1%.
50-60 Percent: In 2007, that was the estimated percentage of “the workforce of the CIA’s most important directorate, the National Clandestine Service (NCS), responsible for the gathering of human intelligence,” that was “composed of employees of for-profit corporations.”
70 Percent: That’s the percentage of the intelligence community’s secret budget that has gone to private contractors, despite the fact that only one in four intelligence workers is a contractor — a sign that the privatization of the security state is driving up costs.
$107 million: The amount the top executives at the top five Pentagon contractors made. That’s “43 percent more than the heads of the five biggest U.S. banks, who made $75 million.”
$20 Million: That’s the compensation of Booz Allen Hamilton’s top five employees in the 2010 fiscal year. The Washington Post reports that the “ vast majority of” the company’s revenue “about 98 percent…comes from 1,300 clients in the federal government.” The average compensation of top executives at the top five Pentagon contractors was slightly higher at $21.5 million.
335 Soldiers: That’s how many American soldiers you could pay for one year at the cost of just one top defense contractor’s compensation package.
$130,545,396: Amount the private defense contractor industry spent lobbying in 2012, key to keeping this spigot of taxpayer money going.

We’re raising money for a Edward Snowden Legal Defense Fund to help him defend himself and tell his story. Can you chip in $10 and tell others too?

We’ve launched a petition to Congress to immediately investigate the NSA’s conduct, share the results with the public, and take action to change the law. Click here to sign our petition.

HELENA INDEPENDENT RECORD: Sources: Schweitzer very likely US Senate candidate

Laura Friedenbach — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:44:26 +0000

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political-action committee based in Washington, D.C., is leading an active “draft Schweitzer” movement, rounding up money and supporters. The group’s co-founder, Adam Green, visited with Schweitzer in Montana in May, and the group is buying Internet ads in Montana saying “Draft Brian Schweitzer for Senate!” So far, PCCC has raised $29,000 dedicated to helping the Schweitzer Senate campaign, signed up 415 people who say they’ll work as volunteers on the campaign and had nearly 18,300 people sign an on-line petition urging Schweitzer to run.

Progressive Groups Launch Campaign For Citizen-Funded Elections

Zaid Jilani — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:54:12 +0000

Yesterday, eight progressive organizations — the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn, DFA, CREDO, Rebuild the Dream, Wolf PAC, Working Families Organization, and Daily Kos — sent an open letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. John B. Larson (D-CT), chairman of the House Democrats’ Task Force on Election Reform, and Ranking Member Robert Brady (D-PA) urging them to take up legislation to create real citizen-funded elections — and not a weaker system that would reward candidates who continue to rake in big-dollar contributions. The letter reads as follows:

Leader Pelosi, Representative Larson, and Ranking Member Brady:

We have been following the work of the Task Force on Election Reform. We write to applaud your leadership and attention to the critical issue of campaign finance reform – and to inform you that we stand ready to mobilize millions of Americans around strong legislation that brings forth citizen-funded elections for Congress.

For us, the goal of such legislation is to increase the power of ordinary Americans in our democracy and to incentivize candidates to spend their time talking with ordinary Americans instead of special-interest donors. We ask you to put the full weight of Democratic Leadership behind a bill that achieves those goals – a bill such as The Fair Elections Now Act (HR 269, Yarmuth) and Grassroots Democracy Act (HR 268, Sarbanes).

While these two bills have differences, their core similarity is that they create a robust system of matching funds for candidates who opt to only raise small-dollar donations. This would be game changing. Candidates would be incentivized to spend their time courting ordinary Americans and would have dramatically less incentive to court big-money, special-interest donors. We understand that progress is being made on merging these bills into one, and we look forward to rallying the public around such a bill.

We cannot get behind legislation that has provisions similar to those in Rep. David Price’s HR 270. By matching donations of up to $260 while allowing candidates to continue raising $2,600 donations, this bill would perversely incentivize candidates to call big-money, special-interest donors and say, “Have I got a deal for you. Normally, I’d ask you for $2,600. But now, if you give me $1,300, you’ll get a 5-to-1 match on $260 of that and your donation will count as $2,600.” Candidates would still court the same big-money donors they court now, but offer them a taxpayer subsidy. Ordinary Americans would not be newly courted or empowered. Such a bill all but promises not to achieve the core goals of citizen-funded elections, and we could not support it.

Furthermore, as you debate campaign finance reform, we ask you not to lump together groups that organize mass amounts of regular people around the public interest with small groups of big-money donors who have a special interest. One is the problem with our democracy while the other is the solution. Our system of campaign finance reform should incentivize the solution.

Relatedly, there is no reason that a committee funded by small-dollar donations from ordinary Americans should have lesser-prioritized speech in our political process than candidate committees or party committees. Advantages like Lowest Unit Charge for television ads should apply to any political speech that is funded with small-dollar donations. We would oppose any bill that enshrined new advantages to speech by political insiders over speech funded in small-dollar amounts by ordinary Americans. However, we agree that dark-money organizations that represent a few special-interest donors should not get such advantages.

As you move forward with your decision-making, we hope you will factor in these points. We are eager to work with you on citizen-funded-election legislation and to be strong grassroots partners in this effort.

Sincerely,

Adam Green, Progressive Change Campaign Committee Co-Founder
Stephanie Taylor, Progressive Change Campaign Committee Co-Founder
Anna Galland, MoveOn.org Executive Director
Jim Dean, Democracy For America Chair
Michael Kieschnick, CREDO CEO
Becky Bond, CREDO Political Director
Van Jones, Rebuild the Dream President and Co-Founder
Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos Founder
Cenk Uygur, Wolf PAC Founder
Daniel Cantor, Working Families Organization National Director

Click here to sign on as a citizen co-signer of the letter for bold campaign finance reform.

Elizabeth Warren Demands That Obama Administration Reveal Secret Trade Deal Negotiations

Zaid Jilani — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:25:09 +0000

The Obama administration is currently working with numerous countries to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a massive new trade agreement. Labor, environmental, and human rights groups worry that this trade deal may undermine financial regulation, offshore American jobs, reduce environmental protections, and decrease access to medicine.

The best way to ensure this does not happen is to let Americans know what’s happening in the negotiations. Unfortunately, while over 600 corporate advisors have access to these negotiations, most Members of Congress, the public, journalists, and civil society do not.

Today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) called on U.S. Trade Representative nominee Michael Froman to reveal these secret trade negotiations by revealing the bracket text of the agreement or at least provide information on the level of detail on negotiations made available to advisory committees. From the text of a press release from Warren’s office, detailing a letter to Froman:

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) today, in a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) nominee Michael Froman, called on his support for increased transparency in trade negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Sen. Warren expressed concerns about the Administration’s record of transparency specifically during the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.

“If members of the public do not have reasonable access to the terms of the agreements under negotiation, then they are unable to offer real input into the process,” Senator Warren wrote in the letter. “Without transparency, the benefit from robust democratic participation – an open marketplace of ideas – is considerably reduced.”

Sen. Warren highlights the Administration’s unwillingness to provide to the public composite bracketed text relating to the negotiations. This text includes proposed language from the United States and other countries, and serves as the focal point for negotiations. She noted that the Bush Administration, while not embracing full transparency, at least released a scrubbed version of the bracketed text in 2001 during negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

In the letter to Froman, Sen. Warren asks the USTR nominee if he would immediately make public the bracketed text of the TPP, or at least support the Bush Administration’s half-measure toward transparency. She also asks Froman to provide information on the level of detail on negotiations made available to advisory committees, so that those groups can give complete and accurate advice to the Administration during the development of the agreement.

Read the full Warren letter here.

CAPITAL TONIGHT: From The Left, More Heat For Cuomo

Matt Wall — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:02:28 +0000

The concern that Cuomo isn’t really one of them continues to this month as the left presses him on passing a system of publicly financed political campaigns. Cuomo unveiled the bill for elections reform this week and it includes a $41 million public system that’s similar to New York City’s program. Still, this the $20 million man trying to get the money out of politics, a governor who has assembled a massive war chest from a variety of interests while also backing an overhaul of the very system he’s so thrives in.

It’s a dissonant note for some. So that’s why a liberal group, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, is unveiling today a petition to pressure singer Paul Simon, who is slated to perform at a high-dollar Cuomo fundraiser, to support publicly financed elections.

HUFFINGTON POST: Progressives Lay Out Campaign Finance Reform Principles

Laura Friedenbach — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:03:00 +0000

A coalition of progressive leaders, including MoveOn.org Executive Director Anna Galland, Rebuild the Dream President Van Jones and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas are pressuring Democratic House leaders crafting campaign finance reform legislation to be introduced this year...Signing the letter, along with Galland, Jones and Moulitsas, are Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founders Stephanie Taylor and Adam Green, Democracy for America chair Jim Dean, CREDO CEO Michael Kieschnick, CREDO political director Becky Bond, Wolf PAC founder Cenk Uygur and Working Families Party Executive Director Dan Cantor.

POLITICO INFLUENCE: Progressive Groups Push Hill on Election Reform

Laura Friedenbach — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:58:32 +0000

A group of liberal groups is out with a letter Wednesday urging Democratic Hill leaders to come to a consensus on a public financing elections bill. Currently, three different proposals are being considered — and the groups urged lawmakers to merge the bills into one proposal. At the heart of the bills is a proposal to create a system of publicly financed congressional elections. The groups — which include the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn.org, Democracy For America, CREDO and others — support the Yarmuth and Sarbanes proposals, but they oppose the Price bill.

MSNBC: Activists push uphill to curtail NSA surveillance

Laura Friedenbach — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:56:03 +0000

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is among those organizations trying to keep the National Security Agency’s phone and Internet record surveillance practices in the spotlight. On Wednesday, the group delivered a petition demanding a congressional investigation to Senate Judiciary Chair Pat Leahy, D-Vt., as well as two prominent supporters of the surveillance program, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The petition has nearly 97,000 signatories.

THE ATLANTIC: The Obama Surveillance Revelations Are Pushing Progressives Over the Edge

Laura Friedenbach — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:52:27 +0000

The email went out shortly after midnight Thursday, a few hours after the news broke about the Obama administration's large-scale monitoring of Americans' cell-phone records: "You are being spied on." It was sent by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a leading liberal organization, to its list of supporters, and it asked them to sign a petition demanding an investigation of the cell-phone surveillance. "It's simply unacceptable," the email said. As further revelations about domestic surveillance have emerged in recent days, the group has kept up the drumbeat. The response, PCCC officials say, has been overwhelming -- a sign of the widespread liberal anger at Obama over civil liberties.

CNN: Progressive group fundraises for NSA leaker’s legal defense

Laura Friedenbach — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:47:27 +0000

A progressive group upset with news about the breadth of the Obama Administration's surveillance efforts started raising money Monday to help self-confessed leaker Edward Snowden's legal defense. Snowden admitted Sunday he leaked information to The Guardian and The Washington Post about the large, classified telephone and internet surveillance programs aimed at thwarting terrorism. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced the initiative with an e-mail from Stephen Kohn, the executive director of the National Whistleblower Center, which has represented federal employees in the past.