raul grijalva

Check this out. This is a media report from a newspaper in Arlington, Virginia:

“One would expect that most demonstrations outside IRS headquarters in D.C. involve calls for lower taxes. This afternoon, however, congressional candidate Del. Patrick Hope (D) held a press conference outside the IRS to call for higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.”

Around this time of year, the right tries to dominate the news with an anti-government message. But not this year. PCCC co-founder Adam Green announced on MSNBC that progressives are fighting back:

“This week as Paul Ryan is talking about lowering taxes on millionaires, and cutting corporate tax rates, and cutting programs that would benefit jobs and education, we have progressive candidates across the country who are actively saying let’s have millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share so that we can fund massive jobs and education programs.”

At media events across the nation, progressive candidates for Congress went on offense — delivering 36,000 petitions and calling on their opponents to support requiring millionaires to pay their fair share in taxes in order to invest in education and jobs. And their efforts paid off. Progressive candidates generated local and national news — changing the conversation around Tax Day.

Then, six of these candidates joined the PCCC for a Tax Day national media call with Rep. Raul Grijalva, Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress to lay out a progressive vision for the country. Click here to listen!

We also made news in the Washington Post, the LA Times, Politico, NBC, and local papers from Maine to Wisconsin.

Imagine having these people in Congress!

Will you donate $1 each to reward these 11 progressive candidates for their boldness? Click here.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)

President Obama has endorsed a plan to cut Social Security benefits through a so-called “chained CPI.” Today, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ),  the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued a statement saying he would “never support” the chained CPI, which is the cornerstone of the Obama deal’s changes to Social Security. Here’s his full statement:

“Federal law has always prohibited Social Security from contributing to the deficit. Any talk of shrinking the program to ‘save money’ is flawed from the start because Social Security is not part of the national budget in the same way as military spending – it’s paid for through a dedicated payroll tax separate from general budgeting.

“Some have suggested that Social Security benefits should be based on a chained Consumer Price Index (CPI), which assumes that when the price of one item rises, people buy something else – no matter how popular or necessary that original item might be. If this change goes into effect, Social Security benefits would stop reflecting the rising prices of popular goods.

“The average Social Security recipient rakes in a whopping $13,000 a year. If we pass chained CPI, projected annual cuts for a typical retiree would be about $560 a year by age 75, $984 a year by age 85 and $1,400 a year by age 95.

“The less money our Social Security recipients – including 9 million veterans – are able to spend, the less money goes to the businesses that create jobs. Chained CPI makes life harder for millions of retirees, weakens Social Security and doesn’t reduce the deficit by a penny. It’s a Beltway fig leaf that I will never support, and I call on my colleagues to make their feelings known as soon as possible before this becomes yet another piece …

Super PACs are the latest vehicle that millionaires and corporations are using to manipulate our political process. But a progressive congressman in New Mexico just showed that good progressive organizing withstand this Big Money onslaught.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) won his primary challenge yesterday, but not without a fight. A Super PAC calling itself the “Opportunity for All Committee” flooded his district with direct mail pieces alleging that he had taken money from insurance companies and consequently voted to cut Medicare by $716 billion. It also urged support for his primary opponent Amanda Aguirre.