Yesterday, the Senate held its first hearing on gun reforms. At the hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked NRA president Wayne LaPierre if he really thinks the second amendment’s purpose is for citizens to arm themselves against the government. LaPierre responded that this was the purpose of the amendment, and also for citizens to protect themselves absent of the government. Baltimore Police Chief James Johnson called this view of gun rights “scary, creepy, and not based on logic”:

DURBIN: Your NRA members say, you just don’t get it. It’s not just about hunting, it’s not just about sports, it’s not just about shooting targets, it’s not just about defending ourselves from criminals, as Ms. Trotter testified. We need the firepower and the ability to protect ourselves from our government, from our government. From the police, if they knock on our doors we need to fight back. Do you agree with that point of view?

LAPIERRE: Senator, I think without any doubt if you look at why our Founding Fathers put it there, they had lived under the tyranny of King George, and they wanted to make sure these free people in this new country would never be subjugated again and have to live under tyranny. I also think though that what people all over the country fear today is being abandoned by their government if a tornado hits, if a hurricane hits, if a riot occurs, that they’re going to be out there alone and the only way they’re going to protect themselves in the cold in the dark when they’re vulnerable is with a firearm. And I think that indicates how relevant and how essential the second amendment is in today’s society to fundamental human survival.

DURBIN: Well, Chief Johnson, you heard it, the belief …

The corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council helps corporations write bills and then get state legislatures to pass them. But the group has beenAi??hemorrhagingAi??members since itsAi??involvementAi??in passing “Stand Your Ground” and voter suppression laws.

Yesterday, two renewable energy associations announced that they’d be leaving ALEC in response to it fighting green technology at the state level:

The American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association joined the industry-backed coalition for a year because they wanted a “seat at the table” to discuss hot energy issues, said AWEA spokesman Peter Kelley.

But the groups decided to drop out afterAi??ALECAi??adopted theAi??“Electricity Freedom Act”Ai??model bill in October, which would end requirements that utilities generate a set amount of electricity from renewable sources, such as wind and solar (E&ENews PM, Nov. 5, 2012). SEIA allowed its one-year membership to expire last fall, and AWEA dropped out earlier this month.

Click here to join our campaign calling on Democratic lawmakers and major corporations to dump ALEC.

Many Republicans in Congress have sought to avoid enacting common-sense reforms to gun policy, instead choosing to buckle to the NRA and its gun manufacturer backers. On MSNBC today, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) dismissed universal background checks, saying that he thinks video games are “a bigger problem” than guns because they “affect people”:

CHUCK TODD: Can you envision a way of supporting the universal background checks bill?

LAMAR ALEXANDER: Chuck, I’m going to wait and see on all these bills. I think video games is a bigger problems than guns, because video games affect people.

Watch it:

For the record, violent video games are very popular overseas as well. In the United Kingdom, the Call of Duty series was the top-selling game last year. But their gun murder rate is extremely low, with only 39 such killings in 2009.

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Some on the right like to claim that the poor do not pay taxes. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows why this is a myth. ITEP looked all the taxes that people in states pay — income, property, sales, and other forms — and found that almost every state asks poor and middle income families to pay more of their income in taxes than the very rich.

Here’s a chart of the top 10 worst states. Note that in Washington State, the poor actually pay six times as much of their incomes in taxes as the top 1 percent :

Among the states studied, Oregon and Vermont were deemed to have the most progressive tax systems.

Last week, the SenateAi??Health Education, Labor, and Pensions committee held a hearing on the state of mental health care in America, an important topic in light of the recent spate of mass shootings.

During the hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) asked Dr. Thomas Insel, who heads the National Institute of Mental Health, about how funding constraints are harming our battle against mental illness. Insel explained how the lack of funding harms research:

INSEL: It’s always frustrating because there’s, of course, never enough funding to support all of the best ideas that come in. We try to support about 20 percent of them. So about 1 in 5 grants gets funded. I hope I’m smartAi??enoughAi??to pick the best 20 percent. I’m afraid I’m not. And if I could do 30 percent I’d have a probably much better hit rate. It’s just hard to know often. That’s always the challenge. You never have the funding you have to do all of the science, some of which is spectacular, just sitting there in front of you.

Watch it (relevant section around 3:22):

The “National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) estimates states cut at least $4.35 billion in funding for mental health agencies from fiscal year 2009 through 2012”

Rep. John Barrow (D-GA)

As a bipartisan group of Senators gears up for an immigration overhaul that includes a path to citizenship, some right-wing lawmakers have started to dismiss such reforms. In an interview with a local news station, Blue Dog conservative congressman John Barrow (D-GA) failed to endorse a path to citizenship and suggested that if we secure the border and then deny jobs and benefits to immigrants, the “problem will take care of itself”:

BARROW: My policy is we need to secure the border, we need to secure the jobs, and we need to secure the benefits. If we do that, the problem will take care of itself.

Watch it:

The congressman did go on to advocate for some sort of agricultural exception, meaning that there would be room for immigrants to work to pick our fruit but not have access to other jobs or even basic benefits.

There is no evidence that an enforcement-only approach would actually resolve the immigration issue. Between 40-45 percent of undocumented immigrants did not even cross the U.S. border — rather, they overstayed their visas.

It is also unclear how denying immigrants jobs and benefits will benefit the country, when immigration is economically beneficial. A Center for American Progress report from 2010 found that comprehensive immigration reform could grow the economy by as much as $1.5 trillion over ten years.

Sen. Colbeck

Last month, Michigan passed an anti-union so-called “right to work” law that will undermine collective bargaining rights by allowing workers to accept unionAi??representationAi??without paying union dues.

Electablog has obtained audio from an Americans for Prosperity event where Republican SenatorAi??Patrick Colbeck proudly boasts that right-wing billionaire Dick DeVos bankrolled the push for this anti-union law:

COLBECK: Various bills from the legislatorai??i??s perspective are kinda broken into two ingredients: air cover and ground cover. Air cover is financial backing and making sure that weai??i??ve got contributions so that theyai??i??ve got enough money to go off and get this group out.

So, air cover is critical andAi??I gotta tell ya, Dick DeVos and Ron Weiser are unsung heroes on this great work, that they were critical on the air cover element and getting us across ai??i?? and they also opened up doors, frankly, with rarefied air that even Mike didnai??i??t have access to and even I definitely didnai??i??t have access to.

“Itai??i??s amazing what Republican politicians will say to Tea Party activists when they think no one is listening,” said Progress Michigan executive director Zack Pohl in a statement. “This just confirms what weai??i??ve long suspected, that Gov. Snyderai??i??s so-called Right to Work bill was bought-and-paid for by billionaire CEO Dick DeVos. Itai??i??s time for politicians like Snyder and Colbeck to start protecting middle class families, not the special interests.”

Listen to the audio here.

In upcoming budget negotiations, both progressive and conservative lawmakers have vowed to look at waste and unneeded spending in the Department of Defense (DOD). A new report from the Inspector General of the DOD finds one possible case of startling waste.

The report finds that the Defense Department may have paid up to $100,000 to six different defense contractors who then proceeded to use the funds to lobby for earmarks. That means that the government was essentially paying corporations to lobby for more government money.

The Inspector General does not suspect that these payments were intentional, and recommendsAi??Director of Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy issue new guidelines to avoid this improper spending in the future.

However this case illustrates the need for tighter oversight over the massive military budget, which makes up the largest share of the discretionary spending of the federal government.

Chris Christie (R-NJ) has often been portrayed as a moderate by the mainstream press. But today, Christie proved again that he’s an ally of the super-rich and Big Business by vetoing a popular hike to the minimum wage.

This minimum wage increase would’ve brought the wage to $8.50 and then tie it to the consumer price index for the future. Christie said he wanted instead to raise the wage by only 25 cents this year, and then 50 cents the next year and 25 cents more three years from now.

A recent Quinnipac poll found that 82 percent of New Jerseyans support simply raising the wage to $8.50, showing that the governor is siding with the far-right in his veto.

The school system is one of America’s last public treasures, but corporate interests represented by private schools, charter schools, and virtual schools are launching a new push to help privatize them.

Dubbed “School Choice Week,” a coalition of these schools is launching 3,500 events this week to advocate for school vouchers, the expansion of charter schools, and other policies that would help privatize education.

The kick-off event for the group featured a concert and rally hosted by the Jonas Brothers in Phoenix, Arizona. Organizers described their push for school vouchers as equivalent to the battle for civil rights and woman’s suffrage:

Just as whistle-stop tours were used to promote civil rights like womenai??i??s suffrage to the end of racial segregation, the National School Choice Week ai???Specialai??i?? will draw attention to the great civil rights fight of the 21st century: school choice for all Americans regardless of their race, income, zip code or learning ability.

But it should be noted that this coalition doesn’t consist just of grassroots activists like the civil rights movement did. On its website, you can see that it has support from the New Jersey Business and Industry Association and a number of virtual schools that would profit from greater access to public dollars.

And it’s also important to remember a key study released late last year that found that the proliferation of charter schools has actually increased racial segregation, a blow to civil rights.

It is commonly believed that corporations have too much influence in the government and use it to extract special loopholes and subsidies. A new report from a right-leaning government watchdog group shows that this influence may be even greater than most Americans realize.

The Government Accountability Institute found that for every dollar corporations spent lobbying in 2004, they received a $220 return on investment in the form of tax giveaways, subsidies, and other forms of governmentAi??largess. That’s a 22,000 percent return on investment from lobbying dollars.

If youai??i??re sick of money in politics,Ai??click here to join PCCCai??i??s Take Back Democracy campaign.

UPDATE: Watch GAI’s Peter Schweitzer talk about his report on Fox News

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

The NRA has been claiming that it supports tougher background checks, a claim that the media has been uncritically reporting — even as the organization killed a series of background check bills in Virginia.

But on Twitter late last night, the NRA made clear that it does not support Obama’s universal background check proposal:

By taking this extreme position, the NRA disagrees with 92 percent of Americans, who said in a CBS/New York Times poll that they support universal background checks. Tellingly, in its much-touted poll of its members, the NRA did not ask them if they support this proposal.

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Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has just put out a proposal to cut Medicare and Medicaid benefits. In the text of the proposal, his first recommendation is raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67.

To justify this, he cites “bipartisan” support:

BIPARTISAN SUPPORT:Ai??This policy was supported by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.Ai?? It was also included in the bipartisan Biden-Cantor deficit reduction negotiation, the bipartisan Obama-Boehner negotiations, and the Coburn-Lieberman Medicare proposal from last Congress. Prominent Democrats, such as Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), suggested that this policy should be part of the discussion to reform entitlements.Ai?? The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has provided this as an entitlement reform option.

Hatch’s statement makes it seem like Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) would accept a hike in the Medicare age. While the congressman did once suggest that it would be part of the discussion, he later backtracked and flatly said he will not accept a raising of the age, because it would just result in “transferring” costs to seniors.

And while Hatch can cite some elites who support raising the Medicare age, among the general public the proposal is only bipartisan in the opposition to it. A Washington Post poll last year found that American voters, by a margin of two-to-one, oppose raising the Medicare age.

Click hereAi??to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Late yesterday, a mysterious postAi??showed up on New York City’s craigslist ads. A “firm” is offering $20 to protesters to show up at an anti-wind energy protest outside the British Consulate in Manhattan. Here’s a screen grab of it:

Astroturfing is not a new tactic for corporate interests. For example, Ralph Reed’s lobbying firm tried to create a fake tea party movement to stop regulation of Wall Street.

If you’re sick of money in politics,Ai??click here to join PCCCai??i??s Take Back Democracy campaign.

Ex-Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) was always a friend to the insurance industry while he was in office. He was rewarded for this friendship last week when it was announced that he would become theAi??chief executive of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

Although Nelson claims he will not act as an official lobbyist, this is only because he is barred from registering as a lobbyist to lobby Congress for two years. Serving as the head of a major special interest organization that does have registered lobbyists will effectively grant him the same role.

In his new job, Nelson will earn $950,000 annually. That is a 445 percent increase over his former job as a U.S. Senator, where he earned $174,000.

If you want to shut the revolving door,Ai??click here to join PCCCai??i??s Take Back Democracy campaign.

The NRA likes to claim that it represents gun owners. But the truth is, it represents extreme positions more likely held by gun manufacturers than America’s responsible gun-owning families.

In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one group of responsible gun owners is taking a stand against the NRA. The Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show, in the wake of the tragic events at Sandy Hook, decided not to feature certain weapons at the event, including assault rifles.

This is their statement on their move:

As a hunting-focused event, we welcome exhibitors who wish to showcase products and firearms that serve the traditional needs of the sport. Clearly, we strongly support the 2nd Amendment. However, this year we have made the decision not to include certain products that in the current climate may attract negative attention that would distract from the strong focus on hunting and fishing at this family-oriented event and possibly disrupt the broader positive experience of our guests.

This set off an angry reaction by the NRA, which decided to pull out of the event altogether.

This move by this hunting show against the NRA could be the start of a movement, where responsible gun owners and hunters stand up to the group’s extreme views.

Sign our petition supporting Obamaai??i??s plan.

Some right-wing politicians want to raise the Medicare age to 67. This would reduce the deficit by $5.7 billion each year but pass on costs to seniors of $11.4 billion every year as well.

Rather than making health care more expensive for seniors, here’s a progressive deficit reduction idea. Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office saidAi??we could raise $114 billion over ten years — twice as much as raising the Medicare age — by limiting corporate tax deferrals.

The way to do this would be to subject all income earned by foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations to U.S. tax laws by limiting or eliminating deferrals for overseas profits. Right now, large corporations like Microsoft will shift their profits to overseas locations — such as remote islands in the Caribbean or Switzerland — to avoid paying taxes on them.

Click hereAi??to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

Image from Americans for Tax Fairness

The corporate front group Fix The Debt (FTD) wants to enact the Bowles-Simpson plan to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits while also unfairly lowering corporate tax rates.

To do this, it has assembled state chapters to push for this radical agenda at the grassroots level. It has picked out special leaders for these chapters who identify as both Democrats and Republicans, as evidence that the group has bipartisan appeal.

But besides their bipartisanship, many of these co-chairs andAi??steeringAi??committee members share another trait: they are corporate lobbyists. Here’s three states where FTD picked leaders who also work as corporate lobbyists:

MINNESOTA:

Former Republican State Senator Rudy Boschwitz: Boschwitz is the head of theAi??Boschwitz Associates lobbying firm, where he has worked for both Ball Aerospace & Technologies and TCF Bank. He is a state co-chair of FTD.
Former Democratic Congressman Tim Penny: Penny is the honorary chairman of the Dollar Coin Alliance, which is composed of mining companies trying to replace the U.S. dollar with a dollar coin. He is also on the board of Wells Fargo Advantage. He is a state co-chair of FTD.

PENNSYLVANIA:

Former Democratic State Representative TJ Rooney:Ai??Rooney is the president of Tri State Strategies Pennsylvania and the co-chair of FTD Pennsylvania. He’s a registered lobbyist.
Former Republican State Senator Earl Baker: Baker is on the state steering committee, and he boasts on his consultancy website that he has the “experience and knowledge to successfully represent you as a consultant in government relations” (lobbying).

MICHIGAN:

Former Republican Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema: Sikkema, who is a state co-chair for FTD, is the “Senior Policy Fellow” at Public Sector Consultants. He also helped run the campaign to defeat the renewable energy proposition on the state’s 2012 ballot.
Kevin McKinney, …

Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)

Blue Dog Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) has been a long-time favorite of the National Rifle Association. In his last election, he got an “A” rating from the group and scored an endorsement — something he was so proud about that his campaign put out a press release touting it.

Following the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Matheson has refused to talk about gun reforms and recently dismissed many of Obama’s proposed measures.

But while he is against common sense reforms on gun policies, he instead introduced a bill about violent video games. The bill would decree that:

It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or rent, or attempt to sell or rentai??i?? (1) any video game containing a content rating of ai???Adults Onlyai??? (as determined by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board) to any person under the age of 18; or (2) any video game containing a content rating of ai???Matureai??? (as determined by such Board) to any person under the age of 17.

Not only is Matheson avoiding the main issues relating to gun violence, but his bill is unconstitutional. In 2011, the Supreme Court struck down a nearly-identical law in California.

Sign our petition supporting Obamaai??i??s plan.

Dr. King on April 3rd, 1968, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee.

As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today, many Americans know this American hero as a champion of racial equality. But few know that he spent the last years of his life fighting for an end to the Vietnam War and a less militaristic foreign policy, or that he championed economic justice as well.

King spent the last days of his life working for justice for union workers in Memphis, Tennessee.

On April 3, 1968, King traveled there, where he delivered his famous ai???Iai??i??ve Been To The Mountaintopai??? speech, during which he endorsed a ai???human rights revolutionai??? based around eradicating racism, poverty, and militarism.

King had arrived in Memphis to support a strike by the cityai??i??s sanitation workers,Ai??who struckAi??to gain collective bargaining rights and better conditions following the deaths of two city workers in an accident. King called upon the city to respect the ai???dignity of labor,ai??? saying that all workers deserved fair treatment. He also said it was a crime for a rich country like the United States to pay some people starvation wages. Documentary footage from the AFSCME union captured Kingai??i??s address to the workers:

King implored people to think about a new kind of “unselfishness” in his last public speech, and asked people to support workers like the sanitation employees on strike:

That’s the question before you tonight. Not, “If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?” The question is not, “If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?” “If I do not stop to help the sanitation …

Following President Obama’s push for tougher gun regulations, the National Rifle Association (NRA) claimed that it supported the spirit of one of his proposals: expanding background checks for gun buyers.

The press widely reported this NRA stance:

CBS: NRA President: Group supporting of tighter background checks (1/17/2013)
Associated Press: NRA chief says group accepts background checks (1/17/2013)
The Hill: NRA chief “generally supportive” of strong background checks (1/17/2013)

But shockingly, at the very same time the NRA was claiming to support tougher background checks, it helped oppose and kill several Virginia bills introduced to enact such a policy. Here’s an excerpt from an email the NRA sent to its members in Virginia over the weekend, bragging about killing the background check bills last week:

Senate Bill 1136,Ai??Senate Bill 1232Ai??andAi??Senate Bill 1281Ai??would require a background check on all private firearm transfers, including between family members.Ai??Ai??The NRA opposes SB 1136, SB 1232 and SB 1281, and all three Senate bills were defeated.
Senate Bill 911Ai??andAi??Senate Bill 1001Ai??would require a background check on all private firearm transfers at a gun show.Ai?? Under current law, only licensed dealers must obtain such a check.Ai?? SB 911 was rolled into SB 1001.Ai??Ai??Consideration on SB 1001, opposed by the NRA, was passed over for the day and may be heard on Monday, January 21 at 8:00 a.m.

The NRA appears to be saying one thing and doing another.

Sign our petition supporting Obamaai??i??s plan.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Corporate lobbyists and their allies in Washington want to cut Medicare benefits by raising the eligibility age. This would cost seniors an additional $11.4 billion every year.

In an interview with the local press, Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley also points out that this would have a huge human cost:

ai???Across Oregon, at town hall after town hall, I hear stories like what we heard today — stories from seniors who are just trying to hang on to get to age 65 and access Medicare,ai??? said Merkley.

ai???And now, some folks in Washington are proposing raising the Medicare age from 65 to 67 or possibly higher. This is unacceptable. This hurts our seniors. For some seniors, raising the Medicare age would be a death sentence.ai???

Naked Capitalism’s Matthew StollerAi??runs the numbers and estimates that raising the Medicare age to 67 could lead to as many as an additional 1,261 senior deaths each year even if the Affordable Care Act is implemented on time.

Click hereAi??to pledge to hold any Democrat who agrees to a deal that cuts Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits accountable.

New York City Council candidate Yetta Kurland, who is running for the seat of mayoral contender and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, was endorsed by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a national organization that fights for progressive issues and candidates around the country.

With the last outstanding race for a New York State Senate seat called on Friday, campaign finance reform in the Empire State is also looking like a winner. Democrat Cecilia Tkaczyk’s victory over Republican George Amedore means there are now a majority of sitting senators who support the passage of reform, including the public financing of elections statewide.

Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, also credited “a grassroots army” for Tkaczyk’s victory. “Members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee worked with our allies to make 25,000 calls to voters and 215 donations, and helped secure the 19 vote margin of victory,” Taylor said in a statement.

Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN)

Newly-elected Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN) appeared on MSNBC today to explain his frustrations with the broken state of democracy in the United States. He told host Chuck Todd that he was told he needed to spend 30 hours each week fundraising instead of governing, and that this is one of the reasons we need to get money out of politics:

NOLAN: We’re told here, two things, one is the one with the most money gets the most vote, and number two, you should be spending 30 hours a week in fundraising and call time dialing for dollars.

TODD: Let me stop you there […] They want you to spend 30 hours a week making phones calls?

NOLAN: For money. And you know I’m not going to do that, I haven’t done that. I’m here to govern. But the fact is my last election contest years ago I think I spent $250,000. The total amount of money in my election contest this year was well over $20 million. You know, back when I was here before that was more than was spent in the presidential contest! We need to change the way we do politics. We need to take money out of politics, and Ai??the Congress needs to go back to work governing.

Watch it:

Want to help us pass badly needed reforms?Ai??Click here to join PCCCai??i??s Take Back Democracy campaign.