April 15th is the deadline for your federal tax return. As you mull over the taxes you paid to the federal government this year, check out this graphic from the National Priorities Project showing where your taxes went in 2012. As you can see, the military got the lion’s share of funding, getting 26 times as much as scientific research and seven times as much as education:
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK) set off a media firestorm for his use of the offensive term “wetbacks” to describe immigrant workers. He has since apologized and said that he supports immigration reform.
But Young’s words aren’t the only thing he should apologize for. Throughout his career in Congress, he has repeatedly taken votes that harm the lives of undocumented immigrants and make it more difficult to achieve comprehensive immigration reform. Here’s a list of some of the worst votes:
He voted YES in August of 1996 to make English the official language of the United States
He voted YES in March of 1996 for an amendment that would’ve denied public education to undocumented workers
He FAILED TO VOTE for HR 3722, which would’ve denied hospitals federal funds for emergency care for undocumented immigrants unless they turned over certain private information on immigrants.
He voted NO on the DREAM Act of 2010 which would’ve provided a path to citizenship for qualified undocumented young people.
He has voted to support E-Verify, the flawed program used by the federal government to monitor the status of undocumented immigrant workers.
He has co-sponsored a bill to deny Social Security benefits to undocumented immigrants who have worked hard and paid into the system.
Congressman Young was right to apologize for his remarks, but if he truly supports comprehensive immigration reform he must back off his previous votes as well and support humane reforms.
Democratic Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Edward Markey reached out to progressive activists around the country on Thursday, doing a 45-minute phone call with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee… [He] touted his history favoring public financing of campaigns, advocating for net neutrality, opposing the Defense of Marriage Act and supporting a public option in health insurance, and eventually a single payer system.
Lanny Breuer
LannyAi??Breuer, who was theAi??Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Obama, conceded in a recent PBS documentary that “no Wall Street executives” were prosecuted under his tenure.
Now we know one reason why Breuer may’ve been so soft on the Big Banks. He has just announced that he will be returning to Covington & Burling, a white collar defense law firm that “represented corporations that were investigated by the criminal division” of the Department of Justice.
Ethics law prevents him from “appearing before the DOJ on a clientai??i??s behalf for two years. He can, however, counsel a client on a new matter before the department from behind the scenes.”
Breuer isn’t the only big get for the firm this year. Former Republican Senator Jon Kyl (AZ) and former Democratic Rep. Howard Berman (CA) both joined the firm’s lobbying practice recently. It also happens to be the firm that Attorney General Eric Holder — who notoriously failed to hold banks accountable as well — worked at.
UPDATE: The American Bankers Association was one of the firm’s clients in 2012, giving it $40,000. Wells Fargo was as well, giving it $120,000.
(Photo credit: @DustinSlaughter)
Despite continuing a program that gives hundreds of millions of dollars to private developers, the city of Chicago is forging ahead on plans to close 54 elementary schools — mostly schools that serve low-income students.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) brought thousands of teachers, students, and their allies into the streets yesterday to protest the school closures. Progress Illinois filmed the march. Watch it:
The demonstrated culminated in an act of civil disobedience where 127 people were cited for sitting down and blocking public streets. “So lemme tell you what youai??i??re gonna do. On the first day of school, you show up at your real school! You show up at your real school! Donai??i??t let these people take your schools!” said CTU president Karen Lewis at the rally, in a sign that there is further civil disobedience to come.
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A child soldier with the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). (Photo credit: Mount Holyoke University)
The National Rifle Association (NRA), the chief gun industry lobby in the United States, doesn’t just want to stop gun reform here — it is also working to keep guns in the hands of warlords and those who deploy child soldiers abroad by attacking the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and making sure the U.S. doesn’t join it.
Watch a recent Al Jazeera English documentary about the Arms Trade Treaty and the effort by 150 countries to regulate the flow of arms into conflict zones:
Last Friday, the Senate voted 53-46 for an amendment by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) to prevent the Obama administration from joining the ATT. Every single Senate Republican voted in favor, and seven Democratic Senators joined them.
These Senators all offered their own arguments and reasons for voting against the ATT, but the money they received from the NRA speaks for itself. Ai??The Senators who voted against the treaty received $69,499 from the NRA. When you add in funding from the further-right “Gun Owners Of America,” that number jumps up to $78,543. Ai??But that just includes direct contributions to campaigns. If you add in the amounts the gun lobby spent on independent expenditures — outside ad-buys in support of one of these Senators — the number jumps up to a whopping $225,377 this election cycle alone.
Click here to sign on in support of the White Houseai??i??s bold plan to stop gun killings.
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA)
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), one of the most extreme House Republicans, is running for his party’s Senate nomination in Georgia. In an interview with a local radio host last week, Broun went through a list of agencies he wants to abolish, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, which administers federal student loans:
BROUN: I have proposed totally closing down the Department of Education […] Why don’t we shut down the EPA? I’d like to see that happen, also. […] The Department of Energy should be closed, and the Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce, all these things should be closed.
Listen to it (relevant section at 3:09):
Later in the interview, Broun says he wants to “permanently lower corporate taxes and capital gains taxes to zero” — meaning that while at the same time he is calling for the government to stop helping students get through school, and protect our environment and workforce, he wants to give corporations and the rich the largest tax cut ever in history.
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)
Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) is one of his party’s few remaining advocates for serious campaign finance reform. Every year he co-authors a bill that would create a system of public financing for Congressional elections, which would allow lawmakers to run for office without having to court corporate special interests.
In a live chat with Blue America readers this afternoon, blogger Heather Parton (Digby) asked Jones about why he supports this overhaul. He replied by explaining how the leader of his party kicked him off of Ai??a committee for failing to raise enough money for the party:
I believe one the problems in Congress is that both parties are responsible for raising money for the next election. As I have said many times, I am part of the problem, but I work across party lines to be part of the solution. Recently, I was one of four Republicans taken off a committee, Financial Services, which deals with banking, insurance and securities. An aide to the Speaker of the House spoke to the press and acknowledged that one reason, among two reasons, is because I did not raise money for the party. Members in both parties will tell you that this is a problem in Washington. I am a cosponsor of legislation, that will probably not move forward, that will help resolve this problem.
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An historical photo of the factory where the fire occurred. (Source: University of Illinois)
102 years ago today, there was a tragic fire at a Triangle Waist Company factory in New York City. Because the factory lacked adequate escape routes and other safety measures, 146 people perished in the fire, almost a third of the employees.
In the aftermath of the fire, the company’s two owners were brought up on manslaughter charges but acquitted. However, they did later face a civil suit where they were eventually forced to pay out $75 per deceased victim.
The larger social consequence of the fire was a renewed focus on worker safety, led primarily by the labor movement. The New York State Legislature created Factory Investigating Commission to investigate working conditions and factories and to author reports that helped stir lawmakers to pass a spree of labor and worker safety reforms.
The labor movement and later the public interest community continued to make worker safety a priority, and, in 1970, the federal government created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to oversee the working conditions.
While OSHA and various other reform measures greatly improved conditions for workers, your right to be safe on the job is still far from ensured. In 2011, 4,609 workers died on the job; OSHA is so understaffed that its 2,200 inspectors are expected to oversee workplaces where 130 million Americans go to work.
And one way American-based corporations continue to deny their workers safe conditions is by shuttering factories here and moving overseas. For example, Wal-Mart was one major contractor at a garment factory in Bangladesh where a fire killed 112 people late last year. The company “reportedly decided against aiding factory upgrades that could have stopped fires like last month’s blaze at …
After President Obama’s call to raise the minimum wage in January, polls showed that Americans backed an increase, with even 50 percent of self-identified Republicans doing so.
Yet congressional Republicans, cribbing talking points from corporate lobbyists opposed to an increase, balked at Obama’s proposal, claiming it will harm the economy.
But these wild claims of economic destruction resulting from a minimum wage hike are not new. They are the very same sorts of scare tactics used to oppose the 2007 minimum wage hike that most Republicans also opposed. Here’s what Republicans and leading right-wing pundits said at the time:
Right-wing pundit John Stossell: A wage hike would be “sticking it to low-skilled workers” and lead to higher unemployment. [January 2007]
Republican Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY): Raising the wage will “put mom and pop businesses and their employees out of business” if not accompanied with another huge tax cut for the rich. [January 2007]
Republican President George W. Bush: Simply raising the wage would “punish the millions of small businesses that are creating most of the new jobs in our country.” [January 2007]
The Heritage Foundation: This leading right-wing think tank claimed “raising the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour would cost at least 8 percent of affected workers their jobs.” [January 2007]
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA): Kingston said the minimum wage is just an “arbitrary number” but that raising it would “decrease the number of jobs, thus hurting those whom we are supposed to be helping.” [January 2007]
Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE): Terry said that raising the wage would be “nothing more than a Band-Aid on a broken little toe. While their intentions may be good, and I believe they are, their philosophical approach is economically and socially flawed. In reality, this plan will create …
Last Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a non-binding amendment that sought to put the Senate on record opposing using “chained CPI” to calculate Social Security and Veterans’ benefits — which would cut benefits for both programs.
While Sanders had originally pushed for a voice vote, he was convinced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) to back off of this demand and allow the amendment under a voice vote. The Senate then passed Sanders’s amendment, putting it on the record against chained CPI.
While the vote was non-binding, and the lack of a roll call vote means we are unable to see which Senators are in favor of chained CPI, it is an important victory that not enough Senators supported it to block Sanders’s amendment.
Last night, the city of Chicago unveiled a plan to close 54 elementary schools, mostly in low-income and African American areas — meeting fierce resistance from parents, teachers, and students who fear for their safety in longer commutes to new, overcrowded schools. The authors of the plan claim that it’s needed to close a $1 billion city deficit.
But a look at the city’s finances show that it is wasting potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on financing private development projects — all culled from property taxes that traditionally were used to finance the school system instead.
Known as Tax Increment Financing (TIF), this program diverts a portion of property taxes in certain districts to fund development projects — which siphon money off to contractors and private developers — instead.
Estimates of how much money is diverted to the TIF projects range from $500 million to $800 million, and some of the arrangements have been anAi??embarrassmentAi??to the city. For example, the city gave $30 million “to the developers of River Point, an upscale office complex on the banks of the Chicago River downtown, in the hottest real estate market in the city.”
This morning, a parent-led organization called Raise Your Hand held a press conference highlighting the impact of the closings on special education students in particular (6,000 are expected to be impacted). “Chicago Public Schools has traumatized these families,” says the first speaker. Watch it:
With school closing plan causing uproar in many Chicago communities, and it is expected to impact 30,000 kids and 1,000 teachers overall if enacted — making it difficult to see why the city is closing schools but not looking at the TIF program for savings.
Last year, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) held a strike to fight against school privatization, decaying school infrastructure, and unfair contracts for teachers. Their popular strike won a series of concessions from Chicago Public Schools, despite opposition from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But the CTU is once again being forced to mobilize as CPS has unveiled a plan to close almost 50 neighborhood schools, in a scorched earth budget-cutting maneuver. CPS principals were astonishingly not even told their schools would be closing until 6 a.m. today. “Iai??i??m angry. Iai??i??m upset. Iai??i??m shaking to the core. I didnai??i??t think theyai??i??d actually go through with this, the largest number of closings ever. Thereai??i??s been no real planning,” saidAi??Clarice Berry, president of Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.
Chicago has never closed more than a dozen schools in a single year, and Emanuel reportedly pushed for closing so many at one time, deciding to offer a five-year moratorium on closings in the future as a bargaining chip.
CTU is planning a rally for next Wednesday to bring together students, teachers, parents, and other community members to protest against the school closure plan.
UPDATE: The full list has been unveiled. 54 schools are slated to be closed. They are all elementary schools and almost all of them are in low-income and/or black neighborhoods.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, warned that Democrats who vote against the assault weapons ban could depress liberal turnout in the 2014 midterm election. “With guns, it will be a major election issue for Democrats. Opposing strong gun laws could mean depressing their base, which in the off year would be a very bad idea,” Green said. He said if any Democratic primary challengers emerge, votes against gun laws could become lines of attack.“If there is a credible primary challenger, a vote against strong gun laws would absolutely hurt an incumbent Democrat,” he said.
Late yesterday, the New Hampshire state house took a bipartisanAi??189-139 vote to ask the U.S. Congress to overturn the disastrous Citizens United decision by amending the U.S. Constitution.
The text of the bill explicitly states that the legislature is “requesting Congress to begin the process for a constitutional amendment establishing that human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights.”
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D)
There are signs that Congress may be backing off support for a renewed assault weapons ban, and even a proposal to require universal background checks for gun purchases may be in peril.
But out West, one state is taking the lead, not waiting for Congress to act. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) today signed into law legislation that will expand background checks and limit the size of ammunition magazines. As Salon’s David Sirota points out, Hickenlooper was at firstAi??hesitantAi??to embrace reform, but polling showed that it was popular and he was eventually pushed by activists to help pass it.
Click here to sign on in support of the White Houseai??i??s bold plan to stop gun killings.
A growing number of people across the ideological spectrum are calling for breaking up the Big Banks — which would threaten to harm the global economy if they go under.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this year, I discussed this idea with William Temple, a Tea Party activist and colonial re-enactor from Brunswick, Georgia:
THE DAILY CHANGE: There was another thing in [Rand Paul’s] speech that I think should appeal to everyone, people who aren’t even into politics. He said it’s not conservative to bail out bankers, Big Banks.
TEMPLE: That’s right.
THE DAILY CHANGE: There’s actually a group of Republicans, David Vitter is one of them, who are saying if these banks are going to get so big that they demand bailouts we should just break them up, we shouldn’t let them run our country. What do you think about that?
TEMPLE: Ai??I agree. That we should never have any entity in this country that is propped up by our government. It also shows that our government and big corporations are in bed together. You rotate out of a big company and you go right into politics. Or you go right out ofAi??politicsAi??and into a big company. And these companies are such, there’s nothing wrong with being a big company, but when a company gets so big that they can influence legislation — and work the system to such a degree that the small mom and pop shops, the small businesses that are trying to get started can’t compete. And when you’ve got government passing legislation that makes it almost impossible for any new entity to even get started, things are out of whack […]
THE DAILY CHANGE: And you would agree with people like David Vitter that say when an institution is …
Student debt is a huge problem in the United States, with the average student debt hitting a record high of $27,000 recently. But college wasn’t always this expensive in the United States. In fact, in some parts of the country it was virtually free.
For many years, dating back to the 19th century, California state colleges and universities were tuition-free. At most, students were asked to pay a small fee to cover certain university expenses (in 1899 this was $10 per semester).
When Gov. Ronald Reagan (R) took office, heAi??insisted on imposing a new feeAi??that would later become synonymous with tuition, thus ending Californiaai??i??s tradition of providing virtually free education to qualified college students. Since then, tuition has slowly skyrocketed, eclipsing the ability of many middle class Californians to get an affordable education.
In the past five fiscal years, California public colleges and universities have had the second-sharpest increases in tuition among any state in the country. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities illustrates this:
But 1,800 miles away, another state may get a chance at giving its students tuition-free college. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Halter has unveiled a plan called the “Arkansas Promise” which would make any state college tuition-free for a student who graduated from an Arkansas high school and can maintain a 2.5 grade point average.
We’ve launched a campaign to support Halterai??i??s bold plan to guarantee tuition-free college to students who work hard.Ai??Click here to sign on as a citizen supporter of the Arkansas Promise.
Last year, Michigan Republicans pushed through a radical “right to work” anti-union law. In the days before the law was passed, thousands of Michiganders protested, as it was being pushed through in a lame duck session so a number of defeated Republicans could vote for the unpopular measure.
During those protests, Fox News contributorAi??Steven Crowder claimed that a union protester punched him. The network ran video showing one protester punching Crowder, giving the impression that it was an unprovoked attack. That video has 1.4 million views on YouTube, and was used as anti-unionAi??propagandaAi??by the network.
Crowder soon filed a police report following the December 11 incident. But the county prosecutor,Ai??Stuart Dunnings III, has now said that he will refuse to prosecute. Dunning explained that he viewed an unedited clip of the same situation — captured by The Young Turks — and that it clearly shows that the protester who threw the punch was first pushed down, and that it appears that he was simply acting in self defense against a larger crowd that first attacked him.
Watch the unedited footage:
“Iai??i??m not holding that against him, but why would they provide the edited video? The longer video clearly shows the guy got pushed down and came up swinging,” said Billings.
Bill Halter
Former Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, an Arkansas Democratic Party candidate for governor, today unveiled a new proposal that would allow all students in the state who have at least a 2.5 grade point average to attend a state college tuition-free. An except from a statement Halter released about his plan:
ai???I call it the Arkansas Promise. Simply stated, if you go to high school in Arkansas, qualify for a lottery scholarship, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and plan to attend college in the state, we promise to pay your college tuition. The overall scholarship level would be set at the tuition level of the highest-cost, four-year public university in Arkansas.ai???
As millions of Americans face steep college debt, the Arkansas Promise could be a model for college affordability and achievement across the nation.
ai???If you wouldnai??i??t hire a football coach who doesnai??i??t aspire to winning the national championship and have a plan to do so, then why would you hire a Chief Executive Officer of the state who doesnai??i??t aspire to help make Arkansas the best state in America and have a plan to make it happen,” continues Halter’s statement.
Recall that Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) members mobilized in huge numbers to back Halter in his primary against conservative Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR). As a result of that primary, Lincoln backed and passed a tough measure to regulate Wall Street banks.
We’re launching a campaign today to support Halter’s bold plan to guarantee tuition-free college to students who work hard. Click here to sign on as a citizen supporter of the Arkansas Promise.
Most Americans want the minimum wage to be raised — 73 percent of them, including 50 percent of self-identified Republicans. But Big Business wants to fight an increase, and has enlisted its allies in Congress to block it.
Last week, the Senate held a hearing on the minimum wage and a business owner testified that a wage hike may force businesses to fire workers. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) deftly dismantled this talking point, pointing out that, for example, it would only cost McDonalds four cents more per meal to provide a $10.10 minimum wage to all of its workers.
WARREN: During my Senate campaign, I ate a number 11 at McDonald’s many, many times a week. I know the price on that. $7.19. According to the data on the analysis of what would happen if we raised the minimum wage to $10.10 over three years, the price increase on that item would be about four cents. So instead of being $7.19 it would be $7.23. Are you telling me that’s unsustainable?
BUSINESS OWNER DAVID RUTIGLIANO: Senator Warren, not all restaurants are created equal. I’m in a full service restaurant business. McDonalds has efficiencies and they operate completely differently than I do. I have many jobs, many jobs that pay well above minimum wage. We have a retirement plan. We offer health insurance to our salaried employees. So my business is a little different. I can’t raise a four cent price. I mean I don’t have, I don’t operate like a fast food restaurant. I would hope you appreciate the distinction.
WARREN: I do appreciate the distinction and I’m not going to be in the business of being a McDonald’s representatives but they would talk about having some higher paid jobs and some opportunities for management and advancement …
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Many Republicans and even some Democrats have been talking about cutting Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age or using a Chained CPI to reduce payments.
But Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) set himself apart today by introducing a bill to do the opposite — increase benefits. Under Harkin’s bill, the benefits formula would be readjusted in a way that boosts benefits to beneficiaries by an average of $70 a month. In order to fund this increase and to maintain Social Security benefits for decades to come, Harkin would lift the Social Security payroll tax cap, ensuring that income aboveAi??$113,700 would be taxed as well.
Yesterday, the Philadelphia City Council voted 11-6 to pass an ordinance requiring that certain employers offer their workers paid sick days.
While this is a wide margin, Mayor Nutter is expected to veto the bill, as he did in 2011. It requires a two-thirds majority to overrule the veto, which means that the council would have to find one more “yes” vote.
One other city that is pushing for a paid sick days policy is New York City, where we’re working to pass such a plan.
Ed Schultz broke news last night: His MSNBC show is moving to Saturday and Sunday from 5pm to 7pm. Ai??Nobody on TVAi??is a stronger voice for working people than Ed Schultz. He deserves to know we treasure that voice — and will keep watching him.
Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green will be on Ed’s radio show today at 2:05pm and will tell him how many people signed the card, and will read a note on the air.Ai??So sign today.
When unions were attacked in Wisconsin and Ohio, Ed was there.Ai??When Whirlpool fired workers in Iowa, Ed was there. When Bain Capital was moving jobs overseas from Illinois, Ed was there.
Ed has also been a great friend to the PCCC — featuring us on his show many times, and having multiple PCCC members on to tell their stories.
UPDATE: Over 7,900 people have signed on to thank Ed.
UPDATE II: PCCC co-founder Adam Green appeared on Schultz’s radio show to announce we now have over 10,000 thank yous. He read notes from PCCC members and will continue to deliver thank yous and notes to Ed.
UPDATE III: We now haveAi??16,433 signers
UPDATE IV:Ai??Almost 20,000 people have thanked Ed Schultz for always standing up for working people.
UPDATE V: Almost 25,000 people have signed on.
UPDATE VI, MARCH 15th: Over 40,000 people have now signed on.
the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is circulating an online thank-you card for Schultz to credit his work on behalf of workers; by 3 p.m. it had more than 16,000 signatories. Perhaps such a number gauges the discontent among working class and union advocates in MSNBC’s decision.