The U.S. government offers very low-interest — in some cases, near-zero interest rate — loans — that is, if you are a Big Bank on Wall Street. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) doesn’t think it’s right for the government to give a better deal to the banks than to the American people.

So she has introduced a bill that would require federal student loan interest rates to match the rates given to banks. She spoke about this bill today on the Senate floor:

WARREN: Right now as I speak the federal government offers far lower interest rates for loans every single day. They just don’t do it for everyone. Right now the Big Bank can get a loan through the Federal Reserve discount window at a rate of about three quarters of one percent. but this summer a student who’s trying to get a loan to go to college will pay almost seven percent. In other words, the fed gov is going to charge interest rates nine times higher than the rate they charge the biggest banks. The same banks that destroyed millions of jobs and nearly broke the economy. That isn’t right. And that’s why I’m introducing legislation today to give students the same deal that we give the banks.

Watch Warren’s speech:

Warren’s legislation, called the Bank On Student Loan Fairness Act, will mandate that the Federal Reserve work to provide funds for the Department of Education to provide the same rates that it provides to Big Banks for a period of one year while Congress works on a long-term solution.

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National Review Online writer Kevin Williamson was on MSNBC today and claimed that Medicare and Social Security benefits are not important for seniors and that it would be best if they went “broke”:

WILLIAMSON: These programs we’re working so hard to defend like Medicare and Social Security don’t actually do a tremendous amount of good for people […] So the sooner those go broke, the sooner those disappear, and we replace them with, better more productive alternatives, the better off the country is.

Watch it:

Far from accomplishing nothing, these programs are important in a myriad of ways. Social Security has an economic output of $1.2 trillion, creating 8.4 million jobs. It also is estimated to keep 20 million Americans out of poverty. And it’s no coincidence that life expectancy has shot up since we enacted Medicare.

Recall that Williamson once justified a Tennessee county refusing to put out a fire that burned down a family’s home because they did not pay for a subscription-only fire service. It now appears that he’s ready to burn down the country’s most treasured social insurance programs.

Call your Member of Congress and ask them to sign onto the Grayson-Takano letter vowing to vote against any cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits.

House Republicans are pushing a bill this week dubiously titled the “Working Families Flexibility Act.” The bill, if enacted, would allow employers to deny employeesAi??overtime pay and instead replace it with paid time off that would be given at the employer’s choosing. In the words of Rep. George Miller (D-CA), this would mean “unused time would be paid back at the end of the year, amounting to a no-interest loan to employers from workers.”

While House Republicans are working towards their long-term goal of killing overtime pay, progressive Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) has other plans. He has offered an amendment to the Republican legislation mandating a week’s paid vacation to any employee at a company with 100 or more employees:

The GOP has a bill on overtime. I offered an amendment that guarantees one week of paid vacation to American workers. rules.house.gov/amendments/GRAai??i??

ai??i?? Rep. Alan Grayson (@AlanGrayson) May 7, 2013

The bill is expected to be voted on this week, it remains to be seen whether the House Republicans will allow a vote on Grayson’s amendment.

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Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) was one of only four Democratic Senators to vote to kill expanded background checks for gun purchases, even though 79 percent of the people in his state support this measure.

On Friday, late night talk show host David Letterman named Baucus “Stooge Of The Night” for this vote against background checks. Watch it:

videoWant to help us fight for gun reforms?Ai??Click here to pitch in a few dollars to run a Montana TV ad holding Max Baucus accountable for voting against background checks.

About 30 people attended a rally held by Moms Demand Action and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has aired ads attacking McConnell prior to the 2014 elections, when he will run for a sixth term. They stood in a light rain outside the Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Customhouse, where McConnell’s office is located, carrying signs that said things like “Background Checks Save Lives” and “82% of Kentuckians Demand Common Sense Gun Laws.”

Today,Ai??Kentucky moms and gun owners from Moms Demand Action and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee held a press conference in support of gun reforms outside of the office of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The groups presented 1,200 local petition signatures in favor of expanded background checks, a reform that 82 percent of Kentuckians support.

Kentucky gun owner, mom, and Progressive Change Campaign Committee member Pam Gersh was one of those who spoke at the press conference.

“I was born here and have lived here all my life. When I was 18 years old, Mitch McConnell, running his first campaign for the Senate shook my hand outside of my place of work. Today, 30 years later, Mitch McConnell will not shake my hand (or the hands of any of the other people here today),” explained Gersh. “He wonai??i??t let us enter his office as a group, only three at a time. He wonai??i??t meet with us. Mitch McConnell is out of touch, literally andAi??figuratively, with the people of Kentucky on many issues.”

“I want Mitch McConnell to represent the people who voted him into office. Mitch McConnell, vote on behalf of everyday Kentuckians – gun owners and mothers like myself – and vote for background checks,” she concluded. “If he doesnai??i??t want to look us in the eye and shake our hands and listen to us, then he doesnai??i??t deserve our vote.”

UPDATE: More photos from the event (thanks to Nancy Jakubiak)

UPDATE II: A local news station covered the event. “It doesn’t have anything to do with politics, it has everything to do with saving lives,” Pam Gersh said to the local reporter. Watch it:

Want to help us fight for …

Protesters in Louisville are criticizing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for voting against a bill that would have expanded background checks for gun sales. A group of about 30 people, mostly women, held signs in front of McConnell’s Louisville offices on Monday afternoon. They dropped off a petition with 1,200 signatures that demanded the senator support “sensible gun reform.” McConnell voted against the bill last month, and it eventually failed to get a 60-vote majority needed to advance. The group included members from Moms Demand Action and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman was one of the 46 senators who defied the will of over 84 percent of the people of his state by voting to kill expanded background checks for gun purchases.

Jerri Jackson, a mother from Springfield, Ohio whose son was killed in the Aurora massacre, has tried to set up a meeting with Portman since his vote against background checks. She notes that the killer in that shooting, James Holmes, had mental health issues that were flagged by university staff which may have blocked him from gun purchases under a background check system.

But Portman’s office has failed to set up a meeting with Jackson since then, saying that the senator did not have time. “I would like for him to at least sit down and talk to me,” she told the Associated Press. “To hear my story and hear the heartbreak of a mother who lost her son in the prime of his life. How guns have played a part in our lives, but it is what ended his life. We need to do something about it.”

Recall that since Portman’s vote against background checks, his approval rating has fallen by eighteen percent — as have the approval ratings of several other senators:

UPDATE: Recall that the NRA has spent $1.35 million keeping Portman in office since 2000.

Weai??i??re running newspaper ads in the states of the four Senate Democrats who helped kill expanded background checks. Click here to pitch in $3 to run them.

In Montana, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal policy group, has sponsored a series of TV commercials attacking Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D) for his “no” vote on Manchin-Toomey. And the Brady group has launched a texting campaign that puts voters directly in touch with their elected officials on Capitol Hill.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political group that typically supports Democrats, spent $50,000 to air a TV ad in Montana and Washington asking Baucus to reconsider his position on background checks. “Now that you’re retiring, please put Montana first,” a woman says at the close of the spot. That group touted Baucus’ statement Thursday as “huge,” though the senator makes clear that he would reconsider his position “based on the feedback he gathers from the people of Montana.” Progressive Change has also spent $100,000 on full-page ads in the hometown newspapers of Democrats Baucus, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich and North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp. Begich and Pryor are running in 2014.

At a recent town hall, an Alabama small business owner explained to his Republican Congressman Mike Rogers how the sequester is harming his business by hurting the pocketbooks of his customers, and explained how cutting government spending across the board isn’t what we need right now.

SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: My business is off twenty percent because the sequester. I’ve gone from making good money to losing money in one month because of the sequester. The House of Representatives has done more to hurt my business than anything by government by anybody, state, local, federal has ever done in 15 years. Every time ya’ll do something to cut funding, it hurts my customers. They have less money to spend. When they have less money to spend, they spend less with me, which means I have less money.

Watch MSNBC’s Al Sharpton’s coverage of the question:

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Prominent liberal activists – among them groups, such as MoveOn.org and Democracy for America, that helped Obama gain re-election in November – view his willingness to reduce future Social Security payments as a betrayal of core Democratic commitments to help the needy and ease the burdens of old age. The groups are vowing to run primary challengers against Democratic members of Congress who back the president’s controversial quest. “Social Security is a key part of the Democratic legacy and a vital lifeline to millions of Americans,” Stephanie Taylor, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told McClatchy on Thursday. “Any Democrat who votes for such a plan should be ready for a primary challenge.”

Following his vote to kill expanded background checks for gun purchases, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee started running ads against Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) featuring local gun owners blasting him for the move.

These included full-page ads in twenty local newspapers, followed by a TV ad launched yesterday.

In response to the PCCC’s ads, Baucus’s office issued this response yesterday:

“Montanans told Max loudAi??and clear they didn’t supportAi??newAi??gun controls in the previousAi??bill.Ai??If a new bill is presented, MaxAi??will evaluate it based on theAi??feedback he gathers from theAi??people of Montana“

This is the first statement from any senator who voted “no” saying they might vote “yes” if they hear enough from their constituents. (For the record, polling showsAi??79 percent of Montanans support universal background checks.)

Click here to see MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow report on the PCCC’s new ad, followed by Baucus’s statement read aloud by Helena, Montana’s CBS affiliate (KXLH) last night:

The ad was also reported on by the New York Times, Washington Post, International Business Times, CNN, PBS, Buzzfeed, Talking Points Memo, and others. Locally, at least four local television news broadcasts covered the ad.

Click here to pitch in a few dollars to keep this ad running in Montana, featuring a powerful local voice.

And if you’re from Montana,Ai??click here to call Senator Baucus today.

Max Baucus returned to Montana to find a full ad attack waged against him by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). The group is running a new TV ad, shown below, and bought full-page ads in 20 Montana newspapers grilling him on his gun vote.

RepublicanAi??pollster Harper Polling has just released a new poll it conducted of Montanans finding that former Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) leads all of his potential Democratic and Republican Senate challengers in the primary and general.

Schweitzer holds the highest favorability rating of any of the public figures polled, with 54 percent of Montanans saying they have a favorable view of him. The poll found that Montanans would favor Schweitzer for the Senate seat over Mark Racicot, a former Republican governor, by four points. Schweitzer’s lead over Montana Rep. Steve Daines (R) is even greater — ten points. Former Republican State Senate Minority Leader Corey Stapleton is bested by Schweitzer 54-29.

Within his own party, SchweitzerAi??handilyAi??bests Denise Juneau, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 78-14.

All of this is in a poll where, when respondents were asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical election, a generic Republican leads a generic Democrat 42-34.

This is encouraging news for progressives because Schweitzer is an awesome economic populist. Read our top ten reasons why and click here to join our Draft BrianAi??SchweitzerAi??for Senate campaign.

(OrAi??donate $3 that Brian will receive on Day OneAi??of his campaign, so he can hit the ground running.)

Gun control advocates plan to make the “no” votes on background checks cast by Heitkamp, Begich and Pryor politically costly. They want to change the mental calculations of politicians so that voting against gun control will amount to political suicide. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, for example, has announced plans to run newspaper ads in each of their states, including Figure 2, in North Dakota.

With members of Congress back in their home states for recess this week, activists pushing for tougher gun laws are hitting two senators with new appeals on television, asking them to change their votes.

A liberal group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said Wednesday that it was spending $50,000 on a television ad in Montana to pressure Max Baucus, the stateai??i??s retiring Democratic senator, to support an enhanced background check system for gun buyers.

The problem of lack of public services and health care access in America is often talked about in the abstract, but it has a very real human cost. For one example, take a look at the National Mobility Awareness Month Local Heroes contest, put on by the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association, which is partnering with Chrysler, Toyota, and other auto companies for the event.

In this contest, you can nominate a disabled American you know as a local hero and say why you think they deserve to win a wheelchair accessible van. Web visitors then vote on these individuals and whoever receives the most votes will win a van.

The stories are heartbreaking. Consider this one from Rami Dechmand, who cares for his two younger brothers. He entered the contest to win the van for his younger brother, Dillon, who has had Cerebral Palsy since birth. This is how he explained his family’s need for the van:

As Dillon gets older and grows bigger, it gets harder and harder to lift him in and out of the car. I feel that soon he will get to the point where he is bigger than me and it will be nearly impossible for me to do this, and I would no longer be able to care for Dillon. Having an accessible van for Dillon will allow our family to better provide the care Dillon requires.

Or consider the case of Walter Edwards, Jr. Here’s why a relative entered him into the contest:

My father, Walter ai???Sonnyai??? Edwards, Jr., turned 80 in November, 2012. He and my mother (his caretaker), live on social security. We have been trying for years to get them a van with a side lift but canai??i??t …

The latest ad, from the national liberal group Progressive Change Campaign Committee, hit the airwaves Wednesday morning on broadcast and cable channels in major Montana media markets — Helena, Missoula, and Billings — and on cable in Washington, D.C. The $50,000 ad buy will run for one week.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, or PCCC, a political action committee, will launch a new television ad on Wednesday to up the pressure on Baucus to support gun control legislation that would expand background checks to include gun shows and online sales.

This morning the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has launched a new TV ad pressuring Max Baucus to support background checks for gun sales, something over 79% of Montanans support according to the post recent Montana-specific poll.