Gov. John Kasich (R-OH)

Ohio’s Republican governor John Kasich (R-OH) has proposed a new tax plan that would radically restructure taxes in the state.

The plan would cut income taxes for most Ohioans, but increase extend sales taxes to additional goods — which tend to fall on poor and working people. The result is, as Policy Matters Ohio and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found, that the rich would get a huge tax cut while the poorest Ohioans would actually face a tax increase. Here’s a table from their report demonstrating this:

As you can see, the poorest 20% would have their taxes raised by $63Ai??annually. Ai??The top one percent would get a more than $10,000 tax increase.

CPC co-chair Keith Ellison

Congress is locked in budget negotiations related to the upcoming sequester. This week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) unveiled the “Balancing Act.” Noting that 2/3 of the deficit reduction that has taken place since 2011 has come from cuts, not revenues, the CPC plan adopts an approach that would have a truly balanced 50-50 cuts-revenue ratio.

Additionally, the plan invests in the economy with the goal of creating jobs — the best long-term path to deficit reduction.

Here’s some of the key elements of the CPC plan:

Raise $948 Billion In Revenues: This is done by closing various special interest loopholes — such as international tax loopholes that maintain offshore tax havens — and by ending subsidies for fossil fuel companies.
Cutting $278 Billion In Pentagon Waste: Unlike some lawmakers in Washington who want to spare the Defense Department altogether, the CPC cuts backs onAi??unnecessary weapons programs such as the V-22 Osprey. It also replaces the F-35 with the F-18 and reduces nuclear weapons expenditures, among other measures.
Cuts The Deficit By Investing $276 Billion In Jobs: The plan also invests money by extending the Make Work Pay tax credit for a year and by spending on teachers and school modernization as well as transportation infrastructure.

Here’s a chart showing how the Balancing Act would finally offer a balanced approach to deficit reduction after years of relying on cuts:

One area the Balancing Act does not cut is Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security benefits.

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

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is behind the ad, and they released some polling earlier this week as well, showing that 82 percent of Kentuckians favor criminal background checks for gun owners (versus 13 opposed) and 50 percent favored an assault weapons ban (versus 42 opposed). It was conducted by Public Policy polling, rated by Fordham University as the most accurate pollster in 2012.
Now, in more PPP polling results released first to The Nation, we see that hitting McConnell for his gun industry backing is indeed fertile territory in Kentucky.

Is church really the place for your firearm?

On Monday, the Arkansas legislature, rather than enacting common sense gun reforms, decided to legalize guns in churches by passing a bill to do so. Democratic Governor Mike Beebe is expected shortly to sign the bill.

Protesting this new law, Rev. Scott Walters, pastor of Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Little Rock, wrote to his local paper:

The legislature’s action has already impacted our ministry at Christ Church. It’s given us one more hurdle, one more fear to deal with as we try to do our Christian duty and welcome a stranger into our midst as if he or she were Christ himself. Its impact is not hypothetical. It is real. Loving our neighbor just got a little harder.

Click here to sign onto our petition supporting the White Houseai??i??s bold gun plan and to donate to help run the ad in Kentucky.

A progressive group attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on gun control is expanding its ad buy through Tuesday after receiving thousands of donations following the initial airing of the ad. The ad, launched by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, began airing earlier this week. Within the first 24 hours of its airing, PCCC raised over $25,000 from more than 1,500 small-dollar donations, and it has raised overall $50,000 from more than 3,000 donations since it began.

That money raised will go towards airing the ad during the upcoming Cardinals basketball game, the Sunday morning political talk shows in Lexington and Louisville, Ky., and to bracket the State of the Union in both Kentucky and Washington, D.C.

Call on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to bring a paid sick days bill to a vote.

Emilio Palaguachi was an employee at a New York City until very recently. He worked 60 hours a week, but his workplace had no sick leave policy. So when he fell ill with the flu, Palaguachi he got the permission of his manager to take the day off to see a doctor. Yet he was still fired.

ai???They didnai??i??t give me any explanation,ai??? Palaguachi was quoted telling a local paper through a translator. ai???I asked if I had done something wrong and nobody knew what to say. Actually, everyone [co-workers] was upset because of how I was fired.ai???

The United States is one of the few countries that does not guarantee paid sick days to its employees. In New York City, progressives, with the help of Palaguachi,Ai??are campaigning to change this within their own community.

Join with PCCC to ask New York City Council Speaker Speaker Christine Quinn to hold a vote on a city-wide paid sick leave.

Many Americans woke up today and were shocked by news that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will be ending regular mail service on Saturdays (package delivery will continue). In response to this announcement, the National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents postal employees, called on Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to resign.

The move is supposed to save the Post Office $2 billion annually, something it claims it is being forced to do due to budget woes.

But the truth is, the Post Office’s budget wouldn’t have any problems if Congress hadn’t forced anAi??unnecessaryAi??and burdensome federal mandate onto it.

In 2006, the Congress passed theAi??Ai??Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006Ai??(PAEA). Under PAEA, USPS was forced to ai???prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time spanai??? ai??i?? meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees itAi??hasnai??i??t even hired yet, something ai???thatAi??no other government or private corporationAi??is required to do.ai???

In 2011, it was estimated that the Post Office would actually have a $1.5 billion surplus if PAEA was never enacted. Altering or repealing this poison pill legislation would allow the Postal Service to continue its services without being burdened by the 75 year pre-fund requirement. But that requires Congress to act.

Ai??UPDATE:Ai??As a historical anecdote as to how far back the conservative war on the Post Office goes, experts point out that the service delivered mail twice a day until 1950.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is feeling the heat after the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) released a new ad featuring a Kentucky gun owner calling him out for taking money from gun manufacturers and opposing reforms. Watch it:

In response to the ad, McConnell releasedAi??a document ignoring the actual issues at hand and instead attacking the PCCC. McConnell’s response leads with the false statement that we only have one donor from Kentucky. The money in politics watchdog Public Campaign debunks this claim in an email roundup, pointing out we actually have 2,000 times as many donors from Kentucky, but that they are small donors — the sort McConnell is unfamiliar with:

The McConnell camp fired back crowing that only one Kentuckian gave PCCC over $200, apparently forgetting that unitemized, small donors count. PCCC says 2,000 Kentuckians contributed under $200. Kentuckyai??i??s LEO Weekly reports that McConnell might have forgotten that donors at this size exist after spending the past three months criss-crossing the country for big money fundraisers from Beverly Hills and Chicago to the December 17 D.C. fundraiser for Amgen just days before McConnell negotiated the fiscal cliff deal that included a $500 million giveaway to the company. Only one percent of McConnellai??i??s contributions were under $200 in the past three months.

The LEO Weekly, a local outlet that Public Campaign cites above, took McConnell to task, pointing out that he has very few small donors himself and that more than twice as many of his itemized contributions come from out of state:

McConnellai??i??s campaign cited a federal database that only compiles donations over $200, but PCCC would subsequently point out that they actually have raised over 2,000 contributions from their 7,000 members in Kentucky, averaging less than $15 …

Sen. Goedde

One Idaho Republican lawmaker is such a fan of Ayn Rand — the radical philosopher who wrote “The Virtue of Selfishness” and who wanted to abolish every government social insurance program — that he has introduced a bill to mandate every high school student reads one of her books:

Sen. John Goedde, chairman of the Idaho Senateai??i??s Education Committee, introduced legislation Tuesday to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Randai??i??s ai???Atlas Shruggedai??? and pass a test on it to graduate from high school.

When Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur dai??i??Alene, asked Goedde why he chose that particular book, Goedde said to laughter, ai???That book made my son a Republican.ai???

Philosopher Ayn Rand coincidentally happens to be one of of House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) main political idols.

A new report finds that states are actually being denied billions of due to rich individuals and large corporations using offshore tax havens.

The report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group concludes that tax havens cost state governments $39.8 billion in lost revenues in 2011. Corporations were responsible for $26 billion of this revenue loss.

Here are the states that faced the most revenue loss:

California: $7.14 billion in lost revenue
New York: $4.27 billion in lost revenue
New Jersey: $2.8 billion in lost revenue

Since the recession began, states haveAi??laid off over 130,000 teachersAi??because they lack the funds to keep them hired. Cracking down on these tax havens would be one way to re-hire those teachers and to spend money on badly-needed infrastructure.

Does a nation without paid parental leave really value its children?

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA allows for employees to have 12 weeks of unpaid leave when they have children or have a serious illness.

The FMLA is an important accomplishment, but the United States still lags behind most of the world — both rich, developed countries and even poor, developing countries — in offering guaranteed meaningful, paid parental leave to all employees.

Here’s a rundown of some other countries that have paid parental leave:

India: India, even with its extreme poverty, guarantees 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child. The employee gets 100 percent of normal pay during this time.
Rwanda:Ai??In the poor nation of Rwanda, employees get one month of paid leave at 100% of pay.
France: As a rich developed country (but one still poorer than the United States), France offers 16 weeks of of paid leave (at 100% pay) for the first 2 children and 26 weeks for the third child. The French also get a compulsory 6 weeks before birth.
Sweden: Sweden has perhaps the world’s most generous paid parental leave policy, offering one year paid parental leave at an 80% rate.

Even with the meager FMLA protections we have, up to 40 percent of employees are not even eligible.

A group whose aim is to elect progressive Democrats to Congress released an ad Tuesday hitting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for opposing gun control legislation while receiving campaign donations from gun manufacturers. The spot, from the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, will run on broadcast and cable television in McConnell’s home state, as well as in Washington, D.C., including on CNN.

Republican Mitch McConnell knows that as Republican Senate Minority Leader and a symbol of the party establishment, he’s the target of conservatives, tea partyers and others on the right… But now some progressives have him in their sights, believing the Kentucky Republican’s opposition to gun reform offer Democrats a foothold in McConnell’s 2014 re-election race.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Tuesday launched an ad campaign against McConnell over his gun stance.

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) has been a huge supporter of both fracking and subsidies for Big Oil. At a town hall this weekend, some of his constituents took issue with his support for these dirty industries.

After defending the exemption of fracking from the Clean Water and Clean Air acts, one constituent asked him about the over $100,000 he’s gotten from the oil and gas industries. He responded that he has “no idea” where that money came from:

CONSTITUENT QUESTION: Do you think the fracking industry should remain exempt from the Clean Air and Drinking Water Acts? […]

REED: […] I am not a believer in expanding federal government, I believe we have to downsize federal government. What we’re on a path here by doing that I think is expanding government. […] I would defer to the state and defer to the local bodies on that.

(Audience hissing)

CONSTITUENT 1: Water and air are across state borders!

CONSTIUTENT 2: Where did your $126,000 from gas companies come from? Which lobbyists? Which companies besides Chesapeake and the other lobbyists?

REED: No idea. No idea. We don’t keep track of that. I don’t keep track of that.

Watch it:

Reed should know that he is actually legally required to “keep track of that” — and that it’s actually public information. The oil and gas industry was his third-largest donor in 2012. Here’s some of the biggest backers:

Chesapeake Energy: $10,000 to Reed. Chesapeake, one of America’s largest fracking companies, has angered homeowners nationwide with its excessive use of legal maneuvers to gain access to land to drill on.
National Fuel Gas Corporation:Ai??$10,000 to Reed. This fracking company is based in Western Pennsylvania and New York.
America’s Natural Gas Alliance: $4,400 to Reed. This is one of the main advocacy coalitions for natural …

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee released an ad Tuesday pressuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on gun control. “I was born and raised right here in Kentucky. I served my country as a marksman and we were trained to use guns safely. It’s unthinkable that guns meant for war could be used on civilians and children,” says Rodney Kendrick, a Kentucky gun owner, in the ad.

A group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is hitting Mitch McConnell this morning with a new ad campaign in both Kentucky and Washington, D.C. It features Kentuckian Rodney Kendrick of Berea.

Last week, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) hosted veterans groups, labor unions, and others at a press conference to oppose the chained CPI proposal, which would reduce benefits to Social Security beneficiaries and veterans.

At the event, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which represents 200,000 veterans and supporters, blasted the proposal. The IAVA’s Tom Tarantino said the proposal would “balance the budget on the backs of those who fought for us”:

TARANTINO: And I want to point out that this is the 2nd time in so many months that we’ve been brought to talk about this. And that is totally insane to me that we have to keep coming back and talking about how cutting benefits for veterans is not the answer to our fiscal woes. You hear chained CPI and you hear all these complicated policy terms. And really what you’re saying is we’re going to balance the budget on the backs of those who have fought for us. And these proponents of the chained CPI they apparently okay with that. You know, I’m not okay with that. They say times are tough. You know what, tell me about it. Tell me times are tough. For me and my friends who spentAi??theAi??last ten years fighting war. Tell the Gold Star widows and the surviving spouses how tough times are. Tell the Vietnam and World War II and Korean veterans who depend on their benefits to supplement their incomeAi??becauseAi??they’re still suffering from wounds from their service. Tell that disabled veterans, who has invisible wounds, who needs their veterans benefits, so that they can help recover. We lost more veterans lastAi??yearAi??to suicide than we did to combat. Tell those veterans about how times are tough. I have lost …

The NRA’s president David Keene recorded an interview with the conservative news site The Daily Caller that it will be releasing in full today. In an excerpt, Keene compared the weapon used in the Sandy Hook massacre to the musket:

KEENE: This nation was founded as a result of the fact, people, citizens who had a musket above their fireplace grabbed the gun when an emergency confronted them. For four million Americans, the AR-15 is the musket of today.

Click here to watch it.

For reference, the AR-15 can fire between 700 to 950 rounds a minute. In contrast, the muskets that the American revolutionaries used typically fired three rounds per minute if they were used by skilled marksmen.

Sign our petition supporting the bold White House gun plan.

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) just introduced a federal so-called “right to work” law that would undermine labor organizing nationwide. Here’s an excerpt from his press release touting the legislation:

“Every American worker deserves the right to freedom of association – and I am concerned that the 26 states that allow forced union membership and dues infringes on these workers’ rights. Right to work laws ensure that all Americans are given the choice to refrain from joining or paying dues to a union as a condition for employment. Nearly 80 percent of all Americans support the principles and so I have introduced a national Right to Work Act that will require all states to give their workers the freedom to choose.”

The fact is, no one is forced to join a union. What so-called “right to work” laws allow is for workers to receive union benefits without paying union dues, which undermines the ability for unions to represent workers.

Researchers from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute have found that the economies of states who have these laws “are associated with significantly lower wages and reduced chances of receiving employer-sponsored health insurance and pensions.” They estimated that hourly wages for all workers — not just union workers — in these states are 3% lower.

There has never been a serious push for a national “right to work” law, making Paul’s effort fairly unique. The National Right To Work Committee gave $7,500 to Paul’s campaign, and Koch Industries — which bankrolls state-wide efforts to install these laws — is his third largest contributor.

Click here to join our Take Back Democracy campaign to help stop the influence of money in our politics.

(Photo source: Flickr user DonkeyHotey)

Social Security is fully solvent until 2037 and is not in crisis. But one way to make sure there are no cutbacks in benefit cuts after that is to lift the payroll tax cap so wealthy Americans contribute more into the system.

A new survey from the National Academy of Social Insurance finds that most Americans want to do just that. When survey respondents were asked how they felt about the statement “It is critical to preserve Social Security even if it means increasing Social
Security taxes paid by wealthy Americans,” 87 percent of them agreed, with 62 percent of them strongly agreeing.

It’s worth noting that this number includes even 71 percent of self-identified Republicans (and 86 percent of self-identified independents).

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

Do rich Maryland boat owners really need a tax cut?

MarylandAi??Delegate Ron George (R-Arnold) Ai??and Senator John Astle (D-Annapolis) have just filed bills to give a tax cut to some of the state’s richest boat owners. The tax cut is being pushed by the boating industry, and it should be noted that Astle has received $3,250 from a sea transport association over the past 8 years.

Currently, Maryland has a vessel excise tax that charges boat owners 5 percent of the value of their boat if they keep it in the state for more than 90 days a year.

Under the new bill, this tax would be capped at a total of $10,000. That means that the cap would exclusively benefit boat owners whose boats are worth more than $200,000. The owner of a $1 millionAi??yacht, for example, would save $40,000 if this cap was put into place.

According to statistics from the National Marine Manufacturers Association — which represents the boating industry nationwide — the average “price of a new boat, motor, trailer package was $25,554” in 2007. The average price of a new powerboat that same year was $35,486.

Thus, by their own statistics, the boating industry admits that most boat owners will not see a tax cut from this bill, and that it will only benefit owners of boats that are much more expensive than average.

An AR-15

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) released a new report today looking at mass shootings in the United States since 2009.

Highlighting the importance of looking at new gun regulations, the report finds that 28% of mass shootings since 2009 involved either high-capacity magazines or assault weapons. The report also notes that 9% of these mass shootingsAi??occurredAi??in schools (either primary, secondary, or college campuses).

Sign our petition supporting the bold White House gun plan.

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.

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