Art offers his perspective as a movement progressive activist.
Elizabeth Warren will not be outworked. She is campaigning hard. Here are some clips of her stops and note the enthusiasm she draws in Massachusetts:
Obama’s camp seems to have backed off making cuts to SS but seems inclined to still make cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. So progressive groups, labor and others have mobilized a petition with a great potent video to pressure the WH to also back off the two M s. Petition is here , and video:
House liberals have introduced new legislation to raise the payroll tax cap for those making over 250,000 a year to keep SS solvent and benefits uncut. Rep. DeFazio leads the charge :
…The plan also is intended to head off other efforts to overhaul the program or trim benefits, or to use its funds to help pay for debt reduction.
“No more discussion about raising the retirement age, no more discussion about cutting benefits, no more discussion about privatization,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., one of the sponsors.
.. it gives liberals a chance to underscore their support for the widely popular program at a time when President Barack Obama has proposed cutting the payroll tax to help create jobs and GOP presidential contender Rick Perry, the Texas governor, has called its finances a “Ponzi scheme.”
The bill’s sponsors noted that during his 2008 presidential campaign, Obama proposed raising the payroll tax on people earning over $250,000. He’s discussed the idea as president but has yet to offer legislation following through on it.
The Progressive Caucus has introduced their own jobs bill which would create over 2 million good paying, permanent jobs. It would focus on restructuring the economy, and would be paid for by a surtax on the rich. Read the outline of this plan here .
In Pennsylvania we got big trouble. The GOP state legislature wants to end winner take all the electoral votes for the state of Pennsylvania. Instead each congressional district would pick up two electoral votes. So if Obama carried a district he would get those 2 votes. So Obama likely would get 10 votes because of those solid Democratic seats. How insane and of course this would help keep a Democrat from ever getting elected. Pennsylvania is crucial.
Good thing is Pennsylvania Republican congressmen are opposed to such a move- they do not want unions and Dems flooding their districts trying to oust them to get those electoral votes.
Boy the Tea Party 2010 sweep will keep destroying this country until we take it back. Here is Joe Sestak on the plan by the GOP in Pennsylvania:
Seattle has sense. Their city council just passed paid sick leave for all workers in the city! Come on other cities do justice:
To loud cheers from hundreds of supporters, the Seattle City Council on Monday agreed to require businesses with at least five employees to provide paid sick leave to workers.
Seattle becomes just the third city in the country, after San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to mandate paid leave for employees to care for themselves or family members when ill. The state of Connecticut also has approved mandatory paid sick leave.
And on nut watch the head of the Cobb County Georgia Tea Party is furious at a proposed light rail project. Why? You won’t believe it:
…the Georgia Tea Party is arguing that the county should abandon its light-rail proposal because if the light-rail line were to be completed, it would become a magnet for terrorist attacks. Here’s the group’s chair, J.D. Van Brink:
If anyone doesn’t believe me—England and Spain. Now, if we have a more decentralized mass-transit system using buses, if the terrorists blow up a single bus, we can work around that. When they blow up a rail, that just brings the system to a grinding halt. So how much security are we going to have on this rail system, and how much will it cost?
Yep- so do not build infrastructure because at some point some terrorist could perhaps blow it up is the rational here. Time for that aspirin now.
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