Today Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles unveiled there new $2.4 trillion deficit-reduction plan. However, this plan is back with more cuts and less revenue than the original. $600 billion—a full quarter of the deficit reduction would come from healthcare.
Former co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, Allen Simpson is a former Republican Senator of Wyoming and Democrat Erksine Bowles was President Clinton’s White House Chief of Staff.
The plan is titled: “A Bipartisan Path Forward to Securing America’s Future.”
As March 1st sequester looms ahead, the new plan was formed in hopes to bridge differences between the President and the Congressional Republicans—an agenda better known for uncompromising Tea Party antics.
A new plan framed for ultra-conservatives to moderates, leaves no room for the people’s progressive voices at all—moreover, the plan as a whole still manages to thrill no one. There are significant cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and yet Republicans still loudly object to new revenues?
Not only does the plan gut Medicare and Medicaid and it will “reform” Social Security by tying it chained CPI which will drastically change our healthcare--more importantly, the most significant cuts the plan makes will fall on the programs that benefit the nation’s growing senior population.
Join DFA and be a citizen supporter, Congressmen Alan Grayson and Mark Takano are fighting back and asking their colleagues to join them on a letter that states: We will vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security benefits -- including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.
We must stand up to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—calling for NO cuts. As the Simpson and Bowles plan is received and we get closer to the March 1st deadline—DFA will follow and continue our efforts to protect the people’s healthcare.
This Sunday over 35,000 gathered in DC for the Forward on Climate Change Rally to call on the President to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline.
As crowds chanted: Shift the Power! They hoped to spark a national dialogue about the proposed pipeline that would run from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The line would carry tar sand and soil—leaving a large greenhouse gas footprint in it’s wake.
Many are heartened that President will respond to climate change and at last, America will take action against ongoing enviornmental crisis. In his inaugural address this January President Obama notably said, “We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to threat of climate change knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”
The political pathway for better environmental legislation continues to difficult. The GOP’s Tea Party still features prominent ‘global warming deniers.’ In fact, in Kansas last week the House education committee introduced a bill that mandates teachers question the scientific basis of global warming—and Kansas is not the only state! Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Oklahoma all have similar policies already in place.
Yet support comes from unlikely sources, retired Army Col. Dan Nolan represents Operation Free, he says there are clear national security benefits to getting more oil from Canada. "We're putting America's sons and daughters at risk by having to protect oil production capability in the Middle East." The real challenge he says is to shift the world off oil and other fossil fuels. After recent disasters like Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina, we need to take serious steps to do something really soon. If we don't, we're all going to be in a state where we don't recognize the planet where we live.
Follow DFA on Facebook , Twitter, and Tumblr as we continue to support legislation and candidates who address climate change head on. To repeat this Sunday’s chant: Shift the Power!
Republicans of Wisconsin are proposing a bill that would force women to undergo vaginal ultrasounds before an abortion.
According to WI Majority leader, Scott Fitzgerald, “This bill is a priority--long overdue” ....excuse me!?!?!
As THINKPROGRESS reports,
Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, is the former public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. She says requiring an ultrasound to be performed before all abortions would mean an invasive procedure for women who are less than 12 weeks pregnant.
This is the very same thing that is happening in Michigan (Read more here) . The right to control our bodies, our privacy, and our lives is fundamental to all Americans, men and women. It's a right that we need to defend.
Democracy for America members are mobilizing to push back and your support could go a long way. Please join DFA and stand up for women’s health. The Tea Party's war on women must come to an end. We can no longer have politicians whose "priority" is to restrict women's rights.
Today at a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts made federal regulators uncomfortable when she asked a simple question: "When was the last time you took a big Wall Street bank all the way to trial?"
Last fall, Democracy for America proudly endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren as one of our Dean Dozen. Today she is doing exactly what we all hoped she would do as a Senator. With John Kerry moving to the Secretary of State post, Warren is already the Senior Senator of Massachusetts.
Join us at DFA as we endorse progressive candidates to lead America.
On her show last night, Rachel Maddow breaks down Marco Rubio's Republican Response to the State of the Union.
WATCH:
"Watergate" may have been an instant video moment, however, it was the content of Rubio's response that showed yet again the Republican Party is not listening, rather the Tea Party is now infecting the GOP long term. After all, as Maddow literally showed, Rubio is inter-changeable with Romney--and the American people clearly did not elect him POTUS. So why is the GOP convinced Rubio is the Republican Savior? DFA is working to bring about progressive change and overriding leaders like Rubio who wish to cut our Social Security and vote against bills for women's rights like the VAWA.
