Yesterday, Chris Evans, the actor who plays Captain America in the films of the same name, tweeted a link to his over 448,000 followers:
The link is to a video we submitted to Upworthy about visualizing income inequality.
The maker of the video has not taken credit for it, and is known only as YouTube user Politizane. Yet the video dominated the Internet earlier this year, reaching over 6 million views.
It’s perfectly fitting that Evans, who plays a character who struggles with what his country has become, was struck by the video. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out below:
When someone tries to raise the minimum wage, improve our health care system, or generally try to fix anything, a chorus of conservative anti-worker bigwigs cries foul about big government intruding in their lives.
But when a state passes a law to preempt cities and towns from making their own decisions about allowing workers to earn sick days, those same voices are silent.
Legislation recently approved by committees in the Republican-controlled House and Senate would prohibit counties, townships and cities from adopting policies that requires employers to provide paid or unpaid leave not required under federal or state law.
The bill is HB 4249 in the House, sponsored by Rep. Earl Poleski (R-Jackson), and SB 173 in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Mark Jansen (R-Grand Rapids). Both bills have been passed by their respective committees.
If you look closely at the bills, you’ll notice they are startlingly similar to bills introduced in Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Washington.
70 percent of Milwaukee voters want the policy? “Who cares?” says the preemption bill. It’s the very definition of big government intruding on local control that so many conservatives claim to hate.
Meeting attendees were given complete copies of Wisconsin’s 2011 Senate Bill 23 (now Wisconsin Act 16) as a model for state override. ALEC’s Labor and Business Regulation Subcommittee at the time was co-chaired by YUM! Brands, Inc., which owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
As one Republican operative put it, these bills “deliver the kills shot” to efforts to allow workers to earn sick days. In addition to Wisconsin, such laws are already on the books in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Some of the most vocal opponents of the move to change U.S. Senate rules, including a proposal to help unblock Senate gridlock by ending the “silent filibuster” and actually forcing filibustering senators to take to the floor and talk if they want to block legislation, are lobbyists who profit from Senate dysfunction.
The Nation’s Lee Fang outlines how Republican-led filibusters and “silent holds” on nominations have resulted in some Big Business windfalls for corporations that just happened to be large contributors to the senators’ campaigns. Sort of an everybody wins situation for lobbyists, lawmakers and corporations, but pretty much a losing proposition for the rest of us.
Fang points to Steven Duffield, the vice president for policy for Karl Rove’s “dark money” group Crossroads GPS, as one of the most vigorous rules reform opponents who has touted his ability to get Republican lawmakers to unleash filibusters and holds and who, writes Fang, “literally sold filibusters, anonymous holds and the other forms of obstruction” during his 2011 lobbying work. Read Fang’s full story.
Don’t forget most of these same lawmakers, corporations and right-wing groups have used filibusters and holds to block bills, such as the DREAM Act and the American Jobs Act, and nominees, such as Elizabeth Warren to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
While congressional Republicans are heavily focused on cutting Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare benefits and other harmful budget cuts that threaten the 98%, a better approach is to eliminate loopholes that allow the wealthiest 2% of Americans and Wall Street to pay much less than their fair share of taxes. Focusing on loopholes keeps money in the hands of working families, which helps the economy grow without increasing hardship and economic insecurity for working people.
Many current loopholes just aren’t fair. Take, for example, what Think Progress calls the “Mitt Romney Loophole.” People like Mitt Romney who manage investment funds get paid in two ways. Part of their income is a management fee that is taxed as ordinary income, currently at a top rate of 39.6%. But fund managers also get a cut of the profits of the investments, which is taxed as a capital gain, with a top tax rate of only 20%. The typical investment manager takes a management fee of 2% and gets a 20% cut of the profits, meaning they avoid paying the normal tax rate on the vast majority of their income, something working families are not able to do. As Think Progress explains:
This loophole is one of the main reasons that Mitt Romney paid a tax rate of just 13.9 percent on income of more than $20 MILLION. Meanwhile, millions of middle-class workers pay a much higher rate on their much, much lower salaries.
Closing this loophole would not only make our tax code fairer and more progressive, it would help raise revenue to protect vital programs and leave room in the budget for investments to grow the middle class. Closing just this one loophole that often benefits the ultra-wealthy would raise $21 billion over 10 years.
It’s been 13 days since Elizabeth Warren defeated Republican Scott Brown to become the next U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Even though she doesn’t officially assume the office until January, there’s a group of people already freaking out about the very real prospect of Senator Warren: bank lobbyists.
And who could blame them? They had a true friend in Scott Brown, who took more contributions from the financial industry than any other Senator or candidate, and who worked to weaken Wall Street reform just weeks after his election.
The contrast couldn’t be greater with Elizabeth Warren, who made her mark on the TARP Oversight Committee grilling bank execs and Treasury Secretary Geithner over their handling of the 2008 bank bailout. She’s already faced down Wall Street’s lobbyist-lawyer armada in 2010, when she successfully set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) which has already recouped $425 million to consumers.
So the idea of Warren in a position to make policy governing banks has Wall Street and K Street in a tizzy, according to Mother Jones’ Andy Kroll:
Aides to two senators on the banking committee tell Mother Jones the industry has already moved to block Warren from joining the committee, which is charged with drafting legislation regulating much of the financial industry. “Downtown”—shorthand for Washington’s lobbying corridor—”has been going nuts” to keep her off the committee, another Senate aide says.
The “going nuts” has intensified since two Senators on the committee, Jack Reed (D-RI) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) have expressed support for Warren joining their ranks. Reed has been pushing hard for Warren, telling George Zornick of The Nation “I can’t think of anybody that’s come to the Senate with thirty years of detailed knowledge of the industry…” Johnson, the Banking Committee’s Chairman, expressed that he would “welcome her to the Committee if that’s what she wishes.”
The final decision, however, lies in the hands of Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader. It also depends on the complex backroom Senate version of musical chairs, where various Senators are watching to see who takes what committee assignments before they make their intentions clear.
But let’s be clear about why the “Downtown” lobbyists are going nuts. They aren’t just frightened of a Senator who believes Wall Street shouldn’t operate like a casino. They are also frightened of a Senator who is as untethered to political party as Warren is:
Warren isn’t necessarily loyal to “Team Blue”—Democrat elected officials, their staffs, and the lobbyists connected to them. They point to Warren’s early clashes with the Obama administration’s Treasury Department over the financial sector bailout as evidence that she cannot be counted upon.
Scott Brown is still the Senator from Massachusetts until January, so for the purposes of the “lame duck” session he’s still the one to watch. But as the success of a petition from Daily Kos demonstrates, there’s a hunger for a pro-consumer, anti-Wall-Street-casino Senator among American working families – and real fear of it from the lobbyists “Downtown.”
In the age of Citizen’s United, it’s easy for a young voter to feel small and overshadowed. While politicians shake our hands and tell us they care about the average American, we know better – that all too often, they are listening more intently to the pocketbooks of the wealthiest than the issues that affect young people in this country.
Between our role in the presidential map and our several crucial House races, it’s no surprise that Colorado will help decide the outcome of the 2012 election. On the traditional political red-blue color wheel, our state is often a confusing shade of purple. Every week there is another national political figure stopping by Colorado with hopes of tugging the minds of the voters one way or the other. Even so, issues facing young workers in our state – job creation, access to education, and corporate accountability – continue to fall by the wayside.
In Denver, young Working America members have set out on a path to bust the myths about our generation and show that we are hard workers and successful students who care about the issues and – above all – vote.
Every month, a small but growing number of young Working America members get together over $1 tacos to discuss the most effective ways to organize our community and our generation. There’s a common understanding that while we love Taco Tuesday just like any other 20-something, we do not fit the stereotype of apathetic youth.
Mike Rael and his wife Christine are two of the members of this group. They have offered their home tp host house parties to socialize and educate their neighbors, and they are eager to go door-to-door talking about the most important issues.
Mike puts our shared experience eloquently. “Working In the corporate world, I have come to notice that nearly all of my colleagues are summarily dissatisfied with not only the political system but also with their careers,” he says, “The common thread, as I see it, is corporate dominance over our politics.”
“Nowadays we middle-class Americans go to the office to work more for less and when we come home are asked to settle for home loans instead of home ownership, settle for student debt instead of quality education and a fair wage. All the while corporate America continues to enrich itself…”
“Since I can’t afford to buy a politician to represent my interests, I choose to fight. I choose to throw my passion and abilities behind an organization and millions of other Americans that share my concerns. I choose to join Working America and millions of others in the fight to restore the middle class because ‘united we stand but divided we beg!’”
Perhaps this year, the election will not be all about money but instead about reminders. Reminders that young people care about who decides our future. Reminders that working men and women, no matter how many jobs they have to work, will continue to stand up and speak up – until the politicians decide to sit down and listen.
To get involved in our growing community of young workers in the Denver area, contact me at agardner@workingamerica.org or (303) 935-9300.
In August, a lower court refused to issue an injunction against the voter ID law that some estimate could disenfranchise nearly one in 10 eligible voters—mostly people of color, students, seniors and low-income voters.
Pennsylvania is one of several states where Republican lawmakers have issued new laws that voting rights advocates say are designed to suppress voter turnout.
The bill mirrors other voter suppression laws Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed in recent years based on model legislation from the extremist American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Read more about voter suppression efforts in the South and Ohio.
The AFL-CIO My Vote, My Right website offers hands-on information on voter registration, voter ID laws and steps to take to protect your right to vote on Election Day. Find out what you need to know to make sure your vote counts this year. Get information on voter registration, your voting rights by state and more at the AFL-CIO’s MyVoteMyRight.org.
Have questions about your voting rights? Call 866-Our-Vote (866-687-8683).
Yet another study shows that supposed rampant “voter fraud” is nearly nonexistent. The Washington Post reports on a study today that finds onevoter fraud case for every 16 million prospective voters.
An analysis of 2,068 reports of alleged election fraud over the past 12 years byNews21 shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually nonexistent.
News21, a Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project, found 10 cases of alleged in-person voter impersonation since 2000. With 146 million registered voters in the United States, those represent about one for every 15 million prospective voters.
Yet those who seek to restrict voting rights have done so in the name of ending voter fraud. As a result, 16 states have passed restrictive voting laws. At least 180 bills restricting votinghave been introduced in 41 state legislatures since the beginning of 2011, after the 2010 elections shifted control of 20 state legislative houses from Democrat to Republican. Thirty-four states introduced voter ID requirements that would effectively disenfranchise more than 21 million eligible voters who don’t have the required IDs—mostly people of color, low-income voters, students, seniors and people with disabilities.
In short, the real fraud being perpetrated is by those who want to take away one of most fundamental democratic rights.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Justice Department made the investigation and prosecution of voter fraud a top priority. Out of the hundreds of millions of votes cast during that period, the department brought only 38 cases, only one of which involved impersonation fraud.
As Clarissa Martinez De Castro, National Council of La Raza director of civic engagement, puts it: The real problem is not that too many Americans are participating in the electoral process. Rather, “there are not enough.”
The AFL-CIO My Vote, My Right website offers hands-on information on voter registration, voter ID laws and steps to take to protect your right to vote on Election Day. Find out what you need to know to make sure your vote counts this year. Get information on voter registration, your voting rights by state and more at the AFL-CIO’s MyVoteMyRight.org.
Amgen is the 31st corporation to announce publicly that they are cutting ties with ALEC, the corporate-sponsored bill mill responsible for Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB 1070, and attacks on workers’ and consumers’ rights across the country.
Another large medical company, Johnson & Johnson, announced it would end its ALEC affiliation in June 2012.
Amgen was a corporate member of ALEC’s Health and Human Services Task Force, which crafted legislation favorable to pharmaceutical companies and health insurers. Part of this task force’s goal during the 2010-2011 health care debate was to keep single-payer off the table, as well as prevent the establishment of a “public option” that would compete with private insurers.
As Amgen Assistant Secretary and General Council Andrea Robinson responded to an inquiry from socially responsible shareholders and investors: “After careful consideration, we have determined not to renew our membership in ALEC when our current membership expires this year.”
Voters First, the coalition community groups backing a fair districts amendment for Ohio, announced Saturday night that it collected over 750,000 signatures, all but assuring a place on the November ballot.
Working America organizers and members were among those pounding the pavement, showing up with clipboards at everywhere from zoos to parades to Cleveland Indians games, talking to Ohioans about how a fair district amendment would make politicians more accountable to their constituents.
It was a close call. On the first July 3 deadline, Voters First turned in an initial batch of 450,000 signatures – only 385,000 were required. Unfortunately, a review from the Secretary of State’s office invalidated nearly half of the signatures.
Things looked bleak, but organizers and volunteers put the pedal to the metal to gather an additional 300,904 signatures before the final July 29 deadline. With 750,000 in, there’s a strong chance that the initiative will clear the threshold and Ohio will get to make their voice heard on adding a Fair Districts amendment to the state constitution.
This effort wasn’t backed by a political party, or by an influx of SuperPAC dollars. It was powered by citizens like Mary Ann from Cleveland, who attended or helped organize 12 signature gathering events. It was built by Nancy in Painesville, who redoubled her efforts after the initial July 3 disappointment and helped push the initiative over the edge. It was supported by Sylvia, another Clevelander who hosted meetings in her home to get her friends and neighbors involved.
All the volunteers who showed up at Farmers Markets, drive-thrus, grocery stores, libraries, and sports games with petitions in hand helped make this happen.
We’ll keep you updated as the signatures move through the approval process. Until then, a hearty congratulations to Voters First, the League of Women Voters, Mary Ann, Nancy, Sylvia, and the rest of the great team that is fighting to give power back to the people.
