Chop Wood, Carry Water 3/3
Hi, all, and happy Friday!
I don’t know about you, but this week has worn me out. So thank goodness, truly, that it’s Friday!
Join me in taking a few easy actions before we put our feet up and enjoy our (hopefully restful) weekend. There’s nothing better than relaxing after doing important work—so let’s do a bit of that now!
As ever, you inspire and awe me. Thank you for walking this road with me.
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
First, I urge the Senator to reintroduce and prioritize passing the Afghan Adjustment Act. Nearly 80,000 Afghan refugees are at risk of losing their legal status and Congress has a duty to protect them. This is about a promise we made as a country. Please ask the Senator not to break it.
Also, I want Gigi Sohn to be confirmed to the FCC board as soon as possible. Do you know when the full Senate will vote, and how the Senator will vote? Thanks. (Push for an answer in writing.)
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I’m calling to demand that Marjorie Taylor Greene be stripped of her committee assignments. She has just effectively endorsed the dissolution of the United States while also a member of the House Homeland Security Committee–a committee that forms policy for and focuses on the security of the United States. She has no place on that or any committee. Please demand she be removed from all of her committees at once, and please publicly condemn her calls for a ‘national divorce.’ I expect Congress to stand against secessionist rhetoric from its own members. Thanks. [H/T and H/T]
Speaking of security, I’d also like the Congressmember to co-sponsor the People Over Pentagon Act (H.R. 1134). A $100 billion reduction in military spending is the minimum we should cut if we’re to transform our society from a permanent war economy to a sustainable economy of community care. Thanks. [H/T]
Extra Credit ✅
Permitting reform is baaaack! Ugh! As a result you have an extra Resistbot today! Please send this to all 3 reps! Read the text of the letter here then text SIGN PHUFPK to 50409.
Spread the Word! 📣
FACT CHECK: DeSantis Repeatedly Supported Cuts to Social Security, Medicare:
In his latest stop on Fox, Ron DeSantis tried to completely rewrite his long, established record of supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, saying “We're not going to mess with Social Security as Republicans. I think that's pretty clear.” Here’s the truth: as a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, Ron DeSantis repeatedly and consistently supported cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Uplift this video from The Democrats.
Give 💰!
True to their long-time strategy of identifying the highest-impact chain of nested races in a given election, Walk the Walk USA is supporting some really great, unfunded grassroots initiatives to turn out voters strategically in northern Milwaukee. Engaged voters will be supported to vote both for Janet P. for WI Supreme Court AND for Jodi Habush Sinykin to flip the WI Senate District 8 seat. If Republicans hold the Senate seat, they can override Governor Evers’s veto and even remove him, State Supreme Court justices like Janet P., and other elected Democratic officials from office if the State Assembly votes to impeach by a simple majority.
This is the best kind of twofer to help safeguard democracy nationwide, but Walk the Walk USA needs to raise $100k over the next two weeks to power these person-to-person voter engagement initiatives. Please give here if you can.
Win Races! 🗳
Write letters into Wisconsin with Working America! These are easy, data-tested, smart, and proven to increase turnout. They are specifically targeted at, well, workers. Love this organization—their work is so effective that Focus For Democracy is having another fundraiser for them next week. Sign up to write here.
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[to all 3 reps] [H/T] [Quick send text SIGN PQQJKW to 50409]
I’m writing to say that Congress must not cut Social Security. Instead, it should expand it and extend its solvency so that everyone in America can retire with the respect that they have earned and deserve after a lifetime of hard work. That’s what the Social Security Expansion Act, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep. Val Hoyle, is all about.
The Social Security Expansion Act would:
Extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years by requiring the wealthiest American households to pay their fair share of taxes. Today, because of the earnings cap on Social Security taxes, a CEO making $20 million a year pays the same amount of money into Social Security as someone who makes $160,200 a year. This legislation would lift this cap and subject all income above $250,000 to the Social Security payroll tax.
Expand Social Security benefits across-the-board for current and new beneficiaries. Under this bill, Social Security benefits for current and existing recipients would be increased by $2,400 a year.
Increase Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments (COLAs). This bill would more accurately measure the spending patterns for seniors by adopting the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E).
Require millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share into Social Security.
Improve the Special Minimum Benefit for Social Security recipients. This bill would help low-income workers stay out of poverty by increasing the Special Minimum Benefit and indexing the benefit level so that it is equal to 125 percent of the poverty line, or over $18,000 for a single worker who had worked their full career.
Restore student benefits up to age 22 for children of disabled or deceased workers, if the child is a full-time student in a college or vocational school. This legislation would restore student benefits to help educate children of deceased or disabled parents that were eliminated in 1983.
Combine the Disability Insurance Trust Fund with the Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund to help senior citizens and people with disabilities.
Social Security is one of the most popular and successful government programs in the history of our country. For more than 80 years, through good times and bad, Social Security has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American on time and without delay. This can never change. Please sign on to co-sponsor this bill. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Hi Jessica, I hope Mj is feeling better. You must have been up all night to get today's Action letter out so early. I would like to suggest to you that if and when you mention Senator Rick Scott (FL) that you include, who presided over a company guilty the biggest Medicare and Medicaid fraud ever. Here is the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Scott
Be well...Alan
I'm having a weird mix of feelings today. I was thinking this morning that almost every day, I learn my home state of Minnesota (with the new Dem majority) is doing something big and new and important and I'm so proud, and then after a bit more scrolling I learn the Florida government is working just as tirelessly to remove rights. Its overwhelming.