Chop Wood, Carry Water 4/16
Writing history, every day.
Hi, all, and happy Tuesday!
Well, the roller coaster ride continues.
Yesterday’s news was largely encouraging: Donald Trump fell asleep in court while everyone else conducted themselves with professionalism; Republicans continued to flounder and scramble around the abortion issue, and Mike Johnson promised to bring a Ukraine funding bill to the floor as soon as Friday.
On that last note, however, we may have celebrated too soon. I’m receiving breaking news alerts that “momentum is building to oust Johnson from his Speakership,” and it does, in fact, seem that the Kremlin wing of the House GOP—in other words, half of them—is willing to try to eject Johnson in order to block that aid. A speaker-ousting vote, of course, would likely throw the House into chaos and delay Ukraine funding indefinitely. It’s something that absolutely cannot happen. The blowback from regular Americans must be vast and swift; the House script below will facilitate that.
The rational response to these outrages, my friends, is righteous fury. Lawmakers towards whose salaries you and I pay taxes are quite literally working for a foreign government, and a hostile one, at that. It’s unsustainable, unacceptable, and utterly unforgivable. Each of them will live in infamy.
But only if we beat them. So let’s do that. Because when the history of this era is written we want to make sure it tells a story in which democracy prevails.
And it will. Such a history is already in progress. We are writing it with our actions.
So let’s keep it up.
P.S. — I’m actually getting the chance to meet Amanda Litman from Run For Something in person today—SO EXCITED!—but I just realized I need to leave soon! I’ll have to omit a Senate call today—sorry!
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I’m calling because I know that Speaker Johnson announced he intends to bring Ukraine funding up for a vote this week, and now there is renewed talk about ousting him. NO WAY. No more chaos, no more distraction, no more vacating the chair. Congress needs to pass Ukraine funding and get on with the business of helping Americans. I expect the Congressmember to do everything in his/her power to avoid a new chair vote and get this funding passed. Thanks.
Extra Credit ✅
Oil Change International is warning us that Biden’s LNG pause is under attack by the Japanese Prime Minister, Congressional Republicans, and the fossil fuel industry. Japanese industry is trying to pressure the Biden administration to lift it, claiming they need gas for energy security. But the truth is, Japan's gas demand is decreasing, and they are selling excess gas to other countries in Asia for corporate profit.
Let’s call President Biden’s comment line and urge him to stay strong. I just did it—it was easy! (I left a VM, which didn’t use to be an option.)
The White House comment line is 202-456-1111, and open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 11a-3p ET.
"My name is [NAME] and I'm calling from [LOCATION] to thank President Biden for pausing new LNG authorizations and to urge him to to strengthen the pause.
I am very concerned about LNG exports because: [ADD WHY YOU'RE CONCERNED: It could be climate, environmental impacts, health & safety, or economic impacts].
Please expand the pause to halt the permitting of new LNG infrastructure and export projects across all federal agencies and commissions. Thank you for this step in the right direction."
If you miss the call window you can set a reminder to call tomorrow, or copy, paste, and personalize this note and send it through the official WH comment portal.
Get Smart! 📚
You guys. This post by Sister District about down-ballot drop-off in state legislative races is WILD. Please, please read it. This is a Team Blue problem (Republicans literally don’t have it) that we’ve got to solve.
SD is also doing a presentation about it next week:
Join Sister District Action Network on Monday, April 22 from 3 – 4pm EDT as they present findings from their battleground-state survey of voter behavior in state legislative races, conducted in partnership with Data for Progress
In this briefing they’ll talk about the challenge of down-ballot roll-off, roll-off voter demographics, potential reasons people skip voting in state legislative races, and what upcoming research they’re doing. There will also be a Q & A.
Spread the Word! 📣
In advance of the House sending over impeachment articles on Secretary Mayorkas, here's America’s Voice’s updated social media toolkit blasting the language that Republicans have been using as well as the extremist impeachment managers. Please find graphics, talking points, and social media language—and please use them!
Give 💰!
Here’s another Mind the Gap recommendation for STRATEGIC giving:
Future Forward USA Action carefully designs highly targeted TV ads to reach and mobilize as many voters as possible across multiple platforms, including broadcast, cable, satellite, and streaming TV. Using rigorous pre-testing and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess the impact of ad campaigns on voter turnout, FFUSA has developed ads that consistently outperform alternatives by as much as 2X. Early funding (now) allows FFUSA to place early ad reservations, effectively locking in rates that are 20-30% cheaper than they will be later in the cycle. With lower rates and more comprehensive testing, FFUSA is able to mobilize more voters for a given investment.
Click here to make a contribution of any amount. Contributions are not tax-deductible.
Win Races! 🗳
This is an ask from my good friend Kristina at SURJ. Please help if you can!
The Kentucky People's Union is a grassroots multigenerational, multiracial working class organization building power in small town Eastern Kentucky. They've been organizing for two years, primarily on tenants rights, and have brought in people across political parties around a shared struggle.
Now their member Sean Farrington is running for city commissioner in Ashland Kentucky. The current commissioner opposes their Tenants Bill of Rights; they want a champion in office who’s a member of their community.
They’re underdogs in this race. They’re not the establishment, they’re not landlords, they’re not the wealthy elite. What they do have, though, is power in their movement and folks across the country who are supporting them.
Can you join them in helping to elect Sean? Donate here, learn more about him here and more about Kentucky People's Union here.
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[To: your HOUSE rep ] [H/T First Five Years Fund] [Text SIGN PEERIV to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]
Child care is one of the largest expenses most families with young children face. It can easily cost more than in-state college tuition or the average rent, leaving millions of working families struggling to afford the quality care they need. And without it, many parents are forced to miss work or exit the workforce entirely, leaving families financially unstable, employers scrambling to fill jobs, and young children missing opportunities to learn and grow.
The Promoting Affordable Childcare for Everyone Act (H.R. 7360) would help. Introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and Brad Schneider (D-IL), this bipartisan bill would fine-tune existing provisions in the U.S. tax code to help more families afford child care. It would do this by:
—Enhancing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) by making the credit fully refundable so that it reaches more low- and middle-income working families; indexing the credit to inflation to ensure it matches rising costs of child care into the future, and raising the credit rate so that families will see more money back in their pockets.
—Expanding the Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP) by increasing the amount of pre-tax dollars families can put into a child care assistance plan (similar to a Flexible Spending Account) from $5,000 to $7,500.
The policies in the PACE Act are popular with voters and its goal of modernizing the tax code to help families afford child care is popular with lawmakers. Please support it! Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
Called about Ukraine and donated!
Thanks so much for highlighting Sister District’s research into down ballot roll-off. The stat that brought it home for me is how Democrats lost control of the state legislature in Virginia the year Youngkin won—-but if everyone who had voted for his losing Democratic opponent had also voted for their state legislator, Democrats would’ve easily maintained state legislative control. (We flipped that back in 2023. Phew!) One reason we focus on phonebanking is to do the work of familiarizing people with who their state legislative candidates are. Say their name over and over. Many people just are not paying attention. But it seems Republicans are much more likely to check all the boxes on their ballot whether they know the candidate or not.