Daily Archives: 05/31/2011

Jason Rosenbaum, DSCC Director of Online Communications


Going over the numbers at my desk, and here’s the situation— we’re about $14,000 short of our May goal with about 6 hours until the FEC deadline. Below is a screenshot of where we’re at. If everyone kicks in $5 we’ll hit the goal, can you help out?

https://dscc.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=Kd9drzrzx9BP4n2JodsBSkVTobVv%2FQLH

 

If we make it, that means we go full throttle after the Republicans who voted to destroy Medicare. And believe me, our plan is to put every single one of them out of work.  But we need the funds to do it.

Can you help us out before midnight?

Thanks,
Jason

–
Jason Rosenbaum
DSCC Director of Online Communications

Gov. Gregoire in the Newsroom


How do i know …

How will federal health care reform affect me?

Putting the State Budget on a Sustainable Trajectory

Cost Estimate for H.R. 1954, A bill to implement the President’​s request to increase the statutory limit on the public debt


The following document has been added to CBO’s Web site:

Protect Medicare … AFSCME e-Action Network


It’s truly scary.

The federal budget that was introduced by
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and passed in the House of Representatives last month
is being voted on in the Senate this week. And in all my years of working
in Washington, DC, I can honestly say that I’ve rarely seen anything this
alarming.

That’s why I need you to take just a minute and send a message
to your senators right now.

Protect MedicareYou’ve probably already heard about the Ryan budget
because of its radical proposal to eliminate Medicare as we know it. But
it’s worse than that. It’s clear that what he’s calling the “Pathway to
Prosperity” should really be named the “Pathway to Poverty,” given what it means
for most Americans. The Ryan pathway is a wrong turn for America. It only brings
more prosperity to insurance companies, Wall Street fat cats, and the wealthiest
companies and individuals in America while dumping the rest of us in a dead end.
It’s outrageous.

And it must be stopped in the
Senate: Please take action against this radical bill right
now.

  • Ryan’s budget includes deep
    cuts to federal programs that fund state and local governments at a time when
    many states are already in crisis, and more and more people need their services.
    It’s nothing short of
    another outright attack on public employees and the services we provide.
  • The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates
    that Medicare beneficiaries’ premiums and other out-of-pocket expenses would double when compared to
    Medicare as it is now – from $6,150 to $12,500.
  • Ryan claims this bill would
    reduce the deficit by $4.3 trillion. What he doesn’t say is that it’s almost
    entirely wiped out by the
    $4.2 trillion in tax cuts to benefit the wealthiest Americans. Indeed, it would reduce the
    tax rate for prosperous corporations and reduce the tax rate paid by the
    wealthiest to its lowest level since 1931.

This budget proposal is so radical
that even some Republicans, like Newt
Gingrich, are distancing themselves from it. And while home during
recess, many of the House Republicans who voted for it (all but 4 did) were
taken to task at town hall meetings by the same people who voted for them last
November.

It’s clear
that the voices of working Americans are being heard and making a difference in
this fight. So please, speak out against this extreme proposal today by sending
a message to your senators. Let them know that you won’t stand by while Medicare, Medicaid,
and even Social Security are dismantled to pay for tax breaks for the rich and
subsidies to oil companies.

In solidarity,

Chuck Loveless
Legislative
Director
AFSCME

a word from …Nancy Pelosi Democratic Leader


Tonight’s FEC deadline is our first big test since our big win in New York’s 26th district.

The media and pundits will use our totals tonight as a signal of our will to hold Republicans accountable nationwide for their extremist stance of ending Medicare — just as we did in NY-26.

As we enter the final hours, we remain just $21,914 shy of our $250,000 grassroots goal. A contribution today can be put to work immediately towards our rapid response efforts this summer including mobilizing volunteers, targeted advertising and yard signs.

Please contribute $3 or more before tonight’s Midnight Deadline so we may continue holding Republicans accountable for voting to end Medicare for seniors while giving tax cuts to Big Oil companies and the ultra rich.

Republicans and their shadowy special interest groups went all in and spent a breathtaking $3.4 million to try to hold a seat in this heavily Republican district. It’s a sign of things to come: This is going to be one of the most costly election cycles ever. We know we have the right ideas on our side, but this special election proved that we also must have the resources we need to hold Republicans accountable and push back against their misleading right-wing attacks.

With the world watching, now is our opportunity to show that Americans are united against the GOP plan to end Medicare and grassroots Democrats are as strong as ever. But we must raise $21,914 more by Midnight Tonight.

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader

Washington State DSHS cuts kids Medicaid …


WA Supreme Court orders DSHS to reverse cuts to medicaid kids

The cuts targeted a program that helped vulnerable children. Benefits to as many as 3,000 kids could be affected.

by CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News

SEATTLE — The Washington State Supreme Court has ordered a reversal of some of the deep budget cuts made by the Department of Social and Health Services. The cuts targeted a program that helped vulnerable children. Benefits to as many as 3,000 kids could be affected.

One of them is Samantha Kadlec of Kenmore. Medicaid paid for an in-home personal care expert to help Samantha with things like bathing, grooming and reading. Her mother was devastated when DSHS cut Samantha’s services in half.

“It was a pretty rough time,” Andrea Kadlec said. “You needed more support and they were proposing you get a lot less. I felt pretty sick.”

This week, the court ruled that DSHS made broad assumptions based on children’s age and living conditions instead of examining the need in each individual case.

The court also affirmed lower a court finding that DSHS made similar unfair cuts to about 1,000 seniors who also received in-home care.

Samantha’s mother realizes the state is in dire financial trouble. She says without in-home assistance, taxpayers could face an even bigger bill for full time care.

“So the crux of this case is so that kids like Sam can live in the community and don’t have to be institutionalized,” Andrea said.

How will DSHS restore the funding when its budget has been cut so deeply? DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus said she won’t know the next step until her agency has had a chance to review the court ruling.

Pop Quiz: What would America look like under Rep. Ryan’s radical budget? AFL-CIO


Pop Quiz:
What would America look like under Rep. Ryan’s (R-Wis.) radical, Tea Party-inspired
budget?

A. A typical 65-year-old would spend $6,359 more
per year out of pocket for health care by 2022 because Medicare’s promise would
be replaced with underfunded vouchers.

B. At least 15 million people
would lose Medicaid health care.

C. $4.2 trillion in new
tax cuts would be handed out mostly to corporations and the rich.

D. All
of the above.

If you
answered D, all of the above, you’re right. The House Republican budget would do
all of those things.

All but four House Republicans voted for
this radical proposal. The
Senate will consider it this week.

How many Senate Republicans
will vote to give even more tax cuts to Wall Street and the wealthy and pay for
them by cutting deeply into services for seniors, children and low- and
middle-income working families?

Let’s make sure every
U.S. senator knows this “right-wing social engineering” bill—which is what
former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently called Rep. Ryan’s
budget—is not used as a starting point for a debate over America’s
future.

Here’s how you can help stop this
radical, Tea Party-inspired budget:

Forward this message to five friends—ask them to oppose the Ryan budget and make
sure it gets voted down in the Senate.

In
Solidarity,

Manny Herrmann
Online Mobilization Coordinator,
AFL-CIO

P.S. Want to read more about the Ryan budget? Read and share the full post on the AFL-CIO Now
Blog.

Sources:
http://blog.aflcio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/medicare_costs_by_state.pdf
http://blog.aflcio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/medicaid_losses_by_state.pdf
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/upload/house_budget2012.pdf

Our plan this summer …Mitch Stewart, BarackObama.com


You’ve been hearing from Messina about our overall strategy and what’s at stake in this election. My job as the Battleground States Director is to report back to you on the nuts and bolts of what we’re building in communities across the country.

I want to take you through it in detail, so you can understand how to get involved and shape our organization where you live.

We’re going to build it from the ground up. And we’re going to use this summer to roll out our team model and organizing structure through grassroots planning sessions in homes and by videoconference.

Here’s the full briefing — watch it here, and if you’re willing to get involved now and be part of the organization in your community, let me know:

———————

Some of these planning sessions are already under way, and we’re starting to get some feedback. I got one email from a supporter named Steven, who hadn’t been involved at all since 2008, and only went to his grassroots planning session on a whim.

As a result, he’s all-in — he wants want to get involved fast, and also has all sorts of new ideas for how he can apply his skills better this time and which friends and colleagues he can reach out to about joining the campaign.

The subject line of his email about the meeting was “Inspiring night.”

This kind of organization-building isn’t just an electoral strategy — it’s a reflection of what we believe in as voters and citizens. It’s a commitment to the kind of politics that begins in backyards and living rooms and empowers every single American to get involved and organize for the changes they want to see.

At a moment when it feels like the only thing that separates our opponents is how quickly they want to end Medicare as we know it, winning this way — driven locally, powered by the grassroots — will be a rebuke to those in Washington who still think that people across the country don’t have a seat at the table where decisions are made.

I’m asking you to pull up a chair. If you’re willing to get involved now, at this crucial point in the campaign, let me know here:

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Battleground States Director
Obama for America

P.S. — If you don’t have time to watch the video, here’s a quick rundown on where we stand:

– Messina mentioned the one-on-one initiative last month. We’re going to talk with every person who volunteered or made a donation last time. So the staff and I started making calls and meeting with people one-on-one. And then those people started having their own one-on-ones with others. So far more than 75,000 individual conversations have happened across the country. The results are a massive army of newly energized volunteers, plus thousands of pages of ideas and feedback that will inform how we shape our organization nationally.

– Grassroots planning sessions are under way across the country — we’ve had dozens so far with more than a hundred still to come. Everyone has been or will be invited to one.

– You heard about our Summer Organizer Program when we asked you to help recruit them. Well, there are now hundreds across the country, and they start next week. We were pleasantly surprised that the number of applicants far exceeded what we saw when we launched this program in 2008, and you’ll be hearing more about them — and in many cases from them directly — in the coming months.

Official Whitehouse blog …


On Wednesday June 1, 2011 at 3 p.m. EDT, Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy Jeffrey Crowley and Director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Dr. Carl Dieffenbach will be hosting a special live discussion on the 30th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic.  Submit your questions in advance and tune in to www.WhiteHouse.gov/live to watch the discussion.

What: Open for Question: 30 Years of AIDS
When: June 1 at 3 p.m. EDT
Who: Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy Jeffrey Crowley and Director of the Division of AIDS at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH Dr. Carl Dieffenbach
Where: Submit questions in advance, watch live at www.WhiteHouse.gov/live and submit live questions during the discussion on Facebook.

 

Harry Reid &Senate Democrats in the Newsrooms


June 3, 2011

Reid Statement On May Employment Report

 Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement in response to the news that the private sector added 83,000 jobs in May:

 “Creating jobs has been Democrats’ top priority since day one, and I am encouraged that the private sector is continuing to grow and add jobs. Unfortunately, Republicans have been distracted, choosing instead to focus on their plan to end Medicare in order to pay for more tax breaks for millionaires. With families in Nevada and across America still struggling, it is time for Republicans to stop trying to force their plan to end Medicare on the American people, and work with Democrats to create jobs.”