“Pioneers” of outsourcin​g … Stephanie Cutter, BarackObama.com

The Washington Post reported that “Mitt Romney‘s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.”

This is the same guy that goes around the campaign trail talking a huge game about being able to protect American jobs by standing up to foreign countries like China. But now we know that Romney and his partners made millions while sending American jobs overseas.

This is a critical point, and we need to make sure everyone knows it. Check out this video I recorded today, and share it far and wide:

Romney’s support of outsourcing didn’t just happen in the private sector. As governor of Massachusetts, he vetoed legislation that would have banned companies from shipping state jobs overseas — and he actually outsourced state jobs to a call center in India.

In contrast, President Obama has a jobs plan that could put up to a million people back to work — including teachers, cops, firefighters, construction workers, and veterans — help small businesses create jobs right now, and help to put an end to American jobs being shipped overseas. He’s also fighting for tax breaks for companies that bring jobs back to America.

Mitt Romney is fighting for tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas — the type of companies he ran in the private sector.

This isn’t just a policy position for Romney, it’s his economic philosophy — and it’s his record.

Read the article, watch the video, and share them both far and wide — doesn’t get a lot more important than this one:

Thanks,

Stephanie

P.S. — Chip in $5 or more today, and help make sure we have the resources to spread the truth about Romney’s record.

sign the “MY BOSS IS NOT MY DOCTOR” petition … Al Franken

Here’s a handy way to tell the difference between your boss and your doctor: Ask to see a stethoscope (doctors usually have those handy). If the person who’s trying to control your access to health care can’t produce one, that’s your boss — and you shouldn’t let him or her decide what care you can get.

 

This is pretty simple: Bosses aren’t doctors. And Republicans shouldn’t put them in charge of your health care. No wonder 26,545 people have already signed our “MY BOSS IS NOT MY DOCTOR” petition.

That’s 26,545 people whose bosses are not their doctors, and don’t want their bosses deciding what health care they can and can’t get.

So if you haven’t signed our petition — and your boss is not, in fact, your doctor — don’t wait another minute. Click here, sign now.

Thanks for reading — and remember: If it walks like a boss, talks like a boss, and can’t produce a stethoscope on demand, it isn’t a doctor.

Al

P.S.: It took hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of research to develop the stethoscope test. Okay, no, it didn’t. But a grassroots campaign like this one does cost money. And it would be great if you could chip in a few dollars to help us keep it going.

Extinction doesn’t get a second chance … Ashley Schaeffer, Rainforest Action Network

		Click on the photo above for even more info
		Extinction doesn’t get a second chance. Endangered orangutans are hovering on the very edge of extinction.  Palm oil companies have deforested so much of the forests orangutans depend on for survival, they literally have nowhere left to go. Mankind’s closest relative urgently needs our help. Wild orangutans are nearly extinct and need us to take a stand.  You can help this important work by chipping in just $10 today. The footage below, which I filmed in Borneo, shows a pregnant orangutan trapped inside an area of active palm oil development on the border of Tanjng Puting National Park.  Because orangutans cannot swim, she cannot reach the protected lands on the other side of this river, condemning her to inevitable death by starvation or at the hands of plantation workers. Watching her broke my heart. Palm oil companies prioritize profit over life. Horrific scenes like the one captured above must come to an end. RAN is pushing big industry buyers like Cargill to take responsibility for the very real impacts of their supply chains, their role in land conflicts affecting Indigenous communities, and the role palm oil is playing in species extinction. By donating just $10 today, you are joining with hundreds of other donors to make sure that we are saving orangutans, like the one above, from extinction. Deforestation in Indonesia has reached crisis proportions — but a narrow window of time remains to stop this historic tragedy before it is too late. During the past decade orangutan populations have decreased by about 50% in the wild. This means that without drastic intervention, orangutans may soon be extinct as biologically viable populations in the wild. RAN is working hard to pressure the Indonesian government and palm oil industry giants like Cargill to end this tragedy once and for all. Please be generous.  Extinct orangutans don’t get a second chance. For the forests, Ashley Schaeffer             Rainforest Agribusiness Campaigner

Media Matters for America : Bain , FOX and #ACA

REPORT: Media Overwhelmingly Focus On Rulings Against Health Care Reform Constitutionality A majority of federal rulings on the substance of President Obama’s health care reform law have found it to be constitutional, including the law’s mandate that individuals purchase health insurance. But a Media Matters review of the five largest newspapers and the flagship CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs finds that the media overwhelmingly focused on rulings that struck down the law in whole or in part — 84 percent of segments on the broadcast and cable programs reviewed and 59 percent of newspaper articles that reported on such rulings — while largely ignoring rulings that found it constitutional or dismissed the case. Read More

Fox News Botches Basic Facts About Food Stamp Program Fox News attacked the food stamp program for its increasing enrollment and costs, accused the program of facilitating fraud, and expressed astonishment that states are rewarded for increasing enrollment. However, enrollment in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) increased due to the recession; there are only about 1 percent of cases that are found to be fraudulent, and the state awards for enrollment date back to the Bush administration. Read More

Right-Wing Media Side With Pro-Romney Forces In Wash. Post‘s Internal Bain Capital Dispute Right-wing media are touting a Washington Post Fact Checker article alleging that the Obama campaign “failed to make its case” in a new ad claiming that Romney “shipped jobs” overseas. But a different Post article pointing to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission has affirmed that Bain Capital, with Romney as head, “owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas.” Read More

The House of Representatives: Bills that may be on the Flr. Week of 6/25

Text of Bills for the Week of Jun. 25, 2012

First Published:        June 22, 2012 at 03:35 PM Last Updated: June 22, 2012 at 07:00 PM      XML

The following are links to the text of legislation scheduled for consideration during the week of June 25, 2012

For the complete schedule, please visit the Majority Leader’s site.

Items that may be considered under suspension of the rules

H.R. 4850	Enabling Energy Saving Innovations Act	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 5625	Collinsville Renewable Energy Promotion Act	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 3173	To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to reform the process for the enrollment, activation, issuance, and renewal of a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) to require, in total, not more than one in-person visit to a designated enrollment center	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 4251	Securing Maritime Activities through Risk-based Targeting for Port Security Act	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 5843	To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to permit use of certain grant funds for training conducted in conjunction with a national laboratory or research facility	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 4005	GAPS Act	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 1447	Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2011	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 5889	Nuclear Terrorism Conventions Implementation and Safety of Maritime Navigation Act of 2012, as amended	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 4223	Safe Doses Act	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 4018	Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Improvements Act of 2012, as amended	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 3501	To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 125 Kerr Avenue in Rome City, Indiana, as the “SPC Nicholas Scott Hartge Post Office”	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 3276	To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 2810 East Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, Florida, as the “Reverend Abe Brown Post Office Building	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 3412	To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 1421 Veterans Memorial Drive in Abbeville, Louisiana, as the “Sergeant Richard Franklin Abshire Post Office Building”	[PDF]                  [XML]
H.R. 3593	To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 787 State Route 17M in Monroe, New York, as the “National Clandestine Service of the Central Intelligence Agency NCS Officer Gregg David Wenzel Memorial Post Office	[XML]                  [PDF]
H.R. 3772	To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 150 South Union Street in Canton, Mississippi, as the “First Sergeant Landres Cheeks Post Office Building”	[PDF]                  [XML]
Senate Amendment to H.R. 2297	To promote the development of the Southwest waterfront in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes	[PDF]
Added              06/22/2012 at 05:42 PM

Items that may be considered

H.Res. __	Resolution recommending that the House of Representatives find Eric H. Holder, Jr., Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena duly issued by the committee on Oversight and Government Reform	[PDF]
Added              06/22/2012 at 06:13 PM

Items that may be considered pursuant to a rule

H.R. 5972	Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013	[PDF]                  [XML]
Added              06/22/2012 at 06:56 PM
H.R. 5973	Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013	[PDF]                  [XML]
Added              06/22/2012 at 07:00 PM

the Progress Report

An Outsourcer-in-Chief in the Oval Office?

By         ThinkProgress War Room

The Washington Post has a blockbuster, must-read story today detailing how Mitt Romney and Bain Capital were “pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States” to countries like India, China, and elsewhere.

ThinkProgress’ Pat Garofalo gets to the heart of it:

Bain “invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.”

In one example, Bain was the largest shareholder in a company called Modus Media, which “specialized in helping companies outsource their manufacturing“:

Modus Media told the SEC it was performing outsource packaging and hardware assembly for IBM, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Computer Corp. The filing disclosed that Modus had operations on four continents, including Asian facilities in Singapore, Taiwan, China and South Korea, and European facilities in Ireland and France, and a center in Australia.[...]

According to a news release issued by Modus Media in 1997, its expansion of outsourcing services took place in close consultation with Bain. Terry Leahy, Modus’s chairman and chief executive, was quoted in the release as saying he would be “working closely with Bain on strategic expansion.”.

Other companies that Bain invested in sent jobs all over the world, including to Ireland and Mexico, while Romney has tried to claim that Bain was all about creating jobs and turning around American companies that otherwise would have gone under.

As one of Romney’s former partners put it,”I never thought of what I do for a living as job creation…The primary goal of private equity is to create wealth for your investors.” And that’s what Bain did, even if it meant helping companies move operations to the same country Romney now blasts for stealing American jobs.

While the Romney campaign declined to comment for the article, they offered a laughable response today: outsourcing is different than offshoring. In other words, they didn’t dispute one iota of the substance of the story, but instead wanted to split hairs over semantics.

WHY IT MATTERS: While it’s troubling that Mitt Romney amassed a quarter-billion dollar fortune by bankrupting companies, laying off workers, and sending jobs overseas, where his policies would take America is of even greater concern.

Not only did Romney personally profit from the outsourcing and offshoring of American jobs, he has signed a pledge to a Washington lobbyist to protect tax breaks for companies who ship American jobs overseas. Mitt Romney also wants to encourage companies to dodge taxes by simply getting rid of taxes on foreign profits altogether. And he has also eagerly embraced the House Republican budget plan that also protects tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and also abolishes corporate taxes on foreign profits — many of which are “foreign” only because of accounting tricks and other gimmicks.

By contrast, President Obama wants to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and instead use the money to reward companies who bring jobs back to America. The president also wants to make sure that companies pay their fair share by instituting a global minimum tax to make sure they don’t use tricks and gimmicks to avoid paying what they owe.

Evening Brief: Important Stories That You May Have Missed

A Romney campaign co-chair said that Romney would “rescind” the president’s new immigration policy if he’s elected.

The Montana Republican Party bankrolled an ad attacking the Republican budget because it hurts Medicare.

Why the revelations about Romney’s career as an outsourcer really matter.

The week in Romney lies.

Members of Congress who supported a massive giveaway to Big Oil received $38.6 MILLION from the industry.

Four policies that can help women (and men) “have it all.”

Polls show that President Obama has a massive lead over Mitt Romney among Latinos in key swing states.

GOP governors continue to be at odds with Romney’s doom-and-gloom talk about the economy.

Half the states protect men’s health more than women’s.

Other recent Progress Reports

Jun 21, 2012: Who Supports Obama’s New Immigration Policy?

Republicans Keep Digging On Immigration Republicans have been thrown into disarray by the president’s very popular announcement on immigration, with Mitt Romney and others simply refusing to say where they stand. Well, we wanted to know where they stand so that you could know too. So ThinkProgress called the offices of every single Republican in [...]

Jun 20, 2012: Do You Want to Pay for a Tax Break for Millionaires?

GOP Plan: Raise Your Taxes, Slash Them for Millionaires As we’ve been discussing for months, the core of the Romney-Ryan budget plan is massive tax cuts for wealthy paid for by increasing taxes on the middle class and slashing funding for Medicare, Medicaid, and basically everything else the government does — including programs that benefit [...]

Jun 19, 2012: GOP Backup Plan on Immigration: Deceive Latinos

GOP Trying to Etch A Sketch Away Its Record on Immigration Two new polls out this week show the peril of the Republican Party’s vehemently anti-immigrant policies. First, Gallup reported that anti-immigration sentiment is at a historic low, with 66 percent of Americans saying immigration is a “good thing.” And then just today a Bloomberg [...]

Jun 18, 2012: SEVEN Issues Mitt Romney Won’t Take a Position On

What Is Mitt Romney Hiding? Mitt Romney’s campaign is well-versed in the art of secrecy. Hard drives from state-owned computers while he was governor of Massachusetts? Purchased by his staffers and erased. The 23 years of tax returns he provided to the McCain campaign in 2008 while being vetted (and passed over) for vice president? [...]

Don’t Let Polluters roll back our clean air protections … Sierra Club

Can you believe it?  In Washington, we’ve been leaders in combating climate change, using every tool available to reduce our carbon footprint.  Until now. Last week, the Washington state Department of Ecology announced its intention to roll back clean air rules in order to avoid having to regulate greenhouse gasses from major industrial sources, like oil refineries.  Ecology has proposed changes to our most vital clean air protections that would take Washington from among the best in the nation to the bare minimum required by federal law. Tell the Department of Ecology to put public health first.  Don’t weaken our clean air laws. Ecology is proposing to weaken the Washington Clean Air Act State Implementation Plan (SIP) to cover only the handful of pollutants required by federal law.  This would leave major industrial polluters free to emit unlimited amounts of greenhouse gasses and other pollutants that would no longer be enforceable under the SIP. Tell the Department of Ecology to stand-up for our clean air and our future by following the law instead of trying to change it. Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered the Department of Ecology to begin regulating greenhouse gasses from oil refineries.  But instead of complying with the law to protect public health, Ecology is trying to change the law and let polluters off the hook. Changing the law to let Big Oil keep polltuing our state rather than protecting people’s health and futures?  That’s not the Washington we know and love. Please send an e-mail today telling the Department Ecology not to weaken Washington’s State Implimentation Plan.  We need more tools to combat climate change, not fewer. Thanks for all you do to protect the environment, Sincerely, Aaron Robins Volunteer Chair, Energy Committee P.S.  The Sierra Club‘s work protecting the environment costs us money.  Please consider making a donation today to keep us going strong. P.P.S. Tell your friends to take action on Washington’s environment, and get your social media circles involved:

the Daily Share

Look At This Crazy Chart, Gasp, And Then Never Watch Cable News Ever, Ever Again

Only 3 Days Left! … Mary Anne Hitt Beyond Coal Campaign Director

There are only three days left to tell the EPA that you support carbon pollution safeguards to protect our kids from asthma-inducing smog. 

In the last couple of months, more than 2 million Americans have submitted comments in support of the EPA’s proposal to protect our health — more comments than any agency has ever received on a proposal. It’s a huge accomplishment, but we can’t announce victory just yet — Big Coal is pulling out all the stops to stand in the way of the EPA’s progress to curb carbon pollution.

Join the 2 million strong who’ve taken action to stand up for clean, healthy air. Learn more about the EPA’s proposal below and submit your comment today!

---

Tell the EPA: Americans Support Industrial Carbon Pollution Protections!

There is currently no federal limit on how much life-threatening carbon pollution can be spewed by coal plants — pollution that is linked to significant health hazards like asthma-inducing smog.

The EPA knows that 158 million Americans live in counties with unacceptable air pollution levels — which is why they are about to make history by proposing first-ever carbon pollution protections.¹

Tell the EPA that we support industrial carbon pollution protections so all of our families can breathe clean air.

Yet even before the EPA moves forward, corporate polluters like the infamous Koch Brothers align against us.

The Koch Brothers have been quietly using their billions for years to undermine efforts to address carbon pollution — all so they can continue raking in record profits spewing unchecked pollution into our air.

Big Coal and Big Oil billionaires are not in charge of our health: join the effort to send hundreds of thousands of message to the EPA in support of strong industrial carbon pollution protections.

When we’re united, we’re a more powerful force than all the corporate polluters and their money. We beat them last year on major life-saving mercury protections — and we’ll do it again and again until our air and water are clean. We’ll challenge them at every level — in the media, in our communities, and in the halls of government. Together, we can create a future that is cleaner and healthier for everyone.

Join me in ensuring the EPA protects our families from industrial carbon pollution — send your message today.

The stakes are high – if we don’t do something about carbon pollution, we’ll see more kids who can’t practice their sports outside, more seniors with lung disease unable to enjoy a walk outdoors, and more adults with asthma and other respiratory disorders who never had it before.²

With strong carbon pollution protections, we can move off outdated and dirty coal-fired power plants. Our country has 21st century clean energy technologies. It’s time to use them.

It’s time for a change: let the EPA know Americans stand behind cleaner air!

Thanks for all you do to protect our environment!

Sincerely,

Mary Anne Hitt
Beyond Coal Campaign Director
Sierra Club

P.S. After you take action, forward this message, or spread the word on Facebook and Twitter by clicking our handy share buttons below:

Support Sherrod Brown

It’s a clip of Sherrod on Rachel Maddow’s show talking about the millions of undisclosed, special interest, Karl Rove-directed dollars pouring into the Ohio Senate race.
Watching it makes me proud to be on Sherrod’s team.
Click — to hear about what we’re fighting for straight from Sherrod — then make a contribution to help us get this message out!

We need to reach $500,000 in our Truth Fund this month. It’s a huge goal, but we’re on our way.
And with $10 million already spent against Sherrod on TV ads, now’s the time for you to act.
I hope you enjoy the video — and I hope you’ll consider making a grassroots investment in our campaign today.
Thank you so much,

Sarah Benzing Campaign Manager Friends of Sherrod Brown