From Health Care for America Now!:
“Everyone knows this plan is DOA in the Senate, so it’s shockingly irresponsible for the Speaker to waste America's time on a bad plan that’s going nowhere. Because of the Republicans’ extremism, seniors may not get their Social Security checks and our soldiers fighting two wars overseas will have to worry about whether their families back home will get their pay. This has to stop. Congress must solve this crisis in order to move on and create jobs.
“The Republicans want to slash Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security to pay for tax breaks for hedge fund managers and Big Oil, and they’re willing to wreck the economy to get their way.
“The Republicans have to decide whether they want to work with the President and the Senate to solve this crisis or continue going to any length to protect the wealthiest people and corporations in America. The GOP's fanaticism won't create a single job or help a single business keep its doors open.
“Our nation’s politics once were held together by core values about putting country above party. Today House Republicans tossed those values out the window.”
From Association of Federal Government Employees:
AFGE Opposes Boehner’s Default Bill: AFGE strongly opposes a bill proposed by House Speaker John Boehner that would drastically cut critical services most Americans rely on while refusing to bring in revenues by raising taxes for billionaires and big corporations. The Boehner plan would cut $1.2 trillion in agency budgets that fund crucial programs such as those that help veterans, students, the unemployed, the poor, and the homeless. It would put the lives of Americans at risk as the programs targeted are those that protect our food, air, borders, transportation, and workplaces. The Boehner plan would put the lives of Americans at risk as it calls for the additional $1.8 trillion in cuts to the mandatory spending category such as Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, federal retirement and federal retiree health care.
“The patriotic members of AFGE work hard every day to serve the needs of their fellow citizens,” AFGE Legislative and Political Director Beth Moten wrote in a July 26 letter to House lawmakers. “The Boehner budget proposal will cut spending so violently that it will leave millions of Americans without the support they are seeking – and have every reason to demand – from their government.”
The bill has not passed the House and is considered dead on arrival in the Senate. President Barack Obama Friday morning urged lawmakers to come up with a bill that has support from both the House and the Senate. He said Boehner’s two-step bill will force us to relive this crisis in a few short months. It doesn’t solve the problem and has no chance of becoming law. He reiterated that raising the debt ceiling simply means authorizing the government to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up such as Social Security and veterans benefits.
Alliance for Retired Americans:
Reid Plan Would Address Debt Ceiling without Affecting Medicare, Social Security
Without signed legislation to raise the national debt limit by August 2, the Treasury will not have enough funds to pay the nation’s bills. Administration officials have warned of potentially calamitous effects on the economy if that happens - a spike in interest rates, a plunge in stock markets and a tightening in the job market. Without a higher debt limit, “the choices would be agonizing,” according to AP. The Bipartisan Policy Center says that if the government kept paying for health care programs, Social Security, unemployment benefits and defense contracts and met interest payments on its debt in August, it would have no money left for anything else. Civil servants and troops would go unpaid. Veterans would lose benefits. IRS refund checks would go unmailed. The Justice Department would have to scale back its pursuit of criminals.
A House Republican bill providing an immediate debt limit increase of $900 billion, which is less than half of the total needed to meet President Obama's insistence that there be no replay of the current crisis in just a few short months, is stalled. While the White House and Democrats objected to the House bill, they readied an alternative that contained similarities. Drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), it will reduce the deficit by $2.7 trillion, without affecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and without changes to revenues. “Just since Monday, Alliance members have sent more than 10,000 e-mail messages to their U.S. Representatives and Senators, saying that cutting Social Security in the name of debt reduction is a bad idea,” said Barbara J. Easterling, President of the Alliance. “I am confident that many Members of Congress have taken our side’s point of view into account. Thank you to all of you who have taken action during this precarious time in our nation’s history.” To call Congress over the weekend and reiterate the message of “Don’t cut Social Security in the name of debt reduction,” dial 202-224-3121.
From AFSCME:
GOP Leaders ‘End Charade,’ Prove Only Interest Is to ‘Coddle Corporate Jet Owners While Sticking It to Everyone Else’
Statement of AFSCME Pres. McEntee in response to Republican leaders in Congress abdicating their responsibilities and demanding that working middle class Americans sacrifice even more to pay for the mistakes of Wall Street bankers
"If Washington refuses to focus on jobs, the least GOP leaders can do is come to the table and find solutions to the debt that force the people who caused this economic mess to do their fair share. Apparently, Republican leaders have decided to end the charade; they can't meet even this low leadership bar.
"Teachers, nurses and fire fighters did not cause the economic meltdown. Seniors, school children and the poor did not gamble our economic prosperity away. We have a revenue problem in this country, not a spending problem. Yet Republican leaders have decided it's more important to coddle corporate jet owners while sticking it even more to everyone else."
From AFL-CIO:
Call on Republicans to Compromise and Not Wreck our Economy to Protect Tax Breaks
for Millionaires, Private Jet Owners and Corporations
(Washington, DC) - Like a broken record Republicans in the House and Senate are willing to wreck our economy by refusing to compromise and insisting on their radical plan to balance the budget on the backs of seniors and the middle class by slashing Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while giving tax breaks to millionaires, hedge fund managers and big corporations.
Today, at over 100 events across the country Americans continued to make their voices heard and demanded a debt deal that protects seniors and the middle class while making sure the rich and corporations pay their fair share.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, "Republican elected leaders are acting like dictators – putting their political interests before the good of the country. They're willing to throw working families and the working poor overboard just to preserve tax cuts for billionaires and hedge fund managers. With over 14 million Americans out of work we need Congress to focus on job creation. And massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will only hurt any effort to rebuild our economy."
E-mail to MoveOn.org members:
This insanity has gone too far. In just four days, America could be forced into default for the first time in history.
With time running out and no compromise on the horizon, the best way to avoid default is to pass a "clean" bill that simply assures the rest of the world that America pays its bills.
Most Democrats in the House have already signed on to a bill that does just that.1 And more and more Senate Republicans are indicating that they agree that we can't let America default.2
But we have to seize this opening before it's too late. So we're joining with our friends at Rebuild the Dream to send Congress this emergency petition telling them to do the right thing. We'll deliver the signatures throughout the weekend. Will you sign?
Tell Congress to pass a clean debt ceiling bill, now.
Representative Peter Welch has already pulled together 139 Democratic Representatives to support a "clean" debt ceiling increase.3 And even Republican Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell has proposed a plan that would end this crisis without resolving the debate over spending cuts.4
We have a very small window where we may be able to resolve this hostage crisis peacefully. With more and more chatter in Washington about passing a "clean" debt ceiling plan to protect seniors' Social Security checks, soldiers' paychecks, and the good credit of the United States, we have to act now.
But we need a huge outcry if we're going to push this plan over the edge before it's too late. Click below to you add your name to the petition now so we can deliver it over the weekend.
