Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders Reps. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Keith Ellison, D-Minn., are trying to get political support for a congressional resolutionthat would repudiate any “grand bargain” on the federal deficit that cuts Social Security, Medicare or other programs vital to economic security.
Their resolution calls for a “Deal for All” that would protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; contain “serious revenue increases,” including corporate tax loopholes and higher tax brackets for the highest-income earners; significant reductions in defense spending; and “strong levels of job-creating Federal investments in areas such as infrastructure and education.”000000000000000000000000000
The Caucus co-chairs issued a joint statement that said, “Congress is gearing up for high-stakes tax and budget negotiations, and we’re standing with working families to make sure we build a stronger and fairer economy. While both parties will need to make sacrifices, we cannot do so at the expense of economic growth or the middle class. A balanced approach like the Deal for All would end tax breaks for the richest 2 percent, close tax loopholes for the wealthy and special interests, and ensure Americans don’t lose the benefits they’ve paid into for decades such as Social Security and Medicare.”
The “Deal for All” stands in sharp contrast to the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction plan offered by the co-chairmen of President Obama’s fiscal commission, Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson. That plan would, among other things, lower tax rates on the wealthiest Americans while cutting more than $400 billion from Medicare and Medicaid over the next 10 years and reducing cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients.
Many Democrats are being pushed into believing that such policies are necessary to keep the government and the economy from falling over a “fiscal cliff” by the end of the year. Fortunately, some of these Democrats are pushing back, arguing that this is the time to end flawed tax policies that favored the wealthy at the expense of working-class Americans, and reject the austerity policies that we see failing miserably in Europe.
So far 38 members of the House have signed on to the resolution. Ask your member of Congress if he or she will also co-sponsor the resolution.
This would be a good time to call your congress critter and push.
And if our rep is a sinecured, ultra secure Republican from old money and interested in keeping as much of it as he can?
Yeah, talkin’ about you, Rodney Frelinghuysen….
QUOTE from Wiki:
Frelinghuysen is a member of a family long prominent in New Jersey politics. He is the son of Peter Hood Ballantine Frelinghuysen II, great-great-grandson of Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, and great-great-great-nephew of Theodore Frelinghuysen, who each represented New Jersey in the Congress. After graduating from Hobart College in 1969, where he had been president of the Kappa Alpha Society, Frelinghuysen enrolled at Trinity College for graduate work. However, the United States Army drafted Frelinghuysen before he could graduate from Trinity. Following basic training at Fort Dix, he served with the 93rd Engineer Battalion in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.
After his military service, Frelinghuysen worked for the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders until he was elected to serve as a Freeholder in 1974.
In 1983, Frelinghuysen was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly, representing the 25th legislative district. He ran in 1990 for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, but finished third to Dick Zimmer and Phil McConkey.
END QUOTE
He was elected to the House in 1994. He’s 66 and will probably stay in office until the next generation of Frelinghuysens has someone ready to take the position.
Frelingheysens: Watching out for the welfare of the One Percent since…the American Revolution. (Well, I may be pushing that a bit….)