Minnesota DFL - 3rd Congressional District

Fiscal Cliff Deal Nets Amgen Half Billion Dollars

Investigative reporting in the New York Times revealed that a trio of Senators inserted a paragraph in the Fiscal Cliff Deal that will benefit Amgen to the tune of a half billion dollars by exempting the company from Medicare cost controls on drugs used in kidney dialysis. The trio were Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and that powerful committee's ranking Republican, Orrin Hatch. All three have received substantial campaign contributions from Amgen.

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship explain how it happened. See their article "Foul Play in the Senate" along with Moyers interview of Peter Welch, Vermont's Democratic congressman, who just introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal the half billion-dollar giveaway to Amgen.

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President Obama - "This is a make-or-break moment for middle-class Americans."

Friday, 15 June 2012 07:28 Sent by David Axelrod Elected Officials - U.S. President

At a talk in Ohio this June, President Obama stated that "This is a make-or-break moment for middle-class Americans." In this election, we face a choice between two fundamentally different visions of how to grow the economy.

The path Mitt Romney and his Republican allies want to take us down is exactly the one that led us to the 2008 crisis. The other side's solution was the same then as it is now -- massive tax cuts benefiting mainly the wealthy, rolling back regulations on risky behavior for Wall Street and banks, and slashes to services that the middle class depends on, like Medicare, education, and job training.

Instead of another $250,000 tax cut for millionaires, President Obama believes we should pay down our debt and invest in the things we know we need to grow the economy and strengthen the middle class. That means restoring and upgrading our crumbling infrastructure, investing in education, paying down our debt responsibly, leading through innovation, investing in clean energy, and yes, asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more.

Watch the President's speech, and share it with others you know.

Celebration and Remembrance

Eye On Issues - About Progressive Issues

peter-dreier Peter Dreier, Professor of Poitics at Occidental College, and Author of The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame, presents two reflective essays related to Obama's Inauguration and MLK Day.

One is on the top progressive victories of 2012. Professor Dreier bases his selection on the criteria for successful activism presented in Organizing for Social Change: (1) wins real improvements in people’s lives, (2) gives people a sense of their own power and (3) changes the structure of power so that people begin the next phase of movement-building with greater leverage. See

Peter Dreier's Top 25 Progressive Victories of 2012

The other is a review of the development of Martin Luther King Jr's ideas and activism on social justice. King had hoped that the bus boycott, sit-ins, and other forms of civil disobedience would stir white southern moderates to see the immorality of segregation and racism, but gradually realized that white Americans in a position of power had a vested interested in perpetuating racism to keep working class whites from challenging their own oppression. This led King to speak openly about the need to confront the gulf between "the haves and the nave nots" and to call for a Marshall Plan for the poor, both black and white. Professor Dreiser calls on us to honor King's memory by continuing the struggle for human dignity, workers' rights, racial equality, peace, and social justice. Read his essay:

Martin Luther King Was a Radical, not a Saint

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Obama's Medicare versus Ryan/Romney/Paulsen Coupon Care

Eye On Issues - Health Care

Obama’s Medicare reforms expand benefits for seniors and lower out-of-pocket costs. The Affordable Care Act actually enhances Medicare benefits by closing the prescription drug coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole” and expanding free preventive services, including an annual wellness visit.

obama versus romney on medicare

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Ryan/Romney plan to give seniors coupons to buy their own insurance will cost retirees over $6,000 more by 2020 and over $12,000 more by 2030. That means seniors can expect to pay $14,000 for Medicare and a supplmental plan by 2020 and $20,000 for each person by 2030. That's no problem for extremely wealthy people like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, but what about the average middle class retired couple, not to mention the poor. How many retired couples can afford $40,000 a year in medical insurance plus their health care deductions and copays?

Erik Paulsen has voted for the Ryan budget that ends the Medicare that currently provides secure care for seniors and replaces it with coupons that pay part of the cost of a plan from a private insurance company. Do seniors really want to give up their secure Medicare coverage for much higher cost private policies?

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Click and Find out about the Voter ID Act

Big Issues - State

Voter ID Act Passed by ALEC in 2009 Would Disenfranchise Millions

Bills to restrict voting have been presented across the country recently. Where did this coordinated effort to prevent people from voting come from? A Voter ID Act was passed by ALEC's Public Safety and Elections Task Force and by its Board of Directors in the summer of 2009. Learn more about ALEC's legislation on democracy, voter rights, and federal legislation at ALEC Exposed. Find out about the disenfranchisement of the young, the old, and the poor that will be the result if ALEC's Voter ID Act or state constitutional amendments based on it are passed.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 February 2012 06:04

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