Over five years ago, the Supreme Court issued its nefarious decision in Citizens United v. FEC, contending that corporations have, at the very least, enough of a First Amendment right to make certain unlimited political donations. And our government has failed to stem this tide of money-not-speech at every turn -- Republicans repeatedly filibustered the DISCLOSE Act, Democrats did nothing to move the Shareholder Power Act even when they had a Senate supermajority, and the SEC keeps failing to issue regulations requiring publicly-traded corporations to disclose their political donations, despite over a million comments supporting such rules. And President Obama has failed to issue an Executive Order mandating federal contractors to disclose their political contributions. He's a lame duck now, so maybe he'll do it. I kid, of course: none of them ever do anything good without pressure from us. So Public Citizen still helps you tell President Obama to order federal contractors to disclose their campaign donations. They're spending our money, after all, so we get to know where it's going.
Meanwhile, CREDO still helps you tell your Congressfolk to support H.R. 3164/S. 1832, the Pay Workers a Living Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour. Folks who constantly complain that raising the minimum wage will KILLZ TEH JOBZ!!!!! should note that Australia has a $15/hour minimum wage and enjoyed 5% unemployment rates during those years our unemployment rates were above 7%. They should also note that the city of SeaTac, Washington, has seen its unemployment rate continue to fall (from 5.8% to 4.5%) since enacting a $15/hour minimum wage early in 2014. I mean, if minimum wage hikes kill jobs the way right-wingers say it does, then it should be happening everywhere the wage is high or goes up, but clearly it doesn't. Why does a higher minimum wage really bother right-wingers? Because it prevents CEOs from gilding the plumbing in their 19th vacation homes. And since, as the saying goes, America is full of people who consider themselves temporarily embarrassed millionaires, I figure right-wingers don't oppose minimum wage hikes on behalf of CEOs, but on behalf of themselves.
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