H.R. 5278, the diabolically-named PROMESA Act, still awaits a vote from the full House, despite reportedly being negotiated to President Obama's approval, and that can only mean one thing -- H.R. 5278 is an explosive turd of a bill that no politician wants to be caught dead supporting. That doesn't mean it won't pass, though -- it only means they'll wait until they think no one's looking. So Moms Rising helps you remind your Congressfolk that we're still looking, and tell them to reject the PROMESA Act. The only promesa this bill aims to keep is the one politicians seem to value above all others: the promise to force debtors to pay back loans to already disgustingly-wealthy banksters who know better than to give out unrepayable loans in the first place. I know, you also thought they were taking a risk on such loans and thus should prepare for the possibility that it'd blow up in their faces. Indeed, our bankster class never shuts up about how we should leave them alone because they take so many "risks"! But with our government's help, which means our help, banksters never suffer the consequences of their actions anymore -- only we do. Our government had better realize that pandering to banksters is going to kill our democracy, and right quick. One promesa we can make: we'll always be there to help them figure that out.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ayotte (R-NH) has proposed a pair of amendments to the national defense authorization bill that would establish new mandatory minimum sentences for illicit fentanyl users. Fentanyl, which is many, many times more potent than morphine or heroin, has established medical uses as an anesthetic and a treatment for chronic pain. But some heroin dealers add fentanyl to their "product" without the user's knowledge -- meaning that the Ayotte amendments would heap additional penalties onto heroin users who don't know they're using fentanyl. If you're saying so what, doing heroin is illegal, consider more carefully the precedent these amendments would set -- you could one day go to jail for things you don't know you're doing, too, in the name of "responding to crisis." But the Ayotte amendments comprise yet another attempt to load down a must-pass bill with unrelated amendments that wouldn't pass as stand-alone bills. If Congress wants to "do something" about drug addiction, they should fund successful treatment programs, rather than exiling ever-more low-level drug users to the prison-go-round. And the more folks who can manage their addictions, the fewer drug dealers we'll have. So Families Against Mandatory Minimums helps you tell your Senators to reject the Ayotte amendments to the defense authorization bill.
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