You may not know this, but both major political parties have put reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act -- and thus preventing banks from engaging in both traditional banking functions and financial speculation -- in their platforms. Has the "liberal" media trumpeted this event as a point of bipartisan agreement? I kid, of course -- we all know the "liberal" media only calls far-right initiatives that have one famous Democrat on-board "bipartisan." And I couldn't say why the Republicans did it -- perhaps they're trying to help out John McCain's re-election effort? -- but fact is both parties have said Glass-Steagall should come back, so now we're going to hold them to it. Hence Sign Here Now helps you tell Congressional leaders to pass H.R. 3054/S. 1709, the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. Don't believe the hype that we shouldn't reinstate Glass-Steagall because "Glass-Steagall repeal wasn't a precise cause of the 2008 financial services meltdown," as if other kinds of meltdowns couldn't possibly occur when your bank gambles your money away on hifalutin derivative schemes.
Meanwhile, both the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Environmental Defense Fund help you tell the EPA and the NHTSA (the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration) not to weaken their automobile fuel-efficiency standards. The EPA and the NHTSA jointly finalized these regulations back in 2012, but are now conducting a mid-term review of the standards, and could weaken them, although that's a profoundly stupid idea. These days, when most folks shop for cars, they look at fuel efficiency first, and strong fuel efficiency standards not only cause less pollution, they help insulate consumers from the volatility of gas prices. It's hard to imagine what justification the EPA and the NHTSA could have to weaken the standards -- perhaps it's the price of getting early buy-in from automakers and/or oil corporations. I sure wouldn't put it past the Obama Administration. But that literally doesn't matter -- our government's deal with its owners, i.e., us, supersedes all other deals they make with special interests, and we need to hold up our end by demanding strong fuel efficiency standards.
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