Ho hum, the CBO projects that the Senate health care bill will cause 22 million people to lose their health insurance over the next decade, and 15 million to lose it by next year. That's a million fewer health insurance losses than under the House bill, but is that what you'd take to the pearly gates? "Yeah, I voted for a health care bill that only deprived 22 million of health insurance, not 23 million, so that we could give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the undeserving rich." Sure doesn't sound like something you'd say to St. Peter, does it? And neither does "I voted for a health care bill that slashed Medicaid for working families and increased the possibility that folks would get tossed off their insurance for their pre-existing conditions." Tools for calling your Senator and telling them to deep-six this bill are in the upper right-hand corner of this page (or the bottom of this page, if you're on a cellphone).
But wait, there's more! H.R. 10, the so-called Financial CHOICE Act, would (among many other things!) weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- the same bureau that has returned $29 billion to good Americans defrauded by financial predators -- and would eliminate the Obama Administration's "fiduciary rule," which requires pension advisors to put their customers' interests first rather than their own. And here's something I didn't know: H.R. 10 would also raise the threshold at which shareholders can file resolutions, so that only the very richest shareholders would be able to file them! Why would anyone support a bill that gives all these corporate welfare handouts to financial predators? Because they worship mammon, that's why -- and good luck taking that to the pearly gates! So PennPIRG helps you tell your Senators to reject the Financial CHOICE Act. Alternately, you could tell your Senators to oppose the bill while you have them on the phone about the Trumpcare bill.
Finally, the Department of Agriculture is mulling a new GMO labeling standard, as required by Congress last year; I always warned that some far-right Republican could get to write that standard -- but I also said that when the time comes, our duty is the same no matter who occupies the Oval office: to make our will unmistakably known to our government. Hence Just Label It helps you tell the USDA to enact the most vigorous GMO labeling system possible. What is our will in this matter? That all GMOs in food get labeled, that labels tell you which ingredients come from GMOs, and that labels be clear and easy to read. We'll have none of these "QR codes" that you'd need a smartphone app to read! Not everyone worships at the altar of the smartphone, after all -- in fact, a great many people still read, and a great many more than that don't want their food labels to mislead them. None of this is too damn much to ask. And remember, this is about disclosure of GMOs, not banning them.
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