Yesterday was Medicare's 53rd birthday. In just 12 more years, it'll be old enough to get Medicare! But our Congressfolk seem determined to destroy Medicare before it reaches that milestone, what with Speaker Ryan's repeated voucherization votes and our House's budget proposing even more benefit cuts than our President has proposed. As Paul Craig Roberts said many years ago: our elites have stolen everything else, so our so-called "entitlement" programs (how generous of them, to let us feel "entitled" to the things we've fought for!) are all that's left. But, as I've said before: we worked for it, paid into it, and fought for it, and we deserve to have it when we need it; hence the Economic Policy Institute helps you tell your Congressfolk to strengthen, not cut, Medicare, Medicaid, and other services -- and pay for it by repealing last year's tax-cuts-for-the-rich.
Meanwhile, the EPA found in 2014 that the chemical trichloroethylene (or TCE) presents excessive risks to workers and consumers, and in 2016 proposed to ban its use in various industrial processes (including spot cleaning at dry cleaners). But then a little catastrophe called the 2016 Presidential election happened, and guess what? Our Administration is doing its damnedest to stall implementation of proposed TCE bans, this even though TCE is carcinogenic and toxic to our brain, kidneys, and immune system, and seems to turn up an awful lot at Superfund sites. Chances are that a federal court will tell the EPA to stop delaying already (and our Supreme Court won't weigh in on the matter even if asked), but why rely on that, when we can rely on people power? So the Environmental Defense Fund helps you tell your Congressfolk to protect their bosses -- i.e., us, the American people -- from the known health effects of TCE.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 6239/S. 3150, the DISCLOSE Act, then Demand Progress still helps you do that. Fact is our elected representatives don't listen to us and don't ever seem to pay much of a price for their failure -- folks want better health insurance, politicians say no; folks want corporations and rich folk to pay their share of taxes, politicians say no; folks want government to protect them from financial predators, politicians say no, and politicians rarely lose elections for their dereliction of their duty. And campaign finance is probably the biggest reason politicians don't do their jobs -- it's easier to do the will of big donors who guarantee funding for ad campaigns. The Supreme Court calls this state of affairs "free speech," but we can still shine a light on big campaign donors. Even if they claim to feel "bullied" by it.
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