H.R. 1004 is, like a lot of recent anti-war bills, quite simple: it would prevent our President from spending any money on military force in Venezuela unless specifically authorized by Congress, as mandated by our Constitution and the War Powers Act. Too often, over the years, Congress has just rubber-stamped anything our President wanted to do overseas; perhaps the ascension of a clearly unqualified individual to the Presidency has galvanized Congressional somewhat. But if something bad were to happen in the world, you know this newfound resolve would dissipate -- unless we demand otherwise. Hence Just Foreign Policy, Roots Action, and Win Without War all help you tell your Congressfolk to restrain our President from wanton war-making in Venezuela by passing H.R. 1004. Even if you support yet more American interference in Venezuela -- which sure didn't work out in our government's favor in 2002, amirite? -- you can still urge your Congressfolk to do it the right way. We have laws for good reason, after all.
Meanwhile, our Department of Agriculture has proposed some nefarious changes to our food stamp program; they would restrict the number of Americans who would qualify for food stamps, and hamstring states' ability to grant waivers for those restrictions. Citing the low U1 unemployment rate and the growth in GDP kinda misses the whole point of food stamps -- it's supposed to be there for the folks who need it. Hence when Agriculture Secretary Purdue says it "belies common sense" that three quarters of Americans on food stamps weren't working in 2016, well, actually, the opposite is true. It's a shame that we have to spell this out to anyone. It's also a shame that we don't fully understand, as Americans, that we all pay into the system with our taxes and that any of us might need it at any time, if bad fortune befalls us; thus it's not a "handout" but insurance. So Moms Rising helps you tell our USDA to abandon its efforts to make food stamps less accessible to those who need it.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell our EPA to abandon its efforts to roll back regulations protecting us from mercury emissions from power plants, then Environment America still helps you do that. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin, and as such can do serious developmental damage to children; it used to be enough of a problem that just about every state in our great union warned against eating the fish you fished out of your local lake or stream, such was the problem with mercury contamination from coal plants. Of course, our incoming EPA Administrator is a former coal lobbyist, and our President often seems to think coal CEOs are his one true constituency. Would that he were even as good a boss as a coal CEO! I could fault coal CEOs for their greed and their inability to change with the times -- I can't believe coal CEOs simply never had the money to broaden their portfolio to include renewables -- but our President certainly takes greed and shortsightedness to a whole new level. That doesn't mean we have to, though.
Comments