H.J.Res. 48, the "We the People" amendment, would at last allow we good Americans to pursue our dream of campaign finance reform. Section 1 would restrict Constitutional rights to "natural persons," i.e., you and I and everyone you know -- and not "artificial entities," like corporations. Section 2 would not only allow federal, state, and local governments to restrict campaign spending again like we used to in the days of McCain-Feingold, but would instruct judges not to interpret campaign spending as "free speech." Because how many times must I tell these pimps! Speech is speech, and money is property. Defenders of dark money rush forward to remind us that being heard takes money, but in doing so they show (among other things!) their apparent inability to grasp the word "restrict," which does not mean "stop entirely." Hence CREDO helps you tell your Congressfolk to support campaign finance reform by passing the "We the People" amendment.
Meanwhile, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to expand, not cut, Social Security benefits by passing H.R. 860/S. 269, the Social Security 2100 Act, then the Economic Policy Institute still helps you do that. The Social Security 2100 Act would expand benefits, index benefit hikes to an inflation index that actually reflects how seniors live, and fund its expansion by taxing pay above $400,000 into the system for the first time. And how will the opponents of the Social Security 2100 Act respond? By calling Social Security an "entitlement" -- how gracious of them, to give you the thing you've worked for and paid into all your life! -- and by saying we have to cut it to avoid exaggerated future budgeting shortfalls (remember when Social Security was supposed to "run out of money" in 2016?). But saying we have to cut a cherished program that benefits all of us sooner or later really isn't the can-do American spirit.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell furniture corporation Wayfair to stop making money off our government's notorious concentration camps for immigrants, then CREDO still helps you do that. You may recall that courageous Wayfair workers walked out in late June over their employer's habit of furnishing immigrant detention centers, including centers with children separated from their families. These workers also wrote an open letter to Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah demanding that Wayfair donate the proceeds from the furniture it's already sold to a non-profit legal service and end all future contracts that enable our Administration's nefarious immigrant detention policies. And what has Mr. Shah's response been? Approximately crickets. And it's been almost two months! That means we need to keep wielding the Big Stick of Bad PR until he feels it. And then any other big corporate CEO who might enable our Administration's policies will fear it.
Comments