H.R. 3614, the Restricting Credit Checks for Employment Decisions Act, would prevent most employers from using credit checks as a part of their hiring decisions. What's wrong with that, you ask? Well, credit reports tend to have mistakes -- and you'd hate to pass someone over because of such a mistake, wouldn't you? -- and credit reports predict employee performance about as well as those 300-question "integrity tests" did back in the '80s. And another thing: we did have a major financial services meltdown a little over a decade ago, and that wrecked a lot of good folks' credit. You know what else wrecks people's credit and has little to do with job performance? Massive health care bills, that's what. The result? Folks who get slammed by life and can't get work wind up with bad credit -- and then can't get a job because of their bad credit! If that seems absurd to you, US PIRG helps you tell your Congressfolk to support working families who hit hard times by passing the Restricting Credit Checks for Employment Decisions Act.
Meanwhile, CREDO helps you tell book publishing corporation Macmillan Publishers to terminate its book deal with former Administration spokeshack Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Isn't that mean, you ask? No meaner than she's been to everyone she's come into contact with, that's for sure! And isn't that "abridgment of her free speech rights"? No, it's not -- our First Amendment guarantees that our government can't throw you in jail for your speech; it does not guarantee a book contract for everyone in America. I'm not hopeful that Macmillan will see the light here -- their PR flacks cited her "grace under pressure" (it's not "grace" just because you don't yell!) and how she spent years "battling the media," rather than her years battling the popular will. But, as I've said, Ms. Sanders doesn't have a "right" to a book contract, and we have the right to protest Macmillan's decision. They also have the right to tell us to go scratch. But that's not going to be a good look someday. Think of how many Bush Mobbers have book contracts these days!
Comments